NEWS

THE "WOMAN TAX"

Some months ago, the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs found that, on average, products for girls and women cost 7% more than similar products for men. This is called the “Gender Tax” or the “Woman Tax”. Also, looking at almost 800 products from more than 90 brands in NYC, the study has found that this injustice happens 42% of the time.

Even children’s items are more expensive for girls than for boys. For example, a scooter for girls costs $13 to $25 more than a scooter for boys. This happens to a lot of products, following the girls as they grow older.

Focusing on the type of products women pay more for, the study said that the personal care products are the ones women pay the most for (about 13% more than men). The surprising thing is that they looked at pharmacies and other stores from around New York and found that the “Woman Tax” was there in all of them.

Finally, there’s a table where you can see some of the times women pay more than men for some products:

So, in conclusion, the study found that women are paying thousands of dollars more over the course of their lives for buying similar products as men.

EXAMPLES:

      

PERSONAL OPINION:

In my opinion, that’s something definitely not good. Why women have to pay more for something that is practically the same thing as men? I don’t think it’s a huge difference to produce something blue or to produce something pink, so it’s quite stupid to make women pay more for the same thing but different colour.

NEW WORDS:

Aim: Dirigit a...
Razor: Màquina d'afeitar
Burden: Càrrega

Link: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/12066820/New-Gender-Tax-study-shows-women-are-charged-more-for-being-woman.html

NEWS

TERRORIST ATTACKS IN PARIS

A state of emergency has been declared across France after attacks in Paris that killed at least 128 people. Also, 200 people were injured, 90 of them seriously. Eight assailants had died, seven of them had killed themselves with explosive belts at various locations and one had been shot dead by police. President François Holland said was an "act of war" organized by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) group.

France was on high alert for attacks because of a video that the ISIL group released on Saturday saying that they would attack France if France continued bombing of its fighters in the Middle East. They literally said “As long as you keep bombing you will not live in peace. You will even fear travelling to the market".

Yesterday, at night, the attacks began. The deadliest attack was on the Bataclan, a popular concert hall where group Eagles of Death Metal was performing. Four gunmen armed with explosive belts killed at least 80 young people who were attending to a rock concert at the Bataclan music hall. Luckily, dozens of survivors were rescued and the attackers were killed at the site. About 40 more people were killed in five other attacks in the Paris region. 14 of them were killed while they were at the restaurant Le Petit Cambodge by a gunman who opened fire with a Kalashnikov. There were five more locations in close proximity where shootings took place around the same time and killed more people, like bars or restaurants.

One of them happened near the Stade de France in the northern suburb of Saint-Denis, where the France-Germany friendly soccer match was being played. The President Hollande and the German foreign minister were watching it when the attacks occurred. The explosions were audible on television during the live broadcast. Police helicopters circled the stadium and Holland left to the interior ministry to deal with the situation. The match continued until the end, but people found out what was going on in the streets of Paris. At the end of the match, everyone got on the pitch for security reasons. 

This morning, France has woken up with security all across the capital, with about 1500 soldiers deployed in Paris. Also, all public transportation services have been cancelled. Residents in Paris were asked to stay indoors for precaution.

Barack Obama (USA), David Cameron (GB) and Angela Merkel (Germany) were all very shocked by the events in Paris and offered France their help. The leaders of other countries also gave their condolences for the French people in general. Also, the people around the world has sent support and their condolences to France and the French people using hashtags like #prayforparis, #jesuisparis and others through social media.

PERSONAL OPINION:

What happened in Paris was a terrible thing. It died a lot of innocent people. I just wanted to say that maybe we are giving a lot of attention to France because it’s “an important country” because these type of things (terrorist attacks) happens EVERYDAY around the world, specially in Syria. Also, in the same week that happened the terrorist attacks in France, it happened the same type of attacks in Beirut and in other countries. But France captured all the attention. All lives mean the same, have the same value; or it is better a French person that any other? The skin color or the religion didn’t make us different (or less important).

With this, I don’t want to say that what happened in Paris it’s not important. Of course it is! And it was a horrible thing. I just want to say that we are very hypocrite if we thing that what happened in France it’s more important than what happens to the other countries around the world that we consider “inferior” than us. A life is a life. And all lifes are equal.


