Week 15: Game Over

Writing on this blog has been useful since it helped improve my writing skills as well as learn the structure of the different types essays I can find. Besides, I've found a huge number of links about English grammar and expressions used in this language. The only aspect I could complain about is that sometimes the tasks we had to write were repetitive. However, in general the idea of the blog was really positive and helpful to be more creative.

In respect of the subject, Lengua Inglesa IV, I have to say that my English level has improved compared to previous years. The essays we were required to write and later were corrected by the teacher were highly beneficial since they were based on a novel, Hamlet in our case. Focusing on the lessons, the listenings we have done with with the conversation assistant improved my hearing skills. Apart from that, it would have been better if we had done some exercises related to the C level we are supposed to achieve since the exercises of the book we had didn't prepare us to face the exam. Nonetheless,  I must say that the teacher's website has provided us with great exercises similar to those in the exam.

All in all, it has been a good academic year in which we have learnt and experienced new things.
Thanks for reading me and see you soon!

Nassira Dahmani

Game Over (WEEK 15):

The course has almost finished and in order to say goodbye to the subject and to the experience writing this blog, I will give my opinion on what I think about this subject.

First of all, I think that my English level has improved thanks to the type of exams we do. The contents that we have practiced are of a C1 level and it is something that has helped me with other subjects. All the activities of writing essays that we have done were also very useful. We had to read a play by Hamlet and then do different types of essays with a vocabulary appropriate to the level required.

The only thing that I would change, would be the dynamics of the classes. I would have liked to review more grammar, although in the previous years we have already reviewed a lot. However, with this higher level, it would have been good to do grammar exercises according to the content of the exam. Nonetheless, the web page provided by the teacher is very helpful and there you can find exercises related to the grammar that will appear in the exam.

The classes with the reader, they seemed interesting and improved my hearing, as it helped us prepare for the listening that we would then have to do in the exam.

Finally, the experience of having to write entries in a blog related to the contents seen in class has been very interesting and entertaining. I would like to implement this technique with other subjects.


It has been a great year, see you next year with new subjects!

LORENA CONESA MARTÍNEZ.

WEEK 15: GAME OVER

                       OPINION ABOUT THE BLOG AND THE SUBJECT.

First and foremost, I have enjoyed a lot writing on the blog. It helped me not only to write but think in English. I truly believe that it was useful for improving my writing skills. In addition to that, I believe the last section (which was about writing what I have done in the last week) was a great way of organization, at leas for me, that way I could realize how  much effort I have put in improving my English and it encouraged me to do more. The only thing that was hard for me is that sometimes I did not know when the teacher would upload a new task so I had to check the blog from time to time, and when I forgot, I found that the teacher had uploaded 20 entries more. As for the subject, Lengua inglesa IV, I can only complain about the book we had this year, It seems quite basic for the complex level that we wanted to reach, although the summaries of the last pages were not too bad. What I liked the most about the subject is the teacher's website since it was quite complete. 


See you next year.


Sara Bahadi

WEEK 12: CONNECTING WORDS

FORMAL EXPRESSIONS IN NEWS:

Royal Family expresses thanks after Harry and Meghan's radical day

For Harry and Meghan, it was the morning after the night before. For the rest of Britain, it was a day to reflect on an electrifying wedding that's being hailed as a transformative moment for the British monarchy.
The last public glimpse of the couple, now the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, was on Saturday evening when Meghan and Harry swept out of Windsor Castle in a vintage Jaguar convertible and drove south to Frogmore House, where Harry's father, Prince Charles, hosted an evening reception for 200 of the couple's friends and family.
Fireworks lit up the sky as guests, including the tennis star Serena Williams and the Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra, celebrated alongside members of the Royal Family.
Meghan is understood to have made a speech at the party -- another break with tradition in what was a royal wedding like no other. Saturday's ceremony featured a rousing, fiery address from Chicago bishop Michael Curry, a gospel choir plus a diverse array of guests from blue-blood royals to Hollywood celebrities.
"By having so many multi-cultural elements in the ceremony, finally we had a royal occasion that not only represented modern Britain but sent a real positive message to the world," Sandro Monetti, a British journalist now based in Los Angeles, told CNN.
"Small details can have a big impact. Finally the royals are in the 21st century and look young, vibrant and cool again."
The Royal Family thanked everyone who supported the wedding, from the more than 100,000 who came to Windsor to those who followed the day from around the world
For the evening reception, Meghan changed from her boat-neck Givenchy wedding gown into a bespoke, lily-white Stella McCartney high-necked dress. She also wore an emerald-cut aquamarine ring that once belonged to Harry's mother, the late Diana, Princess of Wales. Harry switched into black- ie after wearing military dress during the ceremony.
Harry drove Meghan to the wedding in a vintage Jaguar E-Type Concept Zero. It was originally built in 1968 but has recently been converted to electric power. It bore the number plate E19 05 18 -- the date of the wedding.
Few details were released about the after party, but some of the celebrity invitees, including Williams, shared pictures of their own outfit changes on Instagram. CNN's Max Foster had said it was likely to go late into the night. "You know, Harry's a bit of a party animal. We know that."
Huge crowds had descended on Windsor, west of London, to catch a glimpse of Harry and Meghan and soak up the party atmosphere.
Viewing parties were also held across the United States, including at Markle's former school in California, Immaculate Heart High, an all-girls private Catholic school in Los Feliz. Students showing up in their pajamas as early as 2 a.m. to snag a spot in the school gym.
Bishop Michael Curry, the first African-American head of the Episcopal Church in the United States, who gave the powerful sermon, summed up the event's appeal.

