FINAL EXAM

Final Exam

English Writing Final Exam
1st Semester, 2009-2010
Professor: Julian Dowling
Name: Camila Vera Falabella.

Instructions: Students must complete Parts I, II and III and email their answers to Julian before Friday Nov.27 at 5pm. Any exams received after Friday will be penalized at a rate of 10% per day late.

Part I

Name two websites which allow you to create your own blogs free of charge.

1. www.wordpress.com
2. www.blogspot.com


Name three important English-language newspapers we have read articles from this term and say where they are published.

1. The Guardian, England, Web version.
2. The Economist, England, Web version.
3. BBC News online newspaper, England.

Name three important English-language weekly or monthly magazines available online and say where they are published.

1. Business Chile, published in Chile by the Cámara Chileno Norteamericana de Comercio (AmCham).
2. Time Magazine, it is published in the United States.
3. Forbes Magazine, it is published in the United States.

Part II

1) What do authors Andrew Potter and Joseph Heath mean by the terms “Rebel Sell” and “Culture Jam”?

The term “Rebel sell” means that a person or group once was selling an ideology against something being “rebellious” still, they became popular as Nirvana for example, and the motifs of the fight move from a cause, to fighting the people that are making them popular, in other words they are rebels against the consumer society that manages to commercialize everything. That is why we get involved in this “Culture Jam” that has turned our entire society in a market place and everybody is a consumer, even rebellious punk rockers are sold out.

2) Who is Jared Diamond?

He is an American scientist and also a professor of physiology at UCLA Medical School. He is the author of the text “Easter Island’s End” in which he studies what has happened to Easter Island on the past and what it is going to happen in a future. Also he studies how the island could possibly come close to it’s end due to deforestation and contamination.

3) Where is The Economist published and what is its editorial line (right/left/center)?
The Economist is published in England but they distribute it to several countries, and it has a neo-conservative editorial line.

4) Which country produced the video about the dangers of driving and texting that we discussed in class?
It is from the United Kingdom, it was produced in Wales.

5) Name one country that has banned plastic bags in supermarkets and give one reason Chile should or should not do the same.
Belgium has banned plastic bags in supermarkets. I believe that Chile should do the same thing because there is a need to take care of the environment and the amount of contamination that these bags bring to our atmosphere. People indiscriminately use plastic bags and that is a risk for us because it is polluting, and worse, contributing to global warming.

6) Who is Rodrigo Jordán and what does he do?
He is a Civil Engineer from Universidad Católica and he is one of the founders of Vertical, a company that organizes outdoor expeditions and it’s main objective is to develop creative leadership. He has lead many expeditions to all sorts of mountains around the world with important multinational companies.

7) Name one tourist attraction on Easter Island.
The most important attraction on Easter Island are the Moais, the volcanoes and the caves. Although Moais are the number one attraction, they are amazingly popular because people are still intrigued by the fact that nobody knows with certainty how they got there.

8) What is the main reason that Easter Island’s society collapsed?
Easter Island society collapsed because there was a constant fight between the tribes that lived there. This conflict involved showing their power therefore the built Moais which required a lot of resources in order to be transported to the seaside. Also there is a theory that the society collapsed because they started running out of resources, such as plants, animals and even fish. There was an ecological crisis because the ecosystem collapsed.

9) What did the author of The Economist article “A Strange Chill in Chile” mean by the title?
The article mentions that the centre-left coalition that has governed Chile since the 1988 plebiscite now looks tired and divided, and that today there’s a chill in Chile because politics are going through a new era were Alianza the opposite coalition is gaining more popularity. Also the debilitation of Concertación was brought by ME-O independent campaign, polarizing the votes of the coalition.

