FINAL WRITING TEST

PASCUA LAMA: loosing an heritage

Natural resources are a big part of South Americas’ budget. Historically, many countries in South-America have based their economy on exportation. In Chile, president Salvador Allende tried to nationalize all the natural resources to permit a gain of profit to the nation. When Pinochet took the power with his army, all the nationalization’s project was thrown to the garbage. In decade that fallowed, we have seen that the country was getting poorer and poorer. Today, there is a big amelioration of the economy due to the new government who has adopted more protective economic law. The north-American company who wants to build a mine in Pascua Lama should not be allow by the Chilean government to execute the project. First, it would displace many families who need their land to survive and second, because it would not profit to the Chili’s population.

First, the project should not be accepted by the government because it would put many families in a precarious position. When Pinochet left the power, many North-American companies were forced to leave Chili and stop exploiting the population. The government that has fallowed Pinochet’s one gave back a hugh part of the cultivate land to the population. Since there is not many well remunerate work in Chili, all those families need their land to have food. The salary that a person wins in one week is not enough to survive in the rural part of Chile. If the miner company is has the permit to build the mine, all those families will be force to find a new house and a new cultivable land. They could also work for the miner company, but the salary they would get would never help them to feed all their family. We can also think that those families are attached to their land and it would be unethical to force them to leave.

Secondly, the miner company should not apply their project because it would not help the population. Has we have seen in the past, north-American companies are really good to take advantage of the naturals resources of «rising» countries. Of course, the investment of the company in the infrastructure of the mine would help the Chile to exploit their resources, but in that case the miner company would benefit of almost all the profits of the project. The richness of the country should belong to the country’s government would redistribute to all the population. We can also think that it would be unfair because the company is richer then the Chilean company. A Chilean company cannot invest as much as a north-American company in such a project. Chilien Companies have no chance to pierce the market if their government doesn’t give them priority. How can Chili’s economy be healthier if all the company are from stranger countries and are draining all the money out of the country?

To conclude, I’m against the project of the north-American miner company. A stranger company should not have the right to displace a population that does not consent. This project would put many families in a starving position. Secondly, the benefit of such a project should go to the Chilean government or at least to a Chilean company. Would Canada accept that a Frech company exploits its water? I don’t think so.

549 words.

Learning express library : 3 and 4

Course 1 : vocabulary

1 : interest level : The class was really interesting. The words were maybe a bit difficult for my level of understanding, but that’s the better way to learn.

2 : Difficulty : The class was a bit difficult for me. I would recommend it to a 103 student.

3 : I had to look out for many words in the dictionary because I had never hear of them. At some point, I had to choose the better word to fit the sentence. I guess that was the more difficult exercise because almost all the words were new to me.

4: Score: I got 61% ... =/

5: Course rating. I give this class 7/10 because it was a bit too difficult for me. Someone else might enjoy it better.

Course 2 : Punctuation

1- Interest level: This class was the more funniest one. It was not too long and it was interesting.

2- Difficulty: I still have difficulty with my comas. I don’t know why? In French I don’t have that problem, but when it comes to English, I’m all mix up.

3- Learning: I cannot say I have learned anything special, or I just don’t remember it, but I have seriously practice. It made me practice placing comas and capital letters.

4- Score: I got 87%!! youpi!

5- Rating: I liked a lot this class because it was okay for my level of English. I would recommend it to someone who has difficulty fir writing in English.

PASCUA LAMA : presentation and arguments

Hello, my name is Juan Carlos Rodriguez.

I live on my family farm in the North-East of Chile. My ancestors have lived and work on this land for more than 150 years. The father of my grand father used to work for the family Lopez who were the owners of the land. My great grand-father almost succeeded in becoming the legal owner of the land because of Salvador Allende’s reforms. Salvador Allende was a socialist president that governed Chile for 5 years. He wanted to do a hugh agrarian reform to help the farmers, but he was murdered by Pinochet. My family has owned our farm since 1988, after Pinochet’s destitution. Pinochet was a dictator that took the power to restrain the communist movement. After Pinochet’s departure the country became more democratic and we were able to own our farm.

