“Biodiversity” Story and Pictures — National Geographic Your Shot

How much life can you find around you ? Apparently, the 15,672 pics submitted for the National Geographic magazine are any indication.

We can see everything : from elephants to arthropods  scarcely (=escasamente ) bigger than the period at the end of this sentence. Creatures of the air, like birds, butterflies and moths (=polillas), as well as creatures of the sea, like sharks, sponges, coral or jellyfish.

It is not always easy to show a community of creatures , including several species in one pic. Nature loves to hide and sometimes it gets hard to see the individuals.

Have a look at them on the link below and tell us which one is the most interesting picture for you and why . Try to justify your choice convincingly .Imagine that we are jury at a photo contest . Which one would choose for the first prize and why ? Thanks so much for participating !!!

“Biodiversity” Story and Pictures — National Geographic Your Shot.

“Into the Wild” (Future tenses with 1ºBachiller)

This bus is visited by tourists in Alaska .

The real Chris took photos of himself with his camera.

Just arrived in Alaska.

Whenever this film has  been mentioned in my classes or in conversation with students at the corridors , I have had the impression that those who have seen it feel something very special. They feel that  they belong to a “unique” group and they feel easily connected to others who liked it too. In some way, they seem to share the same dream, the same concept of wisdom , the admiration for the sincerity of the protagonist , the envy for living such an awesome experience, the same desire of personal growth…

I hope you will share a bit of this too… from now on, you belong to the same group…

In unit 4 , entitled “Travellers”, we are going to revise the different verbal tenses for the future. So, my proposal to you is to predict what will happen in this film. We have seen the first 50 minutes and you have quite a lot information about the plot.

Will Chris go back to his home soon ?

Where will he sleep? Will he survive easily ? Will he have difficulties to find food or water? Will he get ill? What kind of illness? How will he get cured?

Who will he meet along his journey? Will he spend most his time alone or with someone? Which qualities will this person have? Which other people will he meet? Other dreamers like him ? Natives in Alaska ? Intellectuals? Ecologists ?

Summer in Scotland

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Here is a summary of my summer in Scotland. After a tour around the Highlands , we finished in Edinburgh , the capital. By that time of the year it holds the Theatre Festival, famous all over the world. I do recommend it to you…!!

The Highlands again or… have you ever wished to travel to a fiction place ?

Remember that we read “Rob Roy”,by Walter Scott,  in the second term in 1º Bachiller? Remember that the novel mentioned many places from The Scottish Highlands: Edimburgh, Glasgow, Northumbria, Aberfoil, Loch Ness, Loch Lomond, Loch Ness…? Remember that I told you about my dream of going cycling round the Highlands …?

Well. someone said said “If there’s a will, there’s a how”, so, after having the will for a long time , the “how”is here ! I would like to share some of that experience with you . This is the place where I am going to stay with my family: an  ancient building  which used to be a Benedictine Abbey which has been renovated into cosy apartments in a small village: Fort Augustus , just at  the bank of Loch Ness. From there, you can do a lot of different activities like canoeing, sailing, hiking, cycling  and, of course, admire the stunning Scottish landscape… I will feel Diana Vernon reading in the old library…waiting for a secret message from the Jacobites while it’s raining outside.

Can you imagine Frank Osbaldistone and his cousins riding their horses on htese hills ? It’s easy here…

The library of the abbey. I will feel as Diana Vernon in the library of Osbaldistone Hall…Do you remember the second chapter of “Rob Roy”, the novel by Walter Scott.

The perfect place to read , think and enjoy the peace of nature.

Loch Ness parts the North Western Highlands from the South East.

Congratulations on your essays !!! (1ºBachiller and B.Int.)

100% Images

Writing an essay can take quite a lot of work when you want it to be good. I know you made a big effort at home. I greatly appreciate it.  Thank you very much indeed !!! Here you have  some of the best ones . Hope you like it !

“Success in life…what does it mean?”, by Alvaro Gabriel(1ºBach.Int.)

“I guess we all want to succeed in everything we do in life,but… What is to be successful? Well, a model that I like is Steve Jobs,the founder of Apple, who had a very clear set of ideas to succeed in whatever you do in your life. Being successful is a complicated term, but we can understand how influential somebody is when he succeeds in helping other people (e.g. Steve Jobs)

First, let’s speak about the reasons for success. To achieve success, you have to make a big effort and sacrifice, so, this is not easy. You should always be yourseld, live for yourself and do what you like.

“If you smoke because you are stressed or because you have a problem, when you smoke you will have two problems”, by Sandra Navarro (1ºBach.)

“Government should control the sale of alcohol and tobacco to minors because they can have health problems and become addicted to alcohol, tobacco, even drugs. Those who smoke and drink alcohol have a chance of getting cancer fifteen time bigger than non-smokers. Only 15.000 of 30.000 who have just known that they have cancer will be alive in five years.

Besides, when minors drink too much alcohol, most of the times they don’t behave correctly. Alcohol makes them reckless , so they break urban furniture and other things on the streets, like cars, for instance. They can also dirty the streets or fight with other people and get in trouble.

“Do exams really test our knowledge?”,by Nuria Montejano (1ºBach.))

“At present, many students prepare themselves for a brilliant future. In some places, they first learn general thing and then they specialize in a certain branch (medicine, engineering, literature, history…) On the other hand, exams test our knowledge, but on the other hand, they aren’t fully effective.

As far as I’m concerned, this is like that because nowadays obtaining knowledge means opening book and spending hours trying to memorize a lot of information from different subjects.

“Should Arts subjects be excluded from the curriculum in High Schools?”, by Lucia Pardo(1ºBach.)

“According to the most recent surveys, ninety per cent of the students wouldn’t like to elliminate the Arts subjects from the curriculum in the Secondary school.

First of all, I would say it is the first contact of students with the world of Art. For example, a student can realise about his or her talent drawing in the Art class and this would motivate him to study it more deeply.

We can’t forget that there are careers based on Art and, if students have not practised it since they were young, they cannot know whether they like it or not.

“Is our shopping encouraging an unfair system?”, by Lucia Abia (1ºBach.)

“Almost all High Streets and many famous brands make their products in developing countries like Morocco,China or India, where we find the lowest wages in the world. One of the most significant products made there are clothes, but there are some others very important such as toys or gadgets. First world companies place their factories in those countries because there aren’t laboral or ecological laws and it’s much cheaper to maintain these sweatshops.