Unit 4 - Writing - Essay

Essay

Low-cost airlines have revolutionized travel - but at what price?

Pros

- Allowed more people to flight;

- Improved the economy system of cities and countries.

Cons

- Quality of the service has decreased;

- Overbooking;

- You have to pay for everything but the flight.

More than before, we've seen plenty of traditional airlines companies changing their business and offering low-cost flights. Over and above, dozens of new airlines companies around the world, have been created with this purpose. This shift is changing the way people are currently using the system. It's clear to all of us that low-cost companies have revolutionized travel - but at what price?

The highest contribution of the low-cost airlines is to allow access to a wide range of passengers, something never seen before. Right now, more and more people can travel by plane, mainly because they can afford the cost of the airline tickets.

In addition, these flights have been improving the economy system of cities and countries. The more people travel, the more people spend money buying things and increasing the local markets. It's money in movement.

On the other hand, however, to keep the low price of tickets the airline companies have been decreasing their quality of service. One good example is the overbooking. The premise of low-cost airline companies is to have full of the seats occupied. So, in order to get this, plenty of times the passengers have to face overbooking. Finally, besides the low price of the tickets, the passengers have to pay for everything that is not included in the ticket regulation. For example, passengers have to pay for on boards meals, size and weight of checked bags, change of flights, etc. Frequently, the final price paid for the tickets is almost the same given for other companies including everything mentioned and other advantages for the passenger.

To sum up, although low-cost airlines had given access to millions of passengers around the world, who had even thought about flying before, the quality of service delivered is below the acceptable in most of the time. Thus, I believe that the price paid for travel with low-cost airline companies could be high in the end.

See you!!

Why does time pass?

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Chapter four

Mrs Joe is busy doing the arrangements for Christmas day when Pip comes back from the Battery. She asks him where he was, and he answers that he was hearing the Carols. Joe is in the kitchen as well, trying to avoid Mrs Joe "cross temper"

Dickens writes with his sense of humour, describing when they have breakfast, served by Mrs Joe."So, we had our slices served out, as if we were two thousand troops on a forced march instead of a man and boy at home..."

Pip describes the way that Mr Joe dresses as being quite unconventional."Nothing that he wore then, fitted him or seemed to belong to him; and everything that he wore then, grazed him".

Also, he describes the way that Mrs Joe insisted on wearing him like a boy coming from the Reformatory, reaffirming his feelings that "I was always treated as if I had insisted on being born, in opposition to the dictates of reason, religion, and morality".

Joe and Pip go to the mass at the church, and there they meet Mr Wopsle, the clerck of the church, as well as Mr Hubble, the wheelwright, and Mrs Hubble. Likewise Uncle Pumblechook. All of them were invited to have dinner at Mrs Joe's house. When Joe and Pip got home, "they found the table laid, and Mrs. Joe dressed, and the dinner dressing, and the front door unlocked (it never was at any other time) for the company to enter by, and everything most splendid"
At that moment, Pip is well worried about the last night robbery, but there is no signal that anyone had discovered something about.

Mr Wopsle is the first to arrive, in sequence, came Mr and Mrs Hubble and last, Uncle Pumblechook, who Pip was not allowed to call uncle. Uncle Pumblechook is described as "a large hardbreathing middle-aged slow man, with a mouth like a fish, dull staring eyes, and sandy hair standing upright on his head, so that he looked as if he had just been all but choked". Moreover, Mrs Hubble as "a little curly sharp-edged person in sky-blue" and Mr Hubble as "a tough high-shouldered stooping old man, of a sawdusty fragrance, with his legs extraordinarily wide apart".

During the dinner, Pip is bullied by all members of the table except for Joe. "I might have been an unfortunate little bull in a Spanish arena, I got so smartingly touched up by these moral goads". With all "pointing their fingers" to Pip, Joe is the only one who always aided and comforted Pip. He is even called "Swine" by Mr Wopsle or "Squeaker" by Mr Pumblechook.

Mrs Joe offers brandy to Uncle Pumblechook, the same brandy that Pip had filled up the bottle from the tar-water jug. When drinking the brandy, Uncle Pumblechook fell something wrong and spits all the liquid on the table. Dickens again, describes the scene with good sense of humour "I held on tight, while Mrs. Joe and Joe ran to him. I didn’t know how I had done it, but I had no doubt I had murdered him somehow"

When his sister goes to get the pork pie, Pip is so horrified by the situation, she will discover the robbery, that he runs always by the door " ...and ran for my life". Outside, he meets some soldiers who held out a pair of handcuffs on him. 

