FINAL REFLECTION 1 BAT

I started learning English in 5th of Primary School and I wasn't good in languages, neither in maths, but when I started high school things had changed and I think my English has improved a lot. I can have a conversation with tourists and I understand them perfectly. Series and films had helped a lot, my vocabulary is much richer than before and I can express myself better. This year in BAT my grades and blog got better and I'm really happy for this.

I think I understand people when they talk to me in English and when I read something. Well, I know I do not understand everything I listen to or everything I read but every year is better. Every year I learn new things and I use what I learn for write in my blog. For example, if I'm watching a scientific series then I write about science in my blog.

How I said, my English has improved thanks to series and my blog. Reading has helped me too. I learned new words I never listened and now I'm watching series with English subtitles. This will help my vocabulary and my oral and writing expression. 

I think everything we did this year was useful. The units we did were quite interesting and we also did a lot of activities related to them. English classes are not boring because we do things and every day is different. I like the plannification and the way you do class. I hope next year will be the same. I think we spend a lot of time on computers instead of doing theoretical classes. I'm not saying I want more theory. I am saying that I want more notes in my notebook to have more examples and to study better.

I hope next year we will still watching movies, series and reading books. And, obviously, I want to continue writing on this blog cause I learn so much things.

My propposal for next year is simple. Teenagers are quite uncultured nowadays and I offer you a task for students. It consist of students find interesting and current news and explain them to the class. With this, students will be more cultured and we can do some discussion in class.

FORMAL LETTER

MY GAP YEAR

I FEEL SO LITTLE IN THIS BIG WORLD

I’m on that point in life that I don’t know what to do anymore. I got tired of everything and what is worst: I don’t know what I should do to change it.

I feel sad, lost and little in this big world and all this makes me feel useless and the result are tears in my eyes. Weep makes me feel better, is the way I get something out my chest and when I stop crying I clean my eyes and I force a smile in my face only because I need to accept reality.

I never talk about this, only one person knows about that depression I feel sometimes but I don’t want to tell details because no one understands my mind and I don’t want to scary them. Well, this may sound as if I want to kill people or something like that but what I feel is not that heavy.  

We can say that my thoughts are quite philosophical. They are about universe, reality, truth, existence, liberty and other things that worry me. I always had lots of questions and I tried many times to solve them but the answers scare me a lot.

This year in batxillerat we started learning philosophy and I realize my questions were questioned by many others philosophers. One of them was Descartes and I felt very identified with this personage. Well, I don’t really like philosophy and my grades are not so good but is a subject that interests me.

You may think this is nonsense but I don’t care. I have lots of thoughts and I don’t know how to organize them, which one is good and which one is bad. After all, no one knows what’s right and what’s wrong.

'BLUE WHALE' GAME

Are teenagers killing themselves in Russia as part of a social media game?

There is a game played online across Russia that instructs people to commit suicide.

The game involves teen completing daily tasks for 50 days and on the 50^th day, they have to kill themselves to win the game.

The problem with the game came up after a high rate of suicides in Russia.

The game is called Blue Whale as a reference to the way some blue whales commit suicide getting into the beach.

Yulia Konstantinova, 15, and Veronika Volkova, 16, fell from the roof of a block of flats in Irkutsk and one of them had posted a picture of a blue whale on her social media account the same day of her death.

Another girl, Ekaterina, 13, was critically injured after falling from a fifth-floor flat in Krasnoyarsk.

Authorities have opened criminal cases looking into the influence of the game, but it wasn’t mentioned.

A Russian media has linked 130 suicides to the game, in fact, there aren’t official data that links any one death to the Blue Whale Game.

Nevertheless, the Blue Whale Game exists and is popular in Vkontakte, a social networking site popular among Russians.

The game includes self-harming, watching horror movies and waking up at unusual hours. Reporters crated a fake profile and one of the administrators asked to cut “F58” into their arm. The conversation finished after the reporter sent a photoshopped image.

