Unit 10: No technology? No way!

The effects of technology on children are complicated, with both benefits and costs. Whether technology helps or hurts in the development of your children’s thinking depends on what specific technology is used and how and what frequency it is used. At least early in their lives, the power to dictate your children’s relationship with technology and, as a result, its influence on them, from synaptic activity to conscious thought.

Today, people depend a lot of technology; they cannot be away from phones, computers, TV etc. People forget what is valuable in life, do not know treat  with people in front only by technological means, also in social activities people do not enjoy being with the cell phone in every second or pay attention when someone talks to them. Technology is very important in terms of job and information, because it is more accessible; find things to do college work or to look for something that we want to know.

Technology offers so many opportunities and continually brings exciting new ways that we can communicate with each other, share and learn. So we have to be careful with the technology and use it to our benefit when we really need it, teach our son how important it is to live life without restraints, to play with the ground and not being from kids using technology unnecessarily.

• Increased: to make or become greater in size, degree, frequency, etc
• Reminded: to cause (a person) to remember (something or to do something); make (someone) aware (of something he may have forgotten)
• Persuaded: to induce, urge, or prevail upon successfully
• Echoes: the reflection of sound or other radiation by a reflecting medium
• Allowed: to permit (to do something)
• Parked: a large area of land preserved in a natural state for recreational use by the public
• Awful: very bad
• Faint: lacking clarity

• Jolting: to bump against with a jarring blow
• Banned: To prohibit.
• Retaliatory: To take a retributory action.
• Towed: To pull or drag.
• Wail: to make a sound resembling such a cry
• Vigilante: a member of a vigilance committee
• Sonic: producing sound
• Jolted: to bump against with a jarring blow
• Pay a fine: to discharge 
• Prompted: performed or executed without delay
• Screech: a shrill
    
• Siren: a device for emitting a loud wailing sound     

Unit 9: Finding a niche: The challenge for young immigrants

The situation that involves the process of immigration has always been a controversial and difficult part of human society. The mixture of political and cultural differences between countries has never provided an easy establishment in a new social environment. It is always a slow and tedious process, in which people sacrifice a lot from themselves in order to ensure a better and stronger future, especially for their families. 

The “immigrant young people” are consolidating within the “immigrant world”, since it is consolidating more and more in the world, one of the big political challenges in the next future in the immigration and citizenship reconstruction fields. The lack of opportunities in their own countries has brought young people who search for better working conditions and salary through the immigration in differents countries of the world.

In a general manner, societies must be more tolerant and open to this people, because it is not easy to leave the place in which one was born, and especially when discrimination and inequality. The process of transitioning to life in a new country can be difficult and stressful for immigrant families. Conflicts may emerge as parents and children adapt to a new culture and way of life.

• Blend in: to mix or mingle
• Unique: being the only one of a particular type
• Mainstream: the main current (of a river, cultural trend, etc.)
• Native tongue: first language
• Assimilate: to learn (information, a procedure, etc.) and understand it thoroughly
• Set apart: make different
• Relieved: from worry or anxiety
• Intimidating: to make timid or frightened
• Uprooted: to displace (a person or persons) from native or habitual surroundings
• Bone up: to study intensively
• Interpret: to clarify or explain the meaning of; elucidate
• Niche: a position particularly suitable for the person occupying it
• Tight-knit: very close.
• Support: To carry the weight of. 
• Punishement: a penalty or sanction given for any crime or offence
• Dialect: a form of a language spoken in a particular geographical area or by members of a particular social class or occupational group, 
• Encouragement: to inspire someone with the courage or confidence to do something.
• Flourishing: the act of waving or brandishing
• Suppressed: to put an end to

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Unit 8: Goodbye to the sit-down meals

As time goes by, we have gradually lost the habit of sitting with family members to eat. People have adapted different customs that have been changing this practice of having sit-down meals. There are several factors influencing this change. People now consume fast food due to lack of time; Family members have different schedules of activated and meals; they prefer other activities instead of family meals.

