Present Simple Tense - 1 E mail Friends Hi! My name's Teresa and I'm from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

I'm eighteen. I've got two sisters. I love sport. My favourite football team is Vasco da Gama. I play tennis and volleyball and I go diving and windsurfing. Please write to me! Hi! My name's Colin and I'm seventeen. I'm from Sydney in Australia, but my mother and father are from Poland. My hobby is photography. I take photos of people and animals. I have brilliant photographs of koala bears! I love music and I collect rock magazines. I don't play sport and I don't watch TV! E-mail me soon! Hello! My name's Lena and I'm from Durban in South Africa. I'm sixteen and I'm at school. I've got one brother and my grandmother lives with us. I like painting. I paint pictures of the countryside. I love music, and I sing and play the guitar in a rock group with two friends. My favourite pop star is Ricky Martin. E-mail me!

Present Simple Tense - 2 How do people relax? Surfing capital of the world Any sunny day on the coast of Australia, you can see hundreds of young people going to the beach. They all share Australia's national passion - surfing. 'My friends and I usually go down to the beach before breakfast in the summer,' says 19-year-old Jim Wolfe, 'and come home again for dinner!' At weekends it is quite normal to drive hundreds of kilometres to find that 'perfect wave'. But in Sydney, the biggest city in Australia, you don't have that problem there are thirty-four beaches close to the city centre! The music of the people The most popular dance of Brazil, samba, is often called 'the music of the people'. In the 1960s and 1970s people turned to US-style pop music, but these days samba is back again. There are different versions of samba: some that people dance in their villages, others that they Present Continuous Tense - 1 Couch potato When I wake up I don't get up immediately. I turn on the television and watch the children's programmes and old movies until about half-past ten. Then I get up, go downstairs and switch on the telly. For lunch, I have biscuits and a glass of milk, and I watch the news. In the afternoon, I often watch another old film - they're showing some good ones at the moment. In the evenings, I often watch soap operas or sport and the news again. I like the main news at six o'clock. At nine thirty, if there is a good play on BBC 2, I switch over and watch it. Then at night I watch more films and I usually switch off the telly at about two o'clock. I never watch the TV all night. I watch TV for sixteen or seventeen hours a day. I also do some exercise every day. I take Tina, the dog, for a walk every afternoon. I don't go far, of course. I walk to the wall outside my house. I always take my portable telly and I sit on the wall while the dog walks round in a circle. Of course, I couldn't live this lifestyle without a good wife. She's not here now because she's working, but she always makes my meals. We haven't got much money, you know, but we're happy. Sit down, watch the telly - you've got the world at your feet and in your hand. Great! practise especially to dance at Carnival. In Rio thousands of people go to samba schools, typically on a Saturday night - to dance, to learn ... or just to watch. Thirty-year-old Ana Rita goes every week with her husband '... just because it's fun! Everybody loves to dance, and it's a great way to meet people!' A day in the 'banya' If you're happy to take a bath in public, then a Russian banya or bath house, is the place for you. Russians of all types meet there ... at any time of day. They go there to relax, to talk to their friends or even to discuss business. 'It doesn't matter if you're old or young, fat or thin. Nobody cares, nobody looks at you ... it's a wonderful place!' says 24-year-old Masha, a student from St Petersburg. There are cold baths, as well as a hot room where the temperature can reach forty-three degrees.

