An email from a friend

Read an email from a friend you haven't heard from for a long time to practise and improve your reading skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then read the text and do the exercises.

Preparation

Reading text

Hi!

I've been meaning to write for ages and finally today I'm actually doing something about it. Not that I'm trying to make excuses for myself, it's been really hard to sit down and write, as I've been moving around so much. Since we last saw each other I've unpacked my bags in four different cities. This job has turned out to be more of a whirlwind than I expected, but it's all good!

I went from London to Prague to set up a new regional office there. You know I'd always wanted to go, but maybe I was imagining Prague in spring when I used to talk about that. Winter was really hard, with minus 15 degrees in the mornings and dark really early in the evening. But at least it was blue skies and white snow and not days on end of grey skies and rain, like at home. It's tough being away from home over Christmas, though, and Skype on Christmas Day wasn't really the same as being with everyone.

From there I was on another three-month mission to oversee the set-up of the office in New York. Loved, loved, loved New York! It's like being in one big TV show, as everywhere looks just a little bit familiar. I did every tourist thing you can think of when I wasn't working, and must have spent most of my salary on eating out. It was really hard to leave for the next job, especially as I kind of met someone (!) More about Michael later ...

So then I was posted to LA, which felt like a whole other country compared with the East Coast. I could definitely get used to that kind of outdoor, beach lifestyle, but I didn't spend as much time getting to know California as I could have because I was flying back to see Michael every other weekend. He came to see me when he could, but his job means he's often working at weekends, so he couldn't make the flight very often. Those three months flew by and then I was off again, to Frankfurt, which is where I am now. And … so is Michael! He got a month off work and we're trying to work out how we can be in the same place at the same time for a while. We figure the first step in that direction is getting married, which is also why I wanted to write – I can't get married without my oldest friend there! The wedding's going to be at home in London in September and I hope you can come!

Anyway, tell me all your news and I promise not to leave it so long this time!

Lots of love,

Kath

Task 1

Matching_MjMyMTk=.xml

Task 2

MultipleChoice_MjMyMjA=.xml

Discussion

What form of communication would you use to tell old friends important news?

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Language level

B2 Upper intermediate

Topics

family and friends

travel and transport

Technology has changed the world ,it turned it into a global village where people could interact so easily with each other anytime and anywhere,and I just use the magic of Facebook, Instagram , Gmail and a lot of other means of communication in order to tell my old friends the important news .

For me, I use the email to communicate with my old friend to tell him about my news especially when we are far from each other but if we're in the some country I call him .

the one of the benefit when technology invented is to make human life easier. particulary in communication. with technology the distance is nothing. peoples could to keep in touch anywhere their are in. but the problem is the differential of time.

I prefer to use instant messaging from my smartphone when it comes to tell old friends important news. However, the problem is not that simple. Usually when we're trying to communicate with some old friends, we don't have their contacts (phone number). So, we will try to reach them through their social media account.

I still live near to my best friends but If one day I'll live many miles away from them I think I'll call for all of them as much as possible.

also, May i know why the answer is not c. planning to get engaged in task 2?

Hello Rosalind,

Kath and Michael are not planning to get engaged because they are already engaged. We know this because they have a date for their wedding:

The wedding's going to be at home in London in September

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

I usually talk to friend via Line app. It is a most popular communication tool in Taiwan.

It obviously that the modern life keep us so far from the people we love most, and it seems that as many ways there for us to communicate as harder for us to do, but I prefer to talk by phone when I wont to talk with my old friend so I can get the reaction and communicate better than just writing words.