Today we live a very fast life, mainly because of studies and work. This means that when you get home no one wants to prepare food and it is easier to eat out, call the express service or buy food somewhere else to take it home, instead of cooking at home. When this happens, the family members prefer to go to any part of the house where they feel comfortable, like having dinner in bed, in the living room or in different parts of the house.

Currently the members of the family have different activities; parents work and children go to school. So nobody is home. Then, at night when everyone is tired, they prefer to eat food that is quick to prepare, and some eat before the others, and that is how we have been losing the customer of family dinner. We have lost the habit of sitting with family member to eat, and this somehow affects the relationship within the family and feed in habits related to fast foods, which damage the body and bring with them a large number of diseases that can be lethal. 

• Delicacies: fine or subtle quality, character, construction, etc.
• Witnessing: a person who has seen or can give first-hand evidence of some event
• Stacked: pile up.
• Shift: to move or cause to move from one place or position to another
• Workforce: the total number of workers employed by a company on a specific job, project, etc.
• Phenomenon: anything that can be perceived as an occurrence or fact by the senses
• Overrun: to swarm or spread over rapidly
• Core: the central part of certain fleshy fruits, such as the apple or pear, consisting of the seeds and supporting parts
• Intimate: characterized by a close or warm personal relationship:
• Tough: strong or resilient.
• Beaned: any of various other plants whose seeds are produced in pods or pod like fruits
• Chain: a flexible length of metal links, used for confining, connecting, pulling or in jewellery
• Exploding: to burst or cause to burst with great violence as a result of internal pressure.
• Pizza city: A place with great pizza
• Hit: to deal a blow or stroke to a person or thing.
• Taste: the sense by which the qualities and flavor of a substance are distinguished by the taste buds
• Sit-down: Short break
• Hobbies: an activity pursued in spare time for pleasure or relaxation.
• Swallow: to pass (food, drink, etc.) through the mouth to the stomach by means of the muscular action of the oesophagus.
• Brewing: a quantity of a beverage brewed at one time

Unit 7: What is the use of homework?

Homework can be a good experience if it becomes a comfortable way for a parent to spend time with the child. But the problem often is that by about the third or fourth grade the child begins to try to "cut the apron strings" and homework turns into a struggle between the parent and child. That's a bad thing. But if doing homework reduces the amount of time the child spends playing mindless video games or watching TV, that is a good thing.

                          

There are families that are struggling under the current homework system with little power to take charge and turn things around in their own homes. They have been rendered helpless by a larger system that decides for them what will happen in their home. Their children are suffering badly even if other children are fairly well with the homework that is being assigned. If you are a parent who spends hours each night arguing with your child or worrying over his homework, you need help from someone else.

So homework tends to become punishment. Then, if the amount of homework assigned takes very much time to complete, it becomes yet another problem for both student and parent. Teachers who load students down with more homework than that are neither producing much learning nor fostering good work habits.

• ·         Ritual: the prescribed or established form of a religious or other ceremony
• ·         Advocate: a person who upholds or defends a cause
• ·         Fluctuated: to change or cause to change position constantly
• ·         Tangible: capable of being touched or felt; having real substance
• ·         Sacrifice: a surrender of something of value as a means of gaining something more desirable
• ·      Duty: a surrender of something of value as a means of gaining something more desirable or of preventing some evil
• ·         Demanding: requiring great patience, skill, etc.
• ·         Accountable: responsible to someone or for some action
• ·         Distraught: distracted or agitated
• ·         Obedient: obeying or willing to obey
• ·         Outlawed: a person excluded from the law and deprived of its protection
• ·         Foundation: that on which something is founded
• ·         Steadily: not able to be moved or disturbed easily
• ·    Monitor: a person or piece of equipment that warns, checks, controls, or keeps a continuous record of something
• ·         Bored: to produce (a hole) in (a material) by use of a drill, auger, or other cutting tool
• ·         Cinch: an easy task
• ·         Buckle: a clasp for fastening together two loose ends
• ·         Abolish: put an end to
• ·         Heritage: something inherited at birth, such as personal characteristics, status, and possessions
• ·         Promotions: to raise to a higher rank, status, degree, etc.

Unit 6: Giving to others: Why do we do it?

