miércoles, 28 de octubre de 2009

Selectividad Compositions 2009-2010

16 comentarios:

Anónimo dijo...

Selectividad Exam 2008-2009: Indiana Jones

Title: Why are Indiana Jones movies so popular among young people? Give reasons.

These movies are so popular all over the world for three main reasons:

The first one is that Indiana Jones has become a universal icon that everybody can recognise, like King Kong, Dracula, Charlot or Frankenstein.

Secondly, the movies are very entertaining (at least the first three ones) and are a good example of what an adventure film should be like. When “Raiders of the Lost Ark” was released in 1981 the genre changed: Spielberg and Lucas took all the elements from older adventure movies and series from the 40’s, turned them into a new way of making movies (and money) and created a unique universe.

Finally, like most Hollywood and U.S. films, Indiana Jones has had a very powerful advertising campaign, which helped it becoming what it is nowadays: the most famous adventure movies in the history of cinema.

Name: Jon Echevarría Ratón

Carlos Doz 2ºAB dijo...

Selectividad exam 2008-2009.

What things keep you awake and why they worry you?

Many nights I stay awake, unable to sleep, tossing and turning in bed. Sometimes I get up to watch TV, other times I take my Ipod and I listen to music lied on my bed, trying to sleep.

Like everyone else there are days I can not sleep because I'm nervous for an exam, a trip or some important event. But this is different. During all day I feel tired, exhausted I would say. I can´t concentrate in class, any noise bothers me and I´m angry constantly, even with my friends.

I don´t really know what prevents me from slepping. I lead a normal life, without stress, I play basketball and I eat healthy. However, insomnia is becoming unbearable. I´ve gone to several neurologists and all have given me the same answer: "You have no problem, you might be nervous about something, therefore you can´t sleep". It´s impossible to be nervous four months!

I´m very worried, sometimes I think I have a brain problem or something similar. I can not live this way. I´m not a person, I´m a ghost.

Anónimo dijo...

Selectividad Exam: Exam Composition

Tobacco and alcohol in the media (Exercise 2)

Though the advertising of tobacco and alcohol in the media has been restricted in most countries, these dangerous products are still heavily sold. I think we should restrict these products even more and make people think about their responsabilities.

In my opinion we should ban the advertising of these products, especially on TV. It is true that smoking doesn’t appear on TV as often as it did some years ago, but advertising alcohol is still allowed. I think there are two main reasons to ban these adverts: firstly, people, especially children and teenagers, are highly influenciable. Secondly, the fact that companies make a profit out if selling products that damage people´s health means that there’s something wrong with our society.

The companies companies defend themselves stating that people are free to buy whatever they want, and that they don’t force anyone to buy these products.

Since banning the advertising of tobacco and alcohol is illegal, I think there have to be more campaigns and adverts showing the risks of these products.

Name: Jon Echevarría Ratón

Beatriz Barakat Melián 2º A Bach. dijo...

Selectivity exam: Exam composition.

-Ways you would recommend to give up smoking.-

Tobacco is a legalized drug. As a drug it is addictive. People who start smoking can hardly give up this habit.

If I were a smoker and I wanted to give up smoking I would, at first, try to get information about what cigarettes contain so I would be disgusted of what I discovered.
If that didn't work I would try replacing smoking for another activity. Every time i fancied a cigarette I would, for example, play the guitar or eat something although this may cause me to gain some weight. I'd rather be a bit fatter than having further health problems.
If not even this helped me, my last choice would be trying to relate smoking with something really bad. What I mean is every time I wanted to smoke a cigarette I would try to remember horrible images of sick lungs or just something that would give me the creeps.
But, of course, the most important thing to give up smoking is willing to do it.

Elías Chafih dijo...

It was a weekend in March, spring. My friends and I, a group of ten people, had decided to do this trip some time ago. We never left the city and the countryside could be something of "another nature" to us. Our destination were the mountains of Cercedilla.
The plan was simple: to go by train to Cercedilla train station, walk up to the port of Navacerrada and finally walk down before the sunset began. That day we woke up early, about eight o'clock in the morning, but the simple act of changing the park bench for a natural and virgin trunk for sitting was worth it.
During the ascent we didn't rest for a second. We were just joking, photographing the landscape, immortalizing unforgettable moments and enjoying the sensation of immortal youth. We also had a curious obsession: to walk off the paths. We supposed that in this way it was easier to get lost, and perhaps the trip could be more hazardous and exciting. Every teenager in the holiday period tends to suffer loss of reason. When we reached the top we rested on a small plateau and ate in front of a magnificent landscape of trees and huge mountains. I didn't miss the Picasso Tower or the Castellana street. That feeling was higher to someone accoustomed to the subway. The food tasted different and my lungs told me "thank you" in each breathe.
When we returned home by train the atmosphere was subdued. It was clear that some of the pungent smell of the wild grass had remained in our minds. We had feelings of "another nature", we were happy. The photos of our memories were the best photos.
We belong to nature but, we forget it because the city corrupts us with avarice and swindle.