 NEW WORDS:

- Gunman: persona armada
- Manhunt: cacera / recerca 
- Flank: flanquejar (estar al costat o rodejar a una persona o objecte)


Link: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/11/reports-shooting-restaurant-central-paris-151113211237312.html

NEWS

THE BLUE WHALE SUICIDE CHALLENGE

This news is about a new challenge that makes the person who is playing commit suicide after 50 days. This challenge is known as the Blue Whale, and it is quite famous in Russia. It is believed to be an online social media group, in which there is an administrator that gives daily challenges to the members. In total, there are 50 (one each day) and they consist of watching extreme horror movies, getting up at unusual hours, self-harming… They gradually get more and more extreme, until the last challenge is to commit suicide.

One of the reasons teenagers follow this type of challenges is peer pressure. Sometimes friends incite to make dangerous things, but kids have to know how and when to say “no”. Parents have an important role in teaching their kids than they can still be accepted even if they don’t do exactly what the other friends do.

The photo Yulia Konstantinova posted on her Instagram account
before commitig suicide along with her friend Veronika Volkova

As it was said before, the Blue Whale is quite famous in Russia and there have been about 130 suicides of children between November 2015 and April 2016, which can be related to this challenge. It is not proved, but there exist multiple bonds between almost all these teenagers, for example, most of them were members of the same internet groups and lived in good and happy families. Among these suicides, it stands out the case of two teenagers, Yulia Konstantinova and Veronika Volkova, 15 and 16 respectively, who jumped from a roof of a 14-floor building. Yulia, before committing suicide, posted a picture of a blue whale in her Instagram.

PERSONAL OPINION:

When I read this news, the first thing it came to my mind was: “Who can be so sick and macabre to create this challenge?”. Because, behind all these challenges there has to be a person (or more than one) creating them. Encouraging people to commit suicide, especially when they are going through a bad period in their lives is really mean. We should try to help depressed people to overcome it and be happy. Of course, at the end we are free, and a person can choose to kill him or herself, but I don’t think we should encourage them doing it. Instead, we have to help them overcome their problems.

NEW WORDS:

Sway: influenciar, influir
Chilling: esgarrifós, esfereïdor
Peer: col·lega, amic
Goad: incitar, provocar


Link: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tech/3003805/blue-whale-suicide-game-online-victims/

NEWS

ASYLUM DENIED

This news is about two boys who asked for asylum in the US, but they were refused. One of them had been threatened by some gang members; they said they were going to kill him. In front of this situation, the boy decided to leave his home and go to the United States. When he and another boy were at the US border, they explained their situations to the officials, but they didn’t seem to care that much and told them to wait outside. They waited all day long, until one lawyer who was crossing the border with another client saw them and help them.

The worst of all is that this is not an isolated case, but the number of cases is increasing, especially since Trump became the president of the United States. In theory, the law says that if someone arrives at the border asking for asylum, CBP agents have to send the person to a specialist to examine his or her situation, but this is not always like that. More and more, US agents are illegally denying entrance to people asking for asylum.

Even though these prohibitions are increasing, they are not only a result of Trump’s policy, but they were there before he came to power. The writer of that news says that this is a serious problem and that the government has to do something about it. They have to investigate and punish the agents who have behaved illegally.

PERSONAL OPINION:

This news shows the violation of one human right: the right to have asylum. As it says, everybody has the right to have asylum in cases of danger, no matter where they come from. Of course, I am against what these US agents are doing to people who ask for asylum. Imagine you're in their situation; That in your country you have been threatened with death and then when you ask for asylum they deny it. But what upsets me the most is why the US agents do not let Mexican people pass it because of racist reasons. Unfortunately, there are a lot of racist people in the USA (and in the world too), as it shows the fact that Trump is the president. I hope one day we get over racism, which is one of the main reason why most of the human rights are not coming into effect right now.

NEW WORDS:

Flee: escapar
Entrenched: refractari, retrògrad 
Seeker: persona que busca alguna cosa

Link: https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/05/03/us-turning-away-asylum-seekers-mexican-border

NEWS

30 YEARS LIVING AS A SLAVE

This is not really news; it’s actually a story of a woman, called Guadalupe Pérez Castillo, who was enslaved for about 30 years of her life. Her story is the following one: she was born in Las Agujas, a small town of Mexico. Her family was poor, and she used to help her family’s economy selling fruit in the town’s market. One day, a woman came to visit Guadalupe’s house, and offered her to work with her as a babysitter. In exchange, the woman will pay her, send her to a good school and send money to her family. For Guadalupe, that was a really good offer, so she accepted it (at that time, she was 10 years old).

