Exámenes de selectividad 2015 resueltos

Exámenes inglés selectividad Cantabria resueltos

EXÁMENES INGLÉS SELECTIVIDAD 2015 CANTABRIA RESUELTOS

EXÁMENES INGLÉS

Cats recognise their owners' voices but never evolved to care

Do young people care about learning foreign languages?

E-Cigarettes increase the risk of flu and pneumonia

 How Facebook affects us

Imaginary friends – Why more children have one now 

Train to take you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in three hours

+EXÁMENES RESUELTOS

PAU 2015 Cantabria. Train to take you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in three hours

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Everyone’s talking about California's high-speed rail project – a $68 billion network that could zip passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours. Construction of the first phase of the line will begin next year in the Central Valley, a 28-mile stretch from Madera to Fresno. In future years, the rail line will stretch north to San Jose and south to Palmdale and the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. The whole network might not be completed until 2028.

The project has been surrounded by controversy. Some have said even though the nation’s first bullet train will take a quarter of the time it currently takes, it will still not be fast enough to attract sufficient customers.

Others have said the price tag is too high. Yet officials at California’s High-Speed Rail Authority say it is still cheaper than building dozens of new airport runways and highways to accommodate a state population that is estimated to reach 46 million by 2035.

At a special ceremony in Fresno on Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown compared the rail line to the construction of the great cathedrals of Europe, which took generations. “The high-speed rail links us from the past to the future, from the south to the north,” he said. “It's not that expensive. We cannot really afford not to build it.

All these projects are a little controversial. You’ll always have some critics say why spend all this money?”

Last year, two government transport officials from the state, Brian Kelly and Mary Nichols, wrote in a newspaper article that the only genuine alternative to the high-speed train was to invest up to $150 billion to build 4,300 new lanes of highway, more freeways and hundreds of new airport gates and runways. They added: “This would cover large parts of the state with concrete and asphalt.”

By car, the journey takes at least six-and-a-half hours in optimum traffic conditions, and can cost about as much depending on the type of car, fuel and highway tolls. The high-speed train tickets will be similar to the cost of air travel, promoters say, and deliver people to central stations, saving more time and money.

The Independent, 7 January 2015 (Adapted)

PAU 2015 inglés. E-Cigarettes increase the risk of flu and pneumonia

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Using electronic cigarettes may harm the body’s defences against pneumonia and flu, according to a recent study. The research, which reopens the debate on the dangers and benefits of e-cigarettes, suggests the vapour produced by the devices can compromise the immune system in the lungs, leaving them more vulnerable to infection by harmful bacteria and viruses.

Scientists from John Hopkins University exposed mice to e-cigarette vapour twice a day for two weeks.

They then administered some of the mice with an influenza virus and others with the bacteria which is responsible for pneumonia. The mice that had been exposed to the vapour were less able to fight off illness, and some died. Professor Shyam Biswal, senior author of the study, said the findings suggested that e-cigarettes are not neutral in terms of the effects on the lungs and that studies should now be carried out on people, particularly those with common lung problems which often affect smokers and ex-smokers – the main users of e-cigarettes.

It is true that e-cigarettes have been shown to be highly effective in helping smokers to quit, and there is a broad consensus that despite some uncertainty over their health impact, they are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes but Professor Biswal remains concerned e-cigarettes could pose risks to future generations, particularly given evidence from some countries that they are becoming more popular among young people who have never smoked.

He has recommended to the World Health Organisation that they be banned in indoor public spaces – a measure the Department of Health in England has ruled out, but which is being considered by the Welsh government.

However, Professor John Britton from the UK said the most important point was that harm to the lungs was less from e-cigarettes than from tobacco. “The lung is an exquisitely delicate organ and therefore nobody with any common sense would believe that inhaling heated vapour many times a day would be harmless,” he said. “What matters here is not a comparison of the effects of e-cigarette vapour compared with nothing, but the effects compared with those of tobacco smoke. Harm to the lungs will be less with electronic cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes, and any smoker who cannot quit using nicotine, and doesn’t find medicinal products effective, would be well advised to try an electronic cigarette.”

