COURSE: ADVANCED

GRAMMAR 3
NAME: BRAYAN ALEGRIA
RUIZ
TEACHER: LOUIS
CIPRIANO
 WRITING DRAFT 1

VIOLENCE IN SPORTS
We all have seen or witnessed violence-related stuff in sports, whether
it be on, or off the field; coming from athletes, coaches, fans, and even
the media. Now that sport events are available to more people due to
media coverage, it holds the concern of violence spreading out to more
people; even worse, young children are being exposed to violent acts
regarding sports.
Here in Peru, whenever we hear sport-related acts of violence, the first
thing that comes to mind is soccer. In our Peruvian society, we are
taught to root for a particular team, and be there for the team, and
fellow fans, that sounds nice if it were not for the fact that we are also
taught to “hate” rival teams, and that not only do we need to cheer for
our team but also we need to annoy our rivals. To make things even
worse, we are keen to reward acts of violence, and even encourage
them. We recently saw soccer player Aldair Rodrigues ' kicking Robert
Rojas during a “Copa Libertadores” soccer match, this specific action
was due to the Alianza Lima’s soccer player frustration. Acts like the
mention before have been recorded throughout time, and it seems to
be an unavoidable factor in sports.
Having done some research on the issue of violence in sports, I found
out that, since sports were invented,
violence has always been attached to them.
Most of the time, the causes of violent acts
are related to frustration, and a will to do
whatever it takes to win a competition, that
is, “ if certain action is beneficial to my team,
it is going to be forgiven at the end”;
however, there have been a great many
casualties because of that very way of thinking. One of the most
shocking I remember, was a fight that broke up during an NHL hockey
match, hockey goalkeeper Clint Malarchuk got his throat cut, he almost
bled to death; if it had not been for the team 's paramedic, who was a
former army doctor, Malarchuk would have died on the icy field.
Whenever I recall this incident, I wonder if any action could be taken to
prevent athletes from getting injured, or even killed. There are, in fact,
penalties, bans, and fines, but, why are violent acts still happening?
Some psychologists state that violence is a matter of controlling
emotions (e.g. temper, anger, etc.); on the other hand, some folks say
that a “super star” feels entitled to do certain things, and just be
forgiven because of his or her social status.

In my opinion, condemning,
exposing, and even prosecuting
violent acts could be a reasonable
way of getting rid of violence in
sports. Not only do we need to hold
athletes and fans accountable for
their actions, but we also must
teach our kids that winning by any
means is not how sports should be
played; we must praise fair play,
and put the wellbeing of people in general over a possible outcome,
only if we are truly committed to erase violence will we see a real
change of mindset in our society.
 WRITING DRAFT 2

MISUNDERSTANDINGS
I am almost sure that all of us have been through particular situations
that have gone wrong or turned up so much differently from what we
were expecting, usually due to misunderstandings. Sometimes
misunderstandings may seem harmless, and even hilarious, but that’s
not always the case, every now and then things take a scary turn.
Having worked as a welding inspector, I have experienced a great
many undesired scenarios regarding the field, ranging from typos when
writing important reports, to calling my boss “honey”, which was
extremely embarrassing. However, the most disturbing situation I was
involved in took place during my night shift at the “Aceros Arequipa”
steel mill. I was told that I needed to examine a gas pipeline using a
method called gammagraphy.
Gammagraphy is a non-destructive method that uses a radioactive
source to produce an image of the object, or piece of material being
examined on a film. I still remember my
coworkers saying, “Bryan, you have to be
really careful when dealing with this.” I
was a little concerned at first, but
eventually got used to doing the task, and
even to hearing the sound of the Geiger
counter, which is a device used for
measuring radiation levels. I may have
been a little bit overconfident because my boss told me not to rush up,
that my health mattered the most, and that I had to obey safety
procedures at work and be extra thoughtful when working with
radiation.
One particular night my supervisor said, “We are not meeting the
deadline, we need to speed things up.” I felt overwhelmed, but I took
that as a challenge; moreover, I wanted to finish the whole work that
single night. My colleagues and I had finished almost half of the job,
and needed to move to an upper floor, I was in charge of transporting
the gammagraphy equipment, which consists just of a large hose and
stainless, box-like container where the radioactive source is safely
stored. So I grabbed the heavy equipment and headed for the stairs,
when all of a sudden the Geiger counter started making its well-known
beeping sound, I froze, threw the equipment away and looked at the
Geiger’s needle. The device indicated that I was being exposed to
lethal levels of radiation. I hid behind a concrete wall while trying to
remember what to do in cases like this, “Stay calmed, don’t panic and
get in touch with the IPEN (PERUVIAN NUCLEAR ENERGY
RESEARCH INSTITUTE) right away.” I thought, but then I realized that
despite having gotten away from the radioactive source, the needle in
the Geiger counter was still signaling
the same dangerous radiation level, so
I started shaking off my reflective jacket
and my pants fearing that, somehow,
the radioactive material was attached to
me. Hopefully, that wasn’t the case,
and then I recalled my boss saying that
the Geiger counter had to be calibrated
on a daily basis, if not, it would give
inaccurate readings. I had heard that I had to calibrate the Geiger
counter weekly. I restarted the Geiger and everything was normal, I
said to myself, “What a fool you are Bryan, this would have never
happened if you had been focused.” Fortunately, I was able to get the
job done.
So there you have it, sometimes misunderstandings can lead to
stressing, or even scary scenarios, it’s advisable to avoid them
whenever you can. My experience taught me to be more conscious not
only at work but also in any other every-day tasks. I’m still glad things
turned up the way they did, as just a chilling misunderstanding.