The Graveyard Book: Chapter 1 | Read by Neil Gaiman

Watch and listen to Neil Gaiman read The Graveyard Book, a clever young adult novel that tells the story of Bod. Nobody (Bod) Owens is an orphan adopted by ghosts and raised in the graveyard. The dead and undead teach Bod the lessons of the living while he grows up.

If you need to, remember to turn English captions on (bottom bar) so that you can follow the transcription text as Gaiman reads along.

We are sure this mesmerising reading by the author himself will capture you and once you are done, you will eagerly start searching for the next chapters!

Chapter 1 – How Nobody Came to the Graveyard

In the dark and scary beginning, the man Jack kills a family with a sharp, long knife. The toddler tumbles from his crib and toddles out the open door and up the hill, escaping Jack.

At the top of the hill, in the graveyard, Mr and Mrs Owens find the baby. They wonder what to do with a live child in their dead world. When someone rattles the gate they think someone has come for the child. A startling flickering ghost of the baby’s dead mother appears pleading with them to keep her child safe. Her panic draws figures from all over the graveyard.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

ESO 1: 3rd Term PBL Assignment

COMICS!

Dear ESO 1 Students,

This is your last term PBL assignment. Now you will have to create your own webcomic.

To do so, you must craft a creative story and draw your own characters and their roles.

Your comic strips must contain:

- Layout (design)
- Imaginary and unique characters (give them names and moods)
- Dialogues (put your grammar and vocabulary into practice)
- Setting (draw the different places where the story happens)
- Plot (the whole story)

Here you have a video and a website with interesting ideas on how to create your webcomic:

https://www.gocomics.com/ (web comic samples)

After putting all your bright ideas together, you should shape them into cool and eye-catching comic stipes that will bring your heroes to life. Here are some online comic strip creators:

Makebeliefscomix

Pixton

Toondoo

webcomics (Google Play App)


Once you have finished your comic strip, you can send it by email or print it and hand it in in time.

The deadline for this assignment is Friday, May 31, 2019. No assignment will be accepted after this date. Remember that you can send your webcomics before the deadline.

There is an artist inside you waiting to create visual art and take the world by storm.


Good luck on your creations!

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Unit 2 Quiz

1 point is up for grabs at the next Test for Unit 2 for the ESO student who sends the first correct answer to our email:

Who is the film character in the picture above and, most importantly, what is the origin and the inspiration of his name?

NB: This quiz is for our students, NOT FOR THEIR PARENTS. Answers must be in English, of course.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Write music, by Gary Provost

This sentence has five words. Here are five more words. Five-word sentences are fine. But several together become monotonous. Listen to what is happening. The writing is getting boring. The sound of it drones. It’s like a stuck record. The ear demands some variety.

Now listen. I vary the sentence length, and I create music. Music. The writing sings. It has a pleasant rhythm, a lilt, a harmony. I use short sentences. And I use sentences of medium length. And sometimes, when I am certain the reader is rested, I will engage him with a sentence of considerable length, a sentence that burns with energy and builds with all the impetus of a crescendo, the roll of the drums, the crash of the cymbals–sounds that say listen to this, it is important.

So write with a combination of short, medium, and long sentences. Create a sound that pleases the reader's ear. Don't just write words. Write music.

This Sentence Has Five Words on Vimeo.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

A Chemical Romance, by Brian Bilston

 

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

ESO 2 & ESO 3 3rd Term PBL

ESO 2 & ESO 3 Students,

This is your PBL assignment for the 2013-14 3rd term. You have a double task concerning 20 inspiring children books quotations:

• You have to find what book each quotation belongs to and the author of each of those books.
• You have to translate the quotations into the language of your choice, Galician or Spanish.

And these are the quotations:

1. If things start happening, don't worry, don't stew. Just go right along and you'll start happening too.
2. The greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
3. True friends never ask for anything.
4. Be who you are and say how you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind.
5. It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.
6. Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.
7. You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.
8. There is no place like home.
9. We all can dance when we find music that we love.
10. Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times, when one only remembers to turn on the light.
11. I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be.
12. I love you right up to the moon — and back.
13. If you have good thoughts... they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
14. It is when we are most lost that we sometimes find our truest friends.
15. The moment where you doubt you can fly, you cease for ever being able to do it.
16. ...The more he gave away, the more delighted he became.
17. No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
18. I think I can. I think I can. I think I can. I know I can.
19. Where you tend a rose, my lad, a thistle cannot grow.
20. Dreams do come true, if only we wish hard enough. You can have anything in life if you will sacrifice everything else for it.

Every group must email their answers BEFORE Sunday 18th May at precisely 23:59:59. No mails will be admitted after the deadline, so please do not wait until the very last minute and get down to work as soon as possible.

You must fill in the "subject" section of your mail messages with YOUR GROUP IDENTIFICATION and the word 'PBL'. You must also include the names of each and every group member and the percentage of work that every member has carried out.

Points will be deducted for every instruction you do not follow.

NB:

ESO 3 students must print this post and bring it to class next Tuesday 22nd April.

