FCE Writing - Sports in Estepona

Dear Karen: I am so pleased to hear from you. You want me to write your project… ha ha… Well, I am no expert in sports, but I will try to do my best. a) The school curriculum has a myriad of sports and it depends on the teacher. Anyway, you can find soccer, basketball, handball and volleyball in almost every high school here. Now several teachers are asking pupils to do team dance, provided that it improves socialization and work in group. Pupils love it and it’s incredibly creative and funny. Also, they practise typical aerobic and anaerobic tests. b) Well, here in Estepona soccer is the king of sports. There are several football schools and tutors and psychologist advises sports for boys and girls to be glad. Players are supposed to better academic qualifications when they do some sport, but I strongly doubt about it. And don’t think there are only boys, a good percentage of girls love football. Here you can find the CAB (Club de Amigos del Baloncesto, Club of Friends of Basketball) where children, from 5 years to eighteen play every week, they even have a team on LEB, a minor regional league and we (well, I love basketball) have awesome results (second last year, losing the finals 3-2, what a pity!) for being such a small city. Almost all the members in the family are eager to watch their little children play on weekends, so matches are funny to see. The Estepona F.C. is the best official team here, but they play only in a regional league. Anyway, people support the team so it’s not strange to see ancient and young couples going to enjoy the match on Sunday afternoon. Moreover, when Malaga plays as local, a great quantity of football fans take their cars and travel to Malaga to enjoy a First Division match. c) There’s no unusual or traditional sport or game here, if you don’t accept “The big bottle” as a sport, in which we excel. d) There have been several changes in sporting tastes and habits in Estepona over the last twenty years. Some time ago, only boys played football. Now boys and girls play football, there are 3 great gyms where people of all ages do every kind of sport: cycling, lifting and swimming. We have here some oriental arts gyms where young people learn karate, judo and kick-boxing. Moreover, the Paseo Maritimo is the perfect place to jog due to his being along the sea and a great deal of cyclists goes up Sierra Bermeja on weekends. I hope it’s enough for you. If you have any doubt, call me and I will add more details.

FCE Writing - Answering letter from a visiting professor

We are pleased that you have mailed us offering you to give a talk in our club. Of course, you are invited to come whenever you want. Our members are eager to hear you and know everything about American Pronunciation. But not every member has the same level, so we beg you to speak for non-native English speakers. The members are very excited about your speaking, because some of them are young rap fans and it’s difficult for them to understand the rap up tempo speaking and a lot of informal expressions used by rap singers. Of course, here you will have accommodation in the hotel Sierra Bermeja and, as the speaking is celebrated in the afternoon, we take and show you Estepona and will have the pleasure to eat fried fishes, what we call here, “pescaíto frito”.

FCE Writing - Being polite and tactful

Function	Writing to a close friend	Writing to a stranger
Thanking for present	Thanks for the great book – love the cartoons	Thank you for the most enjoyable and amusing book you sent me
Requesting a favour	Hey, friend, will you help me with my project?	I was wondering if there might be any chance of your giving me some assistance with a project I am currently working on.
Making a suggestion	How about meeting at the theatre next Saturday?	Bella dama, would you agree to meet with my humble person at the theatre next Saturday? I won’t look at the play; it’s just to have your preciousness by my side and being able to admire your beauty.
Apologising	I’m terribly sorry I forgot to post you the report.	I want to show my greater regret for having forgotten to post the report I promised it would in your email this afternoon. Sorry for the inconvenience. It won’t happen again.
Complaining	Hey, tell your sons to turn the music down before 11 p.m. Some of us work tomorrow…	I would be very grateful if you could ensure that your sons turn their music down after 11 p.m.
Initial salutation	How are you, man? And your family? Hope everything is all right.	I hope that you and your family are keeping well.
Drawing letter to a close	Better go now or I’ll miss the post. Longing to see you soon. Love,	I hope this letter has been helpful for you. If you have any question, please, write us back. Best regards

FCE Writing - Using your own words

It would be a pity if the summer school was put at risk because of this sort of rubbishy report.
It would be not fair for the summer school not to celebrate again due to this full of, to say at least, inexact information report.
It is not true to say that arts events were few and far between.
It is not true to say that arts events were not enough and that they were separated from each other.
It is unfair to suggest that few of the participants actually wanted to spend time in the classroom.
It is unfair to suggest that only a small account of the pupils looked forward to having classes in the classroom.
Some students even asked for extra evening classes.
Some studends talked with the teachers about having more hours of english class in the evening.
TR has given a great service to the local community.
TR has proven to be a valuable member of our community doing a lot of things for others.
SM is a highly praised scholar.
SM is a pupil with very good qualifications and has been given some diplomas and prices for his good career so far.
DO'S spouse is at home looking after their one child.
DO'S has one child who is being cared by his wife at home.
AS gave the impression of being shy but intelligent.
Although AS may seem a little shy, he showed up to be wise.

FCE Writing - Complaning about an article written on your newspaper

DEAR Editor in Chief: (dear is sarcasm, for if you haven't noticed):

Your little funny article about the Summer Canchester School is, at least, inexact. I was there and I think some of the information in the article is not true. Check this down:

1.       It’s not true that “three quarters of the participants came from he same country”. The country with more participants was Spain with 10, and there were far over one hundred boys and girls there.

2.       It’s not a fact that “only one of the five teachers”. There were, at least, 10 teachers and monitors. Moreover, it’s not a fact that there was “only one qualified language teacher”. In fact, all of them were qualified but JG, but he was preparing his exams and he was there doing his practical month, and he was kind and respectful.

3.       Your newspaper cannot write “few of the participants actually wanted to spend time in his classroom”. The classroom was always full because if we didn’t go to class, we couldn’t participate in afternoon activities. I even ask for extra evening classes, since I was learning a lot. I think I couldn’t write this letter so well if I hadn’t attended to  the classes.