The Guardian, 4 February 2015 (Adapted).

How Facebook affects us - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Two recent studies have revealed amazing facts about how Facebook affects its users. The first study, carried out by researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia, has shown that being envious of Facebook friends can cause depression and that looking through the site to compare achievements with those of friends can have a very detrimental effect on a person`s mental health. Margaret Duffy explains, "Facebook can be a fun and healthy activity if users take advantage of the site to stay connected with family and old friends and to share interesting and important aspects of their lives. However, using it to see how well an acquaintance is doing financially or how happy an old friend is in his relationship can lead to feelings of depression."

Duffy and a colleague based in Singapore surveyed 700 students for the paper, published in the journal ‘Computers in Human Behaviour’. She went on to say, "Facebook can be a very positive resource for many people, but if it is used as a way to compare your own accomplishments against others, it can have a negative effect. It is important for Facebook users to be aware of these risks so they can avoid this kind of behaviour when using Facebook."

A second study, completely independent from the first, has shown that a computer can be better at assessing someone’s basic personality than close friends or family. A study of more than 86,000 users of Facebook has demonstrated the power of intelligent machines to predict an individual’s character based on what they have listed as their “Likes.”

Researchers said that the day when computers are able to judge a person’s personality accurately has almost arrived and even suggested that science fiction films like “Her”, based on a man’s emotional attachment to an intelligent computer, are closer than we think. In the future, computers could be able to infer our psychological characteristics and react accordingly in an emotionally-intelligent way. “People may choose to change their own intuitions and judgements with this kind of data analysis when making important life decisions such as choosing activities, career paths or even romantic partners,” said Wu Youyou of Cambridge University.

The Independent, 12 January and 4 February 2015 (Adapted)

Do young people care about learning foreign languages? - PAU 2015 inglés Cantabria

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Do young people in the UK care about learning languages? Fewer students than ever are choosing to study a language degree at university, and since 2004, taking a language at GCSE* has not been compulsory, so the simple answer would seem to be no. This is disconcerting news for a country which is not exactly famous for its multilingualism.

However, research conducted by the organisation ICM paints a far more complex picture of youth attitudes in the UK. Those choosing to study languages may have dropped, but of the 1001 young people between the ages of 14-24 interviewed in the survey, almost 20% already speak another language at home with their family, and 70% would be interested in learning another language in the future.

When asked to pick the three main benefits of learning a language, students said that job prospects at home and abroad were both key incentives. Learning about another culture and the experience of communicating also scored highly in this section. So if languages offer you the ability to make new friends and work abroad, why are young people put off? Asked to pick the three main downsides of learning a language, the difficulty of the learning process was an important reason but the idea that they were less interesting than other subjects came top for our young interviewees. Interestingly, low confidence levels in speaking another language also played a role in this decision.

Asking interviewees to comment on their ability in the language they had studied at school provided perhaps the most revealing piece of data from the survey. For most of the languages, students don’t perceive themselves to be progressing past basic language levels. The survey suggested that the opportunity to use a language outside the classroom and communicate with native speakers would make language learning more attractive. As for teaching inside the classroom, young people want more interaction, and more technology.

November 2014, The Guardian (Adapted).

• *GCSE – General Certificate of Secondary Education (in the UK)

Imaginary friends – Why more children have one now - PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

When journalist Eleanor Tucker was at primary school in the 1970s, she had a friend. He wasn't a child and he wasn't a girl. He was in his 30s, he had a beard and his name was Klas.

She explains: “Klas was my imaginary friend. He wasn't about all the time, because he lived near my grandmother in a white house by the station, about half an hour's drive from ours. But as I grew up, he was often mentioned and even blamed for some mistakes I made. If I talked when nobody was around, it was to Klas. If I sometimes played without my sister, I was playing with Klas. It seemed quite normal at the time to have an imaginary friend but lots of things pass for normal when you're a kid. By the time I went to secondary school, Klas had stopped visiting. I filed him away under “the past” and forgot about him, until a book I read recently made me think of him again.”

