YOUR SAY: Could we cut off the roots of the problem?

Today, around 9am, a student of the Joan Fuster High School, in Barcelona, has killed a teacher and hurt four people with a crossbow and a dagger. He is retained in the high school at the moment.

This is a very shocking news. I feel sorry for all the teachers and students that were there, but I can't stop wondering about the possibility of this kind of events happening in my own high school or another center.

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This has questioned the security in education centers and the education itself. Should there be metal detectors or guards registering people's belongings? in my opinion, it could be a part of the solution. There also could be a stronger dedication to social and moral values, through the subjects given.

From my point of view, the fact that this student can't be punished by the law is very worrying. it is frustrating and unbeliebable that they can't accuse him of murder nor put him in an under-18 centre. There should be exceptions in this kind of cases, where the child intentionally did such a terrible thing.

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As I see it, this child must have some mental issue. It could have been caused by the social background he was raised in or something else. We can't control children at this age, but through education, with an individual control of how the children and the staff progress (through interviews with psychologists), we could detect serious mental issues and maybe even prevent events like this one happening again.

In conclusion, it seems to me that, after this, there should be new measures to prevent and punish these acts.

Describing a picture

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This picture was taken in the Greek island of Santorini. In the foreground you can see many white houses and buildings. Three of these buildings have a navy blue dome with crucifixes on top, for which I assume they are religious places. Farther away there are some windows that are also navy blue. There are stairs between the houses and some plants on both sides of them. The stairs are quite narrow. This village is located in a very precipitous and mountainous area. In the background we can see more mountains and a beautiful deep blue sea. Across the sea there are more mountains that could be a part of another island. It is sunny and the buildings look bright. I think this picture was probably taken in the summer. Overall, it seems like a really nice and lovely place, specially for holidays.

I've always wanted to visit the Greek islands. I think that they're really beautiful and warm, specially during the summer. I've never had the opportunity to go there, but if I did, I would want to visit a lot of them, specially the ones that have cultural places and great beaches. I find the Ancient Greece culture very interesting, with their mithology, lifestyle and art. I would like to visit Santorini, Crete, Hydra, Corfu, Milos, Delfos... I would also visit Athens, of course.

listen to ‘Describing a picture 2: I want to go to...’ on audioBoom

US PRESENTATION

This is the presentation that Rosó, Sandra and I made for the gap year project. I think it was good, althought we had some technical problems.

NEWS: Is this Britain's most painful job?

This piece of news was written by Claire Carter on 5 of March for the Daily Mail Online newspaper.

The news is about Jordan Wills, a 19-year-old young man who works as a paintball target and wins 16,000 a year approximately. Despite how painful this job may seem, he's okay with it and UK Paintball, his employers, actually received a lot of applications for the job.

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Jordan was chosen for this job after the company interviewed eighteen candidates, mainly because he was athletic (he's a rower at Kingston University), had a high threshold for pain and already knew a lot about paintball.

His friends think that he is crazy, but he says he loves his job. He works two days a week and one shift is around 1 or 2 hours. Professional shooters use him as a target at a short distance to test the manufacturers' enterprises products (the "bullets"). Jordan only wears protection in his eyes and wears just a T-shirt. He says that the pain is bareable and that it only lasts for a few seconds. Sometimes it takes longer for the marks to disappear, between three or four days, but he rarely gets hurt. The company makes sure that Jordan doesn't get hurt and if he did they'd stop his shift. The student makes a report on the bullets' effect so the companies know what to improve on.

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Jordan is a fan of paintball and has played for many years. He had a wide knowleadge about the subject and that's what allowed him to get the job. Many people applied to it, but it was necessary a high threshold for pain, which Jordan has.

Personally, I am surprised to see that someone does this kind of job. I thought that the companies used sponge figures to test their products, not people. But if Jordan is cool with it and likes his job then I don't see any reason why it should be wrong.

VOCABULARY

Threshold: the point at which something begins to take effect.

Salary: a fixed amount of money payed regularly to a person for work.

Wage: money payed or received for services.

Aim: to point (a firearm, ball, etc.) so that the thing discharged or thrown will hit a target.

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NEWS: A picture worth dying for?

This piece of news was written by Callum Paton on 5 of March for the Daily Mail Online newspaper.

Jack Fox, a 14-year-old boy, fell of a mountain's cliff when he was taking a picture of the Alps' landscape while in a school trip. He survived and so did the phone with the picture that nearly cost his life.

