ORAL PRESENTATION ABOUT DREAMS

Last Thursday 17th of November me and my classmate Mar Oliva did an oral presentation about dreams. So, now, I'm going to comment it a little bit to see our mistakes and in what we can improve.


PRESENTATION:

I think our recourses were good. We didn't put almost any text in the presentation, just images to make it more visual and entertaining. We also used a video at the end of the presentation and, from my point of view, it was very interesting and helped the audience to know a little more about dreams. Focusing on the timing, it lasted 8:44 minutes, so it was all right.


BODY LANGUAGE AND EYE CONTACT:

During the presentation, I tried by best to look as less as possible my paper, but in a few times I had to just check on it. Even though I kind of like doing oral presentations, I always get a bit nervous, so it’s normal that I looked on my paper. But, of course, I didn’t read, so I think it was OK. I also tried to make eye contact with everybody in the class, and I think I did it all right.


STRUCTURE:

About the structure, we tried to organize all the information as good as we could, and I think we made it. We did an introduction, then we presented the ideas and finally we did a conclusion.


CONTENT:

While we were doing the presentation, we tried our best not to put boring information in it, we chose the most interesting things we found (according to the topic) and we tried to make it funny and pleasant. About that part, I can’t judge it properly, I think the audience has to do it. But, well, if I have to say something, I would say we did it very good.


LANGUAGE:

Now that I listen to the presentation, I see that I’ve made a few errors because of my nerves, but not so much. A good think that I see in myself is that most of the times when I did a mistake, I corrected it.


PRONUNCIATION AND INTONATION:

I think I have quite a good pronunciation but, of course, I can improve a lot! About the intonation, I tried to make questions, change my tone of voice… to keep the audience’s attention.

So, in conclusion, I think we made a good oral presentation, but we can always improve!

NEWS

RITA BARBERÁ, EX-MAYOR OF VALENCIA, HAS DIED TODAY AT THE AGE OF 68

Today, 23th November 2016, Rita Barberá, ex-mayor of Valencia, has died of a heart attack at the age of 68, according to doctors. Doctors said they had tried to resuscitate her for half an hour, but it didn’t work out.

Rita Barberá had been the mayor of Valencia for 16 years in a row (since 1995 to 2011). While she was the mayor, both the City of Arts and Sciences and the Congress Centre were built. When she was voted out of the mayoral service, she took up a seat in the Spanish Senate.

Then, some months ago, she was accused of money-laundering during her term being the mayor of Valencia, as well as some other people of her team and the PP (Popular Party), but she denied it all. Most rival parties have criticized Barberá a lot, but PP members have always defended her. Even Mariano Rajoy, the president of Spain, has said Rita Barberá “gave everything for Valencia and the Popular Party”. Also, PP members accused those political rivals who criticized Barberá of causing her depression. 

The Podemos members leaving the parliament
during the minute of silence.

But, returning to the main point, Rita Barberá’s death has caused divided reactions. Even though all political leaders have shown their condolences to her family and friends, some of them refused to held one minute of silence in her honor in the parliament. One of these political parties is Podemos, and they have left their sits during this one minute of silence. They argue that they cannot participate in a political tribute to someone whose career is marked by corruption.

It says: "A minute of silence in Congress for the death of Rita Barbera is a tribute to her career. We refused and we left". Said by Alberto Garzón, leader of Izquierda Unida party.

PERSONAL OPINION:

Someone’s death is never a good thing so, even though I’m not a fan of the PP, Rita Barberá’s death has not been a good new. But, in regard to the minute of silence in the parliament, did she really deserve it? Does a corrupt person, which has made illegal business to make money, deserve a minute of silence? Well, that’s a question that you have to make to yourself. As far as I am concerned, I don’t want to get into in this type of political issues, so I’ll limit to give condolences to Rita Barberá’s family and friends.

NEW WORDS:

Amid: entre
Money-laundering: blanqueig de capitals
Vow: prometre


Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38075458

NEWS

SEA WILL EAT US

This new talks about climate change, and how now it is too late for some towns and cities (specifically, it talks about cities in the USA), that will disappear under the sea no matter what we try to do now for avoiding this situation.

In particular, there are 414 towns and cities in the US that will be submerged by sea levels within some years. Among this cities, stand out Miami and New Orleans. This information was provided by the website of Climate Central, the company who did this study.

Then, focusing on Florida, this study guaranteed that at least 40% of the people is living in this affected (or that soon will be affected) area. It says that an important part of the state (including Miami) is built on bedrock formed of “porous limestone”, so some scientifics compared it to a Swiss cheese. That means that water can go through it easily and levees will not be effective.

