NEWS: "Black Friday: Wal-Mart workers revolt"

This piece of news was written by Kim Gittleson on 28 of November for the BBC News.

The article talks about how Wal-Mart workers protested in the streets for their rights on Black Friday, one of the biggest sales of the year. Wal-Mart is a big chain of department stores of the retails sector.

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Barbara Gertz, who is working in a Walmart in Aurora, Colorado, explains that many workers have joined OUR Wal-Mart (Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart) to demand higher wages to the company. She disapproves that some people in Wal-Mart management say that they are open to receive concerns and questions from workers. She has sent her concerns to the company for years and has received no response.

She talks about the OUR Wal-Mart, that has united as well with other organizations like the organization of people who work in fast food chains. All this people has found a new way to protest that is an advantatge for them because they're not seen as an "official" organization. They're "alt-labor" groups and protest for workers' rights. They make strikes in the most important days, like Black Friday, so the companies will be forced to listen to them. This practice has increased because retail companies are getting more and more competitive. The companies force the workers to have bad schedules (they do more hours of work), specially on those specific days.

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I personally think that big companies like Wal-Mart should care more about their workers. They're so obsessed with offering the best deals and sales to gain money that they forget some of the workers' rights. They have to do more hours to prepare those special days and they don't have a fair wage. I think that they're doing a great job with their protests. The system that they've found of protesting on "big days" is going to be successful in the end.

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 VOCABULARY

retail: the sale of goods individually or in small quantities to consumers.

"alt-labour": unions of workers that agitate and protest for workers' rights in non-unionised sectors.

wage: the amount of money that a worker receives every month.

Black Friday: it's the Friday after Thanksgiving and is the official start of the holiday shopping season.

Oral presentation

Here you have the presentation that Rosó, Sandra and I did about Jewish rites of passage.

I don't really know how to evaluate myself. I have to say that I talk quite slowly and I got lost for a moment. I also made a mistake saying that there are to types of celebrations: bar mitzvah for boys and bat mitzvah for girls (I said boys though I meant girls).

In general I think that it's a good presentation. We got to interactuate with the power point with the pictures and the video and I think that's a good thing. I also think that our pronunciation is good.

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YOUR SAY: Plus insecurities

A few days ago, the famous brand Calvin Klein showed to the world the first pictures of their first model for plus sizes. Her name is Myla Dalbesio and, although ahw got this job, a lot of people wouldn't classify her as a plus-sized woman. These pictures have supposed an impact for society, who now criticises the enterprise for its choice. But does this really surprise us? Nowadays we've seen worse.

Myla Dalbesio

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It's not a secret that many aspects in our society encourage or provoke eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia. The most gullible part of the society when it comes to this are teenagers. They're trying to find their place in society, and that results in the search of not only self acceptance but also from other people. Among teenagers, acording to stadistics, girls are more likely to have eating disorders, and I think that it isn't a strange thing.

It is known that many clothing brands change the sizes of their articles every now and then. What used to be a small size can become a medium size, suddenly. This has resulted in a big change throughout the years. This leads some people to think that they have gained weight and that they may not be as skinny as society wants them to be. That's the first step for their minds to start thinking and thinking about the problem they have.

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Another evidence of society's pressure on people's weight (specially in women's weight) are catwalks. Models are much more skinnier than they used to be before, and a lot of them don't even seem to have a healthy weight. What's the message that people get from that? Designers show their clothes in the way that they think will look more beautiful, and that way is with a really skinny model wearing their clothes. Is that the ideal of beauty that society has nowadays? It seems that it is.

I personally think that the pressure shouldn't be there. Designers should have models with different weights and sizes, clothing brands shouldn't constantly change their size charts and teenagers should stop worrying that much about their weight, because beauty isn't about that.

YOUR SAY: What I think of euthanasia

Euthanasia is the act of killing someone who wants to die but is not able to commit suicide.

Nowadays it isn't legal, but there's a lot of discussion about it. People in favor of euthanasia say that the government should allow it in some cases like terminal illnesses or similar. On the other hand, people against euthanasia say that killing is a crime and, moreover, it shouldn't be normal for a person to make someone else kill them.

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So here's the problem: is it moral to kill someone because they want to die?

