HALLOWEEN

It's nearly the spookiest time of year again and many of you will be thinking of top outfits for this year's Halloween celebrations. But do you really know what Halloween is?

WORKING CONDITIONS

Get ready for the exam! Here are two documents dealing with working conditions

Women in the Sillicon Valley:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7dXMX5noL7Rc1N1VktmVFJ4ejA/view?usp=sharing

 + vocab note below
 

Working part-time in the Netherlands :

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7dXMX5noL7RanhtNjNDWkRXa0E/view?usp=sharing

Thème  : WOMEN AT WORK	Source
34 – Women in Silicon Valley	NPR
Notes de vocabulaire		Autres mots contenus dans le script
to catch up : rattraper worth : la valeur bachelor's degree : licence derailed : (ici) freiné		Portland, Oregon The Grace Hopper Celebration Wendy Kaufman Katy Schmalzried to code up Mark Bregman (Symantec – Neustar) Jocelyn Goldfein

PARTIEL #1 - PLANNING ORAUX & OBJECTIFS

Veuillez trouver les horaires de passage ainsi qu'un bref rappel des modalités de l'examen et des attentes:

Mardi 4 novembre : Salle B408

Heure de préparation	Heure de passage	Nom du candidat
10h30	10h50	Laurine M.
10h45	11h05	Mettrine M.
11h00	11h20	Fatima L. (6/11)
11h15	11h35	Daïna B.
11h30	11h50	Zahra O.

Jeudi 6 novembre : salle du CDI (à confirmer)

Heure de préparation	Heure de passage	Nom du candidat
14h40	15h00	Abdelkarim K.
14h55	15h15	Brenda M.
15h10	15h30	Fidèle E.
15h25	15h45	Sandrine J.
15h40	16h00	Natacha V.
15h55	16h15	Brian B.

16h10

16h30

Fatima L.

Rappel des modalités de l'épreuve:

OBJECTIFS: comprendre un document oral et être capable d'en restituer les informations essentielles et détaillées. Être capable de parler de la thématique abordée en s'appuyant sur des données précises vues et apprises en cours et en entreprises. Savoir prendre la parole en continu et savoir interagir avec un examinateur.

- 20 minutes de préparation: 

vous écouterez ou visionnerez un document audio ou vidéo deux fois. Vous prendrez des notes. A l'issue des écoutes ou des visionnages, vous disposerez de 13-14 minutes pour mettre de l'ordre dans vos notes et préparer votre présentation orale.

- 20 minutes de passage (en partiel 15 minutes seulement):

* un compte rendu organisé des grandes idées du document (n'oubliez pas l'introduction, l'annonce des grandes idées, le développement et la conclusion);

* un commentaire plus personnel sur la thématique abordée par le document en vous basant sur des informations apprises en classes, vues en entreprises lors de vos stages, et/ou vos opinions personnelles. Veillez à développer 3 idées minimum.
* échange avec l'examinateur sur la thématique et les idées développées. 


Seront notés en priorité lors de ce partiel:
1- L'introduction
2- L'effort d'organisation des grandes idées du document
3- Le commentaire personnel et les points vus en cours
4- L'effort pour interagir et communiquer

RESSOURCES ONLINE

GETTING INFORMATION - a few helpful websites to browse

Feel free to suggest more..

BBC Newsround (for students): http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/
The New York Times Learning Network (for students): http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/

British press online:
The Guardian: http://www.theguardian.com/uk
The Independent: http://www.independent.co.uk/
BBC News: http://www.bbc.com/news/

American press online:
The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/
The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Time Magazine: http://time.com/

Culture online:
The Wire (music): http://www.thewire.co.uk/
Cinema/film reviews - Time Out London : http://www.timeout.com/london/film


LANGUAGE:

Bilingual dictionary: http://www.wordreference.com/fr/
Unilingual dictionary: http://www.ldoceonline.com/

Pronunciation: http://www.howjsay.com/

Grammar questions: http://www.anglaisfacile.com/

British Multiculturalism

STAGE #1 - The British empire - a very brief overview:

Please watch the video below before answering the questions on your worksheet.
Have fun!

