Christmas

Hey Meg!
How're you? Thanks for your letter, it was very interesting to read! I've decided to write you how people celebrate Christmas in Great Britain, because I had been there several times with my family and had learnt some traditions.
Christmas Day is a public holiday. Families usually spend the day opening their presents which are often piled around the Christmas tree decorated with tinsel, baubles, fairy lights and etc.
They eat and drink together. The most important meal is Christmas dinner. At the start of the meal, British people often pull a cracker, which contains a small toy, a paper bat, and a joke. The typical meal consists of turkey with potatoes and other vegetables such as carrots and sprouts. In Britain this is followed by Christmas pudding - a sweet pudding containing a lot of dried fruit and often covered with burning brandy. Other traditional foods in Britain include Christmas cake - a cake containing a lot of dried food and usually having a covering of icing made to be eaten at Christmas, and mince pies.
In Britain, the day after Christmas is called Boxing Day and is also a public holiday. A lot of sports take place on Boxing Day and many people now spend time watching sport on television.
Twelve days after Christmas is the time when people are supposed to take down their decorations and remove their Christmas trees. In my opinion, Christmas in Britain are valued much more than in Estonia and I do like it, because Christmas is one of those holidays, which gathers all the family!
Looking forward to your answer!
Anton.

Jamaica Inn

One day Mary met her uncle’s younger brother, Jem. Jem was young and good-looking but he was a horse stealer. He is not a villain, but a good man. After some period of time Mary realizes that her Uncle Joss is a leader of the band of ship wreckers. She even overhears a talk when Joss orders to murder someone. One day Jem and Mary went to town and Jem sold a horse, that he had stolen. When the time comes to go back to the Jamaica Inn Jem disappears and Mary takes a coach back home. The coach driver is killed by the band of Mary’s uncle. Mary is forced to observe how her uncle wrecks the ship. All the goods from the ship are later hidden in the locked room. Afterwards Mary finds her aunt and uncle killed. The local man offers Mary to sleep at his place but later Mary realizes that he is the member of the wrecker band. This man tries to take Mary as a hostage, but Jem rescues her. Later on Jem offers Mary to go and live with him.

Life of my grandparents.

My grandparents used to live in the countryside. They were living at the time of Second World War.


It was very hard to survive because all the food must have been given to the army. Hunger was everywhere. People had to eat potato peels. There was no clean water to drink so people had to use dirty rain water instead. All the men were taking part in the war. Women and kids were left on their own. Mothers and grandmothers used to do all the hard work and children used to help them about the house. They brought water from the well, chopped wood, helped their mothers in the kitchen.


At that time technology only used to develop so people used to do all the hard work themselves and used to spend their spare time reading books and telling stories instead of using the computer and the internet.

My favourite music.

My favourite band at tghe moment is the American rock band, Linkin Park. There are six members in the band: Bourdon, Brad Delson, David "Phoenix" Farrell, Joe Hahn and Shinoda. Chester Bennington is the lead singer. He also writes songs for the band. Their first album in 2000 was called Hybrid Theory. The album was a huge succsess, selling over 10 million albums in the United States. Their latest album, Minutes to Midnight, has some really good tracks on it. My favourite is Bleed It Out. The band is working on new songs and they announced that their next album will be released in 2010. The band is also producing a game named "8-bit Rebellion". It will be released very soon for iPhones.

Formal letter.

Dear Mr. Handley,

I would like to join Stunt Artists' Course at the Australian Action Academy. I am interested in this course because I heard a lot about it and I think it is very interesting. I live in Estonia and study in 8th grade. My home town is Tallinn. I am studying English in school so I will not have any problems with it. I like all kinds of extreme sports. This profession suites me perfectly. I would like to finish this school year in Tallinn. Then I can come to Australia and continue my education there. I can come to Australia in August. Could you please provide me with further information about the university and the course? You can contact me on this phone number: 52369856.

Yours sincerely
Anton Shambalov.

Tessa's weekend.

Tessa had a great time last weekend. She went to a music festival where they played rock, pop and jazz music. They hadn't taken any food because there were many places where they could buy some food and Tessa bought turkey. There were people from age of 18 till 30 and there were quite a lot of them. There were enough tents but unfortunately not enough toilets. Because of that there were long queues. The cost of the tickets was 70 pounds. It is quite expensive for young people.

What is a good friend?

A good friend is a person, who is very close to me. A good friend must understand me and we must have something in common, for example we could share some interests. A good friend is the one whom I can trust. It is very important. I must be sure, that my friend never betrays me. It is very nice to have a good friend!