Jack's picture

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The boy survived without severe injuries, just iceburns in his arms, after falling 2,500ft. He later explained that he slipped when he was stepping back so he could get a wider range for the picture. He asked for help, and his classmates were horrified when they saw him falling down the mountain. He was airlifted off and taken to the Alder Hey Children's Hospital.

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Amanda, his mom, says that Jack hoped that he would get a new phone, an Iphone 6 more specifically, but sadly for him, his Iphone 4S had survived the fall without any crack. The best part was that the picture was in it.

Jack and his mom say that he was lucky to be wearing his helmet, as many people at the top of the mountain weren't wearing it. After the fall it was destroyed and it had protected Jack. Nobody know what could had happen if he hadn't worn it.

Personally, I think that he is very lucky. He could've got a lot more hurt and he could've even died. People should be more careful when taking pictures. They just look at the phone screen and worry about anything else but a good angle. What I think is a bit stupid is that getting a new phone was the only thing that Jack was worried about. He was alive and he just thought he wanted and Iphone 6, unbelivable.

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VOCABULARY

airlift: the act, process or system for transporting persons or cargo by aircraft, especially in an emergency.

helmet: a usually strong and hard covering worn on the head for protection.

to be after something: to want something and have the objective of getting it.

ice burns: wounds caused by friction with snow that causes a burn.

NEWS: "Who killed Farah the kitten?"

This piece of news was written by Jennifer Smith on 5 of March for the Daily Mail Online newspaper.

Neil Tregarthen has hired the services of private detectives to investigate the death of Farah, his daughter's kitten, because the police is not competent enough to find who was it's murderer.

Neil Tregarthen

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It all started around the end of September, when Farah, the little kitten of Aylish, Tregarthen's daughter, returned home badly wounded. The animal had been playing in the garden when someone supposedly shot it with an air rifle. The vets couldn't do anything for her and she died.

Neil went to the police and asked for a full investigation to find the murderer. Even when he gave them a potential suspect (with a witness supporting the accusation), the police of Exeter couldn't get to the bottom of it. That's why Tregarthen went to Focus Investigation, an office of private detectives. He payed them £10,000. Neil also put papers all around the city offering a reward of £1,000 to anyone who gave reliable information about the murder. 

Tregarthen's reward papers

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Focus Investigations made a report six weeks later, with the witness' declaration and other evidences. The police of Devon and Cornwall defended itself saying that they did do everything that was in their hands to discover the murderer (they even went to the RSPCA), but they couldn't do anything. When they told Aylish she understood.

Farah

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Aylish, however, said that she was angry at the police because they weren't investigating Farah's case. She thinks that police should condemn actions like this because they're illegal and some other day something worse could happen.

Personally, I think that is very cruel to shoot an animal with an air rifle. I mean, what reason could someone possibly have to do that? They should find whoever did it to punish him or her. Althought I find Tregarthen's reaction as a bit exaggerated, I understand it. An animal can become really important for someone.

VOCABULARY

kitten: a young cat.

to move on from something: to accept something and carry on with your life.

report: a detailed account of an event, situation, etc., usually based on what one has observed or asked questions about and written or said formally.

YOUR SAY: A temperature issue

Don't you love it when it's so cold outside that even your eyelashes freeze? Oh, and what about when it's so hot that you feel yourself on fire?

Seriously, I just can't stand extreme temperatures. We live in a Mediterranean area where climate is one of the best features, but in some seasons it's not like that for me. I don't like cold weather, and my cold threshold is very low but, on the other hand, so is my hot threshold. So, what if I lived in Iceland? What if I lived in Nigeria? Or the Philippines? Or Greenland?

this would be me if I was told I'm moving

to a place like that

In my opinion, when it comes to extreme temperatures, maybe cold is better than hot, because you can always take more blankets, jackets, sweaters, etc. to protect yourself. But there's no escape for hot, there's no that much clothing that you can take off.

For example, one of the hottests spots on Earth is the ghost city of Dallol, in Ethiopia. It has an annual average temperature of 94 degrees Fahrenheit. People used to live here back in the 60's, but nowadays it's empty. There's also a volcanically active area near there so it gets worse.

Dallol, Ethiopia

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Then we have Verkhoyansk, in Russia. This is one of the coldest places on Earth, but this one is actually inhabitated, with a population of more than 1,000 people. That seems crazy knowing that some recorded temperatures go from minus 50,4 degrees Fahrenheit to 90 degrees Fahrenheit.

Verkhoyansk, Russia

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Watching this places I've come to the conclusion that I don't think that I'll ever be able to live in a place like that. I prefer the tempered Mediterranean climate and I hope that global warming eventually stops.