I personally think that it is (in some cases). Euthanasia should be legal. Why do I think that? Let's get into the situation.

Imagine that you have a terminal illness, like cancer, for example, and you know that there's no possibility for you to get any better. You are certain that, for the rest of your life, you will only suffer and will always depend on someone else. Don't you think that, if you wanted to end your life, you should be able to do so? And, if you weren't able to take your life on your own, would you like to have someone else to help you?

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People should do whatever they want to do with their lives. And concerning doctors' moral, they see people sying everyday and, sometimes, they give terminal patients a paliative treatment that won't cure them nor make their lives longer. Moreover, the methods that have been proposed for the realization euthanasia are all painless (like injections, for example).

Is death a bad thing anyway? We know nothing about it and we are pretending that a life full of suffering is better than an earlier death. I think that it's more moral to let someone die if that's their wish than to make them live with agony. 

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There was a polemical case recently in the United States. A young woman of Oregon, USA, commited suicide at the age of 29 on 1 November after announcing through Youtube that she would do so. Her name was Brittany Maynard and she had a terminal brain cancer. She had campaigned in favor of euthanasia and announced that she'd rather die by taking a prescribed life-ending drug that by the terrible way she was told she would. She died in bed, peacefully, surrounded by all her loved ones. There are only five states in the United States that allow euthanasia: Oregon, Washington State, Montana, Vermont and New Mexico. Here you can see Brittany's video explaining her story:

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YOUR SAY: Zoos are ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶ prisons

Zoos are considered places of entertainment, spectacles of wildlife. Many people enjoy them. You can see a lot of families with their kids (or any other kind of people) looking at the variety of animals. You'll probably hear them say: "Look! It's moving! Now it's sleeping! Look how silly they are!". They wait, they stare, they can get really loud... What about the animals? Does people care about them?

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Have you ever asked yourself what would zoos be like if you saw them through the eyes of an animal? I don't think that I can tell you exactly what they're thinking, because no one can guess, but it's an empathy exercise that everyone should, at least, try to do. Imagine that you are the one inside the cage, inside the closed area were animals stay. That tiny space would become your home, and throughout the day you would see a lot of strange faces staring at you all the time. You wouldn't understand anything they say but, when you tried to speak, they wouldn't understand you either. Your life would become a monotonous routine: the zookeepers would feed you, you'd sleep, maybe walk around a little bit. I'm sure that you'd wonder: "When will I be able to go home? Will I ever see my family again? My home? Where am I? Who are these strange creatures? Why did they kidnap me?". And there you have it, the word that I think describes best what they do to animals in zoos: kidnapping.

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The animals are taken from their habitats and brought to the zoos. No one has asked them if they want to go (of course I don't mean this in a literal sense), but us, humans, take them there anyways because we want to be entertained. Now that's quite selfish, isn't it? I don't understand why they're kept in the zoos when they don't belong there. Lions' habitat is the savannah, deers' is the forest, polar bears' is the artic... We restrain their freedom while we fight for human rights. What about animal rights? Do they even exist?

Although there are zoos that are worse than others, I don't think that there would have to be any place like this. I would only consider the natural reserves where some vets and volunteers work to help animals. That's different because animals can do what they want and aren't caged up.

I've only been to a zoo twice in my life, and I don't think that I'll ever repeat the experience. The first time was when I was a child and, of course, at this age, I didn't get to understand what that place meant to animals. The second time was in our trip to Berlin, this year, with highschool. I didn't enjoy it, not even a bit. I felt a bit disgusted by it. The animals broke my heart because they looked really sad and bored and some of them had strange behaviours caused by their situation.

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To sum up, I don't think that zoos are necessary in our society. There are plenty of other entertainments for us to enjoy. Those who really want to see wild animals live can go on a safari, a route through the jungle... There's no need to be so selfish.

Why not a safari?

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YOUR SAY: Freedom is a warm gun

One of the main polemic debates in the United States nowadays is wheter firearms should be forbidden or not. There have been many cases of shootings all over the country throughout the years. There was a school shooting recently that made people rethink about this topic. Many students died in it.

students reuniting after a school shooting

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People in the United States can legally buy guns. The defensors of this say that being able to purchase firearms provides people with protection and security. On the other hand, people against this practice say that it's a lot more easier for criminals and mentally unstable persons to commit crimes if there isn't any control of this weapons.