ESO 2 students must print this post and bring it to class next Wednesday 23rd April.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Insult better: Quote Shakespeare

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Summer Reading

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For Whom the Bell Tolls - John Donne

ESO Students,

We are sure some of you have heard of this famous, inspirational poem by John Donne, For Whom the Bell Tolls... Donne wrote this poem while recovering from a serious illness and this particular quote is taken from Meditation XVII in his book Devotions of Emergent Occasions.This passage was made famous after Ernest Hemingway used ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls’ as the title for one of his most acclaimed novels.

Today we would like to offer you the version by brilliant artist Gavin Aung Than, who has used the poem as a tribute to the late Jeff Hanneman (1964-2013), a guitarist and one of the founding members of the metal band Slayer. He recently passed away due to cirrhosis of the liver.

Click here to enlarge the image.

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

Invictus, by William Ernest Henley

"Invictus" is a short poem by the English poet William Ernest Henley (1849–1903). At the age of 13, Henley contracted tuberculosis of the bone. A few years later, the disease progressed to his foot, and physicians announced that the only way to save his life was to amputate directly below the knee. It was amputated when he was 17. Stoicism inspired him to write this poem. Despite his disability, he survived with one foot intact and led an active life until his death at the age of 53.

This poem has been an inspiration for many modern films and songs, but you may have heard of it thanks to the film Invictus that you have been watching in Physical Education lessons: While incarcerated on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery. In the film, Mandela gives the captain of the national South African rugby team the poem to inspire him to lead his team to a Rugby World Cup win, telling him how it inspired him in prison. In reality, as opposed to the movie, Mandela actually gave the captain, Francois Pineaar, a copy of The Man in the Arena passage from President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt's speech Citizenship in a Republic instead.

Warner Bross and Universal Pictures present...

Dear students,

There’s only one month left to celebrate the 25^th December, aka Christmas Day. A good plan for this day, apart from spending it having those lavish dinners with the family, is to go to the cinema, in spite of the recent increase in prices that the big screen has suffered.

Literature has always been one of the main sources of inspiration for the development of movies. From LEZ, we’d like to recommend you two films which will be released precisely on Christmas Day this year, based on two key classic English and French literary works: The Great Gatsby and Les  Misérables.

In case you’d like to watch the movies in original version, there are some cinemas in Vigo which offer that possibility, such as Cines Yelmo and Multicines Norte. Nevertheless, we do not promise they’ll precisely screen these films in English...

On Happiness

Henry David Thoreau "On Happiness". Artwork by Gavin Aung Than

(Post taken from Zen Pencils)

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) was an American writer, poet, philosopher and one of the leading figures of the transcendentalism movement. Besides writing Civil Disobedience, which inspired such revolutionaries as Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jnr, Thoreau is most well-known for his book Walden, in which he recounts the two years he lived in a small cabin in the woods near Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. Thoreau used the time to immerse himself in his writing and to live a more simple and self-sufficient life. As he put it:

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.

1984 by George Orwell

Nineteen Eighty-Four is a classic dystopian novel by English author George Orwell. Published in 1949, it is set in the eponymous year and focuses on a repressive, totlitarian regime. The story follows the life of one seemingly insignificant man, Winston Smith, a civil servant assigned the task of falsifying records and political literature, thus effectively perpetuating propaganda, who grows disillusioned with his meagre existence and so begins a rebellion against the system.

Edgar Allan Poe: Annabel Lee

Today is the 202nd birthday of Edgar Allan Poe (January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849). Poe was an American writer, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective-fiction genre. He is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845 Poe published his poem "The Raven" to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. He began planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today.

"Annabel Lee" is the last complete poem composed by American author Edgar Allan Poe. Like many of Poe's poems, it explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are jealous. He retains his love for her even after her death. There has been debate over who, if anyone, was the inspiration for "Annabel Lee". Though many women have been suggested, Poe's wife Virginia Eliza Clemm Poe is one of the more credible candidates. Written in 1849, it was not published until shortly after Poe's death that same year.

The poem's narrator describes his love for Annabel Lee, which began many years ago in an unnamed "kingdom by the sea". Though they were young, their love for one another burned with such an intensity that angels became jealous. For that reason, the narrator believes, the angels caused her death. Even so, their love is strong enough that it extends beyond the grave and the narrator believes their two souls are still entwined. Every night, he dreams of Annabel Lee and sees the brightness of her eyes in the stars. He admits that every night he lies down by her side in her tomb by the sea.

Annabel Lee

It was many and many a year ago,
In a kingdom by the sea,
That a maiden there lived whom you may know
By the name of ANNABEL LEE;
And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child,
In this kingdom by the sea;
But we loved with a love that was more than love-
I and my Annabel Lee;
With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven
Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsman came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven,
Went envying her and me-
Yes!- that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-
Of many far wiser than we-
And neither the angels in heaven above,
Nor the demons down under the sea,
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee.

For the moon never beams without bringing me dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And the stars never rise but I feel the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side
Of my darling- my darling- my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,
In her tomb by the sounding sea.

And now enjoy the song and video by Spanish band Radio Futura, a pop rock group who rose to become one of the most popular bands in Spain during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1989 they were voted the best Spanish act of the 80s. The Spanish lyrics are simply an excellent and unbeatable adaptation of Poe's ballad:

No copyright infringement intended. For educational, non-commercial purposes only.