Application letter Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing in reply to your advertisement which appeared in this week's edition of "English 4 everybody". As you can see from my attached CV, I've worked as a secretary in an international company in Spain for a couple of years, and my current job is for an online society promoting languages learning around the world. I've been gaining experience with both languages and admistrative activities for many years, as I graduated in Modern Languages. I consider myself well-equipped to respond the challange offered by the post of receptionist not only because of what has been previously mentioned, but also because I acquired experience at Excel, Word and IT in general and I got used to work in competitive and stressing work places. Furthermore, I feel I posses the necessary personal qualities to meet the demands of the job: I enjoy working in an internation place, being in touch with several people, and I'm able to talk and write properly in three different languages that are Italian, English and Spanish. I am available for interview at any time which might be convenient to you. I look forward to hearing from you. Your faithfully NS

The advantages and disadvantages of home-working We all know that working is an activity that can easily grind people down. Furthermore, the presence of other colleagues could not help: you may not get along with many of them, and the gazes of your boss can create a negative situation, those kind of situations we hear from everyday. I'm talking about working places where colleagues play on other workers, play them off, or even pin mistakes and problems on them. Such daunting attitudes can lead to bad feelings, stress, quarrels, breakdowns and even suicide in few cases. All these issues can be overcome by working at home. The worker can create their own working place, manage their time by taking the breaks they need without being bothered by anybody. Additionally home-workers spend a great deal less on goods and services, such as transport, or fast food. On the contrary, if home-workers are not able to manage their time it may occur that they won't take theis committments on their stride, risking to burn the midnight oil everyday, wasting time, intensifying stress, and even be unproductive. The very issue at home are the sources of distraction.

Formal letter: the library shouldn't be closed Dear Sir or Madam, I'm writing with regard to the article which appeared in your newspaper a few days ago about the possibility of the closure of the public library in Baltchington's Parkdale. I would express my concern about this fact, and my disagreement with the information provided because the claim of the article could be untrue. Firstly, I would like to draw your attention to the class survey we have prepared consisting in a interview to Parkdale residents, that demonstrates that almost half of the interviewees visits the library at least once a week and just a small percentage declares its disinterest in using the library facilities. Moreover, I speak on behalf of the all neighborhood residents when I claim that the Central Library is far too distant, and it would be utterly impracticable to go back and forth at least once or twice a week. In addition, I cannot really see the point in converting the structure into a sport facility: priority should be given to the improvement of existing services, and not to an unsure investment of public money. I trust you will publish my letter as a witness of the people who still use this library, and believe in its usefulness. Kind regards

The effectiveness of two forms of advertising The aim of this report is to examine two different kind of advertisment that are used worldwide, direct mail and ads on the Internet. The report will discuss the effectiveness of both by analysing negative and positive aspects. Furthermore, few recommendations will be suggested to improve their efficacy. Direct Email It is considered one of the most common advertising method to broadcast information, and it consists of brochures, flyleaves and letters delivered directly to the houses of the people. If from one hand direct emails have the positive aspect of reaching a huge number of potencial customers, on the other hand the price of the production, in terms of money and paper, is elevated, as the number of not interested people who receive information through this advertising method. Consequently, direct emails are not focused in looking for potencial customers but reaching the biggest number of people, losing effectiveness and wasting resources. The Internet An up-to-date advertising method is the internet, that is possibly the cheapest one and the most far-reaching method to spread and publish information. Advertising online can get into everyone's houses with an internet connection, and it creates a specific type of ads according to the information on the users that are sold by social networks. Unfortunately, online advertisments are considered a source of annoy due to the insistence of banners in websites and online pages. As a result many users has adopted programs to block ads. Recommendations To discourge the waste of paper of direct emails I would recommend using recycled paper and reducing the number of flyleaves and brochures by focusing on a selected number of people, that may be interested in obtaining information about a product. Additionally, I would suggest internet ads to be less intrusive, in order to be more focused and draw the attention of the users in a more profitable way.

Formal letter about a trip Dear Sir or Madam, I have just returned from Rome, where I spent a week on one of your historical tours. I would like to express my general satisfaction with the experience, but I feel I must draw your attention to few incidents that occured, in the hope that this may help you to improve your service. First of all, we couldn't reach Ostia as the bus broke down soon after our departure and I had never been replaced. Secondly, I was surprised by the fact we were supposed to pay for the entrance fees to the monument, that had not been mentioned before. As a result of my experience, I would like to make some recommandations for future tours. It would be appreciated if you arranged alternatives in case of bus breakdowns or other unexpected events that may occurred. Furthermore, it seems only fair that you should make more explicit the fees that are not included in the offers, and I suggest you to improve the guidebooks you provide to customers, as their low quality didn't allow us to totally enjoy our journey and the city of Rome. Yours faithfully

Informal lettere about a trip Dear Sarah, I've just got back from Rome and found your letter waiting for me. I had a very good week there! All in all I really enjoyed the holiday, but I've just written to the Tour's Group to let them know two or three things that annoyed me and that would be better to be solved for future tours, like the one you're going on next month. For one thing, we couldn't reach Ostia as the coach broke down just out of Rome, and they didn't manage to replace it. Also, I still can't pin down why we were supposed to pay to get into the monuments, if everything was included in the prince of the tour. The entrance were not very cheap, and so the restaurants. Speaking of, the last point is certainly something for you to bear in mind when you go - make sure you bring with you enough money, Rome is far from low-cost! The guidebook is very poor, as the monuments and others attractions are mixed up, the prices aren't mentioned, so there may be the chance they'd play on your being stranger. Buy your own guidebook and check in it the information you need. In case you don't know any good one, I can borrow you mine, it did help me out! I hope my letter will be useful. Wish you all the best on your trip!

