PODCAST

PODCAST 

News

ELEPHANTS RETIRE FROM A CIRCUS

http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/elephants-retire-from-a-circus-level-3/

This news was posted on the 17th May 2016 on a web site called English in levels. The article talks about the withdrawal of 11 elephants which were in the Ringling Brothers' Circus doing an amazing show. As the news says, the animals have been moved to Florida, in a conservation centre. Finally the article explains that elephants are endangered, so there are fewer than 40,000 elephants in the wild.

In my opinion I think this is fantastic news. I really like the idea of elephants not being used and mistreated in Circuses. The conditions of animals living in captivity, not only in a Circus but also in a zoo, are very poor and miserable, and they should have the right to live in their real habitat. So I’m glad these poor 11 elephants could now have a better life. People seem to be getting more and more conscious about the topic of animal rights and endangered animals. 

Your-say

POINT THE BLAME

I want to talk about the blame, specifically in pointing the blame to others. I read a phrase on a book:  Is there a chance that you may not have all the facts, or that your angers is obscuring your judgement?

About the first part of the phrase (Is there a chance that you may not have all the facts) I agree because it’s easy to point the blame to somebody when you just have had listened a part of the story. Normally there are a lot of different points of view of a just one fact and all there are possible true. So before to do a judgment you have to be sure that you know all  the facts. Anyway I think we shouldn’t do ever a judgement of others because we don’t really know the causes and the thought the other have, and we are nobody to judge others. About the other part of the phrase I also agree: sometimes the anger can obscur the judgment, so you are like blind. 

Your-say

INTRUSIVE THOUGHT

I want to talks about the intrusive thought. The intrusive thought are these which make you doubt about things in your life. 
My first thought is that people shoun't pay attention to these thought because there are not true and they will just make you feel unhappy. Negative people tend to think that they are not enough or that they don’t deserve something or they not should be in this job etc. So this thought for this people are just the result of a fear mechanism so they shouldn’t believe them. However I  thinking better i don't think you just have to try to forget them, because if they are there is because of you. So I think that what people should do is to try to figure out why are these thought there. Because if you find the reason, then you are able to re-evaluate and transform this bad thought in good ones. If you try to supress them or try to not think about it they will become stronger so they won’t disappear.

Task

DOES HUMOR PLAY AN IMPORTANT ROLE IN LIFE?

The question "Does humor play an important role in life? could be taken from different points of view as it's a subjective question. However I am not going to do a summary of them, but give my opinion. 

On the one hand humor is a trait of personality that is usually well appreciated. It's helpful because makes people face the facts in a good and healthy way. As it is said it's better to smile than to cry. In addition people tend to be more relaxed and feel more comfortable next to people with good humor.

On another hand, humor is not always good received or appropiated. Not everybody likes all kind of humor, and a person who is always making jokes can be annoying. What is worse, some people don't know when is appropiated to make a joke and when is necessary to be quiet and seriously. 

So, as a summary I would say that humor could be really good in our life, as everybody likes laughing and having fun, but anyway it should not be forgotten that it's very important to know in which places and events it's good received and also which kind of humor. 

your-say

WAYS

In my room I have a picture with a phrase. It is situated in a way that when I’m lying on my bed I can read it perfectly, so it makes me think about it quite a lot. The sentence is “The beautiful ways multiply when you think the road ends”.

My interpretation is that when you think that any problem has no solution, when you are stuck in a point  you think you could never leave,  when you think that there no way to do something or you think all is going to an end, then is when all the hypothetic door you didn’t even contemplated appears. Another interpretation is that maybe, the phrase, it could just be a optimistic perception, a way to say that even when you think what is happen is the worse there is a hidden good part you can’t see now because you are stuck on a thought. Another interpretation could be that at this desperate point you can’t find a way to continue, it’s went you have the opportunity to see that maybe you are in the wrong way, so is when you realise that there no solution because you are in the wrong position to focus the thing. So maybe you can take this phase like the one that says “If we don’t get lost, we’ll never find a new route”

I could continue with more interpretation because as the perception is subjective you can find a lot of different ways to interpreted, but the thing is that this phrase is really inspiriting for me and makes me keep calm and see the things with other eyes when things are not going well. 

your-say

THE TRUTH SOMETIMES HURTS, SO COULD IT BE BETTER TO DON’T KNOW IT?

The other day I listened a song called Màgic from Joan Colomo (catalan artist), that attracted my attention. That was because of a phrase of the song that says “I don’t want the truth, I just want to be happy” That makes me think because also, months ago I read a book that contains a phrase that says “The cost for knowing all the truths in the world, is your happiness.

