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The Research Project








This term we have to Present a Research project about a topic we have chosen.




My research project is about idioms and proverbs. I decided to work on this topic because I spent one year abroad in Dublin, and while speaking with people some idioms and proverbs showed up. I found it something very interesting and very rich to learn more about. In my opinion if you really want to know a language you must know about the several uses of idioms and proverbs. Idioms and proverbs make your speech very rich and they give you lots of knowledge of a language. Basically that’s the reason why I decided to research on idioms and proverbs, and so to get to know more of them; understand their meanings, know about the origins and see in which amount they are used and by who.
Through all my project I’ll be researching proverbs and idioms to see in which amount they are used nowadays. I also keep a record of how often idioms and proverbs show up in everyday speech. I quote Shakespeare's proverbs and I'll explain the meaning of every idiom I have researched (in books, songs, ads...). The conclusion of my research project will determinate the amount people uses idioms and proverbs.




I love the topic, though right now I'm sick to the back of my teeth of it!

New Moon




New Moon!



Last weekend I went to the cinema with my friends to watch New Moon. The movie is about vampires, and it's the continuation of the first movie: twilight. All the film was amazing. In my case I have read all four books, while I was in Dublin, and I think the movie is a fair representation of the book.
There are just a few important characters in "New Moon" and those are Bella Swan, Edward Cullen and Jacob. Bella Swan is the main character, who is in love with Edward Cullen; but Edward is a vampire. Well then, being in a relation with a vampire, It's not easy if he is thirsty for her blood. What happens is that Edward leaves Bella not because he doesn't love her, but because he doesnt want to hurt her or his family. Bella takes this really badly and truely believes that Edward doesn't love her. Jacob is a werewolf and is deeply in love with Bella. Bella is a great friend of Jacob, and becomes closer to him while Edward is away. Until the point that Bella falls in love with Jacob.



Later, Edward appears again and Bella seems to return with him. But now Bella is in love with both of them, is she really going to chose a vampire for a werewolf? Doesn't she love Jacob more because Edward had left her, or she simply loves Jacob because he made her happy?But, if Bella loves both, is she gonna to be faithfull if she chooses one of them?



The movie is around that tension, about whom Bella is going to chose; Jacob or Edward. That's the passion Stephene Meyer brings us with her uncredible novels. All four books are about love and I like them so much because you feel involved, you feel everybit of love and passion.



By the way, what I liked the most of the movie is how DAMN GOOD LOOKING is Jacob!!!!!!(he has got a six pack, how lucky is Bella) LOL

dissabte

Wuthering Heights



Wuthering Heights is one of my favourites books together with Norwegian Wood.
When I was in Dublin I had to read Wuthering Heights for school and it was very difficult. It was at the start of the school year and my English level wasn’t that high to understand old English. After a month I started understanding the book and then I couldn’t stop reading at home what was ment to be read in school.
Wuthering Heights is a novel of Emily Brontë and it’s very romantic. It’s funny the way the story just happens in two places: Wuthering Heights (often called just the Heights) and Thrushcross Grange. The main characters are Heathcliff and Catherine Earnshow. Heathcliff is an orphan found by mr.Earnshow one day, and then brought to the Heights. There is a full passion love story between Heathcliff and Catherine but things don’t seem to work out so well because of their strong personalities. Catherine’s selfishness is amazing, she, herself and her. Through Catherine’s selfishness and Heathcliff’s strong character the story develops with lots of incredibly things. What I like the most from the book is how it transmits you that passion and love. All those feelings such as sadness, pride, fury…I recommend that book to anybody, it’s the best love story ever!

THE SIMPSONS

[Paris.] Nicolas Sarkozy and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy appear in the Simpsons, the most famous serie. It’s in the chapter “The devil wears nothing” were it refers to de movie “The devil wears Prada”. Carla Bruni appears like a seductive woman with a cigarrete between her lips and proposes a friend of Homer to get in bed with her.
A bit later, the woman appears with a glass of wine in her hands in the Elise Palace with her husband, whom shows a piece of cheese, camembert, in his ofice.We have then already seen lots of presidents from the United States in The Simpsons, so as George W. Bush, Tony Blair, Bill Clinton etc.

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Requiem For a Dream




Requiem for a dream is a movie about drugs. There are a few different cases of people taking different types of drugs. First of all we have a group of friends that start smoking joints, and later selling drugs. But they comit a mistake when they try the drug they want to sell and see that it’s fantastic. They get addicted to that drug and end up very bad. The young fellow of the group has to have his arm removed because of the drug injections that got infected. His girlfriend, without any money starts having sex with others to obtain money for drugs. And last but not least, their friend dies also due to drugs.
The other example of the movie, is the mother of that young fellow. It’s the typical old woman that’s always watching television and believes everything. Once she received a call from a tv station and she was invited to go there because she was the winner. Immediately the woman starting doing diet but because this was so hard she ended up taking pills to get thinner. Those pills are drugs. A drug that got her crazy.
I love that movie because it’s very artistic somehow. What I mean with artistic is all the detail that is set in every scene. The sounds are very real, and the images too. For instance, every time they take a drug there’s like a leimotiv that repites itself. A few images that represent what happens, like pupils dilating… and the sound of rolling a joint or blowing out the smoke. It’s also very moral showing you what drugs bring to people, just dead and problems, serious problems. The film is wonderfull and also very depressing. I would recommend this movie to everybody more for its message rather than the film. Still so, it’s a very original movie and it’s very creative.

