My opinion
I think that I have improved a bit on my level of English since September 2009. This is because this year I have done a lot of compositions, Blog, more oral presentations... than last year.
Besides this year there were more hours of English and I have dedicated more time to this subject. Furthermore this past year the teacher has done a lot of exercices.
In general everything has helped my level of English but I have improved the compositions more, because for the blog I have done a lot of essays about a lot of things from news items to my say.
A part from thie compositions I have done three oral presentations this year, and that has improved my oral expresion.
The activities that have been really useful to improve my level were reading two books, because in this way I have improved in general vocabulary.
To sum up the activities I have done were useful to improve, because most of these things were new and not from last year.
I think that the acivity I have enjoyed doing most and would like to do again next year is the blog, because with the blog I have done more writings and in this way I have improved a lot.
In conclusion I think I should have satrted doing these things from an earlier age because this is the only way to improve English.

Monday 8th of March

Everything began at about 10 o'clock on Monday moorning it started snowing.
At break time the teachers us to go home, because it was snowing a lot. After lunch at 3:30 the lights went out because of the snow all. In 7 o'clock it started snowing and the streets of Castelló d'Empúries were white, it was beautiful.
At night there wasn't only electricity either, for this reason the night was very boring.
The next day up and the view was impressive and they weren't any classes because there wasn't any electricity. At lunch time in 2:15 electricity came back in some places of village. The rest of the places the electricity come back on at 4 o'clock in the moorning. Now the 15 th March there are still some villages in Catalonia that don't have any electricity.

Manias

Everybody has some manias, even though these manias are often very insignificants. For example I am very maniatic about order, cleanliness and food. But it's curious that not everybody has the some manias.

Apart from this there are peolple who have more manias than others, and these people are called maniacs.

Moreover, a film has been made about this, and the star was Jack Nicholson. He was very good in role.I recommend this film.

But also if a person has a lot of manias it could be bad for these people, because they could have problems with people around them. Apart from us, famous people also have manias, for example Rafa Nadal, bounces the ball twice beffore he serves.

Peoople think that their manias are correct and the best, but I think that all manias are correct as long as you respect other people.

I think also that some manias are copied from the parents.

The Pianist

Wladyslaw Azplman is the main character of this drama. He is a well known Polish pianist. He lives in Warsaw with his family, they are Polish Jews. When the war starts all the family are sent to a getto in Warsaw with other jews and he ears his living playing the piano in bars and cafes.

Then the family are seperated and they are sent to differnet concentration camps, some of this family die in the camps.

Wladyslaw escapes from the camp and some people help him to hide. He lives in different apartments and his friends bring him food. After a time, nobody comes and he goes to another house, because the Germans are very near. He hides in this house, but then the Germans come. A Germans captain friends him but he doesn't tell anybody and he gives him some food. Later the Americans and British arrive and the war finishes. Wladyslaw is saved but most of his family have died.

This film won three Oscars; for the best actor, the best director and the best script. In my opinion this is a very interesting film, because it shows us how the jews lived during the war, but there are scenes that are very shocking. I liked this film because it is about real life and it makes you think a lot. The director of this film was Roman Polanski, he was Polish and he lived in Poland during the nazi invasion.

On the Street

This article is about illegal street sellers who can be seen in many parts of the region.

The majority of Catalunya's illegal street sellers are from North or Subsaharian Africa are they ordinary young men or are they people who are depriving the shopkeepers of trade.

According to one shopkeeper, the street sellers can became very aggresive. If we ask them to have they have a system of signalling to warm each other, when the police are coming they moveon as soon as the police arrive but they're back again very quickly.

This piece of news affects me because in Santa Margarita is beetwen Castelló and Roses in summer there are a lot of illegal street sellers, they sell cheap productes with false makes, for example watches, sunglasses, caps, etc. This isn't good for the shops that sell the real makes.

Food and drink

The different countries in the world have a different food and drinks. Moreover each country has its own typical dishes and different diets.

In my country we follow the Mediterranean diet and the specialists say that it is the best and healthiest diet. However that doesn't mean that everybody follows this diet.

In other countries the diet changes and these people don't follow its diet.

The diet in my country is the healthiest in Europe, because there is a lot of variety, the meal are made with different kinds os fish, meat, a lot of vegetables, cereals...

