Writing Final Test

It is not a secret, movie theaters took the place of theaters themselves. Maybe because of technology, or maybe because of people’s bad experiences they had by not being satisfied after a play. Well something is sure for me, if I was somebody who never went to the theater before on the day that the play Tryst occurred, I would probably be motivated to return again to the theater sometime soon. So, I obviously think that Tryst should win the award for the best play of the year, first because of its touching story and then because of the great acting job.

Firstly, I have found Tryst’s story very emotional and touching. The way it was written, it is a well balanced scenario which kept the public suspended between laughs and tears. The play tells the story of Adelaide, a girl who has a naïve perception of things and George, a manipulator man who goes from a woman to another to steal their money to make his living. Obviously, Adelaide falls into George’s net until he can flee his way out of his own trap. The way how the story progresses at every second in a very fast way did not create a problem of incoherence among the scenes. It seemed normal and was yet easy to follow for me. The way George’s infallible plan returns against himself just because of Adelaide, a woman he thought he would never had a problem to fool is completely delightful and unexpected.

Secondly, I think that the acting was a master job. The fact that both characters are often speaking to the public on their point of view about the situation, creates a certain proximity between them and the public, and it is a lot more easier for them to make us feel the emotions of their characters. For example, Adelaide is so simple and naïve and when she is standing on the stage, all alone, speaking open-hearted, it is easy for the public to establish a contact with the actor. The character of George is completely hateful indeed, but when he is doing a monologue it is hard for the public not to laugh. Even if he is odious, when he speaks to the audience, he is yet interesting. In my honest opinion, it is a proof that the comedians were doing a great job. They also well managed to simulate and keep a great and realistic British accent while saying all their lines without difficulty.

From the entertaining beginning of the play to its tragic ending, Tryst is one of the best plays I had the chance to see in my life. The story was well balanced between the two worlds of the strong characters and the acting by the comedians was faultless. This is enough reasons for me to think that Tryst should win the best play of the year award.

481 words.

Reading Final Test

A. Match the synonym or definition below with the word from the paragraph. The (number) in parenthesis refers to the paragraph number. / 16
(1) interfering
meddling
(2) Amount of food collected from a field
crops
(3) person who grows plants
plant breeder
(4) make better
improve
(5) things that are planned
in the pipeline
(6) freedom from harm or danger
safe
(7) occurring in many places
widespread
(8) amount by which something is deficient
shortage

B. Comprehension / 3
1. State the thesis or main point of the text as a whole.
Genetically modified foods are not as dangerous as what the medias are telling us. There are helpful for our society and they represent a real hope for our future.

2. How, well in your opinion, does the author support her point of view? / 3
By giving clear examples of situations in which medias are not telling us the whole truth about GM foods, and in which they only present them as a bad thing. The author also writes about the good effects of GM foods can have on the population of our planet.

3. How does this text relate to the readings in our textbook in the unit, GMF? / 4
The subject is basically the same, but instead of giving us only facts on it, the author present a clear opinion on the topic. It shows how can somebody see GM foods as a solution for many problems on Earth.

4. In two or three sentences, write the main idea of each paragraph in your own words. / 24 Paragraph 1
Since the dawn of times, humans have always shown a strong interest into what surrounded them: nature. With the evolutions that we live with today, we can tell that we would not change the way we treat things that could come up now if they were not discovered before.

Paragraph 2
Breeding programmes are the sources of almost all the food we eat now. Plant breeders mix two different varieties of plants that each of them have a good characteristics which the breeder wants to keep. Then, when the new plant has been cross-pollinated and planted, the result can be as expected, or can also present a problem that was not part of either parental plants' characteristics before. It is a long process.

Paragraph 3
Genetic engineering is often used to reduce the length of time of this process. Scientists are introducing genes to plants to give them other characteristics that can be useful on the plant.

Paragraph 4
Critics of GM plants judge the insertions of genes has being inconceivable, but genes already jump everywhere into living organisms in the nature. Most of the time, it is genes that increase the productivity of a crop, and genes that give tolerance and resistance to insects and pesticides, that are inserted which are called "input traits".

Paragraph 5
"Output traits" are being planned for the second generation of GM crops, which will present more advantages to consumers. The GM foods resulted by these processes would prevent, for exemple, Asian children from blindness, because of the compounds that can be converted by the human body into, for this case, vitamin A.

Paragraph 6
People should not be worried about the "safety" of GM foods, because there is no such thing, only the use of food can be a danger. They are subject from multiple toxicological tests unlike non-GM foods, and are declared safe.

Paragraph 7
GM crops are safe for the environment, no animal can die from eating a GM plant. The results shown by medias are biased because they only want to show us the bad sides of the subject by giving us the half of the informations, like in the case of the Monarch butterfly larvae.

Paragraph 8
The author thinks that there is enough food on Earth to be able to feed everybody, like the population of sub-Saharan Africa. The people should think about the food crisis that occurs in Africa and should look a GM foods as a possible solution for the problem.

LEL#4: Word Analogy Practice Exercise 3

1. Interest level: There was a lot of words that I have seen many times in my life but never really knew the meaning. This was a great opportunity to check them out.

2. Difficulty level: 3/5 This was half of logical and half of knowledge. I could guess easily the meanings of some words with the synonymes above, but it was different for others. The choice pf words was hard.

3. What I learned (3 points):-I learned the meaning of yield, which means to be productive, to grow.

-I learned that obsolete is a word to say out of use.

- I also learned the word proponent, which is like an advocate, someone who fight to defend something.