But things didn’t turn out to be so perfect. Guadalupe quickly understood that the woman would not pay her, and she also had to do all the housework and care for the children. But that wasn’t the worse: she had to sleep on the floor, she could only eat scraps, and they even hit her for no apparent reason. Obviously, she tried several times to scape, but she didn’t succeed in any of attempts. The woman and her husband also threatened her that they would kill her if she continues trying to escape, so she stopped doing it. She finally escape when she was 40, taking advantage of a moment where the family was gone because they were all at the hospital (because their son had had an accident).

Guadalupe Pérez had to stand 30 years of forced labor, beatings, sexual abuse, lack of food…All these made her dump and now she has some mental problems. She is extremely shy, always looks down when she’s talking to somebody, among other things. She doesn’t know how to live in freedom, because she has lived 30 years as a slave. Now she’s visiting a therapist, who’s trying to teach her how to be free, how to make her own decisions, manage her money…


PERSONAL OPINION:

As now we are working on a project of human rights, I found interesting to choose this article. It’s shameful that in 2017 we still have to deal with slavery. So now we are able to travel to the moon, for example, but we don’t know how to stop slavery? I think the problem are the governments, that they are not interested in eliminate slavery. Maybe governments will not resolve the entire problem, because for example, in the case of Guadalupe Pérez would have been difficult to know that that girl was being enslaved. Therefore, maybe the solution is to make efforts to improve the life of the poor people, so that anyone won’t be as desperate to become a slave. I know it’s easy to say but difficult to do, but I have hope in a better world!

NEW WORDS:

Attorney: advocat
Self-assured: segur d'un mateix
Stretched: escàs, insuficient
Elated: eufòrica, entusiasmada 


Link: http://edition.cnn.com/2017/04/27/world/freedom-project-30-years-a-slave/index.HTML

YOUR-SAYS

MANDATORY HAIR REMOVAL?

Some days ago, I was having lunch with my family while looking at the TV. Nothing special. A program called “Cámbiame” (“Change me, in English) was being shown in the TV. Basically, this TV show is about people who want to change their appearance; there are three stylists who can decide whether they want to change that person or not. If a person has been chosen, then one stylist changes his or her style. 

Frankly, I wasn’t even paying attention to it, until I heard a comment made by one of the stylists, which said to a girl that “It’s not possible for a woman to have hair on her arms”. Then I started paying attention to the program, especially to the girl, who was a cute young teenager. I had to make an effort to see her “hairy arm”; yes, she had some hairs, but it wasn’t that bad. At the end the stylist ended up removing her hair (what a surprise!).

What happened in that program made me think about the pressure women receive to remove their body hair. Of course, everybody can do what they want, and now more and more women are deciding to stop removing their hair, simply because they don’t want to do it anymore. But people keep looking at women who don’t remove their body hair in a bad way. And I ask myself: why? Does affect anybody if a woman decides to have hair in their body? Is your live worse because of that? Of course not, and I think society has to stop putting so many pressure on girls (and boys too).

 Also, returning to what I was saying at the beginning, about the comment done by one stylist of the program “Cámbiame”, it really made my angry. Of course, even though I accept people who decide not to remove their body hair (that’s the normal thing to do, in my opinion; everybody can do what they want with their lives if it doesn’t affect anybody else), I understand that maybe there are people who don’t like women with body hair. As well as someone doesn’t like people with tattoos, there can be people who don’t like someone with body hair; no problem. This is one thing, and the other one is to say that “It’s not possible for a woman to have hair on her arms”. Excuse me? It’s perfect for a woman to have hair on her arms, or to have blue hair, or to do whatever she wants with her body. I found this commentary totally sexist. Women are free to decide what they want to do with her body, and don’t being judged for it. Well, not just women, everybody.

YOUR-SAYS

FIRST GAY KISS IN DISNEY?

Disney has made a huge progress by showing a gay kiss on a cartoon for the first time. I wanted to talk about it because I think it’s a big improvement in the normalization of the LGBT community. Also, since in the project we are working on in this term is about “Love and relationships”, I think this fact is related to it.

