Read the semi-formal letter and decide who is writing to who and the purpose of the letter.

Grammar revision. Ask questions about Ed and Liz.

Examples: (Ed and Liz/ be / married?) Are Ed and Liz married? ‘Yes, they are.’

(They / have / any children?) Have they got any children? ‘Yes, three.’

1) (where / Ed and Liz live?)………………………………….‘In Nottingham.’

2) (how long / they / be / married?)……………………………..…’15 years.’

3) (they / go out very often?)…………………………………’No, not very often.’

4) (what / Ed do for living?)…………………………………..’He’s a policeman.’

5) (he / enjoy his job?)………………………………………….’Yes, very much.’

6) (he / arrest anyone yesterday?)………………………………………….’No.’

7) (they / have / a car?)……………………………………………………...’Yes.’

8) (when / they / buy it?)………………………………………….…’A year ago.’

9) (how much / it cost?)…………………………………………………’£ 3,000.’

10) (they / go / on holiday next summer?)……………………………………’Yes.’

11) (where / they / go?)…………………………………………...….’To Scotland.’

Grammar revision. Put a question tag on the end of each sentence.

Examples: Tom won’t be late, will he? They were very angry, weren’t they?

Read and translate the text. Make up a summary. Make up 7 questions to the text. Answer the questions after the text.

Communication.

What is communication? The dictionary defines it: “giving or exchanging information or news by speaking or writing”.

In today’s world, long-distance communication is easy. We can call people on the telephone, send them telegrams, or write them letters. We receive news and information on radio or television every day. Our modern inventions allow us to communicate with people in every part of our planet.

In early times, how did people communicate over long distances? How did they tell other people about a storm that was coming or an enemy who was planning to attack?

At first, people probably used their feet. When the people of one village wanted to send a message to someone who was far away, they gave the news to a runner. This messenger ran to the nearest village and gave the message to another runner. Then the second runner took it to a third runner, and so on.

This was a very slow method of communication, and the messages didn’t always reach its destination. The messengers had to run through forests and fields, cross rivers, and climb mountains. Sometimes they met with animals and never arrived at the next village. And the messages frequently became mixed up because each person who relayed the information changed it a little.

People used other methods of communication, too. Cyrus the Great, who founded the Persian Empire, built a series of towers. A man with a very strong voice stood on each tower. When the king wanted to send a message, he gave it to the man on the first tower, who shouted it to the man on the second tower, who relayed it to the man on the third tower. These messengers usually used megaphones, which made their voices louder.

The use of fire and smoke was another primitive way of communication. People used blankets or leafy branches to control the puffs of smoke that came from a fire. The number and size of the puffs made a kind of code. This method wasn’t very efficient on rainy days or at night, and little wind could mix up the message very badly.

A few old methods of communication are still in use today. One of these methods is the use of drums. Some drums are made of hollow logs and animal skins. When the drummer hits the drum, it makes a noise that sounds a little like human speech. Drumbeats travel quickly, but they can travel only a little way.

In 1790, a man in France invented the semaphore, which was a tall pole with “arms” at the top. Ropes moved the arms up and down to form letters of the alphabet. Semaphore operators were able to relay messages very quickly. A kind of semaphore is still in use on railroads.

Efficient long-distance communication had to wait for the discovery of electricity.

Questions:

1) What is the definition of communication that gives the dictionary?

2) What are the means of modern long-distance communication?

3) What was the problem with using feet and runners to relay messages in early times?

4) What method of communication did Cyrus the Great use?

5) Why wasn’t efficient the use of fire and smoke?

6) Is it true that drums as method of communication are still in use today?

7) How did the semaphore look like?

4. Read and translate this sample covering letter. Compose your own covering letter using clichés and phrases from the text.

Mark Diamond

4701 Pine Street, #K-13

Philadelphia, PA 19143

Tel. l-(215)-748-3037

April 2, 2007

Dear Mr. Klein:

I am a first-year student in the M.B.A. program at the Wharton Business School in Philadelphia.

I understand that you are heading the private independent airline. I have heard from my friend Mr. Bill Eastmann, a student at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business, that you might wish to have an M.B.A. student work with your airline this summer as an intern. I am very interested in the possibility of such an internship during the summer of 2009.

My professional experience has given me an in-depth knowledge of the air transportation industry. I have, in particular, worked for American Airlines, the Federal Aviation Administration, and Kurth & Company, Inc., an aviation consulting firm where I was Manager of Airline Analysis. My responsibilities included the study of sched­ules, fares, equipment selection, and financial results. Notably, I pre­pared numerous feasibility studies for both jet and turboprop routes, including passenger and cargo flights, for proposed transatlantic and transpacific services.

I wish to place this experience at the disposal of your airline. I believe strongly that my knowledge of the deregulated air transporta­tion industry in the United States could be quite beneficial to your carrier.

I have enclosed a copy of my resume. If my background and qualifi­cations are of interest to you, please telephone me on (215) 748-3037. I would be interested in meeting you in mid-April in New York to discuss further the possibility of such a summer position, and your requirements.

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Yours sincerely,

Mark Diamond

Read the semi-formal letter and decide who is writing to who and the purpose of the letter.

5. Dear Mr Crew,

6. I am writing to express my concern that our country still continues to give money to organizations that are helping to destroy tropical rain forests.

7. For various reasons these rain forests have an ideal climate for plants and animals, so it is essential that we help preserve them. Firstly, they house over half the world's wildlife, such as tigers, mountain gorillas and birds of paradise. Secondly, one in every four products obtained from the chemist contains compounds from these rain forests and more are being discovered every year. Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, these forests play an important role in the world's climate.

8. Rain forests are usually only found in the Third World, countries with weak economies which often owe large sums of money to the more developed countries. In some places, areas of forest are cut down to provide farmers with space to breed cattle. This earns valuable currency and gives us cheap beef for our hamburgers.

9. The only answer is for Britain to cancel the debts that these countries owe us. We need to try to influence those policies which result in forest destruction. If we do not act soon, we will destroy millions of years of evolution. This catastrophe must be stopped!

10. Yours sincerely,

11. Sarah Trebbit (Mrs)

6. Match the parts of the letter (1 to 11) with the following. Example: a) -7

a) Background information: saying why the rain forests are useful to us.

b) The date of the letter.

c) Concluding the letter by suggesting a solution and requesting action.

d) The name of the Member of Parliament (MP).

e) The formal close of the letter.

f) Saying what the reason for writing is.

g) The address of the person writing the letter.

h) Explaining why rain forests are destroyed.

i) The name of the person writing the letter.

j) The address of the Member of Parliament.

k) The formal start of the letter.

7. Sarah Trebbit is not a personal friend of her MP, Mr Crew, and so she has written to him using a fairly formal (semi-formal) style.

a) Say whether the following statements are True or False about writing semi-formal letters. One has been done for you.

i) We use contractions (e.g. it's, I've). False.

ii) The letter begins with an introduction and ends with a conclusion.

iii) The close of the letter is something like Best wishes.

iv) Each paragraph usually contains a different topic.

v) When we start the letter with the person's name (Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms, etc.) we close with Yours sincerely.

b) How do we start and close a semi-formal letter to a person whose name we don't know?

8. The phrase / am writing to express my concern... is appropriate in a semi-formal letter. In a more personal, informal letter we might say, The reason I’m writing is to tell you I’m worried about... The phrases in list A come from semi-formal letters.

Match the words in italics in list A with their informal equivalents in list B.