Present Simple Tense - Present Continuous Tense A Quiet Revolution As divorce rates rise and fewer couples bother with marriage, we ask if the traditional nuclear family is becoming a thing of the past. While you are reading this article, somewhere in the United States two couples will get married and another will get divorced. One in three American children now live with only one parent, and the United States is not alone in this: in Canada and France the divorce rate has doubled in the last twenty-five years, and in Hungary and Greece it has increased by 50 per cent. Even in Japan, where the traditional family is still strong, divorce went up by 15 per cent between 1980 and 1995. What is more, the nature of the family is changing. In Sweden and Denmark, around half of all babies are now born to unmarried parents, and in the United Kingdom and France more than a third. Even in Ireland, traditionally the most Catholic country in Europe, the rate of births outside marriage is 20 per cent. Families are also getting smaller. The average Turkish family had seven members in 1970; today it has only five. And in Spain and Italy, where families were always traditionally large, the birthrate was the lowest in the developed world in 1995. This fall in the birthrate is due in part to the fact that, as more women have careers, they are waiting longer and longer to start a family. The age at which the average woman has her first baby is now 28 in Western Europe, and it is getting later. So the nuclear family is clearly changing, but is it in danger of disappearing completely? The truth is that it is still too early to tell. In some countries these patterns are actually reversing. In the United States, Scandinavia and the United Kingdom, the birthrate is rising once more; and in Denmark, for example, marriage is becoming more popular again, to the United States, the divorce rate in fact fell by 10 Per cent between 1980 and 1990, and it is continuing to fall. Perhaps a new revolution is beginning?

Past Simple Tense v Queen Elizabeth I Elizabeth I was Queen of England and Wales from 1558 to 1603. It was a very exciting period of discovery. Francis Drake sailed around the world and Walter Raleigh went to America - he found tobacco and potatoes there and introduced them to Europe. It was also a 'Golden Age' in English history for painting, music, architecture and literature. Shakespeare wrote great plays in this period. When Elizabeth was born, her father, Henry VIII, was angry because his new child was a daughter he wanted a son. He executed Elizabeth's mother and married again. He sent Elizabeth away from him Elizabeth was unhappy but she was good at school. She spoke French, Latin, Greek and Italian. She also loved the theatre, but in the 16th century there were no actresses - men played all the parts! Elizabeths half-sister, Mary, became queen in 1553. She was a Catholic. She put Elizabeth in prison. When Mary died, Elizabeth became the first Protestant queen. People wanted her to marry and have children. They thought she needed a man to help her. She was secretly in love with a man called Robert Dudley, but she never became his wife. Elizabeth was a great queen. She organised her government and England became rich and strong. There were wars Spain tried to invade England - but there was also a long period of peace. Elizabeth was a successful woman in a man's world. She died in 1603. Past Simple Tense - Past Continuous Tense True Life Drama Liz Pursey rescued three people from a burning car. One evening I went out with my friend Neil for a quiet meal in a country pub. We left at 9.30 and I offered to take Neil home. We were driving along when, suddenly, a car drove past us out of control. The car crashed and after that it burst into flames. First we ran to the burning car. When we got there, we saw three people trapped inside. They were screaming and we knew we had to get them out. It was incredibly hot as we opened the doors. The driver was sitting inside, unconscious. We got him out and then went back for the other two people. I had to climb over the front seats to get to them. Surprisingly, they were able to walk away from the car. Meanwhile, some people who were watching from a nearby campsite, called the emergency services. In the end, I was standing there in a state of shock when a policeman asked me for my name and address. I couldn't remember! I don't think we did anything extraordinary but the police presented us with certificates for our bravery. It's a nice feeling to know you've helped to save someone's life.

