HERE'S HOW YOU CAN DENOUNCE HATE AND RACISM

http://www.univision.com/univision-news/heres-how-you-can-denounce-hate-and-racism

SUMMARY:

This news was published on the 7^th of December by Jessica Weiss and it is about the progressive increase in both 2016 and 2017 of incidents of intolerance. So, in this news, the writer explain how to act in front of situations in which you feel victim of a hate attack and intolerance.

First of all, the writer presents that the 2016 election in the United States has caused a surge in hate-fueled harassment, intimidation and assaults across the country, mostly involving minorities. Specially, more than 800 such “election-related” episodes, mostly anti-black and anti-immigrant, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that combats hate.

In second place, the writer explains that some organizations, like SPLC, encourage people to report incidents. Right after, she also gives options to those who experience hate, since just as incidents of violence are a crime, hate incidents aren't it.

Then, the Weiss cites some authors who talk about these cases. Specifically cites David Barkey, Leader of an anti-racism organization, who says that the minimum act of violence that can be shown by a person must be punished, with the purpose of not increasing these acts of violence, because every incident of hate is important, and should be reported.

Finally, she comments that is so important that people share her history and his anecdotes because all of these are important. As Ryan Lenz, from the SPLC organization, says: “is not a time when people should be silent about what they’re experiencing”.

MY OPINION:

I totally agree with the writer of this news and with all this members of the organizations which combats hate. Nowadays the number of attacks on racism and hatred of minorities has increased enormously.

In my point of view, this increase of hatred towards other people is caused by the great crisis that many countries have been through and are passing through. But innocent people always pay, because the blame for these attacks of hatred against other people is caused by the political parties that govern today.

That’s why I want to send a message to all of those who attack innocent people: all of us with reasoning and without using violence we can fix this world, a world which are gradually destabilizing more.

WORDS I DIDN’T KNOW:

1. entitled
2. instead
3. epithet

WHAT IS THE CARNIVAL IN BRAZIL?

http://traveltips.usatoday.com/carnival-brazil-100582.html

SUMARRY:

This news, written by Caryn Anderson, is about the amazing carnivals of Brazil, specifically she writes about the history of this festival and, then, she explains the most important Carnivals in Brazil, which are in Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco.

Lent is the 46-day period observed primarily by Roman Catholics in preparation for Easter. So that’s why carnival began in the 1830 as a continuation of the Portuguese tradition of celebrating on the day before Lent begins. Over the years, people have introduced more festive elements as a street musicians, street performances, dancing, floats, food and beverages. So, as I said before, the writer explains the most important carnivals of Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Bahia and Pernambuco.

Rio de Janeiro, which has been the most well-known carnival, is characterized by being the largest, since it has more than 100 block parades, and because it is heavily influenced by the favelas, the poorest neighborhoods in the city. The celebration is the culmination of months of preparation.

Bahia is characterized because they incorporates its population's African influences, considering that it integrates reggae and traditional African rhythms with traditional samba music and dancing.

Pernambuco also features African influences in its Carnival, but it stands out for their large parades and street dancing begin one week before Carnival begins, ending on Ash Wednesday.  

MY OPINION:

Our country is strongly influenced by the celebration of Brazilian carnivals. So, this weekend some villages started to celebrate this festival. In my point of view, this type of festival is the funniest one of the year because we can wear whatever we want, besides we make awesome floats and we celebrate it wandering around the city.

Apart from all this positive aspects of Carnival, Nowadays some people celebrate it abusing alcohol and other drugs. I think that drinking a little is not bad, but some people have to control oneself because the funniest thing of partying with friends and having fun is remembering it everything the next day.

WORDS I DIDN’T KNOW:

1.    Indulging.

2.    Lent.

3.    Ash.

"INTERNET AND ITS USERS CAN CHANGE THE WORLD FOR THE BETTER"

As you should know, Internet is a network for sharing information which, nowadays, has gained great popularity, considering that everyone has access and uses it. That’s why we have been creating a world where everything works online. So, this fact, can benefit us, but it can also hurt us.

On the one hand, Internet benefits us because it has many advantages. Apart from all the information that provide us, so much information that we can even be self-taught, I think that the best advantage is the technological advance that allows to do.

On the other hand, Internet is the biggest Network, so it contains information of all kinds, bad and good. Apart from that, it is also a good tool to access personal information of people and, thus, use it against them to do harm. This is a real fact and there have been several programs where explains cases, for example, of people who suffer bullying through the internet.

Definitely, Internet can change the world for the better and, daily, we see examples of this. But I really think that this Network can improve the world if used properly. So my conclusion is that Internet can be good or bad, it only depends on the person and their use of it.

PLUMBER FACES TWO YEARS FOR BEATING DOG TO DEATH WITH SHOVEL

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc-crime/plumber-faces-years-beating-dog-death-shovel-article-1.2978441

SUMMARY:

This news, written by Laura Dimon was published the 21th of February of 2017 and it was about a plumber who faces two years for beating dog to death with shovel.

Michael Gallagher, 56-years-old man, is a plumber who works in the New York City schools and the Metropolitan Opera House. So, this Levittown man was accused last 23th of December of 2016 of beat his dog, an 11-years-old Shepard mix called Bella, and he is facing up to two years in prison.

According to prosecutors, the crime happened when this drunk man put his dog in a plastic bag and beat her with a metal shovel. He also put a zip tie around the dog's neck. Finally, when Gallagher's wife came home carried Bella to an animal hospital, where she had to be euthanized.

Gallagher's daughter spoke to the Daily News said that she and his family don’t know what to do but they know they don’t want him to come back. She also said that decades ago her father abused of alcohol and she confessed that started drinking again after one of the other family dogs died.

