10. GLADIATOR PLOT

This story tells us how a well-known warrior ends being a gladiator. Maximus Decimus is the general who leads armies of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. After many battle winnings, he gained the confidence of the Emperor and they got on really well. As the Emperor is old and is about to die, he decides that he wants Maximus to be the next Emperor and not his son, Commodus. When his son Commodus finds out the decision of his father, he murders him and proclaims himself the new Emperor. Commodus ordered the guards to kill Maximus, but he manages to escape and saves his life. As a consequence, Commodus kills the entire family of Maximus and then he’s taken and sold to Proximo, who uses him as a gladiator. Maximus is forced to fight in local tournaments, and he wins every match because of his superior skill. He makes friends with Proximo’s other gladiators. Maximus’s successes allow Proximo to bring the team to the Roman Colosseum. There, Maximus tells Proximo that what he wants is to be free and kill Commodus. In the first fight, Maximus and the other gladiators aren’t armed too much but somehow they manage to beat their opponents. When this battle ends, Commodus congratulates himself Maximus and here is when Maximus removes his helmet and identifies to the Emperor. As the crowd loves and enjoys him, he does not kill Commodus yet.

After all of that, the Emperor wants Maximus to be dead as soon as possible. He makes him fight against the best other gladiators that exist and with even animals. As Maximus beats them successfully again, the Emperor gets more angry every time. He knows that people don’t like him and don’t accept him as the roman Emperor.

The story ends when Maximus finally kills the Emperor Commodus. As everyone noticed his courage and loyalty to the Roman Empire, he is well accepted and at this time everyone is at his side. No one cares about Commodus any more. 

7. ABOUT AN EXPERIENCE

This time last year, things were getting really exciting for me. I was about to go to Prague with my family and I was really happy for it. I had been looking that forward since my mother told me. I had always wanted to visit Prague as everyone who had gone told me that it’s a really beautiful and lovely place.

Everything changed for me the day I landed there. Everything was going fine when suddenly I fell down the stairs and I had to go to the hospital. I had broken my ankle and I couldn’t move from the hospital during a whole day. Everyone wanted to meet me because I was a foreigner and it wasn’t really that bad, I wasn’t bored at all. They let me go the next day and, although I had to walk with crutches and I had already missed a day, I could see almost all the city during the days left.

These days, I feel that if you are really looking forward to do something, anything can stop you because you’ll almost always have the power make it through somehow or other. So, don’t let anything destroy your happiness! 

6.AN OPINION ESSAY

The government plans to introduce a new law which will mean that students would have to go to school on Saturday mornings. In my view, this would have some negative consequences.

First of all, I think that this plan would be bad-accepted by the students because nowadays they go to school five days a week and do six hours of class every day. Although they are with their friends, at the end of the day it’s really tired. When they arrive home they can’t do what they want because normally they have homework to do so they finally spent more than six hours studying. I also think that it would be unfair because young people use the weekends to do things they like and can’t do during the week because they don’t have time. Introducing another day of class would mean that they have less time for themselves considering that they already spent 5 days of the week going to school.

If the aim of the government is trying to increase the level of actual students, I don’t think they should do it that way. It seems to me that there’s a better alternative: they could organize learning activities in the weekends encouraging students and making them have fun. 

1.SUMMER HOLIDAYS

MY LAST SUMMER

Hi, I'm Mònica Nogué, and this is my presentation about my last summer holidays. First of all, I'm going to talk about my holidays in l'Escala, then I'm going to explain my stage at Laura's house in Tossa, after that about my stage in a camp and I'm going to finish with my vacations in Blanca's house in Pals. Let's start then.

L'ESCALA

As you know, L'Escala is a beautiful town in the coast. I have a house in there so in summer we can spend some days with family or friends. This year, I was there for almost a month, including my birthay, when I invited Blanca, Judit and Marta to come and spend the day together. Judit stayed with us for a week. We used to go to the beach or shopping. Here you can see some of the photos we took together.

