MY ENGLISH COMPETENCE 2010

the podcast     the composition

I have chosen these blog entries because I think that these ones are my best works in all courses.

For the oral is the podcast about a description of a person and the person who I described was my little sister called Emma. I like this one because I used a lot of new adjectives I had learnt like thin-skinned, naughty, bossy… Also because I talked about my sister and I know her fondly and I always like to speak about her in a good way. In my opinion the pronunciation was good and I didn’t speak so quickly so, I was fluent and not nervous.

About the best composition I have chosen the one about transgenic food because I recently had made this issue in biology – that’s what I want to study. So, that’s a question that I’m used to talking about and I have knowledge about it. I think that this composition is of a higher level than some others because this topic is difficult. There is a lot of scientific vocabulary and I have to express my opinion. The structure is well organized because first I explained a little what is food genetically modified and then I gave my opinion and I showed that some people were against it so, there were two points of view.

In these two works I can see the improvement of my English for these reasons and some more. Now we have finished one stage in our lives and maybe some people won’t do English anymore but as we could see on this course this language is very important so we don’t have to lose our ability of it. I want to continue learning and speaking English and I hope to go to England to improve it.

COMMENTS

http://xicodecalle.blogspot.com/2011/05/its-time-to-exams-for-us-and-for-this.html

http://ignasi93.blogspot.com/2011/05/lottery.html?showComment=1305984998726#c6633252616161484213

http://londontravelers.blogspot.com/2011/05/one-of-my-nightmare.html?showComment=1305985297139#c5991960481039494202

FINAL EVALUATION

I think that there’s an improvement in my level of English because when I started this year I had a good level but there were some tasks, like the opinion essay, that I found difficult but now it’s different. In my opinion that happens because I have improved my English in many ways and also I am more fluent in speaking and writing. If you have a look in my space, you will see this improvement. On first batxillerat as my level of English was lower, my compositions were worse, but it’s a good sign because it means that I have developed. You can see it on my first composition called Books and Films and the last one of this course that’s Teenagers and sex.

The differences are important because in the last composition the issue is more interesting and more attractive – it has a photo. About the content I also find that it’s better because only seeing the issue I know that it have more maturity than talk about books. Also, I have improved the structure because now I write in paragraphs. The text is richer in vocabulary as you see on the last one to talk about underage people I use adolescents, sometimes teenagers… I use new vocabulary that I have learnt in class like demonstrations, open-minded… I also have put linking words like; in my opinion, however… And I usually ask question which reflect a higher level.

Another aspect is that the last composition is longer than the first so, it means that I could make more mistakes but instead of doing it wrong, I do it better because I pay more attention to do things right. For example in verb tenses because it’s a bit difficult for people who don’t currently speak English, but I try to do as few mistakes as I can.

You can see this improvement in oral presentations too. Here you have the first one Oral presentation 1st batxillerat and the last one Oral presentation second batxillerat. Both presentations I was alone so, it made it more difficult because when you do it with partners you are less nervous.

On my last oral presentation the topic was about my research project. In my opinion it did it very well because it was the second time I did the presentation but the last one in English. It was a bit difficult because there was a lot of scientific vocabulary, but it was useful because these kinds of words make the oral richer. I used more links than in the first oral because in my first oral I didn’t knowe how to link each part. The ideas were organized better because on my last work, first I started with a little introduce and the objectives, then I spoke about the disease and finally I explained the conclusions. From my point of view, I was more fluent and less nervous. I have improved a lot on pronunciation.

Summarizing, my personal development in English is remarkable.

TEENAGERS AND SEX

Nowadays adolescents are very advanced for their age, in their attitude towards sex. Maybe because now we have freedom to talk about all things related to sex. Maybe because they have to adapt to society, they have to be cool. I say this because it seems that you are obligated to have relationships early, to be cool and not different. So society has an important influence over teenagers.

 Before, if you wanted to make love with somebody, you needed to marry him and stay with him forever because divorce wasn't approved yet. Now young people can live together, marriage is not so important and divorce is happening all the time. These days we are more liberal, we are "modern" people, but are we acting right?

I think that sometimes we have to be open-minded, for example in the case of abortion. A few months ago, the government approved the abortion law in Spain. This allows girls over sixteen to have an abortion, but if you are underage, you have to go accompanied with an adult.

In my opinion this a good law because now people have sexual relations too young and if the girl accidentally get pregnant, she will be able to chose to have the baby, or not. But what I find illogical is that you can go to pharmacies to get the morning-after pill at sixteen year or less! Where is the way to discourage them from having sex too early, if there are no bad consequences after?

 I think that if you have been irresponsible, you have to pay the consequences and your parents have to know it. Parents are the ones who will help us and advise us because they have all lived it, they have the experience and they always want our well-being.

However, there were demonstrations calling for the abolishment of this law because from some peoples´ point of view, abortion is the same as killing a person. Others think that, until some months it is not a baby, it's a foetus; it means that it isn’t living, it can't breathe, it can't love,… But from very early the foetus has a heart beat. Where we can lay down marker for consider live or not live?