One of the objectives of this research is to make people aware that this is a serious issue, and to be a warning for cities that can still be saved if we reduce our carbon emissions. One of these cities is New York, but we have to take a drastic action soon or, otherwise, more or less one and a half million people will lose their homes because of the rise of the sea level.

Finally, this new ends with an important question to think about it: “Are we going to let the ocean take a state-sized bite out of America? If we make extreme efforts to cut carbon, we can avoid that”.


PERSONAL OPINION:

Climate change is a very serious problem we have currently. I’m surprised how a lot of people don’t even give it any attention. Maybe that’s because it doesn’t affect us that much in our daily life. There are loads of studies saying that the ice of the Artic is melting dangerously but, after all, you woke up and you don’t feel like anything has changed. We have to change our mind. That we don’t feel its consequences right now and in our daily life doesn’t mean it’s not there. I think we only will realize its importance when it will be too late, when sea level will “eat” our house and everything we have. We are destroying the planet, and we are not conscious it’s the only planet we have to live in.


NEW WORDS:

Bedrock: base, fonament
Levee: dic (construcció)
Heritage: herència


Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/11932421/More-than-400-towns-and-cities-in-America-will-be-lost-to-the-sea-study-finds.html

NEWS

XENOPHOBIA OVER RATIONALITY

This opinion article talks a little bit about the “Brexit” and its consequences. On June 23, Great Britain decided to leave the European Union, becoming the first country to do it. For the writer of this article, this means one thing: national interests and xenophobia are winning over rationality, solidarity and common projects for helping everybody.

Among all the things that represent the Brexit, the writer stands out some of them, like the restrictions on foreign students or “making legal” the xenophobia. But, what’s more terrifying among all those things, is that Brexit isn’t it an isolated case, it’s just the tip of the iceberg of what’s happening in Europe. For example, there’s the case of Germany, who has an extreme right-wing party called Alternative for Germany (AfD) which doesn’t stop growing. This party goes mainly against immigrants and the European Union. Another example is the case of Ticino, a region of Switzerland, which approved through a referendum a priority of local workers over foreign people. These examples prove that more people every time think that immigrants are the cause of low salaries and unemployment.

Then, the author criticizes the fact that people prefer blaming the immigrants and close borders than fighting for higher minimum salaries, redistribute the wealth… This demonstrates that Europe is losing its rationality and national interests are winning against all.


PERSONAL OPINION:
I’m very concerned about this; it seems like we never learn… Well, as someone said, “Man is the only animal that trips twice over the same stone”. Because of this extreme nationalism, some years ago a man called Hitler reached to the power in Germany, and everybody knows what he did. And now, with the victory of Donald Trump in the USA is quite the same. Extreme nationalism is never good. From my point of view, I think a globalized world is a good thing; we worked very hard to achieve it, for everybody to have the same opportunities. Well, we still haven’t done it yet, but we’re working on it, and these extreme nationalisms are a step back to what we have been working for during all the history of humanity.


NEW WORDS:

Withdraw: retirar-se
Scant: escàs
Wage: salari


Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/07/opinions/xenophobia-over-rationality-mammone/index.html

YOUR SAY

MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN?

At first, I didn’t want to talk about the American elections, because it’s such a common topic right at this moment, everyone is talking about it so I thought I wouldn’t be able to contribute with anything new. But, since Trump has won (unlike everyone was expecting), I found myself “forced” to talk about it.

So, yes, Donald Trump has won the elections, and now is the new President of the United States (really, one week ago I was completely sure that I would never say that). My question right now is why, why does a xenophobic, homophobic, sexist, racist and misogynist man have won the elections of the US, the land of freedom, of equality, the most important power of the world?

If I have to be sincere, I don’t understand, and I don’t think I’ll never be able to do it. But, I think to (more or less) understand the causes of this big failure (sorry, I meant, of this decision) we have to understand North America’s society. They have been selling us that America is the land of opportunities, of whether you’re black, white, Hispanic, Asian or wherever you came from, you can succeed in the US if you work hard. And now Americans put a man on the Presidency that wants to build a wall in the border with Mexico? Well, there’s something that I don’t understand here. I think Trump represents the dark part of what white American people think. When you talk to people most of them are like “Oh yes, I’m not a racist, no way!” But then, these people are the first ones to say inside their homes that all the problems of the country are there because of the immigrants. Trump basically says what most people in America think but they don’t dare to say in public. But, really, I never thought more than 60.000.000 people in America thought that way in the XXI century. Maybe one of the reasons why Trump has won is because it’s always easier to blame the others. “Why America have problems? It’s not because of American white people, no way! It’s immigrants fault, clearly”. But people who left their countries looking for a better life are Americans too, like they say “home is where the heart is”. Actually, all the Yankees that consider themselves the “real Americans” are actually immigrants from mostly Europe or some other places in the world. The real American people are the native Americans, so I found it quite stupid to say it’s all immigrants fault when most of American people are immigrants.

