Christmas Carol...

Today I'm going to talk about a book I really liked when I read it in second of ESO. The author of the book I'm going to talk is Charles Dickens (1812-1870) who who was born 200 years ago. The book is called A Christmas Carol.

The tale begins on a Christmas Eve in 1843.
The main character is called Scrooge and he hates Christmas and is a very bad person.

One day Marley warns Scrooge to change his ways lest he undergo the same miserable afterlife as himself. Scrooge is then visited by three additional ghosts – each in its turn, and each visit detailed in a separate stave – who accompany him to various scenes with the hope of achieving his transformation.

The first of the spirits, the Ghost of Christmas Past, takes Scrooge to Christmas scenes of his boyhood and youth.
The second spirit, the Ghost of Christmas Present, takes Scrooge to several differing scenes, the most important is with the family feast of Scrooge's impoverished clerk Bob Cratchit, introducing his youngest son, Tiny Tim, who is seriously ill but cannot receive treatment.

The third spirit, the Ghost of Christmas, show to Scrooge the visions of the future if he does not learn and act upon what he has witnessed (including Tiny Tim's death). Scrooge's own neglected and untended grave is revealed. And then he decide that he has to change.
Finally Scrooge wake up on Christmas morning with joy and love in his heart, then he spends the day with his nephew's family after anonymously sending a prize turkey to the Cratchit home for Christmas dinner.

Scrooge has become a different man overnight and now treats people with kindness, generosity and compassion...

The Queen and I

Today I’m going to explain the book I have read this term, it’s called The Queen and I.

It begins when the Queen go to sleep the day before of the election and the next day she realize that a republican party wins the election (in April 1992) and its first action is the abolition of the royal throne.

Then the Queen and her family then she must go to live in a poor neighborhood. Soon the courageous ex-monarch and her clique are accepted in their neighborhood. Most of them do their very best to adapt themselves to these surprisingly different circumstances. Especially the two young princes William and Harry are quick to integrate.

During the story the Queen lives several things but in the end we realize that all was a dream, well it was a nightmare.

In the beginning it seems that it has to be a funny story (and that’s why I have choosed), but it isn’t, but it doesn’t mean that is not a good story, I recommended because for me it’s benn very interesting.

The cinema by John Escott...

Animation...

Most of famous cartoon characters, like Mickey Mouse, Tom and Jerry, Popeye, Bugs Bunny...began their lives as a simple pictures on paper.

First of all cartoon characters are painted on sheets of clear film, called "cels". Then they were fotografed. Each cel has to have one picture, and each picture has to be a little different, to make characters appear move when they'll be projected at twenty-four pictures every second.

The characters have to lookand sound the same in every film.

 The most famous producer of animated films was Walt Disney. He introduced Mickey Mouse to audience in 1928 in black-and-white cartoon. He also produced the first colour cartoon, Flowers and trees, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. More followed: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo, Bambi, Cinderella, The sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, The lion king, Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame...And children of nowadays have seen all of them...

Self Evaluation

Pet abandonment...

View more presentations from sonia.

NAME: Sònia Ibañez Soussi

TOPIC: Pet Abandonment

PRESENTATION 10 %

• Do you use any resources: powerpoint, video, images, sound, realmaterial…?Are the resources relevant and attractive and focused on the topic? Do they support your presentation? Is the timing 5-7 minutes?

-Yes, in my oral presentation I used a powerpoint and I think it was relevant, attractive and it focused on the topic, but the timing of my oral presentation was around 4 minutes.

BODY LANGUAGE AND EYE CONTACT 10%

• Are you looking at your audience most of the time? Are you reading occasionally from your notes? Are you doing any gestures / movement to hold the attention of the audience?

-Yes, I was looking at my audience but I also look at my teacher. When I was doing my oral presentation I look from my notes a little bit. The movements I did were to show to the audience the different pictures about the causes of the abandonments of the animals.

STRUCTURE 10%

• Do you organize your ideas in order of importance? Do you use discourse markers to make your ideas more clear? (First, then, secondly, on the one hand, on the other, finally…).

-Yes, I have organized my ideas in order of importance. At the beginning of mi presentation I did a little introduction of what I was going to do, so I used discourse markers.

CONTENT 30%

• Do you introduce interesting, NEW information to your audience? Is your information detailed and clear? Do you give / show examples? Is your information copied from a source or is it original? Did you look up information/facts/ideas in the Internet/books…?

