Writing: Essay of communication

It is a very well-known fact that due to new technologies in the last twenty years things in the communication world have changed a lot. Before the comming up of the new technologies there were two ways of keeping in touch with people who lived far away: phone and mail.

But recently the situation has evolved because of the new forms of communication which have appeared: video chat, email, chat room, instant messaging and so on.

In this essay I am going to assess what are the benefits and drawbacks of these forms of communication.

Starting with the oldest, the mail is cheap but very slow. Besides it is formal and when it appeared meant a social revolution because for the first time communication with far places was possible.

Continuing with the phone, it made instant communication real. However it is expensive and it does not reach everywhere.

We can say that traditional forms of communication like phone and traditional mail seem to belong to another time when the pace of life used to be slower than nowadays.

On the other hand, I am going to evaluate new forms of communication all together because all of them have the same pros and cons and are based on smart phones.

From my point of view, the main adavantages of text messaging, chat room, instant messaging, or another thing we can think of are:

- They are relatively cheap, because their prices have decreases a lot lately.

- Communication is instantaneous and twenty foour hours a day, because they run on mobile phones and almost everybody owns one.

- Using them means that you can communicate with any part of the world. In that sense world has become smaller.

On the contrary, there are some disadvantages:

- Some people have become addicted to instant communication.

- Some businesses give their employees smart phones because in that way they can control their lives twenty four hours a day.

- People have lost their privacy, because thanks to social networks their lives are more public.

- Personal contact has been cut down. It is usual to go to a restaurant and people who are in the same table are not talking to each other because they are paying attention to their mobile phones.

In conclusion, these new tecnologies have spread quickly because they have outstanding benefits. But we need to be careful using them, in some sense they can make us feel more isolated, which is a paradox.

Writing: Description of a picture

Nile adventure evening cruise

Among the five proposed trips I have choosen the "Nile adventure evening cruise". As later I will justify, it seems like the best option to me.

But before giving my reasons for my choice, I am going to describe briefly the image related to this journey.

In the center of the picture, we can see a white vessel with two triangle shaped sails. These two sails, in fact, seem to be twice bigger than the vessel. Furthermore above the ship there are people, we don't know how many because the quality of the image is not very good.

In addition to this, we can assume the boat is sailing on a river, a big one, because in the picture on the left hand it is possible to see the reiverside and there are no waves in the water. Eventually over the image there is the following sentence: Nile Adventure - evening cruise.

As to my choice, I have to say that I am not that keen on the idea of going on a cruise, because a I get seasick easily. However in this case the cruise is on a river, that means that there are no big waves and son, I sense I won't get dizzy.

On the other hand I am sure it will be worth it. These types of journeysare usually very romantic and after having married for 20 years, I really think we should have a new honeymoon. Do not you agree?.

Writing essay: Honesty

To start with, it is obvious that honesty is the name that society gives to a human quality. So a person who practices honesty is an honest person and someone who is honest will always tell the truth and he or she will never deceive other people.

However, honesty is a value which is widely demanded in our society. That's why children are taught to honest. And later in their lives the same children will be asked to be honest in their jobs, relationships and so on.

On the other hand, it is a very well-known fact that honesty is not the best thing in some situations. For instance, when a friend asks for our opinion about her new dress. In that moment you should tell her that it is beautiful, because what she is really looking for is your support. Thereby you avoid hurting her feelings.

There are other situations in which may be better to tell a small lie or "white lie": when a friend asks for your opinion about his new car, when someone is ill and you tell him that he looks better although it is not true, and so on.

On the contrary there are occasions when telling the truth is really significant without thinking about the problems it can cause. For instance take the case of a judge or policemen in their daily work.  It is assumed that honesty has to be practised by them. Furthermore our social relationships are based on honesty. It would be impossible for us to trust in our friends or in our family if they were liars.

In conclusion and from my point of view, honesty is the best policy when it comes to important issues. But to tell a white lie if the situation requires it and it is minor, it is no inmoral.

Writing: Answering an email

Dear Paula,

Nice hearing from you again. I am really excited about your coming next month. The children are looking forward to seeing you again . They are always remembering you. I really hope you have a great time here.

As for getting from the airport, the best option for you is to get a taxi. It is obvious that it is a little bit expensive, but in that way I'm sure you won't get lost. Another option to come to our home is to take the subway which goes from the airport terminal. It's cheaper than a taxi, but you have to pay attention and when getting to "Nuevos Ministerios" station, get off the metro and take a bus until our house.

Whatever you do, please let me know in your next email.

