The Ghost of the Things Yet to Come showed to Scrooge how people would react after his death. This travel made Scrooge think in two different topics, consequence and time. The first lesson that he learn was that if he don't was good for people, them will not treat him well neither during his life nor after his death. The second lesson was that he didn't knew how much life time he still had for change those situations. When he realized that he maybe didn't had time for be a better man, he became desperate.   

Write a dialogue from a movie you like.

     Step-mom

     Isabel and Jackie are in a restaurant talking about the future of their family. Isabel is married with Jackie's ex husband. Jackie is in the last stage of cancer and she is concerned about what will happened with her two kids. This dialogue is the climax of the movie. The both women are trying to solve their difference for the happiness of the children.

     "You know, I never wanted to be a mom. Sharing it with you... that's one thing.", said Isabel, "  It's another to be looking over my shoulder for the next twenty years, knowing someone else would have done it better... someone else would have done it right."

     " What do I have that you don't?", asked Jackie. 

     "You're Mother Earth, incarnate." , replied Isabel.

     "You're... hip, and fresh.", said Jackie

    "You know every story, every wound, every memory. ", completed Isabel, "Their whole life's happiness is wrapped up in you... every single second. Don't you get it? Look down the road to her wedding. I'm in a room alone with her, fixing her veil, fluffing her dress, telling her no woman has ever looked so beautiful. And my fear is she'll be thinking, "I wish my mom was here."

     "And mine is... she won't.", said Jackie, "But the truth is, he doesn't have to choose, she can have us both love us both. She will be a better person because of me and you. I have her past, and you can have her future."

        The women finished their conversation, they realized that both want the best for the children even if their have different ways for doing it.  

      

Describe a picture you find on Flickr.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/finnhopson/8294472687/in/explore-2012-12-21

       This picture remember me the city of Valdrada described by the character Marco Polo in the book Invisible Cities - by Ítalo Calvino. The aesthetic from the buildings is clearly different, this is a real modern English city, while Valdrada was a city from the 13th century described poetically. 

     Someone who didn't read this book can be thinking what this two cities have in common after all? They are both duplicated places, the proximity with some water sources made these cities exist twice, first in the reality and after in the mirrored image.   The city from the picture is located near to the ocean, so the buildings on the reflected images are figures, sketches of the real ones. This is the perfect combination and how pretend the thinks are and of how they really are. This modern cities, whit concrete skyscrapers and asphalt streets send a message that everything is right, every decision was made, everyone know how they are, what they want. But this isn't true, people are uncertain, have doubts, problems that they don't know how to solve, feelings that they don't recognize. 

      The image reflected in the sea, shows the soul of the city, where everything is ephemeral and able to change with a wave's movement. 

What did Scrooge learn from the second ghost?

The Ghost of Christmas Present was the second spirit that visited Scrooge that night. When he arrived Scrooge was already sensitized and didn't hesitated to follow the ghost on a tour. This time they went to see how some of Scrooge acquaintances were spending the Christmas eve.In every house they went, people were full of love, but they had no money, just the opposite of Scrooge. There was another difference between these people and Scrooge, they were happy. Scrooge realized that love and happiness were always around him, but he could not feel them, because he was always pushing people away from him. He did it so often that most people around him had a bad impression of him and began to avoid him. If he wanted change his life he had to change the way he related to people.

What did Scrooge learn from the first ghost?

     The first spirit was The Ghost of Christmas Past. The ghost took Scrooge in a small time travel, where the man could see and remember how were his Christmas in the past. Scrooge's childhood was tough, not even during Christmas people demonstrated appreciation for him and probably that is the reason why he was never able to distinguish "the Christmas Spirit". As an young adult, he had the opportunity to live with people who could have filled this lack of love. Unfortunately, he was more concerned about the lack of money, and  became lonely again. For many years Scrooge felt sad and this feeling was so constant in his life he stopped showing it. In this journey he learned that his misery was a consequence of the wrong choices he made in life and started to demonstrate his frustration for the first time in years. This time travel was the first step for him to change his future. 

What is your narrative essay?

      My narrative essay is about me, how I became interested in being an architect and study architectural  perception. I'm writing about me because I intend to use this exercise to develop a personal statement that I need to do to join the University.

     I will start my essay talking about my childhood and my relationship with my family, especially my mother. Because we have some similar skills, although we have taken different routes professionals. Then I'll talk about when my family had to make a retirement home, and I had my first contact with the profession, apaixoneit me and I decided to become an architect. After I explain some difficulties I had in college, and I finish talking about my life here in the U.S.. 

     In conclusion I will connect all the dots of my story and explain how they made me who I am now. I also intend to describe my goals for the future

What is your impression of Scrooge so far?

     The first chapter of "A Christmas Carol"  is dedicated to establish the personality of Scrooge. The author describe this character and show some situations where he interact of all sorts of people - family, unknowns and even a old friend who reappears from the beyond - for the reader to realize who he really is. From what  I read the book I can deduce that Scrooge is a person with cold heart and little soul.
     Scrooge is a skeptical, he doesn't believe in love, neither the romantic love nor the love of neighbor. He is a doesn't show his feelings, even when he was afraid, because of the Marley's ghost, he pretend he wasn't. He would like to have all the money possible, but do not spend even the minimum necessary for the proper comfort.

Summarily, Scrooge is a old covetous morose man, exactly the opposite of Marley.

What are the benefits of reading a whole book?

     During school American students are advised to read several books, many them are almost mandatory, since they represent a significant percentage of the final grade. For learn a English as second language firstly we need the bases - and that is what we did in the lower levels in ELS - but after that is important to behavior as a regular American student. The reason why schools adopt this practice is because this is a good method for learn vocabulary and even culture, and if in our class we read a whole book, we will have the same benefits.

     The best advance that we'll have reading an entire book on this section will be expand our vocabulary. In a book the author describe the same characters, settings and situations often. To avoid repetition he will use many different words and expressions that we can learn while reading it. Moreover, this exercise will allow us to better interpret and understand abstractions, which could be more difficult if we read only part of the book. All this new knowledge will be helpful while we write our on essays.

     Although the book that we are reading takes place in London, it is a part of an American culture, and learn the culture of our audience is important for a good communication. For example, if we write a TOEFL essay our audience will be TOEFL graders who have a good literary knowledge, so we can use some characters or situations from a well known book, as an example or for make a comparison. 

     Therefore read a whole book will give us more tools - vocabulary and cultural knowledge- for improve our communication.

How can blogging help you learn English?

     

              Since I start study in ELS I developed my communication skills, however in writing I didn't enhance so much. That's because I listen my classmates presentations and I talk whit them, but I never read what they write. I believe that make the writing exercises in a blog will help me to learn English because my classmates and I will have the possibility to share our work and improve together.

      

      Firstly, I believe that have access to other students blogs will help me to learn vocabulary. If we write about the same subject, everyone will do it in a different way, with different words. So if after I finish my work I could read what the rest of the class did, I'll learn another ways to express the same idea. In the other hand if we have a broad topic on which one could write about a variety of matters, I will learn some words that neither I nor my teacher would have thought of studying.

      Furthermore, have someone who is not a teacher reading the articles on my blog will make me realize if I'm been enough clear in my assertions. Sometimes the ideas in my mind are so set out, that I skip some steps while I'm writing and the audience can get confused. The problem in this part is that the teachers who are so used to decipher the muddled ideas of students can understand the message. That's why have classmates, who don't have the same ability of the teacher, reading my work will help me.

       The technology - especially internet - can be an important tool for education, if properly exploited. Use blogs for develop the write skills is a good way to take advantage of this resource, mainly because enables information sharing.