English Portfolio David Lajones English Language Program Level 6 Yachay Tech, Ecuador
English Portfolio By David Lajones English Language Program Yachay Tech Level 6 003 Teacher: Daniel Beall
January 9, 2017 Imbabura, Ecuador
Table of Contents Portfolio letter Literary Essay Interpretation Essay Argumentative Essay Final Research Project Essay Thank You Letter
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David Lajones Yachay Tech Imbabura, Ecuador
January 9, 2016
Dear Portfolio Reader, Hi, my name is David and welcome to the story of my improvement in the last semester of the English course. As you read this letter you will find out how I became in a better English language user than my 5th level self. Let’s begin then. So, how was my performance when I first stepped into level six? Well it should be said that I wasn't really bad at all. In my first assignment - The research proposal- the only correction the instructor pointed out was that I didn’t capitalize the title properly. For the group presentation I did not get it so easy. My group decided to prepare for it just the last day before it was due. Thanks to that we couldn’t present in an ordered way the topic we were assigned. If I look back into those works of mine, I think that the cause of the errors more than the English itself was my lack of interest for the homework. I didn’t give enough importance to my work back then, but you should have attended my multimodal presentation. Doing so you would have realized how I improved. I got 98 out of 100; in the speaking section I got 20/20. Professor Beall said and I quote that I “used a sufficient range of language, using correct and various sentence structures”. I did not get a 100% grade just because the topic I choose for my presentation was very hard science and therefore it was difficult to really get to the audience. From this I get that even though speaking and vocabulary
are important, if one cannot compress the knowledge into little pieces, the communication trail gets broken. Something important about communication is to sound normal. By normal I don't mean perfect accent or pronunciation, but rather to use English grammatical structures perfectly. For that I read a lot because I love reading. Merging something I love with English -reading in English- turned out to be the best way to learn faster, at least for me. With that on the table, it should be clear that my reading skills were the most improved during this learning process. Learning a new language was a very hard endeavor for me. If you try climb the hill too fast, you will get tired and eventually give up. But if you go slowly discovering your own pace over the travel, you would get to the top of the hill. You will feel proud and glorious because you did what a lot of people couldn’t. Thanks for reading my portfolio, and I hope you will take something with you from it.
Sincerely,
David Lajones
Literary Essay
The Relationship between Symbolism and Tone/Style in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe David E. Lajones Yachay Tech October 13, 2016
The Relationship between Symbolism and Tone/Style in “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe “Could an insane person be aware of its own insanity?” (Poe, 1843). Edgar Allan Poe’s story, “The Tell-Tale Heart”, goes about a cray man trying to convince the reader of his sanity. This essay will state how symbolism and tone/style are connected in this story and based on that and based on that, truly classify it as a horror story. Every horror story needs a monster, a ghost, a haunter, a killer to represent terror and provoke fear on the audience’ hearts. In this case the “monster” is the main narrator. He tries to kill the Oldman because of his “vulture eye”. Vultures are animals that are vigilant of the ones that are to die. This makes me think the narrator wants to kill the old man before the last, a vulture, kills him. Also, a horror story needs a victim, the one the “monster” will chase after. Here this role is represented by the old man, who suspects nothing about the killer living in his own house. However unaware of the danger hanging over him, when the time comes to die, the old man felt terror inside his “as black as pitch” (Poe, 1843) room. Here fear is represented by the darkness of the room; for as well as fear might freeze and blind us, the darkness was doing the same to the old man. Even though the main point of the story is guilt represented by the old man’s heart, beating even after his death. The tone is not of guilt, not of pain, neither regret. The tone is of proudness of an incalculable ego from the narrator. He has been capable of planning and conducting a kill so perfectly that nobody could dare to say he was mad. But there is still some sort of uneasiness along the narrative as if the narrator wasn’t totally happy with his accomplishment. This is under the main story runs a stream of fury. He
didn’t kill the old man perfectly; the guilt, the heart-beating, betrayed him. He had been caught, therefore failing to prove his sanity. The dark symbolism and the frightful and nervous tone in this story are combined to put the reader in front of a crazy person, talking of his insanity, to make you feel terror. That is why one can say this a perfect horror story.
References Poe, E. A. (1843). The Tell-Tale Heart. Philadelphia: The pioneer.
