Spring - Edition 26

26th Edition

1985 / 2012 March 2012

Editorial better and more creative world with their dynamic commitment. Wisdom and maturity will lead them to the bridge of timelessness.

Their only activity will no longer lie in looking after their grandchildren. Instead, they are likely to be expected to broaden the horizons of culture, art, experience and even production and economy.

Therefore in today’s society we are far and far from the “seven ages of man” by Shakespeare.

Plenty of energy will flow in old people’s mind and body and the world will be fed with wisdom, creativity and imagination.

The teachers of English

2012 was chosen to be the European Year for Active Ageing. and solidarity between generations.

In today’s society, old people will grow older and older. They will no longer be thought to only stay alive as “o ld friends, winter companions, the old men lost in their overcoats, waiting for the Sun”, according to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel’s tender and touching words. Their self-esteem, self-respect as well as their self-achievement will rise through an active and varied daily life. Not only will our old friends help us through their wise advices but they will also make for a 1

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Loneliness in an old age

We are so worried with ourselves that we do not see what is happening around us; neither do we notice the serious problem of loneliness in an old age.

The reality is that there are increasingly old ones who give up living, who no longer enjoy life, because they simply do not have anyone.

How can our evolved society watch the suicide of the elderly? How can we watch the cases of people who do not have the minimum conditions to live?

It may seem incredible, but it is real. There are more and more people in this stage of life who commit suicide, because life no longer makes any sense for them. There are elderly who have no electricity at home, which is Incredible to many of them.

The truth is that we are too worried about our own lives, and we do not realize that there are people around us who need us.

Our society completely ignores these people. Besides there are sometimes reported cases of abuse, rape, robbery, because some people take advantage of the helpless elderly.

As this is inhumane, we must realize that loneliness is a very serious matter and sometimes a simple gesture is all that these people need.

In my opinion, making this one a better world begins with respecting the elderly and helping people who need it the most. Sometimes a simple smile is worth more than a thousand words.

Ana Rita Meira, 10º K

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The

United Nations has declared 2012

as

the

International Year of Sustainable Energy for All to help expand energy access, improve efficiency and increase the use of renewables. Energy is essential for everything, from powering economies to achieving the anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s), from combating climate change to underpinning global security. It’s also important to know that widespread energy poverty still condemns billions to darkness, to ill-health, to missed opportunities for education and prosperity and that’s why energy poverty must end.

To do this, we need to scale up successful examples of clean energy and energyefficient technologies; innovation that can spread throughout the developing world; partnerships with the private sector; and visionary leadership.

Renewable Energy Sources

A

group

of

Chemists

and

Physicists, from 1oth B, consisting of Beatriz Lopes, Luís Vieira, Maria Magalhães and Regina Pinto, under the supervision of Teacher Celeste

If all of us were capable of following this advice, the world would live without hunger, disease, illiteracy, environment degradation and discrimination against women because it’s all connected.

Moniz, has participated in a project about

renewable

energy

sources.

This represents a demonstration of what happens in a big scale.

The projects aim at supplying a house with enough energy through a fan that simulates a turbine.

Ana Sousa, 10º R

When it turns on, the LED’s in the house light up.

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The group previously thought of putting an energy accumulator but

immediately

drew

the

conclusion that it would be even more

interesting

to

have

people

verifying that the energy produced by

the

converted resulting

fan

is

into in

the

automatically

electric ignition

energy, of

the

We all live in a time that our planet is almost

lights.

destroyed by pollution. And, we all know that, but we are too “busy” to worry about the Earth Planet. I speak for myself: I practically do nothing for my planet. Yes, it´s my planet, it belongs to all of us. We wouldn’t have anywhere else to go if Earth ended today.

So, it´s time for us to do something, immediately. At home I and my parents only do basic things to preserve our planet: my parents buy low energy lights bulbs, we leave lights off after we have left a room in our home, we usually plant trees and flowers in our garden and take our papers, metal and plastics for recycling. But, unfortunately, we have made some mistakes, like for example, my father sometimes uses dangerous chemicals on the soil and we don’t go to any demonstrations about some environmental issues.