The author of the book is Nikki Sheehan, and as part of her research, she discovered that rather than being an outdated phenomenon, imaginary friends might actually be more common nowadays. But why? First, it's probably just a more accurate representation of the way that children play. “For most of the 20th century the general idea was that imaginary playmates were a sign of insecurity, so people may have been less inclined to admit to having an imaginary friend.” Sheehan also suggests that within smaller family units, children these days are more likely to play in a certain solitary way, which creates an environment that is welcoming to imaginary friends.

Imaginary friends come in a huge range of guises, as educational psychologist Karen Majors discovered.

They might be smaller versions of the children themselves; humans or sometimes animals; based on real people or TV characters; single or multiple; and varied in terms of gender, age and temperament. In general, girls often create imaginary friends who need taking care of, but the characters impersonated by boys are often “super competent” and might be a representation of the child's own aspirations.

(28.02.2014 The Guardian, Adapted).

Cats recognise their owners' voices but never evolved to care- PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Any cat owner will tell you that although they are sometimes kept as pets, felines are friends to no one. A new study from the University of Tokyo has confirmed this, showing that although pet cats are more than capable of recognising their owner’s voice they choose to ignore them - for reasons that are perhaps rooted in the evolutionary history of the animal.

The study tested twenty housecats in their own homes, waiting until the owner was out of sight and then playing them recordings of three strangers calling their names, followed by their owner, followed by another stranger. The researchers then analysed the cats’ responses to each call by measuring a number of factors including ear, tail and head movement, vocalization, eye dilation and finally whether or not the cats moved towards the voice. When hearing their names being called the cats generally moved their heads and ears about to locate where the sound was coming from. Although they showed a greater response to their owner’s voice than to strangers’, they declined to move when called by any of the people.

“These results indicate that cats do not actively respond with communicative behaviour to owners who are calling them from out of sight, even though they can distinguish their owners’ voices,” wrote the researcher. “This cat–owner relationship is in contrast to that with dogs. Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans’ orders. Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human–cat interaction.” This is in contrast to the history of dogs and humans, where the former has been bred over thousands of years to respond to commands. Cats, it seems, never needed to learn.

However, it's unlikely that this will dismay cat owners (or indeed, be of any surprise) and the paper notes that although “dogs are perceived by their owners as being more affectionate than cats, dog owners and cat owners do not differ significantly in their reported attachment level to their pets”.

(27.11.2013 The Independent)

Examen FP Grado Superior 2013 - My best holiday

I've just come back from a school trip to Russia. It was for students who are studying art or history. The day before we left I was very nervous about going to a country with a culture so different from my own.

We arrived in Moscow at lunchtime. That afternoon we went to Red Square and the Kremlin. It really brought my history lessons alive. Over the next two days we saw a lot of squares and churches. At the end of the third day we took an overnight train to St Petersburg. I only slept for about half an hour because it was really hot. We tried to open the windows, but we couldn't. The next morning we discovered that we had passed an enormous nuclear power plant and the guards had closed all the doors and windows for security reasons!

St Petersburg was even more impressive than Moscow. In the morning we visited some beautiful squares and churches and after lunch we went to the amazing Hermitage Museum. The next day, our last day, in the morning there was snow everywhere and the sky was blue. I think it was the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen. We all had a snowball fight in a park – it was brilliant fun.

I loved the trip because I saw some brilliant sights, I discovered a new culture and now I feel closer than before to my classmates.