-When I was preparing my oral presentation, first of all I looked for information about the causes and the consequences of the abandonments of all the animals, then I did a summary of the most important things, and finally I organized the information which were detailed and clear.

lANGUAGE 20%

• Is your grammar correct, complex? (verbs, word order, tenses learnt in class)?Is your vocabulary rich and varied (synonyms, idioms, phrasal verbs, expressions, topic-related vocabulary…)?Do you use sentence linkers? (and, but, moreover, also, furthermore, although, however…)Do you use pause fillers? (well, you know, for example, one second, repeating a word…).

-My grammar was correct, but some of the words I said wasn’t well pronounced.

PRONUNCIATION & INTONATION 10&%

• Do you know how to pronounce all your words? Did you check the pronunciation with a dictionary, a classmate or the teacher? Do you change your tone of voice or use a monotone tone all the time? Did you speed in a fluid continuum or with breaks and interruptions?

-I checked the pronunciation of some words but not all of them, that’s for these reason why I didn’t pronounce very well some of them.

SELF-EVALUATION 10%

• Now it’s time to improve for next presentation. Write down a LITERAL TRANSCRIPTION of your presentation. Check your language and structure.
Can you correct your mistakes? You are your teacher! What mark did you get?

Pet Abandonment

INTRODUCTION

Good afternoon everybody, as all you know my name is Sònia and today I’m going to talk about the abandonment of pets, especially about the abandonment of dogs. First of all, I’m going to explain the causes, secondly I’m going to explain the consequences and finally I’m going to give my opinion.

Causes…

The main causes of the abandonment of pets are that families or people fail to take charge and abandoned them.

The abandonment of pets begins at Christmas when most of the people give pets to their children or grandchildren, first it’s so excited especially for the children but in the end the children and their parents fail to take charge and abandon them. Most of the abandonments take place in summer because families want to go traveling and don’t know what to do with their pets, that is when they decide to leave them where nobody sees them and far away from home.

Consequences…

In 2008 there were around 3000 traffic accident caused by the dogs abandonment in the roads.

If you abandon your dog you should realize that this could have a physical or psychological injury, and he can also die.

Conclusion…

When you decide to have a pet, you have to consider that they live around 14, 15 or 16 years... and you should think if you can charge it or not.

I hope you have enjoyed this project. And have you got any question?

Searching the body of a child...

02-06-2012

The National Police and Civil Guard have resumed   this morning the search for the body of a child of 3 years in the landfill of Dos Aguas (Valencia), where he arrived after being thrown into a container in Valencia.

The child's disappearance was denounced by his mother last Wednesday, when she suspected that something had happened while he was under the care of two of her friends, who are detained.

Both told that the child had been kidnapped while they were walking in Valencia for a man who said that he was a police.

In the end, one of them admitted that the child had died and they had left the body in a container in the city of Valencia.

In my opinion I think that with this story people have to realize that we cannot leave our children in the care of people who we do not trust, because then you can lose your child as this mother.

Do you know who Chris Ridge is?

Chris Ridge: Chris Ridge has been in Catalonia since 1996. He translates and teaches English and in his free time organises a language exchange.

Chris Ridge was living in Barcelona, and then he found a job in Granollers. After 18 months he was bored with communiting and it's why he live in Granollers nowadays. So nowadays he had been living in Granollers for 13 years.

The best thing from Granollers for him is that there the centre has pedestrian and with them it's become more people and specially shopper-friendly. He's so happy in Granollers because most of their friend live there.

The things which he would change are to fill the empty flats with people who need one, find jobs for the unemployed and stop the attacks on the local health service...

When he go back to his country he use to take wine and ham.

When he's away the things he miss the most are to sit in her sister's livingroom and enshrouded garden, the early morning sun on his balcony.

Torroella de Montgrí

Michael Duxbury: Michael worked for over 40 years in the legal profession as a litigator and personal injury lawyer and was also a Justice of the Peace of more than 20 years. He was just become the new President of U3A Costa Brava.

Michael Duxbury has decided to live in Costa Brava because he and his wife are keen outdoor types so the lure of the mountains and the grandeur of the coastline was a significant "wow" factor.

Duxbury think that the best thing of living there has to be the climate,with the exception of mid-summer which is too hot.

When he goes back to his country the thing he takes with him like a present is a couple of cases of Cava.

His best kept secret is that he and his wife like Torroella de Montgrí for to do a good walk up to the Castell de Montgrí followed by a wander around the old town and a coffee in the sun in the Plaça Major.