Concluding, in my point of view, education for taking care of the Earth starts at home, with the family. It´s time to raise people´s awareness about environmental issues!

Regina Pinto, 10ºB Carla Lopes 11ºE

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even retired we can sit somewhere take a deep breath and say “ oh yeah, I forgot about this”.

If we join together, we will be capable of doing it

Cátia Miranda 11ºE Nowadays, some countries, and Portugal is one of them, are trying to reduce the waste of energy by signing some protocols, but is that enough to compensate for all the bad things we have been doing to our planet? Obviously it isn’t.

Our planet needs all of us. All the efforts will be necessary for us to recover. Otherwise, what will our planet become? Where will our children live in a planet which is totally exhausted due to human action and without energy?

Have you ever reckoned that one day you will want to show to your children the astounding view that you had from your bedroom window, and you won’t be able to?

Have you ever considered that one day you will want to teach your children how to ride a bike in a peaceful and quite place and you won’t be able to? It might seem a bit of an overreaction but if you merely turn on your TV you will see in what we are turning our planet. Hurricanes, thunderstorms, tornados are happening all the time and it depends on us to change it. We need to create a world where recycling becomes a natural process, so water usage is balanced…

We need to be buffers against the natural disasters.

To improve it there is nothing better than listen to Al Gore. Al Gore says that we need to risk, and if we don’t do it now, then it will be too late.

The major concern of Al Gore is global warming but it is also our future, because one day we will understand what we have done to our planet and we will have lack of some things we had before. By then we will wish we had raised awareness sooner.

So, let’s wake up and join together so that in the future when we are grown-ups or

Comment on the inconvenient truth “

documentary:

“An

“An inconvenient truth” is a very good film that should be watched by the families at home with the aim of spreading the SOS. I liked it pretty much and I learned something more about this common theme to me but maybe not so common to someone who isn’t at school. So, Al Gore’s documentary is the perfect way to gather information about this and the best way to start moving. Next, I will point out some essential points taken from the watching.

By watching this documentary we can realize global warming is real. It’s a fact rather than a theory. We can find a lot of evidence on the film: the snow caps in mountain tops are melting; glaciers are disappearing; later summers and earlier springs (as we can see in this precise day of October should be raining but it’s an extremely hot day); high temperatures in the last few years set all-time records; species are behaving differently; and so 5

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on, displaying graphics that helped the understanding. We can’t hide this anymore, because if we do, our children, or maybe us, will probably live under very difficult conditions. It’s time to work and this is the main message taken from Al Gore’s documentary.

However, in my opinion, Al Gore has some political interests too. When we see images of his loss for the presidency and his entrance saying:” I used to be the next president of United States of America”, even being comic it almost certainly has the intention of emphasizing people’s mistake when they chose Bush. So I think he loses some credibility when he uses a documentary of overriding importance to speak of unsolved personal problems. I guess human beings are too ambitious in a bad way and we can see that in the documentary (not only in Al Gore). Politicians are more worried about having a lot of money than saving a planet where they can use that money. Al Gore even says that they try to silence inconvenient scientific discoveries and presents a balance which definitely shows what’s in politicians and greedy people’s minds. Gold bars are heavier than Earth.

Returning to the main issue, environmental trouble, Al Gore is very precise and very good at motivating us to pay more attention to this problem. He can make us feel fear but at the same time feel capable of solving this problem for a much better future. Now, thanks to Al Gore and some brave scientists, we know we have serious trouble to solve and politicians can’t deceive us anymore, we are going to save the Earth! It will take costs but I think from now on people will have stronger will to fight against what we, human beings, caused. It’s time to change and we will.

Concluding, it’s a very interesting documentary that everyone should see to be aware of the dangers, to do something useful to the planet and who knows to save his soul.

ECOLOGICAL ISSUES

Global warming is one of the most worrying environmental issues nowadays.

The

pollution

caused

by

the

gases

expelled from the factories’ chimneys or from our cars, the ozone depletion, the excess of greenhouse effect

and the

waste of water are said to be some of the problems faced by the humanity.

