entry 34

Are we honest?

I was reading the August edition of a very well known magazine called Reader´s Digest and i found an article that called my attention, it was called Are we Honest? and it was about a research made in 32 countries to find how honest are people araund the world. It consisted in leaving a cell phone on the floor of a public place and observe what reaction had the people that found them. The number of cell phones returned varied according to the country and whith this information they created a Ranking of Honesty.
They found that Eslovenia (a young country that got the independence from Yugoslavia in 1991) is a country with old traddition and a high sense of civism that placed it in the first place in the rank of honesty. Arentine is the number 26 in the list with 16 of 30 cell phones returned. Ironically, one of the cell phones was found by a security guard who never returned it and that´s why we are almost at the bottom of the list.
A point very important of this reseach is to find the causes that take people to behave in a dishonest way.One of the people interviewed said that the economic situation in some countries like Mexico lead people to become selfish and dishonest while others said that honesty is tied to our education, specially the one that our parents give us.
Whatever was the reason, we should bare in mind that as we find things, we may lose objects, but one never loses honesty.

entry 32

How will transpot media be in the future?

One of the biggest worries of the modern world is how to prevent car accidents in the big cities,area tragedies and specially pollution. Technology will be the key to have better transpot medias without the neccessity of a big infraestrucrure.
According to Insurance Information Institute, car accidents represent a ost of U$230 billions every year. This is why transport is considered one of the five principal problems of the planet. But thanks to the innovations in technology this will change. It is thought that in the future transport wil be safer and more efficient. Cars will have a technology of assistance for the drivers which will allow the car to develop a behaviour as if it had reflexes. They will have a sort of artificial intelligence with dispositives that will obtain information abaut the state f the roads to avoid traffic jams. A new dispositive will allow drivers to comunicate with their cars and answer mails, get instructions to avoid any accident and reproduce dvd through voice commands.
The specialists say that traveling in the future will be safer and cheaper. Appart from that, the new technology will offer the travellers more control and most importantly and will reduce pollution car accidents.
In this way the main roads will be safer and the air cleaner. Needles to say, the evolution of transport in the future will be totally positive for travellers and for our enviroment.

article 2

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7004372.stm

Vocabulary:

Take a leaf out of book: to copy something that someone else does because it will bring you advantages. Maybe I should take a leaf out of Robert's book and start coming in at ten every morning.

Output: An amount produced or manufactured during a certain time.

Endorse: to approve, support, or sustain: to endorse a political candidate.

Whooping: To utter a loud shout or cry. See Synonyms at shout.

Footprint: a trace suggesting that something was once present or felt or otherwise important; "the footprints of an earlier civilization"

Pioneer: to be the first to open or prepare .To take part in the beginnings of; initiate: to pioneer an aid program.

Hybrid: Something of mixed origin or composition. Something, such as a computer or power plant, having two kinds of components that produce the same or similar results

Deem: To have as an opinion; judge: deemed it was time for a change.
To regard as; consider: deemed the results unsatisfactory

Framework: A fundamental structure, as for a written work. A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality.

Hammer out: discuss vehemently in order to reach a solution or an agreement; "The leaders of the various Middle Eastern countries are trying to hammer out a peace agreement"

Personal reaction:

Finally, government has started to support corporations that study climate change. As this article says , climate change will cost big companies enormous amounts of money and will strongly affect their busisnesses. Of course, they are worried about climate change after hearing the dreadfull amounts that they may lose. In a world where money is power, The biggest companies have started to work in order to reduce what they have caused.

article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7007491.stm

Vocabulary:

Sought:
1.
to go in search or quest of: to seek the truth.
2.
to try to find or discover by searching or questioning: to seek the solution to a problem.

