Unquiet Graves

This story is horror and mystery.

Four friends - Frankie, Regan, Jack, Tom - are members of their school's archeology club. They helped a 'dig' in an archeological site on their holiday. Frankie became strange since she slided down into a big black hole and got half broken coin. Afterwards, they heard this village sad story from archeologist Leo. To solve the mystery of this village, they moved into action.

The dead people aren't necessarily always restfully asleep. Sometimes, the dead people spirits might haunt this world when commit an offense during the lifetime and can't seek a place where they can live in peace.

The Canterville ghost and Other Stories

There are three stories.

The first is the story of the Canterville ghost. The Otis family bought the residence of Canterville that the ghost lived. This family didn't fear the ghost at all though the ghost tried to frighten the family. On the contrary, the family tried to frighten the ghost.

The first half of the story was interesting in the comedy though this story was a horror story judging from the title and the picture of the cover. In the latter half of the story, the sad past of the ghost knows and moved to tears. I think impression was large in the gap because the first half part was a comedy.

The image of the American who saw from the British found out and they were interesting.

The other two stories were strange and interesting, too.

The Stranger

This story is the very strange.

One day, a man appeared in the village. His name was Dave Slatin. He liked this village and opened a shop. He was very good-looking and he was liked by the villagers. The shop prospered and he employed Ann as an assistant. There was the special order room which was not usually used in the shop. Ann was interested in the locked special order room and wanted to learn the inside. Three special customers visited the shop. Dave Slatin showed them into the locked room. Ann distrusts him and began to search for those secrets...

I was very surprised at the end of the story. I think the last customer was Dave. He moved into action to realize his hope at the end.

The Mark of Zorro

This story is love and adventure of the mystery knight Zorro who covered the face with a black mask. The true colors of Zorro becomes clear at the end. I was excited till the last and was interesting.

He usually hates to fight, and isn't interested in love to the woman. However, when there are an embarrassed person, he becomes Zorro and helps them. He punish the enemies of the poor and the weak. He talks to a woman in a sweet voice at time of Zorro. Miss. Lolita was charmed by his gap.

There are a film of this story. I haven't seen a film about Zorro. I would like to see a film about Zorro.

Seven Stories of Mystery and Horror

Which was your favourite story? Why did you like it the best?

My favourite story was THE OBLONG BOX, because I felt this story was sad. I don't like much horror. I'm weak the terrible story but this story wasn't terrible story.

The storyteller met Cornelius of an old friend during a trip on a ship. Cornelius carried the oblong box to the ship. One day the ship sets by a storm. The storyteller took refuge in a life-boat. Cornelius was going to board a life-boat with the oblong box. At that time, "Is your box more important than your life?" The storyteller shouted to Cornelius."Yes! Yes! Yes!" Cornelius shouted. The box and Cornelius fell into the sea.

The box and Cornelius did not come up again. After that, I read a story and knew the contents of the box and became sad.This story is slightly sad and is good.

Reading club - Old Rock meeting

I met "my lads" last night in the pub for a pint; they have earned a drink because of their very hard work in my class the last six months - well, two years now...

I have to say I am really impressed with this bunch because they are forever challenging each other to 'speak English' - and they really do try hard. Last night was no different, and we had a really good chat (some topics we really can't do when I am 'on the clock') about all sorts of stuff. For example, are Osaka girls hotter than Yamagata beauties? Shikoku - backwater or home of mental matsuri? Should Satoru come back and study with us - or concentrate on his 19 year old playmate? Serious things to ponder as we monitored the quality of the Guinness.

Naomi joined us and the tone civilised; she also works in IT so the boys had a lot to chat about, especially as her daughter and Ya-chan's son study at Luna. Just to cap things off, one of my ex-students from NHK told everyone (quite rightly) what an amazing guy I am! (Actually, I was a bit embarrassed)

In April 'my lads' will recommence their studies; I am sure they will continue to make great progress and read everything that is put in front of them. Classes like this (which started from scratch, I need to add) make my day. Every now and again they make my evening too! Thanks lads!