• Hunt, K & Smith, L. (2018) Royal Family expresses thanks after Harry and Meghan's radical day. CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/2018/05/20/europe/royal-wedding-harry-meghan-markle-day-after-intl/index.html

LINKING DEVICES:

Here are the most used linking devices. Picture taken from https://www.pinterest.es/pin/525091637773724918/?lp=true

WHAT I'VE DONE TO IMPROVE MY ENGLISH

This past week I have been studying hard for the final exams. In order to study English I have been doing practical exercises from the teacher's website, particularly rephrasing exercises. I have also watched a couple of films to practice listening skills. The film I liked the most was Captain fantastic, it was great and entretaining

SARA BAHADI

Connecting words (WEEK 12):

I have found on the Net an academic article from a journal:

CLIMATE CHANGE AND LANDSCAPE PRESERVATION: 

Rethinking Our Strategies

As we lean into the headwinds of this era of climate change, preserving cultural landscapes can sometimes seem confusing, difficult, and thorny. How might those who are committed to resource preservation, protection, and continuity respond and adjust to this long-building but only recently acknowledged developments? We live in a time when it might be easier to deny or avoid the reality of the impact of climate change on our resources, both natural and cultural. This issue of Change Over Time directly addresses, through theory and practice, the ways in which climate change is already affecting cultural landscapes that are significant, in some cases precious, and in all cases worthy of our attention, protection, and caring.


The response to climate change's impact on cultural landscapes cannot be refined without considering a number of deeper and, in some cases, more deeply rooted issues and concepts. These stem not only from our collective frustration with forces that are well beyond our control, but also from long-held contradictions as we seek to contain, redefine, and disassemble the nature/culture dichotomy. In most cases, these issues could not have been anticipated in the Venice Charter (1964), the Historic Preservation Act (1966), the Burra Charter (1979), or other fundamental declarations of preservation/conservation tenets. In the dedication to protecting critical and valued resources, climate change issues require that we be nimble and flexible, yet adhere to basic beliefs and ideals.


Cultural landscapes are a relatively recent addition to the historic preservation glossary. That issue has now been effectively settled and does not need to be reargued here. Nonetheless, it is instructive to remember that cultural landscapes are often on the verge of historic preservation orthodoxy, even as the term has reached a level of often ill informed use and popularity. Not all old structures are historically important; not all cultural landscapes are significant.


Perhaps the most challenging concept in cultural landscape preservation is the fundamental understanding that change, unlike for most other cultural resources, is not merely tolerated; it is often an inherent and desired characteristic. "Landscape" is a noun and a verb; it is a "thing" and it is an "activity," a "development," or a "process." Into this already complex mix comes climate change, those big, broad, often subtle, and sometimes overwhelming forces that moderate the very processes that have informed the cultural landscape.


As we settle more deeply into the twenty-first century, questions and concerns about climate change are clearly ever more pressing. Although it may seem that some seasons are cooler, or wetter, or drier, or just as they have always been, the overwhelming scientific evidence is that we have, in fact, embarked on a period of substantial human-caused climate change. We need to look at and comprehend the impact of environmental change on the world we know and love. In many ways, it is a bonding of a humanities perspective and a scientific lens.


As with much science, research in climate change is as much an art as it is an exact discipline. We have come to expect, through lifelong indoctrination, that science most often has the right answer. This is, at best, an unreasonable expectation with which to burden those who experiment, take intellectual and professional risks, and seek answers that are often unimaginable or outside our accepted worldviews. We hear of "paradigm shifts," but, as Thomas Kuhn reminded us, these are real revolutions in our thinking, not merely shifts.1 We need a revolution, and not merely a shift, in our thinking about historically significant cultural landscapes, their preservation or protection, and our response to human-inflicted changes to robust ecological systems.