Personal reacction:

Violence in schools and universities has become a serious problem in the USA and the rest of the world. After the mass shooting at Virginia Tech University secutity services improved but still is not enough to stop this problem. The government should organise campaigns to prevent this problem, otherwise more people will die.

entry 31

Global warming

One of the biggest wories for those who care abaut ecology is global warming. Most of the natural disasters that have occurred are related to this problem which seems to get worse and worse with thw course of time.
This topic has become a main poit of discussion since Green Peace and other organizations started to create awareness abaut the consequences of global warming. The use of some chemicals and the waste of energy plus the air pollution are taking our enviroment to suffer the green house effects. Therefore, the temperature increases between 40 and 70 every year, dry areas become drier and natural disasters occurr with more frequency. The poorest areas like Africa and Asia are the most affected by this problem. But unfortunately, very little is being done to prevent it.
There are many things in which we can help. Simple things like reducing the use of oil or electricity or planting a tree can be really hepful for the enviroment. But for this it is necessary the support of the government because it plays a very important role in society. In addition, thre should be more campaigns to inform people abaut the ways they ca help.
In conclusion we can say that wether our planet will keep safe or not in a matter that is in our hands. We should care about the planet because is the only home we have.

entry 30

Use of blogs in the class

Typical of our culture is to make use of technology, especially computers, as a useful device to simplify work. Modern teachers use it in their classes because they consider it a tool of crucial importance for the future working class. Specially the use of blogs has attracted a great criticism among students who are required to use it.

First of all, in order to make use a blog students have to know how to use a computer, which is not the case for all of them. Most students think that the tradditional education system is enough and that computing should be learnt as an extra curricular activity. But this is because many of them can´t afford having a computer in their homes and they have to spend hours and hours in a cibercafe to post their homework. Therefore, they say that the use of blogs is a waste of time and money.

Now, it is certainly true that what students consider now a waste if time can become in a way to save time once they have developed their computer skills. Appart from that, using blogs gives them the chance to get the information they need for the class and to do their homework at any time and anywhere.

In addition to this, the use of blogs can help students to improve their writting skills which will increase their vocabulary and fluency in the language that are very important for any future job.

While at the moment there is a great discussion abaut the use of blogs in the class, a lot of people think that the results can be totally positive.

One theory is that in the years next to come, text books will be replaced by computers in schools and we have to be prepared for that.

entry 29

Superwoman

As everybody knows, woman´s role in society has changed a lot in the last years. The ordinary housewife who stayed at home to look after her children and husband is on the verge of extinction. Women work as their husbands and take care of the family consecutively. They have time to work, prepare food, send their children to school, clean the house etc. They have the capacity to do many things at the same time as for instance cook while dressing children and talking on the phone, isn´t that a good quality?

One of the causes of this conversion is the economic situation. One income is not enough to support the family and women have no other choice than going out to work. But the charge is heavier for women because they have much more things to do when they arrive home.

It is true that working and having a proffession is very satisfactory, but some women put their bodies to the limit and this can be fatal for their health.

I strongly believe that things in the past were better than now in the sense that mothers had time to talk with their children and spent more time with them. But now they have to employ people to do their job.

Anyway, to be a moher is every time more difficult and requires more responsabilities but it doesn´t take that women still consider it a miracle.

entry 28

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others". George Orwell, Animal Farm.
When i read this line i started to think about the idea of " being equals", which for me is not the ideal one. I´d rather prefeer to talk about a society where nobody lacks of food, health and the minimun of education.
I think that a society where a doctor has the same income than an administrative worker who hasn´t studied seven years to get a degree is unfair. Not all of us would conform whith the necessary, some people want to have much more in life and they work very hard to obtain it while others just accept what life puts on their way. So, considering all of us as "equals"is totally wrong. What would happen if we were all Einsteins? Some people sipmply shines whith proper ligth and this is the magic of human race, to be differents makes of everyone a speccial and unique person. A basic education and the same opportinities for everyone are the basis necessary for everyone to grow and become a unique human being.

