A formal email

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am writing to complain about my recent holiday, which I booked through your travel agency. Let me run through some of the main problems I had.

Firstly, the brochure claimed that the accommodation was fantastic, whereas the hotel was dreadful; the beds were broken, there wasn't any air-conditioning either swimming pool and the building was really run down. I tried to keep calm but I came to my senses and I realized that it was a real mess.

Your advertisement also mentioned that it was located in front of the beach but I had to walk through a long path to arrive at the sea, which was full of dangerous fish and pollution.

To make matters worse, the staff were really miserable and the hotel activities were completely mindless. When I tried to complain about all of these issues, they all just ran away. However, it's clear that if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

As a result, I would expect a complete refund of all expenses incurred on my holiday.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Ona A.

A for and against essay

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of becoming vegetarian or vegan

Despite the fact that people every time is more conscious about the suffering of animals caused by humans, meat-eating people continue with their same habits. Furthermore, many people argue that they are not doing anything wrong. But luckily, there are a lot of vegetarian or vegan persons, and being one of them has both advantages and disadvantages.

On the plus side, a good vegetarian has better health than a meat-eating person. That’s because meat has lots of substances that harm our body, and also it takes more energy to digest meat than vegetables. Another important point is that it is not necessary to kill animals to feed us. If we were carnivores, we should have specialized claws and teeth like all carnivores. And if we were true omnivores, our digestive system could easily digest meat.

However, for every plus there is a minus. One disadvantage is that it is difficult to stop eating meat if you have been doing it your whole life. The adaptation is an important fact that not everyone passes, because social influence may affect our new decision. For instance, people can laugh at you or you can have uncomfortable meals. Last of all, some vegetarian or vegan people are not informed at all, so they should investigate and know well what to eat not to miss any nutrients in the diet.

To sum up, although most people think that being a meat-eating is the best option, I think that they should consider all the meat damages and the suffering produced in slaughterhouses. 

A lovely song

I want to share this song with all of you. I fell in love when I heard it the first time. It's a good way to learn English: listening songs with subtitles.
Happy weekend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcnQdb8BYcY

A personal description

A person that I really admire is my friend Paula. She lives in Madrid, so we don't see each other much because of the distance, but when we meet in summer, it's as if we had been together all the year.

Paula is shorter and slimmer than me, although she is quite attractive. She has long, curly, brown hair and big, blue eyes. She is used to wearing high street clothes because she doesn't follow fashion at all.

However, we've got similar personalities: she is really affectionate and reliable, and they are things that make us get on well. Also, she is pretty sensitive because she understands other people's feelings and tries to help everybody. At first, she seemed to be an unkind girl, but life always surprises, and I realized she was so friendly.

I look forward to seeing her as soon as possible. I've got lots of friends who I see very often, but she is probably my best friend.

An informal email

Hi Mark,

Sorry I haven’t written for so long, but I’ve been studying for my final exams. I know you are coming to my school next month, so I’m going to explain what the typical meals are because the more you know, the better you eat.

Most people eat cereals with milk for breakfast, but I prefer to wolf down a sandwich made of salad, tomato, boiled egg and a bit of crab sauce! This is fairly tasty. I eat lunch at school at 2.30 p.m. – that probably seems unbelievably late to you – and I often eat a fresh green salad and boiled rice because the other lunches are totally revolting. Anyway, you can take a packed lunch from home. When I arrive home, at 5 p.m., I always have a snack: home-made pastries or a piece of fruit (it depends on the day). Then, I have dinner at 9 p.m., and I normally eat meat or some bread with sausage. My sister is really into cooking and she does totally amazing lasagna with steamed vegetables. We also like to eat “paella”, a typical meal of Spain. Home-made food is always the best, isn’t it?

Bye the way, how are things with you? All good here, but it’s been a bit hectic because of my mother’s accident.

Bye for now,

Ona.

Workaway.info : A review

A report about workaway.info

The aim of this report is to explain how a young person can learn a language and have a great experience abroad.

I've been told that there's a website called workaway.info that has been set up to promote the exchange between budget travellers, language learners or culture seekers and families. For instance, there are lots of teenagers who decide to go abroad when they finish high school, precisely the summer before starting University. This is because they have finished their exams and they eagerly want to improve a language and don't spend a lot of money.

As a result, this website offers housing/accomodation in cities of Europe, Africa, Asia and Oceania at a good price, so that's a real bargain. And if it weren't enough, it shows some videos about people who have had this oportunity and they give their opinion and recommendations.

To sum up, workaway.info is a really good website to look for the best experience of your life, ensuring the knowledge of a language and a culture that will enrich your life and improve your English. 

