Writing about The Sugar Glider

These are the other comments on The Sugar Glider that you most liked reading. Thank you to all of you for collaborating, first by writing the comments and secondly by choosing the ones that most appealed to you.

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74 Years on the Matterhorn, by Ricardo 2ºI-NI

Ricardo has written this article from the point of view of Clare, the main character in this story of human interest: In the Shadow of the Mountain.

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The Sugar Glider

As I told you in class, these are the questions you  have to answer about this year’s compulsory book for 1st year Intermediate students.

Choose one question from each of the three groups (about 300 words total) and send them to me at my usual email address.

Remember the deadline  for sending your work is 19 April.

Talking about The Sugar Glider

Compulsory reading, 2ºI-NI

Below you can see the front cover of next term’s compulsory book: In the Shadow of the Mountain, by Helen Naylor, Cambridge English Readers, Level 5.

Award-winning original fiction for learners of English. A tragic love story is uncovered as journalist Clare Crowe goes to Switzerland to bring home a relative’s body. Clare’s grandfather has been found frozen in a glacier, 74 years after a climbing accident. Clare knows this could make an interesting story for her newspaper, but as she investigates her grandfather’s last climb, she learns that the accident wasn’t as simple as she had first thought.

Compulsory reading, 1ºE, 1ºI, 1ºL -NI

This the front cover of the book you’ll have to read during the rest of the year The Sugar Glider, by Rob Neilsen, Cambridge English Readers, level 5.

I mentioned in class that the title of the book was the name of the plane you can see in the picture, and that the aircraft was named like that after a quite peculiar animal. Andrés Moreno, 1ºL-NI, has sent us this interesting, clear and visually attractive document with information about the animal. Read it and you will understand why that plane is called The Sugar Glider.

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You have already read the Prologue and Chapter 1 in class, and you have done some written and oral exercises on this. After reading the beginning of this story, how do you think it will continue? what do you think it will happen? what will  the end be like? You can write a comment here or send your answer by email.

After you have read the book you can do the activities suggested in our “brand-new”  EOI Library blog About reading, a reading corner for English learners.

The boy in the striped pyjamas or pajamas?

The boy in the striped pyjamas/pajamas is the title of a best-seller by the Irish writer John Boyne . The book, “set during World War II, tells a story seen through the innocent eyes of Bruno, the eight-year-old son of the commandant at a concentration camp, whose forbidden friendship with a Jewish boy on the other side of the camp fence has startling and unexpected consequences”.

What I most liked about reading this book was the fact that the drama was not really explicit, but that was even the most dramatic about it: the lack of awareness on the part of the children with respect to what was happening in and ouside the camp. It was so naive, and moving and sad at the same time!

A film based on this book will be released next weekend in Spain. I’ve just had a look at the trailer today, and although the movie might be good and interesting to see, I still recommend you the book better.

Both the book and the film based on it have the same title but the last word is written sometimes pyjamas and other times pajamas. Well, in fact both spellings are correct: pyjamas in British English (Br E) and pajamas in American English (Am E). One of the aspects of American and British English differences is spelling, about which you can test yourselves on this site: CLICK HERE

Have you had a few problems with the test? Perhaps you would like to read more in depth about spelling differences in the Wikipedia or just to read through this list, which also takes Canadian English differences into account.

But if you still feel disappointed with yourself because you find this topic a bit hard to digest, cheer up because spelling is not? so important to understand written English. You can have a bit of fun trying to read this from www.say-it-in-english.com:

IQ Test

Can you raed tihs? Olny srmat poelpe can. I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Amzanig, huh? Yaeh, and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!