6Adjectives 1: What to wear this spring? Spring is here. The weather is getting better and it's time to think about clothes! This year, colours are brighter. Orange, yellow and red are more fashionable than dark colours. And the fashion this year is less casual and more formal than last year. For boys, clothes are smarter. Jeans and trainers are 'out'. Jackets, ties and shirts are in. Buy colourful shirts - polyester shirts are cheaper than cotton shirts. Ties are wide and very bright. Trousers are also wider this year and leather trousers are 'in' - they're more expensive and less practical than jeans, but they're trendier! T-shirts are OUT this year and earrings are worse! For girls, this year is more colourful than last year. Bright cotton dresses and skirts are in. Skirts are longer and small leather boots are very fashionable. Sweatshirts are 'in' - they are bigger and more comfortable than jumpers. Jackets, white shirts and ties are also in. Buy red or yellow jackets to be really trendy. Jeans and short skirts are OUT this year! Adjectives 2: Amazing cities! The oldest... the biggest... the most mysterious! y The world's oldest city is Jericho, in the Middle East, which dates back to about 8000 BC. It has been destroyed many times in its history (one such story is described in the Bible), but it has always been rebuilt. y Ancient Rome was the first city in the world to have a population of 1 million. At its height, the entire Roman Empire had a population of 100 million! y The world's most mysterious cities are to be found in the Indus Valley in modern-day Pakistan. Known as the 'Secret Cities', they are around 4,500 years old, but no one knows who built them or where they disappeared to. Whoever they were, they were so advanced that they invented their own form of writing (at around the same time as the Ancient Egyptians), and built a complete system of drains and plumbing almost two and a half thousand years before they were 'first invented' by the Romans! Not so modern! y We think of democracy as a modern invention, but in fact the world's most perfect democracy probably existed in Ancient Athens in 500 BC - if you were not a woman or a slave, that is! In the so-called 'Golden Age', all decisions were made by citizens collectively. Even military leaders were elected, and crimes were tried by juries of between 101 and 1001 citizens! y We often imagine that the enormous cities of Asia are a twentieth century phenomenon, but throughout history, they have always been bigger than cities in Europe. Even in 1450, the biggest city in the world was Peking (population 600,000), and most of the other 'top ten' cities were also in China. London at the time had a population of just 75,000. y Tower blocks are not a modern invention either. Buildings over six storeys high existed in many cities in the Middle Ages, and in ancient Rome some blocks were so high that sightseers used to come from the countryside especially to look at them! y Our typical image of a medieval city is of somewhere smelly and unhealthy! But this is not entirely true - in fact, public services such as bathhouses, drains and hospitals were relatively developed. Medieval Florence, for example, with a population of 90,000, had thirty hospitals with over a thousand beds. Its system of drains was much better than those of many nineteenth century cities! y Ancient Rome had many of the same urban problems as cities today. Crime was an acute problem - few people dared even to go out after dark for fear of robbers and cut-throats. And even then many of the poor lived on 'welfare' - the Emperor's government regularly distributed bread to more than 200,000 poor people. Traffic congestion is not a new problem either - in the centre of Ancient Rome it was so bad that Julius Caesar had to ban all wheeled vehicles during daylight hours!

Present Perfect Tense What have they done? During the last ten years, Ameet has had ten different jobs: he has worked in the import-export business, he has been an estate agent and now he has just started his own company which sells mobile phones - but he hasn't made a million pounds yet! Edward has moved to the United States, where he now works, designing computer games. His most popular game, Death Rider, has already sold over ten million copies, and has made him very rich! He isn't married, in fact, he's never had a girlfriend, and he still spends most of his time playing computer games in his bedroom. Lucy is an actress and a part-time waitress. In the last few years, she's appeared in several plays and a couple of TV commercials - but there has been no call from Hollywood yet! Since leaving university with a brilliant degree, Kate has worked for Greenpeace and other similar organisations, first as a volunteer and now as a manager. She's just had her first baby. In the last ten years, Hannah has been married three times, and has lived in Italy, Egypt, France and Australia. At present, she is running a small restaurant and bar on the Greek island of Kos with her third husband, Nikos. Present Simple Tense - Past Simple Tense Past Perfect Tense Twins It is well-known that twins are closer to each other than most brothers and sisters - after all, they probably spend more time each other. Parents of twins often notice that they develop ways of communicating: they invent their own words and can often finish the other's sentence. In exceptional circumstances, this closeness becomes more extreme: they invent a whole language of their own, as in the case of Grace and Virginia Kennedy from Georgia in the USA, who communicated so successfully in their own special language that they did not speak any English at all until after they started school. In Britain there was the famous case of the 'silent twins', June and Jennifer Gibbons, who were perfectly capable of normal speech, but for years refused to talk to anyone but each other. However, these special relationships are the result of lives spent almost entirely in each other's company. What happens when twins do not grow up together, when they are separated at birth for some reason? Are they just like any other strangers, or are there still special bonds and similarities between them? Professor Tom Bouchard, of the University of Minnesota, set out to find the answer to this question. He traced sixteen pairs of twins, who were adopted by different families when they were babies, and often brought up in very different circumstances. Each twin was then interviewed about every small detail of their life. The results of this research make surprising reading. Many of the twins were found to have the same hobbies or phobias, many have suffered the same illnesses, and some have even had the same type of accident at the same point in their lives. When they arrived in Minneapolis, many were dressed in very similar clothes. One pair of middle-aged women arrived for their first meeting in identical dresses, another pair were wearing identical jewellery. A large number of the twins have had children at almost the same times; sometimes they have even given them the same names. Terry Connolly and Margaret Richardson, British twins who didn't meet until they were in their mid-thirties, found that they had been married on the same day of the same year at almost the same time of the day. Both women have also had four children, all of more or less the same age. B ut t he m os t i nc r e di bl e similarities are to be found in the case of Jim Springer and Jim Lewis from Ohio in the USA. The story of the 'Jim Twins' made headline news across USA, and they even appeared on national television. Born to an immigrant woman in 1939, and adopted by different families at birth, both babies were named Jim by their new parents. This was just the first in an almost unbelievable series of coincidences. But what can be the explanation for these remarkable similarities? is it all pure coincidence, or is the explanation in some way genetic? Research into the lives of twins is forcing some experts to admit that our personalities may be at least partly due to 'nature'. On the other hand, analysts are also anxious to emphasise that incredible coincidences do happen all the time, not just in the lives of twins.