10) Name one popular social networking website and discuss how it can be used as an advertising tool by companies or politicians.
Facebook. Worldwide it is the most popular social network, recently this website has added banner in order to promote certain companies, politicians and other institutions. The interesting thing about the publicity in this website is that it only shows publicity according to the individuals interests or his friend’s interests, with lowers the possibilities of spam. It is important that companies and politicians know which are the niches that they are aiming to, but if we take in consideration all of the other social networks, Facebook is the most popular one in Chile and in the world among people of all ages, and that broadens the amount of people that can see an ad.
It can be used to advertise absolutely anything, not only through the banners, but also through groups and fan pages. I believe that this is the most appropriate social network to promote anything you want. It can be used to convince people to vote for certain politicians by not only telling the but also showing them more information about them and creating profiles about them, and also showing images and a more personal side of the candidates, as well as showing also whom of the persons friends supports of follows that person.
Also Facebook can be used for advertising for companies, its ideologies and products. People can see the products they sell, can get to know further information about the company and the owners, and also they can see who likes that company, and there is an influence, a sort of “social pressure” to know about certain people and companies that make people interested in them.

Part III

Write a 500-word article for a newspaper about something that has happened in the world in the last 2 weeks. Your article should be written in newspaper style with a title, leads and quotes. Be sure to reference any sources you use for information. Marks are for style, grammar, content and relevance.


Susan Boyle: Almost on top

With tiny eyes, bushy eyebrows and a sympathetic smile Susan Boyle stands up on a stage looking awkwardly uncomfortable by the situation. The audience whispers while glancing at this view, the judges laugh and she just smiles. Nobody believes in her, she looks old and distant from what a singing star should look like. But as she sang the first note, everybody was silent.

Today, Susan Boyle (48) is a worldwide known star. Her debut album “I dreamed a dream” released on November 23rd 2009 has already sold almost 150 thousand copies in United Kingdom, including Internet pre-orders. Her record is about to become the most and fastest sold in 2009 in Britain. In only a week they are expecting to sell 300 thousand copies. On the other hand in United States they are expecting the same results by the end of this first week of sales.

The Scottish singer has already started touring around North America, and her recording label Sony Music, is expecting that by the end of this week a million copies of the album will be sold worldwide, topping the charts with Lady Gaga and Adam Lambert (winner of American Idol’s last season).

According to Billboard the expected figures indicate that Boyle will outsell the first week sales of Eminem’s latest album. Sony Music declared that they are “struggling to keep up with the demand” and stores are quickly running out of stock, even virtual ones and mainly Amazon.com.

Boyle became popular early this year when she attended Britain’s Got Talent auditions on April, where she got to the finale and was beaten by a dance group, Diversity. Despite of losing the competence and the critics about her physical appearance, the audience has admitted that there is something special about her voice.

Susan Boyle has slowly gained popularity, especially after the last episode of the British television show where the entire world was hoping her to win. She got a make over and has visited various television shows in North America where she is touring, among them NBC’s famous Today Show. These last events have raised her popularity considerably.

SuBo -as media calls her- has managed to top the charts in Britain and America even though societies in which she is popular are very image-obsessed and have enthusiastically criticized her looks, still her image was opposed by her beautiful voice and today her popularity can be compared to stars like Lady Gaga, Eminem, Adam Lambert, among others.

As an artist she has proved the entire world the power of music and perseverance, and mostly the importance of what she does over her looks, on the other hand that has been perceived by the spectators as a breath of fresh air. This artist has clearly become a star, and as soon a her album tops up the sells and the Billboard charts she is going to be consolidated as one of the most important artists of 2009.

Are we going to say YES this time?

People are running, screaming and chanting through the streets, the change is perhaps close for those who seem threatened by the military. YES and NO are the options to go for, is the dictatorship going to be over? Some people look up to the sky in hopes of a better future, the other scream that Pinochet must stay.

Chile has had a major political change in the last 26 years. Since Augusto Pinochet’s military regime ended in 1989 and Patricio Aylwin assumed the presidency post dictatorship. The change relies mainly in the ups and downs that our politics had before the plebiscite in December 1988, where almost the entire nation (92%) voted whether they wanted to continue with the military regime for another eight years (YES) or step towards a democratic election where people would be able to vote and elect freely a new president 16 years after the military imposed Pinochet’s government in 1973.

