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