Objection letter Dear Sir, I would like to draw your attention to certain inaccurancies appeared in the article you recently wrote about the Fair. I helped out on the committee for the event you harshly criticised on your article. I speak on behalf of all the committee, and we are utterly pestered by your insincere report, because it doesn't represent the reality: we received many emails that can witness the great success the event achieved, even with some of the problems the attendees and you set out. Firstly, many people congratulated us for the concerts and the cooking workshops, so we can't play along with the opinion your report fostered about the boredom of the demonstrations. We must also disagree with your intent of playing our Fair down focusing on the fact that less people turned up this year. The truth is that many showed up but they hadn't the chance to attend the event because of the shortage of parking space. According to your report, you didn't enjoy our event and the demonstrations, however it doesn't tell your opinion from the attendees's judgments, Considering this is not the first unfair article you wrote about our events, we would appreciate if you would print another article, because, in case you refuse, we will have nothing to do but to hit back with a lawsuit. Sincerely ..................... Dear Mr KIng, I'm writing to express my disapproval of the letter you recently wrote to me about the students' behaviour. I would like to point out certain inaccuracies that I could not ignore. Firstly, you pinned on my group an annoying noise during the first night, but we must consider the presence of several groups that turned up that day, and consequently the possibility that we were not the only responsable for the inconvenience. Furthermore, I cannot understand why you blame my students of breaking a number of chairs, if I did tell on the accident of a chair broken, offering to pay the damage myself. Your letter states then that we covered the walls with graffiti and left the kitchen area in a very poor condition, however we cleaned everything up before leaving, and we even left the area cleaner than when we got there: I'm sure that your cleaning company remembers the not easy feat of cutting away the dirt from the kitchen tools we took part in when we arrived. Talking on belhalf of the College, I would appreciate if you would reconsider your decision, and allow our students' group to use your hostel's facilites in the future. Yours faithfully

What's your secret ambition? What's your secret ambitiona dn why? Tell us about it, explaining what you think it'd take to achieve your ambition and why you think you've got what it takes. Entry: Just in 2015, more than 100.000 italians chose to move to a foreign country, according a report of Fondazione Migrantes. I am one of them, and I moved abroad not because of the ecomonic crisis, but in order to fulfil my lifelong ambition of becoming a teacher. I've never thought I was cut out for teaching Italian to foreign students, but I realized the best way to start this long-term journey was to move abroad and get experience. Teaching your native language is no easy feat, as you've probably never studied utterly the syntax, the grammar or the phonetic of your mother tongue, and this is the first requirement to achieve if you want to be a good teacher. Once you take the grammar in your stride, you can more easily teach it to your students, or even explain them idiomatic expressions you had taken for granted for all your life. Furthermore, clarity in explanation is essential, if you want your students to feel confortable in using slangs, in speaking and learning properly your native language. To face this challenge you'll probably need to learn one or more foreign languages on a high level, as they can help you to get where your students' comprehension doesn't get, especially when daily or idiomatic expressions apparently have no reasonable meaning. But being a teacher doesn't mean to be a good teacher! I do think that successful teachers possess a great love for their language and country, as only with that feeling they can sort out all the problems their students may meet in learning. If the teacher is able to trasmit their love for their culture and their mother tongue, the students will have nothing but desire to keep improving their skills. Speaking a new language is difficult, but teaching it is even harder. It represents an overall commitment that might never come to an end. The failure is always behind the corner but we need to be assured of success and never stop working, even though it means burning the midnight oil every day.

Expresar los sentimientos A veces se reprimen las emociones por vergüenza o porque se supone que exteriorizar los sentimientos es signo de debilidad. La verdad es que hay muchas personas que no expresan o ni siquiera esconden las emociones porque creen que mostrarse humanas es dañino por su seguridad y reputación. La vergüenza de percibir sentimientos es el verdadero peligro de nuestro tiempo, porque nos acostumbra a ser machinas y no ser humanos. Además todo el mundo sabe que tener emociones es normal, nos alegramos de que nuestros amigos sean felízes, nos da miedo poder sentirse aislados, queremos ser en paz y que todos los que queremos también lo sean. Lo que más me molesta es que somos incoherentes: desearíamos que los amigos nos pidiesen ayuda y en el mismo tiempo ni siquiera lo pedimos a ellos, porque da miedo mostrar nuestras fragilidad. Pero sabemos que ayudar fomenta la comunicación, robustece a las relaciones y mejora la sociedad. No solo tendríamos que ser más francos con nosotros, sino que pensar en el grupo y en la comunidad para que nos liberemos de las cadenas del miedo.