Past Perfect Tense - 1 A Burglary Three burglars were arrested yesterday. They were waiting in a bus shelter five miles from the scene of their crime. They had stolen some silver from an antique shop, had hidden everything in a nearby wood and were waiting for a bus to go home. But they had not thought about the determination of police constable Jane Basham and her dog, Rex. Basham was working at the local police station when she received a call about a break-in. When she got there, she found footprints in the snow. Her dog led her to a car park and then into a wood. There they found the silver which the burglars had planned to collect later. Rex then continued across the fields, over a railway line and through a river. They followed the river and finally arrived in the village of Brimfield. Rex took PC Basham straight to the shelter where the three men were sitting in the cold. She called for help and the men were arrested and charged with theft. Past Perfect Tense 2 Is This Man Britains Unluckiest Criminal? Everybody in the small town of Thornaby, in the north-east of England, had always thought that local businessman Edward Carson was an honest man. But when Carson lost all his money after a series of bad investments, he decided it was time to do something ... Carson stole 60,000 of his clients' money and took an aeroplane to Monte Carlo, in the south of France, where he planned to get back the money he had lost by playing roulette. However, the casinos became suspicious of a man with so much cash and did not accept his bets. Carson returned to England. Still thinking that gambling was the answer to his problems, he went to Doncaster races, put 10,000 on a horse called Lucky Seven. Sadly, the horse was certainly not lucky, and finished last in the race! Carson then invested the rest of his money in a travel company ... a few days later the company collapsed. Carson had lost everything. He used his last 1,000 to buy a second-hand car. He had decided to kill himself by driving off the cliffs near his home town. Just before he reached the cliffs, a police officer stopped him for speeding. It was enough to make Carson think that perhaps he wasn't so unlucky after all. He told the police officer everything, and Carson was arrested. At his trial, the judge gave him just one month in prison: he said Carson had probably suffered enough already.

