30. My worst habit (and a goodbye).

02/12/2021, 22:47 - 22:50.

    Well, I think that this is my worst habit without a doubt: always leaving things for the last minute. I wish I'd had the time to write more or any earlier, but exams and group projects have made it difficult. It has been lots of fun, though. I hadn’t had the chance to write this much in years.

    See you soon, my dear readers.

    For now, goodbye.

    - Edu.

29. Music that is special to me.

02/12/2021, 22:01 - 22:16.

    I dearly love My Chemical Romance’s music, since they are my favourite group. I discovered them because of my birth name, Helena, which is the title of one of their most popular songs. 

    My Chemical Romance is a punk-rock band with very depressing lyrics, to be honest. After all, it was founded after Gerard Way, the vocalist, witnessed 9/11. All about them and their music is raw, unfiltered and it tears your soul but in a good way. I love their songs because, even though I’m not a violent person, they serve as an outlet for when I need to let go. Precisely because I’m very peaceful is why that outlet of loud guitars and screams helps me relax when I myself can’t scream.

    Their lyrics, although violent, also follow a beautiful story. Their first albums follow the tragic tale of the Demolition Lovers, a criminal couple in which the girl dies and so her partner makes a deal with the Devil to kill a thousand evil men in exchange for seeing her once again. 

    Some songs I would recommend for those who’ve never heard of MCR before are the classics: Helena, Welcome To The Black Parade and Na Na Na. However, if you’re into punk-rock I’d recommend you listen to their whole first album, I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love, it’s my favourite album ever.

28. A favourite possession.

02/12/2021, 21:31 - 21:38.

    My favorite possession right now is my Cyndaquil plushie, which my boyfriend bought for me.

    My first Pokémon game was Soul Silver, the re-release of the original Gen 2 games for the Gameboy. The starter Pokémon I chose was Cyndaquil, the fire type starter. I loved that little thing dearly, even more when it evolved into a Quilava. This is why those two are my favourite Pokémon ever.

    Since my boyfriend gifted it to me, my little Cyndaquil is always by my side. At home he sits on my desk, and when I go to class he’s tucked in the small pocket of my backpack. However, on the glorious days in which I’m wearing a hoodie I carry him in the front pocket, always ready to be squished.

27. A story from my childhood.

02/12/2021, 21:09 - 21:23.

    I can vividly remember this one day in preschool where our teacher gave us a sheet of paper with a “tree” on it. The tree was actually composed of a rectangle as the trunk and an octagon as the branches and leaves, and it sat on the left side of the sheet, on a grid. To the right there was a blank grid, and our teacher asked us to copy that same tree on the right side.

    The thing is that, since she had said the word “tree”, everyone started drawing just a random tree of similar proportions. I stared at my classmates in dismay, that was not the same drawing! I followed the grid, making sure that my lines were as straight as possible, and copied that octagon on top of a vertical rectangle on the right. I was about to hand it over, but then I got scared. No one else had copied the exact same thing, was I wrong? After all, the majority is always right… right? I sat there for some minutes, scared to be wrong.

    Finally, I decided to hand it over. My teacher’s desk was covered in poorly drawn trees, and she looked exhausted. When she saw my drawing she looked like she was going to cry. She hugged me, told everyone that I had been the only one to do what she’d asked of us, and then gave me a kinder egg. That was nice.

Practice 16: Cohesion and style.

    The director of research at the American DuPont Corporation, Wallace Carothers, invented nylon in 1935. He had studied chemistry and had specialised in polymers, which are molecules composed of long chains of atoms. Nylon was a strong and synthetic fibre, and it was first mass produced in 1939. This material is used to make a wide range of products, including stockings, toothbrushes, parachutes, fishing lines, and surgical thread.

1. Another issue to consider is the possibility of crime increasing.

2. Many are unemployed nowadays.

3. In the near future, a vaccine for malaria will be discovered.

4. At the end of the 20th century, the price of Japanese property notably decreased.

5. The numbers in that report cannot be trusted.

6. The severe inflation led to poverty and social unrest.

7. He was delighted to win the prize.

8. Students should be paid for their effort.

9. Women were allowed to vote in the late 20th century.

10. The main causes of the Russian revolution were...

    Worldwide, enrolments in higher education are increasing. In developed countries over half of all young people enter college, while similar trends are seen in China and South America. This growth has put financial strain on state university systems, so many countries are asking students and parents to contribute. This leads to a debate about whether students or society benefit from tertiary education.

    China is one developing country (but not the only one) which has imposed fees on students since 1997. The results have been surprising: enrolments, especially in the most expensive universities, have continued to rise steeply, growing 200 per cent overall between 1997 and 2001. It seems in this case that higher fees attract rather than discourage students, who see them as a sign of a good education. They compete more fiercely for places, leading to the result that a place at a good college can cost $5000 per year for fees and maintenance.