And

we

are

contributing

to

the

apocalypse. Tiny gestures can mean a lot. Recycling, closing the water tap while we lather ourselves, taking a fast shower, walking instead of driving, using the bus, planting a tree can change everything if we all do this.

The problem lies in the fact that people are too lazy. I grant I had been too lazy but when I realized what can

Francisco Almeida nº11 11ºE 6

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really happen to the world I started

landscape

doing some little things like recycling,

open mind to the wonderful world we

using low-energy light bulbs, turning off

have. We definitely don’t want to ruin

the lights whenever I don’t need them,

it.

cutting off the energy of the TV when

around

us. Open

eyes and

So, wake up if you don’t want to

it’s in stand-by, because unlike many

wind up drowned by the seas.

people think, when a TV is in stand-by Francisco Almeida, nº11, 11ºE

status is consuming energy. We save money

and

help

the

environment.

How would I handle a water crisis?

Besides, it’s very easy and doesn’t take too much time of our lives to do something like this. Younger people can voluntarily offer to institutions to do clean-ups on lakes and rivers on their holidays

or

watching

the

forests

to

prevent fires, much better than staying at home watching some stupid show with no interest at all. Furthermore it looks very good on curriculum vitae.

People

don’t

understand

that

their children will no longer have the luxury we have now. The specialists even

Drinkable water supply is decreasing in many countries, mostly in Africa. What can we do to solve this problem and hinder poor children from dying from thirst?

If I were a Lord Mayor and I had a water crisis in my city, at first, I would do a lot of campaigns to spread information about how to

say water is going to be a motive to start a world war not so far from now.

So we must fight for a better life in the

future.

Can

we

make

the

difference? Yes, we can! And we don’t have to do a huge sacrifice as people normally think. Rather than using a car, there is no sacrifice in walking a little to talk with our friends or family and paying

attention

to

the

beautiful 7

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spare water on a daily basis and emphasize the fact of sparing money too, citizens contribution would be fundamental. Then, I would, if possible, look for new sources of water in the surrounding areas. If I lived near the sea I would use technology as far as I could to transform salt water in fresh water.

Of course, it would have costs but without water we can’t live. If needed, I would ask donations from people to help pay the technology.

Factories which pollute rivers would pay fines and farmers would use drip irrigation systems (drop by drop irrigation).

Reservations would be built; dams would be constructed and shared by cities; schools would give special attention to this subject and reunions with citizens would be made so that they could present their solutions and opinions. In ultimate need, I would raise the price of water as a way of forcing people to save it and adopt ecological measures.

Anyway, at this point in Africa almost none of these ideas would

be possible to achieve, they don’t have either money or education to solve their problems, so I think it’s our duty as human beings we are, to help them and start economizing here if we can’t go there to directly be helpful.

When it isn’t our problem, we don’t care too much but it will be in case we continue wasting water like this and when it happens I hope we can change our habits very quickly.

Francisco Almeida nº11 11ºE

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A letter to my classmates I must confess that the environment is one of my current worries. So I decided to share some of my thoughts.

I’m writing because I think we should change our living habits. I think we should adopt habits to protect environment because we have to preserve and protect it if we want to live surrounded by a healthy and clean environment.

I believe everyone can have ecological living habits. It’s not that difficult.

Let’s see.

We could start by simple gestures such as not wasting water. We could show a little respect when we are watering our plants, doing it in the less sunny hours or using the rain water to water them or to wash up our cars. We could also recycle many materials or reuse them. We could reduce our consumerist habits by not purchasing things we don´t need. If we want to assume ecological living habits we should prefer recycled things and offer items that we don’t need or that we don’t use like clothes or school material to institutions.

We have to talk about this to other people and show them some easy ways of helping the planet. After this, we can participate in events to help environment or associate to an environmental organization. It really doesn’t hurt that much!

I really hope some of you can pay attention to what I say. I know I can´t do much… but I can tell you what I think!

See you!

Mónica Ferreira 11th F

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me to live like this, it’s often just impossible.