The results were favorable for the NO option (53%), which lead to democratic presidential elections where Aylwin was elected with a 55.2% of the votes. From there, the liberal coalition Concertación has been in the head of Chile’s government representing centre-left parties until today. The opposite coalition named Alianza represents conservative parties and the main opposition to the actual Socialist government.

These upcoming elections in December 13th 2009 are decisive for Chile’s political future. Piñera, the businessman candidate from the right, has gained important power over the last years, and today he is a threatening character to the omnipresent 21 year consecutive Concertación socialist government. The latest surveys show that Piñera is the country’s favorite with a 36.9% of support, against Frei the ex-president from Concertación (28.6%), Marco Enríquez-Ominami (19.3%) a dissident Socialist congressman, and Jorge Arrate (4.7%) the darkhorse candidate from the left.

The results are still blurry and Chilean population seems to be very pleased with the latest Concertación’s government leaded by the first female president Michelle Bachelet. Though the final results of this 4 year government have been more than pleasing, she would not be up for a reelection, tendency which prevails in Chilean politics. Eduardo Frei has been an exception to that rule; he is the first ex-president who is up for reelection.

Chile’s population is expectant these elections will also mark a change in politics and hopefully give a step forward to political alternance in the government, giving also a chance to the right wing of politics and to see which changes are going to come for our future. On December 13th 2009 Chilean population is going to decide whether they are ready to say yes to a radical change.

Tercer Tiempo: A new business league

Paola Passalacqua grew up in an environment where soccer was “everything” as she says. Her family enjoyed every single weekend at least one soccer match, she mentions that probably her family would have grown apart if it wasn’t for soccer “it brought aus together” she says nostalgic.

This 30 year old entrepreneur decided to organize a soccer league called “Tercer Tiempo”, which is related also to the instance in rugby where players get to share a moment together and socialize with the opponents. Her idea was that “a friendly environment with many things to learn”.

Each side has 11 male players who come from a certain area of the company against another area. Paola comments that the biggest rivals in every company are finances and marketing.

The business in mainly focused towards large companies with a lot of areas and employees, “the main idea is that employees can get to know each other eventually, because sometimes in big companies that never happens” notes Passalacqua.

Catalina Grez, CEO of Ripley commented “in a company as big as Ripley it is difficult to establish a sort of relation between the employees, Tercer Tiempo managed to do this for us and actually establish a sense of teamwork and friendship between all areas”.

Tercer Tiempo has around 10 clients now and it is looking to double it by the end of next year. The soccer matches are every Sunday simultaneously, each company plays in a different location and teams from Tercer Tiempo (composed by 6 members) go to each location and organize, evaluate and regulate each simultaneous event.

Paola Passalacqua ads “this project gives people from a certain area an identity inside the company they are working for, they get to pick a uniform, a name and to organize their own structure of game with their partners”.

Tercer Tiempo has had many issues with motivating the employees from certain companies Passalacqua commented that “it is very hard to make everybody show up every single Sunday”, she also mentioned that the commitment rate is low. Still the results that the program has brought to the client companies have been amazing especially when it comes to teamwork and in the interpersonal relationships, especially between different areas.

This company is looking forward to grow and gather the biggest companies in our country in order to develop this program, in a future they are also expecting to expand it and make a global tournament with the best teams from each company, in order to get “a big money prize and also recognition” as Paola says.

Easter Island: A Destiny For Everyone

This island is the most isolated place in the world and it officially belongs to Chile, but it is located 2000 miles offshore into the Pacific Ocean. Their culture is Polynesian and the landscapes include gigantic statues called Moais, volcanoes and white sand beaches.

This is a destination that tourists and specially adventurers cannot miss. Its authenticity and culture have brought the world’s attention for decades. The landscapes, including the statues, volcanoes and beaches attract thousands of visitors from all over the world and all ages on a yearly basis. Lan Airlines offers flights to the island that cost approximately 700 dollars and take 5 hours to get to the Mataveri Airport.

