OPEN LETTER TO NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISHERS

Dear Sir or Madam:

The purpose of this letter is to ask for some help from you, because it is really important in order to become the people aware in the importance of have better environmental conditions in the town.

Firstly let me tell you that I represent an environmental foundation that is interested in the conservation of the clean and green spaces inside the town, because day by day the builds are winning more and more space, and eventually we will cut down all the trees in the town, becoming this in a really unpleasant place to live.

It is clear for everybody in this city that we don´t have enough places where our children and even us could take a break of the daily routine, and I think is really important for the health of the inhabitants of the town to count with a place like that.

Because of that I have been suggesting since the last year that the empty space that is just in the centre of the town should be use to build a park. This park should mix activities not only for the children, but for the adults too.

I know that there are many options about what to do there, but for me the park is the best. If there is build a conference centre or an exhibition, despite of the fact that the city will be more attractive from a touristic view, we will not have any place to get a breath of fresh air that are really scant in the town.

Therefore, we kindly request that you consider the support of our campaign with some advertisements that shows the advantage of having a park in the middle of the town using the arguments that I just exposed.

We really require your help because in that way we will have more people supporting our humble but important campaign.


Sincerely,


César Augusto Cuta
Leader of the campaign to save the environment

MY UNFORGETTABLE VISIT TO THE SANTIAGO BERNABEU STADIUM

I was very excited about this trip because it would be the first time that I would see my favorite soccer team, Barcelona, and even more because I knew that in this trip I would visit the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in one the toughest match of the season against the Real Madrid.

At the beginning I was totally nervous, just the huge structure of the stadium gave an intimidating environment by itself, but slowly I was settling down and I started to felt more comfortable.

The players were on the field, everything was ready to start and the crowded was really excited about this match.

The environment when the match started was totally indescribable, most of the people were supporting to Real Madrid team, but the Barcelona fans were really loud.
The game had started and in the very first minute, when Iguain got the ball and shot to the net scoring. It looked difficult for Barcelona because at that time they had not only the crowed against them but the score too.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointment because of the Real Madrid’s goal, but a few minutes after just what I was expecting the Barcelona tied the match. But my happiness was even bigger when five minutes after the Barcelona was leading the match 2-1 thanks to a great play of Thierry Henry; it seems incredible because in a very short time my team get over the adverse score.

As strange as it appears, ten minutes after the Barcelona score again and the game was now 3 -1, I was really excited and it was really hard to believe. Just after that the first half ended.

Unfortunately at the beginning of the second half the Real Madrid scored, and I thought the game would be very tight because of the new motivation coming from the goal the game was now 3-2.

But the Barcelona’s players were really motivated and kept pushing scoring twice again, the people in the Bernabeu didn’t give credit to what they were seeing, 6 – 2 was the final score I couldn’t be more pleased with my visit to the stadium, my team won with a huge difference in the score and I knew one of stadiums that is considered a legend of the soccer.

GUANES’ CULTURE

Los Guanes is a native Chibcha group, who was placed in the region where now are place the provinces of Soto, Guanenta and Velez, in Santander, Colombia.

In the middles of eighteen century Los Guanes’ population was very close to the extinction. The mining had a strong influence in the disappearance of this town in the colony time.

You can see next a short description of the features of Guanes’ culture.

Territory

La Mesa de Xerida or Mesa de los Santos was the permanent place for the central power of the native group knows as Los Guanes.

Their lands at west border on the Yariguies’ lands, at north border on the Chitateros’ lands, at east on the Laches’ lands and at south border on the Muiscas’ lands.

Government

The chief Guanenta was one of five sovereigns who governed the Chibcha town. He decided the punishment for the people who did something wrong in the town.

Between the punishments imposed by Guanes you can count this:

• The thieves were tie to a branch and killed with an arrow, and the chief gave a blanket as a prize to the archer who hit in the mouth or in the eye to the thief.
• To the spoilt kids they put chili water in the eyes.
• They killed to the unfaithful women.

Skills

They cultivated the cotton, pineapples and corn. They were very good artisans and made great works with cotton’s threads made by them.

Los Guanes made their own weapons, including arrows and bows. They interchanged blankets for salt with los Muiscas from La Sabana de Bogota and ceramics with the native called Chitareros.

