Influenza A: H1N1

In April 2009, an outbreak of H1N1 (swine flu) broke out in many countries across the globe. On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that a global pandemic of novel influenza A (H1N1) was underway. By then, H1N1 had spread to more than 70 countries. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) expects that there will be more cases, more hospitalizations, and more deaths associated with the pandemic into the fall (autumn)and winter.

Influenza is a common, contagious respiratory infection caused by a virus with outbreaks of different forms occurring almost every winter . It is characterized by fever, muscle aches, headache, and sore throat. The influenza virus appears virtually every year in a slightly different form and causes respiratory infections. Some years, cases are sporadic and local. In other years there are epidemics that can spread through cities, rural areas, and even whole countries.

The flu virus spreads through the air. It moves from person to person primarily when someone who is infected coughs or sneezes. The incubation period is one to four days, and you can be infectious, or pass the virus to someone else, starting the day before symptoms begin, and lasting through five days after you get sick. The infectious period for children can be longer. Uncomplicated flu in adults and children is characterized by the abrupt onset of the following symptoms:
- Fever and chills
- Headache
- Sore throat
- Muscle and joint pain
- Dry cough
- Runny nose

As the flu virus grows and spreads, the replication of individual cells occurs many times, and the errors compound. Eventually, though the virus remains a flu virus, the cumulative effect of many genetic errors results in a new strain. This is similar to taking a word and rearranging the letters one by one. At first it might be nonsense, but eventually you could have a new word.
If your body becomes infected with this new strain, it's as though it is meeting the virus for the very first time. The fact that you may have had the flu last year makes absolutely no difference. The antibodies your immune system produced in the past, give you little or no protection against another flu virus type or subtype. This is why it is not possible to give a vaccine that gives us long-term immunity to the flu. It is also the reason for seasonal epidemics, and for the incorporation of one or more new strains into each year's flu vaccine.

A major new strain of influenza appears approximately every 10 to 15 years, causing a worldwide flu epidemic.

Steps to protect your health:

• Cover your nose and mouth with a tissue when you cough or sneeze. Throw the tissue in the trash after you use it.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water, especially after you cough or sneeze. Alcohol-based hand cleaners* are also effective.
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose or mouth. Germs spread this way.
• Try to avoid close contact with sick people.
• If you are sick with flu-like illness, CDC recommends that you stay home for at least 24 hours after your fever is gone except to get medical care or for other necessities. (Your fever should be gone without the use of a fever-reducing medicine.) Keep away from others as much as possible to keep from making others sick.

Michael Jackson, the king of pop, has died at the age of 50, after suffering a cardiac arrest at his home in Beverly Hills. Pop star Madonna said: "The world has lost one of its greats, but his music will live on forever."
Fans gathered outside the clinic where he was pronounced dead on Thursday. A post-mortem is taking place on Friday.
Family lawyer Brian Oxman told US TV that he had been concerned about the star's use of pain relief medication. Mr Oxman said that Jackson took prescription pain relief for injuries sustained earlier in his career, including bones broken in a stage fall.
"It caused him great pain. He just didn't like to feel such discomfort. He started taking pain medication. It became part of his life."
US authorities have said final results of the post-mortem could take up to eight weeks while toxicology tests are completed.

Paying tribute to the star, musician Sir Paul McCartney said: "I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael. He was a massively talented boy-man with a gentle soul."
The singer's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley said she was "sad and confused". "This is such a massive loss on so many levels, words fail me."
Pop star Justin Timberlake, who has been compared to Jackson, said: "We have lost a genius and a true ambassador of, not only pop music, but of all music."
The musician added: "He has been an inspiration to multiple generations."
Paramedics were called to the singer's Beverly Hills home at about midday on Thursday after he stopped breathing.
He was pronounced dead two hours later at the UCLA medical centre in west Hollywood. Jackson's brother, Jermaine, said he was believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest.
Watch one of his best video clips:

More errors

These are some of the mistakes that you made in the last tests. Find, correct them and explain in English why they are wrong.
1- I´ve already said you.
2- I couldn´t write you.
3- My father has to works there.
4- It is usually raining.
5- I live in a little city called Mieres is small.
6- Frixuelos are goods but I don´t like it.
7- My house is near of the beach.
8- These days it was sunny.
9- I don´t send you an e-mail since Christmas.
10- Write to me early.
11- We have a very typical drink that is the cider is the most typical drink here.
12- I have started dancing since I was five years.
We haven´t got a lot of thinks to go shopping.