But in recent years the people of Europe haven't followed this diet. I think that the cause of this is that people don't have time for their meals and for this reason they buy ready cooked food. And they don't practise sport recently in Spain there are a lot of cases of obesity and overweight, for this reason I think that we should solve this problem.

People of my age are not usually obese but the problem starts from age. The country with the most cases of obesity is North America.

T.V

For me television is on of the best inventions of technology, because it was invented long time ago and has changed a lot.

Every day everybody watches the T.V for more than an hour to see serials, films, programmes, news, etc.

Every day I watch T.V more than 1 hour. I like watching television, for the serials and the news, I think these are the best things on T.V.

A part from Internet the T.V is one of the things that attracts more people and of the most important media because you know what is happening in the world, from the misery to the good things.

Some people define the T.V as " the idiot box", but I don't agree with this expression because if T.V didn't exist there would only be Internet. A part from this people of my age T.V is a very important things.

I also think that watching too much T.V is not very good, because it can damage your eyesight and you lose a lot of studying time.

In coclusion I think that watching T.V an hour a day does not hurt anybody.

History

Before the first civilizations there is evidence that the man knew the effects of certain plants such as opium poppy and used. In all civilizations, from the Assyrian to the current twenty-first century, humanity has consumed all the drugs for various reasons, religious rituals, and medicinal habits. Alcohol and tobacco are the drugs that killed more but are legal drugs.

Uses

A lot of drugs can be used as medicines for various diseases. But many drugs are used for recreational purposes, or for their psychological effects. This is a social problem in many countries. In most cases, the drug also has other harmful effects on health behaviour. The fact that many of these drugs are illegal in most countries has increased black market of these substances.

-A drug is a part of living beings where there is substance to be used. For example: Valerian, the drug would be the root, where it is extracted from the chamomile.

-From the point of view of psychology a drug is a substance with affects on the nervous system, capable changing the state of mood, knowledge and usually create addiction.

Trends in economic benefits globally

According to the report prepares annually by the UN, during the year 2005-2006 the market for illegal drugs was stagnant. The report says 42% of global shipments of cocaine and 26% of heroin were intercepted.

In 2006 opium production in Afghanistan would have grown 45% a year and represent 49% of total production worldwide. Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan are the golden triangle countries of highest opium production.

Tobacco

Tobacco is a legal recreational drug produced, among other things, with various species of the genus Nicotine that contain nicotine, although much of the nicotine in this product is added artificially. All governments agree that tobacco is a dangerous drug. But they do nothing to stop smoking because they earn lots of money to tobacco

Particular case of marijuana

Marijuana and hashish have been completely illegal in the Catalan countries, until recently. In Catalonia some hospitals have seen that in making marijuana tea, smoked, etc. Have beneficial effects on people with pain, nausea and vomiting that cannot take antimetic or other drugs, for example alleviate cancer or AIDS patients, caused by radiation.Taking marijuana, hashish and hallucinatory fungi is legal in Amsterdam. But in Spain the use of cannabis is legal with a prescription and therapeutic use.

Sanctions

Eating or taking illegal drugs in public spaces can mean a fine between 300 to 3000 Euros. In Catalonia consuming illegal drugs in public spaces or possession for personal consumption is not a crime, but you are fine from 300 to 30.050 Euros.

Observation of my oral presentation

My oral presentation was with Ignasi and we used a power point for recurse. On the power point there were some images about the subject. Also I use the support.And presentation lasted more on less 8-9 minutes, 4 minutes each person.

During the presentation I looked at the people of the class a bit, in particular I look at the teacher. Moreover, sometimes I read notes, but in the last paragraph I read all of it. All through the presentation I use a few gestures.

We organized the ideas in order of importance but, we left out the definition of drugs. When I explained the ideas I used some conectors. The grammar of the oral presentation was correct and varied with phrasal verbs and topic-related vocabulary. I used some sentences linkers; with, and, also, moreover,etc. And pause fillers.

My pronunciation was correct, but some words were difficults to pronunce , so I checked with the teacher. I think that I could improve the tane of voice.

From my selfevaluation I think I culd improve a little in everything, but on the other hand I think that I didn't do too badly. For this reason I think I deserve a 5,5.