Interpretation Essay
Interpretation of “House Of Cards” Valentina Córdova, David García, David Lajones, Karen Sánchez Yachay tech November 18, 2016
Interpretation of “House Of Cards” Twyla Tharp once said “Art is the only way to run away without leaving home”. In this sense, many artists express their feelings or their disagreements through their works. As an example we have Zinaida Yevgenyevna Serebriakova (1884-1967), who was a Russian female painter. She belonged to the artistic Benois Family, a family of famous artists in the 19th-20th centuries. From her youth onwards, Zinaida Serebriakova strove to express her love for the world and to show its beauty. Her earliest works, Country Girl and Orchard in Bloom, speak eloquently of this search (Olga's Gallery, 2016). She became a recognized artist with her work Self-portrait: At the Dressing Table. Also, she focused on rural life of Russian people in works, such as Peasants or Sleeping Peasant Girl (ARTINCONNU, 2009). Till that she had been painting with oil; a thing that changed when her husband died. By changing her paint, she saw the opportunity of getting more income. This moment of her life coincided with one of her most tragic works, “House of Cards”. In this work she painted her four orphaned children. This picture evokes some sensations and messages such as the strong relationship between siblings, the hard situation the artist’s family was going through and women as important part of society. The painting “House of cards” is an oil on canvas which has unknown dimensions. The picture presents four kids, two boys and two girls that are sitting around of pyramid of cards. One of the girls who is the youngest, is seeing with admiration to her sister that is in front of pyramid. The oldest girl has a heart card in her right hand and another card in her left hand. Both boys are staring the cards pyramid, but one them has a diamond card in his hand with intention to put it in the house of cards. The skin of the children is white and their cheeks are red as well as their lips. In general, they are all four focused on building a house of cards. The house of cards is building on a table where there is also a doll with red dress, a part of book, and a pot with blue
flowers which apparently are withered. The kids are wearing jackets that are blue as well as the table the flowers and the back of the some cards. The red color of the pyramid stands out in the painting which calls to the attention of the observers. Finally, the walls that surrounding the children in that room look a little dirty and with the paint stained. The characteristics of the rest of the room are not shown within the painting. On the other hand, the cohesion between siblings is the force that built this pyramid. This painting looks as if the children were siblings that strive to keep the pyramid of cards stable, which could mean a strong family bond between them. This might mean that the fundamental basis of their relationship as siblings are solidarity and cooperation which makes one think about the importance of these values in life. In another aspect, the children look like they were really concentrated in the structure of the pyramid because they put card by card into it carefully. This calls to our attention because it transmits the importance of concentration when people do some activity. This means that when you are focused on achieving goals, you have to try it many times until you get better results. Also, the little girl looks at the older sister as a leader in the cards game. This can mean that in this epoch there might have taken place a revolutionary deed that generated the change of the thought in favor of the feminine gender. In this sense, the role played by woman is underlined from a children’s game as in the history of humanity. This recognition makes us feel proud because throughout history it has been understood that men and women can both perform valuable work. More deeply than just the gender, objects in the painting can give another insight into the painting. Taking into account the clothes, the painting House of Cards looks as if the children were from a country with cold weather due to colors, blue scale, used by the painter. Because the children’s coats are really obvious to the naked eye, it can mean the weather in the surroundings
of house’s children was very cold. Also, the painter wanted to emphasize even more with blue color on the children’s coats that as is known is a “cold color” which leads us to go back to a cold city. Moreover, the red color in cheeks of the children could confirm the cold weather in their surroundings as is commonly known people from cold countries have red cheeks due to accumulation of red blood cells in this part of their faces. This can indicate that the temperature is cold, therefore the painting gives the sensation of a cold environment. Certainly Zinaida´s artistic work can be interpreted as the importance of women's role in the society in a period of change of mentality. However, “House of Cards” also could have another viewpoint for interpretation. For Dola (2013), art critic, the artistic work is more related with the economic and sentimental situation which Zinaida faced during her husband's death. Dola (2013) refers to the children that appear in the picture having a melancholic look for the painful situation experienced at that moment. Furthermore, Zinaida´s picture have a symbolic image that is the house of cards which reflects the instability in the life due to the fact that she had to take care of her children, and additionally to take care of her ailing mother. The author also argues that the image reveals harmony because even children are sad they seem to remain a strong bond and family union. Dola´s ideas are complemented with freedom and revolution issues previously raised. Both parts of interpretation keep relationship because authors just reflect in their artwork their feelings and experience and both revolution and loss of her husband happened until that stage. There are many ways of interpreting an artwork. And while they are mostly different, they coincide on the subjectivity of the analysis. One cannot go back in time to ask Zinaida about the thoughts she had for her painting or what ideas she wanted to transmit to the audience. Even if we do so her answer will keep being subjective. This paper collected some analysis based on
the genders present in the picture and the color palette used to make it. According with the analysis of objects and colors, the artwork reflect the hard situation the artist’s family was going through, and also the role of women in the society of the age. It lastly included the critique of an expert, Dola. When contrasted, both interpretations coincide in the hardness of the situation Zinaida´s family was living and the children’s thought about family union.
