The Three Strangers

by Thomas Hardy

It began with a knock on the door at a lonely cottage. Inside, all was bright and cheerful, with music and dancing and people enjoying themselves. Outside, the rain beat down and a stranger knocked on the door. The man was about forty years old and took a seat in the chimney corner.

People were just getting up to start another dance when there was a second knock at the door. The new stranger was another man who was several years older with graying hair. He sat next to the first stranger who seemed very busy with him.

Some time afterwards, there was another knock on the door. The third stranger was a little man who turned and run away into the darkness and the rain when he saw the man in grey.

All the men in the house went to help look for the prisoner but when the third stranger was found he explained to them that the prisoner was his brother, the first stranger, and the second stranger was the hangman! So the prisoner was never found.

Sherlock Holmes : "The Blue Diamond"

Two days after Christmas Dr. Watson went to Sherlock Holmes´s house. When he arrived, he found him with some newspaper and an interesting old hat.
Peterson, the doorman at Baker Street Hotel found it en the street and brought it to Holmes´s home on Cristmas Day for him to look at. He also brought a dead bird with him, a good fat Christmas goose, at the same time.
There was a little ticket on the goose´s left leg: "For Mr. Henry Baker". There was the letters H.B. in the hat too.
When Peterson´s wife was cooking the goose, she found a beautiful blue diamond in the bird. This was the countess of Morcar´s blue diamond. It had disappeared a week ago. It was a very expensive jewel. Someone took it from her rooms in the Cosmopolitan Hotel. Now the Countess wants to get her diamond back.
Holmes got an old newspaper and he read the report: "The police think John Horner took the diamond from a jewel box when he went to repair the window in the room. James Ryder, the assistant manager of the hotel, told the court: "I took Horner to the Countess´s room but then I went away for some time. When I came back, Horner wasn´t there, I found the open box, whit out the jewel in it. The police found Horner at his home but they couldn´t find the diamond.
The diamond came from the goose, and the goose came from Mr. Henry Baker, the man with the old hat. Dr. Watson and Holmes wrote a newspaper advertisement: "Did you lose a goose and a black hat?. Are you called Henry Baker?..." They believe Henry Baker is an innocent man.
Mr. Baker is not their diamond thief. He got that bird at a pub, where the owner of the pub began a goose club. Every week they all put five or six pence into a money box and at Christmas time they all had the money for a goose.
Other people were asking questions about the geese: he was James Ryder, the Assistant Manager of the Cosmopolitan Hotel; when the police arrested Horner, he left the hotel with the diamond in his pocket, he went to his sister´s house, in the garden, Ryder quickly caught a big white goose, then he took the diamond and put it into the bird´s mouth. But the goose was no different from the other.
Holmes and Watson knew nearly everything about the case. They thought they could help Ryder to be a better man. They found the solution to the crime.
...And it was Christmas, after all, and Christmas is a time to be nice to other people.

Mª Soledad García Gutiérrez. PALE A

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

The author of this book is Edith Wharton. A woman was born in 1862 in New York. She did not go to school but she spent many hours reading in her father`s library. She was married with Edward Wharton but they divorced in 1913.

She wrote more than forty books and in 1920 became the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for her novel The Age of Innocence.

The tittle of books I have read is Ethan Frome. It was written by Edith Wharton while living in France, but she had learnt about New England farming life when she lived in Massachusetts for a few years after her marriage.

The novels describes the hard, hopeless lives of the very poor, the Frome`s family.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, in Starkfield ( Massachusetts ), the winters are hard, with snow, and ice cover the fields for months and the nights are long and cold.

Ethan is a slow, quiet man but he feels things strongly. He works long hours every day, but his farm makes very little money. He has had melancholy in his face all his life.

His wife Zeena is a cold, silent woman and only interested in her health.

Then Mattie Silver, a young cousin of Zeena, comes to live with the Fromes, to help Zeena and do the housework. Her bright smile and laughing voice bring light and hope into the Frome`s house.

Mattie wasw with Frome`s one year approximately. Little by little he felt something very strong for Ethan, and Mattie, with the time, too felt things very profound for Ethan.