Personally, I’m not a big enthusiast of Hillary Clinton either, but I would prefer her in front of Trump. That two-party predominance in the elections is not a good think either. There were other options (like Gary Johnson or Jill Stein) but most of the people don’t even know they exist and that’s a bad thing, because most of the people didn’t actually like Clinton or Trump, but they chose one of them because they hate the other one more. And most of them maybe would have liked the Green Party (lead by Jill Stein) or the Libertarian Party (lead by Gary Johnson) but they didn’t have an opportunity.

But, what will represent Trump’s victory? Well, actually, I don’t really know. I hope (and I’m almost sure) that Donald will not do every stupid thing that he promised, or otherwise we would be finished.

YOUR SAY

CELEBRITIES' PRIVACY

When we were little, almost everyone wanted to be famous: a singer, an important football player, an actor… Then, we started figuring out that being famous is not a bed of roses. In this post I’m not going to talk about all the disadvantages about being famous, but I’m going to focus on, for me, one of the worst of them: the privacy, or rather, the NO privacy that celebrities have.

I think at first you like people stopping you in the street asking you for photos, autographs or other things. But later on you get sick of it, not just because of the people, but for the annoying reporters, always following you wherever you go. The moment you start being very famous, your private life almost disappears. Everyone knows who you are dating, where have you gone on vacations, the clothes you wear when you go to the gym, etc. Most of the people say well, this is the price you pay for fame, but I think it’s not fair. I mean, in my place, I don’t think I would be able to put up with it. From my point of view, I don’t think it should be legal to invade so much the privacy of someone, whether is he or she famous. But most people accept that fact if the person is famous. I mean, for example, if a girl reports someone for following her and taking pictures of her to post it in internet for everyone to see it; that would be a normal thing to do, because you can’t invade someone’s privacy. Oh, but, it’s normal that a reporter takes photos of someone famous being naked and publish that to a magazine or post it in internet, right?

In conclusion, I think famous people should have more privacy. It’s normal that people want to know what they do, but sometimes I think reporters go too far, and we don’t have to forget that celebrities are humans too, so they should have the same rights, including the right of privacy.

DOES HUMOUR PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN LIFE?

Everybody likes to laugh and everybody has laughed in their life. Laughter is a sign of happiness, it shows that you're having a good time so, how could this be bad?

Of course, I think everybody agrees that laughing is beneficial for ourselves. For example, if someone is going through in his or her life the first thing that you do is trying to make that person laugh and forget about the problems. So I think laughter is like a medicine, like a treatment, but completely free.

Can you imagine how boring your life would be if you couldn’t laugh at all? Someone once said: “a day without laughter is a day wasted”. From my point of view, I agree with it, but laughing is not an obligation, it’s something that appears naturally; it doesn’t even have to be something incredibly funny to make you laugh.

Therefore, answering to the main question, I think humour plays an important role in life because, among other things, it makes you be more positive, it helps you get over your problems, connect to people and so more. So, in conclusion, as I wasn’t able to find any negative part about laughter, I reached to the conclusion that laughing is one of the best things you can do!

NEWS

FIRST "THREE PERSON BABY" BORN USING A NEW METHOD CALLED MITOCHONDRIAL DONATION

A few months ago was born the first baby using a new “three person” fertility technique. Experts say that this advance starts a new era in medicine, and could help other families with rare genetic conditions.

The baby has the usual DNA from his mum and dad, plus a tiny bit of genetic code from a donor. The couple decided to do it because the mother carried in her genes an illness that would have passed to the baby.

This is not the first time scientists have created babies that have DNA from three different people; it started in the late 1990s, but this time doctors have used an entirely new method, called mitochondrial donation. Mitochondria are small structures inside nearly every cell of the body that convert food into energy. Some women carry genetic defects in mitochondria and it’s probably they will pass it to their children. In the case of this family, the woman carried a disease in her mitochondria called Leigh Syndrome, a severe neurological disorder that causes the progressive lost of movement and deterioration of mental functions. Children with this illness usually die in two or three years.

Therefore, this new method takes all the vital DNA from the mother’s egg plus healthy mitochondria from a donor egg to create a healthy new egg that can be fertilized with the father’s sperm. Therefore, the baby has 0,1% of his DNA from the donor and all the genetic code from the mother and father.

The reactions to this method that allows creating babies from three different persons are varied. Some of them say that maybe the child will feel strange about having DNA from three people. Some fertility experts say it’s important to push ahead, but cautiously. Even some critics say the work is irresponsible.