The gay kiss was shown in a cartoon called “Star vs. the Forces of Evil”. In the scene, you can see some gay and lesbian couples kissing, among heterosexual couples. Also, some days ago the director of the remake of the “Beauty and the Beast” film said it would be a gay storyline in it. So yes, Disney is modernising itself (it was about time!). 

Unlike some people’s opinion that gay love shouldn’t be shown in films destined for kids, I think if kids are old enough to see a kiss between a woman and a men, they are old enough also to see a kiss between two people of the same gender. There’s not so much difference, isn’t it?

Besides, there are people who maintain than showing love between two persons of the same gender will “influence” kids, and make them gay or lesbian too. I think I’ve never seen such a ridiculous argument before. Sexual orientation it’s not something you can choose, like you see a gay couple and you say “Oh, I want to be like them” and you become gay. No, it doesn’t work like this. It’s something you feel inside, and seeing a gay kiss in the television will not influence you to change your sexual orientation.

In this picture you can see some gay couples
kissing each other.

So I think showing all types of love in the television, cinema, Internet or wherever will only be positive for normalizing it. In that way, if kids see that a relationship between two persons of the same gender is something completely normal, in some years there will not be persons afraid of saying they are homosexual, there will be no bullying to the people who are gay or lesbian and people will see a kiss in the street between two persons of the same gender as something completely normal and acceptable. Let’s teach kids tolerance and respect!

YOUR-SAYS

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.

GAP YEAR

 

OPINION ESSAY

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.

FILM REVIEW

THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT

The Butterfly effect is and American movie directed by Eric Bress and J.Mackye Gruber, starring Ashton Kutcher and Amy Smart. The title of the movie refers to the butterfly effect, which shows us how a small initial difference can totally change the final result. 

The main character of the film is Evan Treborn (Ashton Kutcher), who lives in a small town with his mom and friends. His father is in an asylum, cause he has mental problems. Evan also suffers from memory blackouts where he suddenly finds himself somewhere else, very confused. It’s like he forgets about some small chapters of his life, but Evan’s mother and his friends hardly believe him. They think he makes it up just to get out of trouble, because most of the times he has memory blackouts it’s when he’s doing something wrong or irresponsible. Also, Evan writes in a diary all of his blackout moments (at least, the part that he is conscious), because he thinks this is a good way to try to recover memory. As Evan grows up, he has fewer blackouts until it seems he has recovered totally. Then, he goes to the University, and one day he finds one of his old diaries by chance and he decides to read it. Somehow, he travels back in time just in the parts he had a blackout when he was a child, so he is able to change his past. Even though he tries to change his past to make his present better, he can’t do it and he notices how a little change in the past can change all his future completely.

What I liked the most in this film is the storyline. I decided to watch this film one night when I was bored, because one friend recommended to me. At first I thought the film would be the typical American comedy, with nothing special, so I was surprised when I finished it thinking how good this film was for me. Well, it’s not one of the best films I’ve seen in my life, of course, but it has something that makes me like it a lot. The film has action, love and also some psychological part, so it has a bit of everything. I also liked a lot the main character, because you can feel easily identified with him (not for the part of the blackouts, but his character).

Talking about what I don’t like about the film, I didn’t like the fact that in some parts it’s too much unbelievable. But maybe this is to make the movie more interesting.

FORMAL LETTER

FORMAL LETTER

15 Muralla Street
17486 Castelló d’Empúries, Girona, Spain

19th March 2017

Ms. Reynolds
8357 Marshall Road
20017 Pine Grove, Louisiana


Dear Ms. Reynolds,

The reason why I am writing this letter is because I am interested in babysitting your children: Lucy, Alice and George. My English teacher showed me your advertisement and I thought that this could be a nice experience for me to improve my English and learn lots of things.

I think I have some good qualities to do this job: I have two little brothers who are two years old both of them and I take care of them when my parents are not at home, so I have some good experience with it. I also consider myself responsible and friendly, and capable to adapt to everything. And, obviously, I am in love with children and I love spending time with them.

Find my curriculum vitae attached to this letter. Looking forward to hearing from you as soon as possible. Thank you for reading this letter.

Sincerely,
Yousra El Hmidi

YOUR-SAYS

MANDATORY HAIR REMOVAL?

