divendres, 6 de març del 2009

Description of a friend: Laura


Her name is Laura. She's 16 years old and her birthday is November 29. Is younger than me. She lives in Castelló d'Empuries. It's a girl quite tall and she is white-skinned. She has always wore long hair, is a mixture of smooth and wavy dark blond hair. She has round face and eyes, her eyes are brown and sometimes even a touch of green. She dresses in a normal way, she never wears skirt, she uses to wear pants or jeans with high boots and a T-shirt or a jumper.
She is a very nice girl and very good friend. She is very quiet, sometimes a little bit lazy. Is cheerful and friendly, and very sympathetic. She listens to you when you have a problem and you need to talk to someone. She is a bit hesitant and insecure. She doesn't surrender easily. She likes to watch TV and go out with friends, also likes listening to music. It's very difficult that she gets angry. It makes over 4 years that I know her, so it's not a boring person, because I've never got tired of her. She's one of my best friends, I spend time with her and I'm sure she'll never disappoint me.


Opinion of a piece of news: Where have all the bees gone?


I recently read an article on BBC news that's about bees. The article says that for the past five years the bees have died in large numbers.
One of the countries most affected by the death of bees is the U.S.A. It's a country that has got a lot of pollination business, so it's very damaging for this country.
The media will contact with scientists and beekeepers on the causes of these deaths.
The BBC World Service programme 'The World Today' will be broadcasting live from the heart of California's Central Valley where billions of bees are gathered for the biggest bee migration event in the world, the pollination of the almond trees.
Personally I don't know very well if here in this country there's also a very high mortality of bees. But I think it's a bad sign. The honey is very important to humans, and we also need the pollination for the flowers. There are also people living in the honey business. If dying bees would be a big problem because they are essential, like many other insects. I think we should investigate the causes of this mortality, and preventing if it becomes more serious, that’s my opinion.


Discussion essay: Being a celebrity is a good thing


We've all ever wondered how would be to be someone famous. In fact, is the dream of many people. When we see celebrities who appear on TV, or magazines, at first sight it seems to us that they live in paradise, in a dream. But is it really so? We know perfectly that no. Being a celebrity has its good things and bad things.
There are two main advantages that celebrities have: money and fame.
When you become a famous person, you win lots of money, and it lets you buy things you always wanted, you can some of your dreams, travel to a lot of places, new experiences. You can buy a lot of houses full of luxuries, cars, even private jets. You can let explode all your lust.
And also there’s the fame. Fame is something that attracts many people. People like to be known and popular, have fans and people who identify with them. Celebrities go to big and expensive parties and they appear on television and all media.
But obviously, not all are benefits.
There are many, perhaps too many bad points. Your private life disappears completely. You're always being chased by paparazzi who take all the photos they can to publish them. And it doesn't matter if you're not working, if you are in holidays or at home, there is no privacy. There are many rumors and speculations about your life, public and private, and often is all a lie. You can't do anything without being criticized, you have to live up to a celebrity, and if you don't do it they judge you badly.
In conclusion I think that becoming a very famous person brings many frustrations, and the quality of life deteriorates. I think the ideal would be to stay in a half point, and have more freedom, although I don't know if it's possible.

Description of a place: My Bedroom

Well, I will try to describe my bedroom, although it's a little bit difficult because it's a bit chaotic.

The first thing you notice when you enter in my room is that is very disorganized. There's no order, I can say that everything has its place in the middle of chaos.

To begin, the door lock is broken. When you finally enter at the room, you can see on the left side of a wall built in wardrobes. There's where I keep all my clothes. The desk is long and narrow, and it has got many drawers. Above the desk there are a lot of things for example a lamp, a mini cactus (which is the only plant I've gotten to keep alive), many magazines, papers, pencils, pens ... In theory, the desk should be a place to study and to do the homework, but I never do it because there's no space. On the other side of the wall there is a library full of books. There are many books that I have had since I was a child because I've never wanted to throw them. Also there is where I keep my notes of the highschool and all the things I don't know where to put them. There are also some stuffed animals, and I would say what's my favourite but I can't.

