Climates

Around the world there are different type of climates such as Equatorial, tropical (interior) continental, monsoon, hot desert and cold climates. All of them will be explained in this summary.

Equatorial climates are located at the Equator, 5° north and south. This type of climates are hot and wet, they do not have a seasonal change, they are wet all year through and they also have a daily pattern. Its average rainfall is 2000mm/2500mm per year. The average temperature is 25°C. Night time temperatures may reach 35°C. Its annual range of temperature is small, as low as 2°C. It has a daily pattern in which every morning is -------

Tropical (interior) Continental climates are located in the centre of continents, away from coast, 5° and 15° north and south of the Equator. There is an alternation between wet and dry seasons. During the hot, wet season, temperatures rise as the sun takes a more vertical position, temperatures fall as cloud cover and rainfall increase. Areas closer to the Equator may experience over 1000mm of rainfall per year, and areas farther from it may experience as little as 300mm of rain per year. The warm, dry season, occurs when the sun is overhead. During this season there is little or no rainfall. The average temperature is 31°C and the annual range of temperature is 8°C.

The monsoon climate is located in south-east Africa. It has  two seasons: the south-west (wet season) and the north-east (dry season). The two seasons are the result of the reversal of the wind. In the wet season the wind comes from the south where the sea is and as the wind blows from the north where is land is the dry season.

Hot desert climates are located between 5°and 30° north and south of the Equator. Temperatures are higher when the sun is overhead and lower when it is in the opposite hemisphere. Coastal areas are much cooler due to the influence of the sea. In places away from the sea, temperatures rise to 50° due to the cloud-less skies, and night-time temperatures fall to around freezing. Deserts are very dry although they have some precipitation.

Cold climates are found in the poleward side of 60° N. Winters are very long, dark and extremely cold. Precipitation is light throughout the year and it falls as snow in winter. Summer rainstorms occur when temperatures are at their highest.

Comparative Essay

In Literature we read different poems from "Songs of Ourselves", which is a book with poems from different authors. We had to explore how the authors convey feelings through landscape in 2 of the following poems: The city planners, Summer farm, Sonnet composed..., The planners and Where I come from. I chose "The city planners" written by Margaret Atwood and "The planners" written by Boey Kim Cheng.

"The city planners" written by Margaret Atwood is a poem where the author criticizes the perfection of a city meanwhile in "The planners" written by Boey Kim Cheng he describes how a city is being changed and perfectiones. Throughout this essay the different feelings and landscape used to describe what each poet feels and sees about the city will be compared and analysed. 

In the first stanza of "The city planners" we get to see the author is offended by the order, she feels that the whole city is pointing at her for having a dent in the door of her car and that the grass is discouraged to keep growing because they will mown it again and again. As to convey that she feels like someone is rebuking her or to say that she is offended, Margaret Atwood uses the landscape. She describes the city as sanitary and that everything looks tidy or perfect. "No shouting here, or shatter of glass" Atwood says in the first stanza.

In the second stanza, the author sees things that are not perfect from her car and she also mentions things that she does not see as perfect and things that will become imperfect in a future. The different items that seem to disturb the order of the city are "the smell of spilt oil", "a splash of paint on brick" and "a plastic hose poised in a vicious coil". According to Margaret Atwood, all those imperfections allows to see the "landscape behind or under the future cracks in the plaster".

As in "The city planners", in "The planners" by Boey Kim Cheng the structure is similar. In the first stanza the author describes the perfection of the city referring to mathematics. "All spaces are gridded, filled with permutations of possibilities", Cheng says. Everything the planners fix, is in perfect proportions, all "the buildings are in alignment". The planners are conquerors according to the author, "Even the seea draws back and the skies surrender". In the second stanza the planners erase the city past mistakes as if they were dentists. "They erase the flaws, the blemishes of the past...", "the country wears perfect rows of shining teeth", this is how Cheng conveys the planners are erasing what has happened in the past by covering them as if they were dentists fixing someone's mouth.

Boey Kim Cheng explains that he cannot make poetry with the city perfection. The imperfect city was poetic because it had history, but now there is no history to write about. "But my heart would not bleed poetry", Cheng conveys how he feels about the perfected city.