Crisis

At the beginning of 2009 a crisis began all over.
The first country that was affected was USA, later the crisis extended all over the world.
When the crisis got to Spain the people were very scored. And these people were right, because Spain like most countries in Europe has been affected by the crises. This situation is caused because the economy in Spain is based on the construction, tourism and both, are the first to be affected by the crisis.
Now, we are in 2010 and the crisis countinues the same.
And the president of Spain tells us that we will get over this situation, but I think that it's not true until a few years have past. The economists in Spain tell us we will over this crisis beetwen 2011-2012 I hope so.
I think that you can see the crisis in all families in Spain. Especially in my family, we did more thinks than now, for example we travelled more.

Podcast

Fashion

Nowadays fashion changes continually. In Spain girls follow the fashion more than boys. Perhaps girls buy more clothes than boys but they are cheaper and boys buy more brand makes. Girls prefer to have a lot of clothes so that they can wear different clothes every day. You can see this especially in people of my age, 17-18.
Hier clothes are quite expensive especially in the little shops but now there are a lot of chain stores for example Inditext. Where you can buy cheaper clothes and a lot of variety. Boys like spending a lot of money on trainers, and perhaps they buy three or four pairs a year.
Nowadays in spite of the fashion a lot of people prefer to follow their own style, for example the style of clothes depends on the music they like.
I also think that the world of clothes is the least affected by the crisis.

19 Monturiol

Castelló d'Empúries

17486

Hi Kiron.
Thanks for your letter. I'm glad to hear you're well. I'm writing to answer you question about where to go on holiday.
I can recommend you my area, especially my village Castelló d'Empúries. Here you can choose between: the mountain, the sea or cultural tourism.
On the one hand if you choose the mountain you can go trekking to Sant Pere de Rodes or Maçanet de Cabrenys, these two posibilities are nice, because the places are pretty and they are surrounded by nature.
On the other hand if you prefer to visit the sea you can go to my village. The beach is about 3 km from Castelló and there you can go different sports: kite surfing, windsurfing, rowing, sailing and canoing. All these sports are very enjoyable and competitive.
But if you choose cultura tourism my village is perfect for this. In Castelló there is a medieval Prision, it was built in 1336. Prisioners were sailors and they made marks on the walls to count the years and they drew pictures of ships. The second important cultural monument is the "Basilica", it is gothic and romanesque and it was built in S. XIX.
The weather is usually good In July and August it is hot in the afternoon there is a sea breeze. In winter it is cold and windy but often sunny.
I hope you can come to visit me soon.
All the best.

Studies

Now I'm studying first batxillerat social in IES Castelló d'Empúries.
In Batxillerat there are ten subjects and four of these are optional subjects. I my case maths, economy, business studies and French. I think that this level there are to many subjects, I think that there should be a maximum of eight subjects.
Other subjects are compulsory in Batxillerat. And I think that some subjects shouldn't be compulsory, because they are not very well chosen. Also in class they aret too many people. I think if the classes were smaller, then people would pay more attention to the teacher.
When you are sixten you have to choose if you you went to study scientific techological or social subjects. This is very difficult because at this age you don't always know what you want to study when you leave school and you go to university.
Moreover I didn't go on the trip that went to the university and now I don't have any information about this. I would like study economy but if I can't go to university I will study an upper grade subject at technical college.

Protesting in the sreet doesn't change anything.
At the moment in the streets there are a lot of protests and demostrations, but they don't change anything. In spite of this the subjects of the protests are important. The demostrations are for various reasons, peace, discrimination, anviromental problems, contamination, education...
On the one hand I agree that the protesters are in the street because it is the only way to get the autorities to listen to them. On the other hand thise people don't do any harm to anybody. But sometimes protesting in the sreets doesn't change anything because there aren't many people who demostrate.
When they are demostrating they occasionally break something are hurt somebody, and then the police are often too hard with them.
In conclusion protesting is good, provided that protestants don't do any harm to anybody.

Wacky Races

This article is about the VI Costa Brava Rally històric, there are cars and drivers from all over the world who aompete in a course that is over 1000 km long. Peolple who loves old cars can enjoy the event too because, in addiction to the sports car category, the competition has classics cars taking part as well, making thus exatring race very important in the sporting calendar.
For me this piece of news is important because I like cars in particular the Rally races.
This affects me because sometimes I have been to see the Rally Catalunya before it was called Costa Brava Rally and it was the most important Rally in Spain. My father, my friends and me see the Rally Catalunya and we always enjoy ourselves.