MY CROOKED DAYS

What does the word day signify? A little word with strong meaning. There are people who live the day for the day, others don’t have time to enjoy it and there are some that prefer look forward in the days. But in this life there are a lot of days: glory days, thunder days, days of wine and roses, lucky days, summer days, beautiful days, heavy days, love days, crooked days…

The lasts ones are the days which you can’t escape. I think that all people sometimes have these days at least one time on their lives. I could define this day as the one that all your plans turn out against as you have foreseen so, on these “special” days, all things go wrong.

At the beginning of the day, you wake up, but you fall out of the bed or you fall downstairs. Then it turned out that you wanted to have a shower but the heater has broken so, there is no hot water. It hasn’t finished because when you get downstairs to the kitchen for breakfast, you realize that there’s no milk and no chocolate. Here is when you think that today you have woken up with the wrong foot and you haven’t get out yet.

 While you are walking down the street it starts to rain and as it happens, this crooked day you didn’t bring the umbrella. After arriving totally wet at school, comes another disaster- because the teacher tells you that you have failed an exam which you were supposed to get a good mark in. But that’s not all because just this day it seems that the world is against you. So, you have an argument with your best friend for a silly thing. Then your couple or your parents are the ones that pay for the consequences of your bad day.

What really hurts about these days is that you realize that people are too insincere so, you see how they really are. Although a crooked day is always a disaster, I find the positive aspects because mistakes are useful for learning. You don’t trip over a stone another time. Also, because you know that tomorrow the sun will raise again, because after a storm always arrive the calm, that tomorrow will be a different day….. a better day!

OSAMA BIN LADEN DEAD OR ALIVE?

Osama Bin laden who planned the terrible terrorist attack of September 11^th – destroying the Twin Towers and killing lots of Americans and he created the terrorist group Al qaeda.

Americans had been searching him for ages and it seems that they had find it a couple of ages ago because American soldiers built a reconstruction of the house where supposed to live Osama. So, they can practice their planned in real situations.

A few days later, Obama said: We had made justice, Osama Bin laden is dead! It appeared on all news and all people were talking about it.

But is it real? Because if you remember, some years ago on the Internet circulated some retouched photos by Photoshop of Osama Bin laden dead. Now they haven’t put out any photo because they said that the image of this person dead was really shocking – he had a shot on his head. But we don’t have any evidence to prove it!

It seems really strange that they through the dead body on the sea… It’s like excuses and excuses. They said that the DNA is his but we only have their word for this! Is he really dead? I’m not sure!

But in some way I think that it’s true because why has the president of USA lie to us? Maybe because doing this the Americans are satisfied or maybe because they have pact and in this way terrorist will finish in America.

18

Being an adolescent is a bit difficult because it is the age of changes, vulgarly called “the turkey age” (A name that I have never understood). But when you turn eighteen it is fabulous because you can start to achieve your driving license, except that you can go to jail – that’s the typical funny joke that people tell you when you are of age.

In my case, I’m doing that and I’m very satisfied. Now I have started to practice with the car in Girona. This is not a big city but there are many cars in circulation so, it makes driving more difficult. Another reason is there are people that seem like they haven’t driven in all their lives because they don’t respect the rules. In these situations is when I ask myself: Have they passed the driving test?

Before I did my first class, I was very nervous because I had taken my parents car sometimes but I wasn’t very good at it. In spite of this, when I drove with the driving school car for the first time I did it so well. I discovered that I loved to drive, for the moment, because all people say that the firsts months all is very nice but then you get bored and tired.

I hope that I can be a good driver and I don’t find it heavy because drive is very important. In my opinion it’s better to do it at lower ages because we can assimilate more concepts than elder people. 



THE DIALOGUE

Today I’m going to interview my grandfather because he and my uncle are the lasts farmers in my country.

Julie: I’m in Orchard to know how have changed the life of farmers. Hi Paul, are you ready to talk about your job?

Paul: Yes, my lovely grandson.

Julie: Can you imagine the world without any farm?

Paul: Definitely, I can’t because this job has a large history and…

Julie: And what?

Paul: You know, our ancestors also have been farmers, I’m farmer and your uncle is farmer.

Julie: So, It means that we have to continue with the traditions?

Paul: Yeah, in some way because I don’t want to force anybody to work as farmer because everybody have to do whatever they want in the future.

Julie: Umm… But it’s really difficult because mass society determines people.

Paul: Yeah, It’s exactly what I think! Now nobody wants to be farmer because society has made look with bad eyes this job.

Julie: Well so, it means that before it was…er…different?

Paul: Before!? Like in the good old days?

Julie: Yeah, come on way back and…

Paul: The Light ages of farmers! [Laughs] Remember, Julie, lots of people were farmers because before the way of life was different, now we live very superficial.

Julie: Yeah, that’s…

Paul: Going Bad!

Julie: Why grandpa?

Paul: Because we hardly have work. The State instead of support the autonomic agriculture, they prefer to pay less money and get foreign food.

Julie: Yeah…

Paul: So, this is one of the reasons that anybody wants to work as…er…a farmer.

