englishadv: septiembre 2018

3 Reading

1- Give ten questions
2- Explain by written in your own words these parts of the text. Use the new word in other sentence.

2 Homework second essay

Should you believe every word in an infomercial?

Sample, now use your own thoughts and words

Never Believe Everything You’re Told on Television

One Should Be Always Skeptical

Nineteenth-century humorist Stephen Leacock once said that advertising is “the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.” In a society in which advertising – lies, basically – is the standard, it’s a shame that Americans are still so impervious to the deception they face every single day in print and digital advertising, billboards – and especially infomercials. These advertising films bearing lie after lie after lie serve to promote a product in an informative and supposedly objective style. But it’s possibly the most subjective thing a person hears all day, and the everyday person – well, a “consumer” in this case – should not believe every word (or even most of what they are being told) in an infomercial.

To begin with, one should always be skeptical of what an infomercial tells them because the video is fundamentally an advertisement – and advertisements generally lie, or at least embellish. Advertisements exploit the emotions of the viewer, the potential buyer, into thinking the product being promoted is the best thing ever made, an item that will make their lives better longer, solve all their problems and heal their illnesses; the be-all, end-all item – the product everyone will be soon be buying! In other words, it’s one big lie. Now, of course, some infomercials will tell fewer lies than others, and some of them may actually serve to truly help people. Nonetheless, advertisements generally always embellish in some way or another, so they should never be trusted entirely.

One should generally be skeptical of what an infomercial tells them, regardless of how great and perfect and awesome it sounds because they cannot test the product – most of the time – before purchasing it. The infomercial generally tells them to “buy now and save 25 percent off the whole price,” so they impulsively buy the item before considering its value and credibility – to see if it works, basically. The buyer has no way of knowing this if all they have to go by is the infomercial itself. They could be thinking they are buying a one-of-a-kind pair of sunglasses that protects them from ultraviolet sun rays, that cannot break or scratch. But they don’t know this is the case – not until they purchase them and see for themselves. The infomercial will make tons of promises validating what they are saying, but the consumer could never know for sure. This is one major reason a person should never believe every word of an infomercial: They have no way of telling if what they are being told about the product is true or not. They have to just rely on what the seasoned, greedy businessman is telling them; and that is never a smart way to make a purchase.

Infomercials Are Never Objective

A person at home should never entirely trust what an infomercial tells them for another very important reason: if the item is as good as the infomercial says, the potential buyer will likely have already heard about it from another person – through word-of-mouth marketing, perhaps the oldest form of advertising in the world. If something works and people like it – consider the car, the Internet, Netflix, Apple computers, coffee, writing pens, almost anything – they will tell other people about it, and others will purchase the item, too. People believe friends and family members, and they are generally distrusting of salesmen. But, unfortunately, infomercials cater mostly to gullible, elderly women sitting at home, with nothing but a phone and credit card in their hand. They will believe anything.

In conclusion, infomercials should rarely be trusted in entirety; one should never believe all they are told in a video advertisement. One should never trust every word in any advertisement, either. Because they are not objective, because they can easily lie about a product’s value and workability, and because word-of-mouth advertising is always the best source of truth, the words of infomercials should not be believed – only looked at with utter skepticism. Not all advertisements are lies, of course, though many do embellish a product’s usefulness in order to convince the customer to buy this product. Once again, Stephen Leacock knew exactly what he was talking about when he postulated that advertising is nothing more than tricking people into taking their money. But it’s the way it is, perhaps the way it will always be; but people should still, nonetheless, be skeptical. One should never believe everything they are told.

2-Writing essay 2

2 Listening 1

https://soundcloud.com/maria-pesce-197730658/track-1/s-Z1GPJ

https://soundcloud.com/maria-pesce-197730658/track-3/s-7RZdn

https://soundcloud.com/maria-pesce-197730658/track-4/s-LSDXN

2 Listening

2 Use of English 1

2 Use of English

1 writing essay homework

1- Writing - essay

First things first - what do I have to write and who is going to read it?

I have to write an essay, which means giving my opinion on the topic. My English teacher will read it, so I should write in a neutral tone. I'm going to mention transport, rivers and seas, and think of a third point, and the whole theme is pollution and damaging the environment.

