The eight short stories in this collection, by Marcel Aymé, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Raymond Queneau and other French writers, have been selected both for their literary merit and as a representative of contemporary French writing. The English translations that are printed in a parallel text are literal rather than literary. This volume is intended primarily to help English-speaking students of French, but the stories also stand on their own and make excellent reading in either language

The summer holidays are dragging on and Harry Potter can't wait for the start of the school year. It is his fourth year at Hogwards School of Witchcraft and wizardry, and there are spells to be learnt, potions to be brewed and Divination lessons (sigh) to be attended. Harry is expecting these: however, other quite unexpected events are already on the march ...

Precious Ramotswe, that cheerful Botswana private investigator of "traditional build", is finally married to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni of Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, her detective agency is busy and life could not be better ... Well ... it could, actually. If Mma Ramotswe hadn't listened to a plea of particular misfortune, she wouldn't have suffered her own mishap - a collision between her tiny white van and a bicycle. That unfortunate crash echoes another unhappy meeting - a clash of personalities. For her assistant, Mma Makutsi, has a spectacular disagreement with one of the garage apprentices. He is enraptured by a fast piece with a Mercedes, and everyone knows where that sort of thing can lead ...

The story of Kostia, a Russian woman who would like to discover the West. On holidays at her grandmother's house near Chernobyl, where the power plant has recently exploded, she meets Elena, a little girl whose father has been drafted in to extinguish the raging fires

This book is about the life of Benjamin, an obese adolescent, which is a sensitive subject in today's society. He feels self-conscious of the look of others, especially when he meets his first love

The story of Mandy, a little girl whose parents act as foster parents to other children. She doesn't want to share her parents any longer. Unfortunately for her, one evening her parents return with a very bizarre little boy, a mute who is dressed in dirty black clothes. Little by little she becomes attached to him, especially once she realises his telepathic abilites, and helps him save a maltreated little girl

The five plays translated here are those on which Strindberg's international reputation as a dramatist principally rests and this edition embraces his crucial transition from Naturalism to Modernism, from his two finest achievements as a psychological realist.

In "morality for Beautiful Girls", Precious Ramotswe, founder and owner of Botswana's only detective agency for the "concerns of both ladies and others," investigates the alleged poisoning of the brother of an important "Government Man," and the moral character of the four finalists of the Miss Beauty and Integrity Contest, the winner of which will almost certainly be a contestant for the title of Miss Botswana. Meanwhile, the agency is having money problems, and when unexpected difficulties arise at the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, she discovers that her fiance, the reliable Mr J.L.B. Matekoni, is more complicated than he seems.

Bill Bryson is an unabashed Anglophile who, through a mistake of history, happened to be born and bred in Iowa. Righting that error, he spent 20 years in England before deciding to repatriate: "I had recently read that 3.7 million Americans according to a Gallup poll, believed that they had been abducted by aliens at one time or another, so it was clear that my people needed me." That comic tone enlivens this account of Bryson's farewell walking tour of the countryside of "the green and kindly island that had for two decades been my home."

The eight short stories in this collection by Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Camillo José Cela and other Spanish writers, have been chosen both for their literary merit and for being representative of the contemporary trend in Spanish-American writing. The English translations that are printed in a parallel text are literal rather than literary. This volume is intended primarily to help English-speaking students of Spanish, but the stories also stand on their own and make excellent reading in either language

A short story about long lost friends who meet up in Madrid's Plaza Mayor and tell each other the story of their lives. Aimed at students with an intermediate level of Spanish.

"Penguin Readers" is a series of simplified novels, film novelizations and original titles that introduce students at all levels to the pleasures of reading in English. Originally designed for teaching English as a foreign language, the series' combination of high interest level and low reading age makes it suitable for both English-speaking teenagers with limited reading skills and students of English as a second language

In "The Birds" and five more superb stories of suspense from Daphne du Maurier, the weak, the dispossessed and the exploited wreak their vengeance on a complacent world.

Mma Ramotswe, who became engaged to Mr J.L.B Matekoni at the end of "The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency", remains unmarried. She wonders when a day for the wedding will be named, but is anxious to avoid putting too much pressure on her fiance. For indeed he has other things on his mind - notably a frightening request made of him by Mma Potokwani, pushy matron of the Orphan Farm.

When the body of Sir Charles Baskerville is found in his garden, there are no signs to explain his death. Did he die of fright? Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson have another mysterious case to solve. The terrible spectacle of the beast, the fog of the moor, the discovery of a body, this classic horror story pits detective against dog. When Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead on the wild Devon moorland with the footprints of a giant hound nearby, the blame is placed on a family curse. It is left to Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson to solve the mystery of the legend of the phantom hound before Sir Charles' heir comes to an equally gruesome end. The Hound Of The Baskervilles gripped readers when it was first serialised and has continued to hold its place in the popular imagination.

