We need more bike lanes!

I'm writing because I was cycling around the city with some friends last week and we couldn't go safe because cars didn't repect us. This photo shows the street which needs a bike lane in one of the sides.

I think there are one or two reasons for this. Firstly, there are too many blue zone (parkings) on the sides of the street, so perhaps we need to reduce this and increase the bike lanes. Secondly, there are too many people who go by car instead of bikes, so there are more cars than bikes in the streets.

We must do something about this situation. Maybe there isn't much money to pay this or there isn't enough space. I don't know but we must definitely do something here if we don't want more accidents about bikes, and have a better city, but above all, people has to be safe.

Clàudia Vallmajó

TV highlights

The highlight of this week's TV was definitely the reality show "How do I look?". The women who participated were people who didn't have style: they dressed very badly. So, their family brought them to this programme because they needed a change. After a few days, their look was perfect!

FOX's drama series Castle (7th season) was also worth watching. In the last episode of the 6th season, Castle was going to his wedding but one car was following him. After that, we could see Castle's car on fire without Richard inside. On the first episode of the 7th season, Beckett was investigating this case about his wonderful "husband".

Finally, something which also caught my eye was a documentary called "Shark attacks" in Discovery Max. People who was attacked and was near dead because of sharks, explained their stories. There was a woman who was surfing in a beach of California and suddenly a white shark came behind her and pulled out her arm. It was horrible because I watched a lot of blood in the ocean, it was a bad story.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

"NO ONE NEED TO EVER DIE"

"I WILL STOP THIS"

"YOU CAN'T CHEAT DEATH"

"WE WON'T KNOW UNLESS WE TRY"

"DID YOU EVER CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR ACTION?"

These were the words pronounced by Victor Frankenstein at the beggining of the film. Victor is a cientific who wanna stop the death. He wants to create live, so he finally creats a monster called "Frankenstein" a creature who will make him an imposible life.

Introduction of the film: "The dawn of the nineteenth century. A world on the brunk of revolution change. Alongside political and social apheaval, scientific advances that would profoundly change the lives of all. The lust for knowledge had never been greater".

VOCABULARY FROM THE FILM:

Ahead: endavant

Pride: orgull

Deeds: fets

Foolish: ximple

Motto: tema

Pox: verola

Raw: cru

Pitiful: lamentable

Shelter: alberg

Tiny: petita

Soul: ànima

Comprised: compost

Evil: mal

Scarcely: tot just

Rage: ràbia

Indulge: gaudri

Vow: jurar

Deny: negar

Soak: amarar

Bother: molestar

Raving: delirant

Phantom: fantasma

Melt: fusió

Weep: mala herba

Wisdom: saviesa

Folly: bogeria

Grief: dolor

Crazy!

LOTS OF BALLS
This swimming pool in a hotel in Shanghai, China, was filled with one million pink and green plastic balls to set a new world record for the "Largest Ball Pit". It was the first time that people at the hotel had so much fun!

KUNG FU IN THE AIR
Flight attendants in China are learning how to calm passengers: with kung fu! 20,000 new students are discovering how to use the ancient martial art to control difficult travellers. They are learning special techniquers that can be used on aeroplanes.

SWEET SHOES
No, you can't eat these shoes! Chris campbell, an American fashion designer, made them. They are decorated with synthetic cookies, ice-cream sudaes and chocolate cakes. Clients can customize their shoes, but they are expensive -these shoes cost 250 dollars!

Nintendo and the Mario phenomenon

This year Nintendo is 125 years old. For the last 30 years Nintendo and its most famous character, Mario, have dominated the video game industry. Here is their story...

MARIO, THE STARn
Mario is the most famous video game character in the world. He has appeared in more than 200 different video games. He is so popular that a survey found that American children recognized Mario more than Mickey Mouse.

DONKEY KONG and the creation of Mario (1981)
Mario first appeared in the 1981 arcade game Donkey Kong, but he was called Jumpman. And he wasn't a plumber, he was a carpenter! It was a fun game where a man with a moustache had to jump over obstacles to save a princess. The game was Nintendo's first big video game success.

