LOPEZ+DIAZ,+MAYTE

__**SECOND TERM- BOOK REVIEW**__ //**HOW TO BE GOOD**// is a book written by Nick Hornby. The action takes place in London in our days. The novel is narrated in first-person by the main character, Katie, a GP, who has been married to David for twenty years. Both of them are in their forties and their relationship is going from bad to worse. The novel not only copes with the core values in our current society but also call into question the marriage, even though, both issues are discussed with a good deal of humor. The story revolves around the change that suddenly David, who usually is a bad-tempered and sarcastic man, undergoes to become the kindest and caring man in the planet. In fact, he’s willing to do as much as possible in order to help deprived people. Obviously, in view of this, his wife is puzzled and confused but, on the other hand, this situation makes her question their family’s lifestyle and where the boundaries of goodness are. By and large, I’ve enjoyed the book and that’s why I would recommend it, since although the change more radical is experienced by David, the reader also can witnesses the process of maturing of Katie. Anyway, if you are going in quest of the answer for the question //How to be good?// You can be sure you won’t find it, because, like most of people in the world, all the characters in the book are a bit lost, even the vicar who is supposed to have clear religious beliefs. However, in exchange, it will give you enough food for thought. (I’ve read the review of two of my classmates about this book and I agree with Gemma Pardo, for example, in the fact of that everybody is able to change his o her attitude towards life and I also concur with Mercé Ibáñez when she states that the book provides us an excellent opportunity of consider our goals in life by identifying us somehow with the characters).

__**VOCABULARY STORIES**__ Yesterday morning when I woke up I felt rough because I had a hangover. The worst of all was that I had to go to work and to be honest, I didn’t feel like to talk anyone, especially my colleague who didn’t stop hassling me by telling me things like: “You shouldn´t have mixed drinks, the last drink was unnecessary,…” and so on. That’s why when I couldn’t put ut with it any longer I said to her: “To put in bluntly, I don’t need your hints and tips”. Obviously, she got angry. Later, I realized I had been unfair to her and I try to make it up with her so I told her: "What about calling a truce?" She smiled me and I took the opportunity to apologize to her because of my rude behavior. **STORY TWO** In my best dreams, I imagine that I’m a scientist and after many years of hard research fighting against the adversities that it entails such as imploring for grants and permissions, trying to diminish the red tape, etc., eventually I devise a vaccine which is able to eliminate the selfishness and superficiality of people. Then, despite of counter opinions, my invention is sanctioned by the government and suddenly, everyone who is vaccinated undergoes a change and becomes a supportive person with the capability of helping others without having any vested interest in it. On the whole, it works, although, to tell you the truth, in some cases is necessary to duplicate or even triplicate the dose (the amount of vaccine you know) so that it is effective, since many people have serious difficulties to absorb it.
 * STORY ONE**

Ana as you recommended me, here you are a recording of my talk about movies. media type="file" key="films talk.wma" width="300" height="300" has provide (provided) well prepared vocabulary influenced (extra syllable not pronounced, stress on last not second but last syllable) You need confidence. You need to forget yourself and talk without concentrating on the effect of your words can r**ea**d (/i:/, not /e/) people who is (are) reality often overpasses fiction (surpasses) atmosphere stress on third, not second sykllable genres (/z>/, not /dz>/) chosen (/ou/, not /u/) film satirise (3rd person "s") (is a satire of) film ("m" must be pronounced censored ("e" is not pronounced") Jews´barber (do you mean Jewish barber?) feels (/i:/, not /e/) peopole is (are) teenager (stress on second, not first syllable) racism (/ei/, not/a/ Important effort to produce advanced vocabulary and sophisticated ideas- well done sbmission (/^/, not /u/) scenes (the first sound is /s/, not /e/) Very interesting content and choice of text and scenes stories (the first sound is /s/, not /i/) Very good final effect Lots of potential but also lots of work necessary to improve the pronounciation of some basic words with some simple rules. Please record a summary of your talk with improved pronounciation(use these notes as a starting point) to get a good mark.
 * __SECOND TERM PRESENTATION__**