I personally think that firearms should be illegal. There have been too many accidents and shootings. Each time something like this happens, people start debating about it again. It's true that the criminals will get firearms anyways but that doesn't change the fact that crime rates would decrease. The only problem I think there would be is that, in the transition of forbidding guns, there wouldn't be a control of the people who have this kind of weapons.

It's obvious that a country without guns would be much safer. Criminals and terrorist wouldn't be able to buy weapons so easily. Another reason is that animals would be less hunted down, specially those in danger of extinction. The only people who should have guns is the authorities. They're the ones to keep society safe because not everybody is right when they decide to "take justice". 

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In conclusion, I think that guns should be banned in the United States because it's costing too many lives and they're not really necessary. The prohibition would make the country safer.

YOUR SAY: Buying on the Internet

Nowadays, the Internet is present in a lot of our daily lives' aspects. For example, there are several webs to buy things online.

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In the majority of them you have to pay for the articles online, with your credit card details. This can be seen as a problem to those too reluctant to share this kind of information through the Internet. There's also the presence of hustles and hackers that can be dangerous and cause robberies.

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I personally think that online stores' services are great. They allow you to buy things that you wouldn't find in a local store, a mall... You can also find the same items for lower prices, because a lot of websites (like online clothing stores) make promotions and discounts. Most of these services can also ship the order to your house. Many people think that you can't return the articles if they're damaged, don't fit (in the case of clothes)... That can be true sometimes, but there are websites that give you a concrete period of time to return them.

Another advantage of some online stores like Amazon or eBay is that you can also sell things that you have. You can gain quite a lot of money in this way.

I've bought things online before and I've never had a problem with it. Anyway, for safety, I always make sure that it's a safe website so I can avoid hustles. There are also some services like PayPal that guarantee a safe payement.

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In conclusion, I think that online stores are very useful and that, maybe in the future, they will make our lives much easier.

NEWS: Sharks can be 'social or solitary'

BBC News - source

A study by british scientists made at the Marine Biological Association of the UK, in Plymoith, says that catsharks have personalities. According to different situations, some of them tend to be more antisocial and some more social.

catshark

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The scientists made ten groups of ten sharks. Each group was in a tank and their behaviour was observed. The tanks were divided so they formed different situations: from a very simple enviroment to a very complex one. The scientist realized that, no matter in what situations they found themselves in, some sharks always joined other sharks in a group, while other individuals camouflaged with the environment or stayed with very small groups. They also analyzed the relationships between the sharks. The conclusion of the scientists, like Prof. Hughes and Dr. Jacoby, is that sharks have a personality.

This is not the first study on animal behaviour. Other species have also shown personality traits. Mr. Finger is a student that is doing the same experiment with lemon sharks in the wild, and scientists are looking forward to compare results.

Dr. David Jacoby, behavioural ecologist working in the

Institute of Zoology in London.

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For me, this is a very interesting piece of news. I do think that animals have personality because, after all, we're animals as well. I always thought that sharks were solitary animals by nature, so it surprised me to know that some of them like to have social relationships with others. I think that there should be more animal behaviour studies because they help us to understand our own world. Maybe we could even understand what animals think or want to do by knowing their personality.

lemon shark

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Here's a video related with the study:

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VOCABULARY

behaviour: manner of behaving or conducting oneself.

gravel: small stones and pebbles or a mixture of these with sand.

environment: the external factors and forces surrounding and affecting an organism, person or population.

NEWS: Birmingham mother left children home alone to fly to Australia

The news is about a woman of Birmingham (her name isn't said for legal reasons) who flew to Australia leaving her six children at home without telling them nor anyone.

The mother left to Australia to meet her boyfriend, a man that he had met online. She told her fourteen-year-old son that she was going to the supermarket and, after four hours, the boy called his grandparents to alert of his mother's sudden disappearance. The police and the local services were alerted and later they found out about the woman's location. She didn't want to come back so the authorities arrested her six weeks later when she returned. Her lawyer said that it was a unique circumstance and that the children weren't affected. Judge Creed has given her a suspended jail sentence because, besides what she's done, she's been a good mother, being a single parent. The children are living now with their grandparents.

