A2 - Writing: Description of a place

The town where I live

I live in El Chaparral, a small village near Albolote, a town in the province of Granada very near Granada city. El Chaparral is about 12 km to the north of Granada, next to the motorway to Madrid, just on the highway exit to a well-known reservoir called, in Spanish, Pantano de Cubillas. El Chaparral is very small, as it only has, approximately, 1,500 inhabitants, while Albolote has about 20,000, including the population of El Chaparral.

El Chaparral has nothing special, but maybe its history does, and it's a really recent history. In 1956 there was a very hard earthquake 5.1 — Richter degrees—, and Albolote was practically destroyed. After that, the government ordered to build a new small village near it, for the people who had lost everything.

Three hundred houses were built for three hundred families. They were big houses with an orchard and a kind of shed for animals.  Each family had a big plot of land for dry cultivation, and a smaller one for wet cultivation. In addition, each four neighbours shared a curious kind of building for drying the tobacco plant called, in Spanish, "secadero de tabaco". This kind of construction was very typical then, but all of them have fallen into disuse.

The streets of El Chaparral are all in the shape of a net, and its houses are no more than two storeys high. Nowadays there are only two or three new blocks of flats with one more floor.

Actually, in the village where I live, there are no old buildings or historic monuments to see, so the most interesting thing you can see or to go to is the Cubillas reservoir. There you can practice some water sports like boating, surfing, jet skiing and fishing , or you can spend a nice day in the countryside and enjoy its sports areas, have a barbecue, or simply walk around the reservoir and enjoy the nature.

The weather in the area is the typical continental Mediterranean weather: cold in the winter and really hot in the summer. The autumn and the spring are very short and sometimes too similar to the winter or the summer. The rain is concentrated especially in the winter, less in the autumn and the spring, and none in the summer.

El Chaparral isn't specially famous, except for the Cubillas reservoir, and recently for some of its restaurants, where it’s more and more necessary to reserve in advance if you want to go for lunch or dinner during the weekend.

The best thing about El Chaparral in my view is that it's a really quiet small village, very near Granada city.  There, life is very nice and, at the same time, you can enjoy almost all the advantages of a bigger city like Granada.

Julián García Díaz. 2º Básico C

A2 - Writing: Description of a place

The town where I live

Loja, which is one of the most important towns in the west of Granada, is the place where I live. It’s a medium sized town in the area known as the Poniente Granadino and it has a population of about 22,000 people.

Loja isn’t very rich industrially. Its economy is based on the service and agricultural sectors and it also has a small marble industry. It’s a clean and interesting town full of a rich monumental heritage, too. Loja has been declared a World Heritage site. There are three main Renaissant churches: Major Church of La Encarnación, St. Catherine’s church and St. Gabriel’s church. In the historic centre is the alcazaba district , the only walled neighbourhood from the old Medina Lawsa, but there are some districts around the town with modern residential areas full of blocks of flats, restaurants and places where you can buy things.

The weather is typical of the continental Mediterranean climate. Winters are cold and rainy and summers are dry and hot. The annual average temperature — about 16 degrees — is ideal for sightseeing.

Loja is famous for its Holy Week celebrations, declared an Event of National Tourist Interest, where you can see elements as the “corrías de ìncensarios”. It’s also famous for its food and has many local specialities, like the nationally well-known “rosco de Loja” (which comes from an Arab recipe), trout and sturgeon from Riofrío, extra virgin olive oil, asparagus, lamb with own designation of origin, honey, hams and other cured pork products. They’re delicious! One of its best tourism attractions is free gliding activities.

What I like best about Loja is that we are so close to nature. There are a lot of routes routes where you can be in touch with nature. One of them is the Water Route, which has numerous springs, rivers and streams, as well as over one hundred fountains. 

María Ascensión Moral Fernández. 2º Básico, Semipresencial

Traditions qui se sont perdues ou sont en train de se perdre: le Jour des Quintos

On appelle Quintos les garçons qui sont nés la même année. Ce nom leur est donné car au XVème siècle le roi Jean II de Castille a demandé une contribution à la population pour l’armée. Cette contribution pouvait être une somme d’argent ou de sang. La contribution de sang consistait à ce qu’un garçon sur cinq qui était majeur s’incorporait dans l’armée ; donc ils ont commencé à les appeler Quintos.

Jour des Quintos

Chaque année, au mois de mars, les garçons qui avaient fêté leur dix-huitième anniversaire étaient appelés à la mairie pour être mesurés et aussi pour leur demander s’ils avaient quelque chose à déclarer. A quoi, ils pouvaient répondre : « rien, fils de veuve, vue déficiente, pieds plats, j’ai un frère dans l’armée, etc. » De cette façon, certains d’entre eux pourraient éviter le service militaire. Ce jour-là, c’était pour eux un jour férié. Une fête commençait très tôt avec un lancement de feux d’artifice suivi d’une visite à la mairie. Après, ils faisaient un repas tous ensemble et quand la nuit arrivait pour continuer la fête, ils engageaient un groupe de musique grâce auquel tous nous dansions et nous amusions jusqu’à l’aube.