PERSONAL OPINION:

In my opinion, I think this is a great progress because it allows women or men who carry a disease in their DNA to have completely healthy babies. Well, I think maybe this method has to improve and fix some aspects, but maybe one day all the people who need it will be able to use it. Personally, I don’t think the kid will have a lot of complex thinking about s/he is a kid from three different persons, because actually s/he only has 0,1% of the donor’s genetic code. As the new says, all the genetic code for things like hair and eye colour is from the mother and father.


NEW WORDS:

Herald: proclamar
Miscarriage: abort natural
Patch: zona (de la pell)


Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37485263

NEWS

iPHONE 7? YOU'RE FIRED!

Can you imagine getting fired from your job just because you have the iPhone 7? Or that your boss tells you your mobile would harm your promotion chances? This is the policy some employers in China are threatening to take against employees who have the iPhone 7. The reasons they take to defend their position are that they do it for patriotic reasons and to prevent workers from being too materialistic.

The first company to announce this rule was Nanyang Yongkang Medicine Company, in the province of Henan. The policy was timed to coincide with commemoration of the 85th anniversary of Japanese troops invading north east China in 1931, so this was an excuse to argue the boycott of foreign products. But, really, boycotting the iPhone 7 can be counterproductive to the national economic interest because Apple manufacturing is carried out at Foxconn factories based in China.

However, there are people who believe that boycotting the iPhone 7 can be beneficial to the economy and that this policy should be instituted across the country. They argue that if people are pressured with getting fired if they buy the new iPhone 7, they will be forced to buy a mobile made in China, so the sales of domestic phones will be increased.

Mr. Liu, an employer of Nanyang Yongkang Medicine Company that the main objective of this rule was to encourage staff to pay more attention to their family instead of luxury goods. The iPhone 7 could lead their workers to developing an unhealthy obsession with pricey technology. Also, it’s a fact that the new iPhone 7 is very expensive, and the Company didn’t want their workers to waste money. Besides, most of their employees really can’t afford buying an iPhone 7, so they normally borrow money from banks, family or friends, or they even do crazy things like selling their organs just to buy it.

Even though this policy isn’t applied yet in any company, more and more of them are discussing about rather apply it or not.

PERSONAL OPINION:

In my point of view, I don’t think it’s fair to forbid your employees to buy the iPhone 7. Each person has to have the right to buy the mobile phone they want. Even though the Company does that to prevent workers from wasting their money (but also under the name of patriotism, don’t forget that), I don’t think they should be able to decide whether their workers can buy this mobile phone or not. In the same way, I find excessive that a business gives the sack to their workers just for buying the iPhone 7. It totally doesn’t make sense for me. Personally, I think applying this policy the Company is violating its workers’ rights.

NEW WORDS:

Device: aparell

Conterproductive: contraproduent

Supplier: proveïdor

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-37523712

YOUR SAY

ZOOS

In this your say I want to talk about some place that annoys me a lot: zoos. 

I have to say that when I was little once I went to the zoo in Barcelona, and I liked it. I’ve always been an animal lover, so it’s not surprising that ten years ago I liked going to the zoo, because I didn’t know what the reality about these places is. But when I grew up, I realized that the zoos are not a happy place, at least, not for the animals living there. These animals are forced to live in small, artificial and stressful gates, so they don’t have any freedom. They are removed from their natural habitats, from their similar ones, even from their family. They are miserable there. And all this to get what? Just for some humans to go there and say “Oh, how curious, look at that lion”. Yes, I know is fun to see exotic animals, but you also have to think that these animals have to spend all their live in captivity just for you to look at them during two minutes. And I think that’s not fair. If you want to see exotic animals with your own eyes, go to the savanna, to the North Pole or wherever these animals are. Actually, you can perfectly live without seeing them, it’s not vital for our lives. What for you are just a few hours of entertainment, for these animals is a lifetime in captivity.

Zoos claim that they provide conservation, education and entertainment, but their primary goal is to gain money; that’s a fact. And I don’t think it’s moral to gain money from this situation. These animals have to be free, in their natural habit, not caged for human entertainment. Imagine you are one of these animals and have to spend all your life in a boring cage, doing nothing, not able to see the world, to discover things, just seeing some strange creatures looking at you all the time. Animals in the zoo are sad, miserable, and they don’t deserve to live like this. That’s why I’m against zoos. And I know there are worst places for animals to go, like in an animal circus, for example, but I wanted to talk about zoos because there are people that don’t think these places are bad for the animals, and we all have to be conscious about it.