BIOETHICS - SCIENCE

THEME #2 : BIOETHICS - SCIENCE

By 2040 you will be able to upload your brain...

...or at least that's what Ray Kurzweil thinks. He has spent his life inventing machines that help people, from the blind to dyslexics. Now, he believes we're on the brink of a new age – the 'singularity' – when mind-boggling technology will allow us to [...] run as fast as Usain Bolt (for 15 minutes) – and even live forever. Is there sense to his science – [...]?

By Mike Hodgkinson, The Independent  27 September 2009

Should, by some terrible misfortune, Ray Kurzweil shuffle off his mortal coil tomorrow, the obituaries would record an inventor of rare and visionary talent. [...]However, these past accomplishments, as impressive as they are, would tell only half the Kurzweil story. The rest of his biography – the essence of his very existence, he would contend – belongs to the future.

Following the publication of his 2005 book, The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology, Kurzweil has become known, above all, as a technology speculator whose predictions have polarised opinion [...]. It's not just that he boldly envisions a tomorrow's world where, for example, tiny robots will reverse the effects of pollution, artificial intelligence will far outstrip (and supplement) biological human intelligence, and humankind "will be able to live indefinitely without ageing". [...] They will all, he steadfastly maintains, happen before the middle of the 21st century.  [...] Ray Kurzweil, 61, sincerely believes that his own immortality is a realistic proposition... and just as strongly contends that [...] he will be able to reclaim his father, Fredric Kurzweil (the victim of a fatal heart attack in 1970), from death.

Just when will this ultimate life-affirming feat be possible? In Kurzweil's estimation, we will be able to upload the human brain to a computer, capturing "a person's entire personality, memory, skills and history", by the end of the 2030s; humans and non-biological machines will then merge so effectively that the differences between them will no longer matter; and, after that, human intelligence, transformed for the better, will start to expand outward into the universe, around about 2045. [...] Microsoft chairman Bill Gates calls him "the best person I know at predicting the future of artificial intelligence". [...]

The singularity, writes Kurzweil, is "a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so rapid, its impact so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed". [...]For Kurzweil, the crux of the singularity is that the pace of technology is increasing at a super-fast, exponential rate. What's more, there's also "exponential growth in the rate ' of exponential growth". It is this understanding that gives him the confidence to believe that technology – through an explosion of progress in genetics, nanotechnology and robotics – will soon surpass the limits of his imagination.

It is also why, in addition to bananas and the odd beneficial glass of red wine, he follows a regime of around 200 vitamin pills daily: not so much a diet as an attempt to "aggressively re-programme" his biochemistry. He claims that tests have shown he aged only two biological years over the course of 16 actual vitamin-popping years. [...] If he slows down the ageing process, he reckons, he'll be around long enough to witness the arrival of technology that will prolong his life... forever. [...] Not everyone, though, concurs with his appraisal of technological progress, and his belief in the imminence of immortality.

[...] "The form of opposition from fundamentalist humanists, and fundamentalist naturalists – that we should make no change to nature [or] to human beings – is directly contrary to the nature of human beings, because we are the species that goes beyond our limitations," [argues] Kurzweil. “[...] Nature, and the natural human condition, generates tremendous suffering. We have the means to overcome that[...]”

Thanks largely to Kurzweil and the singularity, scenarios once viewed as diverting entertainment are being reappraised with a new seriousness. [...]"People can wax philosophically," says Kurzweil. "It's very abstract – whether it's a good thing to overcome death or not – but when it comes to some new methodology that's a better treatment for cancer, there's no controversy. Nobody's picketing doctors who put computers inside people's brains for Parkinson's: it's not considered controversial." 

