ORAL PRESENTATION: My Research Project

Getting ready for London!

Sooner than we think we'll be walking the streets of London. Before our trip, though, here's a few questions to prepare the trip!

The Safestay London Holland Park hostel is inside of Holland Park. It has free wifi, free tea and coffee (did anyone notice this?), a large private garden, heating... It's also near places like Harrods, the Natural History Museum, Notting Hill, the Royal Albert Hall...

Some things we can't do is drink alcohol or smoke in the rooms (for obvious reasons).

Here's a picture of the outside!

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First of all, let's locate our hostel, the Safestay London Holland Park, in Google Maps:

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Some places to visit that are near our hostel are, for example: the Kensington Palace and the Kensington Gardens (14 minutes on foot), St. Barnabas Church (13 minutes), the Opera Holland Park (4 minutes), the Town Hall (9 minutes)...

Our hostel is one hour away (on foot, 35 minutes by bus) from Piccadilly Circus, one of the biggest and more active squares in the city. And it's 20 minutes away from the very center of London if you take the tube and 20 if you take the bus.

The second topic is three places that I'd like to visit in London. Here they are!

• LONDON EYE: (or Coca-Cola London Eye...) of course, who hasn't seen the typical London Eye? If I am to be in the city, I have to pay it a visit or else I couldn't forgive myself! This big wheel is one of the best viewpoints in the city. It's 135 m high and it's in the list of the most popular attractions for tourists all around the world. It's located in South bank of the River Thames, in London Bourough of Lambeth.

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• PLATFORM 9 ¾: I couldn't leave London without checking if this portal to the Wizarding World works or not. I've grown up with the Harry Potter series and I'd be heartbroken if I didn't go there. So in Harry Potter, the young wizard had to run with his luggage trolley towards the wall between platform 9 and 10 in King's Cross station. He runs through it and arrives to the Wizarding World, to the station where Hogwarts students board the Hogwarts Express.

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And the magical moment! That's what I'll do in London. Do you

think they have Selectivitat in Hogwarts?

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• MADAME TUSSAUDS LONDON: I know. A bit creepy. But fun. Posing with a lot of famous people without having to deal with crowds of fans, hours of waiting and 0 chances out of 0 to meet them? Madame Tussauds has the solution. This wax museum has a lot of recognizable faces to offer as wax figures, so you can marvel at some of the most famous people of all ages.

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• BAKER STREET: I know I said three, but since I was little I've really liked Sherlock Holmes. Because of that, a visit to 221B Baker Street sounds like a great plan to me. Sherlock Holmes is the most famous detective of all times and Artthur Conan Doyle's most remarkable creation. Having a glimpse of his house could be quite interesting, right?

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The third topic was to search for two musicals that I'd like to see on Saturday night! 

• The Phantom of the Opera: since I was a little kid (here we go again... the eternal fan of everything...) I've loved the film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (the one from 2004). I don't know how many times I must have seen it, but I can assure you that I've re-watched it to the point (past the point of no return, no backward glances! ...sorry) that I know every song in the film (in Spanish, though). Also, I've seen some plays through Youtube and they always look stunning! On Saturday night, at Her Majesty's Theatre, there is a session at 7:30 pm and the cheapest ticket that I found costs £34.00.

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• Billy Elliot: I've also seen the film, but just a few times. I've always seen through the internet that it's a great musical and it's even greater if you have a chance to see it live. The actors own the stage with their dance moves and the show has a lot of emotion. There is a session at 7:30 pm at the Victoria Palace Theatre and the cheapest ticket that I found costs £51.00.

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And that's all! Aren't you excited to go to London? I know I am!

Can tech make a better world?

Could we have a world without technology? Would progress be possible without it? Until now, the mjority of our progress, if not all of it, has been thanks to technology. But, is depending on these advances a negative thing?

It is true that technology has created new problems, such as the addiction to be connected all the time and the loss of privacy. It can be "antisocializing" people, because we prefer technology over face-to-face meetings. Plus, the planet has suffered because of the massive need of materials.

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On the other hand, technology has clearly improved our lives. From medical advances to transports, globalization and education. If we knew how to solve the cons it has, it would also be able to correct them. We can't imagine our lives without technology: without energy, information, comunication... Behind the majority of new discoveries there are tech advances that make it possible to know our world better and be able to help and improve it.

So in the end we can say that technologies give us the opportunity to make a better world, if we know how to use them.

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Cars of the future will watch as you drive to make sure you are not falling asleep or checking your phone for messages

This piece of news was written by Joseph Curtis for the Daily Mail online newspaper on the 13rd December of 2015.

The news is about a new device installed in cars that can control when a motorist is weary, falling asleep or not paying attention to the road and give warning to other motorists while setting off an alarm. The Britain's Transport Research Laboratory stated that this would help decrease the number of accidents with vehicles and that this might be the greatest advance in automobiles' safety since the air bag (around 1990). Many accidents are caused by tireness and, in the recent years, by using the phone while driving.

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The device consists in a camera on the car's dashboard that is focused on the face of the driver (the eyes, specially), and can detect when the motorist is not paying attention.

The comission thinks that it could be installed in every new car in five years, though it has to be approved by the Parliament first. This is not the only comission working for this kind of safety. Companies like Volvo, Mercedes Benz or Ford are also making their own measures to check on the motorists' attention to the road. Mercedes Benz, for example, is developing a system for its Eclass models that will be able to detect the position of the vehicle in the lane, so if it changes position in a bad way, the vehicle will be able to correct the mistake by itself. Also, it's been considered to include a "hands-free" system that will give the car autonomy.

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This is what happens when you fall asleep

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Personally, I think this is a good advance for vehicles, and not only that, but it's also something necessary for our own safety. Making sure that a driver is paying attention to the road could save a lot of lives, I'm sure of it. This is yet another example of how much technology can help society, rather than corrupting it, and make the world a better place.

Here's a video on the news!

VOCABULARY

motorist: one who drives or travels in a privately owned automobile.

hazard: something causing danger, peril, risk or difficulty.

casualty: one who is injured or killed in an accident.