Travelling to this wonderful place is a great instance to witness the history of the island and the remainings of its rise and fall which can still be seen all over the island. The most important left over from this culture are the Moai statues which can be visited in different locations on the island, mainly in the coastland. There are also other touristic attractions such as the caves where tribes used to live and hide from their enemies which are not only available to see, you can also camp in them.

There are two main volcano craters the Rano Kau and Rano Raraku. You can hike and look into the bowl of the volcanoes which show an impressing sight for curious and adventurer tourists. These volcanoes provided the habitants with rocks that later they used to carve the Moais.

The accommodation varies from the luxurious Anakena Hotel, the famous Ana Rapu’s Hostel to camping in the caves which belonged to the natives. The white sand beaches (Anakena is the main one) offer the perfect scenery to relax and enjoy the tropical weather of the island. On the evenings guided trekking and horse tours are offered and tourists can visit the main sights.

A must see for people who visit Easter Island are the native dance shows at the Anakena Hotel where you can have dinner and also participate in the show; also islanders teach you traditional dance moves and give you flower necklaces as souvenirs.

Easter Island is a place where the entire family, couples or lonely adventurers can have fun, witness amazing historic sights and enjoy one of the most impressing places in the world with the many activities that it has to offer. It is definitely one of the places you must visit before you hit the bucket!

It's not just WASTE

Our world is living a new crisis, an environmental one. Plastic bags have contributed to contaminate our natural resources carrying with them consequences that affect out biodiversity, human health and our natural resources, along also with gas emissions that contribute to the Greenhouse effect.

Politicians have tried to give this problem a solution, but in order for that to happen we will have to wait until January 2012. In our country we see two major issues: people are still not conscious enough to care about the environment, and secondly there are still no laws that ban the unlimited use of non degradable plastic bags. So the problem basically relies in our country’s government and people.

Ana Lia Uriarte, our Minister of Environment, commented “in Chile there is no recycling culture, and the trash collector companies are not funded by the government, therefore they don’t have an obligation to demand to the people to divide their wastes. Besides we do not have specialized dumpsters”. The tendencies today show that companies (Jumbo, Líder, Falabella, among other) sand some people (designers and people who recycle materials) care about the environment, but they represent a small percentage of our population.

This small group of people is being supported by larger companies, and the trend today is that people start not only recycling, but more importantly giving a different use to plastic bags or, even better, using an alternative product environment friendly. The Minister of Environment also mentioned that “our ecosystem is being affected by residuals and mainly by plastic bags”.

On the other hand, powerful companies are looking the situation through a different perspective, Josefina Correa, Chief Executive of Líder stated that “people still prefer plastic bags because they are comfortable, and also they believe they are easy to get rid of, neglecting the effects they cause on the environment”. She also mentioned that even after the supermarket chain tried to impose a new trend of reusable bags, people didn’t seem to be friendly with the idea.

The use of bio friendly bags is a main concern today for the Ministry of Environment, still the options are not clear enough and there are way too many, from substitute materials to different packaging alternatives such as boxes, containers, among others. Some people have given a creative solution to the “waste” that comes from plastic bags, creating products that start from designer decoration objects to high fashion boots and handbags.

Clearly the ban of plastic bags is not necessary, what we need is to use them and get rid of them consciously. Supermarkets and shops in Chile have to limit their use of plastic bags, people -consumers- on the other hand have to look forward to a responsible and eco friendly use of them among with imposing a recycle friendly culture in Chile in which materials such as plastic do not become a source of waste.

The costs of not acting against global warming will endanger our national economy

During the year 2007, according to SERTUR (Servicio Nacional de Turismo), the number of tourists who entered the country reached a new record 898 million of arrivals. This same institution mentions on its yearly inform of the year 2007 that tourism contributes to a 3.05% of GDP.
Chile is becoming a developed country as its economy continues to develop. Still there is a major issue concerning not only our economy but also the global economy, and that is Global Warming.