I’m feeling sick about my own soul, my body is full of pain and I don’t know what the solution is.

Now, I’m a different girl, my endings changed, my spirit stopped in time, I lose my religion, I’m not a believer anymore.

My life is a box, fearful of the dreams that will never become part of it.

Certainly, I’m not the only girl with this problem.

Even if my wheels-chair becomes my best friend, I will never forget the moments that I spent without it before the accident. I was a happy girl; I used to believe that my dreams would become part of my life.

Now, I’m wasting my time with my blog, writing the story of my life.

My life is over now and I can’t look at myself in the mirror; I just see my black shadow full of sadness.

I’m here and I’m alone.

I always wake at 7 a.m. Now, I’m dependent on wheels-chair. What a destiny to a girl like me, that one day dreamed of being a famous top-model.

Sometimes I wake up and my eyes let the tears fall, even if I don’t cry anymore.

Waking up, getting up and dressing up is my daily routine.

I go near the window everyday to find new people walking along to the streets of New York City.

At this moment, “I’m like a bird, I only fly away” but this happens just in my dreams, in reality I’m a simple soul stuck in a wheel-chair.

One day in the past, when I went to a casting to take the first step in fashion world, someone told me: “You’re beautiful, that’s for sure, but you’re still too young, try again when you are sixteen years old”.

Yes, now I’m sixteen years old, but it’s too late, I’m stuck in this old flat.

Sometimes, I just don’t want to wake up anymore. It’s so hard for

Sara Filipa Rodrigues da Silva, nº20, 10ºG

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What is an invention?

An invention is a unique or novel device, method, composition, process or discovery. It may also be an improvement upon, or alternate means, of achieving an existing desired result or function. An invention that is not derived from an existing model or idea, or that achieves a completely unique function, discovery, or result, may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is the cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social behaviors adopted by people and passed on to others. Inventions often extend the bounds of human knowledge, experience or capability. An invention that is novel and not obvious to others skilled in the same field may be able to obtain the legal protection of a patent.

My existence has come a long way with humanity. The very first representation found of my ancestors is attributed to the 9th century. Despite this fact it's thought that I've existed for long before that, in Asia. The earlier "versions" of me were very simple and my concept was only brought to Europe around the 12th century. From that point I quickly grew in popularity since I was light to carry, easy to play and I also have the capacity to produce nice sounds that can express both sadness and happiness.

I could be found across the streets and bars of the medieval age. Due to this wide use, my users upgraded me several times and gradually I become one of the most famous and probably the most used in music nowadays.

I have six strings, I am about the size of a human child at the age of 8, I can also have several shapes and there is almost one proof my kind in every music band of this time. Who am I? If you guessed guitar, you're right, if not I suggest that you read again.

Tiago Ribeiro, 10ºC

X-ray Hello, I´m Wilhelm Röntgen and I´m the inventor of X-ray. My invention was very important to medicine, because, for the first time, it was possible to see inside a person´s body without surgery.

It all started when I was studying the effects of passing electricity through a glass tube from which most of the air had been removed, I found that some kind of invisible rays were being produced.

When I struck a nearby screen, they made it glow and d the same thing happened when I covered the tube with a card board. Then I tried to pass the rays through my wife´s hand onto a photographic plate.

And there it was, the first X-ray photograph, made by me.

Diogo Gualter Ribeiro, 10ºC Hand mit Ringen (Hand with Rings): print of Wilhelm Röntgen's first "medical" X-ray, of his wife's hand, taken on 22 December 1895 and presented to Ludwig Zehnder of the Physik Institut, University of Freiburg, on 1 January 1896.

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Hi! I’m Smurfette. It’s so nice to meet you! I’m a little being, and I’m blue and blonde. I’ll smurf (tell) you my story because no one knows the real truth.

Everyone thinks that I was smurfed (created) by Gargamel, the scary wizard, but, in reality, I was smurfed (created) by Pierre Culliford, a Belgian illustrator, in 1958. He smurfed (created) the smurfs’ village too, this is a place where me and papa smurf and other smurfs are living.