. My score: 11/20

5. Course rating: 4/5, the test was really interesting and made me work on my logic. The fact that the missing word was surrounded by synonymes or just by a succession of other word of the same concept was helpful and really useful. I definately learned new words with this test.

LEL #3:Reading Skills Diagnostic 1: Informational Text

1. Interest level: The questions were about three different texts. The first one was about the extinction of sea otter, the second was about bears and how they take root in some American neighborhood, and the last one was about archeology and paleotology.

2. Difficulty level: 4/5 the questions were long sentences which I had to read many times to get the real meaning. Especialy the first text, there was many statistics that took my concentration off the topic.

3. What I learned (3 points): I have learned different facts about the topics chosen for the text.

- I did not know very much about the existence of sea otters before. It was quite interesting to see many points of view toward their extinction like the fact that they are eaten by killer whales, or due of some toxic products thrown to the sea in Asia that can reach them even if they are far from there.

- The bear can have a great memory and remember places they have been where the food they found there was great, that they can return to their favourite houses.

- I never realized that what seems unimportant for us now, can be a real treasure for archeologists in the future, like when they find ancient plates or pottery creations from the past civilizations.

. My score: 17/30

5. Course rating:3/5 the first text was really hard and long so it did not motivated me to continue as concentrate as I was at the beginning. Furthermore, the questions were sometimes too picky to know the answer quickly, and the fact that the texts were quite long did not help me to find the answers without searching for a while. This would not be useful during a real exam.

Final Listening Test

1-What is Percy Schmeiser’s problem? /4
He is fighting Monsanto company because he got sued by them for not paying the use of their seeds while he never knew he was.

2-What is Roundup used for? /4
It is a weed killer.

3-How did the chemical company invent Roundup? /4
The product kills weed on the land without killing the crops that come from Monsanto's seed. It does for regular seed that are not from Monstanto.

4-What has Monsanto accused Schmeiser of doing? /4
The company accused Schmeiser of using their seeds without paying them (which requires to sign a contract with Monstanto).

5-Why are the farmers pissed off? /4
Because Monsanto wants to have too much control over the farms of others. The farmers are not as free as they used to be without the company's restrictions.

6-How did Monsanto initially learn about Schmeiser? /4
By finding some of their seeds on his land while they are inspecting it secretely, even if he was not on the list of the farmers that used Monsanto seeds.

7-Did the company respect its policy on dealing with the farmer? Yes or no. Give a reason. /4
Yes, once the farmers sign the contract, they are visited by an inspector who is analyzing the land.

8-What tactics did the company use with another farmer? /4
They sent an undercover inspector on Schmeiser's field and trespassed his property.

9-How did another farmer, Zilinski, get Monsanto’s DNA in his crops? /4
The wind blew Monsanto's seed that were used on another field to his own field.

10-How did the company treat Zilinski? /4
Monsanto told him and his wife that is was their choice to be sure that there is no Monsanto seeds mixed with the regular seeds used by Zilinski. But the only way to find out is by checking with a microscope so they had to pay a large amount of money.

11-What is Schmeiser’s next step? /4
He is going to fight against the company for the other farmers and his family.

12-The narrator ends the segment with this question: “But the real question is this, can Monsanto or anybody put a patent on a piece of nature?” What do you think? /6
I think that it is totally unfair for the farmers. It is killing the beauty of the nature by wanting to control it, which is not normal at all. Monsanto should not restrict every farms on their crops, just because of their products that only a few farmers are using. It is completely the opposite of what nature is all about: freedom.

Pascua Lama Role Card

Title of specialist:

Your name: Peter J. Kinver

Biographical information (CV)

Life and history:

I was born in 1955 in the London Borough of Bromley in the south east of London. During my childhood, I always have shown a certain leadership among my friends. When I was young, I was autonomous and I liked to have control on my own things. I often visited mines around the country with my father and I have always shown a strong interest into these very important places for economy. I received a B.Sc. (Engineering) from the Royal School of Mines, London, in 1976. After many life opportunities and job, my charisma, management skills and autonomy made me what I am today, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of Barrick Gold.

Personal job and work experiences:

I worked in senior management positions at major international mining companies during a 33-year career. Not long ago, I have been Divisional Director, Western Division for Anglo American Platinum plc in South Africa, one of the world's largest platinum operations working on both underground and surface mines. I also have been Managing Director for the West African Operations in Mali of Randgold & Exploration Company Limited. When I was younger, I also worked for Ashanti Gold, Oman State Mining Company and Goldfields Limited. I can say that after all these jobs and efforts that I have done, I am very proud of what I became today, a fervent worker and the happy father of a beautiful family.

Positive Statement:
In today's situation of economical crisis, it is important for Canadians to know that there are always ways to escape these sad conditions. Barrick Gold is aware of this situation and wants to give job opportunities as much as possible. The Pascua Lama project is in fact a great way to avoid the economical crisis for Canadians and for the local people.

GMF Quiz

GMF involve altering the appearence of food.
False, genetic make up of foods.
The genetic modification of food is not a new phenomenon.
True
Technology exists to make plants resistant to insects.
True
Health Canada has accepted or approved hundreds of GM food.
False, fifty-one (in 2003)
Some GM foods include bananas and oranges.
False, strawberries, tomatoes.
Health Canada has a strict process for evaluating the safety of GM food.
True
It takes over ten years to approve GM foods.
False, 6 to 9 years.
Health Canada uses many sciences to assesses GM karma including chemistry.
True
GM food can cure allergies.
False, they can cause new ones.
Critics of GM foods are worried about super reeds.
True0