I found interesting  both phrases because they keep me thinking…

If one thing you should know is going to ruin your life, it’s better to don’t know it ?

I mean, it’s better to live in a big lie which you don’t know about, so you are the happier person in the world thinking that everything is as you imagine, or maybe you prefer to live knowing all the truths even if these make you a miserable person?

It’s clear that this are extremes but the point is that your happiness is one the most important things and it’s easy to destroy it sometimes. Also this depends on the person.

So my conclusion is that I don’t want to be an unaware but at the same times if it is something that is not going to provided me nothing, and it’s not trivial to know it… in the case that this is going  to make me feel wrong, I don't really know if I prefer to know or if not. 

News

ACID ATTACKS ON WOMEN 

This news item was posted in the web side News in  Level, the 16th September of 2016. The title of the new is Acid attacks on women and the link to this article is here:

http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/acid-attacks-on-women-level-3/ 

The news, as the title announces, talks about an aggression to a woman in the city of Delhi with and really dangerous acid. The story stated 11 years ago, when the girl was 15, and  in front of the proposal of marriage of a boy she said no. Then 10 months later they met by chance in a market and the man pushed her to the floor and poured acid on her. The worse, as the item explains, is that this woman was hidden for  four years because she wasn’t brave enough to face that tragical accident. After this years she decided to change the view she had of herself and the view other had of her and thanks a charity that supports acid attacks could felt more like a normal person than a victim. 

This item surprised me a lot. It’s incredible how far away goes humanity stupidity. I really don’t understand why this men would do that but it makes me feel there are so many injustices it wouldn’t be. For another part, I’m kind of happy that the author of this item has focused the things more in the part of the women recovering and fighting, than in the fact of the accident. I imagine how hard could be being in this situation and i supose you have to be very brave to have the grit to go out in public and explain your story. So I’m happy for the way the woman finally managed the situation, and the help she received. 

Ted speech

TED SPEECH

The woman defends, that what makes the kids to pass the exams and people in general to be successful I not the IQ but their grit. So her point of view is very positive as says everyone has same chances to success no matter the IQ.

My vision is similar. By one hand there are very intelligent people that have no aspirations and neither motivation to do something useful. And by the other hand, there are people that have not a lot of logical-mathematical intelligence, but for them that’s no problem because with passion, time and strain they can get the same results. Maybe could seems that is not fair, but I think it is because everyone is good in something. Also I think the intellectual intelligence is overrated as there are eight more intelligence that are really important like the existential intelligence,  the interpersonal intelligence, the musical intelligence of any of the others intelligences. In the speech, the woman is focused in being successful in certain areas but the point is that there are so many areas in one can be good at. Anyway it’s true that in school the intelligences that are more rated are the linguistic and the logical-mathematical intelligence, and if you are not good at them can be difficult to pass. But also it’s true that we, normally, have the same brain capacity, some have born with it more developed but our brain is able to learn anything if you want to do it.

So finally I agree with the woman that defends that with grit you can success no matter your kind of intelligence, but I would also like to remark that there are a lot different intelligences one can be good at. 

my dear teacher

MY DEAR TEACHER

As I said the other day in class, I’m an optimistic person but also realistic, so I always try to see the best on the worst and the worst on the best. My short and long terms goals are not really amazing as I don’t want to do incredible things in my life, I just want to live it in a way I like it.

My short terms are to finish batxillerat and to go to the university in Barcelona with two really good friends in a flat. The degree I don’t really know yet but in fact these last month I have had the idea of being a vet quite a lot in my mind.

About my medium-terms goals I have the idea of leaving the big city after college and go to live in a small town as I like the calm and the nature. I also have the idea of having a conscious and healthy life. As far as I can I would like to do some courses about knowing myself because as my parents are psychologist I’m interested in this world. About the healthy thing I love sport and eating healthy. I also would like to do the course of diving because I find the sea world amazing. But also, by another hand, I like the mountain and doing trekking.

If I talk about my long-terms goals, talking about me in 30 years, I like the idea of getting married and having 3 child and some pets. Finally another thing I like quite a lot but which I don’t have had a lot of opportunities to experiment is traveling. I would like to visit during all my life lot of different places; to see different ways to live, to know different cultures and to see different landscapes. 

So, I think that is all, thank you for reading my expectations and aspirations about my future.

Book review

FIREFLIES 

The book called Fireflies by Ana Maria Matute was published in 1993. 

Fireflies narrate the story of Sun, a son of a well-being family who lives in Barcelona. The civil war surprised her in her adolescence. Sol is a shy, curious and lonely girl who is forced to look inside her to find the necessary force to survive the misery and barbarism of a conflict that doesn’t understand. During this process she will know the valour of friendship and love but also the pain of hunger and the injustice of death.