I don’t know if you noticed but I’m the only girl in the village and I’m feeling so alone. Of course that I have my friends smurfs but, in fact, they don’t want to be just my friends, they’re smurf (fall) in love with me.

In the village we sing a lot of songs, happy songs like “La la la la la Sing a Happy Song”.

Recently we have smurfed (learnt) a new song that is like “Delicious, delicious, this way you gonna smurf me. Oh”…

My… Smurf! Do you saw that unicorn? Sorry but I have to follow the unicorn. I smurf (love) you, guys! Bye!

the first, who cultivated cacao, from which I’m created. They were so enthralled with the bean that they attributed its creation to their god Quetzalcoatl, and valued the cacao bean so much that they used it as currency. Officially my ancestors were discovered by Hernán Cortés, when he arrived in México, in 1519. He tasted a bitter drink, not the sweet chocolate as you know me today, he took my ancestors to Europe, and then they became famous.

The type of chocolate, as you know me today, appeared in 1847 when Fry & Sons of Bristol, England - mixed Sugar with Cocoa Powder and Cocoa Butter to produce the first solid chocolate bar then, in 1875 a Swiss manufacturer, Daniel Peters, found a way to combine cocoa powder and cocoa butter with sugar and dried milk powder to produce the first milk chocolate.

So, there are three main types of chocolate: white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate, I’m the milk chocolate type, the sweet chocolate that everybody loves, and can’t stop eating. Nowadays there are lots of chocolate brands, inside the main types of chocolates, there are many more other types, I’m just Nestlé’s milk chocolate, but I have other “friends” that belong to other brands like Milka, Kinder, Regina, and others.

To produce me, it’s a long process, it’s really hard one which involves lots of steps and takes a lot of time, but to eat me only takes a few minutes. I can say that I’ve got a short life.

Flávia Magalhães, 10ºC

Ana Barros, 10º C

Hi, guys! My name is chocolate, but you can call me “The forbidden fruit”. Everybody says that I’m bad for people’s health, but that’s not quite true. It makes me sad that not everyone knows the real truth about me, I also have some good qualities, I act as antioxidant, as anti depressant, I calm down people’s anxiety, and other advantages, as you can see, eating me has some benefits.

My ancestors were created a long time ago, and their parents were the Aztecs. The Aztecs were

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I consider myself one of the best inventions from all the time because I have connected different people from the entire world and I have created a new and fast way of spreading information.

Hi! The real darkness of night no longer exists in most parts of the world, but before my invention, the night was not a time for relaxation and reading, but a time to be tense and scared. The world needed to be awake 24 hours a day, therefore, during various times, various "Einsteins" tried to invent me, because it was necessary to discover the artificial light.

On October 21st 1879, I was finally invented by an American called, Thomas Edison. Finally permanent lighting had arrived. I am also known as incandescent, illuminating the houses and I come in a more secure and less expensive package. With me everything is very bright and very pretty and clean. I am no longer a lighting torch, which makes your hands oily and dirty.

And I can help you work and play at night. Now that you know something about me, who am I? Yes, you have guessed right. I am a light bulb!!!

Nuno Lopes, 10ºC

Hello! My name is Henry Ford...

I invented the first car in October 1, 1908 (T-Model with a top speed of 72 km/h!!). If I hadn't existed, you couldn't go on vacations for example and you wouldn't be able to go to faraway places without getting tired....

Here I'll show you the evolutions of the motors and design of the cars along the years:

Luís Gonçalo Fonseca, 10ºC T-Model 1908: Top speed - 72 km/h Acceleration 0-100 – Unknown

Hi, I’m television…

the

… and I was invented back in 1925 by my father John Logie Baird. He was a Scottish engineer and died in 1946 with the age of 57.

Nowadays, I´m one of the most significant and dependable means of communication. I give people entertainment, culture, information´s about what’s happening in any place of the world and a relaxing time. I´m also the most used medium to advertise products and services and because of that I´m considered a money making machine.