Anónimo dijo...

Through the broken glass


I’ve been fascinated with mirrors since I was a child: they’re like looking at a parallel universe in which a different version of you exists. Sometimes when I look at my reflection I don’t recognise my face, my eyes or my mouth.
I found once some broken pieces of glass in a container. Whithout even thinking what I was doing, I took one of the pieces, cutting myself in the process. Through the spilled blood I managed to see an image in the glass. At first I thought it was me, but then I realised it was a man, problaby in his thirties, whith dark hair and a beard covering most of his face. He was staring at me, and he had a really sad expression in his eyes, like if he was just about to cry. I felt frightened and I suddenly dropped the glass to the floor, breaking it to pieces.
Was that man me? Was it a vision of my future? Did I really see it, or was it just my imagination? To this day I’ve never stopped questioning myself those questions, and I’ve never been able to answer them.

Jon Echevarría

Beatriz Barakat dijo...

It was Saturday. As usual, I had to do a complete house-cleaning. I started by organizing the rooms. Then, I went on cleaning the kitchen, washing the dishes, sweeping the floors and finished by cleaning the bathrooms. When I emptied the bathroom bins in the kitchen's garbage can, my surprise was to find the leftovers of a broken mirror. It surprised me because I hadn't broken a mirror in a long time, but I decided to ignore the situation.
A few days passed when I started to notice strange things happening.
One day, I almost fell down the stairs of my building because something had pushed me. Another day, a fire started in the kitchen, but I hadn't been there! I decided, then, to ask the housekeeper if anything strange had happened in the house before. He told me a little girl had died ten years ago because she had fallen down and had hit the bathroom's mirror, breaking it. That day I decided to move to another house, but it didn't solve my problem. A few days later, my neighbours found my body lying down on the floor, next to a few pieces of a broken mirror.

Anónimo dijo...

What if…?

If I was given the opportunity to travel to a concrete historical period to live in, I would choose to go to around 33 A.D., when Christ was crucified and killed. I’ve always been interested in time travel and its paradoxes, and the ability to change past actions, so I thought: what would happen if one of the most famous icons of western culture was gone, or impersonated? Would people still worship him? Would there even exist such a thing as Catholicism? What would have happened instead of eleven centuries of Middle Ages? Would humanity have already conquered space? After thinking about it I came to a conclusion: if Christ hadn’t existed, the world would be pretty much the same. Another Messiah or leader would have been “used” instead of Jesus because, in the end, the world’s societies are based upon power, money and greed, and not the values like the ones Jesus actually preached.

Jon Echevarría

Beatriz Barakat dijo...

If I had to choose a historic period to live in, to be true, I wouldn't choose any past period. I'd live in the present one. I don't find better life conditions in the past than now. What I mean is, in most of the periods there wasn't equality between people, some of them had to be involved in laborous works even though it wasn't what they wanted or there was a lot of sickness and people didn't live much time. These are some of the reasons why I wouldn't like to live in a different period than the present.
Anyway, if I had to choose one of the past periods I'd choose the Medieval. I'd like to watch a real-time knight battle, one with horses and spears or a traditional one with swords. I'd also like to see how life was in a castle or learn from artists their painting techniques.
So, I guess these are the most important reasons why I'd be interested in the Medieval, but I don't think they're strong enough to make me want to live there.

Beatriz Barakat dijo...

I must confess I love shopping. Every time I've got some money I can spend I think about the possibility of buying something. But of course, only if I need it. Maybe some years ago I wouldn't have thought the same. What I mean is any commercial could influence me easily to want to buy the product it was showing, specially the Christmas ones. Now, I don't usually buy anything I don't need, but of course, everybody has got whims and from time to time it's pleasing to buy something just because you want it and not need it.
Anyway, money doesn't grow on trees, that's what I usually think of whenever I feel like buying something unnecessary. Even though I can't bear not buying it, I always try to analyze my situation and think of what's the best choice.
To conclude, I think money shouldn't be something to give importance to. Why not try and read a book or enhance something you're good at, painting in my case, instead of buying something just to feel better?

Luis Arranz Martínez 2º Bach. B dijo...

Do you ever buy things that you don't need? Why?

I buy things that I don not need, like every person in a developed country. As a man, I have a very easy-to-influence brain, manipulated by the media and the publicity, that create in me a necesity of something that five seconds before I did not even know - or maybe, I did not care.