Along comes Gez Walsh with another collection of odd odes and dubious ditties. Apart from old favourites such as Wilf, the central character, trying to come to terms with the knowledge that life is just the pits (or maybe the zits?) sometimes, we have the wilder flights of Gez\'s fantasy, embodied in the \"Rocking Vicar\" and the tale of \"Poorly Julie\" who ate that most unhealthy of foods, broccoli, and \"Grandma\", who mistakenly nibbled rabbit droppings. Giggle again at the rude, crude lewdness of it all and join the Gez Walsh fan club with its growing band of spotmaniacs. Kids! - if you\'ve ever suffered the embarrassment of watching your dad disco dancing at a party whilst telling everyone he\'s Baby Spice, this book is for you!

In less than an hour, Sean has a meeting with a mestizo gangster. On the other side of town, Rosa listens for her husband’s car, and thirteen-year-old Vincente is watching for the man who pays money for street-kids’ dreams. Tonight, these disparate lives will violently collide ...

Thinasonke is thirteen, born in prison. Along with her mother, her older brother Mangaliso, three younger siblings and her grandma, she lives in Guguletu, one of the townships on the edge of Cape Town where violence is omnipresent.

New Directions, Second Edition is a thematic reading-writing book aimed at the most advanced ESL learners. The Student's Book prepares students for the rigors of college-level writing by having them read long, challenging, authentic readings as a precursor to writing. This emphasis on reading gives New Directions its distinctive character. Each of the five topic-based chapters contains three core readings and five additional readings. The readings come from a variety of genres and are accompanied by exercise material. The second edition represents a major revision. It contains two entirely new chapters and many new readings and activities in the other three. Another significant new feature is a section at the end of the first chapter that takes students through the writing process. Students work through it for their first writing assignment and return to this thorough treatment of the writing process for each subsequent major writing assignment.

This book is intended for students whose mother tongue is not English but who are studing English literature, and teaches students how to appreciate and criticise creative writing

Study Reading is a course for learners of intermediate level or above who need to develop their reading skills for study purposes. It is ideal for students working on their own, and contains a detailed answer key. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 introduces basic reading skills. Part 2 is theme based, with texts from a variety of disciplines, and aims to extend the skills introduced in Part 1. Part 3 covers the reading skills required for project, dissertation and thesis work. By doing a variety of task-based, problem-solving activities – and through direct advice - learners are encouraged to refine their reading strategies through exposure to the ideas of others. The Second Edition of Study Reading includes more recent texts in the academic disciplines represented and also takes account of new media, including on-line resources. Activities are also included for IELTS practice.

This book gives up-to-date information on all aspects of British life and institutions. It explains everything that other nationalities find interesting, amusing, puzzling or even frustrating about Britain and the British

This book gives up-to-date information on all aspects of British life and institutions. It explains everything that other nationalities find interesting, amusing or puzzling about Britain and the British

Comtemporary western societies are becoming "knowledge societies," that run on expert processes and expert systems epitomised by science and structured into all areas of social life. By looking at epistemic cultures in two sample cases, this book addresses pressing questions about how such expert systems and processes work, what principles inform their cognitive and procedural orientations and whether their organisation, structures and operations can be extended to other forms of social order

The insights provided by this book are of two main types. On the one hand, there are those which relate to the classroom and to practice. On the other, there are also insights into the principles which lie behind good practice

"Life in the Freezer" is an exciting new natural history of the Antarctic. Less celebrated than its northern equivalent, it boasts an equal blend of extraordinary wildlife and stunning scenery. In this book, Alastair Fothergill traces the region's seasonal cycle and explains how marine, mammal, bird and plant life survive in one of the harshest climates on earth

An innovative study of the relationship between Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini, two masters of the Italian Renaissance Andrea Mantegna (c. 1431-1506) and Giovanni Bellini (active c. 1459; died 1516) each produced groundbreaking paintings, marked by pictorial and technical innovations, that are among the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance. Exploring the fruitful dynamic between Mantegna's inventive compositional approach and interest in classical antiquity and Bellini's passion for landscape painting, this fascinating volume examines how these two artists, who were also brothers-in-law, influenced and responded to each other's work. Full of new insights and captivating juxtapositions-including comparisons of each of the artist's depictions of the Agony in the Garden and the Presentation to the Temple-this study reveals that neither Mantegna's nor Bellini's achievements can be fully understood in isolation and that their continuous creative exchanges shaped the work of both.

Throughout the world lie the ruins of some of the greatest civilisations the world has ever seen but it remains a mystery how such structures were accomplished without the aid of modern technology. In this book, engineers, architects, archaeologists and others work together to re-create past glories using the tools of the time. Accompanied by the BBC documentary on DVD

In this book, Jean Aitchison discusses, among other things, the evolution of language in the human species and how it is acquired by children

This book addresses the need for a systematic approach to training in translation studies by drawing on Key areas in modern linguistic theory and relating them to a number of translation problems and strategies.