You first contribution to Bloggin’ Time will be a short article about someone who was the first one to do something. There are lots of “Famous Firsts” all over the world so I’m sure we are going to learn very interesting things from your articles.
You can get some ideas from these websites:
http://www.littleknownfactsshow.com/famousfirst.html
A long time ago a friend and colleague from EOI Avilés told me about these links and I had nearly forgotten about them. They are some exercises on dependent prepositions. Have a go!
http://www.learn4good.com/languages/evrd_grammar/adjectives_prepos.htm
http://esl-efl.webpark.pl/adjective_preposition.html
http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/blgrquiz_prep7.htm
http://www.usingenglish.com/handouts/111.html
http://wwwedu.ge.ch/cptic/prospective/projets/anglais/exercises/verbprep2.htm
http://www.eslpartyland.com/quiz-center/sue.htm
Thanks Macose, I’m sure my students will appreciate the exercises.
There are new units in ELLA (English Language Lab Asturias) for you to do online. The units cover the three levels taught at schools of languages.
Have a go! Try them and enjoy English. There are lots of activities and lots more are coming. I’m sure you’ll find them useful.
We are advanced students of English, aren’t we? Then, let’s show it!
It is by using a wide variety of structures and vocabulary that we show our command of a language, and the best way to show that we have an advanced level of English is by using advanced structures.
If you want to do some revision on Passive Voice, have a look at what we have done in our lesson today.
I had already heard about John Steinbeck, since I watched two impressive movies based on his novels: John Ford’s “The Grapes of Wrath” (1940) and Elia Kazan’s “East of Eden” (1955). Yet, I had never read any of his books. He has always been known as a great storyteller who had been able to build so strong and unforgettable characters like Tom Joad and Cal Trask (played in the cinema by Henry Fonda and James Dean, respectively).
Thus, being in the EOI’s library, searching for a book to read in my last Christmas holiday, I had no doubt when I saw his “Of Mice and Men” laying unnoticed on a shelf: “This one”, I thought.
Apart from being a biography lover, I have always been interested in knowing the writer’s historical context, in search of the motives that made him or her devote himself/herself to the art of writing.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) was born in California, in a region famous by its immigration tradition, which made him grow up influenced by social problems of poor people from working class, many of them migrant workers.
“Of Mice and Men” is a gripping novel about two friends who, having neither family, nor a place of their own, search for employment in some ranch, after having lost their former job in a farm.
George promised Aunt Clara, Lennie’s only relative, to look after the mentally handicapped guy. Since her death, they both become inseparable. Yet sometimes George loses his patience with his dumb friend.
Some of the most pleasant passages of the story are related to the times when Lennie asks George, for the umpteenth time, to talk about their dream of having their own ranch. After refusing it firmly, George ends up agreeing to his friend childish claim, providing him with a wonderful description of a paradisiacal place in which they both would be finally happy.
The author manages to impress the reader by showing not only a beautiful pure friendship between two grown-up men, but also the imaginative resources to which they appeal to escape from the long-suffering lives they have here and there.
Yet, the story has an unexpected sorrowful ending which in no way diminishes the sympathy the reader feels towards these two modest men.
Although the book is written in a simple style, I sometines found it a little bit difficult to get accustomed to the colloquial language, plenty of slang, Steinbeck employed to give realism to his characters’ dialogues. Nevertheless, the reading rapidly turns into a delightful experience, boosted by this odd language itself.
Steinbeck won both Pulitzer (for “The Grapes and Wrath”) and Nobel Prizes for Literature in 1940 and 1962, in the order given.
By Helga Maria Saboia Bezerra
As I told you in the lesson, we are not doing more exercises on infinitive and gerund, but I also told you that Reyes had prepared a compilation of exercises taken from the internet so you can get more practice.
So, that’s it. Work hard and have fun
Thank you, Reyes. I’m sure lots of students will find your selection very useful.
