Can penguins FLY?

Monday, 15th December 2008: ORAL TEST

.School year 2008-2009
.1º Bachillerato , group B

Tips for the interview on Monday (tips= consejos prácticos)

Question: How am I going to assess you ?
Answer: By following these four criteria:
1. The specific vocabulary you use 25%
2. Correctness ( grammar) 25%
3. Pronunciation 25%
4. Fluency ( fluidez) 25%
TOTAL 100%

___________________________________________________

We have covered two main issues/topics this school term:

. Education
. Environment


Some of the questions I might ask you:

Education

1. What can teenagers do after compulsory schooling?
2. What are the pros and cons of leaving school at the age of sixteen?
3. Who pays for you school expenses?
4. Who goes to University?
5. How do you get money to help you at university?
6. What do people do with EMA?
7. What does EMA stand for?
8. What can happen if you do not attend College?
9. There are different opinions on British university students and education. Can you mention them? Do you agree ?
10. Can you mention the different university degrees you can get in Canada?
11. What is a vocational School? And a Trade School? What do students learn ?
12. Tell me a subject you like. Why?
13. Can you mention some of this year´s subjects?
14. What is a boarding school?
15. What subject(s) are you good at?
16. Mention a subject you hate?
17. Why are you studying Bachillerato?
18. What is a private school?
19. What is a state school?
20. Is a “ Public” school really for everybody? Is it public or private?
21.- Wha do you need to go to a " public" school? Money? Being smart?

Environment

1.- What do you do to help our environment?
2.- Name, at least, four environmental problems the world has nowadays.
3.- How did pollution start in USA ?
4.- What have they done to stop it ?
5.- What are the three r´s ?
6.- What is the name of the Act passed to stop pollution ?
7.- What is the greenhouse effect?
8.- What is the main environmental problem in Granada?
9.- What are we doing to help the environment in our school?
10.- Does your family recycle ? And you?
11.- Is " world climate" changing because of pollution? What do you think?
12.- Should we use private transport or public buses?
13.- Do you use an environmental friendly transport to come to school ? What type?

Is Greece a DEMOCRACY ?

Athenian democracy in ruins.The riots in Greece are symptomatic of a society deeply disillusioned with the failures and dishonesty

Teenagers throwing stones, cars and buildings alight, and Greek police firing tear gas are the only images being broadcast to the world, as rioting in Greece enters its third day with more demonstrations planned. But the unrest started long before the senseless shooting of 15-year-old Alexandros-Andreas Grigoropoulos.

New Democracy made lofty promises of reform to win re-election after the Greek wildfires in 2007, but voters have only seen scandal after scandal with hundreds of millions of taxpayer euros being wasted, an increase in violent crime, and a system of law and order that makes it impossible to get justice. It is a maladministration that allows convicted parliamentarians, terrorists, rapists and murderers to go unpunished for years and decades, yet sanctions police to raid and close down Stanleybet UK in a mere seven days for daring to compete with a €7bn monopoly in which the Greek state holds a 34.4% share. It is a government that does not protect, serve or even respect its people. This is a government out for itself, and the people respond accordingly by dodging taxes, refusing to pay social insurance, polluting the environment, flouting the law, paying bribes, coveting public sector jobs, and doing what they please without punishment.

Government and media are quick to label anyone daring to take to the streets in angry protest as "far-left, self-styled anarchists", although these youths are more likely thugs, hoodlums and bored rich kids who subscribe to the same mob mentality found at football games and wouldn't know the definition of anarchy. And when things get out of hand or an innocent dies, the government is quick to pass on blame to subordinates – in this case, two police officers who serve it. A minister tenders resignation, but no one implements real measures or takes ultimate responsibility for the discontent and hopelessness that sparked these and other violent riots in the first place. In short, the Greek state is incapable of controlling rioters with the same corrupt policies and lax enforcement that created them.

Interior minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos appealed for calm and said police will go on the defensive – a near admission that restoring law and order, a basic civil right, could not be guaranteed to protect innocent people who fear for their safety, property and livelihood. He also said: "The loss of life is something that is not excusable in a democracy." Yet any country that tolerates acts of continued violence is one that does not protect or value freedom. It is one thing to demonstrate; it is quite another to recruit through the internet with intent, detonate bombs, kidnap and take hostages.

The Kathimerini called the rioting, "the worst Greece has seen since the restoration of democracy in 1974", which begs the question of whether democracy truly exists in a country claiming to be its birthplace. In a democracy, sometimes people get the government they deserve.

QUESTIONS ON THE TEXT

1.- What did teenagers do to protest against the goverment?

2.- Is Greek democracy an honest political system ,nowadays? Why ?

3.- How have media reacted ?

4.- What is the final opinion of the author?

VOCABULARY

1.- Look for , at least, 3 words for "matón":

2.- Words of similar meaning:
. punishment:
. destroy things in the streets:

3.- Things angry people do to respond to a dodgy Goverment ( mention 6 ).
Publicado por Manuel Ruiz Gómez en 2:07
Etiquetas: Society