martes, 25 de diciembre de 2007
Task nº6
ADVANTAGES :)
* You can practice english grammar.
* You can practice english reading comprehension.
* It can replace (a part of) a class.
* You can learn (update your blog) any time.
* You can express your feelings about the task proposed in the post.
* You can comment the post of your classmates.
Task nº4
The blog that I´ll assess it´s Gabriela´s blog because I know her more and I´m sure that she will not annoy for the things I`ll write.
Well, one of the things that I like of this blog i'ts the layout that she has choose (it`s my 2º favourite after the one that I have) because it´s colours and the pattern formed by the circles. Another thing that I like it´s the colour of the letters because it combines with the layout, but I don´t like the size of the this because it´s too small and I´m short-sighted...unfortunately...
A weak point of this blog it´s the lack of a personal touch... She should put her profile, her favourite links, films, songs, artist, etc...
A strong point of this blog are the post because they carry out the proposed and they give to the blog the authenticity necessary that characterizes the web site.
Another bad point it´s that the blog it`s not updated regularly, but I can´t criticize this because my own blog it´s not updated with the frecuency that I should, so it´s a little bit shameless of me...xp....
Task nº 5
Last week I saw the film Match Point. It`s a 2005 film written and directed by Woody Allen, and the main actors are Jonathan Rhys Meyers (he's a very good reason to see the film!) and Scarlett Johansson.
Meyers plays Chris Wilton, a tennis player who seeking a new direction for his life, who seems to find it all (friendship, a new career, love) when he meets the members of a wealthy british family. Johansson plays Nola Rice a struggling actress who is engaged to the son of the british family, Tom (Chris is his teacher of tennis).
Chris met Tom' sister, Chloe, and they start a passionless relationship, because Chris really liked Nola.
Some time later, Chris has married Chloe, with a promising career as a businessman in her father's firm. After that, Tom and Nola have broken up, and Chris locates her. He begins an affair with her, one that soon leads to Nola's news that she is pregnant and that she does not want to terminate the pregnancy. This accidental pregnancy contrast with the situation between Chris and Chloe, where Chloe has been unable to become pregnant despite all attempts to conceive. While Chris's passion for Nola remains strong, his whole life is so dependent upon the wealthy family that has taken him under their wing. Nola demands that he talk to Chloe about the situation and tells Chris that if he doesn't talk to Chloe, she will.
After thinking a long time,he decides that he wishes to maintain his comfortable life with Chloe, and because of that he feels compelled to kill Nola.
His plan is to make Nola's death look like a drug-related crime which leads him to also kill Nola's neighbor, but he had an excuse for not being involved.
As Chris had hoped, the police take it as primarily a drug murder of the neighbor, with the additional murder of Nola the result of her happening to pass by. During and after the crimes several risky situations occur, which could have revealed Chris' involvement. Miraculously, each time Chris gets lucky and he's not punished.
I think that this film has only good points because the story is a fable about the role that luck plays in determining everyone's destiny, and I believe absolutely in that. Also the film has references in "Crime and Punishment" of Dostoievski, one of my favourite books.
miércoles, 3 de octubre de 2007
Ecstasy impairs memory!!!...so be careful ;-)
Task nº 2
A new research indicates that ecstasy can cause lasting damage to the human brain, even if the drug is only taken for a short time and in low doses.The memory of ecstasy users who were asked to remember lists of words was impaired, the study found.
In the experiment the procedure was:
- First test non-drug users (188 volunteers, who said they would probably tried ecstasy). The psychological exercises included tests of attention and memory.
- Then test drug-users (58 of the 188 volunteers). On average, the subjects had taken around three ecstasy pills in total.
Research on animals has shown that ecstasy can cause long-lasting damage to neurons. This ones are involved in processing serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in controlling learning, memory, mood and other functions. In several studies a brain region called the hippocampus, which is known to be involved in memory, it has been has particularly affected.
In spite of rhe low doses, the researchers found a statistically significant small drop in the ability of the volunteers to remember words. The test was reciting a list of 15 words and remembering this ones 20 minutes later.
The data really demonstrated that, even in low doses, ecstasy is associated with drop verbal memory function, due induced neurotoxicity, causing a depletion of serotonina.
Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2095416,00.html#article_continue