Fifth oral presentation

- COMMENT OF MY PRESENTATION:

PRESENTATION: We have done the exposition in London, talking near the places we have visited. We have finished the video after the trip, explaining some curiosities.

BODY LANGUAGE AND EYE CONTACT: It’s very different than to do the presentation in class, because you don’t have people but a camera. Maybe for me it’s more difficult because I’m not used to it. I am very still, immobile.

CONTENT: I think we have introduced some new information to the audience, especially for those who haven’t visited London. The information wasn’t very deep because we could have been talking hours about each thing. We had looked for some information before going to London and we also used things we learned there.

LANGUAGE: We couldn’t check the grammar there because we didn’t have a dictionary. If I watch it now, I think that I have said a lot of times “we are in...”, but I didn’t see it there because we made the videos with different stages.

PRONUNCIATION & ENTONATION: We asked to some people how to pronounce some words like the river “Thames”.


- TRANSCRIPTION:

LONDON

Hello! This is England, we are here in the airport and we have just arrived.

Hello, we are in the Stansted Airport and we are going to the bus.

1ST DAY:

We are in the British Museum, as you can see. It’s a History and Art museum with objects from around the world, from many civilizations and (empires) of all time.

We have just visited it but we have seen a small part because it’s a big place and we (would) need a lot of days to visit it.

The rooms we have enjoyed most are the collections from the Roman Empire and the Greek and Egypt civilizations, and also the Persian collection.

Especially, we recommend the mummies of the Egypt civilization and the jewellery of the Persian.

2ND DAY:

We are in the Buckingham Palace and we are going to see the (change) of the guard. It’s nearly half past twelve (Spanish hour) and we are going to look for a good place to watch the change.

Oh! What a shame! But today there isn’t change of the guard. We need to wait until tomorrow. The flag means that the queen is here.

As you can see, the security for the queen is very big (high) and it’s impossible to enter into the palace.

We are in the Hyde Park. You can see it’s a big place and people met for doing different activities: they play football, they go with bicycle and, well, many other activities.

Now we are going to show you something very special of the Hyde Park: this is the Speaker’s Corner and every Sunday some people meet here to explain their ideas, to say something, and people hear them. It’s a good place to say what you think of (about) the world, of (about) anything, any topic.

(Conversation about the existence of God)

You can see that discussions are very hot.

Well, we are in the National History Museum (well, it was the “Natural” History Museum) and well, here we can find different animals, and fossils of dinosaurs, and also insects and other animals. It’s very interesting and some of them are extinted (extinct).

3RD DAY:

This is the Millennium Bridge, that is on the river Thames. Well, this bridge was designed by Norman Foster. At the background, you can see the St. Paul’s Cathedral.

And this is the Tate Modern. It’s a museum like the Guggenheim in Bilbao. And there you can see the Globe Theatre, one of the most famous theatres of London and we will visit it later.

We can see the change of guard.

We are near again the River Thames. Here, there is the Tower Bridge and, here, the Tower of London. We are going to the Tower Bridge. We are walking in the Tower Bridge. This bridge can be separated in two parts in one minute. The middle is this...

4TH DAY

We are in Portobello, in Nothing Hill’s Gate. On Saturdays there’s a market here, but today most of the shops are closed and they only sell fruits and vegetables.

This is the station of King’s Cross and it’s famous because it appears in the film of Harry Potter.

This is the platform 9 ¾ and it appears in one of the scenes of the film. And this is the station.

CURIOSITIES

During the stay in London we have used the underground to move into the city. It can be also called tube.

We are in the tube. We come from the Buckingham palace and we are going to Tower of London. This is the tube, as you can see. The next station is Tower Hill.

Another means of transport very famous of London is the Big Red Bus. It has got two floors and there are many lines. They have advertisements at the outside. Lately, there has been a controversy with a message that talked about the existence of God.

If you have more money, you can take the taxi. Their shape is classic, but they are very comfortable, with a lot of space. They are decorated with different pictures, but the typical one is black.

About the cars, we have seen a lot of very expensive cars in the city. Some of them are rarely seen in Spain, but in London you can see two in the same street.

And finally, food has been another good point of London. The typical dish is fish and chips. You could eat it in a restaurant or take it away.

We have discovered another typical kind of food, the jacket potatoes. It is a very big potato with other ingredients.

And we must mention the full English breakfast, with eggs, sausages, bacon, backed beans and tea or coffee.

- COMMENTS OF OTHERS' PRESENTATIONS

COMMENTS OF THE OT...

Hosted by eSnips

Read more!

"Oldest human brain discovered"

In a York University site there’s been a very curious discovery. Archaeologists have found, in a pit, a skull with a yellow substance. The substance is a human brain, but not a normal one; it’s very old, probably from the Iron Age. After some investigations, archaeologists say that it can be a fossilised brain, because the tissues are preserved and microbes haven’t eaten them. As it seems, the oldest brain of the world has been discovered. That’s a very important fact, which will allow scientists to study many things about how has it arrived to our days.