A "for and against" essay

Buying online is the best way to shop. Discuss

Nowadays, buying online has become a really useful way to shop. People, instead of going to the shopping centre, open the computer and send their necessities. However, there are some problems on it. So, is this the best way to shop?

On the one hand, this is very comfortable because you don’t need to move from your house. If you have children and you can’t go out with them, it will be the solution for you. Another argument in favour is that if you are interested in a specific model, like a TV, is easier to buy through internet because you can compare prices faster than going to the shop. Furthermore, the delivery of products is generally free and you can use it any time of the day.

On the other hand, buying online will create a little of distrust on you because of the waiting and your expectations about the product. If you buy clothes online, you don't know exactly how they are, so they might not look good on you. The same happens with things you have never seen and you don't have any evidence that they offer a good quality.

Although I partly agree that buying online is an easy way to shop and save time, I think that we only should do it with things that we really know. That’s the way we would avoid problems and we could enjoy these new technologies.

A formal email

Dear Mrs Laura,

My name's Ona Alsinet, I'm seventeen years old and I'm doing an important school project in which I'm going to study how pollution affects the food chain of a river.

Firstly, I'm writing to ask you about working as a volunteer at "Rivers Project". I've heard you are looking for volunteer workers during this month and I'm really interested in participating because it might help me quite a lot with my investigation. Could you tell me about your team and what I would have to do at first?

Secondly, I was also wondering if I could interview you about some queries which I have about my project. It would be really kind of you.

Finally, would it be possible for me to visit you next Friday? I would like to start as soon as possible.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely, Ona Alsinet.

Composition about movies

My favourite sort of films is comedy  films because they make me laugh and have a good time. Also, I love romance films. If I can choose, I prefer foreign-made films because I'm used to seeing the context of my country and it's more interesting to get to know other cultures. In fact, I sometimes see original versions to improve the language.
A film that I really like very much is "Three meters above the sky". It's a love story about two teenagers that are completely different: the girl is a very good student and the boy does nothing and it rude. The film stars Mario Casas and Maria Valverde. It's set in Barcelona. my favourite city, and it's directed by Fernando Gonzalez Molina. It hasn't got a good soundtrack but I love the film because it's a beautiful story and I like Mario Casas.

My opinion about Facebook

Nowadays, almost everybody has a Facebook account. It's a social network site which allows people to find old friends and keep in touch with them. In my opinion, I think that Facebook is a really good tool, but it has some disadvantages.

On the one hand, you can connect to different people from anywhere in the world. This gives you the opportunity to know more about their culture, values and tradition. Also, you can use groups to connect all your close friends together, and a lot more uses.

On the other hand, Facebook is very addictive, so it makes you waste your time. It's clear that it often brings bad effects on students' results and we are losing oral communication skills too.

Furthermore, people can easily get your personal information, so it's recommended not to share your personal information publicly.

In conclusion, I believe that using Facebook safely and not really frequently is the best way to use this social network site.

The time we first met

The first time I met my boyfriend I couldn't imagine he would become someone so important for me.
It was a winter night and it had rained. I was walking home alone when someone hit me and stole my bag. It was a terrible shock.
At first, I started shouting, but suddenly I run through the street to catch the thief. Fortunately, a teen boy stopped him and he could take the bag away from him.
The thief, who had gone running, fell down because the street was wet, and he lost consciousness. Incredibly, the police saw the situation and they could catch the thief, who was very embarrassed.
After that, I invited the teen boy to eat out and before we realized, we had already fallen in love.

An important person

Claudia Garcia is my cousin and one of my close friends, too. We are both sixteen and we have got on really well our whole life. She lives in Castelldefels, so I see her very often.

Claudia is a stylish girl and she sometimes wears smart clothes. In fact, she has never been scruffy. She is very easy-going and a fun person. Also, if I have a problem, she tries to help and advice me, and that's really kind of her.

My cousin is really into dancing, although she hasn't got much time to do it because of the school. Like me, she loves playing the guitar, so we regularly play together. At the moment we are learning to play one song called "Hey soul sister" and we are very excited.

Even though we sometimes argue, we solve our problems quickly because we don't like to be angry. She is like my sister, we have lots in common and we will never separate us.

My personal profile

Hi! My name's Ona and I'm sixteen years old. I'm from Spain and I live with my parents and my sister in Badalona. I've lived there for my whole life and I speak Catalan, Spanish and a little English.

In my free time I like playing the guitar, watching films and getting together with my close friends. We're all really into music, so we sometimes go to concerts along. I also like going to the beach in the summer because I love getting tanned and swimming in the sea.

At the moment I'm studying A levels in IES La Pineda, in Badalona. Also, I'm studying German after school, and I think it's more difficult than English.

Are you studying any language right now? What are you doing? I would like to hear from you.