JOKE

TED TALKS

YOUR BODY LANGUAGE SHAPES WHO YOU ARE

This talk is made by Amy Cuddy, and the main topic of it is the body language. She starts the talk by asking to the people listening to her to take a look of what are they doing right now, what’s their corporal position, because that shows a little bit of their personality.

Then, Cuddy focuses on the nonverbal communication and its importance. She says that we tend to think that the way we look or act only affects how other people see ourselves, but that’s not totally true; it also affects ourselves. To explain that, she talks about the power dynamics, especially she focuses on the nonverbal expressions of power and dominance. Then, she talks about an interesting fact about animals as well as humans: when we want to demonstrate power we tend to expand, open up, take up space. Even when you, for example, win a race and you just feel powerful for ten seconds, you will open your arms to show it. Cuddy says that this type of thing (open your arms when you feel pride) is universal. One thing that caught my attention was that she said that even a person who has born blind and, of course, never has seen somebody do that pose, he/she would still do it if he/she won in a physical competition; because that sign is universal, both in the animal kingdom as well as in humans.

Contrarily, when we feel powerless we do exactly the opposite: we close up, we make us small (both animals and humans).

Afterwards, she moves her theory into a classroom: there are people who you notice them a lot, they speak loud and stand out among the others; contrarily, there are the opposite people, who prefer not to stand out and remain quiet and silent. In fact, this is related to gender: women feel chronically less powerful than men, so they normally are quieter and more calm what it comes to standing out in class. Cuddy figured out that this is also related to participation, the first type of people tend to participate more at class, while the other type nearly speaks. This could be a bad thing in some degrees at College, where participation counts 50% of the mark. So then, Cuddy asked herself a question: could those people who are more insecure to fake being more participative? Basically, can they fake it until they make it?

Therefore, she did an experiment to prove it. She found out that if you force yourself to “feel powerful”, you actually really feel it. The simplest way to do it (and the most effective one) is to adapt a powerful pose during 2 minutes, and that makes you increase your security in yourself. But also it works the other way, if you unintentionally adapt a pose of dominance, your self-confidence will decrease. So she recommends us to, before a job interview or an exam (for example), adopt a powerful pose during 2 minutes in the bathroom, the hallway or wherever you want. That really can help you, make you feel more secure and powerful, and it’s very easy to do.

 

Amy Cuddy finishes her speech by telling us to not just “fake it until you make it”, but to “fake it until you become it”. She says that if you keep doing this little experiment your self-confidence will eventually increase until you will become secure in yourself.

PERSONAL OPINION:

I think this is a very motivating and inspiring speech; Cuddy gives a lot of good advices for feeling more secure in you. Naturally, the quote that I liked the most is: “Don’t fake it ‘till you make it, fake it ‘til you become it”.

NEW WORDS: 

Hunch: Encorbar-se
Tweak: Modificar
Glance: Mirada
Outcome: Resultat


Link: https://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

EMAIL TO MY TEACHER

Dear Lourdes,


My name is Paula Caball, you might remember me because you were my English teacher in first of ESO.

I don’t consider necessary to do a physical description of me, so I’m going to explain who I am. I think it’s difficult to do a brief description of my personality, because I have a lot of things to say. But, in general, I consider myself a positive person, cheerful and talkative. I’m also outgoing and I love meeting new people and being with my friends. I’m a hardworking person too, and that sometimes it’s a bad thing because it makes me be stressed out, especially now that I’m in Batxillerat. Another bad thing that I have is that I worry way too much about things that maybe aren’t very important. Also, I’m very perfectionist, and I like to do everything correctly. Finally, I think I care too much about what the other people think of me, and that shouldn’t be important.

Now, talking about which are my short and long-term goals, I don’t have it very clear, but the first one that I want to achieve is to finish Batxillerat with good grades (the best that I can but trying to not feel too stressed). I also will try to get a scholarship, because I think it’s possible although I know it’s very difficult. To achieve that I will have to study hard, concentrate in class and organize myself very well. I also have some long-term goals, for example one of them is to enter in the degree I want to study in the University and finish it. I also want to keep studying English to finally obtain the Proficiency (CPE) qualification. I would like to learn more languages too, especially French and German, but also some others like Italian, Russian or Chinese. Like most of the people, I want to travel a lot, and I’m sure I will find ways to travel that are not very expensive, because exploring the world is something I force myself to do! For example, I could do an au pair or volunteering in a NGO. Focusing on the people who can help me to stay on track, well, for the short-term goals I think I only need myself, because studying is something that, even though you can need help, you have to do it on your own. About the long-term goals, I also think that I don’t need anyone in particular to help me, but it’s always nice to have somebody by your side, so I think my family and friends could help me, but just to give me support.


“You can’t let your failures define you; you have to let your failures teach you. You have to let them show you what to do differently the next time.”

