Dialogue: a profession that's dying out

A dialogue between Anna and a family friend, Mr. Adams.

- Hello Mr. Adams! How are you doing?
- Hello Anna! I'm fine, thank you. What's the matter?
- Errr.. There's something I've been wanting to ask you for.. for quite a long time now...
- So, what is it?
- Ummm.. There aren't many shepherds like you left here.. I mean in Spain, are they?
- That's right. Many things have changed that made us shepherds, like, less necessary: at least not so many of us are needed now.
- Really? And what has changed exactly?
- Some years ago, shepherds were nomades. They wandered with their lifestock.. I mean their cows, sheep and such.. So they wandered up a mountain during spring and then had to stay up there all summer long. In autumn, they got there herds back down. They always went were the grass was the freshest.
- But.. you don't wander around with your cows.
- (laughs) No. Nowadays we keep our lifestock in stables and feed them hay and industrial food. Now it's a lot easier and less time-comsuming to have big herds.
- Ummm... So now a single shepherd can produce more milk, meat or such and... that's why this profession is slowly dying out?
- Exactly. Also there are new machines to help us do our job.
- (laughs) Yeah, I've seen them. So.. thank you very much, Mr. Adams.
- You're welcome. But now I have to get back to work. If you have more questions, feel free to ask!
- Thank you again. See you!
- Bye!

Formal letter - World Nuclear Association

Fountain street 3
50397 Traverse Town

12th May 2011

World Nuclear Association
...
...
To the director general, John Ritch

Dear Mr. Ritch,
I am writing this letter in order to give my opinion about the nuclear accident in Japan after the tsunami a month ago and to give possible solutions for the future.

First of all, I think the problem would not have been so terrible if the emergency generators had not been in the cellar of the building. I think it was a big mistake while planning how to build the nuclear plant, thinking of the high risk of tsunamis in countries like Japan.

Furthermore, it is said that the nuclear plant of Fukushima was already obsolete and should have been shut down years ago. If that is true, I think other older nuclear facilities should be shut down and tested, at least.

Of course there can not be done anything about the Fukushima disaster now, but I think you should learn from it and try to prevent other nuclear accident like Japan's.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Kairi Johnsson

Discussion essay

Computers have made the world a better place. Discuss.

Computers have brought a big revolution to our world. But was it really good for us?

The first thing many people, specially parents, think about when talking about computers are game-addicted teenagers and children.

However, computers give us a whole lot of tools to make working and studying easier, such as writing programmes, video and photo editors... One of the key points of digital working is thatyou can edit your work over and over again, as long as you like. But the real revolution came with the internet. It opens the door to an enormous amount of information and knowledge, so it makes our life even easier. On the internet you can find everything from the latest news to cooking recipes.

In conclusion, I think that computers and internet have made our world a better and easier place to live. they make working and communication easier, but we must be careful not to let them control us and isolate us from our friends.

the welcome Mail

My dreams and goals

Everyone around me seems to have very special dreams and goals for life, but I’m not really the same. I’m not sure what I want to do with my life yet. But let’s explain first my short-time goals. I want to finish batxillerat with good marks and I want to get better in Maths again. To achieve that goals I’ll work hard, do my homework and focus on my studies.

After batxillerat and if I can, I want to take a year off. I’m saving money to travel around, specially to visit some friends in Germany and Holland. After that, I always wanted to go to university, though I don’t know yet what to study. Maybe I’ll become an architect. I’m working hard in my technical drawing lessons at high school, so maybe I can do it. My only problem with becoming an architect is that I haven’t studiet Physics in batxillerat, so maybe it can get a problem. But maybe I can do something about it in my gap year.

Another way I would like to go is languages and tourism. As a German living in Catalonia I already speak 4 languages (German, English, Spanish and Catalan, though my English is still improvable) and I’d love to learn one or two more. A special wish of mine is to learn a eastern language like Chinese or Japanese, but that’s very difficult! Maybe I can do it if I work hard, but not now. I’d like to learn dutch, too, which would most likely be a lot easier by now. I’ll see what I do.

Maybe I’ll got to Germany to study, because I think I need a change and I want to see what life on my own is. If I work hard to get good marks and talk to friends for a cheap place to say, maybe I can do it. I’m quite optimistic about it because I’ve already talked to some of them and their parents would let me stay there. I’m excited about my further life!