Then there's my bed. It's metallic and black, nothing special. I use it to hang things wich I don't know where to put, like hats, scarves, belts ... On the bed there are two very comfortable pillows, although I'd like to have many more.
Beside the bed there's a bedside table with a lamp and many more things. That's where I put the cell that I use as a clock all the mornings.

And I can only say that a little further down there's the mini hi-fi, which I use to listen to music and you can also watch TV. There's also the electric guitar with amplifier, so important to me.

The walls are full of posters, drawings, a T-shirt, a coke sign...The last wall is a window with orange curtains.

AMERICAN WEDDING


It's the third film in the American Pie saga.

It begins with a couple, Jim and Michelle. Jim invites Michelle to dinner at a restaurant, and he wants to propose her to marry him. While they're having dinner, Jim's father phones him and say that he had forgotten the ring, but that he's going to the restaurant to give it to him. Just at the time the father arrives, Michelle is sucking the Jim's dick. At first his father doesn't notice anything, but then he makes Jim to get up and sees that Jim has the trousers down and Michelle is under the table. This creates a very embarassed situation, and Jim decides to stop with everything and ask Michelle's if she wants to marry him. She says yes.

From that moment begins the organization of the wedding. Jim wants everything to be perfect, so he decides to learn to dance. He asks Stifler (who dances very well) if he can teach him to dance, and he helps him. Although this implies that Stifler will be invited to the wedding, and he doesn't want. Stifler will organize the bachelor party.

Moreover, the four friends, Jim, Finch, Stifler and Kevin are going to look for a designer for the wedding dress for Michelle, 'cause she wants a special one. While they are looking for the designer they make a mistake and they go to a gay club, and Stifler competes dancing with a man. Because of this the designer accepts the wedding dress design.

Michelle's sister arrives, and Finch and Stifler want to seduce her. Finch uses his intelligence and intellectuality and Stifler becomes a very polite guy.

More or less that's all we've seen, so I can't summarize more. I think it's a very entertaining film and you can laugh a lot. It's ideal if you want to have a good time.

dilluns, 2 de març del 2009

Oral Presentation: THE BAHAMAS

NAME & TOPIC: Laura Peña and Anna Costa: The Bahamas.

POWER POINT:


The Bahamas




QUESTIONS

Presentation

Did you use any resources? Yes, we’ve used a Power Point presentation with pictures, videos and music.
Were the resources relevant and attractive? Yes, we think that the photos, videos and music made the presentation relevant and attractive, and so entertaining.

Body language and eye contact

Did you look at your audience most of the time? Not really. We spent too much time looking at the screen instead of the audience.
Did you read from your notes? Not all the time, but there were so much data and it’s impossible to memorize all of them.
Did you do any gestures/movement to hold the attention of your audience? Yes, we used quite gestures, but not expressly for the audience.

Structure

Did you organize your ideas in order of importance? We tried to separate the different topics we were going to talk about.
Did you use discourse makers to make your ideas more clear? Not much really.

Content

Did you introduce interesting, new information to your audience? Yes, we think the information was not so boring, it was interesting and original.
Did you look up information/facts/ideas in the Internet/books...? Of course, we did. We found information especially in the Internet, because it’s easier.
Was your information more superficial or more detailed and original? We think the information was more superficial, but we also included details of the festivities or food, for example.

Language

Did you check your grammar?
Yes, we did.
Did you use rich vocabulary looking up the dictionary? The vocabulary wasn’t quite rich, but we found a lot of words in the dictionary, except the word “escut”, that it’s not in the dictionary.
Did you use sentence linkers? Yes, we use a lot of times “and”, “but”, “so”...
Did you use fillers? We use especially “well”, or “uhm”.


Pronunciation & Intonation

Did you know how to pronounce all your words? Not all the words, but almost all.
Did you check the pronunciation with a dictionary, a classmate or the teacher? No.
Did you change your tone of voice or use a monotone tone all the time? We changed the tone of voice a lot of times, when we were not sure about what we were saying or when we changed the topics, for example.
Did you speed in a fluid continuum or with breaks and interruptions? Well, we think there were so much breaks and interruptions.