See you on Chapter five.

BRASILEIROS COM INGLÊS PERFEITO | Treine seu listening com SmallTalk #10

Michael Kiwanuka - Cold Little Heart (Live Session Video)

CAE - Reading - Multiple Choice

You are going to read an extract from a story. For questions 1-6, choose the answer (a,b,c or d) which you think fits best according to the text. (From Flo - Joe UK)

HOME COMFORT

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, the lull (a temporary calm) before the storm of Monday morning madness of alarm clocks, traffic jams and deadlines. The clock struck (to make known the time by sounding) three and Rebecca’s elbow still rested on the arm of the tapestry-covered sofa. With her fingertips, she began caressing the rough piping (trimming stitched) that ran along its seams (the joining of two pieces). Simultaneously, the toes of her left foot moved back and forth across the edges of the sheepskin rug (a floor covering). This action Rebecca found comforting; it reminded her of being at home as a child when she used to sit in the family sitting room, her toes playing with the fringes of another kind of rug. Her mother would snap at her to stop it, so of course, she did it all the more (even more).

Rebecca had a sudden whiff  (to inhale an odor) of the glue that Katy was applying to make one of her artistic creations. Her daughter was seated on a cushion right in the middle of the room, looking like an island, surrounded by a sea of cardboard cut-offs, sequins, felt-tip pens, and pristine sheets of white A4 paper that she had disobediently pinched from her father’s study. She really should be working at the kitchen table, Rebecca thought, but I don’t have the appetite for the outburst that might happen if my genius-daughter-at-work is disturbed. Every three minutes and 50 seconds Katy got up to replay Kylie Minogue’s version of ‘The Locomotion’.

“Why don’t you listen to the CD all the way through, Katy?” her dad said, who was sprawled out on the other sofa. “You’d like the other songs as well.”

“Nah, too boring.”

Rebecca glanced at David and then said, “I could do with something to perk me up.” Her words trailed off with a heavy sigh, and then a yawn. It was the first in a series of hints that she would like him to get up and make her a cup of tea.

On the lamp table next to the sofa, she noticed a letter that had been delivered a week ago, advertising exercises classes and a slimming club. She had kept it on the table as a reminder, or perhaps to conjure up the same kind of magical effect that people believe in when they splash out on membership to a fancy gym without going near the place more than once every two months.

“Have you seen this flyer?” she said to her husband. “Just the thought of going for a workout makes me want to go and lie down.” Once more she didn’t get a response. “Who’s going to make the tea then?” was her third and most blatant (mean so loud or insistent as to compel attention) attempt to get a drink before she died of thirst.

He stood up. “I suppose it’s my turn. Again.” He went off into the kitchen while Rebecca, the victor (winner), snuggled (to curl up comfortably or cozily) a bit further into the sofa. Charlie, who’d been asleep on the sheepskin rug, now started up with his own brand of baby chatter. He was attempting to cover the whole repertoire of vowel sounds this afternoon, like a singer performing warm-up exercises. Then, occasionally, he jammed (to force one's way into a restricted space) his fingers into his mouth to make a sound approaching an elongated ‘w’.

He lay underneath a baby gym, which consisted of a tubular frame in patriotic colours of red, white and blue and a top bar, from which dangled two clowns, one on a swing and one in a position that Rebecca thought was called a pike. (It was a long time ago that she had achieved her gold star award in the trampoline.) Once Charlie made eye contact with Rebecca, his happy babbling began to turn into a grizzle.

Does Charlie want feeding again?” Rebecca asked in the baby voice that irritated them all, herself included. She bent down to scoop her son up.

“Mum, he doesn’t want feeding again. You’ve only just fed him,” Katy said.

“I’ll try – just in case he’s hungry.” In the kitchen she warmed through the mush of potatoes and broccoli that Charlie liked and took it back through to be with Katy.

Luckily, the baby was actually ready for a feed, which meant that Rebecca not only saved face with her daughter, but showed that she had no need to feel guilty about sending her husband to make the tea. David walked back in the sitting room that very minute, her cup of Earl Grey with its delicate scent of bergamot wobbling in its saucer. In his other hand he clutched a large mug. Rebecca gave him a warning look that dared him not to put the cups down on the oak blanket box that served as their coffee table. Its surface was already scarred by two rings where hot drinks had been carelessly placed directly onto it.