La Gaule, 2 millions de sangliers! - PAU 2014 francés Cantabria

Dans de nombreux départements, le nombre de sangliers a littéralement explosé. Jamais la France n’en avait connu autant, plus de 2 millions soit près de quatre fois la somme des prélèvements annuels effectués par les chasseurs (550.000 en 2010-2011 et 522.000 en 2011-2012). Un phénomène qui ne touche plus seulement le monde rural, mais qui s'étend aux grandes agglomérations. D'où des incursions de plus en plus fréquentes de ces animaux dans les parcs, les jardins et même... des magasins. Plus préoccupant encore, ils sont à l'origine de plus de 60 % des quelque 40.000 accidents de la route. Leurs dégâts annuels se chiffrent à plus de 50 millions d'euros. Au point que, depuis 2009, un «plan national de maîtrise du sanglier» a été mis en place pour permettre aux préfets d'organiser des battues administratives et de réguler la prolifération des sangliers.

D’innombrables photos de sangliers font le bonheur de la presse cynégétique mais cependant pour les chasseurs, l'addition est salée. En 2011, ils ont ainsi dû acquitter la somme colossale de 50 millions d'euros, dont 38 millions versés directement aux agriculteurs, pour rembourser les dégâts dans les cultures imputables au grand gibier et plus particulièrement au sanglier. «Mais ce système de remboursement, décidé il y a plus de quarante ans, est-il toujours justifié et d'actualité? se demande le directeur de la rédaction de Plaisirs de la chasse. En effet, de récentes dispositions réglementaires libéralisent la «destruction» des sangliers, en cas de surpopulation, sans faire appel aux chasseurs. Pourquoi donc les chasseurs devraient-ils continuer à payer?»

D’après Cyril Hofstein . Novembre 2012.

Plus on a d’amis sur Facebook, plus on est stressé - PAU 2014

Une étude universitaire montre que les personnes populaires sur le réseau Facebook sont aussi plus anxieuses, car elles doivent gérer leur image auprès de publics très divers. La plupart des étudiants voient le nombre d’amis sur le réseau comme un indice de popularité. Mais cette étude explique que plus on a d’amis plus on ressent du stress.

En multipliant les contacts, on multiplie aussi les horizons auxquels les amis appartiennent. En moyenne, un utilisateur aurait ainsi sept groupes d’amis différents. C’est dans cette diversité que l’anxiété naît. Le stress augmente lorsque les utilisateurs présentent une version d’eux-mêmes inacceptable comme poster des messages insultants ou des photos les montrant en train de boire ou de fumer. De plus avec l’arrivée des parents qui suivraient aujourd’hui l’activité de leur enfant sur le réseau cela se complique. La moitié des employeurs interrogés dans l’étude déclarent avoir déjà renoncé à une embauche de quelqu’un après avoir consulté son profil sur Facebook.

Avant, Facebook était comme une discothèque où les jeunes dansaient, buvaient et flirtaient avec leurs amis. Puis le père, la mère, l’employeur ont débarqué. De sorte que le réseau peut devenir un terrain miné où le moindre faux pas coûte cher socialement.

Une solution simple existe pourtant pour éviter ces situations gênantes. Une solution qui a pour nom «paramètres de confidentialité». Un site américain permet effectivement à ses membres de regrouper les amis par groupe et de choisir quels contenus seront rendus visibles aux différents groupes. Ces quelques minutes d’efforts peuvent épargner les affres du stress!

D’après Quentin Blanc. Décembre 2012.

Ces photos d’ados qui finissent sur des sites porno

Pour être sûr de ne pas vous découvrir sur un site porno, il n'y a qu'une seule solution: refuser d'apparaître dans des photos sexuellement explicites. C'est ce qui ressort de l'étude menée par la fondation Internet Watch.

88% des contenus sexuellement explicites postés par des jeunes sur Internet, en particulier sur les réseaux sociaux, finissent par être récupérés par des sites pornographiques. En toute illégalité bien sûr. Malgré les avertissements répétés de leurs parents, de nombreux jeunes, continuent de se prendre en photo à moitié dénudés. Un phénomène qui touche principalement les filles. Une fois qu'une image a été récupérée par un site pornographique “parasite”, il est trop tard. Même en la retirant du compte Facebook ou du blog, cela ne changera rien.