Throughout this essay the different feelings and landscape used to describe how each poet feels and sees about the city had been compared and analysed. Both Boey Kim Cheng and Margaret Atwood dislike the idea of the cities being perfected, either because they are no more poetic or because they make them feel wrong about the way they are.

Look before you leap

If I did not went to that job interview I would not be depressed. My friends said, "Do not go, is not a good idea", even so I did not pay attention to them. My parents told me, "Darling, it is for older people" and "I do not like you going there". However, I went anyway. I was as deaf as an earthworm. Even though I liked that job, it was not for me. A friend of mine said, "She is fishing in troubled waters" and he was right. That job was like a dream, which I could not reach. Still I cannot believe this. As result of this, I cannot yet get my own house.

Meanwhile, my worst enemy got the job I wanted. I could hang out, nevertheless I am depressed. It is as depressive as rainy days. Inspite of, I can get another job.

• Connectors
• Direct speech
• Similes
• Metaphor
• Conditional sentences

A Frightening Experience

In the Language class we had to look for adjectives, setting and atmosphere, characters` personality, ways of speaking, adverbs, ways of walking, character's feelings' and characters physical appearance as to write a frightening story. The following text is the story I wrote with the sequence markers, direct spech, rhetorical questions and metaphors used highlighted/underlined etc.

Two hours were left and the people would start arriving. The coffin was in the middle of the dark room; she was inside; so pale, so calm, so beautiful and creepy. Though her piercings had been removed and she was dressed in a deep blue dress.

I was watching how her family members and friend entered the room; all of them were dressed in black suits and dresses, crying in a desolate way, looking at me as if her death had been my fault. However, it was not. The fact was that if I told the truth nobody would believe me.

Everything started on a Sunday night, Mia and I were returning from a wedding; the road was dark, in contrast to Mia's yellow dress that shined as a million stars. “I cannot believe she sent us away!” “What is wrong with her?” Mia asked herself. “I do not know”, I said while I was driving home. Suddenly, a woman dressed in white appeared in the middle of the road and I tried to stop the car not to run over her; what was a woman like her in such a desolate place at this hour of the night? I finally stopped the car and panicky she ran directly to us, lingering, she looked psycho with her big eyes open, so Mia closed her window. “Please! Please!” she screamed knocking on Mia´s window. “Take me to the hospital!” she begged.

Out of the blue, she fainted on the street, she was bleeding and looked like an emo, and all pierced with her black make up. We waited for a while in the car. However, she did not wake up, so we took her to hospital. She was already dead, though. I went as fast as possible, all the same when I arrived it was too late. They took her to the emergency room. Later, one of the nurses started asking what had happened but we were both shocked.

The doctor that assisted her tried to wake her up. However, he could not. They found a phone number in her pocket, so they told me to call. After that I phoned and someone answered the phone, I told what happened but nobody answered, I only heard someone breathing. The following day I received a text message saying a direction and time. When I arrived there, it was the girl's funeral, yet nobody was there, we were just her death body and I in the middle of a dark room.

• Direct Speech
• Describe weather and surroundings
• Rhetorical question
• Metaphor
• Sequence markers
• Connectors

The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: Act III

Act III starts with Gwendolen and Cecily in the morning room of the Manor House, looking out the window at Jack and Algernon, waiting them to come in. If they come in, the ladies intend to be cold and heartless. Algy and Jack do come in and start explaining why they lied about their names. Cecily and Gwendolen accept their explanations but they still have a problem with the name Earnest (non of them was called Earnest). Both were planning to be rechristened and both couples embrace. Merriman coughs to signal the entrance of Lady Bracknell. She wanted an explanation of why were they hugging and Gwendolen tells her she is engaged to Jack. Aunt Augusta, says that they are not engaged. She inquires about Algy's friend, Bunbury, and Algernon explains that he killed him that afternoon, he also adds he and Cecily are engaged. Lady Bracknell interrogates Jack about Cecily's expectations.

