Halloween

In the United States, October 31st has become a major celebration for adults and children. Commercially, Halloween has become second after Christmas in the amount of revenue it generates. Originally, Halloween in the United States was almost exclusively a children's event. Trick-or-treating became a widespread activity after World War II. While treats could include apples and homemade sweets, the favored treat was commercially produced candy. In the United States, then, Halloween has always reflected the commercial culture of capitalism.

People host costume parties with representations of death, evil and chaos in general.

November 1st became, in the sixth century, the Feast of All Saints, or All Hallows. Many of the traditions surrounding this occasion continued, and the Eve of All Hallows, Hallow Evening, has become the word "Hallowe'en." In the ninth century, November 2nd was assigned the Feast of All Souls, a day set aside for prayers for all the departed who had died during the previous year.

Halloween pumpkin

The carved pumpkin , lit by a candle inside, is one of Halloween's most prominent symbols.

The jack-o'-lantern comes from the Irish legend of Stingy Jack: a greedy, gambling, hard-drinking old farmer.

He tricked the devil into climbing a tree and trapped him by carving a cross into the tree trunk. In revenge, the devil placed a curse on Jack, condemning him to forever wander the earth at night. This story has been passed down through generations of Irish families.

The carving of pumpkins is associated with Halloween in North America. Many families celebrate Halloween carving a pumpkin into a frightening or comical face and place it on their home's doorstep after dark.

The tradition of carving vegetable lanterns may come from Scotland or England.

Carved pumpkins were originally associated with harvest time in America and did not become specifically associated with Halloween until the mid-to-late 19th century.

trick or treat

Trick-or-treating is what children do on Halloween (October 31st) when they go from house to house wearing frightening or strange clothes, asking for treats such as candy with the question: "Trick or treat?", or the phrase: "Happy Halloween!"

Trick-or-treating is a Halloween tradition. If you live in a neighborhood with children then you should buy treats in preparation for trick-or-treaters.

The "trick" part of "trick or treat" is a threat to play a trick on the homeowners if no treat is given.

Do not leave alcohol near your pumpkins!

(from www.livinginperu.com)

Halloween is going to suck this year!!

(from www.livininperu.com)

New English File Intermediate-Listening 1B: past tenses

NEF Intermediate Listening 1B.mp3

LISTENING EXERCISES

1. Listen to a woman talking about a time when she cheated in an exam. Which of the following is correct:

• She failed the exam.
• Her friend failed the exam.
• She and her friend both failed the exam.

2. Listen again and answer the following questions:

• Which subject did she hate the most?
• What was the difference between the chemistry teacher and the physics teacher?
• Who was she sitting next to in the exam?
• Where did he put his answers?
• What did the teacher do when she saw them?

3. Listen again with the script.

I cheated in a chemistry exam when I was at secondary school. I think I was about 16 or 17 years old. I hated all the sciences - chemistry, biology and physics. I just couldn't understand them. I hated physics the most but I never cheated on the physics exam because the teacher was really strict and he always watched us really carefully.

The chemistry teacher was a lot more relaxed. She was reading a book while we were doing the exam. I was sitting next to my best friend -he was very good at chemistry- and he'd written all the answers on a piece of paper. Then he folded the piece of paper, put it in his pencil case, and passed his pencil case to me. But just at that moment, the teacher looked up from her book and saw my friend giving me the pencil case.

She came up to my desk and took the pencil case from me and opened it. When she saw the answers written on the piece of paper she got really angry and sent us out of the room. Luckily she didn't tell our parents but we failed the exam of course.

PAST TENSES DRILL: Rosie Ruiz

PAST TENSES

PAST SIMPLE : Finished actions in the past. (worked, stopped, went, had, etc)
PAST CONTINUOUS: To describe an action in progress in the past. (was/were + ing)
PAST PERFECT: When you’re talking about the past and then you want to talk about an earlier past action. (had + past participle)

GRAMMAR EXERCISE (1)

Complete the gaps with the verbs from the list using past simple, past perfect or past continuous:

1. come 2. win 3. become 4. notice 5. sweat 6. investigate 7. see 8. say 9. see 10. take 11. finish 12. cheat

ROSIE RUIZ

On April 21 1980, 23-year-old Rosie Ruiz _________ first in the Boston Marathon. She ________ the race in the third-fastest time ever recorded for a female runner (two hours, 31 minutes, 56 seconds).
However, the organizers _________ suspicious, because they __________ that when she crossed the finishing line she __________ at all.
When they __________ found out that none of the course officials __________ her passing checkpoints. Other competitors didn’t remember seeing her at all.
Then a few spectators __________ that they ___________
Ruiz join the race just for the final kilometer. She ha simply sprinted from there to the finish line.
The marathon organizers __________ away Ruiz’s medal and gave it to Jacqueline Gareau, who __________ second in the race.
Later they also found out that Ruiz __________ in the New York Marathon, the race she used to qualify for the Boston event, earlier in the same year but in a different way…

GRAMMAR EXERCISE (2)

Read the following report about Rosie Ruiz and highlight the past perfect tenses.

Rosie Ruiz Vivas (born 1953, Havana, Cuba) is a famous Cuban American Marathon runner who on April 21, 1980 came in as the first place female competitor in the 84th Boston Marathon, but who was later stripped of her title when it was found that she had cheated.

Ruiz completed the marathon with a record time of 2:31:56. However, race officials determined that she had not completed the entire 26.2-mile course, but had registered for the race and later jumped in from the crowd and sprinted to the finish.

There was suspicion from the beginning, as no one had seen her running earlier in the race, she did not appear in videotape footage, and some members of the crowd reported witnessing her run into the race in the last mile. In addition, her time of 2:31:56 was an unusual improvement, more than 25 minutes ahead of her reported time in the New York City Marathon six months earlier. When asked by a reporter why she didn't seem fatigued after the grueling race, she said, "I got up with a lot of energy this morning."

Soon, race officials learned that Ruiz had possibly cheated in the New York marathon in order to qualify for the Boston Marathon. Freelance photographer Susan Morrow reported meeting her on the subway during the New York race and accompanying her from the subway to the race. She lost touch with Ruiz after that, but came forward when the news of Ruiz's dubious Boston win broke. According to Morrow, she met Ruiz on the subway and together they walked a distance to the finishing area, where Ruiz identified herself as an injured runner. She was escorted to a first aid station and volunteers marked her down as having completed the marathon, thus qualifying her for the Boston Marathon.

Eventually, race officials decided to strip Ruiz of her Boston Marathon title and named Jacqueline Gareau of Montreal, Canada the women's winner, with a time of 2:34:28. New York Marathon director Fred Lebow had rescinded Ruiz's 1979 finish earlier that week, determining that Ruiz had not completed her first marathon, either.