-------------------ENGL175 ----------------------END OF SEMESTER REFLECTIVE STATEMENT

1) I feel like I could have done better and achieved more but circumstances stopped me and yes I will win.

2) Yes, as an individual, I preformed well, I tried my best but still i could have done better.

3) Yes, the team performed well, we co-operated and helped each other when needed.

4) The good things that happened in this course, is that my English improved a lot and I met some grat friends and teachers who helped me to succeed.

5) Nothing really bad happened but sometimes I got bad results in my quizzes.

6) We could improve our skills by spending more time writing essays and learning new words. Also we could practice reading and listing on our free time.

7) I have a wonderful teacher who always tries to help us improve our skills by given us a lot of interesting work to do.

8) Overall, the course was good. Kind of annoying with all the work we had to do but it was worth it.

9) Good work, the course was okay but quite long and the percentage of the blog should be higher since students work on it the most.

Renewable Energy Solutions

Renewable sources are used to produce electricity to reduce the amount of pollution. Power plants rely on fossil fuel to produce electricity. We should use renewable sources such as solar and wind energy to produce power. Renewable sources should be used more to reduce the amount of fossil fuel. When the amount of fossil fuel used is reduced the amount of carbon dioxide in the air decreases.

Energy Efficiency Solutions

Energy efficiency means using a technology that produces more power by consuming less energy. I’ll explain some of the solutions that should be made: First solution is that new buildings should be designed to depend on energy efficiency technology and solar energy. Second, people should stop using a lot of electricity and they should use energy efficient technology that produces more power by consuming less energy. Third, Cities can benefit from energy efficient by a system that combines heat and power.

Green vehicle solution

There are three types of solutions. First, any countries, cities and towns are saving taxpayer dollars and reducing air pollution by greening their fleets with hybrid gas – electric cars. Second, Governments encourage people to buy hybrid vehicles by providing them free parking and lower registration fees and taxes. Third, cities are replacing there polluting old buses with buses that run on cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) or with hybrid-electric diesel engines.

Masder city

Masdar city is the world's first zero-carbon, zero-waste, car-free city. The budget for master city will be about $ 22 billion. It will take eight years to build, 50,000 people will be able to live there. This project will save almost 2 billion dollars of oil in the next 25 years. Masdar city is a solution for global warming were no fossil fuel will be used to produce CO2. Masdar city will be divided into 4 main parts such as housing, business, commercial purposes and transportation / cultural pursuits. Masdar will be a city which relies on renewable energy like solar and wind energy. The goal from the master city is to develop a city which has no waste of what so ever and uses clean energy to brighten our future.

My name is Al Gore a former vice president of the USA. I was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 2007 and now im trying with all my effort to find ways to save our precious world by preventing global warming.

I think that the world will be destroyed in the future by global warming, if we don’t act know.

I believe that if all the people around the world try to reduce their carbon footprint, the world could be saved.

I feel very sore inside me because the government doesn’t care about the effects of global warming and people who would suffer around the world.

I have done many things in my life. My main achievements are to explain and to show the world about the issues of “global warming.” I was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize (together with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) for the "efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change.” I also starred in the Academy Award-winning documentary on the topic of global warming, An Inconvenient Truth. In 2007, I helped to organize the July 7 benefit concert for global warming, Live Earth. I’m currently chairman of the Emmy Award - winning American television channel Current TV, chairman of Generation Investment Management. a director on the board of Apple Inc., an unofficial advisor to Google's senior management, chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, and a partner in the venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkin Caufield & Byers, heading that firm's climate change solutions group.

Internet And Video Game Arguments

There are many young people around the world who spend too much time surfing the net and playing video games, I’m going to discuss some of the problems and solutions.

There are many problems that are caused by using the computer too much. Young people concentrate on gamed more then their studies, people who play a lot of video games will have physical and mental problems, people get information and other things from the net that they shouldn’t watch or know about. There are people who concentrate on games and net more then their own family. When people are on these things, they do not listen to anybody and they would become mad when they are distracted.

There are solutions to these problems. Parents ant other people should give the young ones time to use the pc for games or net. They should always study for an hour or two before they are allowed to use the pc. The young ones should always take a break from what they are doing, to have some exercise for healthier body, never disturb them until there time is up for using the computer.

Video games and internet are fun in life but there are times when it is dangerous for our future young ones.

TV Argument

Many children around the world watch too much TV which leads to many things, what are the problems? And how to prevent them?

Problems:
There are many problems from watching too much TV. Children will learn things at an earlier age, they try to copy what they see on TV for fun, and children who watch aggressive things will learn and become more aggressive when they grow up. Many children around the world who are always watching TV have weak eyesight, mental problems and physical problems. While children are watching junk on TV, they could use their precious time in exercising and studying.