Recently a report on the effect of this phenomenon in the economic ambit was released. The Stern Review concludes that “the benefits of strong and early action to stop global warming far outweigh the economic costs of not acting”.

Believe it or not Global Warming in endangering our economy and puting on risk our chances to keep expanding economicly. This affects directly our countries 5th main source of income, tourism. The Stern Review mentions that the “inaction on climate change could lead to a loss equivalent to between 5 and 20 per cent of global gross domestic product (GDP), versus a 1 per cent of global GDP cost to take actions that mitigate the worst impacts of climate change”.

The decrease on the GDP not only will affect our income but also, as Ana Lia Uriarte, Minister of Environment said “it affects our resources, we need to create and maintain the places that attract so many people to Chile on a yearly basis”.

One of the main concerns according to Greenpeace Chile in that one of our main natural resources, glaciers, are melting. This issue not only endangers the species who inhabit them, but is also puting in risk one of our most important touristic destinantions located in the south of the country, the glaciers.

Hugo Lavados said, reffering to a section of the Stern Report "hundreds of millions of people could suffer from hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms", that this would be a “direct result from global warming which are results of a poor economy”. He also mentioned that “if people do not take an action to solve this problem soon, later we will all suffer the economic problems that this situation involves”.

Not only important figures are concerned by this issue, it is something that keeps concerning all sort of individuals in aour society. Paola Passalacqua a journalism student from Universidad Del Desarrollo in currenty involved in a recicling program concerning the university. She confirmed that “although some few peopleare trying to make a difference, change is almost impossible, we need a directed change that comes from higher authorities”.

Our nation is characterized as a nation who is far away from recicling habits and also less than concerned about the effects that this environmental phenomenon is going to have in our national economy a few years from now. The meassures to take are obvious, still authorities have done an impressive affort in order to dodge them. But, what will it happen later when everything collapse? That is a question to be asked to politics.

Texting blamed in crash that kills three teens

Yesterday morning a 20 year old journalism student identified as Juan Perez killed three teenagers when he crashed into a supermarket located in Las Condes. The police officers involved affirmed that “clearly there is something external that caused the crash” and that they found a “Blackberry device set in the texting mode” which belonged to Perez who lost the control of his car while texting as officers confirmed.

The three teenagers killed were identified as Paola Passalacqua (18), Paula Campos (13) and Pedro Flores (17). The three of them were waiting for their mothers to come pick them up outside of Montecarlo supermarket located in the intersection of Av. Las Condes and Charles Hamilton when Perez unexpectedly crashed against them.

The forensic investigation showed that Perez not only was driving under the influence of alcohol, but also he went over the speed limit of the area (50 kilometers per hour). Chief officer Jaime Burgos from Las Condes police department confirmed that “Perez must have been doing something else that distracted him while driving and made him lose the control of the vehicle”, a Peugeot 206.

The evidence confirmed that Perez was carrying a Blackberry phone set in the texting mode, which was found near the corpses while the forensics were analyzing the scenery for clues. People surrounding the place couldn’t confirm that he was texting but confirmed that “he was listening to loud music and seemed to have lost the control of the car”.

The journalism student claimed himself as innocent, but the parents of P.P, P.C and P.F claimed that they would press charges against him besides the ones imposed by the public system of justice, and not only for driving irresponsibly and under the influence of alcohol, but also for murder.

Perez told the police officers that he was “driving carefully and never took a glance off of the road”, but the evidence speaks against him. Witnesses who saw the crash confirmed that “he was speeding and driving from side to side of the road” and also that “the crash was fast and the kids died as soon as it happened…the place was a blood bath”.

Perez is waiting to be prosecuted next Tuesday for three different charges imposed to him by the municipal authorities: murder, driving irresponsibly and under the influence of alcohol. Besides the 20 year old will not only have to pay the damages caused to the supermarket but also millionaire fines to pay the damage made to the public property.