“Thanks. You’re a treasure.” She settled down to feed Charlie, knowing that her tea would be the perfect temperature to drink in one go by the time he had had enough. 

“Where’s Katy got to?” David said, after a few minutes. The answer came from upstairs as they heard the sound of their older child passing through the curtain in the doorway of her bedroom. It was likethose beaded curtains that used to be in fashion when Rebecca was a child, but instead of beads this one was formed from a dazzling collection of pink, purple and silver shimmering plastic squares. She couldn’t remember which one of them had named it the ‘jingle-jangler’ but it was very apt.

1	Rebecca’s mood at the start of the story is
			calm and reflective.
			cross and irritable.
			restless and agitated.
			sad and upset.
2	What action does Rebecca take with her daughter?
			She reprimands Katy for making a mess on the floor.
			She asks David to speak to Katy.
			She appeals to Katy to play a wider range of music.
			She does nothing in order to avoid a fuss.
3	What is Rebecca’s attitude to the letter lying on the table?
			The adverb’s claims are misleading.
			She hopes it will prompt her to take up exercise.
			It makes her feel more motivated.
			She thinks the slimming club is good value for money.
4	When David first leaves the sitting room, Rebecca is
			relieved that her baby is awake.
			surprised to hear her baby chattering.
			guilty that she’s being lazy.
			glad to have got her own way.
5	Rebecca is worried when her husband brings in the drinks because
			he might trip over Katy’s equipment.
			he doesn’t like the smell of her tea.
			tea is dripping from the saucer.
			he might damage an item of furniture.
6	The curtain referred to in Katy’s bedroom
			is identical in design to one from a previous generation.
			makes a tinkling sound.
			is made up of unusual colours.
			keeps out the light at night.

Answers - 1(a), 2(d), 3(b), 4(d), 5(d), 6(b).

See you!!

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Chapter three

It's the morning of a damp day, and Pip goes to meet the mysterious man. All the way to the Battery, he feels bad because he stole so many things from this house.

When Pip arrives there, he sees a man hiding on the marshes. Despite be wearing the same clothes as the man from the last night, and have the same iron leg, he is not the same person. He is another convict who, in their last meeting was hiding in the woods. The man sees Pip, hit him and then flees.

"And yet this man was dressed in coarse grey, too, and had a great iron on his leg, and was lame, and hoarse, and cold, and was everything that the other man was; except that he had not the same face, and had a flat broad-brimmed low-crowned felt that on"

After that, Pip sees in the distance his terrible fellow, the legitime, limping and waiting for him. The man seems to be cold, wet and starving. Pip gives him the file and all the food. For a moment the man seemed to be gentle with Pip, but when Pip mentions the other convict he encountered in the marshes, the man becomes violent and threatening again.

"He held me by the collar and stared at me so, that I began to think his first idea about cutting my throat had revived."

Meanwhile, Pip leaves the Battery and the man starts trying to unleash the iron leg with the file.

See you in Chapter four.

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Chapter two

The second chapter is basically an introduction to the character of Mrs Gargery, her husband Joe and the relations among them.

Pip describes his sister, Mrs Gargery as being twenty years older than him. She is not a good-looking woman, with black hair and eyes and a "prevailing redness of skin that I sometimes used to wonder whether it was possible she washed herself with a nutmeg-grater instead of soap". Also, he describes Joe Gargery as a fair man with curls of flaxen hair on side of his smooth face, and being "a mild, good-natured, sweet-tempered, easy-going, foolish, dear fellow - a sort of Hercules in strength, and also in weakness".

Mrs Gargery and Joe Gargery

When Dickens uses the term "by hand" to write about how Mrs Gargery raised Pip, he is intentionally ambiguous. Originally, 'by hand' meant be nursed by someone other than ones biological mother (maybe by bottle). On the other hand, writing 'by hand' evokes using her hand corporally against her husband and kids. 

"Having at that time to find out for myself what the expression meant, and knowing her to have a hard and heavy hand, and to be much in the habit of laying it upon her husband as well as upon me, I supposed that Joe Gargery and I were both brought up by hand".

After running away from the church, Pip arrives at home and meet Joe waiting for him at the kitchen. Joe warns him that his sister and "Tickler" (a wax-ended piece of cane) were looking for him for a while and that she was furious with his absence. 