TOSSA

This year Laura Solà invited me to spend some days at her family house in Tossa. It was the first time I was in Tossa and I have to say that it is such a beautiful place. As her house was near to the beach, we went there when we wanted. We went to the town cinema one time and we watched After Earth, a very good film and we also went to the bowling. At nights, we used to hang out over there and have an ice-cream or just sat on the beach and spend the time talking. We went shopping almost every day. I really had a very good time with her and I wish she could come with me to l'Escala next year.

STAGE IN A CAMP

As last year's summer holidays, I stayed in a camp for four days with my friend Judit. We did the kind of activities we did last year and some new more. We tried to do paddle-surfing with two more friends and I really enjoyed the experience. At the beginning it was hard to balance but then we had a lot of fun. We also went for a walk near the sea.

PALS

After all of this, I went to Blanca’s apartment in Pals, a town near l’Escala. We were alone at home for three days so we did anything we wanted to do. It was really funny because we had to cook ourselves. We went to the beach and the pool every day. As the weather wasn’t very good we decided we could take photos and. Here you can see some of them. We went to sleep like at 3 o’clock every day and we woke up every morning between 12 and 13 a.m. I spend a really relaxing days with Blanca in Pals.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this has been a great summer for me. I spent most of the time at the coast and I really enjoyed it. I’m glad this year I could spend some time with almost all of my friends, considering that last year I went to England for a month and I couldn’t. 

9.TRIP TO ITALY

Hi! I'm Mònica Nogué and in this video I'm going to explain you some things about my last school trip to Italy. During the trip we visited Florence, Pisa, Rome and The Vatican.

We spent the whole morning of the first day visiting Pisa. There, we saw the leaning tower, the cathedral or Duomo of Pisa and its baptistery. We took a lot of photos of ourselves trying to hold the tower, they are really original. We also climbed the dome and saw incredible views.

After having lunch, we took the train and went to Florence. We went to a viewpoint and took incredible photos there too. After that, we spent the afternoon walking around the city. I really liked the city style of Florence. It’s a big city with such beautiful buildings and nice people. We spent the next two days visiting the most touristic points like the cathedral or the Uffizi’s art gallery. The places that I enjoyed most were the cathedral, where we climbed to the top and saw incredible views, the Vecchio Bridge and the academy, where we saw David. The sculpture of David it’s bigger than it looks in photos!

In Florence we had a lot of free time which I and my friends spent walking around the city, taking photos and shopping. In Florence, I just bought some pasta and cheese for my family. Another thing I really liked in Florence was the hotel. The food was good and we also had free Wifi. Thanks to that we could communicate with people of other rooms and meet to hang out together.

In the third day we took a train and went to Rome. After we had lunch, we went to Piazza Venezia and visited Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri. Then, we visited the ‘typewriter’ and the Pantheon. It was quite shocking because I had only seen it in movies and photos. Finally we visited the Trevi Fountain. I had never seen such a big fountain before and it was quite shocking too. I really liked it. We took really beautiful photos there.

In the second day in Rome we went to The Vatican. We visited Vatican museums in the morning. There is so much to see! Then we had lunch and went to St.Peter. We climbed the dome and saw the view of all the Vatican. It was amazing. We also saw the well-known Sistine Chapel.

In the last day we went to the Coliseum and saw how amazing and big it is. It’s really impressive what people back then used to do there. They made people fight between themselves and even animals! There is a saying that they used to organize ship battles flooding part of the Coliseum.

What I enjoyed most in Rome was the Coliseum and the Pantheon. One night that we had free time, Blanca, Elena, Laura and I saw a dance company recording some kind of a sample for a casting of a known TV show in Rome. It was so nice to see.

Generally, the weather was good all of the days and this made the trip more enjoyable. The day that we visited the Coliseum was the hottest. We had a lot of free time most of the days so we could explore the cities by ourselves. We ate pasta or pizza almost every day.

I have to say that the place I like most is Florence. I wish I could travel there again someday! Although, there are a lot of things in Rome that we didn’t visit so if there’s any opportunity to go there again I would really accept it.

In conclusion, this was a really good experience for me and I really had fun with my classmates. Maybe someday we could travel all together again!

3.PLANS FOR A VISIT

Hi, Judit

I’m just writing to check that everything’s OK and ready for your visit. I think you’ll really like Barcelona. For me, it’s one of the prettiest and more interesting cities in the world.