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I think that this is a crazy story. The mother should have thought about her kids first, instead of running away to meet her boyfriend. As a mother, she has responsabilities and she shouldn't have left them all alone at home without telling them were she was really going. She could've got someone to look after them while she was away, but the thing is that, by not telling anyone, she worried her grandparents and her children. I understand that being a single mother must be really stressing, specially having six kids, but what she did was wrong. If the woman's wish was to meet her boyfriend and spend six weeks with him in Australia, she just had to buy a ticket and take her children to her grandparents or a friends' house. It's common sense.



VOCABULARY

"mother-of-six": expression used to say that the mother has six children.

sentence: judgement or punishment determined by a judge for someone who has commited a crime.

court: place where legal justice is administered or group of people, such as judges, lawyers, and a jury, authorized to hear and decide legal cases.

REVIEW Little Miss Sunshine

A hilarious and wonderful film about a family that keeps chasing their dreams even when they seem imposible or they're taken back from reaching them. A film that will lead us through family relationships and life goals.

The film is about the Hoovers, a family of the United States that crosses the country to get Olive, the daughter, to reach her dream of winning a beauty pageant called Little Miss Sunshine. To arrive at the show in time, they'll have to face many setbacks and also repair their difficult relationships. It's the story of an unforgettable trip on the road that will change everything for this lovely family of Albuquerque and will put them in extreme situations.

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I loved everything about this movie and I never get tired of watching it. I like the fact that the characters are not stereotyped. You can relate to them because each one has its ups and downs and its flaws. The deepening in the characters is quite interesting. They have a background story and you can see that each one of them has or had a dream, just like everyone else. The sense of humour is probably the film's best feature, and keeps you thinking: "What else could happen to this silly people?". I think that the plot is quite simple, but that doesn't make it a boring film. I'm really fond of the music as well, because I think it suits everything perfectly and gives the film that special point.

I don't really dislike anything in this movie. It's actually one of my favourite movies. Anyways I think that some harsh topics are mentioned in a light way.

To sum up I think this is a brilliant film that is totally worth watching. If you haven't seen it yet you should give it a go. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it as much as I do, because it's a really funny film. Here's the trailer!

YOUR SAY: Money, money, money...

Nowadays, a sad reality of our society is that, with the economic crisis, poor people become poorer and rich people become richer, instead. The difference between this two stages is getting bigger everyday. The people who used to have a normal economic status are now more likely to decrease their gains. We live in tough times but still there are some people who have now, with the crisis, become richer. Most of them were already rich before, so that leads us to the conclusions that the "medium class" is slowly disappearing. A part of the society is the polar opposite of the other, and the difference is getting more noticeable.

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Personally, this extreme differences make me angry. I understand that there's always going to be rich people and poor people, but I think that some rich people have increased their current accounts by using or taking advantage of poor people who are desperate to work for any income. 

USA, for example, being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, has high rates of poverty. And what about some of the emerging Asian countries? There are plenty of Asian "new billionaires and millionaires" coming out of nowhere while lots of people in cities like Tokyo have to live in a mere space of 50 square meters or less because they can't afford a better place to stay. And people in Africa are suffering from hunger and, with the constant wars, poverty is something widely extended among those countries.

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I think that there should be solutions to this problem. We should help the poor and make sure that anyone who gets richer does it legally and because of their own merits.

PODCAST: What's the best age?

listen to ‘What's the best age?’ on audioBoom

Email to my teacher

Hi, I'm Míriam.

I'm fifteen and I'm studying First of Batxillerat. In my spare time I enjoy listening to music, watching TV, reading... I love to write and I'd like to become a writer someday. There are things that I don't like, especially getting up early, missing the school bus (which happens a lot), false people and Mondays. I'm studying the Technologic Batxillerat because I would like to become an architect (besides a writer).I can speak Catalan, Spanish, English and a little bit of French. I took the PET exam this year, but I can't exactly remember when. As I love to watch TV series and movies, I decided a year ago that I would try to watch them in English (with subtitles in Spanish, for the moment). I think that worked out quite well, it's really helpful. I'm preparing for the FIRST Exam and I take English classes out of school.