The best science, it would seem, expects and accepts many errors, mistakes, and miscalculations on the way to establishing new understandings, new paradigms, and new truths


(From: https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3844159751/climate-change-and-landscape-preservation-rethinking).



- Some example of linking devices:

LORENA CONESA MARTÍNEZ.

Complaining (WEEK 11):

How to complain in formal contexts? 

I have found a web page where the meaning of some phrasal verbs is explained: 

• An example of a complaint text: 

12 Scuttle Street

Newcastle upon Tyne 

NE1 2EF

7 April, 2015 

Mr. Dennis Hampton

Manager

Sunshine Blinds

20 Apollo Road

Newcastle upon Tyne

NE1 8JK

FIESTA BLACKOUT ROLLER SHADE 

Dear Mr. Hampton,

I am writing to complain about the faulty installation of the above blackout shade to my bedroom window. Mr. Brand from your company came to my house to fit the shade on Monday, 29 March. That same evening, I discovered the mechanism was not working and that it was impossible either to raise or to lower the shade. 

I phoned your company the following morning, and Mr. Brand returned three days later to repair the shade. However, although the shade worked for the first few days after his visit, it then jammed once more. When I phoned again on 6 April to report this fault, I was told that no one would be available to visit me for two weeks. 

As I regularly work nights, and this shade is the only means of blocking out daylight, it is vital that it is functioning properly so that I can sleep during the day. I, therefore, would appreciate it if you would ensure that someone returns to replace the shade by the end of the week.

Sincerely yours, 

Ben Johnson.  

• WHAT HAVE YOU DONE THIS WEEK TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH?

Two days ago I saw the movie "Suicide Squad" in English with subtitles also in English. And as the exams are approaching, I've been doing English grammar exercises. Here are some web pages that are very helpful: 

http://www.xtec.cat/~ogodoy/sac/rephrasing/rephrexercises.htm

http://www.xtec.cat/~ogodoy/sac/rephrasing/rephrexercises.htm

http://www.stgeorges.co.uk/blog/advanced-english-test-c1-c2

LORENA CONESA MARTÍNEZ.

WEEK 12: CONNECTING WORDS

• Find out an piece of news where an academic topic is developed on the Internet and underline all the formal expressions you can see.

Why Are New York’s Schools Segregated? It’s Not as Simple as Housing

When asked about school segregation in New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that schools are segregated because neighborhoods are: “We cannot change the basic reality of housing in New York City.”

Now, as a debate about plans to integrate middle schools has engulfed one Manhattan district, a report released on Wednesdayundermines that notion. It found that a full 40 percent of New York City kindergartners do not attend the nearby school to which they are assigned. That’s a vast stream of 27,000 5-year-olds funneling through the city each day. 

While parents of all races choose to send their children out of their zones, the overall pattern of their choices may make schools more segregated. It also concentrates the effects of poverty at zoned schools, the schools to which children are assigned based on where they live.

“I don’t think anyone realized that number was so big,” said Nicole Mader, the lead author of the paper, which was conducted by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School. “If 40 percent of elementary school students aren’t going to school where they live, how can residential segregation be the only factor driving school segregation?”

[The new schools chancellor has jumped into the segregation debate. Here’s what he has to say about it.]

The schools they pick, the study found, tend to share two main features: They had fewer poor students than the zoned schools the families were leaving, and they had higher test scores.

As students move from lower-income schools to higher-income schools, the study found, they also tend to move toward the city’s economic heart, tracking the subway lines from East New York to Crown Heights, or from Harlem to the Upper West Side. The students who leave are then replaced by children from lower-income neighborhoods.

• Browse the Net and find a reliable classification of linking devices and uploadit to your blog.

• Tell us what you've done this week to improve your English

This week I have done some exercises and read some articles. I have watched the film "The Untouchables" for the second time since the first time I watched it was with French subtitles, and this second was with English subtitles. 

Nassira Dahmani

WEEK 11: COMPLAINING

• Browse the Net and find out charts where phrasal verbs are illustrated and upload one of them to your blog. Add more phrasal verbs from the same family.

Phrasal verb	Meaning	Example sentence
Back something up	reverse	You'll have to back up your car so that I can get out
Back somebody up	support	My wife backed me up over my decision to quit my job.
Blow up	explode	The racing car blew up after it crashed into the fence.
Break up	end a relationship	My boyfriend and I broke up before I moved to America.
Break up	start laughing (informal)	The kids just broke up as soon as the clown started talking.
Bring somebody up	raise a child	My grandparents brought me up after my parents died.
Bring something up	start talking about a subject	My mother walks out of the room when my fatherbrings up sports.
Catch up	get to the same point as somebody else	You'll have to run faster than that if you want tocatch up with Marty.