THE NINTENDO REVOLUTION (1985)
In 1985, the New Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) revolutionized video games. The console had new games like Super Mario Bros., where Mario had to run and jump through  a mushroom kingdom. Players could now control how high Mario jumped and how fast he ran. And there were different levels, so they could play the game for longer. It was voted the most important game in video game history.

GAME BOY AND THE DS (Game Boy - 1990; DS - 2000)
In the 1990s, Nintendo created a new concept, the Game Boy. Kids everywhere wanted to have one. This portable console was the first to have cartridges, so it could play many games, including Mario, Pokemon and Tetris, an addictive puzzle game. Then in the 2000s, a better version of the Game Boy was invented: the DS. It was the first portable console with dual screens.

THE FUTURE IS MARIO (2015)
Nintendo has big plans for Mario. Next year he will appear Mario Maker, a new game where players can customize elements and create their own levels. But why do we love Mario so much? Well, Mario games are fun and never violent. And after 30 years, he is still original. A fat little Italian-American plumber everybody knows and loves.

THE WII (2006)
In 2006, the Wii changed the video game experience. For the first time, the whole family could play together and have fun controlling the game with physical gestures. Sometimes people have accidents and break furniture when playing the game! The most popular Wii games are Wii Sports, l ike table tennis, canoeing, golf and bowling. This summer Mario Kart 8 was a best-selling game for Wii U.

What do you know about Halloween?

What is Halloween?

Halloween is a holiday celebrated on the night of October 31. Traditional activities include trick-or-treating, bonfires, costume parties, visiting "haunted houses" and carving jack-o-lanterns. 
Halloween has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain. The festival of Samhain is a celebration of the end of the harvest season in Gaelic culture. Samhain was a time used by the ancient pagans to take stock of supplies and prepare for winter. 
The festival would frequently involve bonfires. It is believed that the fires attracted insects to the area which attracted bats to the area. These are additional attributes of the history of Halloween. Masks and costumes were worn* in an attempt to mimic the evil spirits or appease* them.

The ancient Gaels believed that on  October 31, the boundaries* between the worlds of the living and the dead overlapped* and the deceased* would come back to life and cause havoc* such as sickness* or damaged* crops*.


VOCABULARY:
Boundary: frontera
Overlapped: sobreposar-se
Deceased: mort
Havoc: lios
Sickness: malalties
Damaged: mal
Crops: cultius
Worn: usat
Appease: calmar

Angelina Jolie

This year, Angelina Jolie plays the villain in the film Maleficient. But the Hollywood actress has spent much of her life doing good...

A DIFFICULT START
Angelina always wanted to be an actress. She got her first film role at age seven, but she was teased by other kids at school in Beverly hills, LA. She became a rebellious teenager wearing black clothes, getting tatoos and listening to punk music. Often, film directors didn't choose her because her image was "too dark".

THE LARA CROFT HEROINE
Angelina's first big success came in 2001 with the film Lara Croft Tomb Raider. It's an adaptation of the Tomb Raider video game. Angelina had to speak with an English accent and do intensive martial arts training. She became an international action star, but the film changed Angelina's life in another way too...

HELPING THE WORLD'S CHILDREN
While filming Lara Croft in Cambodia, Angelina met children who were landmine victims. She was shocked so she started visiting refugee camps worldwide and became a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador. In 2002, she adopted a baby from Cambodia who she named Maddox. Since then, she has helped construct schools and health centres in Cambodia.

ANGELINA AND BRAD
Angelina adopted two more children, Zahara Marley from ethiopia, and Pax Thien from Vietnam. But this time the children had a dad too -the actor Brad Pitt. Brad and Angelina met when they were filming Mr, & Mrs. Smith.