Cadillac 1950: Top speed - 150 km/h. Acceleration 0-100 - 6.4 seconds

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the other 22 inventors; Thomas put me the new material. I am a very important invention because I brought light to every room in your house, to every street in your city, and everywhere.

Ricardo Pereira, 10º E

Ferrari 308 GTBi 1980: Top speed - 284 km/h.

Acceleration 0-100 - 4.9 seconds

Mercedes-Benz C63 AMG Black Series Coupé 2011: Top speed - 324 km/h (electronically limited) - Acceleration 0100 - 3.4 seconds

Marie Curie (1867- 1934) I was born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7, 1867.

I’m the daughter of Wladyslaw Sklodowski and Branssilawa Boguska.

I suffered two big losses, my mother’s death from tuberculosis and my sister’s death from typhus.

From 1883 to 1894 I got bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics from the University of Sorbonne in Paris, and I became the first woman to teach in this University upon the death of my husband in 1906.

I’m famous because I invented radio, polonium and radioactivity.

Bruno Marinho, 10ºE

Bugatti Veyron Super Sport 2011: Top speed - 428 km/h Acceleration 0-100 - 2.5 seconds

Diogo Jesus 10ºE

The light bulb Hello I am a light bulb.

Since the XIX century there have been twentytwo inventors attempting to build me.

The first inventor was Humphry Davy, it was Humphry who gave me life. He built me with lots of tools. But my best friend was Thomas Alva Edison, as he decided to improve my body after Humphry and

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to imagine humans near to robots, but it could be fun or maybe not, we don’t know!!

On the one hand, developing robots and robotics is good, because they could help us at home and at work, which would mean that we would have more time for ourselves. At home, we wouldn’t have to do house chores such as cleaning the house or cooking, as the robot would do it for us. Also, they would keep us company such as the dog robots that already exist.

At work, robots would work in a faster way because they wouldn’t need to stop as they don’t eat, drink or get tired.

On the other hand, if humans were very dependent on robots and didn't to do anything…

Paula Freitas, 10º G

ROBOTS AND THE FUTURE

W

e can’t predict the future, nor can we

travel in time to see what will happen. However, for me, one thing is, without a doubt, predictable. The future will be the robots’ era.

People will invent robots which can do all people’s tasks.

Ijust hope that all these robots won’t be bad for the humanity. For this reason, wecan´t forget that human beings can’t be replaced in some tasks. Let’simagine if robots rule the world.

Probably, wars between humans and robots willhappen…

Therefore, I think it would better if a balance between both worlds existed in order that the world won’t be too artificial. Humans and robots will have to cooperate and evolve together.

Sara Vanessa, 10ºG

F

irst of all it’s important to highlight that do

we don’t know much about the future, because it isn’t written yet. Who knows how the future will be? I think that no one has an answer to that question.

What we know for sure about the future is that it will bring a scientific revolution, that human beings will create advanced generations of robots and will become dependent on those “machines”; we and they will become enemies and fight massive wars to decide who will rule the world.

If that happens, the beautiful world that we know today will become a complete mess, an artificial world, full of machines and automatic things. We will become sedentary people with a lazy lifestyle, doing nothing all day, letting the robots do all for us, do our tasks, our housework, socialized for us, etc.

N

owadays, technology has recorded many

advances and there has been a big progress in many areas of technology, for example, in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, robotics and many others.

If technology continues to develop this much, we will create highly developed robots that will help us in many things of our lives. It is difficult

Sara Filipa, 10ºG

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Finally, all these possibilities are no certainties, so the future will tell.

Florbela Peixoto, 10º G

I

one of my biggest wishes! I like Robots but only in the movies not in real life.

I think if all the people become robots, there would only be an artificial world, with machines everywhere. There would no longer be real human beings with bones, blood, and feelings anymore. Everything would be automatic and mechanized.

Today we have so much technology; in fact, we can talk to someone who’s in the other corner of the world with a mobile phone, or even a tablet, that looks like a notebook, which we can take with us wherever we want. We also can control so many things with a little remote control device.