I could write in the style of Donald Trump and say that pollution isn't real and there's nothing to worry about... but I do have a brain so I'll write the truth.

Planning

Let's take 5 to 10 minutes to plan the essay before I start writing.

I'll do a quick one or two sentence introduction. Then I'll have three paragraphs, one for transport, one about rivers and seas, and one for my third point. Now's a good time to think about that.

I've decided to take 'pollution in the home' as my third point. But I could have chosen factories, plastic, cutting down the rainforest - a billion things.

Finally there will be a sentence that ties everything together.

Now, ideally I'd have a nice title for this essay. Mentioning Donald Trump before gave me an idea. (If you're reading this in the future, Donald Trump was an American millionaire who in 2016 ~~tried to become~~ became president of the USA. He had many crazy opinions, and his beliefs about pollution were especially stupid. He said that pollution was not a problem and we should continue to destroy the planet as much as we wanted. ~~Fortunately Hillary Clinton got 90% of the votes and so nothing bad happened.~~)

My title will be '3 Reasons Why Donald Trump is Wrong About Pollution'. It's not a very elegant title, but it'll have to do. I don't have 15 minutes to think about it!

The next thing I want to do is think about some vocabulary and grammar I can use in my essay. Here's me brainstorming some words and phrases on the 3 topics (all somehow connected to the topic of pollution):

TRANSPORT

traffic congestion

aviation

carbon dioxide

greenhouse gases

emissions

exhaust fumes

electric cars

driverless cars

freight/cargo trains

RIVERS AND SEAS

barges

cruise ships

world trade

plastic

factories

lead poisoning

water quality

THE HOME

batteries

power grid

waste

recycling (cardboard, glass)

energy efficiency

fines

subsidies

Okay I feel pretty ready to get started - this is a topic I know a lot about, and that quick brainstorm has me READY TO GO.

3 Reasons Why Donald Trump is Wrong About Pollution

Donald Trump may be admired by millions of Americans, but he's dangerously wrong about climate change. In this essay I'll discuss three reasons why pollution is a huge problem and suggest ways they can be solved.

TRANSPORT

First I'd like to talk about transport. We travel much more than we ever did in the past, and trade more than ever. That means a non-stop stream of planes, trains, and automobiles. Almost 100% of these are powered by petrol or diesel engines, which means carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are released into the atmosphere. One solution would be to switch to electric cars, and there has been progress in that direction.

RIVERS AND SEAS

Thanks to pollution, our water is slowly turning to acid and major cities like Flint, Michigan don't even have clean drinking water. Seas are filled with plastic that traps and kills fish and dolphins. The solution is better controls in factories and fines for anyone who adds to the problem.

HOMES

If you've ever left your computer running overnight, you're part of the problem. The solution must come from government intervention - no more subsidies for companies that pollute, and fines for those that do.

SUMMARY

Pollution is a problem that affects us all, but if we elect rational politicians who understand basic science, we can start to make things better.

(233 words)

233 words! My god! How did that happen? Well, the good news is it only took me 10 minutes or so, so although I got a bit carried away I have time to fix it.

Making it better

Let's take another look at the topic and check that what I wrote is relevant. That will help me delete the unimportant parts.

It says 'Every country has a problem with pollution. Can it be solved?'

Hmm. So I don't need to say that pollution is a problem. I can focus on the solutions. That's good. But I should add in something about 'every country' - that's something I didn't do in the first draft.

And actually, the whole Donald Trump thing isn't needed if I'm going to focus on the solutions. So I should come up with a new title, too.

Second Draft

Pollution: 3 Simple Solutions

People in every country think that putting an end to pollution must be extremely hard. But is it? I believe there are 3 simple things we can do that will have a big effect.

TRANSPORT

We travel much more than we ever did in the past, and trade more than ever. That means a non-stop stream of planes, trains, and automobiles. Almost 100% of these are powered by petrol or diesel engines, which means adding tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. One improvement would be to switch to electric cars, and there has been progress in that direction.

RIVERS AND SEAS

Seas are turning to acid, cities don't have clean drinking water, and fish get caught in old bits of plastic. The solution? Better controls in factories and fines for anyone who fails to recycle plastic.

HOMES

Energy waste starts at home - a 30% reduction in electricity use would be easy if people turned off their electronics when not in use, and didn't use tumble dryers so much.