Tjipetir mystery: Why are rubber-like blocks washing up on beaches? By Mario Cacciottolo

Rubber-like blocks from Indonesia have been washing up on beaches in the UK and north Europe. They came from the Titanic.

In the summer on 2012 Tracey Williams has found a black tablet on the sand and over it writes “ Tjipetir”. Weeks later she found another and she had started to research the origins.

The blocks are most made of gutta-percha, the gum of a tree found in Malaysia and it was used in 19^th and half of 20^th centuries.

These were found too in Spain, France, the Netherlands and more countries.

There were speculations about where they coming: from the Titanic and from a salvage company which sunk during the World War One.

Opinion

I choose this news because I found it very interesting. I think there are a lot of things in the past which we are not going to discover. These blocks appeared out of the blue and they are going to be a mystery for us for a long time. 

Rubber, sink, chopping

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-30043875

Back From the Battlefields, Soldiers Find Healing Ground

Boulder Crest is an acre sanctuary when service members, veterans and their families to spend time go making therapy about physical, emotional and spiritual healing. They   receive persons with amputations, post-traumatic stress disorder…

Ken Falk had created it in 2010 and it was the first one but nowadays he said that more people do that.

The veterans do yoga, equine therapy, meditation, acupuncture… and another technique that they have is a labyrinth. Meanwhile he try to found the center, he had to think in the friends that he had lost and in the person that he had kill. The second part is to try to go out and think in the family and in the future.

The article explains a very nice example of equine therapy. A soldier has changed a lot only with a season of this therapy.

Opinion

I like a lot this news! I think you know why J

Is very exciting to see how an animal can change you and how you can love these animals. I choose this news because I have some friends who are soldiers and they show me this news. The fist that I think when I finish to read this new was that one day if somebody needs to do therapy I am going to let my horse.

Also I want to know more about that and I think I am going to search more information. 

Gates, grazing, burdens

Link: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/11/141127-soldiers-healing-ptsd-nature-wounded-warriors/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=link_fb20141127news-soldiers&utm_campaign=Content&sf5999435=1

Last summer

My last summer was a little bit longer than the others because when we finish the school, in May I have started the summer because I have not go to Selectivitat.

I enjoyed this summer because I had working with the horses, I met a lot of new people and it was great. In my work I had started to take care of the horses of my boss because he had an accident and he can’t move from his bed. That was a little bit boring because I had to do every day the same things. When the tourists arrived the great moments arrived too. I had working every day and physically I had exhausted but it really was worth the effort because I met a lot of new friend, I improve my English and my French and I laugh a lot all the hours with my colleagues.

In this summer we have celebrate the 14^th birthday of a girl from Barcelona who comes in summer holidays in Vila-Sacra. I had organized everything and it was a surprise party. The pool was full of balloons. My brother throw Gina( the little girl) and me at the pool with clothes two times. It was very great this night!

 

New year

This year is going to be one of the most important in our lives because a period is going to finish.  I think this one is one of the most beautiful for us because we have learn a lot, we meet our all friend and we passed very nice moments with our colleagues.

My last year normally had to be last year but I had decided to stay one year more and improve my marks. I think it was the best think I had done because I prefer to “lose” a year and feel better with my because I like my marks, I have a very good relationship with my classmate and with the teachers. Also I choose to repeat this year because I don’t know very well how to study and now I have more possibilities to choose more careers.   

In conclusion: I am very happy this year because I think that I have chosen the best option.  I hope my effort is going to have some reward. Yeah, this school year is going to be much better.

Changes

Nowadays the time and the days pass very quickly. If we stop for a moment and we think about things in the past, we are going to see that they rest very far away. Why the times pass too fast?

Maybe, I think, because we are all the day doing things and we don’t stop to think about nothing. Me, for example I do every day a lot of thing and when I think about something that I have done it seems that I make it a lot of time ago. For me is very strange because I feel like we have our life programed and if we stop to do our routine everything change a lot.

There are days when I spoke with friends and we thing about when I have arrived in Spain and how our relationship has changed. Eight years for me are passed very quickly and in those years I learn a lot and I feel like I lived here since all my life. 

Germans honour slain 'role model' Tugce Albayrak

Jugce Abayrak was killed after defending two teenage girls being harassed by a group of men.

The president Joachim Gauch has described her as a “role model”.

The attack was on the 15 November and she died last Friday.

Jugce has intervened when she heard cries for help in a fast food restaurant near Frankfurt. The cries came from two girls whose were being harassed. When she goes to the car one of the men, strike her head with a bat.  

Friday was her 23^rd birthday and her parents decided to turn off life support because the doctors said to them there is not a possibility to Jugce survive.  

Now she is an example for everybody.

Finally the attacker has confessed to striking her.

Opinion

I choose this news because I think is too impressive for me to see that exist this people who have not problems to kill somebody, this people who seems that they not realize what they are doing.