Self evaluation

What mark did you get according to you? Well, in fact we didn’t had enough time to finish the oral presentation, and we became nervous because of it, so we could made it so much better. We wanted to show some videos and music but we couldn’t. Anyway, we could have a better preparation. The personal mark we get according to us could be a 6 more or less.





LITERAL TRANSCRIPTION

Hi,we're Laura and Anna and we're going to talk about Bahamas because we were thinking about an original country and we decided to talk about Bahamas
because it's a very interesting place and so beautiful and it's like a dream holidays.
Money: dolar of Bahamas
Flag: blue, yellow and black.
Flower: The national flower is the Yellow elder.
The symbolic bird of the Bahamas is the red flamingo.
Form of government: Parliamentary monarchy
Climate: Between tropical and subtropical.
Non-official languages: Creole dialect, Greek and Chinese.
Ethnic groups: African, black, European.
National Sports: The most practiced sports are golf, diving, snorkeling and fishing.
Is an independent state located in the Antilles.
It consists of an archipelago of 24 habited islands, 600 inhabited, and over 2,000 rocks and reefs.It’s located in the Atlantic Ocean, at the east of Florida (USA), north of Cuba and west of the Turks and Caicos Islands.
The capital is Nassau, which is the most populous city.
Native birds:
- Barn Owl
- Great blue heron
- Green heron
- Turquoise bird
There are a lot of dangerous animals and plants in Bahamas but we’ve been able to put only some of them.
- Black widow: a black spider a red stain in the back, is fatal.
- Centipede
- Cuban tree frog
- Rajiformes and Jellyfish
- Venomous ivy

The traditional music of the Bahamas is the Goombay, which means "rhythm" in Bantu. A drum is used to create it. The first goombay drums were made from discarded barrels and rum casks, but as the decades passed these items came to be in short supply. The most famous band in Bahamas who plays this music is “The Gombay dance band”.
Jumpin'n Jammin carnival: It's between July 25 and August 2. Begins the first Monday in August at four o'clock in the morning. The activities of the carnival finish with the street party that usually lasts from six p.m. to midnight.
Goombay summer festival: It’s a festival that lasts three nights. There is Dancing, competitions, fairs, parades and costumes,...The days are dedicated to participate in beach sports and other entertainment and cultural activities.
Junkanoo: Junkanoo is the famous national festival. Everyone gets dressed and downtown Nassau sounding bells, horns, whistles and the strong rhythm of drums.
In July is the largest fishing tournament in the islands. Also in September there are tournaments of Music and Dance.
There are other festivities that are not typical of there like:

- Three Kings
- Christmas day
- New year
- International worker’s day
- International women’s day
- National independence day

- Peas n’ Rice: pork with onions, celery, tomatoes, rice and peas. Is the national dish.

- Seafood: Is an important part of the diet in the Bahamas. The “conch” is a large type of ocean mollusc that has white flesh. The conch is delicious raw, but also fried, in soups and salads and stews.

- The rock lobster of Bahamas: is served grilled, in salads or chopped.

- Fresh fish: Is also an important part of the cuisine, The brunch is a popular boiled fish.

- Peas: pea soup with balls of beef with salt, or pea soup and ham are typical.

- Souse: is a soup with water, onions, celery, peppers and chicken, oxtail or pigs' feet.

- Kalik: it’s the official beer of the Bahamas.

- Acklins: Is a part of the group of islands which are near the lake basin called Marine Acklins. Coronel Hill it's a place for people that likes the tourism and quiet.
- Cat Island: This is one of the central islands of the Bahamas.

- Abaco Island: Is located in the northern islands and the Bahamas including Great Abaco and Little Abaco. There people do sailing and other tourist activities

- Eleuthera: It's one of the main tourist attractions of the Bahamas. It's at 80 km from Nassau.

- Mayaguana Is the farthest of all the islands of the Bahamas, the people practice diving there.

- West Grand Bahama: It’s special for the construction of exclusive hotels for tourists. The most important urban centers are 8 Mile Rock, Pinder's Point, Holmes Rock and West End.