Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis enables parents to make sure their future child won't suffer from any inherited diseases but what is also possible is....for the parents to choose the sex, eye colour, hair colour and more ! A controversial topic... Here is a glimpse of what scientists think.
"Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and
other supernatural phenomena as a primary plot element, theme, or setting. Many
works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic and magical
creatures are common. Fantasy is generally distinguished from the genres of
science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of
scientific and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of
overlap between the three, all of which are subgenres of speculative fiction. In popular culture, the fantasy genre is predominantly of
the medievalist form, especially since the worldwide success of The Lord of the
Rings and related books by J. R. R. Tolkien. In its broadest sense, however,
fantasy comprises works by many writers, artists, filmmakers, and musicians,
from ancient myths and legends to many recent works embraced by a wide audience
today. Fantasy is a vibrant area of academic study in a number of
disciplines (English, cultural studies, comparative literature, history,
medieval studies). Work in this area ranges widely, from the structuralist
theory of Tzvetan Todorov, which emphasizes the fantastic as a liminal space,
to work on the connections (political, historical, literary) between
medievalism and popular culture."
"Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with
imaginative content such as futuristic settings, futuristic science and technology,
space travel, time travel, faster than light travel, parallel universes, and
extraterrestrial life. It often explores the potential consequences of
scientific and other innovations, and has been called a "literature of
ideas".Authors commonly use science fiction as a framework to explore
politics, identity, desire, morality, social structure, and other literary
themes."
WATCH...
A video discussing the differences between science fiction and fantasy.
HORROR FILMS
Those are the extracts we studied in class.
The Shining - 1980
Se7en (opening credits) - 1995
Paranormal Activity - 2007
WANNA READ ? Here are only some suggestions...It's up to you !!
FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION BOOKS
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (1865)
1984 - George Orwell ( 1948)
Lord of the Flies - William Golding (1954)
Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling ( 1997 as far as the first volume is concerned)
The Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins ( 2008)
Twilight - Stephenie Meyer (2005)
Star Wars - Timothy Zahn (1977)
The Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien (1954 !!!)
The Hobbit- J.R.R. Tolkien ( 1937, even more amazing !)
The Kingkiller Chronicles - Patrick Rothfuss (2007)
Junk food : it refers to all the foods that contain too much sugar, fat or salt and thus, are not healthy at all ( or at least, that could impact your health if you consumed them in huge quantities).
If you have never watched this documentary, it's high time you did ! Here is the trailer :
What is food turned into ?
STATISTICS
FROM VEGANISM TO FREEGANISM
First, a definition for those who tend to confuse vegetarians and vegans:
- veganism is a type of vegetarian diet that excludes meat,
eggs, dairy products and all other animal-derived ingredients. Many vegans also
do not eat foods that are processed using animal products, such as refined
white sugar and some wines. Most vegans also avoid the use of all products
tested on animals, as well as animal-derived non-food products, such as
leather, fur and wool.
- Vegan refers to either a person who follows this way of
eating, or to the diet itself.
- Freeganism is an anti-consumerist movement. It takes issue
with society's focus on buying new and throwing away old (but still useful)
items. In the simplest terms, freeganism is a reaction against the waste of
resources. Participants, known as "freegans," have two main goals: to
buy as little as possible and to use only what they need.
SHERLOCK HOLMES : one of the most famous fictional Londoners. He was a renowned detective created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was able to solve all kinds of mysteries thanks to his logical reasoning or even forensic science.
JACK THE RIPPER : in the late nineteenth century, this unidentified serial killer murdered several prostitutes in the Whitechapel district. His murders have inspired numerous film makers.
The well-known "London fog" may be nothing else than "smog" ( that is to say, a fog due to the excessive amount of smoke in the air, for example: exhaust fumes, from factories or from cars).
SHOPPING...
Westfield Stratford City: the most famous shopping mall. A paradise for all the shopaholics ! ;-)
MULTICULTURALISM...