Plastic Surgery - Brad Pitt



Last year the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin button” had its premiere. The movie was about a guy that was born with wrinkles, like an old man. Through time, the child became younger by aspect but obviously older of age. Brad Pitt was interpreting the paper of that character. At the beginning of the movie, when he was representing the old man’s aspect but young in age, the make-up artists had much to do. But with his growing older and looking younger, plastic surgery had lots to do rather than make-up. So after the movie he looked more refreshed.

ORAL PRESENTATION! PLASTIC SURGERY

The big business of Plastic Surgery



First of all I want to comment on my presentation: I think I have used enough resources so as the images we have put on the PowerPoint to show every example, so they're focusing the topic and supporting our oral explanation. Maybe what failed the most on our presentation was the time, but I think that was my fault due to I was so nervous that I did my part in a rush!! So for the next presentation I'll have to control more my nerves, take a deep breath and go on slower.


According to the body language and eye contact: I'm mostly all the time looking at the audience just a few looks on the PowerPoint, but I think I'm moving to much!! Very restless!! I'm doing some gestures, still so I can perfect this part. The rest of the presentation I see all the structures with markers and a conclusion. There are also questions about the topic to get the audience attention, and all the ideas are in order.

About the content, is quite innovating, me, myself have learnt making this powerpoint and I think the information was enoughly detailed. We supported the facts by quotes and gave some examples of surgery. In my point of view the overall message was clearly enough.

Language was rich in connectors and had also fillers. We did have vocabulary varied and grammar, but the last one wasn't that complex.


Well, as for pronunciation and intonation, what people have said is that they found the pronunciation comprehensible and I agree. The part of the pronunciation and intonation was good but maybe two fast as we said before.


Agreeing with those terms I think my mark would be around 86%.


Presentation 7'5%

Body Language and eye contact 7%

Structure 10%

Content 40%

Language 15%

Pronunciation and intonation 7%

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Dublin !!!

My experience in Dublin
Last year, I was studying first year of compulsory education in Dublin.
The idea of going one year abroad came from myself, but I never had been brave enough before. So, I went on and told my parents about going a year to a different place to learn a language, such as English or Dutch. They found it incredible and after that, they would do everything for me to go. It was a great opportunity to go there, and I was lucky that I could do it, because not everybody can afford it. I still feel very lucky about having spent one year in a foreign country. The idea started with Holland, England, America or Dublin. Holland because I’m half Dutch and it could have been a chance for me to perfection my Dutch. After some time thinking about where to go, Dublin was the choice.
The course started earlier than here, so the 1st of September I was already coursing what there is 5th year. I loved the way they choose subjects instead of batxillerat, so I was studying chemistry and art! Physics and history of art!
The school was very different from the ones in Spain. In Dublin you had to wear a uniform, and we were not allowed to wear a jacket that was not the school one. People were very civilized in class and teachers spoke very loud in difference from everybody. Nearly every class was done with power point presentations. All the science subjects where given in the corresponding laboratories. Each morning there was an assemble at 8:50 to 9:00, some days they even had a mass, I never believed in god but it was cool to skip class.
What I most remember from Dublin is the weather. Oh my god! It’s just crazy! So Crazy! It might be sunny for a few minutes, but then it’s enough! You have seen enough sun for a week! And what follows? Rain, rain, rain, as if I didn’t know what rain was! All the day the weather reminded me of that! I never cared about brushing my hair there, I think I kept the routine and that’s the reason why I look a bit disheveled. There was no point of doing anything with your hair, the minute you left the house it was all curly. Still so Dublin was a wonderful country for five minutes, (when it was sunny). It’s such a green country! I always loved to walk to school, and that says a lot because it was a 40 minutes walk! But it was a nice walk though morning used to be a bit foggy. Winter was the worst time out there. It hadn’t snowed for 14 years, and just when I’m there, it has to snow… I really hated it! It was cold enough to also wet your feet and then be in school the whole day with frozen feet. However everyone was so excited… I couldn’t stop shiver. The only good thing snow brought me, was that I couldn’t go to school for two days and one we played snow wars.
Dublin was the best and the worst together. Like everything at the beginning, it was the best. I loved being on my complete own, without knowing anybody and starting to meet people. It filled me a lot to make friends the first days. The first weekend I was already going out with girls! And the following I was already in a house party with whom now is one of my best friends. The first time just flew, so many parties, so much shopping, so many friends… The second term changed things a lot. After Christmas it got very very cold, really cold, I’m not exaggerating. The cold, and that it was getting dark around 4 o’clock didn’t help much at being happy. I had to study for my exams in May and I started an English course for the first certificate. The friends group from school got separated a lot and so, I got very close with all the Irish people. Well, also a very good friend went back to Italy and that made me very sad and I missed her a lot in class. I had friends in school, but my friends were in 6th year! Anyway people were very nice to me, and I loved my chemistry teacher. She was a fabulous teacher and always laughed at my English mistakes such as:
(Dennis is splashing Marta with water)
Marta: Dennis! Stop making me wet!!!!!!!!
Well, obviously I didn’t know the meaning of that before.. if not I wouldn’t have said that. And other things I confused once:
Fact for fuck (the pronunciation)
But after those mistakes, I went very careful. LOL
Well, to conclude with, I would say Dublin was a great experience. I have learned a lot, but not just English, also about life itself. I have learned about how people can be, my own mistakes, to be independent… I would recommend anybody to go one year abroad if they have the chance because it’s unbelievable. You also see what really is important to you, what or who you miss… It’s just wonderful, I would repeat it but maybe in an other place who knows.
As a good thing you always keep your friends, I’m going back to Dublin very soon. Somehow I need it, to fill me of the Irish people and drinking, and I miss listening to that Irish lilt.
My advice is, if you get the chance: JUST DO IT!;)