I think all this people who do that has to pass the rest of their life supporting sanctions and pay for what they are doing. 

Harassed

Reportedly

Striking

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30268653

Does Learning a Foreign Language Pay Off?

This video is a little article about a boy, Rob, who talks about the places where he was, the languages that he speaks and what he can do with these languages.

He speaks Russia, Dutch, German, French, Luxembourgish and English.

He studied Russian in Saint Petersburg, German at the university, Luxembourgish on a large campsite, Dutch in Luxembourg because he works on a big campsite and at the university the grammar.

He worked for a governmental organization in Germany like a journalist.

He enjoys speaking all this languages and he said it is easy to change the language when he speaks.

He advice to keep going and don’t be afraid to make mistakes because people like when you try to speak their language.

Speak a lot of languages doesn’t pay off. It opens doors in the world and you can meet new people and have interesting conversations with them.  

Opinion 

I choose this article because I want to learn to speak more languages and with this video I can see that it is not difficult and if I want to learn them, I can!

In my opinion, we have to learn more languages and travel because I think is the only way to learn to speak them.

Link: http://www.babbel.com/magazine/languages-payoff?slc=engmag-a22-vid-bv4-languagespayoff-ob

Pay off

Oral presentation

To do this oral presentation Nerea and I used a Prezi with images and some videos. We have explained the top 4 comedians in Spain. With the videos our oral presentation lasted 19 minutes.  

We have read more than look the audience but I think because we were nervous.

We have organized the presentation by the importance of the comedians.

I think the grammar was correct but when we done the presentation we made some mistakes.

We have checked the pronunciation about some words but even so we have done mistakes.

I am happy with the mark and I think a 7 is perfect! 

Email to teacher

Hi teacher, is me again.
As you know, my name is Ioana. I am not going to explain to you about my age, where I live, which are my hobbies because I think you remember some thing from last years.
My first goal or challenge is to finish the Hight School!!  I need to change my environment and start a new life like a very, very good university student. I hope this yeat is going to be easier than las year and I hope to have best grades too.
After the hight school I have to choose on of two options. The first one, which is my dream, is going to the university and study. On the other hand I have my family. Now we are in a difficult state. That implies to my to find a job and help my family economically. I think having my family happy and helping them is going to be my decision. Yes... It is very hard for me because you know, all teenagers want to go to the university but now I understand all and there are things more important than study.
These are my challenges in the future, maybe I have more but I think these are the most important.

See you!!! :)

Journey through the Ebola heartland in Sierra Leone and Guinea

A group of reporters decided to go from Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown, Guinea capital and Canakry to see the impact of the Ebola.

Farewell Freetown

The started the journey at 06:30. On the radio they listened people talking about Ebola and they are accurate because they know the facts because they read on the web pages of ministry of health, WHO and EbolaFacts.com.

The streets are bustling because women and everybody try to sell fruits and vegetables.

By 09:00 they had the first checkpoint. Soldiers have thermos temperature guns in their hands to check their temperature. 37.3 is the last temperature allowed.

Quarantine zone

They arrived at Port Loko where Ebola has risen quickly in recent week.

A doctor said that at the first of the week they had 8 patients and at the last, they were full.

The people clean their hand with chlorine and they make some mechanics to not touch the bottles.

Welcome to Guinea

When they enter in Guinea everything was different. Most people speak French and some of them English.

There was the first patient infected, Emile. He was the patient zero. He died last December but only in March experts don’t realize what happened.

On Guinea there were not patients because they prefer to die on their village.

“Ebola isn’t real”

They stop in a town called Maferiah. There nobody wants to talk about Ebola. After asking some people a couple on men were agree to speak with them.

The firs one said that he doesn’t know about Ebola and he never had seen someone killed by it.

The second one said that they have not Ebola. Ebola is not real.

“West Africa has far to go before Ebola can finally be stamped out.”

Opinion

I choose this news because it’s something current and I think that is interest too.

It’s a little bit strange the differences between the towns which are affected by Ebola. Some act like nothing happened and others are very scared.

But what is not normal it’s that nobody have found the way to stop with this virus. Everyday a lot of humans in Africa died and it seems that is not important and the world continue like nothing happened. We don’t know how to stop it, but how that was started? I think that is one of the most important questions.

Link: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-30160666 

Is humor necessary in our lives?

Nowadays humor is very important for us because we are not going through the best times, we usually have problems and humor is one of the things that help us to forget our worries. First of all, we have to learn to use humor in our lives because is going to be a perfect way to overcome our problems. Secondly, if we are familiarized with humor, I think we can have more friends and be a little bit more popular. In conclusion, we have to take our life more or less like a philosophy but with humor. Everything is going to be easier.

Joke

A blonde walks into a doctor office and says: "Doctor, what's the problem with me? When I touch my head, ouch! It hurts... When I touch my chest, ouch! It really hurts!!" The Doctor replies: " Your finger is bronken.

listen to ‘ioana's joke’ on audioBoom