Expressing future: How organised are you? 1. You have an important form to fill in and you know it'll take at least two hours to do it properly. It's Tuesday today and you have to hand it in by nine o'clock on Friday morning at the latest. A. You're planning to do it tonight. That'll give you time to read it through tomorrow night and hand it in early on Thursday. B. You're going out tonight, but you intend to do it tomorrow night. If you're honest though, you know you probably won't even get down to it until about ten o'clock on Thursday evening. 2. You bump into a friend you haven't seen for ages in the street she suggests a night out together next week. A. You get out your diary to see what you're doing next week, and make an arrangement there and then. B You agree enthusiastically and promise to ring her tomorrow ... and then forget all about it! 3. To your amazement, you win 500 in a competition that you entered. A. You put the money in the bank towards the new car / holiday / computer that you're saving up for. B. You pay off a few debts, buy a couple of CDs and some new clothes, take a friend out for a meal to celebrate ... and the money's gone! 4. It's the end of June. You have two weeks holiday from work at the beginning of August. A. You have already booked your holiday and are starting to plan what clothes you need. You've borrowed several tourist guides to the area, and are planning various excursions and trips. B. You're thinking of going to Greece, but you haven't really looked into it yet. You're going to start phoning travel agents next week. 5. You've been given an important message for a friend. A. You phone him straight away, in case you forget about it next time you meet. B. You're sure to see him in the next few days -you'll remember to tell him then. 6 You're due to be at a meeting in another town at three o'clock. You know it'll take you at least thirty minutes to get there. A. You allow an hour for the journey - that way you definitely won't be late. You'd like to have enough time to have a coffee and make a few notes before the meeting starts. B. You allow yourself twenty-five minutes and hope you don't have any problems on the way. If you're late, you can blame the traffic or the public transport system! 7. You're about to go on holiday. It's eight o'clock the evening before. Your friend is picking you up to take you to the airport at eight-thirty tomorrow morning. A. You've finished your ironing and packing. Now you're going to have a nice bath and an early night, so that you're fresh for the journey tomorrow. B. You throw a few clothes into the washing machine and go and have a last drink with a few friends. You're going to pack after that. Conclusions to quiz Mostly As: you are an extremely well-organised person, who has every aspect of their life carefully planned. There are many advantages to this. Make sure, however, that you do not become inflexible, or ignore other people's needs because they do not fit in with your plans. A combination of As and Bs: you try hard to be organised, yet flexible and sensitive to other

people. On the whole you manage to get the balance right, though sometimes perhaps you need to prioritise more carefully, and be more determined about achieving your goals. Mostly Bs: you are a very spontaneous person, who hates too much organising and planning ahead. This can have a very positive side - you often have great fun. But because you refuse to make plans, you may also miss out on the things other people do. Be careful, too, that your spontaneity doesn't mean more work for someone else.

Passive Voice 1 British Festivals Every year people build bonfires on hilltops all over Cornwall in the south-west of England. These fires are a celebration of summer and they are lit on the night after the Summer Solstice (on 22 June). The ceremony isn't performed in English; it is performed in Cornish, an old Celtic language. The celebration of Halloween on 31 October was begun by the Celts over 2000 years ago. Their festival of the dead marked the beginning of winter. People believed that ghosts and witches came out on that night. These beliefs were not encouraged by the church, but the festival wasn't abandoned. The Irish lit lanterns and candles to keep the ghosts away and wore costumes and masks to frighten them. People travelled from village to village and asked for food. They believed that any village that didn't give food would have bad luck. These customs were brought to the USA in the nineteenth century by Irish immigrants. Today in the USA and the UK, children wear costumes and go from door to door saying Trick or treat and they are given sweets to take home. The Helston 'Furry (Floral) Dance' is one of the oldest festivals in England. It takes place in Helston, an old Cornish town. It celebrates the coming of spring. The 'dance' is a procession through the narrow streets of the town. The men wear top hats and suits, the women wear their best dresses and children are dressed in white. The streets are decorated with flowers. People follow an old route through the town and even pass through people's houses, shops and gardens! Passive Voice 2 Seeds of Change Tobacco For thousands of years tobacco was used by the American Indians with no ill-effect. In the 16th century it was brought to Europe. This early tobacco was mixed with soil and rather dirty. It was chewed or smoked in pipes only by men - women thought it smelly and disgusting. It was first grown commercially in America in the 17th century on slave plantations. In the 18th century new technology refined tobacco and the first cigarettes were produced. By the 1880s huge factories were producing cigarettes which were clean and easy to smoke. Chain-smoking and inhaling became possible and by the middle of the 20th century tobacco addicts, both men and women, were dying of lung cancer in great numbers. Nowadays cigarette smoking is banned in many places, especially in the USA. But until 1820 tobacco was America's main export, and still today their tobacco industry makes over $4.2 billion a year. Cotton Cotton has been grown for over five thousand years in places as far apart as Mexico, China, Egypt, and India. It was first planted in America in 1607. Before 1800 cotton was a great luxury, more expensive than silk, because so many workers were needed to pick it. However, a huge increase in the number of slaves in the American South resulted in much greater cotton production and a fall in the price. This, and the new technology of the industrial revolution, made cotton the cheapest fabric in history. By 1820 cotton was making more money for the USA than tobacco, and more money worldwide than sugar. The American Civil War of 1861-1865 was fought because the Southern States wanted to form a separate country, so that they could continue to keep slaves on their cotton plantations. Slavery was banned in the Northern States in 1808. 500,000 soldiers were killed in the war. Sugar Sugar cane was grown in India thousands of years ago. In Roman times it was known in Europe as a great luxury, and it was rare and expensive for many centuries after that. In 1493 Columbus took a sugar plant with him to the West Indies, where it grew so well that huge plantations were started by Europeans and worked on by slaves. The slaves were shipped across the Atlantic from Africa, packed sometimes one on top of the other in chains, on a journey that took six weeks. Many died. The empty ships then carried the sugar back to Europe. So much money was made that sugar was known as 'white gold'. Sugar is used to sweeten food and make sweets and chocolate. It is addictive but unnecessary. By the 16th century the English were the greatest sugar-eaters in history. Elizabeth I lost all her teeth because she ate so much of it. Passive Voice 3 Things go better with Coca Cola