Some days ago, I was having lunch with my family while looking at the TV. Nothing special. A program called “Cámbiame” (“Change me, in English) was being shown in the TV. Basically, this TV show is about people who want to change their appearance; there are three stylists who can decide whether they want to change that person or not. If a person has been chosen, then one stylist changes his or her style. 

Frankly, I wasn’t even paying attention to it, until I heard a comment made by one of the stylists, which said to a girl that “It’s not possible for a woman to have hair on her arms”. Then I started paying attention to the program, especially to the girl, who was a cute young teenager. I had to make an effort to see her “hairy arm”; yes, she had some hairs, but it wasn’t that bad. At the end the stylist ended up removing her hair (what a surprise!).

What happened in that program made me think about the pressure women receive to remove their body hair. Of course, everybody can do what they want, and now more and more women are deciding to stop removing their hair, simply because they don’t want to do it anymore. But people keep looking at women who don’t remove their body hair in a bad way. And I ask myself: why? Does affect anybody if a woman decides to have hair in their body? Is your live worse because of that? Of course not, and I think society has to stop putting so many pressure on girls (and boys too).

 Also, returning to what I was saying at the beginning, about the comment done by one stylist of the program “Cámbiame”, it really made my angry. Of course, even though I accept people who decide not to remove their body hair (that’s the normal thing to do, in my opinion; everybody can do what they want with their lives if it doesn’t affect anybody else), I understand that maybe there are people who don’t like women with body hair. As well as someone doesn’t like people with tattoos, there can be people who don’t like someone with body hair; no problem. This is one thing, and the other one is to say that “It’s not possible for a woman to have hair on her arms”. Excuse me? It’s perfect for a woman to have hair on her arms, or to have blue hair, or to do whatever she wants with her body. I found this commentary totally sexist. Women are free to decide what they want to do with her body, and don’t being judged for it. Well, not just women, everybody.

A discussion on science limits

 

FEMINISM

 

In the Feminism origins European political philosophy criticized the notion of natural rights for men as a rationale for violent revolution. Mary Wollstonecraft wrote counterargument entitled, A Vindication of the Rights of Men, represents first wave of American feminism. Disproportionate power in America led to new thought of women's rights, questioned social norm.

 

Most important feminists are Clara Zetkin, Susan B.Anthony and Emma Watson

 

The birth control movement advocated for contraception so as to permit sexual intercourse as desired without the risk of pregnancy.  

 

Legalizing abortion is necessary to women’s health. More than 45 million (legal and illegal) abortions take place annually, while approximately 66,500 women die from the complications of unsafe abortions every year.

 

There are three wave: the first wave (1830's - early 1900's), the second wave (1960’s-1980’s) and the third wave (1990’s – present)

 

 

 

 

 

Description of a person

My big Sister

          My favorite big sister is Sara. She is twenty years old. She is short, 1 meter and 51 centimeters tall. She has long wavy, shiny, brown hair. Her skin is so beautiful. It reminds me of the color of coffee with milk. Her face is a heart form. You can see her anger or happiness in her big expressive brown eyes. She has a little nose, and her mouth looks like it was painted light pink. She can speak two thousand words, moving from hate to love and from love to hate, change her opinion five times, start talking alone, forget what she was talking about at the beginning, all in one minute. It’s a little difficult to try to talk to her, but it’s fun. She has a strong personality. I love her personality. Sometimes I want to kill her, and she wants to kill me too. I think that is normal between sisters. She likes rap, hip-hop and pop music. She likes reading romance and fantasy books. She enjoys horror movies (I know, she is crazy). She loves to go out with her friends. She is always dancing, studying, reading, working and going out. She is a very busy girl. The truth is that since childhood, she has danced, sung and talked incessantly. She always knew what she wanted and never hesitated to say her opinion. She has lived happy and sad moments like everyone, but she has continued with her life.

NEWS

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39048658

SUMMARY:

Malaysian police have named a senior North Korean embassy official they want to question in connection with the killing of Kim Jong-nam.
Hyon Kwang Song is one of three more North Koreans being sought.
Police also confirmed Mr Kim, half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, died after two women wiped a toxin on him at Kuala Lumpur airport.
North Korea's embassy in Malaysia angrily denied the claims.
WORDS
Announced: To make known publicly or officially.
Mortuary: A building or business where the bodies of the dead are prepared for burial or cremation and for viewing, and where services are often held.
Widely: To a wide extent.