These things are usually electronical gadgets, such as a microphone or a joystick, which you think are going to be very useful, but you may recognize that you have used them twice, or even less.

Sometimes, this kind of things are not technology, they are devices like one for bridging callus - what was my father thinking when he bought that? - or a special knife to peel vegetables. With all these things you only can look at them and think what might have done the genius who invented this junk with your money.

Glad to be the first of "B" class in the blog!

Anónimo dijo...

Elías Chafih - 2ºA Bach.

Of all historical periods the one that moves me is Romanticism. It's a cultural and political movement emerged in the late eighteenth century.
The thing that i find remarkable is the romantic spirit that was born at this time. A spirit characterized by the nonconformist desire of creating changes and fighting against the corruption in society, in the system.
The romantic is a person aware of what is happening around him and with his eyes open without needing to open them. He can look beyond than shallow, proud and vulgar people. He expects to reform the painful and destructive situation of the world through the art. He always claims the fundamental values: freedom, justice and humanity.
I think that this attitude is necessary today. We live in a world where the rules are always established at the mercy of the mercantile capitalism. Today it is clear that justice and freedom are anecdotes. Authenticity is a friend of materialism now. All that matters is the irrational hoarding or property, the constant search for success or utilitarian love and the destruction of all human products if there is money or power behind it. It is very difficult to achieve a full and authentic life in these conditions. The powers don't let us to develop our human capacities. So we can't live. Only automatons can live.
I believe that the only solution to a "landscape" so pessimistic (although realistic) is to have an idealistic and romantic character. Try to know the reality, see the problems. Change the direction of the mass to cause changes. Put all our efforts on learning to say "no" with solid reason for the measures of the system that don't enhance the human virtues and just want to make us become blind robots.

Cristina A. Sánchez 2ºC dijo...

Title: Pets in city flats?
__________________________

Some people argue that pets can look after yout home or can keep you company. People enjoy looking at the pets that are cute and attractive; they're another way to decorate the house.

But I would argue that animals need their own habitat, space, wildlife etc. Animals have to interact with their own species. They need to be able to follow their instincts for example to hunt and look after themselves and their oftspring. Pets need space to walk freely and people put leads on them in order to control them.

Furtheremore, animals can survive without humans because they have been doing for millions of years before mankind existed.

Moreover, animals can adapt more easily, than humans to different areas.

In conclusion, pets need to be move freely and not depend on humans to survive and they've to have their own lives.

Cristina A. Sánchez 2ºC dijo...

Title: What things keep you awake and why do they worry you?


Why should I have there be things that keep me awake? This is the question. I'm a quiet person and I haven`t got reasons for not sleeping.However, when I was a responsible person I couldn´t stand going to sleep with my homework incompleted or if I was angry with a friend or with my boyfriend.

Whenever I can, I sleep all that I can, because I do a lot of things every day and I need to lie. I haven't got time to think in things that keep me awake and if I have to think about anything, I do it on the underground or on the bus. In the meantime, people are worried about things that they cannot solve and cannot be done. For this reason, they feel more tired and worse, they waste their time in useless efforts.

Andrea dijo...

Selectivity exam composition:

Which period of history would you choose to live in?

If I would have to choose a historical period to live in I would have chosen to be born in the United States in the 50´s so I would have enjoyed all the sixties and seventies.
The reasons that make me decide for that part of history are diverse: the political conscience and the fight for rights and new values was in its highest peak by those years. I could have seen Marthin Luther King giving its famous speech, Kennedy and the most important thing: I could have been a truth hippy. Those years young people were really fighting for their rights and for the rights of others such as Vietnam population or soldiers.
In Paris the students started a revolution which tried to change a little bit the Western world and the had to be fantastic to live. The other big reason is the music, in those times you could see Jimmy Hendrix, the Beatles, the young Rolling Stones, the Who or Janis Joplin, most of them now disappeared.
For these reasons I would love to have lived in the 60´s.

Ignacio Blas 2º Bachillerato

Araceli Fernández Lázaro dijo...

DO YOU EVER BUY THINGS THAT YOU DON´T NEED? WHY?

I think everybody has bought something that they don´t really need or that they don´t really want just because they think it´s cheap or because they are whimsical.
I usually do it. I love clothes so I go shopping very often and I buy more and more things knowing that I shouldn´t do it because I haven´t got space in my bedroom and that I needn´t have to have fifty t-shirts althought they were very cheap, for example.
I also think that it´s is a problem of our society and our education. But we should try to change our minds and get concerned with other poor people in the world because the biggest problem isn´t that there are not enough resources for everybody, the real problem is that these resources aren´t shared correctly.