Free exercises – July 2011

Welcome to the July newsletter. The Summer is well under way here in the UK, and schools will be finishing for the long Summer holidays in the next 2 weeks. The origin of this holiday is steeped in our agricultural past. Since children were expected to assist their parents on the farms, the classrooms of rural schools were virtually empty during the month of August as preparations for the harvest got underway. Many children from the cities were also sent to countryside to assist families with the harvest and to have a break from the smog of the cities. This left most town and city schools also with depleted pupil numbers. It was therefore decided to close schools for the 6 weeks of the harvest period, giving the schoolchildren of today, a lovely long holiday!

This month we reflect the serenity and relaxed mood of Summer with a short story based ‘At a Summer villa’.

How do you cope with cleft sentences? Get some valuable practise in, or learn more about them in the grammar section.

There is a feature on EU funding and biodiversity in the reading section – informative as well as enriching your language skills.

Did you know that clowns held conventions?? No, neither did we, until we saw the month’s interesting news bulletin all about it. Take a look – no water-squirting flowers or custard pies in the face, we promise!!

Finally, our 21st Century Nobody is ‘time travelling’ this month, reminiscing and showing a more romantic face to technology. Enjoy.