"Tickler" in action with Mrs Gargery

The only thing crossing Pip's mind was his obligation to "the man with an iron leg". Trying to accomplish his task, Pip stirs a piece of bread at that night, and early in the morning Pip goes to the kitchen and steals "some bread, some rind of cheese, about half a jar of mincemeat (which I tied up in my pocket-handkerchief with my last night's slice), some brandy from a stone bottle...... , a meat bone with very little on it, and a beautiful round compact pork pie". Also, Pip steals a file (knife) from Joe's stuff.

After that, Pip runs to the marshes to meet the mysterious man with the "iron leg".

See you in Chapter three!

Great Expectations - Charles Dickens - Chapter one

Chapter One

The first chapter is an introduction to the main character, Philip Pirrip, or as he used to call himself, only Pip. He never knew his parents, and the only likeness that he had about them, came from his imagination looking at their tombstones. 

Pip had imagined his father as a "square, stout, dark man, with curly black hair" and his mother "freckled and sickly". In that hard days, Pip had five brothers who died as well. Now, they rest beside the tomb of their parents.

Pip lives with his sister in the marsh country in south-east England. One night, Pip was at the village churchyard when one man arrives. The young boy describes him as a "fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag tied round his head" 

This man seized and turned him upside down, searching for something in Pip's pockets, but the only thing that he had was a piece of bread. Inquired by the man about the purpose of his presence there, Pip says that he was only gazing his parent's graves and that he lives a mile from the church.

A photo of the Kent graveyard on which Dickens based his description.

So, the man demands Pip to bring a file (knife) and a wittle(a mispronunciation for victuals or vittle - which means food) in the next day morning in order to let him alive.

Actually, he was an escape convicted man and the "iron leg" that Pip refers is some kind of a ball in a chain with a leg cuff.

Pip runs through the marshes heading his home and for a while stops to see if the man was still there, and he was, limping and looking at him. Pip was so frightened that he started to run again, but this time without stopping. 

See you in Chapter two!

Wuthering Heights - Review

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë was first published in December 1847. Ever since then, many editions of this masterpiece of English literature has been released. In the isolated English moors, this gripping romance with its flawless narrative will hook you from the very first page.

Wandering the streets of Liverpool, a gipsy boy called Heathcliff is found by Mr Earnshaw, an English Landlord. Deciding to adopt the boy, and bringing him to live at Wuthering Heights, Mr Earnshaw could never have imagined that he would be starting a ruthless, passionate story of love and revenge.

Catherine, Mr Earnshaw daughter, starts a close relationship with Heathcliff, arousing the fury of her brother Hindley Earnshaw. After the death of his father, he starts to managing Wuthering Heights and to mistreat Heathcliff, forcing him to work hard and revoking his education access.

A man called Mr Lockwood rents Thrushcross Grange, a manor house owned by Mr Heathcliff. He meets Nelly Dean, a housekeeper who grew up closer to Hindley and Catherine. Trying to answer all the questions raised by the new tenant, Nelly Dean starts to narrate the story of Heathcliff and the residents of Wuthering Heights.

Written in such richness of details, Wuthering Heights caught my attention and provoked my feelings. I could fell the atmosphere of the moors. I could imagine the characters as well as their countenance. On the other hand, this meticulous description can bore the reader who is not used with the method. Another relevant point is, to have been written in the 18ths, Bronte writes using a fancy and not usual vocabulary for the present day.

Finally, I strongly recommend this book for everyone who feels the need for extending their vocabulary, mainly English students, while reading a wonderful and unique novel.

See you.

Keys to Power - Law 31

Words like "freedom," "options," and "choice" evoke a power of possibility far beyond the reality of the benefits they entail ( to make something necessary, or to involve something ). When examined closely, the choices we have - in the marketplace, in elections, in our jobs - tend to have noticed limitations: They are often a matter of a choice simply between A and B, with the rest of the alphabet out of the picture. Yet as long as the faintest mirage of choice flickers on, we rarely focus on the missing options. We "choose" to believe that the game is far, and that we have our freedom. We prefer not to think too much about the depth or our liberty to choose.

This unwillingness ( The quality or state of being unwilling to do something; reluctance ) to probe the smallness of our choices stems from the fact that too much freedom creates a kind of anxiety. The phrase "unlimited options" sounds infinitely promising, but unlimited options would actually paralyze us and cloud our ability to choose. Our limited range of choices comfort us.

FROM THE 48 LAWS OF POWER - ROBERT GREENE