SOME THINGS THAT ARE BEING DISCUSSED.

I think that the world has changed a lot over the last twenty years, I consider myself as a very

open person, some would say I am an activist, maybe because I am 23 years old and I like to

defend every cause, I consider fair. For example, just the other day I signed up a petition to

eradicate zoos from the cities and let the animals free, I believe that having an animal in

captivity is not nice, they should be free and if you want to see them you will have to go to their

natural habitat and be very careful. I like all kinds of animals, for me they are amazing creatures

with unique abilities and they have been unprotected, if we do not take care of animals, they

will become extinct and the only way to see them will be at a museum like the dinosaurs. For

those reasons, I decided to support that petition, I always fight for those things, but I accept

when people decide not to participate or be indifferent to those situations, I mean, if you live in

this place, at some point you will have to make a choice, because some things are being

changed, and a lot of eyes have been opened to new realities. However, I do not judge and if

you like to ignore these issues, you will probably live a happy life, and that is the important

thing, and if not, you will deal with the consequences too. I think that during this new era, many

interesting social subjects are being analyzed and have been discussed openly, today I want to

express my thoughts on some of those topics I consider controversial.

The first topic I consider relevant is the environment, and this one has been mistreated and I

think is being destroyed little by little, that is why it is necessary to reflect on this topic, because

if we do not stop hurting the environment, we will suffer the consequences. I believe that

sometimes people are more interested in money than protecting the planet we are living in, our

planet is being put under threat, because it has been polluted by us, it has been neglected. In this

time, some dangerous procedures have been instilled, for example, the fracking, invasive

mining or cattle raising. Fracking is being studied and some people say it is the best way to

extract oil, but some of those studies have also been rejected, because their negative results are

being proven by some environment defenders, who think that fracking has been accepted long

enough and it should be prohibited, as it is being forbidden in many countries. On the other

hand, this kind of practice such as mining or cattle raising needs big amount of water, and the
lands are being used only to grow some animals that can cause greenhouse gases, we have been

told that the environment is the most important thing for life in this planet, but when it comes to

money, people seem to think we have a planet to spare.

PASSIVE VOICE PRESENT CONTINUOUS.

Active voice (To be + ing) Passive voice (To be + being + P.P.)
Affirmative: I am studying English. Affirmative: The house is being cleaned
Negative: I am not eating vegetables. Negative: The car is not being fixed
Interrogative: Are you cooking? Interrogative: Is the woman being stolen?

What are you doing? What is the bank being called for?

PASSIVE VOICE PRESENT PERFECT.

Active voice (Have/has + P.P.) Passive voice (Have/has + BEEN + P.P.)
Affirmative: She has drunk 3 beers today. Affirmative: 3 beers have been drunk (by
her)
Negative: You have not cleaned the house. Negative: The house has not been cleaned.
Interrogative: Have you worked for your Interrogative: Have you been hired by your

uncle? uncle?

Where have you traveled? What have been completed this month?

The second topic I want to talk about will probably be tied to the previous one. I need to speak

about this matter, because in the future it will be understood as one of the most relevant, this

one is animal rights and protection, for some people this is a controversial topic, since some

people believe animals are not going to be taken as subject of right, and for some others,

animals will be given the rights they deserve. I think I am an animal lover, anything we can do

to protect them will be done as soon as possible. Sometimes, people do not accept that animal

will be granted some rights as humans have, for some people it is better if animals are treated as

objects or possessions, they believe that animals are going to be taken care of, fed and provided

for, but as non-human entities. Right now in my town a new proposal will be introduced by our
government, the idea is to declare animals as subject of right, this one will be discussed next

week on an open chamber and some animal rights activists are going to be listened as they

present their arguments in favor of this proposal. On the other hand, some other people will be

heard, because they have some arguments to present against this proposal, in my personal

opinion I support this idea and I hope animal will be protected even more with the law. What

proposal will be supported by you?

PASSIVE VOICE FUTURE (WILL).

Active voice (Will + verb) Passive voice (Will + be + P.P.)
Affirmative: He will travel to Cartagena Affirmative: She will be flown to Canada.
next month.
Negative: He will not arrive late. Negative: A computer will not be bought.
Interrogative: Will you marry that woman? Interrogative: How much food will be sold
When will you stay at home?
today?

My third topic of interest are the Social Networks, I selected this topic, because it has been a

real revolution in the way people communicate nowadays. Right now we have many Social

Networks, such as: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tiktok and some others, and they created a

new perspective for communicating and sending information, if we compare this era to 20 years

ago, we can see that 20 years ago information travelled slower than now, in the past people used

more letters than now, 20 years ago the post mail was more popular than now. Right now

communication is more interactive than in the past, when people use these networks they show

more private things than people in the past, in the past the messages were more private than in

this time, in this time people are less afraid to share information than in the past. With

Facebook, the way people share memories changed totally, for example some people are more

talkative than I the real life, on the Internet they feel more comfortable than in face to face

interaction, the communication is faster now than in the past and that allows people to send

messages and mail faster than before, so many things are now better because of these Social

Networks, however, they have some disadvantages, can you name some of them?

COMPARATIVE ADJECTIVES
Short adjectives: ER
 TallER – smallER + bigGER + fastER + Bogotá is bigger than Cali

slowER + smartER + cleanER the communication is faster now than in the

past

Long adjectives: they feel more comfortable than in face to

Beautiful – popular – expensive – interesting face interaction

– comfortable people are more talkative than in the real life

Adjectives ending in Y:

Heavy – sexy – busy – easy

Heavier than – Sexier than – busier than – English is easier than Spanish.

easier than.

Finally, I want to speak about a topic that is very complicated and a lot of people are not used to

speaking about it and they probably do not like, because this topic can create some problems

and arguments when people are not used to debating. This topic is politics, with the time we got

used to discussing about political parties, ideas and proposals, but in the past, especially in some

countries it was difficult to get used to accepting that in politics you can think differently,

because there was a lot of division, depending on which parties or ideas you were used to

supporting. In my town this has been very complicated, because in my town some years ago we

had only two political parties, the yellow one and the green one. Those parties got used to

fighting for the town’s power and before, during and after the elections, their supporters were

used to fighting to defend the party’s ideas and perspective, some of those fights got really

intense and a war between the yellows and the greens was in place, many people died, because

of the ideas they expressed, at some point people got used to hearing that 10 or more people

were killed the night before, and the town was used to accepting that, because of the color of the

killed people. Greens and yellows board of directors were used to financing their defenders by

sending them some money under cover, and with that money the parties’ supporters armed

themselves to hunt down their political ‘enemies’, so our town got used to seeing armed

civilians patrolling some areas, and nobody could say anything. Fortunately, with the time, this
war stopped and we got used to accepting new ideas and parties. Are you used to talking about

politics with your friends and family? So, now I want to hear about you and your opinions about

these topics, or if you would like to add another one.

BE USED TO + ING (estar acostumbrado GET USED TO + ING (Acostumbrarse

a…) a…)
I am used to eating at 1 pm. / She is used to I get used to studying with no problem. / She

playing tennis on Sundays. / We are used to gets used to experiencing new things. / They

watching movies at night. get used to playing any sport.

I was used to eating at 1 pm. / She was used I got used to studying with no problem. / She

to playing tennis on Sundays. / We were used got used to experiencing new things. / They

to watching movies at night. got used to playing any sport.

I will get used to studying with no problem. /

She will get used to experiencing new things.

/ They will get used to playing any sport.