Simple Present

Complete the paragraph. Use the correct simple present form of the verb in parentheses.

Lisa and Alan ---------- (work) in a bank. Lisa-------------(live) with her parents. Alan ----------- (share) an apartment with his brother. Lisa and Alan are good friends. They ----------- (drive) to work together in Alan´s car. Lisa --------- (have) a job in the bank´s loas department, and Alan ---------- (fix) the bank´s computers. They ------- (finish) work at 5 p.m. After work, Lisa ------------ (go) to the gym and ----------(exercise). Alan ----------- (drive) home alone. He and his brother --------- (watch) the six o´clock news. Then they ----------- (make) dinner.

PRESENT CONTINUOUS

Find the errors in this letter and correct them.

Dear Gina,

I´m stand in front of your apartment. Unfortunately, you´re not at home, so I writing you this note. Dan and I are visiting our families. We´re live in San Diego now. Dan working for a telecommunications company, and I´m looking for a job. What you are doing these days? Are you still write for the newspaper? Call me at my mother´s house and please visit us!
Miss you,
Holly

ACTIVITY 8TH GRADE

ARE YOU BEST FRIENDS?

ARE YOU AND YOUR BEST FRIEND SIMILAR? ARE YOU DIFFERENT?

ARE YOU REALLY BEST FRIENDS?

TAKE THIS QUIZ AND FIND OUT.

WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND?

ANSWER THE QUESTIONS WITH YOUR BEST FRIEND:

YOU

1. ARE YOU A SOCIAL PERSON?

2. ARE YOU A PRIVATE PERSON?

3. ARE YOU A GOOD STUDENT?

4. ARE YOU CAUTIOUS?

5. ARE YOU ATHLETIC?

6. ARE YOU ACTIVE?

7. ARE YOU A SPENDTHRIFT?

8. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE KIND OF MUSIC?

9. WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES?

VOCABULARY:

ACTIVE: OCUPADO

ATHLETIC: ATLÉTICO

CAUTIOUS: CUIDADOSO

FIND OUT: DESCOBRIR

PRIVATE: DISCRETO

SILLY: TOLO

SPENDTHRIFT: GASTADOR

EXERCISES - 6TH GRADE

CHOOSE THE CORRECT ALTERNATIVE:

1. JOHN IS AN EMPLOYEE AT COMPUGAMES.

--------- IS AN ASSISTANT.

A. SHE B. HE C. IT

2. PEDRO IS FROM THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC.

HE-------FROM PUERTO RICO.

A. IS B.ARE C. ISN´T

3. LYNN AND I ARE GAME DESIGNERS. WE ------SALES MANAGERS.

A. ISN´T B. AM NOT C. ARE NOT

4. BANGKOK IS A LARGE CITY. --------- IS THE CAPITAL OF THAILAND.

A. IT B. HE C. SHE

5. THE COMPANY IS NEW. -------- OLD.

A. THEY´RE B. THEY AREN´T C. IT ISN´T

6. BRAZIL ------ IN NORTH AMERICA.

A. NOT B. IS NOT C. IS NO

READING COMPREHENSION - 9TH GRADE

READ THE FOLLOWING TEXT, AND THEN ANSWER THE QUESTIONS:

Every year, hundreds of Americans are badly hurt by lightning. But you don´t have to be one of them Here are a few ways to protect yourself:

If you´re outside during a storm, go inside. You can be hurt by lightining simply by being outside. Just because you don´t see any lightining or hear any thunder it doesn´t mean it´s not there. And don´t wait for "officials" to call a storm hazardous. Any storm can be hazardous. So, be safe and go inside.

If you´re caught outside during a storm and can´t go to a well-protected place, the next best thing to do is to make yourself very small. Get away from trees and other tall objects, get down and put your arms around your knees. Your chance of being hit by lightining are greater if you are taller than anything else around, or if you stand near water or metal.

While it´s much better to stay inside during a storm, lightining can still get you. You need to stay away from windows. You shouldn´t talk on the phone or take a bath. And don´t just turn off televisions, computers and other appliances. Unplug them.

Remember - anyone can be hurt by lightining. Make sure it´s not you.

1) What´s the best thing to do if you´re outside during a storm?

2) If you´re no able to go into a well-protected place during a storm, what is the next best thing to do?

3) How will lightining most probably get you if you´re outside?

4) What should you not do at home during a storm?

5) What should you do with appliances during a storm?

MOTHER´S DAY

Historical antecedents

Mother's Day

This article is about several worldwide days celebrating motherhood.

A homemade cake, one of many ways a family might celebrate Mother's Day, or Mothering Sunday.

