UNIVERSIDAD NACIONAL DE COLOMBIA

PHILOLOGY AND LANGUAGES- ENGLISH

Self-Access Activity 4
September 8th, 2016
1. Pronunciation practice
Go to this link, view the explanation and practice:
http://www.learning-english-online.net/pronunciation/the-definitearticle-the/

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2. Future and past events

Take the scroll of your life and talk to your partner about the main
events.
Write a passage called: My life, my past and future, including the
events in the past and future. Use the future perfect to locate
milestones with respect to other points in time.
Use this space:
My life, my past and future
I was born in 1997, with very young parents who were not together
much more time after that event, so I was raised only by mom, who
since then, has been everything for me the same as I has been
everything for her. Everything changed when I was three, she felt in
love and inevitably our team was not two members anymore, but
three. Jhon and I had a good relationship, at least at the beginning, I
went to school being one of the smart ones, and he used to help me
with daily tasks. I started growing up, changing, developing my own
personality, character and preferences, and getting more and more
independent day after day. Eventually, as I guess it is normal among
teenagers and step fathers, war was the word which better described
our relationship, so it was full of difficult and exasperating moments
every single day. Still, we were family, and my mom and the person
she chose as her companion, who also helped me to grow up, were
my most treasured good and I knew it.
I really loved them, of course, however, I had decided that the place
we shared, was not exactly the place where I felt being myself, and I
started looking for my own life companion, so I had my first boyfriend
and friends, and independence and freedom called me even roughly.
Against all odds, our team would have reached 4 members by the
time I was fifteen, I was totally sure I didnt pretend to compete for
moms little time and attention with absolutely anyone, but it was not
my choice, and even with me on disagree, Andres lighted our lives on
2011. It was enough with his little hand surrounding my index finger
for me to know that my life would be different from then on, and to
understand that a little human being needed my help as his older
sister to survive and grow up in the ferocious world I was just starting
to discover by my own.

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I was almost done with school and, as a result of the effort and
persistence, my performance was good with no doubts, a great final
grades report, together with a National University admission were the
proof of it. Even with some important family problems, this new age
with my new and permanent life companion were the best, nothing
could have disturbed my happiness and new experienced peace,
except for one thing: a broken heart. I was seventeen when I broke up
with my 3-years boyfriend, and life took a different standpoint for me
from then on. Tired of the increasing battles at home, for
independence and having the life I really wished as the almost-adult I
believed I was, and on top, droved by the need of closing a cycle and
opening a new one and finding my own character, I made the craziest
decision until now: I left home.
A new university and a new home, my own adventure started, and
without realizing, I was walking a path with that man who went away
many years ago and decided not to be present anymore. Life, as it is,
was prepared for teaching me all what I needed to learn from this
experience, and little by little, with a new and extremely well-loved
and unconditional companion, I have realized that becoming an adult
is much more than just not saying anyone where you go or what you
do, and I still going on that path, planning and re-planning what to do
in order to reach what I dream to reach.
I am nineteen now, and my plans are as clear as any teenager plans
are, I chase my own happiness and peace as any human, I hope to
find what I am good for, what I like the most, what I cannot stand,
who loves me the most the way I really am, and who do I love the
most the way they really are, where is the place where I feel myself,
and how to be there. I continue studying hard, so I will have
graduated by 2019, after that, I need to grow older and consolidate
the basis of my being by living in other country some years, so I hope
I will have lived at least in 5 different countries and cultures by my
30s, and who knows from then.
Among my more immediate plans, I will have gone to several LatinAmerican countries by next year, whit the owner of my dreams
beginning, I hope. I will have saved enough money to have a
motorbike on 2018, and after that, I will have passed over every
single nook and cranny of my country, enjoying my roots and real
traditions as part of me and my being, I wont have forgotten to help
those ones who need it, of course, the same as I have received a little
of help from others when I have needed so, and well, preferring not to
plan, and to do instead, the only thing I would say is that by the time I

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die, I hope I will have learned as many life lessons as possible,

discovered and enjoyed of my real passions enough, and loved and
received love from others, as I think that is our purpose on earth as
specie.
Are you an only child? Are you the one in the middle? Do you think
birth order has anything to do with personality?
Your response:
1. Quickly scan the following article to get some ideas on the
subject. Jot down any new vocabulary you may find in the
reading.
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ruled-by-birth-order/
To give a blank look:
to look at someone with a neutral look on the face.
Toss: tumble, move up and down.
Savory: flavorous, tasty.
Scrutinize: view, study, pore over.
Hold up: support, brace.
Write off: to decide that something is not important or will not be
successful.
Pet theory: a scientists theory that is wanted to be true, whether it
is or it is not.
Readily: promptly, immediately.
Overlook: ignore, disregard, neglect.
Flawed: imperfect idea or strategy, with faults and defects.
Intricately: elaborately, complicatedly.
Spouses: mates, marriage partners.
Artifact: any object made by human beings.
Adage: a traditional saying that expresses a common experience,
proverb.
Resemble: to be like or similar to.
Shift: to move from one place to another.