entry 27

The ghost of lady Hobby

This story is abaut a beautiful lady who lived in the days of the first Queen Elizabeth times. She was very proud of everything exeptfor her son, who had a problem to learn.She wanted him to be very good at his books but no matter how much hard he tried, it was impossible for him to learn something. So, after trying with many tutors, she decided to be his mentor. She was very hard with him, and she punished him every time he made a mistake. But the situation was getting worse and worse with the passing of time and her son couldn´t help. He was deprived of his outdoor life faced with more and more work that he could not comprehend.One day, the lady lost all the remains of her maternal patience, and started beating him with so much strengh that her son fell died on the floor.
Nobody knows the extent of her remorse when he realised what she had done; but that she died in course of time, and could find no solace or forgiveness even in the grave. And this is proved by her wandering, unquiet spirit that paces still trough the house. There are many people who testified to have seen the ghost of this cruel mother.

entry 26

Dear luisa;

I´ve been thinking a lot about the situation you´re passing trough and i can´t avoid comparing it with my personal experience. Love is a very complicated theme and unfortunately, nobody has the right answer. I think that the most important thing is that you feel happy. Whatever you decide, has to be for your good. Maybe the trip to mendoza will help you very muvh to take a decition because distance helps to see things more clear. I´m almost sure that you´ll solve your problems very soon and you´ll be ok.
Best luck and remember you can trust on me in whatever you need.
Lots of love,
lorena

entry 25

to Luisa with all my love:

If you woke up today
and saw everything blue,
If the day finished
and nothing new happened,
If you feel that everything
is loosing sense,
Start looking to the heaven,
and you´ll see the sun behind the clouds.
Look the world that surrounds you,
and you´ll see the perfection of nature.
Look at the people you love,
and you´ll discover that they need you.
You´ll know that the sun you carry inside,
is stronger than any cloud.
You´ll keep your mind opened
and you´ll learn to solve your problems.
you´ll see the palette full of colours.
You just have to put love
in everything you do
to discover a new world.

Maybe this not the perfect poem, but i wrote it with all my love.

entry 24

Lately i´ve been under a lot of pressure in my house. I can clearly understand that my parents want the best for me , but sometimes they push me to do things in a way i´m not prepared. I know that my mother´s dream is that i graduate as soon as possible, but for some reason things didn´t go as she wanted, she can´t understand that i´m doing as much as i can to make her happy and she puts me under a lot of stress. The most common mistake of parents is to expect their children to do all the things that they didn´t do, and they don´t realise that this can be very harmful for them because sometimes they have to abandon ship when they realise that they´re not doing what they want but what their parents want.
I hope my parents will understand that i´ll do the possible to make them happy but always respecting my personal rythm.

entryy 23

Do you believe in astrology?

People who believe in astrology tend to live their lives according to what the tarot or the horoscope says. The fact that the planets or the stars can influence in our life is still im doubt. There are no proofs of that but what is certain is that our mind can be totally influenced by astrology. It happened to me that someone once read my tarot cards. She told me many things that happened into my family like my grandfa's death. But if you think it, there is nothing speccial in what she told me, these are things that may happen to anyone. But some people who have weak minds can be easily deceived and in many cases the pay a lot of money to people whose only aim is to take from them as much money as they can. I think that we should live our lives and build our own future instead of believing in something that doesn't exist.

entry 22

Back from holidays

Today is "the" day. After a month of vacations is very hard to retake responsabilities. The question that comes to my mind when i think about it is why is harder to get accostumed to responsabilities than doing nothing? Maybe because we think of our studies, woks etc as something that we " must" do and no something that we can really enjoy. For that reason i´ve decided to change my mind for this year, i will try to enjoy my return and have positive energies for everything i´ll do in this half of the year. I don´t know if this will bw useful or not but at least i will try.

entry 21

A nice dream

I close my eyes and i can see this place again. It is a paradise full of colours and silence. The sun touches gently my face and it feels warm and lovely. I know i´m walking but my feet don´t move. The only noise i can hear are the flowers and trees waving in the breeze. Its incredible colours paint the landscape as if it was heaven. I can smell the exquisite perfume of every single flower. I keep moving with my arms outstretched and the tip of my fingers touch the leaves that feel very soft. I open my eyes and i see a big lake surrounded by pine trees and a rainbow with bright colours shining behind the trees. It looks very peaceful. I want to get to the rainbow but i move very slowly. So, i close my eyes again and just wait. But when i feel i´m very close to reach the lake , i hear a loud noise that comes like an eco from far away, and it says: Lorena wake up! Its late!.My mother´s voice sounds horrible when she wakes me up from that beautiful dream. I´ve had the same dream since i as a child but i could never reach the rainbow.