De nos jours, dans mon village, cette fête s’est perdue puisqu’il y a longtemps que le service militaire n’est plus obligatoire.

Purificación Navas Martín (Niveau B1)

B2.1 - Writing: Opinion Essay

Most high level jobs are done by men. Should the government encourage a certain percentage of these jobs to be reserved for women? 

“If women are happy, the nation will be happy too” (quote from Koran).

Everyone knows there is inequality between men and women in the world of work. So, I strongly believe that the government should encourage the access of high level jobs to women.

To begin with, women are as clever and capable as men to do and think brilliant things. In fact, the history of mankind is full of marvelous women like Marie Curie who discovered radioactivity at the end of the nineteenth century. Something which saved a large number of lives and that nowadays, we still continue using.

Moreover, if the human race wants to get ahead, this is important and it is urgent to change the old way of thinking because gender inequality is not just a problem at work, it is a problem of the entire society. This is why I think that a high level authority like governments play an important role.

In addition, if laws judge women for their acts like men, why are they considered less important or a poor copy of men?

To sum up, the government should not encourage but must have the obligation to support women and open the gateway to high level jobs.

NORA LOUAÍL 4ºB

B2.1 - Writing: Opinion Essay

Most high level jobs are done by men. Should the government encourage a certain percentage of these jobs to be reserved for women?

Nowadays, it is true that most high level jobs are done by men, even in companies where most workers are women. I agree up to a point that the government should encourage women to do these kinds of jobs but not to reserve the positions for them. What is more, I think that it is the government the one which should encourage companies to hire more women for high positions.

In my opinion, the own companies should offer the opportunity to both, men and women, to get a promotion in high levels jobs or even offer directly this kind of tasks. Both of them should access without paying attention to their sex. Just in those jobs that depend directly on the government, such as public service positions,they should be responsible for ensuring that those positions are taken in the same amount by women and men.

My main reason is that nowadays, men and women are able to have the same qualifications and skills to get this kind of jobs, both of them are able to get ahead, therefore, they also should have the same salary. It is widely known that men and women performing the same job have different salaries; however, this is not usual in the public sector.

From my point of view, I think that managers of companies can think that women will need to reduce their working hours. Also, it is thought that women are able to have a biggest absenteeism rate because of their family or maybe because they will turn the job down whereas men are going to have more availability.

To sum up, I think that women and men must have the same opportunities under the same conditions to get high rank jobs and is the government who must offer this tasks to women in public services positions. Also companies are responsible for doing it in the  same way.

MARINA JIMÉNEZ CABALLERO 4ºC

B2.2 - Writing: An opinion essay.

THE ROLE OF WOMEN THEN AND NOW

The role of women in society has changed throughout history. In the old days it was considered that women were the property of men, making them totally dependent on a man in order to survive.

The Second World War produced a new industrial revolution in women. The workplace was occupied by women and due to these circumstances their new role in the factories was socially accepted. Next, women began to join university education and to participate with their work in several specific areas. In Europe and part of America, the feminist movement which fought for women´s equality and their liberation began and ideas such as the female vote and the entrance of women to education.

The participation of women in economic life is a process of great personal and professional demand, because they have to deal with responsibility at home, children and a huge list of functions.

At present, women have full importance, invade universities and take place with men in all areas of society, in positions of hierarchy, as well as in scientific research and medicine, the high political positions and in culture.

In conclusion, equality between women and men have all the human rights and all conditions to get the development and reduction of poverty.

Laura María Martín García. Grupo: 5º CAL bis. 

B2.2 - Writing: An Opinion Essay

People should be forced to travel by bicycle rather than by car for all short journeys. This issue should be regulated by law in each city or even country where traffic problems are really serious. Some measures should be taken to improve or even solve this problem. Educationally, teachers could highlight how important is using different ways of public transports to take care of the environment and exalt how good is doing a bit of physical exercise, at least for a short distance.

From my point of view, for most of us, using cars even for shorts journeys is really comfortable. First and foremost because we do not stop and think about traffic problems, even the level of contamination is increasing in a very worrisome way, which could be really dangerous for our health and this is only because we only look for our own amenity, which could be due to a lacking consciousness about this problem. Personally I think that a way to get people use bicycles or even go on foot for short journeys can be installing cameras in a certain area of the city to control the movements of cars in this area. If they do not respect the specific laws in order to get this goal, drivers can be penalized.

Some people love travelling by car because they think it is the most independent way of travelling. Another group of citizens, the rich, can evaluate that walking for short journeys could be stingy or a discredit but there is no evidence to support it. I would like to mention people that are always protesting about the traffic problems although they do not do anything to remedy them.

To sum up, we could get people use bicycles for short distances hardening laws or even fines. Informing citizens about optional ways of transportation through different mass media or reinforcing consciousness from schools among other measures.

 

Desireé Montero Sánchez. Grupo: 5º CAL bis