Events

After searching for information in the history class, I developed this presentation :

21 century event de Pedro Amado

Potsdam and relations between the West and the USSR

A. What was decided at the Potsdam conference?
The allied leaders arranged for July 1945 in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam, a conference. There weren’t taken any decision, due to the fact the distrust between Stalin and Truman, so they had different disagreements, over what to do with Germany, over reparations and also over Soviet policy in Eastern Europe.

B. Why did the wartime unity of the Allies break down between 1945 and 1947?
The wartime unity of the Allies broke down because there was tension and suspicion between the USA’s president, Truman, and the USSR leader, Stalin. Because of these, in the Potsdam Conference, they did not come to an agreement in some major aspects: what to do with Germany, reparations and Soviet policy in eastern Europe.
Furthermore, in the months after the Potsdam Conference Stalin achieved the control of eastern Europe. Poland, Hungary, Romania Bulgaria and Albania had all Communist governments that were loyal to Stalin. Churchill described the borders between them and the West as an “iron curtain”. With Communist governments in all eastern Europe, Stalin tightened his control, eliminating opposition. In 1947, he set up the Cominform to organize and control all the Communist Parties, replacing independent leaders with people who were loyal to him.

C. "The Truman Doctrine generated much more tension than the Berlin Blockade" How far is that statement true?
Different things increased the Cold War tension, such as the Truman Doctrine: giving money to countries that were going to turn into Communism, to stop that movement. Or the Berlin Blockade, with USSR taking control of Germany. But what event produced more tension?
On the one hand, the Truman Doctrine added tension to the Cold War because USA was sending equipment and advice to any country which was, in the American view, threatened by a Communist takeover. They did this as a way of containing Communism.
On the other hand, the Berlin Blockade added much more tension to the Cold War, because as people living in the Soviet zone wanted to leave that zone, and Stalin, who had the control of Germany´s capital, closed all the railways and any possible way of going away from that zone, and that hurted a lot of countries and people.
To conclude, I think the Berlin Blockade added more tension to the Cold War that the Truman Doctrine because that involved more countries.

Students Presentations

Introduction: The principal aim of this proposal is tu revise the problems students have with oral prsentations. They have bad aspects that will be explained then.

Current situation: I asked to diferrent students about their experience with oral presentations and mos of them said that they have tu study a lot of information and that they get nervous in front of their class mates so they get stuck.

Those presentations are no good because you don´t have the advantage of writing as a method of memorising the information.

Recomendations: I would suggest the following to students that have problems with oral presentations:

• Write the information you need to study using your own words to remenber ir better.
• It´s neccesary to be relaxed because it is worst to get nervous
• Add images and videos to presentations
• Use few text in presentation

I am very sure that if you follow the recomendation you will pass all your oral presentation.

¿Para que viajar?

En literatura estamos trabajando con ciencia ficción, pero no de cualquier tema, la idea era hablar sobre un viaje, para esto teníamos que elegir el trailer de una película o un videoclip que este relacionado con un viaje. Yo elegí la película elysium.



En la película el personaje principal es afectado por una onda de radiación que pone en estado critico su salud, el era un trabajador de clase baja que vivía en la tierra. Al recibir esa radiación en su trabajo lo único que lo podía ayudar era viajar a Elysium (ciudad espacial solamente para ricos) para usar una maquina que curaba cualquier tipo de enfermad.

El viaje en la película aparece como el ultimo de recurso de un pobre muchacho enfermo que lo único que necesita es llegar a Elysium para curar su grave enfermedad. Es un viaje realmente arriesgado e ilegal porque no estaba permitido llegar a Elysium sin autorización o sin ser de la clase alta de esa sociedad. También el viaje representa la idea de que los pobres o los que vivían en la tierra quieran escapar de esa dura realidad e ir a vivir a Elysium como si fuera una especie de paraíso.

The presidential election in 1932

The Republicans won the presidential election in 1928 when the economy was still booming. Their candidate was Herbert Hoover. One year later, the Wall Street Crash happened and brought severe consequences for the USA’s industry and people. In the next presidential election, in 1932 (the first one after the Wall Street Crash), Hoover lost to the Democrat candidate, Franklin D Roosevelt. Many people state that this was mainly because of the Republican policies and their reaction to the Crash, but, how far is that true?