All my uncles and aunts have lived on the farm too. Today, my two brothers and my sister’s family live on the farm with me and my family. We share the work and the land. We have. I’m the legal owner of the land because I’m the oldest. I have four kids, 2 sons and two daughters, and 12 nephews.

I studied for 6 years when I was a child, but I was forced to leave school because my father needed help to work on the Lopez farm. I can read and write, but it’s difficult to be fluent. My son is now in grade 8 and I’m really happy that he’s going to have a better education then I had. He may even reach university. My other children don’t seem to like school that much and it’s sad, but I will need help myself to accomplish all the work some day; I’m getting older.

A few years ago, we heard that a mining company wanted to displace us. We were choked. This is our land, It’s our history; the history of my family. All my ancestors are here. I won’t spit on their memories.

Arguments

1- I’m a socialist. I don’t want a capitalist mining company to take advantage of the natural resources of my country. The resources should belong to the «pueblo».

2- It’s the land of my ancestors so I don’t want to lose it. I don’t want to be impolite to their memories.

3- Being the owner of a farm helps me to provide food to my family. We don’t have money, but we produce our own food. I could not buy another piece of land because the prices are really too high these days. I would have to work on someone else’s business and get a miserable salary!

PASCUA LAMA

1-
a: The farmers

b: The environmentalist in Chile and from the world

c: The Chilean government

d: The miner company Barrick gold

e: The judges of the trial

f: The reporters for all around the world

2- it’s miner company who wants to develop a mine in Chile. There is opposition because it creates a lot of pollution and the migration of the ice causes a lot of damages for the farmers and their lands.

3- In Chile, north-west precisely.

4-The construction of the mine will begin in 2009.

5-The miner company wants to make benefits. The farmers are against because it destroys their land. The government is against because the miner company is not from Chile.

6-The company wants to extract gold and silver from the Chilean ground. The gold and the silver are under ice.

* Farmer team

Inherit the wind

Here are the answer to questions 13 to 25.

13. What is it that Brady reveals about his religious beliefs while he is being questioned

in court by Drummond?

Drummond makes him say that he is the only one who can interpret the bible. He also says that since the sun was created the first day the days before the sun could have last millions of years! That could explain the age of earth! He point the fact that there is some none sense in the arguments of Brady and that the bible can be understand in many different ways.

14. How does Drummond win over the support of the audience in the courtroom in his

examination of Brady?

He made Brady looked like a fool and he destroyed the some of the strong arguments the Brady had presented by laughing at his reading of the bible.

15. What is it that Drummond says about progress? How is this significant to the play’s

main message?

He says that progress is important. If there had been no progress, human would still think that the earth was not round and that would not know gravity.

16. How does Brady react to the courtroom’s support of Drummond instead of him?

He seemed angry. He began to felt less sure of himself.

17. What is the significance of Drummond’s story about Golden Dancer?

I don’t remember!

18. What is the difference in the way the two lawyers, Brady and Drummond respond to

the radio?

Brady wants to be heard by everyone. He thinks it nice because all the United-States will see him winning the trial. He wants to be popular and admire. Drummond doesn’t seem to care that much about the radio. He thought it was interesting, but did not change his behavior.

19. Why is Cates sentenced the way he is?

Because he act against the law, but he is not a criminal and it was only his first offence to the law.

20. What is Cates’ statement after the verdict?

That he doesn’t regret. If he could come back et would do the same thing and he will continue to teach Darwin if he can teach again.

21. What happens to Brady after the trial? Was this a surprise?

He’s going crazy and he dies. It was a surprise but they were some signs before. During the trial Drummond has confront is convictions and Brady seemed to be a bit lost. I think he was not feeling good because he realized that everything he stood for was not so sure anymore and all his conviction weren’t as solid has he thought.