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Prism: something that distorts perception.

Shelf/Shelves: flat slabs of wood, metal, etc.

2. The hidden power of siblings Ted Talks, Jeffrey Kluger

View this Ted Talk and fill in the worksheet.

https://www.ted.com/talks/jeffrey_kluger_the_sibling_bond
1. What examples are given of brothers of famous profiles?
Example 1. Mention some of his characteristics.
Elliot Roosevelt, whom famous brother was President Teddy
Roosevelt, was a drunk, morphine-addict and depressed man
who died at the age of 34.
Example 2. What are some of the features mentioned about this
character?
Bobby Kennedy, whom famous brother was President John
Kennedy, was totally connected with his sibling, he fought and
worked together with him, and when John died, he was
devastated and his life was not the same anymore.
2. Complete the sentence in 1:40
Bobbys own death, so similar to Johns, seemed somehow
fitting. John
Kennedy was robbed of his young life. Bobby Kennedy seemed
to almost have been relieved of his.
What qualities does the author describe for the sibling bond?
(2:09)
There is power in the sibling bond, theres pageantry, theres
petulance too.
3. What did the speaker and his other brothers do to the
youngest?
They locked him in a fuse cabinet in their playroom, but even if
it sounds hard to believe, they were trying to keep him safe of
their angry father who was coming.

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4. What did they tell him the fuse cabinet was?

They told him it was Allan Shepard space capsule.
5. Explain the following terms:
Hot-headed man A temperamental, impulsive, unreasonable
man.
Noisy Not quiet, boisterous, loud.
We were a unit They are together forever, no matter what.
6. What is the crested penguin an example of (6:32)? The black
eagle? Piglets?
The crested penguin, choosing among their eggs, the black
eagle, which makes its little chicks to fight among them, and
piglets which compete for the choices for the nursing spots, are
all an example of how natural is the trend we, human beings,
have to compete for our parents attention by powerfully
determining what our strongest selling points are, what is
called by scientists as de-identification.
7. What is the explanation for parents favoritism according to the
speaker?
According to the speaker, the explanation for parents
favoritism to the opposite-gender kid, depending on the case, is
that they can never resemble them exactly, but they can
resemble them temperamentally, and they love them all the
more.
8. What does the speaker say about birth order?
He said that there are certain temperamental templates
associated with all birth rankings, mentioning the striving firstborn, the caught-in-a-thicket middle-born, and the wild lastborn.
9. What kind of skills do typically last borns develop?
They typically develop low power skills. That is the ability to
charm and disarm, in other words, the ability to read someone

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elses behavior and be prepared for whatever their reactions

are.
10.
What is the meaning of objects for children?
Own objects are for last-born children the only way they have to
project their very limited power, due to they do not have any
control or any attention for them because of their age in
relation with the others.
11.

What is the meaning of fairness for children?

It playa a very important role on childrens daily lives, it is their

clear idea of what is the right and what is the wrong, what is a
great deal and what is not.
12.

What do siblings teach one another?

Siblings teach each one another very valuable lessons such as

conflicts avoidance and resolution, when to stand up for
themselves and also when to stand down, they teach and learn
love, loyalty, sharing, compromise, keeping of confidences and
many other important things for life like so.
13.

What does the speaker compare sibling relationships to?

He says that they are a permanent travelling companion for

everyone, and then he defines siblings as one of the richest
harvest we can have in our entire lives.
14.
What do you think about the authors ideas on siblings?
Do you agree/disagree?
Explain.
I certainly agree with many of the authors ideas about siblings,
especially when he talks about those bones as the richest
harvest we can have in our time here, I totally think family, and
even more, siblings, are something that remains with you, no
matter where you are, what you are doing, or how different you
are from each other, brothers and sisters, always give you
strength and determination when you face challenges or hard
moments in your life, they encourage you to live and be the
best without need of saying any word, they allow you to
discover the sense of responsibility and support from the same

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person, and as he said, when you have siblings, you teach and
learn life lessons such as compromise, sharing, loyalty, honesty,
and true loving in a way that you cannot be taught or learn if
you dont have at least one brother or sister.

15.

Write down some vocabulary from this source.

Example:
Vocabulary:

Vocabulary log:

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Please send your workshop to cursoslenguasdle@gmail.com

JRM

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