MAY DAY

The first day of the month of May is known as May Day. It is the time of year when warmer weather begins and flowers and trees start to blossom. It is said to be a time of love and romance. It is when people celebrate the coming of summer with lots of different customs that are expressions of joy and hope after a long winter.
Traditional English May Day celebrations include Morris dancing, crowning a May Queen and dancing around a Maypole.
The beginning of Summer
Although summer does not officially begin until June, May Day marks its beginning. May Day celebrations have their origins in the Roman festival of Flora, goddess of fruit and flowers, which marked the beginning of summer. It was held annually from April 28th to May 3rd.
May Day Bank Holiday
The month of May has many traditions and celebrations. For the convenience of the general public, many May Day activities have now been moved to the new May Day holiday (from 1978) on the first Monday of the month. This Monday is a bank holiday, a day off school and work.
Many of the May Day celebrations take place at the weekend as well as on the 'May Day' Monday. The weekend is know as bank holiday weekend because it comes with the extra day holiday on the Monday.

ENGLISH SONG: ALESHA DIXON - Breath Slow

Alesha Dixon (born 7.10.1978)
Alesha Dixon is an English singer and TV personality. She first found fame in the female pop group Mis-Teeq when her distinctive vocal style made her stand out from the rest of the band. Since the band spilt, she has made numerous television appearances, including being crowned the winner of the popular British TV show, Strictly Come Dancing.

ENGLISH SONG: KATE ROWLAND - When love takes over

It's complicated
It always is
That’s just the way it goes
Feels like I waited so long for this
I wonder if it shows

Head under water
Now I can't breath
And never felt so good
‘Cause I can feel it coming over me
I wouldn’t stop it if I could


When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
‘Cause something’s here tonight


Give me a reason
I gotta know
Do you feel it too?
Cant you see me here on overload
And this time I blame you

Looking out for you to hold my hand
It feels like I could fall
Now love me right, like I know you can
We could lose it all


When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
‘Cause something’s here tonight

When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
‘Cause something’s here tonight
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight

GEOFFREY CHAUCER (1342/43-1400)

Writer, official and bureaucrat, the outstanding English poet before William Shakespeare. Geoffrey Chaucer is remembered as the author of Canterbury Tales, which ranks as one of the greatest epic works of world literature. Chaucer made a crucial contribution to English literature in writing in English at a time when much court poetry was still composed in Anglo-Norman or Latin.

He was born in London. His name was of French origin and meant shoemaker. Chaucer was the son of a prosperous wine merchant and deputy to the kings's butler, and his wife Agnes. Little is known of his early education, but his works show that he could read French, Latin, and Italian.
Because of the political unrest of the time and Chaucer's witty, sharp, sarcasm, he wrote The Canterbury Tales, a group of fabliau and fragments, consisting of a piece of each of England's stereotypical citizen archetypes put together in a mixing pot on their pilgrimage to Canterbury. The destination is not as significant as is the action that occurs along the way. The Tales are not even finished and the destination is never even reached during the course of the writing.

"That The Canterbury Tales was left unfinished may well have been a matter of choice, not fate. It is likely that Chaucer abandoned his great literary work in the last years of his life and turned his thoughts to the salvation of his soul, as the Retraction suggests. He not only abandoned the tales but also expressed regret for having ever written them, except those explicitly religious and moral" (Halverson, xx-xxi).
Chaucer died on October 25, 1400. He was buried in Westminster Abbey and was the first of the writers to be entombed there in the area known as the Poets’ Corner.

FIVE CANTERBURY TALES

FIVE CANTERBURY TALES-EDITORIAL OXFORD

The year is 1386 and the first flowers of spring are here. A number of pilgrims are going to Canterbury to visit the tomb of Saint Thomas Becket, and they all tell stories on the way. Who should be the stronger in a marriage - the husband or the wife? And what happens when two men fall in love with the same woman? In these five stories from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales we find different answers to these questions from the Knight, the Wife of Bath, the Clerk of Oxford, the Merchant, and the Franklin. This retelling is good for all ages.

SHAKESPEARE-PUZZLE

Jigsaw Puzzle by Crazyprofile.com

PHONE NUMBER LISTENING

Click on the phone number that you hear.

Listening to Phone Numbers--1

Listening to Phone Numbers--2

You can practice Writing, Grammar, Reading and more Listenings on this page:

http://fog.ccsf.cc.ca.us/~lfried/

ENGLISH SONG: JUSTIN BIEBER - Love me

WORLD BOOK DAY 23rd April

THE IMPOSIBLE DREAM-MAN OF THE MANCHA

.
To dream the impossible dream,
To fight the unbeatable foe,
To bear the unbearable sorrow,
To run where the brave dare not go...
To right the unrightable wrong,
To love pure and chaste from afar,
To try when your arms are too weary,
To reach the unreachable star!
This is my quest,to follow that star,
No matter how hopelesse,no matter how far.
To fight for the rights without question or pause,
To be willing to march to Hell from a Heavenly cause!
And I know,if I'll only be truth for this glorious quest,
That my heart will lie peacefull and calm when I'm laid to my rest...
And the world will be better for done,
That one man scorned and covered with scars,
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable stars!

.

MANOLO IN MEMORIAM

Maybe I didn't treat you

Quite as good as I should have

Maybe I didn't love you

Quite as often as I could have

Little things I should have said and done

I just never took the time



You were always on my mind

You were always on my mind







Maybe I didn't hold you


All those lonely, lonely times


And I guess I never told you


I'm so happy that you're mine


If I make you feel second best


Boy, I'm sorry I was blind


You were always on my mind

You were always on my mind







Tell me, tell me that your sweet love hasn't died


Give me, give me one more chance


To keep you satisfied, satisfied








Little things I should have said and done

I just never took the time


You were always on my mind

You were always on my mind

You were always on my mind







You were always on my mind
















Maybe I didn't treat you

Quite as good as I should have


Maybe I didn't love you

Quite as often as I could have


Maybe I didn't hold you

All those lonely, lonely times


And I guess I never told you

I'm so happy that you're mine