Les conséquences sont désastreuses sur la santé mentale de ces jeunes. «Je regrettais d'avoir été naïve pour poster des photos de moi sur Internet et j'essayais de l'oublier. Mais des garçons de mon école ont découvert les images et j'ai été harcelée de remarques… J'ai dû être hospitalisée pour une dépression et une tentative de suicide… », témoigne une jeune fille dans l'étude.

La résolution du problème passe par l'éducation. La seule façon d'endiguer ce phénomène est d'y sensibiliser les jeunes, explique un responsable de Childnet visant à protéger les jeunes sur Internet. «Nous avons développé des ressources concrètes, comme des jeux de rôle, afin d'aider les professeurs à entamer un dialogue avec les plus jeunes. Pour les aider à réfléchir aux conséquences de ce qui leur semble souvent de banals jeux érotiques. Or ces images indécentes restent sur Internet ».

D’après Quentin Blanc. Octobre 2012.

L’ex-millionnaire est un smicard heureux

(c) Le Figaro Internet

Un homme d'affaires a renoncé à sa fortune pour vivre avec 1000 euros par mois dans une cabane. Il habitait une luxueuse villa dans les montagnes autrichiennes. Un voyage en Amérique du Sud lui a ouvert les yeux : «J'ai réalisé que la plupart des gens pauvres qui vivent là-bas sont plus heureux que l'Européen moyen ». L'homme d'affaires prend une décision radicale : il choisit de vendre toutes ses possessions. Il imagine une méthode originale. Au lieu de mettre sa maison en vente, il organise une loterie et 22.000 personnes achètent un billet à 99 euros dans l'espoir de remporter la maison. Les 2,2 millions d'euros récoltés vont rejoindre la fortune gagnée grâce à la vente de son entreprise dans un fond caritatif consacré aux microcrédits dans les pays en développement. Depuis un an, l'ex-millionnaire vit dans une maison de bois. Sa vie lui semble désormais idyllique. « Le matin je me réveille quand mon corps se réveille. Parfois j'écris pendant dix heures d'affilée, parfois je pars simplement marcher en montagne. » Maintenant ses relations avec les gens sont plus faciles: « Avant les gens que je rencontrais me prenaient pour une tirelire. Désormais, quand quelqu'un s'intéresse à moi, ce n'est plus à cause de l'argent » . De sa maison et de sa vie passée, il n'a rien emporté. La seule chose qu'il regrette, c'est le temps. « Pendant vingt ans j'ai senti que je menais une vie qui ne me convenait pas». Il ne veut rien changer à son nouveau bonheur : « Les possessions matérielles ne représentent rien. Je suis plus heureux aujourd'hui, parce que je vis enfin comme j'aurais toujours dû vivre. »

D’après Yves Miserey. Le Figaro Internet.

The decline of children's right to roam - PAU inglés Cantabria 2014

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Just one in four primary school pupils are allowed to walk home alone

Primary school children in England have lost much of their freedom to get about without adult supervision over the last four decades, according to a report published today. British children also have far less time to get about alone when compared to German children of the same age.

Ben Watson, research fellow at the Institute, and one of the authors of the report, said: "Independent mobility has been shown to be good for children's wellbeing and development. The experience from Germany shows that this drop is not an inevitable result of modern life. If we care about the future health of our children, action should be taken to enable them to regain the right to a safe outdoor environment without the need for adult supervision."

Campaigning group Sustrans has recently launched a campaign for 'Free Range Kids' to make it easier for children to travel independently, play outdoors and explore their local community, and have the skills and opportunities to do so safely. Chief executive Malcolm Shepherd said: "Parents don't feel that their local streets are safe. We urgently need to make our communities safer if we are to get kids active by walking and cycling to school and playing outdoors. Parents want to see safer streets."

Children were asked whether they were allowed to cross main roads alone, use buses and bicycles without an adult, come home from school alone, travel to other places on their own or with friends, and to go out after dark alone.

