End of Semester Party

Fall 2007 was an awesome semester! Thanks to all of you who helped make it so.

Below is our 2007 rendition of The Twelve Days of Christmas, with apologies to Laura and Angeles, who had gone to pick up the pizza.

Holiday Links

Take this test on "Twas the Night Before Christmas" to see how much you remember about the poem. It's not really a test, so if you can't remember, you can look at your paper to find the answer.

Read stories by ESL students about their Christmas and New Year memories.

Try these 30 questions to test your English grammar while you learn about the history of Santa Claus.

Find out why we have Christmas trees and lights and learn about the origins of other holiday traditions.

The Gift of the Magi and O'Henry

Some of you have read The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry in class. Here is a link to a recording of the story so you can listen to it as you read. Scroll down until you see the audio player, click the arrow for Play, and then scroll back to the top of the story to read with the recording.

O. Henry was born William Sidney Porter in North Carolina in 1862. He moved to Austin when he was 22 years old. He lived here for 13 years--until he was accused (and later convicted) of embezzling funds from the First National Bank, where he had worked as a teller for three years. While he was in prison, he started using the name O'Henry for his writing. The house where he lived in Austin is now the O. Henry Museum at 409 E. Fifth Street.