Trick-or-Treating

The custom of trick or treating became popular around 1930. It is believed that stems from a practice that emerged in Europe during the ninth century called “Souling”, a kind of service to souls. On November 2, All Souls Day, Christians went from village to village begging for "dead cakes" (soul cakes), which were pieces of bread with raisins. The more cakes the beggars would receive, the greater the number of sentences that would pray for the souls of dead. At that time it was believed that the dead people remained in limbo, and that recited sentences, even by strangers, could expedite the entry of the soul to heaven.

The practice spread in the United States as an attempt by the authorities to control the excesses that occurred during the night of Halloween. By the late nineteenth century, some sectors of the population considered the night of October 31 as a fun time, probably inspired by the “Mischief Night” which was part of the Irish and Scottish culture.

Halloween. Origin of the name.

What we now know as Halloween is celebrated more than 3,000 years ago by the Celts, a warrior village who inhabited areas in Ireland, England, Scotland and France. On October 31, the Celts celebrated the end of the year with Samhain, a pagan festival. With European immigration to the United States, mainly the Irish Catholics in 1846, brought the tradition of Halloween to America. In Halloween you think of costumes, makeup, party, candy and children; but tradition states that its celebration was not always festive and cheerful, and the rites that were practiced through the night had a purifying and religious character.

By the eighth century, the Christian Church became the 1st of November at All Saints Day to honour all the saints who did not have a particular day of celebration. Over the years, these festivals were combined, and most people called "All Hallowmas" to All Saints Day. The night before was known as "All Hallows Eve" (Eve of All Saints Day). Over time, his name became Halloween.

Poem by Howard Simon

The low lands call
I am tempted to answer
They are offering me a free dwelling 
Without having to conquer

The massive mountain makes its move
Beckoning me to ascend
A much more difficult path
To get up the slippery bend

I cannot choose both 
I have a choice to make
I must be wise
This will determine my fate

I choose, I choose the mountain
With all its stress and strain
Because only by climbing
Can I rise above the plain

I choose the mountain 
And I will never stop climbing
I choose the mountain
And I shall forever be ascending

I choose the mountain 

Why do we need punctuation?

1. The men, in question Harold Keene, Jim Peterson, and Gerald Greene, deserve awards.
2. Several Countries participated in the airlift: Italy, Belgium, France, and Luxembourg.
3. 'Only one course was open to us surrender', said the ex-major, and we did.
4. Judge Carswell later to be nominated for the Supreme Court; had ruled against civil rights.
5. In last week´s New Yorker, one of my favourite magazines, I enjoyed reading Leland´s article' How Not to Go CAmping'.
6.'Yes', Jim said, 'I´ll be home by ten'.
7. There was only one thing to do: study till dawn.
8. Montaigne write 'the following A wise man never loses anything, if he has himself'.
9. The following are the primary colors: red, blue, and yellow.
10.Arriving on the 8.10 plane were Liz Brooks, my old roomate her husband and Tim, their son.
11. When the teacher commented that her spelling was pooe, Lynn replied: 'All the members of my family are poor spellers. Why not me?'
12. He used the phrase 'you know so often that I finally said No, I don´t know'.
13. The automobile dealer handled three maked of caras: Volkswagens, Porsches, and Mercedes Benz.
14. Though Phil said he would arrive on the 9.19 flight; he came instead on the 10.36 flight.
15. Whoever thought said Helen that Jack would be elected class-president?
16. In baseball, a show-boat is a man whi shows-off.
17. The minister quoted Isaiah 5.21 in last Sunday´s sermon.
18. There was a very interesting articled entitled 'The New Rage for Folk Singing' in last Sunday´s New York Times newspaper.
19. 'Whoever is elected secretary of the club Ashkley, Or chandra, Or Aisha must be prepared to do a great deal of work', said Jumita, the previous secreatary.
20. Darwin´s On the Origin of Species (1859) caused a great controvery when it appeared.
21. We had a great time in France; the kids really enjoyed it.
22. Some people work best in the mornings; others do better in the evenings.
23. What are you doing next weekend?
24. Mother had to go into hospital, she had heart problems.
25. Did you understand why I was upset?
26. It is a fine idea, let us hope that it is going to work.
27. We will be arriving on Monday morning -at least I think so.
28. A textbook can be a wall between teacher and class.
29. The girls´father sat in a corner.
30. In the words of 'Murphys Law Anything' than can go wrong will go wrong.

Some information about Michael Jackson´s films

The King of Pop, besides his famous career as a singer, he participated in many movies, which are important: The Wiz (1978), which is an American film musical directed by Sidney Lumet and performance by Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Nipsey Russell and Richard Pryor. The film is an adaptation of the Broadway play of the same name. His role in this movie was as a scarecrow. The second one is Captain EO (1986), which was a mini filming recorded by Disney in order to show it in their theme parks (Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris). The third one is Moonwalker (1988), a film that is must indispensably watched by Michael Jackson´s fans. It was thought and produced by the singer in 1988 and, although it mixes a fiction history against drugs and abuse of children by traffickers, is a good compilation of his songs of his disc “Bad”. The last one is not recognised like a film, but a documentary: This is it. It covers his preparation, the recorded material while he was trying out to his performances in London 2009. It was a box-office video. It was said that it stayed only two weeks in cinemas. In addition of that, it is important to say that he had some small roles, such as in Men in Black II (because he admired Will Smith), in where he transformed in an alien, or in a bad film called Miss Naufragio (Mist Cast Away). Also, he could have acted as Edward Scissorhands or Xavier in X-Men.

Statue of Liberty poem

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,

With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand

A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame

Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name

Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command

The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

“Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she

With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

This poem was written by Emma Lazarus in 1883. 

Are you green?

Modern teenagers are supposed to be very environmentally conscious but I do not think so because of several reasons.

On the one hand, they think and do everything to be respectful, they throw rubbish into bottle bank, the do no buy pollution products, they take to the streets when something about air pollution is not respected… They do their best to battle the fight against non-conscious people, and this is awesome. On the other hand, when they hang out with their friend by night, they drink still get drunk. Thus, they leave or break bottles as they were crazy, leaving the environmentally topic behind, disturbing the balance. As a consequence, they pollute the surroundings, doing what they did not want people did.

However, I consider myself like a green person. I recycle every day, throwing away rubbish in each trash can, plastic into the yellow, glass into the green and paper into the blue. I take seriously the air pollution because each year the level of the water is increasing and the average temperature is increasing as well. Another problem is the exhaust fumes that some old cars have and, fortunately, new cars do not have that big problem, they are more ecological.

Eventually if we do not take short-term measures we will destroy our planet and we live with poor conditions.