This is one of the quotes I liked the most in Obama’s speech. I liked it because it shows that failures aren’t a sign of weakness, it only shows you that you have done something wrong but most of the times if you try harder, change something and keep trying you will achieve your objectives. The most important thing is to never give up.


I look forward to hearing from you.

Best regards,

Paula

NEWS

A SUPERMARKET IN DENMARK WHICH FIGHTS AGAINST THE FOOD WASTE

In Copenhagen, Denmark, has opened a new supermarket called WeFood, which sells food, cosmetics and household items that other stores rejected because they are near their expiration dates, had been wrongly labeled or had damaged packaging, but are still legal to sell and safe to consume. This supermarket sells the products 30 to 50 per cent lower than in regular supermarkets.

The supermarket has already been a huge success: the first weeks after the opening, the people have lined up before the store’s opening every morning.

This project has been applauded for a lot of people in Denmark, because this country throws away about 700,000 tons of food every year, according to several estimates. Food waste is one of the principal problems in the world right now. About 795 million people are undernourished globally, according to the World Food Program, but about a third of all the food produced in the world (1.3 billion tons more or less) is lost or wasted each year. The cost of global food wastage is about 1 trillion dollars a year, according to the U.N. Also, wasting food contributes to climate change: producing, distributing, consuming and disposing of food uses significant amounts of energy and water, which causes over 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Nowadays, some European companies and countries are taking steps to battle food waste. In Denmark, if WeFood’s popularity continues, it will open new supermarkets across the country.

PERSONAL OPINION:

I find this a very interesting project, which will help for not wasting so much food. I think it’s ironic how in the developed countries you can find as many food as you want (more than we need) and there are countries all over the world who don’t have enough food to feed their inhabitants. Once I read that with all the food we have at the moment, we could easily end with the hunger in the world twice or three times. That’s impressive, because it makes you think that we have the solution to this problem, but we don’t try enough to solve it.


NEW WORDS:

Surplus: excedent
Shelter: refugi, alberg
Undernourished: malnodrit, desnodrit


Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/denmark-wefood-food-waste_us_56cf5d6fe4b03260bf75fe15

YOUR-SAY

NO MORE GENDER ROLES

I want to share with you a video that I saw a few days ago that I really liked. The video is made by Ariel, a detergent brand, and talks about an issue that still have our society nowadays: rigid gender roles.

The video shows the apologise of a father to his daughter, who lives independently with her husband and her son. The father sees how her daughter is making all the household chores while her husband is sitting comfortably in front of the TV reading a newspaper with a cup of coffee. Then he realises she can’t do it all, and that her husband must help her, but he doesn’t. He also realise that he wasn’t a good example for her, because he was like her daughter’s husband, so the girl saw her mother doing all the household chores and she followed her example. That’s why he apologises, but he also wants to help her to change that. Therefore, he writes a letter apologising for that and then he comes back home. When his wife sees him come back, she quickly wants to take all the clothes to wash them, but the man stops her and decides to do it himself. 

In the past, in most cultures, a woman’s work was to stay at home doing household chores and taking care of the kids. Fortunately, with the pass of time, this has changed and nowadays in most places women have a job like men (even though there are some inequalities that must end), but there are some gender roles that hasn’t been eliminated, and one of them is taking care of the house. This, step by step, is changing, but there are a lot of houses where almost all the household chores are done by the woman. As I said before, this must be eliminated and both men and women have to take care of the house in the same measure.

VIDEO:

NEWS

A DEAF GIRL'S DREAMS COME TRUE WHEN TINKERBELL STARTS TALKING TO HER IN SIGN LANGUAGE

Shaylee Mansfield was 4 years old when she went to Disney World for the first time. She is deaf and she never expected that the Disney icons would be able to communicate with her, so she was shocked when Tinkerbell started talking to her in sign language. Shaylee’s expression tells everything: her mouth opens completely and her eyes widen.

Her mother, Sheena McFeely, is also deaf, and she enrolled her daughter into a school where everyone speaks sign language, so Shaylee grows up feeling included. For Shaylee, school it’s a very special place and now, Disney World has become a very special place too where she can communicate with people.

The family was invited back to Disney World three years later and Shaylee receives another surprise when Minnie Mouse also talks to her in sign language.

Currently, the theme park is making steps to become more inclusive for children with disabilities.

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PERSONAL OPINION:

When I saw the video for the first time I became emotional, because I imagined how Shaylee felt at that moment. I think it’s a great step for Disney to find ways to make feel all the kids special regardless if they have a disability.  