Besides that, thanks to the curiosity of the human being, man can do things that the humans in the past once dreamed of: we “fly” from a country to another with an airplane, and also visit the space and the moon. We don’t need our brains to do our math’s homework anymore, we have calculators!

But what will the world look like in the future?

Will it be more technological? Are we still going to need our mouth to speak or are we going to have a robot that speaks for us? Will we keep walking with our own legs? Or are we going to become creatures with wheels instead of feet? Maybe robots are going to conquer the world and rule it. Maybe there will be a battle between humans and robots? No one knows…

What if All People Become Robot?

T

really hope this isn’t going to happen! That’s

o start with, I’d like to point that it is

strange to think and imagine this situation because we (humans) are used to being the only living beings able to think, act and communicate verbally in society.

However, the possibility of robots’ integrating the "human world” in the future is something unreal and unimaginable. The coming of human robots will cause a revolutionary impact because they will be able to cooperate with humans, being able to do the same tasks that people do and live as we do.

In fact, this issue is a little complex and it is difficult to interpret and accept the idea that robots will start to inhabit our planet.

So far, humans have governed the place we live in; they are the ones who think, who create and who execute the rules. But no one foresees the future and the chance to watch the birth of a human robot is as scary as great. With a partnership between man and robot, the science, technology and knowledge will be driven to extremely high levels, for example. Even so, it is a very strange preview because it is very difficult to imagine myself involved in a world ruled by these “machines”.

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destroying everything we have learned. In the future, we will be nothing but stupid people, because technology will do everything for us.

However, this doesn't seem to affect people at all; they always want to evolve more and more.

Personally, I agree with evolution, because it has helped us a lot. However, the pace is so quick that we don't even have the time to realise how fast things are changing. In what the future of robots is concerned, what if they come to talk, feel, think, have physical impulses... everything, everything we do?

It's funny, but this is our role, not theirs. We have to work, study, have a family, love and so forth ... I mean that we are humans and that's an advantage; it is the ''magic'' and if we exist that is for some reason!

We must stop this trend too, otherwise we will be dominated.

Finally, I'm not against technology, but I'm against excess and obsession. So we should fight for humanity, for the reason of our existence.

What if robots exist?

I

n my opinion Robots will only be our

“slaves”, and will do the domestic work for us.

They will do all those activities that humans do not like to do, and never complain, as humans do normally.

But what if the robots gain free will, and stop doing what they were programmed to. And what if robots stand against us? It would be very risky as they can’t be dead, like us.

It would be nice to have robots to do all our wills, but we'd better think twice, that is, about the problems they could give us. And if we don’t do anything, we will be too lazy, fat and many other things.

Cátia Gonçalves, 10º G

What if this industry becomes massive?

Ana Francisca, 10ºG

F

irst of all, it's difficult to imagine such

situation. I know that everyone has already

watched some movies about robots and new technology. At first sight one gets excited, but if you think better about it, the evolution is

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THE INTERNET

For many years

comments about you on your social network profile. The Internet is full of sexual predators and pornography, so you have to be really careful about who you trust and who you talk to, because some predators pretend to be another person that likes the same things you do. A new virus is sent every single day onto the Internet so you have to be in alert about the e-mails and spam you receive.

One thing we can be sure of is that Internet is like powerful “giant” with good and bad things.

Internet is basically like our life, we have to think and choose the best for us.

we have been

using letters to send messages, the telephone to talk with a person that is very far away and the television and radio to be entertained. These are just a few examples of our life in the past. Now with the greatest creation of the world we can do it all on our cell phone or computer and yes I´m talking about Internet.

The Internet brings us a lot of benefits like faster communication. Because you don´t need to spend money calling someone that is miles away, you can have a video conversation through Skype for free. You can use online services to book tickets to a movie or plan an itinerary. You can also enjoy e-commerce like shopping online or buying or selling things on eBay for example, but you can also watch movies and listen to music and download on iTunes, be a part of a social network like Facebook or twitter, be connected with people all over the world and look for jobs or business opportunities.