References to the game are now appearing on other sites more popular like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

It seems unreal, how people can commit suicide only because a game. Is not the first time I heard about how teens kill themselves only because a reference. There appear a very popular series called 13 Reasons Why that’s about a teenager who commits suicide and after then, there are cases of suicide between teens.

I read somewhere that the proposal of this game is “clean the society”. The creator of the Blue Whale Game said once that the game’s goal is to makes people who “don’t deserve to life” commit suicide. He said that only mad people will take his life over and those people do not deserve life. This seems to me a very tragically phenomenon. 

THE MOST SPECTACULAR PLACES OF THE WORLD

Our world is full of beauty and I found all those places I think are awesome. I will start with the best ones for me:

Fly Geyser, Nevada

It isn’t a natural geyser but is a rainbow geologic wonder. In 1964, after a searching on geothermal energy, the place didn’t closed and the liquefied minerals got accumulated creating forms with many colours.

Great Blue Hole, Belize

It’s a large underwater sinkhole. The hole is circular and is 125 meters deep. The Great Blue Hole is the best place to do underwater activities and it’s said that the deeper you go, the water become clearer.

Plitvice Lakes, Croatia

These lakes are located in the biggest National Park of Croatia. The most beautiful thing of these lakes is that form waterfalls between them, making a paradise. There are 16 lakes can be explored by boat or by feet, crossing the walkway witch connects the path of the park.

The Door to Hell of Darvaza, Turkmenistan

In 1970, soviet geologists were searching gas there and the floor sank leaving a hole of 20 meters deep. For not to let the harmful gases evaporate, the scientists set fire to this gas-filled cave. 40 years later, the crater is still burning like a real door to hell, hence the name.

Bryce Canyon, Utah, United States

The Bryce Canyon is situated between 2.400 and 2.700 meters up. The formation has a pyramidal shape and receives the name of “Hoodoos”.

Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia

The Salar de Uyuni is the biggest salt desert of the world, with a surface of 10.000 m^2­. It was part of the prehistoric salt lake (Lago Minchín) witch once covered most of the southwest of Bolivia.

Pamukkale Thermal Pools, Turkey

“Pamukkale” in Turkey means “Cotton Castle”. Thousand years ago, lots of earthquakes were hitting Asia Minor and, as result, the rocks were moved and broken so the underground waters were released on the surface. Over two million of tourists come to this place annually. Pamukkale is the second most visited attraction in Turkey.

Moeraki Boulders, New Zealand

Some look like eggs from dinosaurs, others are hollow inside and some measure up to 2 meters. Scientists explain the boulders were formed about 65 million years ago and according a Maori legend, the boulders are rests of the fishing, pumpkins and potatoes that arrived at the coast after the shipwreck of the Araiteuru canoe.

Reed Flute Cave, Guangxi, China

This is a natural cave of limestone with multicolored lighting. It’s over 180 million years old and was forgotten during miles of years until 1.940, by a group of Japanese refugees.

BREAST CANCER

Julian Rios Cantu, a 18th Mexican teenager, has invented a bra to detect breast cancer.

The Eva bra is only a prototype made by him and three friends but they raised enough money to start the tests, on one hand, thank to Higia Technologies, the company which develop their idea.

Could this bra detect breast cancer?

How would it work?

The biosensors in the bra would measure temperatures and log them and alert the user to any considerable changes. Women would need to wear the bra during 60-90 minutes a week to get precise measurements.

Will it work?

There would need to be medical trials before recommending it as a way to find cancer. In fact, the sensors measure the increase of the blood flow and it isn’t necessarily a marker of cancer.

Is very important a rigorous testing, to make sure innovations will benefit patients and not the opposite.

First signs of breast cancer:

- Lumps in the chest or armpit area

- A change in the size, shape or feel of a breast

- Fluid leaking from the nipple

- Pain in the chest

Julian invented this bra because her mother nearly died after her breast cancer was not detected early.

This prototype of bra would be effective because finding breast cancer early can make a real difference to the way of surviving the disease. The breast cancer is very common in women and this will probably get a descent of the harmed.