What do you know about Halloween?

What is Halloween?

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns. 
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. 
The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween. Masks and costumes were worn* in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease* them.

The ancient Gaels believed that on  October 31, the boundaries* between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped* and the deceased* would come back to life and cause havoc* such as sickness* or damaged* crops*.


VOCABULARY:
Boundary: frontera
Overlapped: sobreposar-se
Deceased: mort
Havoc: lios
Sickness: malalties
Damaged: mal
Crops: cultius
Worn: usat
Appease: calmar

Angelina Jolie

This year, Angelina Jolie plays the villain in the film Maleficient. But the Hollywood actress has spent much of her life doing good...

A DIFFICULT START
Angelina always wanted to be an actress. She got her first film role at age seven, but she was teased by other kids at school in Beverly hills, LA. She became a rebellious teenager wearing black clothes, getting tatoos and listening to punk music. Often, film directors didn't choose her because her image was "too dark".

THE LARA CROFT HEROINE
Angelina's first big success came in 2001 with the film Lara Croft Tomb Raider. It's an adaptation of the Tomb Raider video game. Angelina had to speak with an English accent and do intensive martial arts training. She became an international action star, but the film changed Angelina's life in another way too...

HELPING THE WORLD'S CHILDREN
While filming Lara Croft in Cambodia, Angelina met children who were landmine victims. She was shocked so she started visiting refugee camps worldwide and became a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. In 2002, she adopted a baby from Cambodia who she named Maddox. Since then, she has helped construct schools and health centres in Cambodia.

ANGELINA AND BRAD
Angelina adopted two more children, Zahara Marley from ethiopia, and Pax Thien from Vietnam. But this time the children had a dad too -the actor Brad Pitt. Brad and Angelina met when they were filming Mr, & Mrs. Smith.

GLAMOUR AND GENEROSITY
One of Hollywood's most glamorous actresses, Anglina has also been named the most beautiful woman in the world. But she is still comitted to humanitarian causes. When Angelina and Brad Pitt had their biological children, they sold the first photos to celebrity news magazines for millions of dollars and then donated the money to charity.

Ansel Elgort

Ansel Elgort is an American actor, music producer and DJ. He's in the films Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars and others. He lives in New York City, United States.

He lives with his parents and two older siblings: Warren, a film editor, and Sophie, a photographer. At home, his pet is a loyal puppy called Galo. Ansel is very tall and he's got brown hair and big brown eyes. The good thing about him is that he's generous, nice and tolerant, although he can also be quite shy.

He's very interested in arts. One of his unique hobbies is painting miniatures, he's extremely super passionate about music and produces electronic dance tunes under the DJ name Ansolo.

My best friend

Xènia Tubert and I are friends. Xènia lives a bit far from me here in Banyoles. She lives in a beautiful new house. We go to the same school, but we aren't neighbours, although I often go to his house to do homework or after school because he lives near it.

Xènia is fourteen years old. She's the same height as me and she's got short brown hair. She also has a nice smile. The good thing about her is that she's very warm-hearted and cheerful. She's quite shy but when she knows you well she is very nice.

Xènia is happiest when she's riding a horse and staying with animals, also when we joke together. There's the lake of Banyoles near her house so we often go there and we walk together. She also loves Platja d'Aro summers with me and her cousins. She's also in love with chocolate cereals and milk, she always eats it for breakfast!