By 2040 you will be able to upload your brain...                                          VOC

The blind: les aveugles

To be on the brink of: être sur le point de

Mind-boggling: extraordinaire

‘to shuffle off his mortal coil”: to die (Shakespeare reference – Hamlet)

To contend that: affirmer que/prétendre que/soutenir que

To polarize=to cause to be opposed

Boldly: avec audace

To outstrip: surpasser/dépasser

Steadfastly: fermement

A feat: un exploit/une prouesse

To merge: fusionner

The crux: le noeud/le coeur/l’essentiel

The pace: la cadence/vitesse

To claim: affirmer

To concur: être d’accord

The species: l’espèce

To reappraise: reconsidérer/réexaminer

 

BIOETHICS - SCIENCE

THEME #2: BIOETHICS-SCIENCE

02/09/2009 Spiegel online (adapted)          

Italy Debates the Right to Die

A debate is currently raging in Italy as to whether a coma patient should be allowed to die or not. Now that Prime Minister Berlusconi has become closely involved, the question has become a constitutional one as well.

In a statement on Friday explaining why he refused to sign an emergency government decree, Napolitano said it could damage "the reciprocal respect between powers and organs of the state." Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who wrote the decree, was much more direct. "This is murder…. I'm not Pontius Pilate."

At issue is the case of Eluana Englaro, 38, who has been in a coma ever since a car accident 17 years ago. Doctors say she will never wake up -- and for the last decade, her father has been fighting for her right to die.

Doctors have confirmed that Englaro's brain damage is so severe that she will never again regain consciousness or awareness. Her father, Beppino Englaro, insists that his daughter, after visiting a friend who was in a coma, told him that she would never want to live, "if she couldn't be what she was." He has been fighting for the removal of her tubes for the last 10 years in a prolonged court battle. Berlusconi issued an emergency decree on Friday in attempt to reverse a high court ruling allowing Englaro to die. Ever since Napolitano refused to approve the decree, saying it defied the high court ruling, the search has been on in Rome for a new way to keep Englaro alive.

The Berlusconi government is attempting to speed a law through parliament which would prohibit the suspension of food to patients who cannot feed themselves. Berlusconi has also argued that Englaro should live because she is "in the condition to have babies" -- a remark described as "shocking" by Italy's paper La Stampa.

Italy, which is predominantly Roman Catholic, is divided equally on this issue, with 47 percent hoping Eluana Englaro will be allowed to die and 47 percent wanting her kept alive, according to a recent poll. Right-to-die activists and those against mercy killings are holding vigils and protests throughout the country.

Meanwhile, the Vatican has voiced a clear opinion and even placed pressure on the government. According to the London Times, Berlusconi held a frantic telephone conversation with Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican's secretary of state, in which the cardinal told him, "we have to stop this crime against humanity." Pope Benedict XVI also referred to Englaro over the weekend, calling on society to defend "the absolute and supreme dignity of every human being."

Once Englaro's feeding tubes are removed, doctors say it will take four to five days before her condition becomes irreversible and it could take up to two weeks for her heart to stop beating. Yet, according to Englaro's anaesthetist, Dr. Amato De Monte, "Eluana will not suffer because Eluana died 17 years ago."

Italy Debates the Right to Die

Currently: à l’heure actuelle

A debate is raging: un débat fait fureur/rage

A statement: une declaration

Emergency: urgence

To damage: mettre à mal

A decade: une décennie

To regain: retrouver

The removal: la suppression/le retrait

To prohibit= to ban : interdire

A poll= a survey: une enquête / un sondage

To voice: exprimer / formuler

Napolitano is the President of the Italian Republic elected in 2006 and re-elected in 2013.

