FOR ENGLISH FANS: Rare pink diamond up for auction in Switzerland

Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Rare pink diamond up for auction in Switzerland

One of the world's rarest diamonds is likely to fetch a

record price at auction in Geneva on Tuesday.

The 24.78-carat "fancy intense pink" diamond is expected to command at least $1m (£625,000) per carat.

Last sold by a New York jeweller 60 years ago, the gem has been kept in a private collection ever since. The previous record for a jewel at auction was set by a blue 35.56 carat diamond which sold for £15.2m ($24.3m) at auction in 2008.

Pink diamonds of such a size are extremely rare and the gem up for auction is described as having an emerald cut with gently rounded corners.

Five hundred lots are on sale including jewellery that belonged to Cristina Onassis and Cristina Ford - who was married to Henry Ford II, grandson of the founder of the Ford Motor Company.

David Bennett of Sotheby's international jewellery division said the pink stone had a "soft sensual feel". "There's only one or two other stones I've seen like this in the 35 years I've been doing this job. I just love it."

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Who am I?

My name is Maria Dulce Branquinho and I teach English in a school not far from Lisbon. I 've been teaching for 35 years now. I love teaching and I love my pupils. I'm very concerned about the environmental problems, namely pollution, animals' rights, species in extinction and everything related to our planet's health or the lack of it.

One of the aims of this blog is to give people, especially my pupils the opportunity to know what's going around the world. Of course I only choose news I think can interest them because they´re odd or are, in some extent extraordinary. The other aim is to provide my students with exercises they can try to practice the English language and be able to improve it. I hope you all like my blog. Don't be shy and leave your comments or if you want you may become one of this blog's followers.

Agatha Christie's short biography

Agatha Christie was born in 1890, the youngest of three children in a conservative, well-to-do family. Her father was called Frederick Miller so she was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller. She was educated at home and studied singing in Paris.

In 1914, at the age of 24, she married Archie Christie, a World War I fighter pilot. While he was off at war, she worked as a nurse. It was while working in a hospital during the war that Christie first came up with the idea of writing a detective novel. Although it was completed in a year, it wasn't published until 1920.

In 1926, Agatha made news herself when she disappeared for a few days after her husband wanted a divorce. She was soon found to be staying in a hotel under an alias. Her disappearance is still a mystery! She and Archibald divorced in 1928.

She fell in love with Max Mallowan, a young archaeologist whom she met on a trip to Mesopotamia and married in 1930 and Agatha Christie became Agatha Christie Mallowan. In 1971 she was awarded the high honor of becoming a Dame of the British Empire.

Agatha Christie ultimately became the acknowledged Queen of the Golden Age. She wrote nearly seventy novels in her career and more than a hundred short stories. Her most famous characters are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Agatha Christie also wrote six romantic novels under the name Mary Westmacott. Several of her works were made into successful feature films, the most notable being Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Agatha's plays have also made her famous and her best known play, The Mousetrap, is most likely the best known mystery play in the world. Her work has been translated into more than a hundred languages. In short, she is the single most popular mystery writer of all time.

Agatha Christie died in 12 January 1976, two years after Max Mallowan died.

Welcome to The world of English!

As you all know English is considered a world language. It is spoken by millions of people all over the world, not only as an official language but also as a second language. Thousands of millions use English to communicate on the Internet because English is the language of computing too. English is an easy language as it has no accents, verb tenses are simple and adjectives don't change, that is they don't have a plural form. Scientists, politicians, artists or just internet users for fun use English to communicate because it's a language most people understand . So, people from different cultures can keep in touch and exchange ideas, cultural habits, scientific or artistic aspects through English. I hope you follow this blog because it may help you like English better and learn new things every day having fun.

Bye, bye

Your English teacher,

Mª Dulce Branquinho

FOR ENGLISH FANS

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Wednesday, 17 November 2010

Rare pink diamond up for auction in Switzerland

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