Recycling

Q1. Use the clues below to complete this crossword with words from the story.Then find the hidden words in the crossword.

1. What goes around the things that you buy.

2. A light silver-coloured metal.

3. The world we live in.

4. To continue for a time.

5. A strong hard metal.

6. Dangerous to animals and people.

7. A person who designs buildings.

8. A clock or radio can get electricity from this.

9. A metal container for drinks.

10. This country is very good at recycling.

The hidden word are plastic bag.

This book was interesting. People have been recycling in Japan for long time, and we are very good at it. There are words called "Mottainai" in Japan. The paper and the iron are recycling. The clothes are reuse. However, the recycling society doesn't be realized only one country. I think it's important the world country cooperates.

Martin Luther King

Q2. Use the clues below to complete this crossword with words from the story. Then find the hidden name in the crossword.
1. With the same rights as other people.
2. A noisy fight with a lot of people.

3. A group of young people who like to be together and who get into trouble with other groups.

4. To start fighting somebody.

5. Muhammad Ali was a famous one.

6. Someone who belongs to another person and its not free.

7. To plan something and make it happen.

The hidden name is Lincoln.

This book was difficult for me. I didn't know about Martin Luther King before reading this book. I knew him only a little by reading this book. I learned about the segregation issue of the United States, too. Barack Hussein Obama became the president of the United States in 2009. I wish him of the black to change the United States.

Commerce

C1. Choose five companies and find the value of their stocks in the newspaper or on the Internet. See if your stocks have gone up or down after two weeks.
(January 14th, Tokyo, yen)
TOYOTA 3,070
CANON 2,905
SONY 2,000
HONDA 1,938
EPSON 1,302

C2. Find out what things your country sells to other countries. Does it sell more than it buys?
The major exports of Japan are: cars (25.1%), machinery (19.7%), white goods/electrical appliances (19.6%), steel (11.9%), and chemicals (9.2%) in terms of monetary amounts. (2007)
Japan's trade balance was a surplus of about 10 trillion yen in 2007.
Japan's trade balance now is a deficit because of the rapid deterioration of the world economy.

The world is in a very great depression now. A lot of companies are going bankrupt. A lot of people are losing their jobs. I should work hard now and study English hard too.

Where I live - Matsumoto

I live in Matsumoto, which is a small city in the center of Japan. It has a population of 227,240 people and it's the second biggest city in Nagano.

It’s a beautiful city, and it’s great for walking around. There are lots of narrow streets, and it’s full of historic spots, and shops. It is famous city for the tourism. Matsumoto castle is popular with tourists.

The weather here is very comfortable because it little rains and there are a lot of days of fine weather. The winter can be very cold, and it sometimes snow for day. The summer can be very hot in the daytime but can be cool at night.

Matsumoto is famous for horsemeat dish (but I don’t like it). Kamikochi is popular with tourists too. There are some beautiful ponds, and some hot springs near. A lot of tourists visit seeing the autumn tint in autumn.

I think the best thing about Matsumoto are the beautiful nature enclosed by mountains. I enjoy the changes of the seasons of the mountains. I like natures and history of Matsumoto city.

Meet the readers

With a couple of weeks to spare, my lads have polished of their reading books and are ready for more! In a 20 week span, they have read 6 graded readers - the first time any of them have ever picked up an English book. They have blogged their written assignments (see previous postings) and seen the benefits of their labours - better vocabulary retention, interesting stories or biographic information, reviewing grammar points; faster reading (itself a very valuable skill), skimming & scanning; becoming independent learners & tossing away the electronic dictionaries; and the writing component as well.

This my boys have managed on top of busy jobs - we study in company - and on top of their regular homework tasks...which this week is to find a podcast they might want to listen to (starting at BBC) and to report back. I'm hoping my champions will sign up for more punishment (classes oops) from April and that we can continue to do great stuff together!