The Music

For me, music is a system of relaxation and it is for this reason I listen to it every day, I specially like music "dance music" and "house music". That's why I like going to discos because they play this kind of music. Besides I tjink people who ike music are influenced by it their life, the way they dress... I also belive that during the stages of your life ou like different styles of music, now I like this music, but maybe in a year my tastes will change. The song that I have chosen is an example of music "House" Cristian Marchi. These types of musi are ongs that the same verse of the same song, all mixe with electronic music.

Carnival

Carnival is a festival celebrated in February, but this festival is celebrated differentely from the others, you should dress up and go around your village with floats and then there is a party. There is a lot of competitiveness among the group taking part because the municipalities give award. So every year we. So every year we dress, but this year my friends and I dressed as "painters". You usualy typically start preparing for the costume and float at the end of the year, to everything prepared, but we did it a week before 13 of February and we didn't have time to make a float and the costume wasn't very good. On Friday we went to the Carnival of Roses, this is where there are more people and therefore we had a very good time, because we didn't care about the costume. The next day we went to St Pere which was also good but there were very few people campared to the people of Roses. The follow times our village carnival, Castelló d'Empúries, whic was held in a new hall multipurpose room. In this carnival there were a lot of people and I would say that is was the best of three. Next year we will have organize better, and we must start preparing the costume and float earlier to make it better than this year in addiction some of my friens will already have a driving license and will be able t drive the float.

New technologies

Internet, mobile phones, consoles, MP3 players, etc... There are new technologies that affect our lives, the lives of teenagers. For us them the new technologies are like radio the other people. Moreover we use every day, to communicate with friends to search information, to download music for ourselves... How would our life be without the new technologies? I cannot imagine how life would be without such divices, but maybe without these devices, our life would change a lot because, for example what young people would do in their free time without the computer or being unable to listen to music. And besides, we have changed a lot compared to what we did years ago. I also think it is difficult to imagine how these technologies will be in few years time because these technologies evolve very quickly and soon new and old are the others ones will appear to replace the old ones.

Australian gastronomy

The gastronomy in Australia is based on British cooking, because the first European settlers were British. For this reason there are lots of cakes, meat and vegetables.

Dishes

The typical dish of Australia is the meat loaf. There’s also the delicious Cabanossi, which are similar to sausages.
The other dishes common in the diet of Australians are cooked with meat from exotic animals like crocodiles, kangaroos, and buffalo.

Sweets and Desserts

There are lots of desserts and sweet dishes that are popular in Australia and the most important is:
- Pavlova, it is a refreshing cake made with cream, meringue and fresh fruit.

Australian sports

Surfing: This is the most practiced sport in Australia, because there are waves all year. Many factories were opened to make the surf boards, and championships were celebrated.
Rugby: It’s a popular sport in Australia; rugby is just as important for an Australian as football is for us.
Cricket: It is a sport played by Australians; it is on TV at the weekend.

Golf: It is for people of all social classes.
Football: It is a secondary sport in Australia.
Cycling: It is another sport that captivates the Australians and is practiced everywhere.

Bowls: Bowling is played by a lot of people in city clubs.
Volley Ball: It is not practiced by Australians very match.
Swimming: It often practiced in clubs, because in recent years Australians have broken several world records.

The most important cities

Canberra: is the capital of Australia. It is the eighth city with the most inhabitants, but it is the smallest of all the capital cities of states. In Canberra there are the main offices of the most important media of Australia.

Sydney: is situated in the south of Australia and it is the most beautiful and oldest in the county. It has 4,3 million inhabitant. It is a touristic city and one of the most beautiful in the world. In 2000 the Olympic Games were held there.

Melbourne is the second most important city with 3,6 million inhabitants, it is situated in the south east of Australia.