WRITING STORIES - Ángela Fernández.

Here, I´m writing a real story.
I was walking down a street in the south of London. It was midnight. There weren´t any stars in the black sky and it was pouring with rain. I was alone and the street was quiet, suddenly I could hear a voice. A well-known murderer was killing a little girl. I could see his face but I think he couldn´t see me.
The following day, I went to the police station very frightened and I told them everything. The policeman tried to catch him during several months but the bad man was quite intelligent and he always escaped. Finally, the police found him in his house and he went to (the) prison.
Now, everybody is happy in the town and I hope there won´t be any more murderers.


- I think it´s wrong because there are some words that don´t make sense in this text, others don´t exist and there aren´t any sentences joined. Last, there´s nothing with a whole description.

WRITING STORIES Alejandro Vázquez Glez.

I think that the story is bad because he used some words in a bad context, verbs and nouns that have got another mean and he hardly used linkers.

The night was very dark. It was raining a lot when I witnessed a terrible scene. A man was killing a girl! I saw the face of the killer and I (had good luck) was lucky he didn´t see me.
The next day I couldn´t stop (to think) thinking, so I decided to go to the police station, I told a police officer the entire story and I described the killer. The police was looking for the killer for a lot of time but he didn´t appear, thanks to his intelligence he could (to )hide, but finally the police caught him the week after.
Now I am happy because the killer is in (the) prison and everybody in the town congratulated me.

Hollywood learns a new film language

Last week Penélope Cruz became the Spanish first actress to win an academy award. Her golden statuette was for best supporting actress in Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona, a role in which she speaks mainly Spanish. It came a year after her co-star, Javier Bardem, became the first Spanish actor to win an Oscar for his supporting role in No Country for Old Men. Cruz spoke later of her hopes that Hollywood is now increasingly willing to embrace different nationalities and languages. Such a trend reflects a Spanish boom on TV and radio as Hispanics, the biggest minority in America, become ever more influential.
Spanish is the first language of 34 million people in US. Only Mexico has a bigger Spanish-speaking community.
The only disappointment for the media that day was that Bardem, whom Cruz is said to be dating, was not there to plant a congratulatory kiss. Then the Spanish Hollywood fairytale would be complete.

The News.Elections in the Basque Country and Galicia

Spaniards are voting in regional polls in the Basque Country and Galicia - the first political test since Spain slid into recession in 2008.

The Socialists have been focusing their campaign on the economy there rather than issues of national identity. Hours before polls opened, the Basque police arrested a suspected member of the militant group Eta, who was believed to have been planning an imminent attack. The 24-year-old had been under surveillance. Officers later found what has been described as "bomb-making equipment" in an apartment in the town of Hernani. Eta has called the Basque election "anti-democratic", following a decision by Spain's Supreme Court to ban two separatist parties from fielding candidates.
In Galicia, the Socialists are hoping to hold on to power in a coalition with the Galician Nationalist Bloc (BNG).

Paula Fernández: WRITING STRORIES II

THE MURDER

The night was so dark; I was walking through a wet street when I saw a terrible thing: A man was killing a girl! He killed her quickly and she immediately (felt) fell on the ground. I could see him, his face (where) was pale and his eyes were as cold as ice. I was really terrified, but the good point is that he could not see me because he started to run very fast until he disappeared in the dark, he seemed so nervous but he could escape.
At that moment I was nervous too, I did not know what to do, so, I do not know why, I went home trying to convince myself that everything (was) had been a bad nightmare.
The next day, I could not forget this and I could not sleep either. So I decided to go to the police-station, I had to wait for a long time but, eventually, I could talk to a policeman. They started to look for the murderer, but he was very intelligent and he could hide himself well. Of course, they could catch him.
Now he is in prison and I have just been ‘awarded’ Local Hero in my town because of my big contribution with the policemen. But the most important thing is that now, I can sleep at night!