• Find a text on the Net where a complaint is stated and underline expressions to complain.

From: https://www.scribendi.com/advice/example_complaint_letter.en.html

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing today to complain of the poor service I received from your company on June 12, 2016. I was visited by a representative of That Awful Company, Mr. Madman, at my home on that day.

Mr. Madman was one hour late for his appointment and offered nothing by way of apology when he arrived at noon. Your representative did not remove his muddy shoes upon entering my house, and consequently left a trail of dirt in the hallway. Mr. Madman then proceeded to present a range of products to me that I had specifically told his assistant by telephone I was not interested in. I repeatedly tried to ask your representative about the products that were of interest to me, but he refused to deal with my questions. We ended our meeting after 25 minutes without either of us having accomplished anything.

I am most annoyed that I wasted a morning (and half a day's vacation) waiting for Mr. Madman to show up. My impression of That Awful Company has been tarnished, and I am now concerned about how my existing business is being managed by your firm. Furthermore, Mr. Madman's inability to remove his muddy shoes has meant that I have had to engage the services, and incur the expense, of a professional carpet cleaner.

I trust this is not the way That Awful Company wishes to conduct business with valued customers—I have been with you since the company was founded and have never encountered such treatment before. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss matters further and to learn of how you propose to prevent a similar situation from recurring. I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

• Tell us what you've done this week to improve your English.

This week I have been writing an essay for my literature project. I watched some interviews in which Ian Mcewan is interviewed and he is talking about his book "Saturday". 

Nassira Dahmani

WEEK 11: complaining

• Browse the Net and find out charts where phrasal verbs are illustrated and upload one of them to your blog. Add more phrasal verbs from the same family

• Find a text on the Net where a complaint is stated and underline expressions to complain.

two examples of complaint letter taken from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/writing-help/letters-of-complaint and https://www.accc.gov.au/consumers/complaints-problems/write-a-complaint-letter

Dear Manager

RE: COMPLAINT ABOUT FAULTY TELEVISION CABINET PURCHASED AT CABINET WORLD ON 15 DECEMBER 2016

I am unhappy with the quality of a television cabinet I bought at 5 Street on 15 December and I am writing to seek a replacement.

The cabinet doors do not open and shut properly and the stain on the cabinet is uneven, with one half darker than the other. The cabinet was delivered on 30 December and I noticed this problem as soon as I unpacked it from the box.

The cabinet  is not of acceptable quality and does not match the sample cabinet I was shown in store. I would like you to replace it with one of the same quality and finish as the sample and arrange for return of the faulty cabinet at no cost.

I have attached a photocopy of my receipt as proof of purchase.

I would like to have this problem fixed quickly please. If I do not hear from you within 10 days, I will lodge a formal complaint with Consumer Affairs in my state.

You can contact me on 1234 5678 during working hours or after hours on 123 456 789 to discuss this matter further.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Brown

Dear Mr Black: Following our telephone conversation earlier today, I am writing to give details of my dissatisfaction with my stay at the New Hotel, Los Christianos, Tenerife, on 10– 18 August 2010, which I booked with your company for me and my family. 

My central complaint is that the hotel fell far short of the description in the brochure. We had booked two double suites, in rooms 213 and 214. Although the rooms were billed as four-star accommodation, they were very cramped, and the furnishings were worn and dirty. In addition, the shower in room 213 did not work. The hotel’s grounds, described in the brochure as “pleasant, tranquil, and spacious,” were in fact bordered on two sides by a very busy main road. The swimming pool was closed the entire week for repairs.

 When we spoke to your representative, Tracey Mills, she promised to try to get the shower fixed, but this took an unacceptably long time to happen—three days from when we first complained. I asked her to fill out an accommodation report form detailing these issues and I enclose a copy for your information, together with photos of the bedrooms and the hotel grounds.

 As I stated in my telephone call, I feel that we are due a full refund for this hotel stay as it failed to meet the description in the brochure, and it ruined our holiday. I look forward to hearing from you within the next two weeks. 

Sincerely yours,

 Maria Johnson

• Tell us what you've done this week to improve your English.

In order to improve my English, this week I have been practicing on making references. I have learned how to make a proper reference list and how to write in-text citations in order to avoid plagiarism. In addition, I have watched a marvel film, Iron man in English and with English subtitles. Furthermore, I have done some exercises form the teacher's website since the final exam in near.

SARA BAHADI