Two of the wanted men are Kim Uk II (left) and Hyon Kwang Song (right)

 

News

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-39224310

Education secretary heckled by angry head teachers

SUMMARY:

Angry head teachers heckled Education Secretary Justine Greening as she told a conference about her plans for new grammar schools.
There were cries of "rubbish" and "no, no" as she said selective schools could close the achievement gap between rich and poor pupils.

VOCABULARY:

backdrop: Fondo
speech: expresión
boosted: Alzar

News

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20170310-the-wreck-of-the-titanic-is-being-eaten-and-may-soon-vanish


The wreck of the Titanic is being eaten and may soon vanish

SUMMARY:
When it set sail on its maiden voyage in 1912, no one could have predicted what  Titanic would look like now – a rusting hulk at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
At the time of that initial discovery the ship was remarkably preserved. It is 3.8km below the surface, and the lack of light and the intense pressures make the area inhospitable to most life, slowing corrosion. Fast-forward 30 years, though, and the hull is rusting away, thanks to metal-munching bacteria. Some researchers now give the shipwreck just another 14 years before it is gone forever.

VOCABULARY

reef: Arrecife
shipwreck: naufragio
flourished: florecer

YOUR-SAY

The importance of learning languages
Nowadays, it is very important to learn languages whether if you live in a small country or a big one.

Learning languages is necessary to improve yourself as a person, because then you can communicate with a lot of people. In this case, you can share a lot of information and experience, which helps you to understand the things that happen around you better.

 You can speak a language perfectly but you will never be able to communicate as well as in your native language.

To conclude, if you want to learn languages you have to go to the country where it is spoken. If you work as a receptionist, as a tour guide, as a waiter, and if your job depends on tourists, you have to learn several languages.

YOUR-SAY

Advantages and disadvantages of technology and computing

The development of technology and communications during the last decade of the 20th century has had an important influence in our lives. It has revolutionised the way of working, learning and communicating. But what has changed our life the most is definitely the internet. However, there are advantages and disadvantages.

The main advantage of computing is probably that it gives access to the information quickly and easily. It also helps us to do tasks more efficiently. What is more, technology improves the lives of those who have less opportunities and access to education and it contributes to the development of poor or isolated regions in the world.

On the other hand, there are disadvantages. People have to learn new skills since the world of work has changed. As a result, people who can not use computers will not be able to get a job. Besides, we depend so much on computing that if the computer breaks down or there is not electricity we can not work at all.

In conclusion, I think the computer chip is probably the most useful invention of the 20th century, in spite of having to face some difficulties to adapt ourselves to new technologies.

YOUR-SAY

If I were president

If I were president I would try to help the most people possible.

I would work hard with homeless people and I would try to give everybody a place to live. Also I would try that everybody had work to do. Work is the first thing that I would improve if I worked as president, because I think if everybody had work, everybody could have a house.

I would work with children too, better schools, free books, more places where to play. Old people is very important. I would try to build more comfortable buildings for them.

I think it is very difficult to be a good president and everybody to be happy with you, I would try it anyway.

YOUR-SAY

Contamination.

The pollution in our planet has always existed, since we have not learned to respect it and we have damaged it in all possible ways.

It is true that before there was not much pollution since the factories did not exist, and the use of cars, aerosols and all this type of products have arisen at present time.
When I was a child, I did not become aware of what contaminates the atmosphere, but now I invite you all to consider that to take care of the atmosphere is something vital to conserve our existence and the other beings, in good conditions of health.

No Logo (REVIEW)

Cool Hunters: The Legal Stalkers of South Culture

We are facing a text of Naomi Klein. The central idea of the text is the legal stalkers of youth culture. Cool hunters were paid by big corporations to make their image appealing to younger audiences. The text is divided in four paragraph.  In each paragraph there is a different idea.
I totally agree with the writer of the text. I think that cool hunters are very dangerous because they spy on us in an absolutely legal way. They spy on us from the outside without knowing it ourselves.
The objective of cool hunters is to give advice on their products and advertising campaigns.
At the end of the text the writing says that  back in the seventies "graffiti was like artillery fired in a war between the street and the establishment". I agree with Naomi when she says: with the passage of time graffiti has become in slave brand leaving anything unbranded.