1.6 billion gallons are sold every year, in over one hundred and sixty countries. The drink was invented by Dr John Pemberton in Atlanta as a health drink on 8 May 1886, but it was given the name Coca-Cola by his partner, Frank Robinson, because it was originally made from the coca plant. In the first year, only nine drinks a day were sold. The business was bought by a man called Asa Candler in 1888, and the first factory was opened in Dallas, Texas, in 1895. Coca-Cola is still made there. Billions of bottles and cans have been produced since 1895, but the recipe is still kept secret! Diet Coke (now Coke Light) has been made since 1982, and over the years many clever advertisements have been used to sell the product. It is certain that Coca-Cola will be drunk far into the twenty-first century.

Indirect Speech - 1 Good News The secretary told me that Mr Harms-worth would see me. I felt very nervous when I went into his office. He did not look up from his desk when I entered. 5 After I had sat down, he said that business was very bad. He told me that the firm could not afford to pay such large salaries. Twenty people had already left. I knew that my turn had come. 'Mr Harmsworth,' I said in a weak voice. 'Don't interrupt,' he said. Then he smiled and told me I would receive an extra 100 a year! Indirect Speech 2 (questions) Am I All Right? While John Gilbert was in hospital, he asked his doctor to tell him whether his operation had been successful, but the doctor refused to do so. The following day, the patient asked for a bedside telephone. When he was alone, he telephoned the hospital exchange and asked for Doctor Millington. When the doctor answered the phone, Mr Gilbert said he was inquiring about a certain patient, a Mr John Gilbert. He asked if Mr Gilbert's operation had been successful and the doctor told him that it had been. He then asked when Mr Gilbert would be allowed to go home and the doctor told him that he would have to stay in hospital for another two weeks. Then Dr Millington asked the caller if he was a relative of the patient. 'No,' the patient answered, 'I am Mr John Gilbert.' Indirect Speech 3 (imperative) She was not Amused Geoffrey Hampden has a large circle of friends and is very popular at parties. Everybody admires him for his fine sense of humour - everybody, that is, except hiss six-year-old daughter, Jenny. Recently, one of Geoffrey's closest friends asked him to make a speech at a wedding reception. This is the sort of thing that Geoffrey loves. He prepared the speech carefully and went to the wedding with Jenny. He had included large number of funny stories in the speech and, of course, it was a great success. As soon as he had finished, Jenny told him she wanted to go home. Geoffrey was a little disappointed by this but he did as his daughter asked. On the way home, he asked Jenny if she had enjoyed the speech. To his surprise, she said she hadn't. Geoffrey asked her why this was so and she told him that she did not like to see so many people laughing at him! Indirect Speech A perfect Alibi 'At the time the murder was committed, I was travelling on the 8 o'clock train to London,' said the man. 'Do you always catch such an early 5 train?' asked the inspector. 'Of course I do,' answered the man. ' I must be at work at 10 o'clock. My employer will confirm that I was there on time.' 'Would a later train get you to work on time?' asked the inspector. 'I suppose it would, but I never catch a later train.' 'At what time did you arrive at the station?' 'At ten to eight. I bought a paper and waited for the train.' 'And you didn't notice anything unusual?' 'Of course not.' 'I suggest,' said the inspector, 'that you are not telling the truth. I suggest that you did not catch the 8 o'clock train, but that you caught the 8.25 which would still get you to work on time. You see, on the morning of the murder, the 8 o'clock train did not run at all. It broke down at Ferngreen station and was taken off the line.'

