How was your summer holiday?

I had a great July. I spent a week in Paris at the start of the month. Before going, I bought a good guidebook and decided what I wanted to see. I didn't do the normal touristy things - I didn't go up the Eiffel Tower nor visit the Louvre. I did these things during my last stay in the city fourteen years before. I walked around a lot and often discovered places by chance. I took my time and occassionally stopped to have a coffee or a glass of wine. I really enjoyed watching the world go by from a café.

I went on holiday alone and so it was easier to meet the locals. I found the Parisians polite and quite friendly. I can't speak French but I could understand some conversations. I think the French are fascinating people to observe and I love their style.

One morning I visited a cemetary which contains the graves of several famous people such as Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde. Some graves were very elaborate while others were quite simple. There were just a few visitors at the cemetery as that morning there was a huge thunderstorm.

In fact, the weather was the only thing that I was unlucky with. There wasn't any repeat of the summer a few years ago when so many people died because of the heat.





Vocabulary:

Put the "green" words from above next to their definition. They are not in the same order as they appear in the text.

1. the opposite of the cold -
   


2. to do something slowly, without hurry -



3. without company -
   


4. not a lot -
   
   
5. "home" of a dead person -
   


6. "violent" weather, when it rains a lot -
   


7. not planned -



8. well-mannered -
   
   
9. expression to list examples (formal) -



10. some but not many -



11. not fortunate -
    
    
12. to pass (in front of you) -
    


13. because (formal) -
    
    
14. in reality -
    
    
15. enormous -
    

Write all the vocabulary and their definitions in your notebooks. I will put the answers onto the blog at a later date.

Grammar points:

Why not write some examples of your own using the following?

• before / after + verbing
  
  
• verb + a lot



• frequency adverbs (often, occassionally etc) go before verbs (except "to be")



• really + (enjoy, love, like, hate)
  
  
• (enjoy, love , hate, like, don't mind) + verbing

• quite/very + adjectives



• there was (n't) + singular, there were (n't) + any +plural
  
  
• a few/several + countable nouns



• because of + noun
  
  
  

Now it is your turn. Tell everybody how you spent your holidays. Try to use new vocabulary; look up words in your dictionary (check out Cambridge Learners Dictionary). Also try to practice some grammar points that you have studied in class. Don't worry, I will correct any mistakes that you make and create a list of the most important ones. You can learn from each other. And why not send me a pic of your holidays?

Curious to know more about my holiday in Paris? Don't be afraid to ask. Send a list of questions and I will happily answer some of them. It's a chance to practice constructing questions.

Match the famous (Piaf, Wilde or Morrison) with their quotes:

"I want to make people cry even when they don't understand my words."

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."

"A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it."

"Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes."

" Love cannot save you from your own fate."

"For me, singing is a way of escaping. It's another world. I'm no longer on earth."


You can check your answers at Brainyquote as well as find more quotes from the famous.

What are your favourite quotes? Whose are they?