__**BOOK REVIEW**__

**“//When God was a rabbit”//** is a book written by Sarah Winman. Published in 2011, it’s the first novel of this English writer. It could be said it’s a realistic fiction story. The book has a first-person narrator, Elly, the main character, who introduces reader to the world of her peculiar family and friends//.// The story takes place in England in the Seventies. It has two parts. In the first one, the protagonist tells us about her childhood and the events of that time that will mark her adult life. In the second one, we find Elly in her late twenties, and the story revolves around the happenings from that moment and the way she tackles them. Don´t let the deceptively hilarious title fool you, since, while it has rather funny episodes, specially in the first part of the novel, it’s nevertheless a quite moving book. In fact, it deals with some sensitive issues, such as child abuse, gender violence, lack of affection, sexual leaning and so on. However, the book is also a tribute to hope. It reflects how tolerance and generosity together with the power of love provided by family and friends are weapons more than enough to overcome difficulties. From my point of view, despite I’ve found it quite difficult to read because of the figurative language often used in it, the book is absolutely gripping and highly recommendable. What's more, even if it isn’t the type of literary genre you prefer, you can be sure that, if you give it a try, won´t leave you indifferent. CORRECTIONS AND ASSESSMENT **“//When God was a rabbit”//** is a book written by Sarah Winman. Published in 2011, it’s the first novel of this English writer. It could be said it’s a realistic fiction story. The book has a first-person narrator, Elly, the main character, who introduces the reader to the world of her peculiar family and friends//.// The story takes place in England in the Seventies. It has two parts. In the first one, the protagonist tells us about her childhood and the events of that time that will mark her adult life. In the second one, we find Elly in her late twenties, and the story revolves around the happenings from that moment and the way she tackles them. Don´t let the deceptively hilarious title fool you, since, while it has rather funny episodes, specially in the first part of the novel, it’s nevertheless quite a moving book. In fact, it deals with some sensitive issues, such as child abuse, gender violence, lack of affection, sexual leaning and so on. However, the book is also a tribute to hope. It reflects how tolerance and generosity together with the power of love provided by family and friends are weapons more than enough to overcome difficulties. In my view, despite the fact that I¨ve found it quite difficult to read because of the figurative language often used in it, the book is absolutely gripping and highly recommendable. What's more, even if it isn’t the type of literary genre you prefer, you can be sure that, if you give it a try, it won´t leave you indifferent. ** Very good ** __**THE SEVEN AGES OF THE MAN**__ This poem from a Shakespeare’s play explains briefly the stages in a man’s lifetime. Maybe life is like that, broadly speaking. But, in my opinion, this is a too much p essimistic view. What’s more, if any people who are going through a difficult situation in their life, read it, you can be sure they’ll attempt to commit suicide. I completely agree with the fact that all of us go through these stages in our lifetime. It’s truth that life isn’t often something easy to face with and we have to learn to live as best we could. But, in the meantime, we enjoy ourselves lots of things as well, such as family, friends, holidays, and why not? even work.; that´s why, I think people should keep hopes and wishes whatever age they are. Anyway, this way of sorting out the ages is not always the same for everybody. What I mean is that, unfortunately, sometimes children have to become adults sooner than they should do it because of family problems, diseases and so on. On the contrary, there are adults who don´t mature mentally at all and that’s a big problem, from my point of view, because they don’t know to manage their life and, more often than not, they become alcohol or drugs addicts. To sum up, I do believe it’s worth living according to your own beliefs, but trying not to hurt the others. In other words, live and let live. CIRRECTIONS AND ASSESSMENT __**THE SEVEN AGES OF THE MAN**__ This poem from a Shakespeare’s play explains briefly the stages in a man’s lifetime. Maybe life is like that, broadly speaking. But, in my opinion, this view is far too pessimistic. What’s more, if someone going through a difficult situation in their life, reads it, you can be sure they’ll attempt to commit suicide. (Come on, come off it!) I completely agree with the fact that all of us go through these stages in our lifetime. It’s true that life isn’t often something easy to face and we have to learn to live as best we can. But, in the meantime, we enjoy lots of things as well, such as family, friends, holidays, and why not? even work.; that´s why, I think people should keep hopes and wishes whatever age they are. Anyway, this way of sorting out the ages is not always the same for everybody. What I mean is that, unfortunately, sometimes children have to become adults sooner than they should because of family problems, diseases and so on. On the contrary, there are adults who don´t mature mentally at all and that’s a big problem, from my point of view, because they don’t know how to manage their life and, more often than not, they become alcohol or drug addicts. To sum up, I do believe it’s worth living according to your own beliefs, but trying not to hurt others. In other words, live and let live.