Physical appearance

According to the results of some investigations, The Guanes’ men had 1,63meters of high and the women 1,51meters average. It was also possible to know the blood group of this town, it was O. This result was obtained from a sample of 100grm of skin.

THE E-MAIL REVOLUTION, ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

Once upon a time a boring world where nobody can talk with anybody face to face, but everybody was happy…

This paragraph could be extracted from a fairy tale, but actually is a representative way to express how the mankind has been communicating in the last years.

Some years ago it was quite normal to see some people getting some stamps when they wanted to sent a letter to a relative who has travel abroad. And when they finally could post their letter, they had to wait for too long to received an answer.

It is a lucky that all these things have changed. Now you can save all this time and money (because it was too expensive to sent a letter to another country) using the email. This wonderful tool has arrived to become the communication in something simple and friendly.

It is quite normal in these times, to hear everybody asking for your email address, because that’s the coolest way to be in touch nowadays. And it is not only for fashion, it is because through this tool you can send and receive message, files, pictures and other stuff, making the email a very useful resource.

However the email is finishing with the old and traditional face to face chat. These days is more common to be in touch with you neighbor through the email than talk with their personally. Even worse, the people prefer to be in an internet coffee sending emails and using the chat than to be in a park talking with some friends.

In conclusion, the email has change the communication, becoming it easier and cheaper, but it is becoming the communication quite impersonal and insecure, and is possible that one day we will not talk with anybody face to face.

OIL ABOVE $100 A BARREL

The oil rose a new record above $100 a barrel after the government reported a larger than expected decline in oil inventories and an unexpected rise in heating oil supplies.

The Energy Information Administration (EIA) said crude inventories fell by 4 million barrels last week, much more than the 1,7 million barrel decline analyst surveyed by Dow Jones, on average had expected. But who can expect that kind of decrease in the production.

On the other hand, inventories of distillates, which includes heating oil and diesel fuel, rose by 600.000 barrels, countering analyst expectations that distillate supplies would fall by 600.000 barrels. And supplies of gasoline rose by 1.9 million barrels, more than the 1,3 million- barrel increase analyst had expected. This fact is quite strange; because I wonder why they are increasing the production of more expensive fuels, and reducing the production of crude oil (the cheapest). I really think there are some “evil intentions”.

Then the real problem is associated with the oil. The new trading record on the New York Mercantile Exchange for oil is $100,09. Prior to the 2007 run-up in prices, the record had been an inflation-adjusted high of $94,06 in January 1981. You can see now that the Evil cartel is making loads of money with the increment.

The High oil prices prompted to travel organization AAA to issue a warning that “record high prices will be paid by consumers for gasoline in the year ahead. That is because the price of oil accounts two thirds of the pump price of gasoline. The situation is even worse because refineries are required by law to switch to a type of clean-air gasoline by june1 every year and this new gasoline is more expensive than the regular. Then after June you will have two options: take the bus or share your car.

High prices this time of year are especially unsettling (January 4, 2007), AAA spokesman Geoff Sundstrom noted, because fuel prices typically don’t start their seasonal climb until spring. Then What is happen really?

The new record on the oil prices prompted Indonesian officials to announce plans to ask OPEC to boost output to bring down oil prices. Many analysts think high prices will themselves do the trick by cutting the demand. But is possible that oil will rise the $150.

Note: On June 28th 2008 after a lot of new records, the oil price reaches a maximum near to $141.

Vocabulary
Pump: transitive and intransitive verb make liquid or gas flow; to force a liquid or gas to flow.
Rose: past form of rise.
Struggled: try to overcome problem; to make a great effort to deal with a challenge, problem, or difficulty.
Prompted: transitive verb cause somebody to act; to make somebody decide to do something.
Unsettling: upsetting; producing a feeling of unease or insecurity.
Spokesman: somebody, especially a man, authorized to speak on behalf of another person or other people.
Boost: to cause something to increase.
Tepid: showing little enthusiasm or warmth.

Reading comprehension
1. According with the summary, how much did the crude inventories fall the last week?
2. According with the summary, what is the meaning of EIA?
3. What can the OPEC do to bring down the oil prices?
4. Did The analyst expect an increase in the supplies of gasoline?
5. How long has it been since the oil price risen $94,06?