Meanwhile, Zeena perceived these emotions behind both and she thought that Mattie was a dangerous for her husband.

When Zeena was with another doctor for her illness, in a nearly village, Ethan and Mattie were together a lot of time to talk, know, saw, touch and kiss each other.

After, the new doctor of Zeena said to her that she couldn`t work in the house, she thought about contracting the new girl and sacking a Mattie. When she said to Ethan this new`s, the melancholy invaded Ethan.

Therefore he known that he had to do something, but what?

He thought about getting money for somebody in the village to pay the new girl; too he thought about going out with Mattie, but finally he didn`t do anything.

A few months after, Mattie suffered an strange accident and she couldn`t survive. Ethan had broken her heart all her life when he left with Zeena.

The History of the English Language

The history of the English language started with arrival of three Germanic tribes . These tribes were Angles, Saxons and Jutes, at that time the inhabitants of Britain spoke a Celtic language. This tribe spoke a similar language called Old English, with different sound and words to today's English. Old English was spoken until around 1100.

In 1066, William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy that was from France, invaded and conquered England. The Normans brought with them a French language, and during this time Old English and French mixed words and sound called Middle English.

In the 16th century began the most important change for English language became and many new words and phrases entered the language. This was at the time of William Shakespeare,the invention of printing and the first English dictionary was published. After that Modern English began wich grew to become today's vocabulary.

Now, English is probably used for about a quarter of all the people in the worldand it's often call the world language.

John Charles

Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp

SUMMARY

The title of book that I have read is ,Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp.

The book tells us the tale of a poor boy , Aladdin. He lived in a city in Arabia, near the market and he lived with his mother in a poor house.

Aladdin was a lazy boy and he didn´t like to work , because his mother was always angra with him .

But , ONE day his life changed, because he found an old man called Abanazar. He said to Aladdin that he was his uncle , but he was lying because he was a bad magician from Morocco.

Abanazar said Aladdin ; Don´t worry!, you will be a rich man , soon.

Abanazar and Aladdin went through the hills and arrived at a cave, then Abanazar gave aladdin ONE MAGIC RING and with it , Aladdin could go into the cave , where aladdin found a old enchanted lamp .

In that moment, Abanazar was angry, only, he wanted the lamp and when Aladdin understood that Abanazar was a bad man, then Aladdin didn´t give it to him.

The magician was very furious and he closed the cave and Aladdin didn´t go out.

But, Aladdin was CLEVER , and he went out with the help of his magic ring. Now he had got his Enchanted Lamp and his Magic Ring.

In the Lamp lived a jinnee and he gave Aladdin gold and jewels, now, Aladdin is a rich man and he can marry with the Sultan´s daughter.

But some time after, Abanazar wanted to recover the lamp and he went near to Aladdin´s palace and he changad ONE new lamp for the old lamp, he took the princess too and they went to Morocco.

When Aladdin Knew it, he cried. Then he began to rub his magic ring and with its help, he went to Morocco.

In the end, the bad old magician died, because he drunk some sleeping-powder. Then Aladdin and his wife were free and they returned to Arabia and they were happy.

Mercedes Mogío Meneses.

Goodbye, Mr Hollywood

This is the history:

GOODBYE, MR HOLLYWOOD

Nick Lortz was in a village called Whistler, in Canada. He was sitting outside in a café. A mystery girl came near to Nick and said , hello, do you remember me?, but he didn’t remember him. She was talking with Nick and finally, she said, can I call you Mr Hollywood? Ok he said… the girl had a pretty smile… The girl took his face between her hands and kissed him on the mouth and said her, drive carefully, Mr Hollywood, goodbye.

Meanwhile a men with white hair, watched them.

Nick drove to Vancouver the next day. He walked alone the streets of the city and somebody put a hand in his back and pushed Nick into the road. A green car stopped. Nick don`t understand anything, somebody wanted to kill him.

Nick drove to the nearest police station and told them his story.