I read this book as an optative in Spanish class. 

I think that It’s probably the book which I have found it more difficult to understand, also the book more sad I have ever read and finally a book from which I have learn a lot. So this is a heavy, long, sad and confused book which I have liked a lot. This is not a book which you enjoy because is always talking about pain and hunger, but inside all this there are some hope and love. So this book surprised me a lot and I would like to read it again some years later. Also I recommended a lot because makes you think that the way you are living now is totally different to 70 years ago. 

your-say

GET OUT OF YOUR COMFORT ZONE

There are some pages on the book (107, 4) in which say that habituation and routine makes us unhappy.
 I really agree with that because the routine makes us to do the same things in the same way and feel and think the same, so we get used to things and this makes us unhappy. It’s like when you want a thing and a weak after have bought it the emotion and happiness you were feeling with the idea of buying it has disappeared. So the key is to get out of your comfort zone, that no means to go to Africa and ride an elephant but doing small things that produce you pleasure and happiness. Anyway another way to feel happy, as the book mentions, is feeling adrenaline so producing feel-good endorphins which will make you feel happy. Is for this same reason for which when I grow up I would like to travel a lot, because this is a way to live new experiences and get out of habituation. But at the end is difficult to not fall in routine because you have a job, a family and a place and you can’t be changing all that twice a month. For these cases, the solution could stay in the small things because as the Theory of butterflies says, a little change can outcome in a big change, so maybe just changing a 1 per cent of things is enough.

Your-say

ONE MONTH AGO 

One month ago I went with my school class to Barcelona to do a Spanish project about a book we have read. In the afternoon, teachers gave us time free and my friends and I went to shopping. We came across a shop called Urban outfitter where among other things like nice clothes and shoes, there were some special books. My friend Aina told me she had bought twice there some weeks ago and she encouraged me to leaf through some. I quickly found one that caught my eye. The name of the one which half an hour later I was buying was called Get happy. I realise I will read it quickly as I love read so I ask to my English teacher to take this new one for an oral exam and she agree.  Now I have already read it and my purpose is to talk about some of the topics of the book in my following posts. 

News

SELF-DRIVING CARS IN THE STREETS

http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/self-driving-cars-in-the-streets-level-1/?utm_source=old

This news item was posted on 22nd May 2016 on a web site called English in levels. The article talks about a new invention that Google has designed and created in Detroit, USA. This new invention has been already tested with good results. The self-driving car is different and special. As the name says - it doesn’t need a driver as it’s programmed to drive by itself. However, engineers can take over driving in case they need it. Finally the article says that the speed of this new car is limited to 40 kilometres per hour.

In my opinion I think this is a very good invention because these new cars, if they are well programmed, they could prevent a lot of road accidents and consequently human injuries and deaths. Anyway I’m not sure about how safe you are inside one of them. 

Your-say

MUSIC PERCEPTION

There is something that I regret a lot. The music perception of the young people. A lot of teenagers will agree the music is so important in his life. But they don’t know what music is, they only listen to music superficially, they learn the basic motive and the lyrics. This is all they know about music.

I regret people don’t know the world behind a song. All the harmony, how it’s possible to write the best score without even heard a note. Also it’s sad that the only music they know is the music of the moment. People tend to consider boring or bad the music that has more than 50 years, and they put all in the classic music box.

But then when they listen to it in the soundtrack of a film they love it, like Clair the lune by Debussy.  

The story of music is long, varied and for me is interesting, but I guess if you don’t know what are you loosing it’s normal to do nothing.  

news

Sisters meet after 30 years

This article was published in News in level, the 10^th of March of 2016. http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/sisters-meet-after-30-years-level-3/

The news talks about the story of two sisters that meet each other after 30 years being separated.

They were separated and put in adoption when a volcano devastated her town as the authorities thought they had no family.

After 30 years, one of the sisters came across with a Facebook video which has her sister.  

The sisters meet and now are trying to find her parents but with no success.

This article astonished me when I read it. It’s like the typical film, but in this case it’s real. I don’t know how I would react if I discover that my sister is alive after all this time knowing nothing about him. 

news

Girl can’t love

This news is published in News in level the 11th of March of 2016. 

http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/girl-cant-love-level-3/ 

This news explains a weird genetic disorder called Síndrome Phelan-McDermid that affects a girl called Mellody . One of the consequences of this illness is that the girl can't love or be loved as she responds with aggression. Other effects are the high pain threshold so she hit herself and notice no pain. 

