Homework 2011-2012

In this blog you will find extra material to improve your English.

Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 1
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 2
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 3 
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 4
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 5
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 6
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 7
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 8 
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 9
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 10 
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 11
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 12 
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 13
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 14
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 15
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 16
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 17
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 18
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 19
Here you will find all the entries related to Objective Proficiency unit 20 

Compositions
1. Write a letter: Objective Proficiency p 23 Ex 7 (deadline: 19 Oct)
2. Write a review: Objective Proficiency p 39 Ex 6 (deadline: 9 Nov). Here you can find useful language for reviews
3. Write a descriptive essay: Objective Proficiency p 20 (deadline: 28 Nov). Imagine you are an expert on social change. The local newspaper has asked you to write an account of what our society will be like in 30 years time.  Is it the utopia we have been dreaming of for so long? Compare and contrast it with the society we live in now. You can find tips on descriptive essays here and here. Get some ideas about what the future may look like listening to this radio programme, or visiting this site.

You can also watch this video:



4. Write an essay in response to an article on ethical treatment of animals. (Deadline 21 Dec)
This is an excerpt from the article:
  • Humans are superior, non-human animals are inferior. Animals were put here as the playthings of humans, for us to do with them what we want. We are able to farm them and control them, we can change their genetics and what they look like, animals have no minds of their own. We eat them, race them and catch them for sport. We even refer to undesirable human behavior as animal. In this world you either harm or you are harmed. God gave humans the ability to harm, so we do. Animals are here for us to exploit. Maiming and injuring an animal is no different to eating it.
5. You are concerned about the food that is given to children at schools today. You decide to write a letter of complaint to the Department of Education outlining your concerns for school food today and the actions you think need to be taken by governments to ensure our children continue to get the great all round food education they need to feed themselves better in the future and to help reduce the crippling rise in obesity. (deadline: 16 Jan) 
 
6. Write an essay: Objective Proficiency p 56 & p 57 (deadline 29 Feb)
7.  Write a proposal: Objective Proficiency p 72 & p 73 (deadline 16 Apr)
8. Write an article: Objective Proficiency p 90 & 91 (deadline 30 April) 
9. Write a report: Objective Proficiency p 108 & 109 (deadline 14 May) 

    Presentations
     Readers (deadlines: 31 Oct and Feb)

    Workbook
    You can do the exercises in: Units 1-13

    Reading List C2 2011-2012


    Readers C 2

    Your assignments are:

    A) You will choose a book to read. Tell your teacher which book you have chosen. (Deadline: 31 Oct.). You will then read the book.
    B) You will prepare a short presentation about it. You can also include your favourite quotes from the book and add some explanations. You can also try to convince the class that the book you have chosen should (not) be on the Reading List next year. (February)

    Reading List 2011-2012 (suggestions)

    1. A Thousand Splendid Suns is a 2007 novel by Afghan author Khaled Hosseini, his second, following his bestselling 2003 debut, The Kite Runner. It focuses on the tumultuous lives of two Afghan women and how their lives cross each other, spanning from the 1960s to 2003. 384 pages.
    2. Saturday is a novel by British author Ian McEwan, first published in 2005. set in London, on Saturday, 15 February 2003, during a large demonstration against the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The protagonist, Henry Perowne, a 48-year-old neurosurgeon, has planned a series of chores and pleasures culminating in a family dinner in the evening. As he goes about his day he ponders the meaning of the protest and the problems that inspired it, however, the day is disrupted by an encounter with a violent, troubled man. 308 pages.
    3.  Notes from a Big Country is a collection of articles written by Bill Bryson for The Mail on Sunday from 1996 to 1998. The book was published in 1998. When Bill Bryson returned to the USA he was asked to write a weekly column about what life was like in the big country. The results, combined here to make a book, are funny and insightful, making you snigger. Full of descriptions and statistics. 368 pages.
    4.  The Island is a historical novel written by Victoria Hislop in 2005. It has won several awards. Set on the island of Spinalonga, off the coast of Crete, The Island tells the story of Alexis Fielding, a teenager on the cusp of a life-changing decision. Alexis knows little or nothing about her family's past and has always resented her mother for refusing to discuss it. She knows only that her mother, Sofia, grew up in Plaka, a small Cretan village, before moving to London. Making her first visit to Crete to see the village where her mother was born, Alexis discovers that the village of Plaka faces the small, now deserted island of Spinalonga, which, she is shocked and surprised to learn was Greece's leper colony for much of the 20th century. 320 pages.
    5.  Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of theDog), published in 1889, is a humorous account by Jerome K. Jerome of a boating holiday on the Thames between Kingston and Oxford. The book was initially intended to be a serious travel guide, with accounts of local history along the route, but the humorous elements took over to the point where the serious and somewhat sentimental passages seem a distraction to the comic novel. One of the most praised things about Three Men in a Boat is how undated it appears to modern readers — the jokes seem fresh and witty even today. 184 pages.