150. A RELATIVE I ADMIRE , by A.S. L

SONG: Nina Simone - Mr Bojangles

Nowadays, people have lots of relatives and also some have lots of friends in class. But those friends are not always there when you need them. However a relative will always be there to help you. That’s why I’m going to talk about my father.

My father is called Francisco Javier. He is very tall and thin but he has always been like that; he hasn’t changed. He also has black straight hair and sometimes he has a beard of three days. He has light brown eyes, and they are also very big like mine. But, he needs to use glasses as he can’t see very well.

He is the best father that I could have. I think he is the best as he loves me much and he is always there when I need him. Also, when I need to talk to somebody.

Some months ago, my father and I built a bicycle for me to take part in the Soapbox Races, a mountain sport  with an itinerary to complete the race, like in rallies. But, it isn’t very popular yet. I have won a prize in one of the races and it is thanks to him, to all the effort that he has made to help me to build the bicycle.

He has also helped me with some problems that I had some time ago and now I am rewarding him for that, with lots of love and so much effort to pass my subjects.

He had lung cancer and I love the way he has recovered from it, fighting and dealing with the daily problems of that disease. So that’s why I admire him so much and I try to help him a lot when he needs help.

My father is my own superhero as he has helped me a lot during these sixteen years.

149. DESCRIPTION OF A CLASSMATE I ADMIRE , by A.M.A ( Bachillerato 1)

SONG: GIORGIA - Gocce di memoria

My friend´s name is Sara. She is sixteen years old and she lives in Guarnizo. We have been friends for years and she´s one of the smartest people I have ever met.

Sara is very short and she has got long brown hair. She usually straightens it as she´s got frizzy hair. She always wears brand new clothes and dark glasses.

Sara is a very nice girl. She´s very hardworking, responsible and organized. However, she´s a little bit shy, but this is not a problem because we can spend hours and hours laughing and watching funny videos. She cares about her studies, she´s really brilliant. Sara loves arts and Lady Gaga is her favourite singer. She´s so intelligent that I used to tell her that one day, she would become the best president in the world.

Sara doesn´t talk too much with the people that she doesn´t know very well. At the beginning, we didn´t talk too much but when we were in third of ESO we became best friends.

Sara motivates me to study as I want to be as clever as she is. She´s a cheerful and energetic person with a great sense of humor.

Now we study in different high schools, and she´s going to move to Germany soon. However, I hope to keep in touch with her since I consider her the greatest person I know. 

She will always have a place in my heart.

148. WRITE A FORMAL LETTER TO A TRAVEL AGENCY COMPLAINING ABOUT A HOTEL , by G.P.C (E.SO 3)

SONG: MICHELE ZARILLO - L'elefante e la farfalla

                                                                 Calle Comillas 81, 2ºD                                                                       Santander. 39004
                                                                             Spain

    Esspex Tours 
    Customer Service Department
    Edinburgh 3W7  45fX8
            Scotland

                                                              5th February 2017

   Dear Mr Jenkins:

As you probably know, my family and I made contact with your travel agency at the beginning of last year as we were comparing different options in order to go for two weeks to Edinburgh for the summer holiday.

Finally, after you sent us all the information we asked you for, we chose to hire your services due to your efficacy and rapidity when answering and giving us all kind of varied options and reasonable prizes.

So we booked an apartment in the historic centre of Edinburgh from July 2^nd till July 18^th and we reserved some guided tours around the city to learn more about it.

Then we prepared our luggage excited by the great holiday that we were going to spend in that beautiful city.

The great day arrived and after a two hours long flight from Santander to Edinburgh we landed in the city.

Following the instructions given in your letter we took the public transport (the tram) and we went to the address written in your letter. Once we were in the street mentioned we started to look for our apartment, but we couldn’t find it.

We spent forty-five minutes asking pedestrians and going from one street to another carrying our suitcases in order to find our apartment.

We called the contact number written in the mail you sent us with the information to contact you, but nobody answered the phone.

Finally, after waiting roaming exhausted and cold in the street, the person in charge of showing us the apartment and giving us its keys appeared and guided us to a hidden building without any number nor sign.

The person explained us all and left us alone. The apartment was really old, with tall ceilings and big windows without blinds in all the rooms which couldn’t keep them warm, so it was always cold inside the apartment. It was charming in a historic way, but we needed to wear lots of clothes all the time when we were inside, and it was annoying.

And, as its walls were thin we could hear what was happening in the street so we couldn’t sleep well at night.

Another really irritating fact was the lack of cotidian essential objects like cooking utensils, blankets or cleaning tools.