This is a very rare genetic disorder that only affects 1.500 people in the world. The mother of this girl is sharing is story to call the attention of scientist because she wants to know more about this Síndrome. 

Finally the news explains that the mother says that although she can't be loved, they both know the way to show affection. 

your-say

BEST MOMENT TO TAKE A GAP YEAR

The best moment to take a gap year is before starting a job and settles down, in your youth. If I had to decide when to have a gap year I don’t know if that will be before or after the career.

By one hand, going before the career is better because you are 18 and is a good age to know yourself and to make up your mind before start this big and different stage as it is the university. Also maybe after the career you need to work to life by yourself.

But by another hand, after the high school  is when you remember better all the things you have learned and also you are excited with the idea of leaving home and being independent in your own flat, and start studying something you really like. So maybe you don’t want to wait a year to start you career.

So finally I think the best option is to travel and go wherever you want during the summer. Anyway I have time  to look thought. 

your-say

TDR

One month later I had no idea of what topic choose for my project. I though in something related with biology as the practice part could be easy because we have the lab available in summer. Also I was really interested in the relation of music and maths because when I do harmony notes and numbers are always together in order to make a good composition. But searching about this topic I saw it was complicated. Finally I find out a serie called lie to me and I saw the first chapter. The serie was about facial microexpresions and I decided to look up about this topic and I found that the serie was supervised by the creator of facial microexpresions, so the serie was kind of real. This is how I came across with the topic of my tdr which has been accepted.  

your-say

MY MORNING STORY 

I’m going to tell you a story that just happened to me last morning. Yesterday I was so tired at night at 11.00p.m so I took off my clothes, I putt on my pyjamas and I went to bed. I was nearly to drop off when I realised I had English homework in which I had to make up a story so I switched on my alarm and advanced it 3o minutes to do it. Therefore I dropped off. I woke up thinking I had to speed up because I didn’t have all the time if I didn’t want to miss the bus. I had a coffee and I turned my mum up. She asked me if I couldn’t sleep and I said that I had woken up because of homework. Then she looked at me weird, I looked the watch and it was 3:00 a.m! I went again to sleep and I don’t know why my alarm this morning didn’t ring so I couldn’t get on the bus. I didn’t have time to come up with story but I’ve been lucky the teacher was missing at 8am so I could do my assignment.

News

SUGAR IN HOT DRINKS 

http://www.newsinlevels.com/products/sugar-in-hot-drinks-level-3/ 

This article was published in the 23th of February 2016. This news comments an analysis that has studied the quantity of sugar that some hot drinks have. 

Has the article explains, scientist have found out that the quantity of sugar that we ingest with this kind of drinks is like 9, 13 or even 25 teaspoon of sugar in one only drink! 

The article also advises that this is the triple quantity that we should ingest. So these drinks are really bad for you healthy as well as your teeth and physical appearance. The worst part is that people are not conscientious about this.

Your-say

FIRST THE FILM OR THE BOOK?

There are too many people who don’t like reading. These kinds of people always know about a book when his film is produced. But for another hand there are also so many people who agree with the topic which says that “always the books are better than films”

Next I will tell you why I absolutely agree with this basing on my personal experiences.

I always get upset with the films I see about books I have read before. It has passed to me a lot of times and it’s really annoying because the film destroys all you had imagined when you read it: your point of view, the landscapes, the characters… The worst part is that even you read it again you would never imagine the scenes as you do it the first time. 

Also I have to say that there’s one book which his films I found loyal: The Fault in our stars. I like it because even the dialogues where the same that in the book. Also there were the most of the scenes… but anyway it is a really short book so I don’t think it was so difficult.

I’m sure there are really good films about books but I don’t have read these ones.

Maybe the basic problem is not about if the film is loyal to the book. Maybe the fact is just that you have imagined the story in a way and someone shows you in a different one. 

Film review

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING 

The Theory of Everything is the story of Stephen Hawking, the most brilliant physist, and Jane Wilde, a arts student who fell in love with him at Cambridge in the 1960s.
 Stephen soon is diagnosed with ALS but Jane stated her for him.  Hawking  becomes less and less able to control his own body. 
With the loyal Jane at his side, he continues his work. However, as the years progress, Jane starts to feel more like a nurse than a wife, and Hawking begins to have feelings for a woman who is hired to care for him. 

Personally I really enjoyed this film and mades me think a lot. Is a story of overcoming and shows that you never have to lose hope. The character of Jane is admirable because although the few physical abilities of her husband, she always stay by his side. Also I found incredible the way that the  protagonist (Eddie Redmayne) interpret his paper, imitating the real Stephen Hawking. It's really a very good actor. So I recommended because it's a nice and true story about a important person of our time.