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April Fool's Day

Average: 3.9 (35 votes)

April 1st in many countries is commonly known as April Fool's Day. Are you familiar with the tradition? As you read through the text pay attention to the bold words. Do you know what they mean?

In the news: Oscar Pistorius

Average: 4.4 (21 votes)

Read through this text about South African athlete Oscar Pistorius, who is currently on trial in Cape Town.

_1_ for the South African Paralympic champion Oscar Pistorius will open the case for the defence in Pretoria on Friday.

Year of the Horse

Average: 4.4 (25 votes)

According to Chinese zodiac, 2014 is the year of the horse. The previous horse years were 2002, 1990 and 1978. People born in the year of the horse are said to be a bit like horses.

"Horse personalities" are said to be very active, ambitious, multi-taskers and fond of exercise. On the other hand, negative aspects of horses are they may be impatient, greedy and unconcerned with the problems of others.

Cultural Lesson: St. Patrick's Day

Average: 3.8 (18 votes)

Saint Patrick's Day is a cultural and religious holiday _1_ every year on 17 March, the death date of the most commonly-recognised patron saint of Ireland, Saint Patrick. A patron saint is a saint who is believed to _2_ a particular place or type of person.

In the Hospital

Average: 4.5 (21 votes)

Read through these three paragraphs. Can you tell what the orange words are? All the letters have been scrambled. Rearrange the letters to find the correct spellings.

I broke my leg playing football. My friends called an ecnaalubm to take me to hospital. It took 20 minutes to arrive.

In the news: Missing Plane

Average: 3.9 (27 votes)

In the early hours of Saturday morning, a jetliner carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew took off from the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur for Beijing in China. The aircraft ceased all communications and its signal was lost above the sea as it approached Vietnam. The airplane has not been seen since and no confirmed wreckage has been found.

Manchester, England

Average: 5 (1 vote)

We have a new school opening in Manchester in May: EC Manchester!

Our Manchester English school will be our 18th around the world and seventh in the UK.

But what do you know about Manchester?

Oscar Winners

Average: 3.9 (13 votes)

The 86th Academy Awards were held last night in L.A. 

British director Steve McQueen's walked away with the biggest award of the night for 12 Years A Slave but Gravity cleaned up winning seven Oscars.

Leonard Di Caprio left empty handed as he lost out to Matthew McConaughey's, in the Best Actor category.

Find the mistakes

Average: 4.1 (26 votes)

Read through this short text. There are six mistakes. Can you find them? Write your answers in the comments section. Click on 'show answers' to find out.

"During the week my alarm clock goes out at 7am. I wake up, have a quick shower, dry my hairs and get dressed.

I get in the bus at 7:45. Its usually quiet so I can get a seat. Work starts at 9am but I like to arrive early. The first thing I do is take myself a cup of coffee and start reading my emails.

In the news: Treasure found in California

Average: 4.3 (12 votes)

A California couple out walking their dog have stumbled across rare, mint-condition gold coins said to be worth up to US$10m, _1_ in the ground. The 1,427 coins, which date from 1847-1894, were never in public use.