Lady Bracknell gives her consent to Algy's engagement but Jack objects as Cecily's guardian. He says Algernon is a liar and lists all the lies he has told. Cecily does not come into her fortune (130000 pounds) and lose Jack as a guardian until she is 35 years old. Algernon says he can wait but Cecily cannot. Jack declares that he will agree to the marriage if Lady Bracknell will consent to his engagement to Gwendolen. Lady Bracknell says that is not the destiny she proposed for Gwendolen.
Dr. Chasuble arrives and announces that he is ready for the christening. Jack replies that they are useless now and Chasuble returns to church where Miss Prism is waiting. Lady Bracknell get shocked when she heard the name Prism and demands to see her. When Miss Prism arrives and sees Lady Bracknell she turns pale. Lady Bracknell reveals that Miss Prism left Lord Bracknell's house 28 years ago. She disappeared on a normal walk carrying a baby. Lady B. demands to know where the baby is, so Miss Prism explains that in a moment of distraction she placed the baby in her handbag and her 3-volume manuscript in the baby carriage. Both of them were accidentally left in the train station. When she noticed this, she abandoned the baby and disappeared. Jack excitedly asked her which station it was. She reveals that it was Victoria Station, the Brighton line, and Jack runs from the room and returns with a black leather bag. Prism identified it and he embraces her, believing her to be his mother. She tells him she is not his mother and says he will have to ask Lady Bracknell for the identify of his mother.
Jack discovers he is actually Lady Bracknell's sister, Mrs. Moncrieff son, and that Algy is his older brother. He says he always felt he has a brother. Jack asks what his christened name was, but Lady Bracknell does not remember, she only knew it was the name of his father. He checks the names of the Army lists of the las 40 years. It was Ernest John. Jack asserts that he had been speaking the truth all along: his name is Earnest and he does have a brother. Both couples embrace and Jack finally declares that he finally realizes The Importance of Being Earnest.

Donar es Amar

Después de ver el cortometraje “En el lado de la vida” y leer el texto “Ponte en su lugar” de Fernando Savater hallamos semejanzas entre ambos. Algunas de ellas son que no importa cual sea tu estatura, color de piel, nacionalidad, diferencia social o alguna otra diferencia todos los humanos son capaces de donar y recibir órganos. "Tratar a una persona humanamente es que intentes ponerte en el lugar de esa persona" dice el texto de Fernando Savater; en el cortometraje muestra a una madre cuya hija acaba de fallecer en un accidente y le ofrecen donar sus órganos, pero ella lo rechaza y al salir del hospital ve a una madre con su hija esperando un donante. La madre, de piel blanca, de la difunta decide donar los órganos de su hija y ayudar a una madre e hija, de piel negra, en búsqueda de un donante.
El título del cortometraje "En el lado de la vida" significa que la madre de la difunta decidió ponerse en el lugar de la madre en lista de espera, donar los órganos de su hija y ponerse del lado de la vida. El título del texto "Ponte en su lugar" también habla sobre ponerse en el lugar de otra persona. Este fragmento del texto nos dice que nos pongamos en el lugar del otro sin importar las diferencias: "Si no admitiésemos que existe algo fundamentalmente igual entre nosotros (la posibilidad de ser para otro lo que otro es para mí) no podríamos cruzar ni palabra. Allí donde hay cruce, hay también reconocimiento de que en cierto modo pertenecemos a lo de enfrente y lo de enfrente nos pertenece... Y eso aunque yo sea joven y el otro viejo, aunque yo sea hombre y el otro mujer, aunque yo sea blanco y el otro negro, aunque yo sea tonto y el otro listo, aunque yo esté sano y el otro enfermo, aunque yo sea rico y el otro pobre."
El acto social es la influencia que tiene la familia sobre si donar o no los órganos del difunto y el acto médico es el grupo de médicos que hacen lo posible por hacer una donación exitosa.

Reseña

Realizamos un texto basado en los relatos anteriores de los cuales tomamos ciertas características o huellas que más tarde incluimos en el nuestro.

Incluimos; la idea de un laberinto y la comodidad que sentía el asesino en el mismo, tomamos la obsesión con los toros, la idea de que esto pasaba una vez al año y que solo una cantidad (siete) de jóvenes serían sacrificadas y como último también el hecho que debido a la soledad que sentía el asesino, al ser encontrado se entrega a su destino sin resistencia alguna.