Julie: Well…don’t get worried, you have to fight to change agriculture!

Paul: Mmm…now it’s very difficult to change people, we are too advanced

Julie: Yeah but you don’t have to loose your hope!

Paul: So…I’ll follow your advice.

Julie: A lot of thanks Paul, I hope you have enjoy the interview!



THE FIERCE ATTACK TO TRANSGENIC FOOD

Transgenic food is food that is genetically modified. Scientifics usually apply this technique to vegetables and fruit. This is very useful because food obtains more quality, the flavour is better, it lasts longer because this food is damp-proof, heat-resistant and also resistant to cold, saltiness, weedkillers, plagues... We also can change the appearance, but this is not important because it's only an external question.

 What has real importance is that maybe one day genetically modified food will have pharmacological substances, so this means a giant progress to science. If this can be true, who will benefit the most of this progress will be people of third world countries because there medicines are too expensive or don't arrive but if the "medicine" is inside an economic food, they will improve their live qualities and there will be fewer deaths.

 So, we have to see transgenic food as a thing in our favour, because it doesn't bring bad consequences. In spite of this, there are some people, like environmentalists that criticize it in all aspects but why? Because they only see the harmful consequences that in fact do not exist. They say that if we eat plants with chemical products resistant to herbicides and these kill the insects, these chemicals will also kill us- but they aren't conscious that the quantity of that substance is too little that it can't affect us.

 Also, I don't agree with their opinion because I'm sure that they don't know the progress I explained before about food with pharmacological substances. Nevertheless, I think that we have to introduce transgenic food but always with a limit neither too few or too many.

THE ENGLISH-TEACHING ROBOT

In South Korea, a country that employs a lot of people as English teachers,  they now have a plan to introduce a robot that is able to teach English.

Robots seem magnificent machines because we only have seen them in films and some in the true life, but there are giant differences between them. In this field they have advanced a lot, but also they have a lot to discover because the real robots are like toys and the ones that appear in movies seem like humans.

In some way these "intelligent" machines could improve lives, like robots that are able to help elderly people, but in other ways they can bring bad consequences for humans. I say this looking at the example of the English-speaking robot, because if they introduce it to schools, these robots will replace teachers and it will generate a lot of unemployment - not a good issue in these times.

In my opinion, a robot can't have the ability of people; a robot can't control the class! Imagine that the people in a class stand up and leave the class, the robot won't notice it. In this case, this type of robot, as its name indicate, is only a speaking machine because for me, as a student, I like to speak to teachers and share opinions, etc. but how a robot can transmit feelings? Nowadays it can't be so classes will be very superficial without laughs and emotion. Definitely, I'm against robots in the field of teaching, the knowledge of people can't be superseded by anything in the world. 

THE TERRIBLE UNEXPECTED DISASTERS

In past decades Japan has been a country advancing economically - especially in the field of technology. However, the economic crisis, that we are all suffering, had also affected them in the last couple of years.

However, they had to suffer even more. On March 2011 they were hit by a tsunami, followed by an earthquake. Villages were destroyed and many people died. On top of this their nuclear power stations cooling systems failed and the nuclear reactors started to melt down.

Areas had to be evacuated and people suffered nuclear fall out. With all this, lots of people lost their houses, family and work. All over the world people remembered Chernobyl. How will the people of Japan recover?

Nuclear power was supposed to be the energy of the future. Fossil fuels were difficult to find and also the price was rising. Nuclear power was meant to solve all our energy problems.

Then occurred Chernobyl and the world realized that nuclear power is extremely dangerous for many reasons. It generates contamination of water, air and grand because of radioactive waste and radiation (particles carried in the air for great distances).

In the example of Japan, the main reason for the nuclear disaster were because the officials hadn't followed the safe way to construct. If we want to use nuclear power, we have to be conscious and responsible. We have to avoid another Chernobyl or Japan.

45 Ponent Street

Castelló d’Empúries

17486

12^th April 2011

World Nuclear Organization

21 Atomic Street

Ringstone

London

18673

Dear Mr, Rtich,

First I want to express my sorrow for poor Japanese. But I am writing in order to explain some possibilities to solve the problem with the nuclear issue.

Nuclear power, like all other energies has its advantages. It does not pollute the environment with toxic gases and also that with few elements you can produce a lot of energy. But like all things in life, this energy causes some problems like the limit of nuclear toxic particles in the air and the most important one: If there is a natural disaster like an earthquake, it can bring a lot of bad consequences. This case is the one of Japan.

In my opinion, we do not have to stop producing nuclear power because this kind of energy benefits us in many ways. But what our real obligation is prevent the disasters and stepped up the security of all nuclear industries. I said that because if in Japan would have been more security and a better maintenance of the systems and the installations, it would not have happened this terrible destruction. Therefore, we have to lead this work to scientists to make a new control system which can afford any natural disaster and that can work in any climate condition.

If we thought in a foolish way we could say that in some way is useful that had happened this because it will make assimilate people the real risk of nuclear power and start to do something to prevent it.

Yours sincerely,

Amanda Moore