Herbert Hoover

To begin with, the Republican policies are four: Laissez faire (not interceding with people´s economy), tariffs for importation (they protected US industry against foreign competition), low taxation (they thought people would buy goods or invest in industry with that money) and trusts (huge corporations that dominated industry). Republicans wouldn´t change their basic policies, mostly because they believed that the Depression was caused by economic problems in Europe, not by failures in the US economy. They thought that business could solve its problems alone and that help from the Government was no needed. Moreover, they claimed that business consisted on a cycle of boom and bust, so prosperity would come back alone. It was because of the policy of Laissez-faire that Hoover did almost nothing to help people who were hit hardest for the depression, as he thought that social security and relief were a responsibility and should be provided by local governments. He faced bitter criticism because of that.

Franklin D Roosevelt

Nevertheless, there were other causes for Roosevelt’s success in the presidential election, which were Hoover’s flaws and Roosevelt’s characteristics as a politician. As regard Hoover’s flaws, he was known as a “do nothing” president, even though he tried to do something, but that was not enough. He tried to restart the economy by cutting taxes and to persuade business leaders not to cut wages. Moreover, he set up the Reconstruction Finance Company to prevent banks from going bankrupts. He also tried to protect the US industry by tariffs, but this made the Depression worse. In connection to Roosevelts characteristics as a politician, he believed in an active government to improve people´s lives. He wanted to spend public many to create jobs (he already did this as Governor of New York), and asked for advise to experts (factory owners, economists and union leaders). He didn’t have a specific plan, but he realized that people wanted action and he gave them that.

To conclude, even though the Republican’s reaction against the Crash had to do with Roosevelt winning the election in 1932, Hoover’s flaws and Roosevelt’s characteristics were also very important. This was so because Hoover’s flaws exposed him to great criticism and turned public opinion against him, while Roosevelt gave people what they wanted.

El viaje de la muerte

Nuestra profesora de Literatura nos dio como tarea crear un cuento con mi compañero de banco. Este trabajo tenia que cumplir con una serie de requisitos:

• Usar los métodos de Lodge para describir al nuestros personajes y ayudarse con el cuadro de modalidades y niveles de focalizaciòn.
• Tenia que si o si tratar sobre un viaje.

A continuación les dejo nuestro cuanto para que lo lean y lo disfruten.

Esta experiencia fue muy grata, compartir y aprender con un compañero, dar ideas entre ambos y que nos pongamos de acuerdo para que la historia quede lo mejor posible. Usando el tema predeterminado dado por la profesora pensamos en que un grupo de amigos realicen ese viaje para empezar a vivir juntos en un lugar solamente habitado por ellos. En el desarrollo de la historia varias cosas eran discutidas, pensadas y cambiadas por ejemplo la cantidad de viajeros, si iba o no a haber mujeres involucradas, etc.

Usando lo que para Lodge era lo básico para describir un personaje nosotros tomamos la idea de que a un personaje se puede representar describiendo su contextura física. Como en la parte que describimos a Tomas.

También utilizamos parte de las modalidades y niveles  de la focalizaciòn, en todo el cuento la focalizaciòn es externa, narrador en tercera persona omnisciente. El cuento también tiene Modalidad conocimiento que sabe mas que los personajes.

Informal letter/email

Dear Tom;

                   I´m very sorry about your situation. When I was sitting for those exams my situation was similar. But Julia, one of my friends, gave me some tips for retaining the information and studing.

The first one was writing everything you need to study like writing summaries. Because my friend Julia told me that writing helps the majority of the people for memorising the info and when I tried it that tip was very effective.

Another tip was making a song with the info you need to study and then in the exam you remember the song/s. For this you need a very good memory because if you don´t remember the song/s in the exam nobody can helps you.

The last type was to get together with friends that have the same problem and with another that has it easier. So that friend who understand the information easier helps the others to study and to pass the exams.

Any of the tips I talked about before are very effective, but  in my opinion the only one that could never be absent is believing in your knowledge.