Finally, after all the trials, Gallagher pleaded not guilty. He is being held on $300,000 bail and is due back in court March 21.

MY OPINION:

In my point of view, if this man proves to be so cruel to the animals, this proves that he would also be able to attack the men. So, in my opinion, justice should have pleaded guilty.

I cannot understand why people are bent in mistreating animals because, for me, animals are just like humans, they also are living beings. Following this argument, if a man kill an animal he has to be tried as if he had killed a person and, therefore, go to prison. I'm sure that if he had kill a person he will go to prison. But he not even kill her, he also torture her.

Definitely, although men nowadays treat animals better, we still have to fight for animal rights and fight against animal abuse, because they have the same right to live as we do.

WORDS I DIDN’T KNOW:

1.   Euthanized

2.    Felony

3.    Pleaded.

SELF-EVALUATION ABOUT ORAL PRESENTATION.

Last friday, in English class, I did the oral presentation about my research project. So, in this entry, I want to comment a little bit how I did it and the aspects I have to improve it.

 

Regarding to how it was, I have to say that I hate do oral presentations. I hate it because I'm so shy and I don't like to speak in public. This year there are a lot of people in class who have a hight level in English, this fact makes me feel more insecure about my English because I know that I don't have a very high level. That fact also make me feel more embarrassed. But I know that I have to learn to speak in public.

 

I also have to say that, If we compare this last presentation with the others, I have improved. I think that I have improved the body language a little bit. I know that it isn't the best, but I remember that last year I couldn't look at people. Although I have improved a bit, I have to keep trying to improve this aspect. That's why the next term I will try to do another extra oral presentation. If I can do it, I will try to do the oral presentation without notes, so I will be able to focus in the body language.

 

Another aspect that I have to impove is the pronunciation and fluency when it comes to speaking. But I’m sure that most of my mistakes are due to shyness.

 

In conclusion, I know that I have to improve a lot of aspects when I do an oral presentation, like pronunciation, but I think that I have to work hard in the body language, which is is produced by shyness.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL COUNTRIES TO VISIT

In this blog I said a lot of times that my biggest dream is travel around the world. love watching videos on youtube about trips and places to visit and things to do before you die, but I have to do a lot of things related to school and I can't look at photos and videos about this. That's why I decided to do this entry, because I can do homework looking for information about something I like. So in thi entry I put four countries that I want to visit in a future. There aren't my four favourite countries because my dream is visit all the countries in the world and I think that all the places are so beautiful to visit them.

 

1. Germany.

This country has very beautiful cities. Last year we did a school trip to this countri to visit some concentration camps and we also visit some citis like Munich. So we could see a lot of monuments and the artistic and architectural style. I liked a lot the landscape of the city and, of courswe, I loved th typical food of Germany. But Germany is so biggest and I only could see one city of there, that's why ina future I want to visit another cities and villages of Germany like Berlin, another beautiful citt that have a lot of history.

 

2. France.

I love this country. When I was little I went to Paris and I also visited Disneyland with my family. But I was so young and I don't remember the city of Paris or the theme park. That's why I want to go back.  Apart from the capital, I also want to visit the villages of France because many people who have visited it and they say that them are very beautiful.

 

3. Great Britain.

I know that isn't a country, but in this island there are a lot of cities that I want to visit, like Scotland. Next month of April I will fulfill a dream because we will go to London in a school trip. I'm so excited for the trip and I'm looking for information about London. I want to know the essential places to visit because we will stay there for four days and in this short time we will not be able to visit all the town. A lot of people who went there, says that is a very beautiful city but a little bit expensive.

In a future, apart from visit all the Great Britain I also want to go there a few months to learn English, because another dream is speak very well this language.

 

4. Italy.

I have to say that I went there for twice and I loved all the places I went. Two years ago I went in a school trip and then last year because all my family gave me the trip. When I was there I visited Rome, Tuscany and some villages near to the Tuscany. But as I said with the other countries, Italy is so biggest, so I wanto to visit other cities like Venice.

I also want to say that I love languages.  Italian is a language that I also like very much, so I would like to learn it

FOUR ONLINE NEWSPAPER TO LEARN ENGLISH.

As all students of second of batxillerat know, we have to summarize and comment on English news to improve it. That's why I have decided to do an entry in the blog sharing and commenting a little bit the webs that I use to do this school work. I think that this entry can be very useful for those who are learning english like me. Last year in the same english blog I wrote some ways to learn this language and, how I said, read english is the best way to learn it and improve it. Besides if we read news we learn formal english and that's very useful because this language has become essential in all aspects of life. We need know english for everything: work, travel... So this are the webs that I use:

 

1. Daily news. http://www.nydailynews.com/

This is the better web to do the work school I said before. It combines all kinds of news. That is to say, that there are funny news and not just news of tragedies and politics. I totally recommend this newspaper because there iare a lot of variety of news where you can choose and it is more fun, if you like the news.

 

2. CNN. http://edition.cnn.com/1.320.1/static/unsupp.html
3. BBC. http://www.bbc.com/news

 

I decided to put these online newspaper together because I think the same of these two. These are the ones that I use least because they are news of politics and in general the news of america, for that reason, they are much more serious and complicated. Although they are heavier to summarize, they are very good for learning formal English, That's why I try to summarize some in the blog every quarter.

 

4. News in levels. http://www.newsinlevels.com/

That is the last newspaper I share in the blog. I have to say that I found this page days ago and at the moment I haven't used it, but this one is very good to learn English because the same news you can see it in three different levels. I think that this term I will use it a lot Because there is a lot of news on different topics.