Conditional Statements Type 1 Polite Request If you park your car in the wrong place, a traffic policeman will soon find it. You will be very lucky if he lets you go without a ticket. However, this does not always happen. Traffic police are sometimes very polite. During a holiday in Sweden, I found this note on my car:' Sir, we welcome you to our city. This is a "No Parking" area. You will enjoy your stay here if you pay attention to our street signs. This note is only a reminder.' If you receive a request like this, you cannot fail to obey it! Conditional Statements Type 2 Nikola I live in a flat with my Mum and my little brother. My Mum works in a hospital, so my gran often looks after us and she helps my Mum. we have a budgie. I go to St Barnabas School and I wear a green uniform. I can only have sweets on Saturdays. If I were a princess, Id live in a palace. Id have servants to look after me. My Mum would be Queen, and she wouldnt work. I wouldnt go to school. Id have a private teacher, Id ride a white horse, and Id wear a long dress. I could have all the sweets I wanted. Food and Talk Last week at a dinner-party, the hostess asked me to sit next to Mrs Rumbold. Mrs Rumbold was a large, unsmiling lady in a tight black dress. She did not even look up when I took my seat beside her. Her eyes were fixed on her plate and in a short time, she was busy eating. I tried to make conversation. 'A new play is coming to "The Globe" soon,' I said. 'Will you be seeing i t ? ' 'No,' she answered. 'Will you be spending your holidays abroad this year ?' I asked. 'No,' she answered. 'W ill you be s taying in Engla nd?' I asked. 'No,' she answered. In despair, I asked her whether she was enjoying her dinner. 'Young man,' she answered, ' i f you ate more and talked less, we would both enjoy our dinner!' Conditional Statements Type 3 The Channel Tunel In 1858, a French engineer, Aime Thome de Gamond, arrived in England with a plan for a twenty-one mile tunnel across the English Channel. He said that it would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel. This platform would serve as a port and a railway station. The tunnel would be well-ventilated if tall chimneys were built above sea-level. In 1860, a better plan was put forward by an Englishman, William Low. He suggested that a double railway tunnel should be built. This would solve the problem of ventilation, for if a train entered this tunnel, it would draw in fresh air behind it. Forty-two years later a tunnel was actually begun. If, at the time, the British had not feared invasion, it would have been completed. Recently, there has again been great interest in the idea of a Channel Tunnel. If it is built, it will connect Britain to Europe for the first time in history. Conditional Statements Trapped in a Mine Six men have been trapped in a mine for seventeen hours. If they are not brought to the surface soon they may lose their lives. However, rescue operations are proving difficult. If explosives are used, vibrations will cause the roof of the mine to collapse. Rescue workers are therefore drilling a hole on the north side of the mine. They intend to bring the men up in a special capsule. If there had not been a hard layer of rock beneath the soil, they would have completed the job in a few hours. As it is, they have been drilling for sixteen hours and they still have a long way to go. Meanwhile, a microphone,

which was lowered into the mine two hours ago, has enabled the men to keep in touch with the closest relatives. Though they are running out of food and drink, the men are cheerful and confident that they will get out soon. They have been told that rescue operations are progressing smoothly. If they knew how difficult it was to drill through the hard rock, they would lose heart.