The modern Mother's Day is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, most commonly in May, though also in March, as a day to honor mothers and motherhood. In the United States it was nationally recognized as a holiday in 1914 after a campaign by Anna Jarvis. In some countries, it follows the old tradition.
Lamberts thought this day emerged from a custom of mother worship in ancient Greece, which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of Greek gods. This festival was held around the Vernal Equinox around Asia Minor and eventually in Rome itself from the Ides of March (15 March) to 18 March.
The ancient Romans also had another holiday, Matronalia, that was dedicated to Juno, though mothers were usually given gifts on this day.
In Europe there were several long standing traditions where a specific Sunday was set aside to honor motherhood and mothers such as Mothering Sunday. Mothering Sunday celebrations are part of the liturgical calendar in several Christian denominations, including Anglicans, and in the Catholic calendar is marked as Laetare Sunday, the fourth Sunday in Lent to honour the Virgin Mary and your "mother" church (the main church of the area). Historians think that children who served in houses were given a day off on that date so they could visit their families. The children would pick wild flowers along the way to place them on the church or to give them to their mother[
International Women's Day was celebrated for the first time in 28 February 1909, in the US By that time Anna Jarvis had already begun her national campaign in the US, so it wouldn't be an antecedent but a contemporanian. It is now celebrated in many countries on March 8.
The "Mother's Day Proclamation" by Julia Ward Howe was one of the early calls to celebrate Mother's Day in the United States. Written in 1870, Howe's Mother's Day Proclamation was a pacifist reaction to the carnage of the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. The Proclamation was tied to Howe's feminist belief that women had a responsibility to shape their societies at the political level.
In 1912, Anna Jarvis trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother's Day", and created the Mother's Day International Association.
"She was specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world.This is also the spelling used by U.S. President Woodrow Wilson in the law making official the holiday in the U.S., by the U.S. Congress on bills, and by other U.S. presidents on their declarations.
Common usage in English language also dictates that the ostensibly singular possessive "Mother's Day" is the preferred spelling, although "Mothers' Day" (plural possessive) is not unheard of.
As the US holiday was adopted by other countries and cultures, the date was changed to fit already existing celebrations honouring motherhood, like Mothering Sunday in the UK or the Orthodox celebration of Jesus in the temple in Greece. In some countries it was changed to dates that were significant to the majority religion, like the Virgin Mary day in Catholic countries, or the birthday of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad in Islamic countries. Other countries changed it to historical dates, like Bolivia using the date of a certain battle where women participated.
International history and traditions
In most countries, Mother's Day is a recent observance derived from the holiday as it has evolved in North America and Europe. When it was adopted by other countries and cultures, it was given different meanings, associated to different events (religious, historical or legendary), and celebrated in a different date or dates.
Some countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations have adopted several external characteristics from the US holiday, like giving carnations and other presents to your own mother.
The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one's mother not to mark Mother's Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture (compare the celebrations of Diwali in the UK and the United States).
Religion
In the Catholic Church, the holiday is strongly associated with reverencing the Virgin Mary
In Hindu tradition it is called "Mata Tirtha Aunshi" or "Mother Pilgrimage fortnight", and it is celebrated in countries with Hindu population, especially in Nepal. It is celebrated on the new moon day in the month of Baisakh i.e. April/May
United States:

Mother's Day (US)

The United States celebrates Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May. In the 1880s and 1890s there were several attempts to establish a Mother's Day, but they didn't succeed beyond the local level. The holiday was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, West Virginia, in 1908 as a day to honor one's mother. Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother's dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea didn't take off until she enlisted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker.She kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914. The holiday eventually became so highly commercialized that many, including its founder, Anna Jarvis, considered it a "Hallmark Holiday", i.e. one with an overwhelming commercial purpose. Jarvis eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create. She died in 1948, regretting what had become of her holiday. In the United States, Mother's Day remains one of the biggest days for sales of flowers, greeting cards, and the like; it is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls.

FOR YOUR INFORMATION

HELLO? HELLO?

In the United States today, telephones are an important part of people´s lives. But there are lot of choices to make before you can pick your own phone and say "Hello."
LOCAL CALLS: The first choice you have to make is about using a regular or cellular phone for your calls. Regular phone service from the local telephone company is cheaper - for a home phone it costs about $20 a month in most cities. With this service you can make all the local calls you want.
If you prefer to use a cellular phone for your local calls, you will pay more. This is because charges for cell phones are based on the amount of time the phone is used. You pay both to make and to get a call. With a cellular phone, the same $20 a month may only get 30 minutes of telephone service. After those 30 minutes you pay a charge for each extra minute. Of course, a cellular phone can be much more convenient, especially for someone like a doctor or a person who isn´t home much but needs to get important calls.
PERSONALIZED SERVICES: After you have thought about which kind of phone you want to use, you can choose the special services you want. There are many options, but one of the most popular ones is call waiting, where if someone calls you while you are talking on the phone, you can answer the new call while you are talking on the phone, you can answer the new call while the first person waits. There are other options too, and you pay a small extra monthly charge for each one you choose.
LONG DISTANCE: The last thing you need to think about is which long distance phone company you want to use. There are more than ten companies, including several large ones in the United States - Sprint, AT&T - and with each, you can choose different kinds of plans. Sometimes charges are the same all day long, and sometimes there are different charges for calls made at different times of the day. With some, the charges per minute go down the more long-distance calls you make.
Even after these choices, you may still have trouble using the phone. Like a friend told me: "We have call waiting at our house. When my husband and I want to make a call, we first have to wait for our 15-year-old daughter to get off the phone!"