When it comes to the best places to visit you should miss out on a park called "El Retiro" and the official residence of the king called "Palacio de Oriente". These two places are the main attractions of Madrid, at least from my point of view.

Unfortunately, I have loads of work next month and I won't be able to be with oyu, even though I really feel like visiting these attractions. But I'm sure my wife will be happy of coming with you to these places.

Regarding museums and galleries, Madrid is a great city. One of the most important galleries in the world is located in here, its name is "El prado". Fortunately this place is 10 minutes walking from our home.

If you need some advice about what to do or what to visit in my city, please let me know it.

Cheers,

Writing: Formal letter

Dear Mr. Jones,

I am writing you regarding your advertisement published in the Sunday Times looking for teenagers to help  children in the computer lab. I would be really interested in applying for the job.

I am 17 years old and the next academic course I will start my degree in computer sciences in the University of Madrid. Even though I am a Spaniard, I master english language because my mother is from London. Besides, I have made two academic courses in one secondary school in England and I have spent some summers there.

Furthermore, I love teaching children. I spent last August in a computer summer camp. I was helping a teacher in one computer laboratory  and the experience was great. That's why I would enjoy the opportunity to help children, as it is something I am familiar with.

I attach my CV and certification of my job in the summer camp. If you feel that my qualifications meet your requirements, I will be happy to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Writing: Informal letter

Dear John,

Sorry for not writing earlier, but as you know, I am a very busy person. Before going ahead, thanks for inviting me to your home. I'm really excited and you can't imagine how happy you have made the kids.

Before travelling, there are two things I'd like to ask you.

To start with, I was wondering what clothes I should bring for the kids. You told me the weather is nice this time of the year, but you know, we are from Spain and we really need hot weather. Do you believe I should bring a pullover for the kids in case the temperature worsens during the afternoons?.

On the other hand, I think the best option to come to your home is to fly to London and hire a car in the airport to reach Suffolk. What I need is that you give me some advice on how to arrive at your home from the highway.

Please, do write me back soon¡.

Give my best wishes to your wife. I'm really looking forward to seeing you soon.

Cheers,

Writing: Extreme weather

I have been to Cuba twice. I first travelled when I had just finished my studies at university. It was a delightful trip, I really enjoyed the flight, the country, the local people and so on.

The second time was very different. Right then I was working for a consulting company. We (my team and I) had just ended a project and the manager forced us to take two weeks off. My group of friends didn't know what to do, because no one had made any plan, but we didn't want to waste this free time. Then we were told that travelling to Cuba was very cheap and  my group and I accepted the suggestion.

It was a relatively quiet flight and we took off from Madrid more or less on time. But when we landed at the airport of Havana (I do not remember the airport's name) we learnt why our trip was so cheap. ¡ We were in Cuba in the hurricane's season¡.

I couldn't believe it. In spite of this, we were determined to enjoy our vacations.

But it wasn't possible, a strong hurricane was expected very soon. In fact, when we reached the hotel, the manager advice us to stay in our rooms and added that we shouldn't leave our bedrooms unless it was absolutely necessary.

On the other hand, rooms were prepared to endure the hurricane. The windows were covered with wood panels, and food and water were taken into the them.

I have to admit that we were frightened, none of us had undergone a hurricane. However, it was not so bad. Only strong winds, some whistlings and four days without electricity.

For local people, instead, consequences were terrible. Many houses were completely under water and the rest had suffered damages due to the strong winds. Many Cuban people lost all their stuff.

Next time we will wonder why a journey is son cheap.

Monologue: Energy sources: solar power, wind power and nuclear power. Renewable and non-renewable energy sources.

Good afternoon. I've been asked to talk about three different energy sources.

To start with, it is important to define what is understood by energy source. It is anything of which we can obtain energy. For example, a hydroelectric station uses a stream of water to generate energy which later we will use electric power to run a computer, a TV, refrigerator, etc.

It is a very well-known fact that our advanced societies are based on consumption of very large amounts of energy, that's why energy sources are really important.

However each energy source has its pros and cons:

- Solar power: It uses the energy of sun to generate electricity. It is cheap and non-polluting but the power it provides is small and it can't be used in cloudy days.

- Wind power. In that case uses the wind flow to produce electricity. As solar power it is cheap and non-polluting but the power delivered is big. However the production of electrical energy depends on the wind blow.

- Nuclear energy in contrast provides great quantities of energy constantly, without depending on the flow of the wind or if the the sun is shining. It is also cheap if we don't take into account the cost of their pollution generated by its waste. On the contrary it is a really dangerous technology, and accident can cause great heath problems to the population and the reserves of nuclear fuel are running out.

