The Gift of the Magi, and other short stories

Q: Which story did you like best and why?

A: I like "Soapy's Winter Home". Because it's funny and sad.



Mutsumi

Strong Medicine

After reading
1. What do you think happens to Mark Latto and Sylvia Koning?

Latto stayed in Santa Cruz more 2weeks.
Latto send a e-mail to Dr Alison Partridge asking him about Deborah Spencer's book. They had a meeting about Deborah's idea of treating Parkinson's Disease. Finally, they perfected about healing of Parkinson's Disease, they helped many patients.
After Latto went back to Scotland, Latto and Sylvia send e-mail to each other about not only professionally but also socially. Before long, they got married, they started their own health centre in Latto's home town.

Mike's Lucky Day

What is Mike going to do after this story? Is he going to be a student again?

I think he is going to ask her to many dine. And he is going to make a date with her, watching movie, driving, swimming, travel, and so on.
They are going to make a love.

But her father doesn't permit the relation between Jennifer and Mike.
Because Mike is a student yet. Then Mike is going to graduate from college, he is going to work in Jennifer's shop. Of course he works with her. They will make a happy very well.

Yasuhiro.

Three men in a boat

Dear my friend,

"The Moonspinners" OUP Bookworm

Hi Jim. This is my first challenge.

The book title is 'The Moonspinners'. This is a story about people who were accidentally involvet in a case of murder and theft. The heroine is Nicola who came on a trip to meet her cousin at the villege. But she met two guys on the way to the Hotel where she was going to stay. One of them was shot and injured...

The question is:
1　You are a police officer. Write a short report about each of the five people involvee with
the crime: Stratos,Alexandros,Tony,Josef,and Sofia.

Stratos : Stratos Alexiakis. The probable age 48 or 49. He is a owner of the Hotel
'Agios Georgios 'which is in Crete. He had successful restaurant in London. But
came back to Crete 6 months ago. He has a sister named Sofia.
Stratos Stole some gold and Jewels in London with Alexandros,Tony and Josef.
He is a leader of them. They hided the stolen articles at the coast near the village.
He doesn't like Sofia's husband Josef.He kidnapped and imprisoned Colin with Tony
and Josef.

Alexandros : He is an accomplice of the crime. But killed by Josef in a mountain near Crete
when they had argument about things they had stolen in London.

Tony : Tony Camble. A British man who helped Stratos's crime in London.
Probable age under thirty.
He followed Stratos and works at Agios Georgios.

Josef : Sofia's husband. Cretan.He is often drunk. Doesn't work much. He waste Sofia's money
and not very good to her. He killed Alexandros at the mountain near the village. He also
shot Colin's brother Mark. But died accidentally by hitting his head on a rock when
scuffled with Mark's friend Lambis at the mountain.

Sofia : Stratos's sister and wife of Josef. She had money form her father. She helped Stratos
to imprison Colin in a windmill. But she took care of Colin and brought some hood for
Colin. She opposed to kill Colin.

This story was quite exciting. and of course, happy end.

Falling Leaves

It's really heartwarming tale of love I think.
I remind that we become independent by going through great tribulation. And the many Japanese people(including me) who has never known serious trouble should go thorugh the tribulation.

From the last sentence "Life had come full circle. Falling leaves return to their roots" , I think the dead may be not the end of all.

As an aside, I think the cover-page illustration should be changed, because the illustation is associated with horror story.　(The illustration has a little girl without her foot)

Jun

PIRATES OF CARIBBEAN - homework

(Q29)
Would you like to be a pirate?
What is good about a pirate's life and what is bad?
Write about it.

Good: The life is free.
The life is adventurous.
Bad: The life is dangerous.
They need to became strong man and they need to fight.
They almoust live on ship.

APOLLO 13

(Q13)
You work for a newspaper. Write a story about Apollo 13. Why didn't astronauts walk on the Moon? How did they get home?

It was Saturday,April the 11th in 1970. Apollo 13 was launched to the Moon with 3 astronauts. But serious problem happened. Oxygen got out to the space. 3 astronauts and many staffs in the control center on the Earth thought, thought and thought. They had to change the plane that to walk on the Moon. They solved some accidents, and lastly, 3 astronauts could return back to the Earth.

DR STRANGELOVE

I’m sorry for my late reply, but please find my writing homework as follows. I still couldn’t understand why the author chooses “DR STRANGELOVE” as a title.