entry 20

My best friend

She is the one that understand me and i know i can trust her everything. A month ago i got the sad new that she is very ill and she won´t live much more time. I can´t express with words what i felt when i heard that . She´s been my friend for thirteen years and now i´m seeing her dying. This is the saddest moment of my life. She cries for her golden hair that is falling like leaves in autum and her face is every day more pale. I can´t do anything to help her and this is killing me. I feel that she needs me but i just don´t know what to do. Whenever i see her my eyes fill with tears and i stay without speaking, so i preffer to go away. If only i had the strentgh to look at her eyes and tell her how much i love her. She is my best friend and nothing will change that....not even death.

entry 19

Generally, i don´t like to criticize other people´s behaviour. Something that i´ve learnt in the last years is that we are all different from each other and as there are things that i may or not like from someone, maybe there are things on me that other people won´t like. But a speccial feature in some people that really makes me feel uncomfortable is too much self confidence. The real problem is when they feel that their own opinions are the only valuable. What is worse, some people criticize you in a very rude way and they just don´t care if they´re causing you any harm. I´ll never forget a teacher from university who used to say that if we didn´t pass the exam was becasuse we didn´t fit for the career and that there wasn´t any teacher in all Tucuman that could teach us better than she did. Whenever i heard her saying so, i just wanted to ask her what made her feel that she was the best teacher in all Tucuman. What i thought was that she had no idea how she had to treat students and that made her a really bad teacher. She was always trying to persuade us to give up the subject, and unfortunately she succeded with many students. I think that the best way to face a situation like that is by trying no to listen to this kind of persons because otherwise you can finish by giving up everything.

Entry 18

If i had to list ten things i´d like to accomplish during my lifetime i would like to start by enjoying life as much as possible. Having into account that i´m 22 and that younghood in women lasts so little, i have to take advantage of life before it take advantage of me. Of course, enjoying life requires being responsible, so, my second accomplishment is to get my degree. If i study hard this is no so far to happen and i´ll have more chances to find a good job which is number three. After travelling to the institute for five years, the fourth thing would be to buy a car. There is no other thing that makes a woman to feel more independant than having a car. But the problem for independant women is to find a boyfriend. Men hate them because they make them feel inferior, so my fifth accomplishment is really a hard one. As a number six on my list is my wedding, the happiest day in all women´s life. A big party followed by a great honeymoon in a tropical isle. Number eight in the top ten is having children. I have always dreamt with a house full of children runnig and playing in the garden, but after nursing my nephew i´ve reduced the number to "one". The idea of living in the countryside is not the ideal for me because as a future teacher i´ll have to spend most of my time at work so i´d like to buy a flat in a centric area. The last thing of my list is the best one, after doing all the previous things i´ve mentioned before i think i´ll need a time for rest so i´d like to spend the last years of my life travelling araund the world.

entry 17

I remember discovering that Saint Nicolas didn´t exist. I was six years old and as every year i had prepared a glass of water and some biscuits for Saint Nicolas to refresh when he came to my house. But that night i left the glass of water on the floor next to the chritsmass tree which caused a loud noise when my father kicked it by mistake in the middle of the night. I jumped out of my bed and run to the chritsmass tree because i thought that Saint Nicolas had been injured. My father told me that Saint nicolas had left my present to him because he was very hurried.But next day, when i told the story to my older brothers, they laught at me and told me the dreadful true: "Saint Nicolas doesn´t exist, he is our father". I felt very dissapointed and angry with my father at that moment but my brother gave me a great idea; i never told my father that i knew the truth and in this way i i received my presents every year till no so long.