** Good, well done. ** **COMPOSITION** The IMF is an international organisation that is supposed to have among its main functions to avoid the crisis of monetary systems, to improve the economies of its member countries and so on. However, the events occurred during the last decades show that the role exerted by the IMF is just the opposite.

First of all, the cases of Brazil and Argentina are a clear example. The IMF recommendations of applying policies such as drastic fiscal disciplines with social cuts, privatizations of public services and, the worst thing of all, the restructuring of foreign debt, prompted a long period without growth, social unrest and, of course, a lot of unemployment in those countries. That’s why they decided not to listen to the IMF proposals anymore.

Secondly, more recently, we have the cases of Bolivia and Iceland. The first one, Bolivia, a country that deals with reducing poverty and inequality, has serious difficulties to face them because of its oppressive foreign debt. Regarding Iceland, locals have said “enough is enough” with the referendums against the payment of illegitimate debts.

Therefore, in my opinion, in this moment Slovakia, as David, has the opportunity of struggling versus Europe, as Goliath, since all important decisions in EU must be made by unanimity. What’s more, it should take advantage of this and not succumb to false promises of help or improvements in the near future.

In conclusion, I do believe the system has failed, indeed. So, it’s time to stop being a puppet in hands of powerful nations.

=Excellent =


 * COMPOSITION WORBOOK UNIT 4 **

The chart shows the percentage of the citizens, who participated in parliamentary elections in 2001 in the UK. They are split into six columns depending on their age group. As can be seen, in that year the percentage of eldest voters nearly doubled the youngest ones. In fact, the chart also presents the progressive increasing of voters, of whom the more old the more participation.

Furthermore, the graph makes a comparison with the voting in 1983. Overall, as is illustrated, the electoral turnout was significantly upper over this period, except in the last range of age in which it was slightly lower.

There’re significant differences between these two years, especially in people between 18 and 44 years old. In fact, their participation in 1983 was nearly 20% higher than in 2001. The biggest difference is shown in voters situated in the first age group (from 18 to 24) of whom only voted 55% of population. In contrast, in 1983 the percentage was 77% in the same group.

To sum up, in 1983 the number of people going to the polls was considerably high. Most probably they were seeking a change of government. However, in 2001 this figures dropped significantly. CORRECTIONS AND ASSESSMENT


 * COMPOSITION WORBOOK UNIT 4**

The chart shows the percentage of the citizens who participated in parliamentary elections in 2001 in the UK. They are split into six columns depending on their age group. As can be seen, in that year the percentage of eldest voters nearly doubled the youngest ones. In fact, the chart also presents the progressive increasE of voters, of whom the older, the more participation.

Furthermore, the graph makes a comparison with the voting in 1983. Overall, as is illustrated, the electoral turnout was significantly higher over this period, except in the last range of age in which it was slightly lower.

There’re significant differences between these two years, especially in people between 18 and 44 years old. In fact, their participation in 1983 was nearly 20% higher than in 2001. The biggest difference is shown in voters situated in the first age group (from 18 to 24) of whom only 55% of population went to the polls. In contrast, in 1983 the percentage was 77% in the same group.

To sum up, in 1983 the number of people going to the polls was considerably high. Most probably they were seeking a change of government. However, in 2001 this figures dropped significantly.

** Good- perhaps you could add some other conclusionbased on how many other countries experience similar trends. **