22. What does Rachel decide at the end of the play? How does this tie into Drummond’s

message as well as the main theme of the play?

She decide to come with Cates and stay with him because she loves him. It ties with Drummond’s message because she has decided to think for herself and stop worrying about her father and other person’s opinion on her.

23. What does Drummond say Brady had the right to do or have?

He had the right to defend his vision of life because everybody has the right to have or fallow their conception of life. In the same way that Drummond says Cats had the right to read and teach Darwin, Brady had the right to think god created humanity.

24. What is the significance of the two books Drummond holds at the end of the play?

The two did not seemed so different, but they were in opposition in their content. We also saw that they were just simple book, but that they had such a power on man and that they pushed man to «fight» for them. Ideas are really strong and important to humanity.

25. What do you think the main message of the play is?

The main message seemed to be that we all have the right to think and no one should restrain us in our thought, as long as we don’t hurt anyone. Restricting human’s mind is a bad thing because it stops evolution in science, philosophy, ethics and so on. All humans have the right to develop their intellect and be curious about anything their interest in. We should fight anyone who tries to impose to us a restrictive vision of our world.

Mid-term writing exam

For the survey in the English class, me and my team-mates decided to interview people about their perception of happiness. We took that subject because we did not even know exactly what our perception of happiness was. Instead of doing a quantitative survey, we decided to do a qualitative one. We thought it would be more effective with our subject. The questions we asked were not yes/no questions so we got to develop them with our respondants if they had more to say on one question in particular. Happiness is a really important concept to think about and some times, we just live without asking ourselves if want we are doing or planning to do will really make us happier!

Since our survey was qualitative, we only interviewed two persons. That may not seem a lot, but we wanted deeper answerers so it was easier to talk with only two persons. We chose two persons from different social-classes. Our hypothesis was the fallowing: people who are richer base most of their happiness on their material possessions and professional achievements. People who are not well fortuned base most of their happiness on human relationship. I personally had no idea of what would be the answers that we would have. That was really interesting because I did not know what to expect.

We asked question to Sam and William Miller. Sam is a homeless person and William is a business man. We ask them the same question to compare their answers. They both answered our 7 questions. We discovered that our hypothesis was partially right. William thought that happiness was about money, but not just about it. He thought it was important to have money, but that other things like family relationships are just as important. Sam did not think money was important. He thinks it was helpful, but not necessary. He really enjoyed meeting people and discussing with them.

To conclude we found our survey really interesting because we got to know two new persons and talk with them for a while. Our hypothesis was partially right in this case, but it could have been really different. I think everyone has their own perception of happiness. The point is just to take a few minutes to find what is OUR own definition. Sam and William both seemed to like the theme of our survey and maby they talked about happiness later that day with some of their friends and exchange their opinions on that with them! One thing I have learn during the project is that happiness is important to everyone!

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learning express library

Learning express library

Course 1 : vocabulary synonym and antonym

1-interest level: I would give this cours 7/10 because it is interesting at some point, but i'm not sure i,ve learned anything. There is no come back on the questions after.

2-difficulty: The first part was not so hard, but i had some difficulty with the second one.

3-wath i learned: As I said, the only thing I've learn is that i'm not good with antonym. I cannot have access to my test so i don't know were I made my mistakes and were i was right!

4-my score: I got 65%

5- course rating: I would give it 70-75 %. It was fun, but not so much helpfull.

Course 2 : grammar practice 1

1- Interest level: The test was really interesting and there were many subtilities.

2- difficulty: I found the test REALLY difficult for my level. I would recommande it for people in english 103.

3-wath i learned (3): Many little rules with ponctuation markers and grammar. I practiced using comas and capital letters in subversives sentences.

4- my score: 50% ...

5-course rating: I give the cours 80%.