As to the second part of the question, we can qualify an energy as renewable when it will be always available to use it. From this point of view solar energy and wind energy are considered as renewable energies. Moreover, nuclear energy is a non renewable energy, depending on the rate of our consumption it is for sure that some day in the future we have run out all nuclear fuel available.

Other than that, renewable energies are more respectful with environment. That's why many scientist consider that the future world will be renewable, or simply our current society won't exist in the future world.

In conclusion, if society wants to have a future, it should start using renewable energies as solar power or wind power.

Writing: Personal statment

I have been working as a secondary school teacher for the last ten years. My speciality has been Physics.

I first became interested in teaching when I was studying my Physics degree at university. At this time of my life I helped teenagers students with their science subjects. I did that in order to pay my studies and my acommodation in Valencia, a different city where I am from.

However, I enjoyed a lot this time spent with teenagers and for this reason when I finished my degree I decided to carry on with a master in Secondary Education.

My studies served to increase my enthusiasm and, furthermore, they prepared me to take responsability for my own class. 

On the other hand, I have always been curious about learning English, Nowadays, most of science reports, magazines and so on are written in English. I love science and it is always better to learn things in their original lenguage. 

Having finished my English studies recently has given me confidence to apply for this job as a teacher in the USA. In this way I will be able to put together my two devotions: teaching and leaning about other cultures.

My experience as a teacher has taught me that it is very important to give children as many learning opportunities and experiences as possible to motivate and prepare them for their future.The way I teach Physics makes that real. 

To conclude, I am a positive, hard-working person who enjoys challenges. I believe I could make a valuable contribution to the students of your school.

Monologue: Crisis situation, three different pictures where you can see people seeking employment and so on.

Good afternoon. I've been asked to talk about the economic crisis with three images which represent it.

In the three images we can see  the consequences of the economic crisis: people looking for a job, poverty and so on.

In Spain we are suffering a deeper crisis that in other countries because we added to the world crisis the problem of the bubble in the housing prices. The process went something like this:

- The house prices increased at an incredible rate. Thinking that this situation would go on in the future the people asked for bigger mortgages to the banks.

- The banks should have evaluated better the financial situation of the people who asked them for loans because they lent people more money that they couldn't afford to pay back.

- Eventually when crisis came, people lost their job and thereby they couldn't meet  the  mortgage payments.

- This led to failure of the banks and they stopped to lend. That provoked the failure of many businesses, more people were fired and as a consequence the crisis worsened, and back again.

As a result of this process, there has been an impressive amount of people without work, the poverty has raised a lot and public services as education and health care have deteriorated a lot.

Providing a solution for these issues is really difficult because just when crisis appears, government and society have no money. That doesn't have to defeat us, on the contrary, we have to fight more to help people who are suffering.

From my point of view, some things that could be done are:

- Government should help with money to people who have lost all the subsidies. They could increase taxes to rich people and then using the money to help these people.
- Increasing the money invested in education and health care to prevent deterioration of these services. To do that, government should reduce unnecessary expenses in other areas.
- Improving conditions for people to set up new businesses.
- Cutting down taxes to put money in the hands of people and so help companies because people could buy things produced by them.

To conclude, I would like to say that citizens as us, could also contribute to the solution, for instance giving our time and money to ngos which help people with bad situation.

Monologue: Overcoming a difficult situation

Good afternoon. I've been asked to talk about how I overcame a difficult situation in my life.

It is a very well-known fact that everybody has to overcome obstacles in their life. Some have to do it alone, while others have support. In my obstacle, I had the support of my father. Besides I am sure that many people would consider the bad situation I'm going to talk about as normal and that people usually suffer really worst situations in their life. But for me this one was important.

I'm industrial engineer and that anecdote took place when I was in my degree's fifth course. In that time, I was told when you got over the fourth year, the things become easier. You would have to work hard even then, but you have time to enjoy of life.

But what no one told me is that in my speciality (electricity) was the most difficult subject of my studies. Its name is "electrical machines". When June arrived I have failed all my exams of this subject even though I had studied hard. On the other hand all my group of friends were in the same situation.

I was discouraged because, as I have told you, I had studied really hard and my expectations in the beginning of the course were completely different. I came back at home depressed and I wanted to leave the subject and start another speciality easier.

However my father cheered me up. He told me that I was close to the end of my degree and it wasn't the time to surrender. He also gave me a good advice which was that I should study the tests of the last two or three years.

After studying all the exams and the subject during the summer I managed to pass. I felt grateful to my father.

In conclusion, something significant to overcoming a difficult situation is not to surrender and be persistent.