THEME : ABORTION

Theme #2 : ABORTION

Northern Ireland's abortion laws are outmoded and oppressive

It’s madness – and maddening – that women in Northern Ireland still don’t have access to free, safe and legal terminations, says Lucy Fisher

Wednesday 14 May 2014 – The Guardian

My heart rate spiked when I read last week’s High Court ruling forcing Northern Irish women to pay for NHS abortions sought in England. It’s madness – and maddening – that female British citizens living in Northern Ireland still don’t have access to free, safe and legal terminations like their compatriots.

The reiteration of the fact that in Northern Ireland – and the Irish Republic for that matter – women are forced to cross the Irish Sea and head to another country to seek a termination, whether free or paid for, should have us all clamouring once again for the overhaul of medieval abortion laws.

In 2012 more than 4,850 Irish and Northern Irish women had to make the tumultuous journey to England or Wales, many of them likely in a state of emotional and physical distress, in pursuit of terminations.

And that’s before you consider the added stress for many women of stumping up the cash – around £900 – for the travel, accommodation and procedure.

The point is this: whether you agree with the ethics of abortion or not, you cannot stop women having them in modern times – that’s the acknowledgment needed in Northern Ireland.

Once that reality is accepted, it seems a smaller step to the acknowledgement that making an abortion as traumatic and difficult as possible for a woman – forcing her overseas – is simply perverse.

Only 35 abortions took place in Northern Ireland in 2012. The nation’s draconian ban on abortions, which carries a life sentence for transgressors, permits scarce exceptions. No allowance is made for women carrying babies with fatal foetus abnormalities. Nor do the authorities relent simply because a woman has become pregnant by, say, rape or incest.

Technically the only exceptions are to save a woman’s life, or if there is a risk of permanent and serious damage to her mental or physical health. Whether that sounds reasonable or still too illiberal, in reality these so-called exemptions to the rule are granted at a pitifully low rate.

The British Abortion Act of 1967 was never extended to Northern Ireland; instead the country clings to an archaic 1861 law regarding Offences Against the Person to maintain its current outright ban. It is a crying shame that the issue was never brought up during the Peace Process.

After all, it is a jarring anomaly that terminations are a fundamental right in one part of the UK and a crime in another. As Genevieve Edwards, director of policy for Marie Stopes UK, has noted, abortion cannot be allowed to continue as a postcode lottery in Britain.

It seemed telling that the spokesperson offered up for comment on the High Court ruling by the provocatively named Society for the Protection of Unborn Children was a man, Liam Gibson. He even had the temerity to pronounce that the opposite ruling would have been “a bad thing for both women and children.” Thanks for that Liam.

The national imposition of such outmoded and oppressive laws as those of Northern Ireland on abortion have no place in the modern world, let alone in the UK. The fight now should not simply be about whether Northern Irish women should, as tax-paying UK citizens, be entitled to free abortions if they come to England. It should be about them gaining this fundamental right on home soil.

Northern Ireland’s abortion laws are outmoded and oppressive

To spike : monter en flèche

A ruling: une décision de justice

To clamour: vociférer

An overhaul: une révision / un remaniement

To stump up (cash) : casquer / raquer/ (argot: allonger/cracher de l’argent)

Accommodation : hébergement

Overseas: à l’étranger

A ban: une interdiction

Scarce exceptions: peu d’exceptions

No allowance: aucune concession

To relent: céder

A rape: un viol

A jarring anomaly: une anomalie discordant/choquant

The NHS stands for the National Health Service, which provides healthcare for all UK citizens based on their need for healthcare rather than their ability to pay for it. It is funded by taxes. It was founded in 1948 .

What is the difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain, and England?

The United Kingdom is a country that consists of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. In fact, the official name of the country is "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland."

Great Britain is the name of the island northwest of France and east of Ireland that consists of three somewhat autonomous regions: England, Wales and Scotland.

Therefore, England is part of Great Britain, which is part of the United Kingdom. The U.K. includes England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland are not independent countries but the United Kingdom is.

The remaining portion of the island of Ireland (that which is not the U.K.'s Northern Ireland) is an independent country called the Republic of Ireland (Eire).