We know how great it feels to receive a gift from someone. I believe however that the greatest satisfaction comes from giving to others and knowing that you have made someone feel happier or made a positive contribution in some way to their life. Think of the times when you have given to others. It may have been when you helped someone resolve a problem. You may have helped someone with directions to where they needed to go.

There is something very nourishing to our soul when we give and help others. It also helps to take our mind of our own worries and challenges. When you are focused on how you can give to others you are less likely to consume your whole focus on your own concerns and challenges. It provides us with an opportunity to escape from our own world and see the bigger picture. There is great perspective that can be gained from stepping out of our own world and venturing into the world of other people. Your worries and challenges may not seem that significant when you compare them to other people’s situations.

There are many ways that you can give to others. You can:

• Give a smile to brighten up another person’s day
• Give up some of your time to help others out
• Give a helping hand
• Give a donation
• Give your attention to listen to someone
• Give someone a hug
• Give a gift
• Give of yourself by sharing with others
• Give love and caring

As you can see most of the ways that we can give to others does not necessarily have to involve money. They are many ways that we can give to others for free; yet what you give can be priceless to the person/s that you are giving to.

• Cause: a person, thing, event, state, or action that produces an effect
• Moral: the distinction between good and bad or right and wrong behaviour
• Anonymously: from by a person or author whose name is unknown or withheld
• Motivated: elemental or esthusiast.
• Donation: the act of giving to a charity
• Contribute: to give (support, money, etc.) for a common purpose or fund
•  Inherit: to receive (property, a right, title, etc.) by succession or under a will to succeed as heir.

• Passion: ardent love or affection
• Mandatory: having the nature or powers of a mandate
• Generosity: willingness and liberality in giving away one's money, time, etc; magnanimity
• Fundraiser: a person who raises money for a cause
• Appeal: the power to attract, please, stimulate, or interest
• Philanthropy: the practice of performing charitable or benevolent actions
• Wealthy: possessing wealth, affluent, rich.
• Fundraiser: a person who raises money for a cause
• Rewarding: giving personal satisfaction, gratifying
• Freelance: writer or artist, who is not employed continuously but hired to do specific assignments
• Benefactors: a person who supports or helps a person, institution by giving money.
•  Volunteer: a person who performs or offers to perform voluntary service
•  Donor: a person who makes a donation

Unit 5: Longevity

Longevity is very important for all of us today, the key to living longer is to have quality of life and be happy with what we have. Older people who want to live a little more experience new things as sharing with others in courses or workshops to learn anything to entertain and not be like a vegetable if you still are able to do many things.

In Costa Rica there are many elderly who are not happy or live in places suitable for their disabilities and this is very dangerous for them. Many people do not mind their own parents when they become old, do not care where they live or they eat or if they are in good health. What they do is send them to a nursing home entrusting the lives of their parent’s to strangers who gladly do the favor of caring for them and do what they cannot or never could.

All in the end, we will be old and would like to have quality of life and live many years but as time passes people die young by many diseases and accidents. Many young people give their lives to the dustbin by alcohol and chemicals that they take and do not realize that they are slowly killing; we need to assess our lives, eating healthy, playing sports, going to the doctor and lead a life of peace and harmony with ourselves and others.

• Bold: ready to take risks
• Bitterness: showing or caused by strong unrelenting hostility or resentment
• Ensemble: all the parts of something considered together and in relation to the whole
• Flamboyant: elaborate or extravagant
• Brag: to speak of (one's own achievements, possessions, etc) arrogantly and boastfully
• Nurturing: the act or process of promoting the development
• Concerned: worried, troubled, or solicitous
• Emphatic: expressed, spoken, or done with emphasis.
• Playful: full of high spirits and fun.
• Worried: feeling uneasy about a situation or thing.
• Thoughtful: considerate in the treatment of other people.
• Solidarity: unity of interests, sympathies, etc
• Chapter: a division of a written work
• Gorgeous: strikingly beautiful or magnificent
• Fear: a feeling of distress, apprehension, or alarm caused by impending danger, pain, etc
• Humorous: funny; comical; amusing
• Serious: grave in nature or disposition
• Informative: providing information
• Longevity: long life
• Pickle: any food preserved in this way