Halloween
(Present Simple, Past Simple, Future Simple, 1st Conditional)
Halloween is a holiday in many English speaking countries that is celebrated on the night of October 31st. Children wear costumes and they go to peoples' homes saying "Trick or treat!" to ask for candy, sweets in the United Kingdom, and then people give it to them. This practice originally involved a threat. A threat is when someone says that they will do something bad if they do not get what they want. In this case the threat was: "Give me a treat or I will play a trick on you." Children today usually do not play tricks if they do not get treats. However, some children still do it: they use pranks or things to make fun of people. For example, they put toilet paper in trees, they write on windows with soap or they throw eggs at peoples' houses. People sometimes dress up as ghosts, witches, goblins and other scary things for Halloween.
The origins of Halloween are in the Pagan holiday Samhain, now replaced by the All Saints holy day. It was also called the Day of the Dead. Modern Pagans still celebrate the Day of the Dead. This is a happy holiday (even though it celebrates 'Death'). It is the day that the souls of dead people come back to Earth. Therefore, in Pagan religions it is not about scary things. It is about remembering family or friends who died.
Original source: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween
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The Canterville Ghost
(Reported Speech)
The Canterville Ghost
(Reported Speech)
About ten minutes later, the bell rang for dinner, and, as Virginia did not come down, Mrs Otis sent up one of the servants. After a little time he returned and said that he could not find Miss Virginia anywhere. So, the whole family started looking for her.
The hours passed, but they could find no trace of Virginia. So, after dinner, Mr Otis ordered them all to bed, saying that nothing more could be done that night, and that he would contact Scotland Yard in the morning. Just when everybody was about to leave the dining-room, the clock struck midnight, and when the last stroke sounded, a secret door opened in the wall and in that door stood Virginia with a little box in her hand. Everybody ran up to her.
“Good heavens! child, where have you been?” said Mr Otis, rather angrily, as he thought she had been playing a trick on them.
“Papa,” said Virginia quietly, “I have been with the ghost. He is dead, and you must come and see him. He had been very nasty, but he was really sorry for all that he had done, and he gave me this box of beautiful jewels before he died.”
Then she led the others down a narrow secret corridor to a little low room. There the family found the skeleton of Sir Simon, who had been starved to death by his wife's brothers. Virginia knelt down beside the skeleton, and, folding her little hands together, began to pray silently.
Meanwhile, one of the twins was looking out of the window in the little room and suddenly said, “Look! The old almond-tree has blossoms.”
“Then God has forgiven him,” said Virginia and stood up.