But of course it couldn´t be as easy and beautiful as that. Internet has some disadvantages, too. You can be a victim of cyberbullying, involving death threats or nasty

Ana Gonçalves, 10º K

It's hard

for us to imagine our lives

without the Internet and what life was like before it.

The only thing we know for sure is that the life before the Internet was different and the way the things were done was different, too: If we wanted to buy a ticket to the theater we had to physically go there and buy it or if we wanted to 18

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Despite all the disadvantages, the Internet is the only tool that shortens distances by means of a click.

sell something we had to publish an ad in the newspaper and hope that someone called us. But there are lots of more things that weren't done the same way we do now, for example the communication or the researches: before we used phones, we sent letters, we talked face to face and we used books, nowadays, we send emails, we use social networks, chatrooms, we do video conferencing and we use Google.

Basically, life has changed. Some people say it was for better, but others say it was for worse, but I'm sure they all agree that Internet is useful.

Claudia Lopes, 10º K

Life before internet was very different from today. Encyclopedias and books were used to search for information.

Now, internet has come to make life of students better because searching is simpler and faster.

The internet brought some advantages, for example: in entertainment it is possible to download games, play them online, surf the celebrity websites, listen to music and, what’s more, watch episodes of favourite series. Besides, in commerce it is possible to buy, sell or auction items online.

On the other land, there are also disadvantages from the internet, for instance, virus threats, that is, internet users are often plagued by virus attacks on their systems. Virus programs get active if you click a link. Computers connected to internet are very prone to targeted virus attacks and may end up crashing. In addition, the pornography grows on internet. Unrestricted access to porn can be detrimental for children and teenagers.

In conclusion, the internet has a higher value for the younger population because it helps us to have a more convenient life.

Joana Sampaio, 10º K

The Internet is

one of greatest

inventions to date, that caused a great impact on society. Now people are so dependent on the Internet that can’t live without it. It is used in communication, entertainment, commerce and also to search information. However, the Internet has advantages and disadvantages.

Internet allows us to communicate with friends or family who live far away, sending emails or talking on Skype. There are many “chat rooms” that can be accessed to meet new people and make new friends. We can do researches about something that we aren’t sure, such as the case of students, who use the Internet to do school researches. The Internet, allows us to download games, music, videos, movies, and a host of other entertainment software.

Nevertheless, Internet has disadvantages.

Now people meet online, and it can be dangerous because the relation isn't face to face. In the internet, there are people spreading e-mail virus, using other people’s credit card numbers and stealing personal information.

Nicole Oliveira, 10ºK

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guided him to find his sponsor, the person who paid to create them.

The couple, who fall in love, is persecuted by authorities and a group of assassins hired by the enterprise’s owner.

With a lot of action, Lincoln finds his sponsor who tried to trick him but ended dead.

To finalize, they enter the company’s building and destroy it, releasing the clones and showing the truth to everybody. In the middle of many fights, the owner dies and the assassin hired to kill the fugitives changed his ideas and helped Lincoln and Jordan, who end the film kissing.

In my opinion the film passes a good main message. Nevertheless, an action film isn’t the best way to make people aware of the dangers of cloning and how human curiosity and greed for money can lead to do incredible things. A drama film would be a suitable way of achieving the objective.

Furthermore, science development will enable the creation of organs without giving life to a human being, so scientific aspects could be better.

Anyway, it’s an amusing film.

Summary and comment on the film: “The Island” The film tells us about a huge building hidden under the soil in which clones were created. They´re kept there under the premise that there was a global contamination and they were survivors.

They´re told that there is a lottery to send them to an Island, some kind of paradise, but in actuality they´re sent to death. Rich people pay large quantities of money to create their clone so that they can extract from them organs, for example. They don’t know their clones have souls and thinking though.

However, a clone named Lincoln SixEcho finds a butterfly inside the building and starts to question the contamination. Then, he sees one of his friends being killed to take organs from him. He realizes that there´s no island and they have been tricked. So he picks up a friend named Jordan, who was chosen by the lottery, so she was going to die, and gets away from there. On the outside, a friend of his who worked there explained to them they were clones and

Francisco Almeida, 11ºE

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