An interesting video with some teenagers' testimonies
the process of freezing and storing the body of a diseased, recently deceased person to prevent tissue decomposition so that at some future time the person might be brought back to life upon development of new medical cures. ( The American Heritage Dictionary)
the practice of freezing a human corpse in the hope of restoring it to life in the future. ( Collins English Dictionary)
If you are one of those who think this is a joke or that cryonics is only one of Futurama's oddities, then you should watch this :
The following link to the BBC website is the one we studied in class
Open from 1892 to 1954, Ellis Island was an immigration centre and all the immigrants had to stop there to undergo numerous and varied examinations before being allowed to enter America.
All the newcomers hoped for a new life, they wanted to start from scratch and live their own American Dream. Here is one of the most famous pictures, showing a whole family (on Ellis Island) waiting for the longed-for authorization to set foot on the American soil.
If you want to know a bit more about Ellis Island, here is a very interesting link ( worth visiting):
Speaking English is said to be as easy as pie. But when you read that, you may change your mind... This one goes out to all those who have a tendency not to worry because ( I quote) "English ? So what ? Fingers in ze nose !" ;-)
POEM
(to be read aloud, wow, who is going to take up the challenge ??)
I take it you already know
Of tough and bough and cough and dough?
Others may stumble, but not you
On hiccough, thorough, slough and through.
Well done! And now you wish, perhaps,
To learn of less familiar traps?
Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead; it's said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don't call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat,
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.
A moth is not a moth in mother,
Nor both in bother, broth in brother.
And here is not a match for there,
Nor dear and fear for bear and pear,
And then there's dose and rose and lose --
Just look them up -- and goose and choose,
And cork and work and card and ward
And font and front and word and sword.
And do and go and thwart and cart --
Come, come, I've hardly made a start.
A dreadful language? Man alive,
I mastered it when I was five.
So, was that a piece of cake ?? ;-)
If you need to have words pronounced, here is a useful website :www.howjsay.com
And this one goes out for the buzzing bees who don't get on well with the "-th".
More seriously, here is a short video to help you pronounce those two nightmarish letters : "the terrible -TH".
Who was Jim Crow and what were the Jim Crow laws ? Well, here is the beginning of an answer.
" Separate but equal"...
The Jim Crow Laws - A few examples “It shall be unlawful for a negro and white person to play together or in company with each other in any game of cards or dice, dominoes or checkers.” Birmingham, Alabama, 1930 “Separate free schools shall be established for the education of children of African descent; and it shall be unlawful for any colored child to attend any white school, or any white child to attend a colored school.” Missouri, 1929
The pupil that once wrote this sentence obviously hadn't heard about Google Traduction or Reverso ( not to mention the others...). Translating your ideas ( your French ones) into English may be difficult, especially if you have decided to make a deal with an evil online translator that inevitably will fail to grasp the meaning of your sentence. And the outcome will be even worse if you have naively trusted one of them to translate a whole sentence or even -for the most reckless ones- a whole paragraph !!! ( "Nan mais allô !" would Nabilla say) Here are a few examples of what happens to you when , after a few seconds of deep meditation, you've come up with the idea of resorting to online translation, only to save time ( yes, I know, tonight, there's no way for you to miss the latest episodes of "Games Of Thrones"). What you hadn't expected was that : - " il a été malade" could be turned into a lovely : " he has summer ill". - " elles tombent enceintes" could become : " they grave pregnant" ( a grave = une tombe) - or that " he came..." could be transformed into: " il est drogué" (yes, "la came" in French, does exist)... Those three examples prove that : - ... hey, what did you expect ?? Me to put the blame on the online translators ?? Well, bad pick ! :-) - they all point to the fact that the pupils, most of the time, do not know how their own language works. So this is unfortunately what happens every day... Only use the translators if you have one single expression or word to translateand if your spelling is correct. Otherwise, you're very likely to write either an unintelligible sentence or a hilarious one. In both situations, you'll be the real loser. :-( Too bad, isn't it ? My favourite online dictionary is http://www.wordreference.com/ You can even listen to the UK or US pronunciation of most of the words ! The following links are interesting if you want to enrich/expand your vocabulary ( synonyms, antonyms...etc):
Now, you are free to decide : resorting to online translators without trying to think first is the best way to be spotted at once ! :-) So stick your necks out and trust in yourselves !