Listenings

Have a look at this video. It´s an English teacher explaining English idioms in a very funny way. Notice his pronunciation.



These are other links for more videos that you can watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AX0T2oxv0Jo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2nT_HqWCUk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fW3H2YnRWJo&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cskIoQg8LCw&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvWZMtbEdfk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KccVhEfZ9Ms&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCV7tdSMat0&feature=related

Oral Presentations

One of the skills you need to work on a bit more is "public speaking". To improve your public speaking abilities it is essential that you feel more confident and that is something you gain with some practice. These are some rules:

- Decide what you want to say. Plan your speech well, organise it in logical order.
- Take notes to remember everything you need to say, but don´t read because you will sound boring.
- When you give your presentation, be as spontaneous as you can be.

- Rehearse your speech at home. You are performing as an actor/actress on a stage.
- Speak loud and clear. Speak slowly.
- Make eye contact with your audience. Look at each person in turn in a natural way.
- Body language is also important. You can stand, walk or move about.

The oral practice for this term will be to prepare a speech on one of the following topics:

My favourite book.
My treasured possession.
My favourite pop star.
My favourite film.
What I will be for Carnival.
My favourite sport.
My mobile.
My favourite game.
My life in Mieres.
My school.
This is the magazine that I read.
What I did on my last holiday.
A funny story.
A ghost story.
Your own suggestions.

Four students will present every week. At the end of the presentation you will ask the audience: "Questions or comments?"You choose two students. These will ask you questions about something mentioned in the speech itself, so the rest of the students have to listen carefully.
We will start in February right after St. Valentine.

Writing stories

Writing is quite a difficult task. It certainly takes time to do it well. Do not write just the first thing it crosses your mind. The best thing is to plan your writing. First, write a draft and make sure you include an introduction, a body and a conclusion.

Introduction: set the scene properly (who-where-when-what), mention or describe the people involved, choose a place, a time and the action taking place.

Body: Describe the incidents which lead up to the main event and the main event in detail.

Conclusion: End the story. Refer to the moods, consequences, people´s reactions, feelings, comments..

Something you must never do. Don´t think in Spanish when you are writing in English or you will get something like this:

_The people was very worry with the terrible success. The next day was spoken for every
Mieres.

Here is a short composition of a student who did not follow the steps decribed above when asked to write about an event. Read it, say why it is wrong and rewrite it.

_It was a dark night. It was raining heavily when the murder was killing the girl. I saw the face of the murder, but he didn´t see me.

Next day I went to the police, I told an agent what happened. The police was sending the murder for long time but he is very intelligent. Next week the police trapped the murder in his house. Now the people of the town is very happy.

Correcting errors

The English teachers often ask the students to write in English about many different topics. The students usually complain a lot, but it is something you just have to do, in order to improve your writing skills. One of the most important thing is to recognize the type of mistakes that you make, as most of them are very recurrent, so that you don´t make them again. Some can be the following: spelling, vocabulary, subject-verb agreement, punctuation, word order, tense, content, grammar mistakes.....

Here is a list of some of the latest errors in your exercises. Find, classify and correct them.

1. The kitchen is very desordened.
2. Her eyes are brilliants.
3. She in a normally day gets up at seven.
4. She worried is stay in home alone.
5. She go to buy the food.
6. She does her bed.
7. She went early to bed.
8. She go to buy the food and preparing the lunch when I stay in her house I like very much because when I get up I have old breakfast on the table.
9. She goes everyday walking.
10. She didn´t go to school but is very intelligent.
11. I love she very much.
12. She expent there all the time.
13. My granfather death very young.
14. She phone her sister every Sunday.
15. She likes a lot watching TV.
16. She do a lot of exercise.
17. She likes too cooking.
18. They lived in the same place with she.
19. In front of her house there are a garden.
20. She walked for an hour all the days.
21. Her eyes are brown like my.
22. She haves dinner at 10.
23. She prepare delicius food.
24. She work a lot in all of her life.
25. She never can saw she.
26. A year later she have another baby.
27. She haven´t got a father.
28. She have got a healthy diet.
29. Shes appearance is very yought.
30. Her kitchen didn´t was an example..
31. My grandmother go to the church all the sundays.
32. One day I was in the park with my friends when come a man very strange.