The Australian English was evolved from the British English, because that British people was built a prisons in Australia, so this prisons was spoke only English, Box Jelly fish
This animal is one of the most dangerous in the world, also know that Sea Wasp".
this animal live in north and northeast of Australia, the poison that he has in his tentacles, in this tentacles he do a electric shock, the Jelly fish killed more persons than sharks, snakes and crocodile
Crocodile
this crocodile live in the same waters that Jelly fish, and they can measure approximately 7 meters but the human flesh isn’t his favourite food, but they have very strong in his mouth.
Kangaroos
The kangaroos is one of them animals more charismatics of Australia, all of people know that they existence.
they are herbivores and they are very strongs
Blue octopus
this beautiful animal whit a lot blue rings in his body, live in the famous coral reef, they aren’t agresives but if you irritated they inject his poison that he’s more dangerous like the snakes.
Barrier Reef Cone Shell -
Lion fish & Scorpion fish, this fish live in the coast of Australia, they aren’t dangerous but if you touch one of them you will feel pain.
Telaraña tunel (Funnel Web), Espalda Roja (Red Back),
This spiders are small but they have a powerful poison, Australia is full of spiders in every places, the funnel web build his house in trees and isn’t more usually, the red back is find in all of houses of Australia is familia of “Viuda negra” black widow.
Blue octopus
this beautiful animal whit a lot blue rings in his body, live in the famous coral reef, they aren’t agresives but if you irritated they inject his poison that he’s more dangerous like the snakes.
Sharks
The sharks live in all places of sea, but the sharks killed less than snakes and others animals, are the very differents classes and the more famous Is the white shark.
Snakes
Of 10 more dangerous snakes in the world 8 are in Australia, the most poisonus in the world is taipan (foto) because his poison is more poisonus that he can kill one hundred adults whit one bit.
The brown snake almost same than taipan,
Ibis
Is original of china, his animal live in garbages and ins’t lovely that Australians.
Kookaburra
This bird is very usually in Australia, he emits a stronger sound, they don’t frightened with humans, is a symbol of Australia.
Parrots
Live in tropical places of Australia and live in groups.
Martin Fisherman
Cassuary
this animal was almost extingued but the department of Australia help his animal, his is similar at “pavo real” of spain
Pelican
The pelicans of Australia are considerate the bigger than other pelicans around the world, they are friendly and happy , Australia are forbidden give food at pelicans.
Demon Of Tasmania
Is almond extingued but recently are increased the numbers of animals. The demons of Tasmania have a bad reputation
Dingo
Is a wild dog, they are frees and they run on beaches, the Dingos are aggressive although that his face don’t represents.
Echidna & Hedgehog
Is like a little pig, when he attack, he converted a ball, this animal is usually for nights
Koala
The koala is other animal symbolic, he seems a teddy bear, his favorites places for live are the places there are eucalyptus, this animal pass all the day sleeping, only they are wake up 5 hours at day.
Iguana
They are reptiles, and they live in a national parks, deserts, and coast, normally they are calm and inoffensive.
Dugong
This animal is like a small whale, they are herbivores, his skin is strong like the elephants.

Lleyton Hewitt
Hewitt was born in Adelaide Australia at 24 of February 19 81
He’s a tennis player, he get to be number one of ATP, he won 2 grand slam versus ( Pete Sampras and David Nalbandian) the 4 possibles.
He has got a one record, he won one tournament when he stay at 5hundred 15 position in the ranking.
Kylie Minogue
This singstar was have a one life very hard, his songs don’t like a many persons, but in 2thousands one she jumps to fame whit her song Can't Get You Out Of My Head but in 2005 they was diagnostic a cancer of mama, in 2006 she returns to settings.

My oral presentation

I liked my oral presentation, I think it was original because I used power point when I spoke about the gastronomy, sport and the important places of Australia. Moreover this time I did my presentation with my friends Igansi and Christian, for this reason I was more relaxed. However, in spite of doing it with them, I was still a little nervous.

The structure of my power point was very good, because there weren’t many words so the context was nice, and I use photos.

In part from the power point I also helped me with a summary

While I was speaking the pupils were listening to me, for thus reason I was more relaxed and I tooled at the class from time to time.

I didn’t use connectors very much and I used my hands a little bit to express myself.

In my opinion I think that the oral presentation went quite well, together with my friends. It lasted the time that was necessary, 15 minutes, 5 minutes each person.

I think that we deserve at last a 6,5.

Back to school

Then piece of ESO (compulsory secondary education). In ESO there are main subjects and optional subjects, which vary between schools.

- Batxillerat is two-years between the ages of 16 and 18 and has four subject areas.

- FP (medium grade) is for students who have a lower level.

In my opinion this article is very interesting because there are a lot of foreign people living here who do not know about ESO, Batxillerat and FP.

This piece of new helps to inform them about the different possibilities, this affects me because now I am studying 1rst Batxillerat and I am not sure what I want to study it affects my friends in the same way as me.