11.4. Writing Enhancement

Assignment 1. You and three friends have decided to go on a boating holiday in Wales. You have found an advertisement for Brecon Boating Holidays and you decide to find out more about these holidays.

Read carefully the advertisement below, on which you have made some notes. Then, using this information, write a letter to the company covering all your points. You may add other relevant information of your own.

Inquiry letter brecon boating holidays

Write a letter of between 120 and 180 words in an appropriate style on the next page. Write IMAGINARY addresses.

Assignment 2. Use the information in the grid to write short descriptions, using compound adjectives with numbers.

Tour	Number of centres	Duration	Hotels	Category	Location	Other
a) Sicily	two	7 nights	Fortuna Ponte Nuovo	***** *****	Palermo Cefalu	HB Traditional restaurant (number of courses: 4)
b) Goa and Taj Mahal	two	14 nights	Goa Beach New Delhi	**** ***	On beach 5 miles from the city centre	HB Guided tours=3 days
c) Turkey and Taurus Mountains	three	14 nights	Dalaman Simena Kas	** ** **		Escorted hiking FB Evening meal:3 courses
d) Orlando and Cayman Islands	two	10 nights	Orlando Supreme Cayman Grand	***** *****	10 miles from Disney World on beach	In Orlando: visit theme parks Cayman: beach HB Restaurant =*****

Note: FB= full-board / HB= half-board

11.5. Speaking Reinforcement

Assignment 1. Complete the story. Then get ready to act out a dialogue based on it.

Just after Christmas two years ago, Jack and Liza decided to go away for New Year. They didn't want to stay in a hotel with crowds of people and they were delighted when they saw an advertisement in the Sunday Times for a holiday flat in a village near Oxford. It was no ordinary flat. It was on the top floor of an old Tudor mansion. They booked it and on New Year's Eve they set off in the car. It was raining and freezing cold. They were happy and excited. They had been driving for three hours when they saw the house in the distance. It looked magnificent with tall chimneys and a long, wide drive. They drove up to the huge front door, went up the steps, and knocked. Nothing happened. They knocked again. The door opened and a small, wild-looking, old lady stood there.

…

When they got outside again the rain had turned to snow. They ran to the car, laughing. They felt that they had been released from a prison and now they wanted to be with lots of people. They drove to the next village and as midnight was striking, they found a hotel with a room for the night. 'Happy New Year!' cried Jack, as he kissed the surprised receptionist on both cheeks. 'You have no idea how beautiful your hotel is!'

Get ready to act out the following dialogue between Jack (J) and Lisa (L) sticking to the main ideas:

J: And it was really frightening, wasn’t it?

L: Well, yes, it was like something out of a horror movies. This woman was so thin and bent, she had long, straggly grey hair, and dirty old torn clothes. The smell was ...

J: But..., but the worst thing were the bandages!

L: Oh, yes! She had bandages on her wrists and round her legs ...

J: ... yes both legs. And these bandages looked as if they had been on her for weeks. They were grey, and absolutely covered in blood.

L: Goodness knows what she'd done to herself, but the wounds obviously hadn't healed.

J: And under one arm she was carrying a cat, and in her other hand there was a large glass of whisky! She could hardly stand up straight!

L: Yes, she was swaying from side to side, spilling her whisky, wasn't she? Anyway, she asked us in, so we tried to hide how terrified we were, and we followed her in. The house was so old and dark and dirty ...

J: ... and it absolutely stank of cats. There were cats everywhere. Up the curtains, on the bookshelves, on the stairs ... It was unbelievable. And when she was leading us upstairs, suddenly two huge dogs, really huge dogs, the size of horses, came charging out of a room and nearly knocked us over!

L: So you can imagine how we were starting to feel. Like, do you really have to stay here? At New Year? And pay for it?

J: But the worst was still to come. When we got to the rooms, we couldn't believe it. All the furniture was broken, there were no curtains ...

L: It was absolutely freezing. There was no heating apart from one little electric fire for the whole place. In fact, there was only one power point, so you had to make a choice. You could either have the television, or the lamp, or the fire, but you couldn't have more than one.

J: We just looked at each other and knew that we couldn't stay. What did we do? Well, we didn't even try to be polite.

L: We just said that it really wasn't what we wanted and we couldn't possibly stay there, and left. J The lady said we'd lose our deposit ...

L: A £10 deposit... which was cheap at the price, I'll tell you! J And we just ran!

Assignment 2. Be prepared to share your impressions of your best ever holidays. Provide details. Make sure you can use the active vocabulary properly.