The next day Nick drove to Vancouver Island to the Empress Hotel because the Mistery girl said to him where she was. Nick asked about her and a young men said to him that the girl was Howard Hutson`s daughter, called Meg, a rich woman. The young man told him that she was in the tea room.

Nick looked into the tea room and saw Meg with a man about thirty called Craid. He walked across to Meg`s table, and he said that after ke spoke with her somebody wanted to kill, and asked Meg because she called him Mr. Hollywood.

Meg said to Nick that the man with the white hair, was a detective working for his father.

While Nick and Meg were talking, a men with the white hair got into the tea room with a gun and fired at the men called Craid. After two waiters pulled the man with the white hair down on to the floor.

In the commissary the police said to them that the man with the white hair had a daughter called Anna, and she jumped off a bridge in Boston because she loved a man, and the man took her money and ran away. This man was Craid Winters but he liked all his girlfriends to call him Mr Hollywood.

Coldplay - Fix You

Antonio Barrado

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY

This story is about the work of Mr.Howard Carter, anarchaelogist in Egipt, but it's also about the curse of Tutankhamun who would have been angry with him for opening his tomb. The story is told by Tariq in his diary.He was a yorng artist who worked with Mr. Carter. In 1922, they were looking for Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Lord Carnavon gave money to Mr. Carter to find the tomb. One day, some French artists came to the camp to visit the Valley, and Tariq met Anne. He liked her a lot, but she wasn't alone. He didn't like her old teacher at all, mr. Ayrton. In November, Karim, a friend of Tariq, found a step in the sand. Then, they found a door with Tutankhamun's seals, so Mr. Carter called Lord Carnavon to come to Egypt. When Lord Carnavon arrived, they went into the tomb.At first, they saw treasure of gold and jewels, an a beautiful golden statue of Tutankhamun in a long room. Later,Mr. Carter and his men could go through into the second room. It was the burial room. This room had pictures of the Boy King an his wife, Ankhesenamun, on its walls. Tariq realized the queen had the face of the French artist, Anne. What was it happening?. Soon, people began to die... Lord Carnavon was the first. He died because of the poison fron a mosquito bite. The second was his friend, Karim. So, Tariq began to believe in the curse of the mummy of Tutankhamun which was found in a golden coffin in the burial room. However, Mr. Carter worked there for seven more yerar and nothing else happened. Meanwhile, Tariq was afraid, so he decided to go back to Cairo. There, he was working at the Museum when he met Anne again.He asked her for Mr Ayrton and she answered he was a tomb thief, so she left him. At last, Tariq realized the spirit of Tutankhamun didn't do anything bad to Mr. Carter and himself because they weren't tomb thieves, In his head he closed the door on Tutankhamun's curse and he felt happy and free at last.
Isabel Acero, student of PALE A

ESSAY

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CHEMICAL SECRET “Tim Vicary”

John Duncan is a biologist in his forties who starts working in a chemical factory after the death of his wife in an accident. He was living since then with his children in a small flat with not too much money so at that moment they begin a new life because of his new job.
The main thing that the company produced was a pain; one day John spilt some of the waste products on his legs damaging his skin and he discovers the pain these products can produce. Then he made some experiments in rats putting a small quantity of product in the water and the rat´s babies was born with some problems: no eyes, no ears, six legs…John made a report and went to the headmaster of the company, a businessman, who convinced him not to say anything. It was very expensive to put new machines to clean up the waste products before they go into the river and the factory it was very important for people in town and for him and his family now. Finally noting was done.
Some years later, Duncan’s daughter was married with a journalist worried about environment who began to investigate about some problems with a strange disease in seals at the river. Some months later, his daughter was pregnant and while John was in a trip his daughter and her husband sailed along the river one night to protest in front of the chemical factory where the products were being wasted. His daughters fell into the water, drowning, however she could save her life. Some days later John came back to a Public Enquiry to talk about the damage of the factory in people health. Although he tried to defend his position, when he was told about his daughter news, he had to say the truth.
After six months, John Duncan is living in a small flat alone. He´s waiting very worried for the birth of his daughter´s child.
At the end of the story the child is born and he´s going to the hospital to see the baby for himself.
María Alonso V.