Adapted from The Daily Telegraph January 2013

Headmaster who banned mobile phones makes the right call - PAU inglés Cantabria 2014

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Academic standards at Burnage Media Arts College have soared since pupils were forbidden to use mobile phones. The world, for these youngsters, began not with basic mobiles but with the BlackBerry and the touchscreen. In their lives, face-to-face social contact often takes second place to electronic text, Facebook and Skype. Real life like playing football or simply hanging around with one’s friends is not important in comparison with the virtual.

So it came as something of a shock when, in September of last year, the school’s headmaster, Ian Fenn, banned the use of mobiles by pupils on his premises. They can be brought into school but must be switched off at the gate in the morning and not switched on again until leaving time. Many schools allow the use of phones during break times, but pupils at Burnage who are caught using one must surrender it immediately or face exclusion. Confiscated devices can be recovered only by a parent or other responsible adult.

It seems to have worked in terms of lessening disruption in class, improving learning and reducing cyber bullying. Children are playing football at playtime again and rediscovering face-to-face contact.

Has Mr. F nn considered banning phones altogether at Burnage, given that children once managed perfectly well without them? “They are an extremely effective means of contacting home if someone is stranded or has missed the bus,” he concedes.

Adapted from The Daily Telegraph December 2012

Les baleines pressentent les tsunamis

Alors qu'il observait avec son équipe un groupe de cétacés au large du Sri Lanka, le photographe britannique Andrew Sutton est resté perplexe lorsque les mammifères ont soudainement disparu de son champ de vision. De la baleine bleue au plus petit des dauphins, tous ont fui au moment même où une alerte au tsunami était lancée sur les côtes. Contrairement à leurs observateurs, les cétacés auraient perçu les secousses sismiques sous-marines avant de disparaître.

Les baleines seraient-elles capables de détecter l'arrivée d'un séisme avant l'homme et ses capteurs? L'attitude de ces mammifères marins lors de récents séismes tend à confirmer cette théorie. Un grand nombre de cétacés se sont échoués sur les côtes japonaises et néo-zélandaises l'an passé, peu de temps avant qu'un tremblement de terre ne touche la région. Pourtant, le spécialiste des cétacés Michel André, du laboratoire d'applications bioacoustiques de l'université polytechnique de Catalogne, est sceptique. Pour ce chercheur, le phénomène dont a été témoin l'équipe d'Andrew Sutton n'est pas suffisant pour confirmer les capacités exceptionnelles des gros animaux. Rien ne dit que les animaux ont fui la zone, ils ont peut-être tout simplement échappé à la vigilance des observateurs dit-il.

Son laboratoire est désormais capable de suivre en temps réel l'interaction entre les cétacés et les bruits associés à toute activité humaine ou géologique. Il faudra donc attendre qu'un groupe de cétacés croise une zone touchée par un tsunami pour observer leurs réactions. On sera alors en mesure de déterminer si, à l'avenir, l'homme pourra compter sur les baleines pour anticiper les tsunamis.

D’après Manon Paulic. Novembre 2012

Les addictions sans substance

Sexe, sport ou jeux vidéos, les addictions sans substance sont connues. Il en est une toutefois, qui était demeurée insoupçonnée, c'est l'addiction au… bronzage. Faire la crêpe au soleil pourrait parfois se transformer en une véritable drogue.

