Some questions for next year

1.  Can you see an improvement on your level of English in the past year/s?  Where, for example?

Yes. Because 2 years ago, i dind't feel confident when it comes to speak to someone in english, and my grammar got better to.

2. Which activity best shows your level of English?

Listening.

3. Which activities were really USEFUL for you to improve your English? Why?

Skills. Because when you do a sort of exam without studying and pass it, you know your real level and not something your going to forget a few days later, and that's when you see improvement.

4. Which activities did you NOT find useful to learn English? Why not?

Each one of the activities made me improve. None of them were useless.

5. Which activities would like to do again next year to keep on improving your English? ( They're in red)

Oral presentations

Listening and evaluating to other presentations

Recording and evaluating your oral presentation

Official Exam preparation

Podcasts

Watching films

Class Songs

Videos

Blog yoursays

Blog news

Composition writing in class

Correcting compositions

Grammar Book exercises

Vocabulary extension dossier

Reading 3 books

Grammar & vocabulary Exams, Skills exams

Oral exams

Extra points activities (...)

6. Open Comments (...More ideas, suggestions for activities, suggestion for new topics...)

Pranks in the hood

Seeing the title, you can get a quick idea of how things go, but it's more than doing "pranks in the hood". Explaining it with little details, a couple of guys go to the most poor cities, or how we call it, "Ghettos" of US and practically, do pranks against mostly black people, waiting to see how's the reaction, like a social experiment. Usually they ask people things using wordsplay like: Do you want to get popped? It has a double meaning. One of them is to get shot and the other one is to have a drink and as soon as the black guys hear it, they run agressvily against the guy and starts knocking the shit out of him. Meanwhile, they do the same with white people and get completly different reactions. I leave this here for you to judge. Black people is more agressive than white people? What do you think?

Dead Lock by Sara Paretsky

The main character of this story is a private investigator, called Vic Warshawsky. Most of the plot follow her in her attempt to reveal who killed her cousin whose nickname is Boom Boom and why. As a professional private investigator, she goes around asking people questions, mainly at the docks or to people who had something to with his hockey team. Knowing that  he died because he slipped at the port and fell under the boat, where the engine killed him, some of the people from the docks will try to prevent her from investigating because this could represent trouble for them.

I'm not used to read books about murders and investigation or something linked to it, but I think the book is good. Not very entertaining because at some moments, the story develops real slowly and some dialogues are unnecessary, but it wasn't bad neither.
The investigation and the way she links the information she has to discover new things, and the fact that these "high charges" men follow her killing witnesses and people who would have useful information make it interesting at some points.
I would recommend it to people who at the top of all, have a medium-high english level because ofthe vocabulary, and after that, people who have patience and like to read suspense and drama.

US PayPal users face marketing robot cold calls

PayPal is changing its terms and conditions to state users must accept automated marketing calls, emails and text messages.

The changes - which come into force in July - will only apply to its US customers.The eBay-owned company told the BBC that it "would honour any customers' requests to decline marketing outreach".But no such opt-out is included in the terms and conditions.Instead customers are invited to either accept or decline.If you do not agree to the amended user agreement, privacy policy or acceptable use policy, you may close your account before July 1, 2015 and you will not be bound by the amended terms the document states.

The US's Federal Communications Commission is working to crack down on robocalls and spam email.It plans to legalise technology that blocks such calls and wants telephone companies to offer the tools to their customers.

First Steam Machines on sale

The first Steam Machines - an attempt to bring PC gaming to a wider audience - are available to pre-order.

PC makers Alienware and Cyberpower have both announced machines that will be sent out to buyers in October.Several Steam Machines will be out this year, an attempt by games publisher Valve to compete with consoles such as the Xbox and PlayStation.Many analysts are not convinced it poses a threat to those well-established brands.Steam is a hugely popular gaming platform and shop for the PC market. In September 2013, owner Valve announced it was to work with manufacturers to develop Steam Machines in the hope it would encourage PC gaming in the living room.The controller has been designed as an alternative to the typical PC gaming set-up of keyboard and mouse.Both machines can be souped-up to offer more hardware power.

Never used steam though, but I heard a lot of friends talk good stuff about it. I would use it if I had a better computer, unfortunately, i'll stick with the consoles. About the steam machines, I think sony and microsoft should really wake up, or they'll have a really competitive opponent.

Several: Muchas

Attempts: Intentos

Warming

US researchers say new evidence casts doubt on the idea that global warming has "slowed" in recent years.

A US government laboratory says the much talked about "pause" is an illusion caused by inaccurate data.Updated observations show temperatures did not plateau, say National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) scientists.The warming rate over the past 15 years is "virtually identical" to the last century, they report in Science.Dr Thomas Karl of NOAA, who led the new analysis, said: "We would hope that it would inform the general public that the temperature today really is continuing to warm."

Various explanations have been put forward, including changes in volcanic and solar activity, and ocean currents.

The new analysis corrects for ocean observations made using different methods as well as including new data on surface temperatures.

I got to recognize they've been a long time warning us about the climate change, but most part of the population did nothing to prevent it, including me. Now we got to deal with the consequences, and one of these are the continue warming of the planet.

Inaccurate: Inexacto

Currents: Corrientes

Get rich or die tryin'

Rappers got a whole lot of thigs to say about their life, normally how much they struggled until they arrived at the top. This movie stars 50cent, whose name in the movie is Marcus. He lives in NY and as a big part of the black population there, he is usually involved in a constant drug dealing environment, because even his own mother sells crack and he knows it, but the only purpose for her to do so is to raise her little boy like the way it's supposed to be. Unfortunately at the age of 8, his mother, Katrina gets killed ( burned alive) by a close friend, Majestic, because she's bringing a lot of trouble for his gang about selling stuff at others territories.

After that, Marcus gets to live at his grandparents house and secretly, he keeps up with his mother's business on the streets. He starts to get expensive clothes, a new car, a gun, and buy a house on his own, until he gets arrested for a couple of months because of selling dope. During these months, he starts to work with his lyrics at the jail, to become a new rap star the day he gets out, and after that, he'll try to deal with some important enemies, including his mom's murderer.

As all of those biographical movies about my favourite artists, I really liked it. I really like to watch these kind of movies that talk about how people overcome in their lifes. The original soundtrack is priceless, with one of my favourites tracks by him, Window Shopper the technical material in the movie is decent.

I just think that the movie got a bit longer than it should've been and the end wasn't what I was expecting, but it's ok.

Essay/ Chaos in an inmature mind

More than a month ago, 4/20/15 to be more exact, in a Barcelona highschool. a thirteen-year-old boy shot 2 teachers with a crossbow and used a knife against some classmates. Highschool was evacuated. A teacher died and there were 4 wounded.

In my point of view, safety is something which lacks in some highschools in the world. A boy wouldn't be able to walk inside those buildings with a crossbow, a molotov and a knife if they had enough security. But security is not the key for everything. We could rely on the education that has been given to this boy at home or at school.

There's something that disgusts me a lot about this story, and it's the fact that he's not going to be judged because of his age.
Our laws are just going to let him go after killing an innocent person. I think that, at the age of thirteen. you're already mature enough to know the consequences of doing so. I really hope that after this mess, they have something in mind to solve this issue or maybe it's the parents fault. Who knows. But I still think he should be punished in a severe way.