GLAMOUR AND GENEROSITY
One of Hollywood's most glamorous actresses, Anglina has also been named the most beautiful woman in the world. But she is still comitted to humanitarian causes. When Angelina and Brad Pitt had their biological children, they sold the first photos to celebrity news magazines for millions of dollars and then donated the money to charity.

Ansel Elgort

Ansel Elgort is an American actor, music producer and DJ. He's in the films Divergent, The Fault in Our Stars and others. He lives in New York City, United States.

He lives with his parents and two older siblings: Warren, a film editor, and Sophie, a photographer. At home, his pet is a loyal puppy called Galo. Ansel is very tall and he's got brown hair and big brown eyes. The good thing about him is that he's generous, nice and tolerant, although he can also be quite shy.

He's very interested in arts. One of his unique hobbies is painting miniatures, he's extremely super passionate about music and produces electronic dance tunes under the DJ name Ansolo.

My best friend

Xènia Tubert and I are friends. Xènia lives a bit far from me here in Banyoles. She lives in a beautiful new house. We go to the same school, but we aren't neighbours, although I often go to his house to do homework or after school because he lives near it.

Xènia is fourteen years old. She's the same height as me and she's got short brown hair. She also has a nice smile. The good thing about her is that she's very warm-hearted and cheerful. She's quite shy but when she knows you well she is very nice.

Xènia is happiest when she's riding a horse and staying with animals, also when we joke together. There's the lake of Banyoles near her house so we often go there and we walk together. She also loves Platja d'Aro summers with me and her cousins. She's also in love with chocolate cereals and milk, she always eats it for breakfast!

My summer holidays

Hi, as you know I'm Claudia and today I'm going to talk about my last summer. First I'm gonna explain my stage in an English Camp, then about Jaén and Córdoba and finally about Santander. So let's start!


STAGE IN A CAMP
The last days of June I went to a camp stage with my friends Elisenda, Maria and Montse. We stayed there for a week and we met a lot of American people there! The first day we did an exam to know our English level but the other days we did different activities like archery, kamikaze, swimming pool, cycling routes... At nights we watched some shows and we played a lot of games to learn more English. It's the fourth year I'm going there and I think this was the best!


JAÉN AND CÓRDOBA
From the 18th to the 25th of August, I went with my cousin Montse in Úbeda, a little town situated in Jaén. Everyday we went to a different place and we did different things, for example, on Monday we spent the all day in the swimming pool, on Tuesday we visited the town walking, then on Wednesday we visited a town near Úbeda called Baeza, on Thursday we did Úbeda tour with a guide, on Friday we did Baeza tour, on Saturday we went to Córdoba to visit “La Mezquita-Catedral de Córdoba”. After that, on Sunday we went to Cazorla and finally on Monday we came back to Barcelona to get the car for Santander.


CANTÀBRIA
The same we arrived from Úbeda, we got our car and we went to Santander. I went there for five days with Montse and we had a great time with my uncles. The first day we went to visit the town near our house called Puente Viesgo, the second day we went to Liencres Beach where we asked for surf classes. The third day we went to Santillana del Mar and San Vicente de la Barquera and we visited the Museum of the Inquisition. Then, the fourth day we did a surf class for two hours in Liencres Beach. On the last day we went to buy some traditional cakes and we came back to Banyoles. I had a wonderful time learning how to surf, it was very special!


In conclusion, that has been a fantastic summer because I've travelled a lot and I've visited the North and the South of Spain. So these were my summer holidays, thanks for your attention.

Summer holidays from claudiavallmajo25

MY CLASSMATES' SUMMER
Maria Serra: She went to Santander and she visited el Parque de Cabarcena.
Mariona: In July she did Japanese clases, she still doing it.
Jordi Lladó: He went to Weymouth and visited London.
Maria Planas: The first two weeks she went to Paris to visit the town where her mother was born. Claudia G: On the 8th of July, she went to One Direction's concert!!
Quim: She went to Lourdes to help patients.
Maria Port: On September she stayed with Laura, her cousin 'cause she will go in Switzerland for one year.