Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

English rose

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm'd;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimm'd;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngZY8coaWMg

David Gilmour sings Shakespeare's Sonnet 18
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S8Osse7w9fs 

Rufus Wainwright sings Shakespeare's Sonnet 29
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYd2KlRX4Vs&feature=related
Images from Pride and Prejudice (based on Jane Austin's novel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6FFtq5CEoM

Witing a job application letter

There is a good link where you can practice writing job application letter. Note that there 4 parts !
http://www.parapal-online.co.uk/exercises/application_c.html

Unit 7 (WORK) vocabulary issues

freelancer - līgumdarba veicējs
work freelance - veikt līgumdarbu
odd jobs - dīvaini darbi
skilled / unskilled jobs - kvalificēti/ nekvalificēti darbi
be on call - ierasties darbā pēc izsaukuma
clock on/ clock off - piereģistrēt ierašanās laiku/ piereģistrēt aiziešanas laiku
fill in for somebody - aizstāt kādu darbā
fill in a form - aizpildīt anketu
give sb a hand - palīdzēt kādam (sniegt roku)
make a loss/ make a profit - radīt zaudējumus/ nest peļņu
maternity cover - bērna kopšanas pabalsts
on duty/ off duty - dežūrēt/ ārpus darba
be made redundant - atlaist ("padarīt lieku")
fire sb/ give sb the sack / sack sb /make sb redundent - atlaist no darba
knock off - beigt darbu
sabbatical - svētdienas, atpūtas
personnel / staff - personāls, štata darbinieki
line manager - ražošanas vadītājs
estate agent - nekustamā īpašuma tirdzniecības aģents
executive - izpilddirektors
interpreter / translater - tulks

How to deal with "OPEN CLOZE" exercises?

First of all - practice recognizing the missing word

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/strategy/p3pt2a.htm

Then - practice the online tests:

http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/tests/oclts3.htm 
(this link somehow doesn't work from the blog. please, copy the address and paste in the address box above)
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/tests/oclts2.htm
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/tests/oclts1.htm
(Remember that you can always get a printed version of the exercise, see
http://www.flo-joe.co.uk/fce/students/tests/tsindex.htm  )

And the last but not the least "Test Your Grammar" online version

http://www.scribd.com/doc/6362150/Longman-Test-Your-Grammar-Usage-for-FCE

Tests 35-40 

One of the exercises may appear in your next unit test on 14 February?? You have more than a week to prepare. Good luck!