One person and one dog. Only two friends walking through America. Willy is a beggar that hasn’t forgot his old life as a poet. The animal is the one that has shared the whole life with his owner, living together an infinite amount of adventures and twists since those magical revolutions in the sixties. Since then, it is to understand perfectly what humans say what this dog has learnt‐ yeah, Mr. Bones is a dog, but a very clever one. And that is something that you will see as long as Mr. Bones tries to understand human’s life and feelings.
This is a story cleverly told to humans from the point of view of someone that knows “what” is happening among all those things that surround him but that he doesn’t know “why”. Mr. Bones is a vagrant dog that has lived, seen and experimented a lot, so it is not naivety what is his thoughts main characteristic. But the moment he finds himself walking alone in a world not made for him, absurdity of humans and people indoor misfortunes turns up in the middle of the plot with an original style you have never seen before. It has been described many times as something that pours cold water on us.
Although the characters won’t come alive to you, all their dimensions are treated in such an ironical way that it gives the plot the piece it needed to be one of Auster’s masterpieces, in which the author shows us American typical examples that seem so odd to what is supposed to be a rational mind with no passions.
As it is written in not a very elaborated language, reading this book will be easy to follow, and it is a perfect one to start reading this author. Believe me, when you see this way the outrageous lives that we carry on everywhere, I am sure you will say it is a page-turner.
Try it 
Jaime
Title: The Innocent man
Author: John Grissam
Plot:
The story talks about two men that got unfairly caught in the webs of a rotten system and who would have to fight for his freedom because of a murder they did not commit. 1982, Debbie Carter, a twenty-something girl is found raped and dead at her home in Ada, a small town in Oklahoma where justice is more than doubtful. Almost instantly the prosecution is focused in Ron Williamson, a guy from the town, known for his brief career in professional baseball and for his clear mental problems (manic depression, personality disorders, alcoholism and mild schizophrenia); and Dennis Fritz, who gets involved in the crime just because of his old friendship with Ron. Without even trying to get more suspects, two police officers from the town, Dennis Smith and Gary Rogers, begin harassing both men in order to get them in prison. Finally, after tricking them with many doubtful legality cheats, they manage to get false confessions from both men and testifying with many way unreliable sources, false witnesses and snitches they get to put Ron and Dennis behind bars, sentenced to death penalty. Then, they begin their ordeal to prove everyone that they are innocent and the real murderers are still out there.
The story also centres on a similar case, in which Denice Haraway happens to be murdered, and Tommy Ward and Karl Fontenot prosecuted and eventually put behind bars under the same premises of Ron and Dennis.
The Innocent man is a nail biting legal thriller, a heavy descriptive page-turner that will get you almost instantly and will almost make you weep terrified with the cruel injustices committed by those who are supposed to protect us.
Writing Style:
The writing style is very complex, the language is sometimes simple and sometimes quite hard, especially during the trials, mainly because of the great quantity of specific terms related with justice matters and that kind of things.
During the few spoken parts, the language is adapted to the speaker. Thereby, for example, when Ron speaks, the language is full of pet phrases and curses; when Barry Ward, Ron’s attorney, speaks, the language is correct and appropriated to the trials.
Characters:
Ron Williamson: A former baseball player wannabe who was forced to retire early because of his arrogance and injuries and got mad as time passed. During the novel, we can see his mental evolution, since he was a little boy, going through his young sane glory days and ending in his mind losing.
Dennis Fritz: A former teacher at a high school who sees himself involved in a murder investigation just because of his old friendship with Ron. He and Ron had been “drinking buddies” for some time long ago, but Dennis had decided to stay away from him due to his dangerous behaviour. Anyway, their friendship finally takes its cost.
Overall impression/recommendation
This is one of the most thrilling and page-turner book I’ve ever held in my hands. My recent lackness of nails can tell you the emotion I’ve felt until I turned the last page.
Fernando Neira Sánchez
