English for everyone

Sequoyah

A long time ago there lived a Cherokee boy named Sequoyah. He was not as tall as his friends, and he was lame. Yet this small boy grew up to be the greatest Cherokee of them all. For it was Sequoyah who solved the mystery of the talking leaves.
Sequoyah was born about 1773. No one knows for sure just which year it was. In those days the Indians did not have a written language. Sequoyah’s mother was the daughter of a great Cherokee chief. His father was a white man named Nathaniel Gist. Nathaniel left the Cherokees soon after Sequoyah was born. He had to go back to his own people. But Sequoyah and his mother stayed with the tribe. That was the custom.
When Sequoyah grew up, he got interested in the white people’s language. The white people used paper for writing. Sequoyah thought that paper looked like large white leaves. The “leaves”: were covered with many black marks. Sequoyah watched the people as they looked at their “leaves”. To Sequoyah it seemed as though the little marks written on the paper were talking to people.
More »

1. Sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a well-lighted place with plenty of freshly sharpened pencils.
2. Read over the assignment carefully, to make certain you understand it.
3. Go to the kitchen and have a cup of coffee to help you concentrate,
4. Phone your Mend from class. If your friend hasn’t started the paper yet either, you can both walk to McDonalds and buy a hamburger to help you concentrate.
5. When you get back to your room, sit in a straight, comfortable chair in a clean, well- lighted place with plenty of freshly sharpened pencils.
6. Read over the assignment again to make absolutely certain you understand it.
7. You know, you haven’t written to that kid you met at camp last summer. You’d better write that letter now and get it out of the way so you can concentrate.
8. Go look at your teeth in the bathroom mirror.
More »

Ray Bradbury

My name is Margaret Leary and I’m twelve years old. I haven’t any brothers or sisters, but I’ve got a nice father and mother except that they don’t pay much attention to me. And anyway, we never thought we’d have anything to do with a murdered woman.
I’ll tell you how it happened. It was in the middle of July. It was hot and Mother said to me, “Margaret, go to the shop and buy some ice cream. It’s Saturday, Dad’s home for lunch, so we’ll have a treat.”
I ran out across the bombed site behind our house. It was a big piece of ground where the kids played and there was broken glass and stuff.
On my way back from the shop with the ice cream I was just walking along, minding my own business, when all of a sudden it happened. I heard the Screaming Woman.
I stopped and listened. It was coming up from out of the ground. A woman was buried under the rocks and dirt and glass, and was screaming for someone to dig her out.
I just stood there, afraid, and she kept screaming. Then I started to run. I fell down, got up again and ran some more.
More »

Eccentrics and Eccentricity

“What sort of people live about here?” asked Alice.
“In that direction,” the Cat said, waving its right paw round, “lives a Hatter. And in that direction,” waving the other paw,” lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they’re both mad” “But I don’t want to go among mad people, ” Alice remarked.
“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat. “We’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
“How do you know I’m mad?” asked Alice.
“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Have you ever ridden a pig or a bear? Do you walk backwards? Do you keep a leopard for a pet? If not, you are like millions and millions of other people on our planet. If so, you are an eccentric. Eccentrics don’t live like other people. They may seem mad, but they aren’t: they are just different.
More »

Bill Gates

Everyone has heard his name. Bill Gates is the icon of American business and the richest man in the world.
He and his friend started their business in 1975. Now Microsoft has become the world’s largest computer software company. Although the US government has broken it up, experts say it will remain successful.
Bill Gates was born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, USA. His home town was once famous for producing Boeing aircraft, but now it is better known as the home of Microsoft. Bill inherited a good business sense and a quick mind from his parents. His father is a lawyer. His mother was a teacher and then worked as a company director.
At school Bill’s favourite subjects were Maths and Science. At 13 he and his friend Paul Allen got interested in computers. They spent all their time writing programmes and learning about computers instead of doing their homework.
More »

Would you like to know your strong and weak points in the classroom?
Find your sign of the zodiac below and read the text.

FIRE
Aries: March 21—April 20
Sagittarius: November 22 — December 21
Leo: July 22 — August 22
Fire signs usually make optimistic students. However, you are often impatient and want to make quick progress. It’s difficult for you to concentrate on one thing. You have lots of energy but sometimes you have your head in the clouds and don’t know or care what is going on around you. To make good progress you should try to concentrate on what you are doing today and not on what you want to do tomorrow.
More »

Royal Family

Britain has always had kings or queens for more than a thousand years. Kings had great power and they really made history. They started wars, made laws, and did things in their own way. But more and more power went to Parliament.

A job for life
Elizabeth II calls the Windsor family a “Firm”. She thinks of it as a business rather than a family. And the main business of the royal family is… well, probably being royal. And they are paid for it. The Queen is one of the richest women in the world. There are hundreds of traditional ceremonies which the Queen has to keep. Each year, in September or October, there is the State Opening of Parliament. The Queen, wearing her crown, arrives at the Houses of Parliament by carriage. There she reads the Queen’s Speech, which discusses the government’s work for the next year.
More »