NEW WORDS:

Widen: eixamplar, ampliar

Enroll: inscriure

Footage: metratge

Link: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/7080459/A-deaf-girls-dreams-come-true-when-Tinkerbell-starts-talking-to-her-in-sign-language-at-Disney-World.html

YOUR-SAY

LOOK UP

A few weeks ago I saw on Facebook that a German city called Augsburg have found a solution for people who are distracted on their phones while they are walking in the street. 

Well, as you perfectly know, while you are with your phone, you’re not paying a lot of attention to what happens around you, mainly because it’s impossible to truly concentrate to a lot of things at the same time. In the last few years, the numbers of deaths of pedestrians in the street has increased, and it’s surprising that lots of them are because the person killed or injured was paying attention to their phone and not to the street. Well, it’s not that astonishing considering our addiction to the phone (of course, not everybody, but most of us). So, this German city, Augsburg, decided to put small red lights in the street, just in front of a crosswalk, for people to see it and notice when they can cross it or they can’t. Because lifting your head and look at the traffic light or just watch if there’s any car crossing was too difficult and too complicated, of course. 

I also saw that in China, in Chongqing city, they even gave people who are all day at their phones their own walking lane.

In my point of view, I think this is going way too far. It’s not normal that a city has to make a personal walking lane for people who are texting in the phone, or that they invent a little red lights to put in the street for the people who are distracted enough on their phones to not lift their head and observe what they have in front of their eyes. Please, our addiction to the mobile phones is already killing us (literally). I think it’s very stupid and embarrassing to reach this level so, please, pay attention to what’s around you and if you are walking in the streets, don’t be all the way looking at your phone to avoid that a stupid red light in the street have to tell you when it’s safe to cross instead of raise your head and look it yourself.

YOUR-SAY

#GiveElsaAGirlfriend?

A few weeks ago the hashtag #GiveElsaAGirlfriend became Trending Topic on Twitter. It all started when a girl called Alexis Isabel twitted:



Then she twitted “Dear Disney, #GiveElsaAGirlfriend”. Some people liked her idea, and they started retweeting it until it became Trending Topic.

Of course, there are always people who are against it, so some people created the hashtag #CharmingPrinceForElsa. They argued that a lot of children watch and like Frozen, and it would be a bad influence if Elsa is lesbian (I totally disagree with it).

In my opinion, I think if Elsa has a girlfriend, this will not be a bad influence for the kids; I think it will help to normalise homosexuality among children. Also, it would encourage young children who are homosexual to know that they are not strange, and that is completely fine and normal to be gay or lesbian. It will be a great step for Disney to do it, because the LGBT community hasn’t been represented in Disney movies.

On the other hand, I think it would also be nice to let Elsa be independent. I mean, all Disney movies about princesses show the little girls that they have to found a man to be happy, but that’s not true. You can be happy without being married or having a partner. Elsa is a great example for being an independent woman, and feeling great about it.

Therefore, the best solution in my point of view is to let Elsa be an independent woman and create a homosexual character for another movie. I mean, create a movie which principal character is gay or lesbian.

NEWS

CLIMATE CHANGE MAKES DISAPPEAR FIVE ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN

Scientists in Australia have recently found that rising sea levels and coastal erosion have caused the disappearance of (at least) 5 islands in the Solomon Islands (Pacific Ocean). They believe that this could be the first evidence of climate change removing islands.

Also, the study found that in the island of Nuatambu half of the houses have been washed into the ocean, so some families have got to move into higher places in the island.

The increase and the disappearance of these 5 islands not only destroyed villages that have existed since 1935, but also have eliminated tropical vegetation that was at least 300 years old.

Across the Pacific, there are a lot of small islands which have been warning about the impact of climate change and alerted that maybe in some years their populations will have to evacuate the island because of the rise of the sea level.

PERSONAL OPINION:

If you search on the Internet, almost every day you can found news about the climate change, but only a few of them are in the headlines of a newspaper or on the TV news. Maybe it doesn’t seem so, but climate change is a VERY serious problem that we have right now and, even though the governments are starting applying laws against global warming, we’re not taking the problem enough seriously. Maybe we will realize its importance when it will be too late.


NEW WORDS:

Reef: escull (del mar)
Wipe: netejar, passar un drap
Flee: fugir


Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/09/disappearance-of-five-islands-in-the-pacific-blamed-on-climate-c/

NEWS

A WOMAN LOOSES HER JOB FOR NOT WEARING HIGH HEELS

Nicola Thorp was sent home in her first day of job in a corporate finance company called PwC for refusing to wear high heels with a 2-4in heel. She claimed that the demand was discriminatory but they said the uniform rules for staff request woman to wear high heels.

Thorp was expected to do a nine-hour shift escorting clients to meeting rooms, so she replied she won’t be able to do that in high heels. Also, she said that if they could give her a reason why wearing flats would impair her to do the job, then she will use high heels but, obviously, they couldn’t.