(Q23)
What do you think is the main message of the book? Do you think it is still important today?

I think what the book wants to say is “don’t rely on the machine too much”, because there is no prefect machine. In the end, our real(not prefect) human are making and using the Machine.
I also think that the message is more important today, because we can do everything by PC and internet. E.g. shopping, cashing drawer, dealings on the stock exchange and etc
The cyber terrorist may be able to control the computer at Pentagon (United States Department of Defense) by hacking.
Finally, I think that “the Doomsday IT” is more appropriate than “the Doomsday Machine” in these modern days.

The Client

In the middle of the story when Mark met Reggie Love first, he was nervous and he wasn’t ready to talk with her. Reggie said, ”First you have to pay me something.” She took a dollar from him then said, “Okay, now I’m the lawyer and you’re the client. Let’s hear the story.” I like this scene. I feel her considerable experience and tender thought. I like the last scene too. Mark didn’t know that he would never see Reggie again before he asked her “Aren’t you coming Reggie?” Then for once, Mark who is with sound mind was not ashamed to cry in public. Reggie’s last word was “Thank Mark”. This must be an average last scene but that’s what I like.

The Borrowers

Hi Jim sensei,
This is our homework which we were told to write here.
I’ve waited until someone writes first, because I’m too shy to write it.
But at last, I’ll write it so that volcano Jim wouldn’t erupt. :-p

Write about the book for a friend. Tell the story. What did you like about it? What did you not like?

This book is a story of adventure of some small people called “Borrowers”.
Borrowers are very small people living in human being's houses secretly, who often borrows something from the house, but they are very innocent people.
One day, a human being family Lenders, who were living in nice old house, came to have to move to another house because of a plot of a lawyer Mr. Potter.
Arrietty Clock, who was one of Borrowers living in Lender’s house, found that plot and fought against Mr. Potter together with other many Borrowers. Finally, they won and exposed that plot.

It’s happy end.
It’s interesting. I feel glad because bad man was caught.
One strange point,
I couldn't understand why the borrower’s car is faster than human being’s, even though they have special road under the ground.

Photo competition

Calling all readers - which means all the shy Bloggernauts down the right-hand-side who have not posted yet...

Get a photo of yourself reading your English reader in the most unusual or "professional" place to be in with the chance to win 6 (yes, SIX!) more titles of your choice. Oh yes! Show off where you were doing you homework & win!

On the train to Tokyo? Maybe on a flight? Waiting for a meeting at Microsoft perhaps? Doing some overtime? Use your imagination, ask someone to take a shot of you looking very cool! Please send your entries as Looking good with a Reader" + name of the place (eg Rome) and write a short description of the photo moment (who took it etc).

Closing date for entries = December 21st. My decision is absolutely final. Remember, you can bribe me as creatively as you like!

Graded Readers

One of the ambitions for this blog is that students will gain confidence writing - not just a place for Jim to write about himself :)

One experience over the years has convinced us of the need to encourage students to read more; to read more in terms of quantity, but also variety. It is of course important to read the right kind of material. If it's too hard, of course you give up. If it's too boring, you fall asleep & never finish. If it's not your kind of subject, you don't pick it up. If it's too long, you are too scared to start it!

So we are in the process of encouraging more of our students to get into the habit of reading for fun. Which sounds a bit contradictory doesn't it?! Encourage to have fun? Well, it actually starts by carefully assessing the students' ability & then recommending a level for them to try - nothing too hard, but at the same time nothing too simple or irrelevant to their interests (or work). Involving students in selecting the books is always a good idea - maybe a movie they've seen or an attractive front cover? Whatever!

It's never too late to get into the reading habit - nor too early. Our younger learners also make great progress with readers, developing all kinds of skills (not just English, by the way). Predicting & describing, role playing & personalising...from a language point of view, vocabulary gets recycled & repeated, grammar develops logically & slowly. Spelling & phonics start to make sense, and unknown words don't 'shut down the story' - guessing from context or just not panicking & getting on with it.

Anyway, all good graded readers have a follow up stage, and that's where this blog comes in. Once we've gained a bit of confidence reading and into the habit of picking up another book, reviews/book reports will be the next step. Nothing Times Literary Review or anything - but still an attempt to write coherently & for an audience. Students should peer-review each other's work & post comments. As a class, all students will eventually read the same set of books & post reports on each one.

I look forward to reading some juicy book reports, and I hope you will too.