dilluns

TIME


Who wouldn’t like to stop time for once?
All our lives we are huryring up and waiting for someone or to do something. We might don’t have enough time to stop in front of the clock and watch time pass by. It’s weird the way in some occasions we want the time to pass quickly and to be on that especial day or event. And other times we want time to last longer, we want hours to become days! For instance, when we have an exam we wish there was so much more time left than the time we really have.
When I have time, or maybe I should say, when I rest, I think about it. For example, this year, this course, I want the year to pass fast but at the same time I need more time than the one I have.
I think time is so strange, it’s what passes by while we are thinking, working... and then all of a sudden you say: OH MY GOD!! IT’S FRIDAY! already weekend, and the week had just started. Or the day of your birthday, Jesus! I think that’s one of the saddests days of my life! I can’t stop thinking about all the years that have passed, about all the people that has gone or some friends that are simply not friends anymore... That day, you stop and you think. You stop your own clock and think about what has happened since everything started. We are so busy that we don’t have time to think about important things. We are for then, one year older, oh yeah! we are getting more spots or more wrinkles... no one is safe from time! And then I don’t know. Were we better before we knew that things could hurt? Or are we better now, that we are carefully and know what’s life about?
There’s so many people that enter your life, and then leave for ever and you never get to know anything more from them. We can travel for months and to lots of different places that years later seem like it was the best thing ever, what was everything, is for then just crumbs. I wish I could jump into five years ago and live there for some days and then come back. I don’t regret a single thing in my life, every mistake has made me learn a lot. But go back into time, would make me realise that I have lived better times and worse times. So that I could enjoy the present happier by knowing things had been worse. If I look back into my album, on the part of my birthdays, I miss things. I miss some friends, maybe a dog I don’t have now, or eating a huge chocolate cake without thinking about the stomach ache I would get later. Or believe again in the three wise man, and play with dolls not with pencils and exams.
That’s all part of my opinion, I think we are all running out of our feet and can’t see the important things. So as friends becoming just people, the granny getting older, or a relationship beeing brought down by no one taking care of it... Things need a special care, we all have the same time that suddenly stops but we can’t fight time. We can just live, but remembering the important things we don’t have to leave behind for work, for example. We all need PAUSE.

WHY WOULD I LIKE TO BECOME A DOCTOR?



Doctors are the ones who help people physically and psycologically. Doctors take care of everything being in order. They treat you if you are sick and can even make you prettier if you wish so.
First of all, I would like to become a doctor because I love the way “Dra.Grau” sounds! Jaja that’s a joke. I would like so because I love creepy things, so as blood ¬¬. I have always liked to “mess” well, obviously If one day I become a doctor I won’t mess with the patient!(or I’ll wish not =S) But when I think about opening a body and getting the kidney out, for example, I’ll love it!
Secondly, I’m very interested in our body. In my opinion, one of the best things to do is to know ourselves. To have that knowledge is amazing. There’s nothing more interesting than our inside function. Seriously! It’s unbelievable the millions of things that are happening every minut inside us!All our reactions to things. All what we are made of. And that if one thing, just a tiny thing stops working, everything can crash, and we die.
Thirdly, I like to help people. It would fill me so much personally to cure someone. It’s something very satisfactory, when you help people or even safe them! That one person can do that. I wish one day I could.
Moreover, I like the way some sicknesses are like a mistery. You know the symptoms but anything else. So you have to search, and work hard to solve that mistery. That mistery where someone’s life is in game. And you have to save them.
To conclude with, I think that doctors are always needed because we will always be sick of something. Because as we are creating stronger medicines the bacteries are getting stronger too.