4.        Nor you can allow your journalist to write “the arts events were few and far between”. You don’t know what I’m doing  journalist could have gone to weekly concerts where we ourselves were playing, the versions of Macbeth and Hamlet that we performed and the non-stop projection of the Star Wars saga. Maybe we are freaks, but not childish.

5.       Local people were there, at least fifty of them in each event, and they were happy about having the Summer School. Maybe you should send your journalist to math classes.

6.       There wasn’t “a rather unpleasant fight at the final” of the football match. Our Swedish friend broke his leg in an unfortunate accident. That was all. The boy that broke his leg went in the ambulance with him, so guilty he felt but he didn’t mean to hurt him.

7.       I don’t remember any Ana from Mexico being in the school.

For all these reasons, I hope you write a new article with accurate information about the Summer school and a note saying you’re sorry about what you’ve written. If not, legal measures will be taken by me and my colleagues.

FCE Writing - The Amazing Spider-man Review

OK, let's make it clear. I'm an our friendly neighborhood Spider-man fan. Nonetheless, I'm going to try and show you how the movie really is. If you have watched the Raimi's films about the wall-crawler, the better for you, because you're going to see a very different movie. It's the same character but this approach it's taken less seriously in some ways, and that's a good thing, because the main thing about Spidey is that he's always making fun of his foes. Anyway, we hope to see more humor and jokes in the upcoming The Amazing Spider-man 2.
The best scene in the movie, in my humble opinion, (spoiler... Well, if you don't know that Uncle Ben is killed, then you're living in another world) is the scene before uncle Ben is killed: "your father lived under the assumption that, if you can do something good for others, you've got to. It's a moral obligation. Responsibility." As Stan Lee would say, "nuff said" and that's what the movie is about. OK with the Lizard, not like the comics one, but frightening enough, OK with the special effects, OK with the 3D, OK with the burglary scene "If you're gonna steal cars, why do you dress like a car thief?" but the second best scene in the movie is when our dear Peter gives the eggs to aunt May. May you save the city and kiss the girl, but don't ever forget your responsibilities, to take care of the ones you love. You owe that to the people that has raised you to what you are now. I think Peter, and not Spidey, is the real superhero in the movie.
And I can't finish without talking about Gwen Stacy, a lovely Emma Stone, the girl we would all fall in love with if we were young again. The scene in the High School when they met alone is, eh, uh, errrr, well, it shows perfectly how we all feel the first time we met a girl, nervous, not knowing what to say. I think it helps that they were together in real life.
I could go on writing for 24 hours and a half, but I think it's enough for you to have a glimpse of what you are going to see. Now I feel like getting myself dressed with my spandex suit and going net flying for a while. Oh, I forgot to say, I am Spider-man. Bye, bye!

FCE Writing - Science Fiction fun - The last of the Gimawes

As I'm doing the exam for FCE next week's Friday, and it's so boring to write notes, surveys, reports, etc... I'm going to write my preferred, short short sci-fi. One of my favorite writers is Fredric Brown, the best sci-fi writer of all time, in my humble opinion.

The last of the Gimawes.

The teacher was funny and he knew his work quite well. He was a little fat, surely from being much time sitting on his chair correcting exercises and studying. Nonetheless, he was strong and he would be a hard man to beat in a fight. But fighting was not his thing. Well, he fought hard, very hard, with us. He fought to make us better in a way that encouraged us to give the best of us. His glasses were always dirty, anyway, I had never seen him clean them. He said taking care of oneself was pointless, because there were so many people in need. “Tomorrow, tomorrow I will have my hair cut, I will shave myself tomorrow.” And we asked him the day after: “You said you were going to have your hair cut.” And he answered: “And who’s going to correct your exercises? To correct, what a foolish thing to do. You know how to do it, do it right. You can check it. You say you understand, so why do you fail? I don’t understand…” And he kept on complaining about us. But then, he started to explain and he got into another world. He was just like a child with a brand new toy.

“Imagine…”, he told us one day, “No, don’t imagine. I’ve been teaching for twenty years. I think it’s time for me to tell you who I really am.” We thought he was joking as he sometimes did. “I’m not from here”

-How come you’re not from here? You were born here. We know your parents, your brothers, your girlfriend… Comeeeee oooonnnnnnn…”

-Of course, my body is from here. But I’m not. I’m extraterrestrial”

- Teacher, we have the exam on differential calculus tomorrow. We promise to come on Saturday, but now let’s keep on studying, please.”

- And I’m here to save you. Save you from stupidity, the worst evil in the whole Universe.

- Are you calling us stupid people?

- No, not you, my dear pupils. You’re the last chance of humanity. Engineers, mathematicians, physicists, chemists students. You hold the fire of kindness and intelligence. But, forty years ago, the Krakonians, the most filthy race in the galaxy, sent an army of a hundred warriors to spread stupidity all over the Earth. They are body changers and they change body by touch, so they can be anywhere anytime.They’re searching for me.

-You have told us eccentric tales many times. But this time you’ve gone nuts. We know today more than we knew forty years ago.

- We think we know. But why eleven year old children still don’t know the multiply tables? I learnt it with seven. Now, many of your colleagues have to revise it over and over.

-Education is a mess, but it’s not reason enough to say that.

- Have you seen TV? What’s a successful person? Soccer players, actors, singers and we are reaching the final phase. People who don’t know a damn-god little thing about anything are the new role models. Do you think it is happening by chance? A hundred years ago, Einstein was the man to be like.

- And why hasn’t your race sent an army?

- Good question. Because I’m the last of my race. Krakonians came to us as friends and then betrayed us, they spread a virus that killed us all, well, almost all. I’m the last of the Gimawes.