Then, after posting about the incident on Facebook, Thorp realised that there are other women who had experienced similar situations. Therefore, she launched a petition to achieve that the companies can’t force women to wear high heels to work. In less than 48 hours, 110,000 people have signed it.

Nicola Thorp also said that she holds nothing against the company necessarily, because they are acting following their rules and their formal dress code, but she said that dress codes should reflect society and nowadays women can be smart and wear flat shoes. She added that there’s also a sexism issue: companies shouldn’t be forcing women to wear high heels if they don’t want to.

The company (PwC) said that they have a dress code to ensure staff are dressed appropriately, but they will check their guideline with their clients and team members to see if it can be modified.


PERSONAL OPINION:

I think women shouldn’t be forced to wear high heels to work if they don’t want to. I can accept that there can be a dress code to ensure that an employee wears appropriate clothes and shoes and not flip-flops, for example. But a flat shoe can be as formal as high heels, and it’s someone’s decision to wear it or not, without worrying if this decision can make you lose your job. Nowadays there are a lot of women who don’t like or don’t want to wear high heels, and this fact doesn’t make them less feminine or less formal.


NEW WORDS: 

Guideline: normes, regles generals
Escorting: escortar, acompanyar a algú
Outsource: subcontractar


Link: http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/11/receptionist-sent-home-pwc-not-wearing-high-heels-pwc-nicola-thorp

BOOK REVIEW

ELSEWHERE, by Gabrielle Zevin

I’m going to do a review about a book I have read: Elsewhere, by Gabrielle Zevin. First, I’m going to explain a little bit the plot but without revealing the ending, because maybe some of you want to read it!

The main character of the story is Liz (Elizabeth Hall), a nearly sixteen-year-old girl from United States who is killed in a hit and run accident by a cab. After her death, she wakes up on a boat, so she thinks she’s dreaming (because she denies accepting that she is dead). The boat arrives to Elsewhere, the place where all the dead people go. Elsewhere is a place very similar to the Earth, but the main difference is that the people who live there age backwards. In this place, Liz meets Betty, her grandmother, and some good new friends (and also, she falls in love). At first, Liz doesn’t like Elsewhere because, who wants to be dead? But then she realizes her life in Elsewhere is like a second life, the same or maybe better than her life in the Earth.

The main reason why I liked the book is because it’s very original. I thought about what happens after death a million times and I imagined a million things, but when I read Elsewhere I discovered another perspective which I did never think about it. I also liked the love story that happens in the book, although it’s a bit predictable.

Maybe, what I didn’t like a lot about the book is that in some parts the writer of the book described not very interesting things; I mean, she described some chapters of Liz’s life which weren’t important at all and that made the book a bit boring in some parts. I would like the book to have a bit more of action.

But, a part from that, I enjoyed the reading of Elsewhere and I recommend it to my classmates basically because it’s not a very difficult book to read, so I think that is a good point for practicing English. Also, the story is original, even though in some parts it’s a bit boring.

Finally, this is a quote from the book that I specially loved and I would like to share with you:

ORAL PRESENTATION

GAP YEAR IN SOUTH AFRICA

In April, I did an oral presentation about a gap year in South Africa with my classmates Mar Oliva and Paula Valenzuela. As the title says, the main objective of the presentation was to explain a gap year in South Africa and also talk a little bit about the culture of this country.

In the table down below I will self-evaluate myself.

NAME AND TOPIC: A gap year in South Africa	COMMENTS	MARK
Presentation (10%)	I think the presentation was good, but maybe it wasn’t very very original. I would like to emphasise that our presentation was like a mini “play”, so some images on the presentation were representing places where the action took place.	0,9
Body language and eye contact (10%)	I think my body language is quite good, I use to make a lot of movements when I’m talking, but I think that’s a good point because it attracts attention from the audience. I read to my notes twice, but that was because I was a bit nervous.	0,9
Structure (10%)	In my opinion, the structure of the presentation was fine, because the ideas were organized.	1
Content (40%)	The content was adequate and we tried to do the presentation as different, original and entertaining as possible, so I think it was very good.	4
Language (20%)	Even though I tried hard to use more complex language, it’s a bit difficult when you are doing an oral presentation to remember all of them, so I didn’t used as many complex words as I wanted to. For the next presentation I will have to work harder on that.	1,5
Pronunciation and Intonation (10%)	I think my tone of voice was appropriate, because I normally have a tone of voice that is not too loud or too weak. Maybe, focusing on the pronunciation, there are some words that I didn’t pronounced them perfectly, but I think in general it was quite good.	0,9
FINAL MARK		9,2

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