Solutions:
There are many solutions, one of the main ones is that parents should reduce the timing of watching TV and they should lock the bad channels with a code so, that the children wont learn stuff that they shouldn’t know. Always don’t leave children to watch aggressive or horror movies. While watching TV they should take every half an hour break from TV, to protect their eyesight. Parents should always make their children do some exercise, to keep them healthy and energetic. Parents should leave their children watch educational channels or they should use their precious time by studying or helping in the house.

Parents and people should always take care of children because they are our future. TV is a device to entertain us in life. It has a lot of good things but all good things have problems.

Gifts bought on Valentine’s Day

These pie charts compare the types of gifts bought on Valentine’s Day between the men and women. Overall, cards, candy and flowers are the most popular between the two genders.

The majority of gifts bought for women from men are cards at 18% and the majority gifts bought for men from women for men are cards at 27%. The minority of gifts bought for women are perfume/cologne at 4% and the minority of gifts bought for men are spa/personal care at 1%. The second most popular gift bought for women are flowers at 18% and for the men candy at 21%. The third most popular things bought for women are candy at 14% but for men at 11%.

In general cards, flower and candy are the most popular between the genders and the least popular items which are common between both are lingerie, jewelry and spa/personal care.

New Zealand Wool Price

The graph shows the prices of wool between 1980 and 2000.Overall, in 1987 the price reached to a peak.

The price of wool between 1980 and 1985 slightly increased then it gradually decreased from $2.10 to $1.20, then between 1988 and 1989 the price of wool shot up to a peak of $5.00 then it crashed to less then $3.00. There was a fluctuation from 1989 to 1994. Later on the price gradually increased to $4.70 in 1994. Then in 1996 the price of wool tailed off.

Overall, the graph shows that the prices crashed in 1986 and reached its highest peak in 1989. The overall trend was going up.

Expenditure of USA families between 1990 and 2000

These pie charts show the amount of money spent by families in the USA in the years 1990 and 2000. Overall, in 1990 the families spent most of their money on food, but in the year 2000, most of their money was spent on rent.

In 1990, the majority of the money was on food. In 2000, the majority is on rent. In both years the minority is “savings”. The second highest expenditure in 1990 is rent and in 2000, it’s food. In these two years rent has increased by 7% and food has decreased by 10%. The spending on leisure dramatically increased by 11%. The least expenditure is transport, education, and savings.

In summary, in these two years the highest expenditure are food and rent but the one with the lowest expenditure is savings.

population aged under 35

This line graph shows the percentage of population in India and Italy who are aged under 35. Overall, the percentage of the population aged under 35 in India is greater than in Italy.

In 1945, the population aged under 35 in India and Italy decreased to about 30% in India and 20% in Italy, then in 1950, India and Italy’s population of aged under 35 gradually increased. Later on in 1970 their was a period of fluctuation in India’s population at 50% but in Italy there was a slight drop in population to about 30%. In 1980, the population of people under the age of 35 in India shot up to the highest peak about 75% but in Italy it slightly increased to about 50% then it decreased to 30%.

There were some fluctuations in the population but the overall trend for India is going up but for Italy it’s down.

The table shows the number of sports injuries in different sports. Overall, Australian football has the highest number of injuries while volleyball has the lowest.

Australian football has the highest number of injuries which is 10,122 players. 83% of them were injured during competitions or practice; only 7.5% of them were admitted to the hospital. Then Second comes Rugby which is 3636 injured players and 95% were injured during competition or practice, then the others are soccer, cricket, basketball, netball, hockey, martial arts, squash and volleyball. The minority of injuries are from volleyball which is 776 injured players.

In summary, Australian football is the majority of injuries and the minority is volley ball. The highest percentage of injuries is caused during competition and practice but the least coming injuries are sport players admitted to the hospital.

Ways to bring up a child.

This essay is about the way we bring up children and whether or not we should encourage co-operation or competition.

Many people say that life is a competition and a child should be ready to compete. Children should know how to take care of themselves, protect themselves when they are alone facing the world. They should always try to become the best in everything and even try to take what rightfully there’s by force, children will learn to compete with each other in school such as sports, games, competitions Etc.

On the other hand, there are people who disagree with competition and they believe that children should be brought up at a young age to co-operate. A child who co-operates would have a lot of friends while the competitive one won’t since they always trying to take the top. Children who co-operate are always friendly. They always try to take care of the others before themselves, people who co-operate with each other could finish a job faster then competitive people.

In my opinion, I agree with both, without co-operation and competition life would be hard, you need to be competitive to take care of yourself and win in life. Co-operation is needed to have many friends and people to help you when in need.

