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.