New words learnt:

Shrunken - encongit
Fatty - greixós
Farmed - cultivat
Dig - excavació
Under way - en marxa
Mudy - fangós
Pit - forat, fossa

Article from BBC News, Friday 12 December 2008, written by (Unknown).

Read more!

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, published in 1948 by the United Nations, is a text, a set of articles which try to promote respect and freedom between humans, defending individual rights to achieve a world in peace. It consists of 30 articles, each one related to a specific topic. Many fields of life are dealt with, like freedom, privacy, law protection, equality, marriage, thought, religion, work or education.

One of the questions that can come up after reading the Declaration is: Why have Human Rights being created?

It's a fact that there are differences between persons. The world is the home of a mixture of a great variety of beings. Since the Stone Age, human being has done and has suffered many actions against freedom and life. Millions of persons have died because of differences of thought or many conflicts. Murders, executions, wars, etc. show that something goes wrong. And these aren't all of the signs of the problem: repression, discomfort poverty or hate are also an evidence. Now, these actions have got a more precise name: racism, bullying, rape, gender violence, etc.

If nothing is done to change the situation, the problem persists. But another characteristic of mankind is that, year after year, century after century, some persons have always tried to find a better life for those who suffer. Recently, many laws have been enacted to help the disadvantaged people. And one of the most important facts, probably the most one, is the Declaration of Human Rights.

The rights which are promoted in this document aren't respected in most of the countries of the world, but several nations have added to the list of the protectors of the human rights, and the counter is still working. Campaigns in favour of this reason are more and more important, but there's still a long way to go if we want to live in a world ruled by equality and respect.

Maybe the Declaration doesn't contain all of the rights that could be mentioned, but after some discussions in class it seems to be true that all of the articles are necessary and needed. Maybe the next stage is to give rights to the animals, because some species are in danger and they suffer a lot because of humans.

Read more!

"Rising problem of sexual bullying in schools"

Get this widget | Track details | eSnips Social DNA

The article I have chosen is from BBC News and it’s called “Rising problem of sexual bullying in schools”. It talks about this very serious problem, which has increased in the last years, especially between young people. There are different kinds of sexual bullying, from the name-calling (with words like slag or gay) to other offences like assault or rape. In the article, there are three cases of sexual bullying suffered by three girls with ages between five and fifteen years old. All of them say that the guilty is always better supported than the victim. I think that violates the second part of article number 7 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says “All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.” There’s also a violation of article number 5, that says: “No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.

Read more!

"The North Pole is now an island"

Last year, on August 28, the two passages which usually join the North Pole with Russia and Canada were free of ice. This fact wasn’t expected until 2050 but the effects of the global warming have been more serious than what experts thought. Now, boats can travel around the world through ways that sometimes are more than four thousand miles shorter than before. Vikings used the Northwest Passage, but this fact had not happened since 125,000 years ago.

Scientists believe that the main cause is global warming and that this isn’t the last consequence. It is a very important fact and, if it doesn’t change, life in Earth is in danger.

New words learnt:

seabed - fons del mar
bypass - passatge de circumval·lació
feasibility - viabilitat
tapping - explotació
sovereignty - sobirania

Article from BBC News

Read more!

"What's in a (shop's) name?"

Some businesses have been fined because they didn't use catalan. The law that penalizes the shops, bars and other businesses is called "llei de política lingüística" and the government started to impose sanctions in 2003, but a lot of people think that these measures are too much exaggerated.

New words learnt:

straggle - créixer desordenadament
penny - (moneda) centau
counterpart - equivalent
coalition - coalició
signage - senyalització
penalized - sancionat
fine - multa

Article from Catalonia Today, written by (unknown).

Read more!

"Average homeless person is a foreign male with an income"

The Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona and Obra Social la Caixa have made a study about homeless people in Barcelona. 923 persons have been interviewed and all of them live in the streets. After doing the study, they have concluded that most of them are men about forty one years old, with basic education and an income. This research is an attempt to understand better a problem which affects most of the cities.

New words learnt:

either - qualsevol
hailing - grava, pedres
stress (to) - posar en tensió, estressar
highlight (to) - destacar
traits - trets, característiques
average - mitjana

Article from Catalonia Today, written by (unknown).

Read more!

“Spam on rise after brief reprieve”

Some weeks ago McColo, a web hosting company which was responsible for having about 2/3 of the e-mail spam, had been closed. It seemed to be a great blow against spamming, but now it is rising again. The spam senders are finding day after day new ways of sending e-mails without being caught. For example, some of them will go to other countries with weaker laws. Internet security firms are investigating to face the spamming, but loads of computers are affected and infected by this problem and it seems that this Christmas season it will grow. New words learnt:

Alleged - presumpte
Bot - programa informàtic que pot fer diverses accions per ell mateix
Host (to) - allotjar
Recruit (to) - contractar, reclutar
Reprieve - respir
Scourge - fueteig
Shutdown - tancament
SPAM - The origin of this word is Spiced Ham (pernil amb espècies), with a low quality and big spreading, like the spam messages.

Article from BBC News, written by (unknown). Wednesday, 26th of November 2008

Read more!