The weather is hot in here so in Saturday morning we’re going to chill on the beach, if it suits you. In the afternoon we could take a bus tour so you can see some of the monuments of the city. Then, as we’ll be free, we’ll probably meet some of my friends and go to the cinema or to a shopping centre. My parents want to meet you, so I’ve invited them to have dinner with us.

On Sunday, we could go to PortAventura, a park with many roller coasters. It’s up to you. We could also get a bus or train somewhere. There are a lot of other cities in Catalunya that are worth to visit like Banyoles, where there is a beautiful lake, or some town in the coast as l’Escala or Platja d’Aro. I’ll get some photos and you can have a look when you arrive.

We’re going to meet you at the airport tomorrow between 5p.m and 6p.m. , OK?

Looking forward to seeing you.

Mònica. 

4.HISTORY OF A PRODUCT

THE STORY OF VANS

Vans is a textil company which got their name because of it's fundator, Paul Van Doren. This company was originally called Van Doren Rubber Company and they only produced clothes and shoes for basketball, bolleiball and wrestling. As they got a great success in 1983 not only with sport player's, they got a big acceptation in the market.

Although, Vans had a problem. They had a 12 milion debt that had to be solved in only three years. Fortunately, they overcame the problem successfully and even with more people interested in wearing Vans. Vans had a huge financial effort when in 1988 the owners sold Vans to McCown DeLeeuw Co., a company with importan investors who expanded Vans worldwide.

Vans became very popular when in 90's new models were sold and some bands like The Offspring, Pennywise, Green Day and Bad Religion used to wear them. They were usually associed with punk-pop or rock. A year later, some models of Vans appeared on Triple Crown Series, a prestigious serie of surf. Thanks to that, Vans became the first brand of skate style.

Nowadays, Vans don't only produce shoes as in the past. They also produce clothes, accessories and even videos with skate triks for skate fans. Vans had become popular all over the world. They are produced in many different colours, designs and styles. 

5-ABOUT ME AND MY VIEW OF THE WORLD

My name is Mònica Nogué and I’m a student in Casa Nostra in Banyoles. I’m really interested in music, literature and dance, especially ballet. I practice ballet twice a week with some of my friends and this makes it more enjoyable. The poepole who I spend most time with are my four best friends Blanca, Mireia, Judit and Marta. The thing which I like best doing is going with them to the cinema or shopping.

I don’t think that the world is a bad place, although I think we would make it better if we focuse only with our things and not with others things. Everyone has to worry about their problems and, in my opinion, nowadays people really like to gossip. There aren’t many things that make me angry, but one thing that annoys me is when people pretend to be who they are not just to impress the others.

As far as the future is concerned, it sometimes worries me that we won’t have enough oil , considering that is one of the most used raw materials today. I’m fairly optimistic about my own future though. In a few years’ time, I see myself studying a career in university and getting good grades.

2.ACCOUNT OF A DECADE

2000-2010 decade is defined as a technologic decade or digital revolution for many reasons. There were good things like the creation of ".com", the birth of google or the creation of cell phones with camera and Mp3 players. There were also difficult times, many people suffered the bird flu, in 2008 the economic crisis started and the're where twoo attacks to the Twin Towers.

In the world of music, Britney Spears, the princess of pop-music after Madonna in 1990s, was the image of the decade. Millions of her albums have been sold and she received platinum status 15 times for her album "Baby one more time". Apart fom this, Michael Jackson, the legendary king of pop, died in 2009 causing a big impact to their fans. In cinemas, there were some hits like Billy Elliot, a film which shows us the life of a kid who wanted to become dancer, the Harry Potter films, the wizard-boy, the Lord of the Rings and many others. Fashions changed a lot from sixties. During 2000 to 2010 it was the era of skinny jeans and vintage clothing.

By the end of the decade, the world was a different place. The innovation of new gadgets like facebook, twitter, instagram, whats app and all things around technology changed people's lives. The most memorable events of 2000-2010 decade where when Michael Jackson died, in 2008 or when Spain won the Europe Cup of football.