Writing Formal and Informal Letters. Part 1. Домбровская И.В - 28 стр.

                                           26



Exercise 13

You have received a letter from your English pen friend, who has recently started
at college and is having problems. You want to find out more about these problems
and offer some advice.
Read carefully the extract from the letter below, the notes you have written on it
and your list of suggestions. Then write a letter in which you ask for more informa-
tion about your friend’s problems and offer some advice, using the list of sugges-
tions to give you some ideas.

                    I’ve just finished my first term at college,
 Work or                                                              Eating/
 social life?       and I’m surprised at how hard it has              sleeping well?
                    been. There is so much to do. I feel ex-
                    hausted, and I find it difficult to hand in
                    my work in time. It’s quite noisy where I               No, don’t!
  Can you           live, so it’s hard to study. And I’ve got
  move?             no money! It all makes me feel like giv-
                    ing up!

Suggestions:
Talk to teachers
Study in college library
Plan time better
Get holiday job

Read the following models, then say which model is good and which is bad,
giving reasons for your answer as if an examiner. To decide which band
each letter is see section Assessment, p.4

MODEL 1

                                                London, 22th November 2001

Dear Peter,
I received your kind letter last week and I was surprised of how depressed you are.
I know that the first term at college is very hard because when I started my college,
one year ago, was the same for me. Even though you feel exhausted you haven ’t to
give up! I think that you should speak with your teacher trying to look for a solu-
tion. Maybe she can help you. Another thing that I think it’s very important is that
you have to eat complete meals, because when you study you need a lot of ener-
gies. If where you live it’s too noisy, you could study in the college library or you
could look for another flat in a more quiet place. If you need I could lend you some
money; you have only to ask me!