WEEK 12: CONNECTING WORDS (Isabel Martínez Puche)

Find out an piece of news where an academic topic is developed on the Internet and underline all the formal expressions you can see.

Red Planet Redo

The 1,380-pound spacecraft is currently sitting on top of an Atlas 5 rocket at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Launch is scheduled at 4:05 a.m. local time on May 5, and the southward trajectory could offer a predawn light show for early risers in Los Angeles and San Diego.

Tagging along for the ride is Mars Cube One — two briefcase-size satellites which are to test communications technologies for relaying signals from InSight to Earth. This will be the first time such small satellites, known as CubeSats, have been sent on an interplanetary journey.

If weather or other issues prevent a Saturday launch, NASA has additional opportunities over the next five weeks to get InSight off the ground before Mars and Earth move too far out of alignment. Even if the launch slips, InSight’s arrival date at Mars remains the same: Nov. 26.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/30/science/mars-insight-launch.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Fspace&action=click&contentCollection=space&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=sectionfront

Browse the Net and find a reliable classification of linking devices and upload it to your blog.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/flatmates/episode64/languagepoint.shtml

WEEK 11: COMPLAINING (Isabel Martínez Puche)

Browse the Net and find out charts where phrasal verbs are illustrated and upload one of them to your blog. 

Find a text on the Net where a complaint is stated and underline expressions to complain.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing today to complain of the poor service I received from your company on June 12, 2016. I was visited by a representative of That Awful Company, Mr. Madman, at my home on that day.

Mr. Madman was one hour late for his appointment and offered nothing by way of apology when he arrived at noon. Your representative did not remove his muddy shoes upon entering my house, and consequently left a trail of dirt in the hallway. Mr. Madman then proceeded to present a range of products to me that I had specifically told his assistant by telephone I was not interested in. I repeatedly tried to ask your representative about the products that were of interest to me, but he refused to deal with my questions. We ended our meeting after 25 minutes without either of us having accomplished anything.

I am most annoyed that I wasted a morning (and half a day's vacation) waiting for Mr. Madman to show up. My impression of That Awful Company has been tarnished, and I am now concerned about how my existing business is being managed by your firm. Furthermore, Mr. Madman's inability to remove his muddy shoes has meant that I have had to engage the services, and incur the expense, of a professional carpet cleaner.

I trust this is not the way That Awful Company wishes to conduct business with valued customers—I have been with you since the company was founded and have never encountered such treatment before. I would welcome the opportunity to discuss matters further and to learn of how you propose to prevent a similar situation from recurring. I look forward to hearing from you.
https://www.scribendi.com/advice/example_complaint_letter.en.html
 

WEEK 10: UNDER THE WEATHER WITH THE WEATHER (Isabel Martínez Puche)

Find out on the Internet 2 pieces of news about weather issues, and highlight the vocabulary related to the weather. Upload this to your blog.

Earthquake Strikes in Oaxaca State, Mexico, Stirring Fear

MEXICO CITY — A 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck Mexico’s southern Pacific Coast on Friday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The initial 7.2-magnitude shock was followed 57 minutes later by a magnitude-5.8 aftershock.

The epicenter of Friday’s earthquake was between those of a magnitude-8.2 quake on Sept. 8 and the 7.1-magnitude quake on Sept. 19. But from a geological standpoint, all three occurred in the same general area — a so-called subduction zone, where one piece of the earth’s crust, in this case the Cocos Plate, is slowly sliding under another, the North American.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/16/world/americas/earthquake-mexico.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEarthquakes&action=click&contentCollection=science&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=9&pgtype=collection

Floods Leave Paris Contemplating a Wetter Future

The Seine River overflowed its banks again in Paris and several nearby cities this week, a mere 18 months after reaching its highest level since 1982.

Thirteen of France’s 96 administrative departments had flood alerts as of Friday, in what the monitoring body Météo-France says is the country’s wettest winter since 1959.

Although some experts said it was hard to determine whether global warming was behind the current flood, others warned that a worrying pattern was emerging.

“Because of climate change, we can expect floods in the Seine basin to be at least as frequent as they are right now,” said Florence Habets, a senior researcher at the C.N.R.S., France’s national center for scientific research. “No matter what we say, the more we reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, the more we reduce our impact on droughts and floods.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/26/world/europe/france-paris-floods.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FFloods&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=5&pgtype=collection