Trois psychiatres français se sont penchés sur les études menées sur ce sujet. Ces travaux montrent une forte

prévalence de l'addiction au bronzage chez les jeunes. Mais comment se manifeste l'addiction au bronzage ? « Une envie irrépressible de s'exposer au rayonnement UV et un sentiment de manque lorsque cette activité ne peut être menée à bien ». Mais surtout, et c'est là le danger pour la santé, la poursuite de cette recherche du bronzage se fait parfois même malgré l'annonce d'un diagnostic de mélanome. Le bronzage procure une euphorie comparable à l'effet de la morphine. Les drogués du bronzage ressentent une sensation d’euphorie, une amélioration de l’humeur et un effet à la fois relaxant et anxiolytique. Pour prévenir ce type de comportement qui entraîne au mieux des coups de soleil mais aussi un vieillissement prématuré de la peau et surtout des mélanomes, il faut intervenir dès l’adolescence. Cependant une information de qualité est insuffisante si l’addiction est déjà installée. Un des fondements de cette information nécessaire est que « les bancs solaires sont en grande partie responsables de l’augmentation des cancers cutanés » selon les trois psychiatres qui s’appuient sur les indications données par la OMS.

Quant à la prise en charge des toxicomanes aux UV, « il n’existe aucune recommandation particulière », concluent les auteurs. Les rayons solaires naturels et artificiels n’ont pas fini de faire des accros.

D’après Yahoo.com Octobre 2011

Les oiseaux marins menacés de famine à cause de la surpêche

Cela fait une quinzaine d'années que les océanographes tirent la sonnette d'alarme: les pêcheries industrielles attrapent trop de poissons et dévastent les fonds marins. Autrement dit, les pêcheurs scient la branche sur laquelle ils assoient leur activité. Aucune zone des océans n'est épargnée. Si les captures continuent au rythme actuel, les pêcheurs ne ramèneront bientôt plus dans leurs filets que des méduses ou des crevettes. Les conséquences pour l'ensemble du milieu marin sont multiples. Dans de nombreuses régions côtières de l'Atlantique, du Pacifique ou de l'Antarctique, les oiseaux marins n'ont plus assez de nourriture et leurs populations diminuent.

Pour la première fois, une étude scientifique avance un chiffre précis: si, au large des côtes où des oiseaux marins sont installés, il reste moins d'un tiers des poissons par rapport à un maximum théorique, ces derniers ne peuvent plus se reproduire normalement. Si les pêcheurs dépassent ce seuil critique, les effectifs des colonies s'effondrent. Les chercheurs ont examiné en parallèle les résultats des pêches scientifiques réalisées dans sept écosystèmes différents et l'évolution des effectifs de quatorze espèces d'oiseaux marins dans ces mêmes zones, les conclusions sont significatives. Il est temps de taper du poing sur la table car le monde de la pêche ne veut jamais entendre parler des oiseaux marins. Il est très difficile de découvrir des règles générales en écologie mais cette étude en a découvert une : elle montre qu'il faut une gestion écosystémique de la pêche et ça n'a pas de sens de raisonner par rapport à une seule espèce. La conclusion est simple: si on veut protéger les oiseaux de mer, il faudra leur laisser plus de poissons.

D’après Yves Miserey. Le Figaro Internet.

Learning a new foreign language is never easy - PAU inglés 2014

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Learning a new foreign language is never easy. It is a myth that intelligent people are better at learning languages. Most language learning skills, however, are in fact habits, which can be formed through a bit of discipline and self-awareness.

Just as babies learn to produce language by hearing and parroting sounds, language learners need to practise listening in order to learn. This can reinforce learned vocabulary and structures, and help learners see patterns in language. Listening is the communicative skill that is used most in daily life, yet it can be difficult to practise unless you live in a foreign country.

In language learning, attitude can be a key factor in how a student progresses. Linguists studied attitude in language learning in the 1970s in Quebec, Canada. The study found that Anglophones holding prejudices against French Canadians often did poorly in French language learning, even after studying French for years as a mandatory school subject. On the other hand, learners who are keen about the target culture will be more successful in their language studies.

It does not matter how well a person can write in foreign script, conjugate a verb, or finish a vocabulary test. To learn, improve, and truly use the target language, they need to speak. This is the stage when language students can clam up. In cultures where saving face is a strong social value, EFL teachers often complain that students, despite years of studying English, simply will not speak it. They are too afraid of mispronouncing words in a way that would embarrass them.

Adapted from The Daily Telegraph December 2012