As days passed we got used to the apartment and fell in love with the city and its mysterious and historical buildings, huge and splendid parks and its friendly citizens as we were learning more about it due to your wonderful and interesting tours.

We just wanted you to notify this situation to prevent the same happening to other tourists like us.

Hoping that this letter will prevent and solve these little but important problems,

      Yours sincerely,

147. A CLASSMATE I LIKE/ ADMIRE. by G.P.C (E.S.O 3)

SONG: OFRA HAZA -  You

I have never known anybody like Celia.

She is fourteen years old and although with her average height and her straight brown hair she may be considered just another  girl of the bunch, she is definitely not.

She’s thin and very flexible as she does rhythmic gymnastics.

She has big brown eyes and a turned-up small nose which makes her face look friendly and nice. This feeling is increased by her smile, which is always illuminating her beaming face.

When you first meet her, she might seem quiet and a little bit shy, but then you realise that she is not. She’s kind and pleasant, she’s always helping everyone! She’s also very optimistic: when something goes wrong she just laughs and makes a joke of everything and all becomes less terrible.

She’s also intelligent and calm, and you can always ask her for advice. But the adjective which describes her the best is amusing. She always makes you laugh with her pranks and her wittiness. To sum up, she is a funny and witty girl who will always make you have a nice time.

She’s also creative and she loves drawing. However, there is an activity that she loves the most: rhythmic gymnastics.

She started doing rhythmic gymnastics at the age of eleven and she hasn’t stopped since that moment. She spends most of the evenings training with her team, so she can’t usually go out with us, but it has been worth: she’s amazingly good at this sport!

It’s astonishing to see her doing flexibility exercises, she looks as if she were going to bend!

Apart from rhythmic gymnastics she also loves reading and listening to music.

I can just say that I basically like her due to all the things that I’ve mentioned, specially because she’s what she is in a natural way. She doesn’t pretend to be like nobody else, she is just herself.

146. LEARNING AND WORKING IN A NOISY CLASSROOM: HOW DOES IT AFFECT STUDENTS ? by A.F.L (E.S.O 3)

SONG: OMAR AKRAM - A Day With You

Learning and working in a noisy classroom not only affects the correct development of the class, it also affects students’ brains.

Learning and working with constant noise makes you learn more slowly and worse. It’s one of the most important problems in schools as it is negative not only for students, it’s bad for teachers too since they can’t work as they want.

When we are talking about something in class everyone wants to participate but almost nobody raises the hand and they start to speak and then, in less than one minute, everybody is shouting and laughing and it doesn’t stop until the teacher, after trying it many times, can get the students to be in silence.

I think it’s better to work in silence and raise the hand to participate because we learn more, we can do more things and the atmosphere is more pleasant. If we want to speak with friends, we have five minutes between class and class and we also have the break, which is of thirty minutes. We can speak with friends after finishing the classes too. 

145. WRITE A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EXCURSION YOU WENT TO , by M.G.D (E.S.O 3)

SONG:  ALIHAN SAMEDOV - Sen Gelmez Oldun

When I was eleven years old, I went to Gijón, in Asturias. I visited the maritime museum with my classmates and my teacher Isabel.

We went by bus to Gijón, and I sat with my friend. We took our headphones and we were listening to music during the journey. Also, we talked about our things.

After a few hours, everybody arrived at the entrance of the museum. We left our backpacks in the reception of the museum, we started to talk and we saw the sea animals.

In one part of the maritime museum, we saw a turtle which was bumping all the time with the walls. Also, we saw a shark, so I asked if the shark ate the fish which were with it. The guide laughed and told me that the shark didn't eat the other fish, because it was very well fed.

When the visit finished, we walked to the beach near the museum. First, we ate our sandwiches. Then, we picked up the plastic of the food, and finally, we went to the park.

144. Write an e-mail to a friend explaining her what you did at the zoo of Santillana, by L.S (E.S.O 4)

SONG:  Dulce Pontes - Cançao do Mar

Hi Celia! How are you?

I have missed you since you travelled to Galicia last month. Time passes by slowly and days are longer without you.

Last Sunday, it was my cousin´s birthday, and my family and I spent the day in Santillana. We ate in a restaurant and later we went to the zoo. I had never visited that zoo as I always go to “Cabarceno”. Like my cousin Paula, I love photography so we spent all the afternoon taking photos. We also saw a lot of animals like birds, pigs, tigers… At half past five we ate a sandwich of ham in a bench.

When we were walking out of the zoo we saw and read a poster that explained that visitors can sponsor an animal. It consists of paying 100€ to feed the animal. So we sponsored a monkey.

That was what I liked most. We spent a great day there so I would like to repeat it with you.

See you soon. I love you.