An outstanding book review

Dear all,
here you have a book review that you can use as a model written by one of your classmates, Sofía Lanzas. I hope you appreciate it.

THE KITE RUNNER:

A TOUCHING STORY OF TWO FRIENDS

What would it be like to live in Afghanistan during the Cold War? You will discover it when you read this, partly historical and partly drama, novel. Written by Khaled Hosseini, it is set in Kabul (Afghanistan) in the late seventies. This is a breath-taking story of two friends who are forced to face traumatic and violent experiences, both of which will make their pleasant world fall apart.

The plot is written though the eyes of Amir, a sensitive and stubborn child who enjoys his fancy and comfortable life in Kabul. He is crazy about flying kites and becoming a writer. Meanwhile, he shares his dreams with his best friend Hassan, a sweet and hard-working Hazara boy. However, one tragic day their utopic life fades when Amir witnesses Hassan's rape and abuse without helping him. This traumatic and disappointing episode, coupled with the outbreak of the war between the Afghan army and Taliban insurgents, forces them to get away from each other's lives. As years go by, tortured by the memories from the past, Amir seeks for redemption as his goal is to meet up with Hassan again.

Each chapter is more exciting than the previous one, but if I had to choose one, I would choose the moment when, some years after the incident, Amir finds out that Hassan and his wife have been killed by Taliban soldiers. Heart-broken by the news and searching for the long-awaited redemption, he decides to find and look after his best friend's son.

If you asked me about the flaws of the book, maybe I would focus on the extensive descriptions of landscapes that might cause boredom to the reader. In addition, the wide variety of characters sometimes makes you feel lost. Nevertheless, both attractive personalities of the main characters and catchy events create a worthwhile story.

In my opinion, this book is amazing down to the last page. Not only does the story get the reader involved by its hilarius dialogues and fotographic details of Kabul's daylife, but it is also a remarkable adventure which is meant to be the testimony of those Afghan families who suffered the horrors of the war. Khaled Hosseini keeps it simple; he creates his characters and lets them tell their stories.

This book is a must and I can’t recommend it enough. However, I don’t think this book is suitable for children under 15 or 16 years old as they probably won't understand the historical context and the harshness of the plot. But, for those who are fond of historical books, this novel will be food for your thoughts.

Review of a very special place

Dear all,
I would like all of you to contribute to writing reviews of a very special place. Click on the link and start writing your reviews on this canvass! Good luck!
https://padlet.com/miguelanheal/o028f1qxk6hp

An outstanding example of report by Audrey Besnier

Dear all,
as usual one of you wrote an outstanding piece of work... Here you have it:

Christmas festival: review and recommendations by Audrey Besnier C1

The purpose of this report is to propose suitable activities for the upcoming Christmas festival of our school that will take place on December, 19th.

Introduction

First and foremost, on behalf of the students' association, we would like to thank the school for trusting us once more for the organisation of the party. Last year, the festival was a rewarding experience for us. Despite an unfortunate incident, the feedback received was entirely positive.  In terms of activities, both the students and teachers were quite satisfied. Nevertheless, we would like to suggest some improvements to prevent any incidents from happening and we are delighted to propose new activities in order to innovate when compared to last year's festival.

Budget

We have a tight budget but this will not be a problem, as many volunteers will take part in the organization of the party. We just need 15 Euros for each prize and 25 euros for the Christmas tree.

Last year activities

On the one hand, because of last year's success, we recommend maintaining the cooking competition and the Christmas photo competition. On the other hand, we suggest that the exhibition of both, dishes and photos, takes place in the multipurpose room so that, unlike last year, the attendants will be able to taste the dishes and contemplate the photos.

On the contrary, our advice is to cancel the karaoke activity as, regardless of the effort that had been put into organising it, the students barely got involved last year. The same for the zumba activity.

New ideas and improvements

We propose two new activities: a quiz about Christmas and a Christmas handcraft contest thanks to which we could ornament a spectacular Christmas tree altogether at the end of the festival.

As the multifunctional room is such a large venue, we could place the Christmas tree in one of its corners. However, concerning the handcraft activity itself, we recommend carrying it out in another classroom so that students can create their own decorations in a tidier and quieter space.

Finally, we would like to add a compulsory rule regarding the cooking contest: each dish has to be served next to its recipe. Indeed, during last year's party , a students had a skin rash as a result of something she ate. Fortunately, nothing too bad, but with this new requirement we simply intend to prevent any allergic reaction.

Last recommendation

Last but not least, our best recommendation would be to focus on one or two main activities instead of organising a bunch of them. Quality is always better tan quantity.

Three very good graph analyses

Dear all,
I usually share some very good writings of my students so that you can use them as good examples for you to improve on your writings. I'll start to do this with the activity of graph analysis. Have a look at both analyses and try to come up with ideas to incorporate in your future writings.
Judit Ester Méndez Izquierdo (C1B)

I was given a graph showing the percentage of male students who visited the cinema at least once a month over a twelve-month period. At the beginning of the year, 20% of students visited the cinema and this percentage slightly decreased until March.

 

From this month to June, the number of moviegoers began to take hold gradually. Then, the percentage skyrocketed and reached its highest peak.

 

In August, the number of students stagnated until October, when it plummeted until the end of the year. This decrease might be due to the approach of the Christmas season, when families normally spend huge amounts of money.

Jessica Secos García C1A

A study carried out at the Union Jack English School has been recently published. The aim of the study was to know the percentage of students who visited the cinema at least once a month.

 

The sample was divided into two groups, according to the gender of the interviewees.

 

On the one hand, the percentage of females who visited the cinema at least once a month was 40% in January. This rate skyrocketed until March when it stabilized for two months. However, after gaining ground in May, the percentage started to drop slightly until October, when  the rate finally stagnated until the end of the year.

 

On the other hand, the percentage of male moviegoers was 20% in January. This rate stagnated for the next two months and then it slightly increased. It was in June when the percentage started to be on the rise until July, when the rate reached its highest peak. After remaining unchanged, this value plunged until December.

 

Lastly, excluding the summer months, the percentage of female moviegoers outnumbers the percentage of male moviegoers. Taking into account the total amount of students, most cinemagoers attend the cinema during the  summer months, and this might be due to the summer holidays, when students have more time for leisure activities.

Teresa Blázquez C1A

I’ll be writing about a graph that gives us some relevant data about the percentage of students at The Union Jack English School who visited the cinema at least once a month throughout the year.

First of all, I must confess that I found the difference between genders surprising.

The trend of the female percentage is broadly stable. This trend is far from uniform when we take a look at the opposite gender.

The curve reaches its highest peak, in both genders, at 70%.

For men, visits grew substantially from June to July (it has increased by 40 percentage points), and then plummeted again between October and December.

Amongst women, the visits soared from January to March, then got stagnated until May, and found its way back to growth until June (the month when it reached its highest peak). These visits had a sustained decline during the summer, less noticeable than the one we find on the male’s curve.

Moreover, the female visitors have outnumbered the male ones throughout the first semester.

According to this information, we can claim that male students are more likely to visit the cinema during summer holidays, but they lose their interest on it dramatically from October to March. On the other hand, female students are much more constant in their visits, showing special interest in spring.

To sum up, not only can we find gender differences in choosing one film, but also in the moment of the year men and women want to enjoy them. Women have demonstrated to be more regular on their visits throughout the year, while men are more likely to enjoy cinema mainly during the summertime.


Thank you for your effort and take the expressions in bold into account and incorporate them in your writings.