An Inconvenient Truth

"An Inconvenient Truth” is a documentary movie about global warming and a former Vice President named Al Gore. Al Gore is trying to explain to the people around the world about the issues of “Global warming”. The movie talks about the problems and effects of global warming on the earth. According to Al gore, we are facing the beginning of a climate crisis that threatens the earth. The cause of this climate crisis is the humans themselves, all the people around the world are responsible for the increase of “CO2” through our daily activities. Al gore relies on facts so, he reveals to us some charts and graphs with frightening trends and some photography’s from disappearing glaciers around the world, footage of collapsing ice shelves, data on the record numbers of storms, floods, and other kinds of extreme weather. Al Gore called this "A nature hike through the Book of Revelations”, "It is now clear that we face a deepening global climate crisis that requires us to act boldly, quickly, and wisely," said Gore. At the end of his presentation he described some ways to solve the problems and one of the main solutions is to reduce the use of anything that produces “CO2”.

In my opinion, it’s an excellent movie, His explanations about the global crisis were very clear, and he relied on facts. He showed us a lot of graphs, charts and photographs which are kind of harsh to explain the situation we are in. Al gore is an intelligent and wise man, he knows how to make the presentation amusing with his jokes and comments. This movie taught us about everything such as ( Problems, effects and solutions) If you have an appetite for knowledge about global warming” An Inconvenient Truth" is a necessary film.

Sport heros

Sports stars are loved by everyone because they have the looks, they are excellent and they play in front of millions of people. We make them our heroes not only for swinging the bat or blocking or passing, but for the success that they are teaching us in any impossible challenge.

Athletes are heroes who can do things extraordinary that we can’t do, they get paid millions for there effort and there name will appear everywhere. Athlete champions are always keeping themselves looking good and cool tempered. These super stars teach us to always work hard and believe in what we do. Although 6 o’clock news means something wrong but many players try to be positive to be role-models for children.
They raise money for charity and act like mentors by using free time to help children to stay off drugs and to stay in school.
Champions even have flaws in there life, it doesn’t mean he is famous that he doesn’t have problems in his life and he is the best parent, friend or spokesman that that are wrong, everyone has problems even rich people get sick. They even make mistakes and have problems with laws, even those who do bad things in there life don’t want there fans follow their path but to play like him

Age Discrimination

Age Discrimination is when decisions are made because of age. people around the world who look for jobs are all judged by their age, People say you are too young and immature to work or your too old because your above fifty , and unable to work, but these people have the right to work. Age doesn’t matter, the thing that matters is their ability to work.

Hiring people should be based on ability and employers use age to determine their qualities such as concentration, memory, and level of energy so, they pick people who are young because they are fit, full of energy and they could work for hours. Laws against age discrimination will lead to older people working and then the rate of old people will increase but rather then more work done, more money is lost because they have to buy supplies and take care of these elderly people.

Elderly people have the ability to work just like younger people, you can’t judge a person by his age but by his ability, strength, energy etc, employers should employ people by their experiences and abilities not by their age. Old people have a lot of experiences so; companies should hire old people to show the younger ones some wonderful and horrible experiences they had in the job. Thousands of people are becoming unemployed because of age discrimination. Companies should employ these people even though they might lose 15% of the total money but its better then having thousands of unemployed people wondering around the roads.

In conclusion, age discrimination is always used by companies and other places because all they think about is time and money that is gained and lost so, they don’t employ older and younger people. I totally disagree with age discrimination, people have all the right to work, They might be old but they have the experience and energy to work , they might be young but they might be clever and have experience so, no matter their age, they should be given a chance.

Carbon Footprint

Carbon footprint measures the amount of impact on the environment done by humans. Another meaning is the amount of carbon dioxide and other gases produced by human activities. People use this measurement to find out how much harm they have done to the environment. The use of transportations, electricity, food and other sources Have some part in the impact of the environment. Ages even play an important part. People with different ages use different amount of products that affect the carbon footprint.

Footprints calculation

I have used the Footprint calculator to measure my footprint and it came to 1.92 planets. My usage of food was 27%, travel 3%, home 29% and 41% for stuff. The calculator is based on the life in Europe and since I don’t live there the calculation might not be accurate but at least i got an idea of my effectiveness on nature. I’m not a vegetarian but I eat vegetables and I use organic products. I don’t drive a car. I don’t have any trains in my country and I don’t like to use the buses, I haven’t traveled by plane for the last 3 years.

How to prevent it!!

If you want to prevent carbon footprint, changes have to be made. The usage of car must be reduced by using public transportation since it’s available. Organic food should be used more often because it’s healthier and harmless for the environment. Use electrical products that store power and consume less electricity. Don’t always buy a new mobile whenever a new brand comes out and remember that the main purpose of the mobile phone is to call and send messages. Reading a book is better than wasting electricity by watching TV , using internet to reading articles and watch videos. This is our planet, our home , our life and there is no other place like this so, if we don’t find a way to reduce carbon footprint , this precious plant will be destroyed in the future.