References R, Dola. (2013). Zinaida’s House of Cards. [Online]. Retrieved from htps://ipseand.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/zinaidas-house-of-cards/ ARTINCONNU. (2009, June 11). Zinaida Serebriakova. Retrieved from ARTINCONNU: http://www.artinconnu.com/2009/06/zinaida-serebriakova-1884-
1967.html
Olga's Gallery. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.abcgallery.com/S/serebriakova/serebria kovabio.html
Argumentative Essay
Argumentative Essay: Why We Shouldn’t “Legalize It All” David E. Lajones Yachay Tech December 5, 2016
Argumentative Essay: Why We Shouldn’t “Legalize It All” When it gets to drugs, it is well known that it is a crucial health problem. People die year by year because of overdoses of drug or just because an addict killed them for some money to buy more drugs. The issue about legalizing all drugs and whether it is a good or bad idea is a very delicate subject. A decision like that involve a lot of variables; political, environmental, constitutional, ethical, personal, etc. Dan Baum in his article “Legalize it all” tries to convince us of legalizing all drugs. We shouldn’t legalize drugs as our society is not yet ready for it. In his article he states “Most of what we hate and fear about drugs – the violence, the overdoses, and the criminality – derives from prohibition” (Baum, 2016). While we don’t have cocaine or heroin legalized so that to see the “benefits” of their legalization; we have alcohol and cigarettes. These two don’t seem to show the “benefits” that Dan proposes. In fact, the numbers for familiar violence caused mainly by alcohol consumption keeps rising, and the number of deaths caused by lung cancer due to cigarette smoking is going up. In this sense if we legalize drugs we wouldn’t be solving the actual problem of violence, overdoses or criminality, we would just be giving the back to it saying that it is no more our concern. Another of his arguments that seems to be wrong for me is when he says “… for the first time, we have the opportunity to change course. Experiments in alternatives to harsh prohibition are already under way both in this country and abroad” (Baum, 2016). Here he makes reference to some states in U.S. and some other countries around the world that have legalized some or all drugs. The argument is incomplete because it implies that only because we conducted some experiment we will get the desired or expected results. What would happen if we legalize drugs based on this incomplete argument just to find out, in two or three years later, that the results of the experiments did not agree with our predisposition of success? Well, that’s a question that will
be left for the reader to meditate. And its answer will be another reason why we shouldn’t “Legalize it all” Also, there is a quote included on the article. It is from H. L. Mencken and it makes reference to a “haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy” (Baum, 2016). Baum uses this quote as an articulation of the obsession of a government to not let people be happy using drugs. But the main problem here must not be whether or not people should use drugs in order to be happy, the main problem to solve should be why people feel unhappy from the beginning. There is a lot of reasons for that; a wrongly thought education system that kills creativity, or bad decisions driving people into depression. By legalizing drugs we are just medicating the problem but not really curing it. Those efforts on legalizing drugs should be put in the fight for a more inclusive world with a dynamic and adaptable education system, so that people can be happy with just their own lives and wouldn’t need drugs to be happy. Many pro-legalization protesters might say that drugs are only a problem when the person cannot control them and that is true. For example, I had a friend in high school. His name is Byron, and he used to smoke pot and sniff cocaine regularly; nevertheless he never failed any course, he almost never was absent of class, and he was well behaved. He wasn’t addict, he just did it for entertainment. Of course there are persons that can control drugs, but what happens with those who can´t? Furthermore, what tells me that in some time those people able to control their drug consumption won’t lose control and fall into addiction? Human behavior is a very strange variable. It changes with time, emotions, experiences, etc. And that’s another reason why we shouldn’t “Legalize it all”. Finally, it is well understood that drugs represent a great challenge for society at the personal, familiar, communitarian and governmental level. People need real information in order
to make a decision that benefits everyone. But right now our society is just not prepared; it doesn’t possess the minimum requirements to deal with the legalization of drugs.
References Baum, D. (2016). How to win the war on drugs. Harpers.
Final Research Project Essay
Is It Ethical to Use the CRISPR-Cas 9 Gene Modification Technique to Improve Humans? David Lajones Yachay Tech University December 9, 2016
Abstract With every new technology arises new ethical discussions of which one would have never thought before. CRISPR-Cas 9, a new means for editing DNA information, is not the exception. This paper includes an ethical analysis of the usage of a new technology. It will, in a much summarized way, explain the working principles of CRISPR-Cas 9. After that, it will focus on the ethics behind some of the most important benefits this technology may offer to humanity. It will cover from new medical treatments to how human enhancement will take humanity far away in outer space. It will also take a look at its disadvantages which goes from migration to enhancement allowing countries to using this technology as a weapon by the creation of super soldiers. It will at the end wrap up the content concluding that it is more ethical to use it rather than not. Keywords: CRISPR-Cas 9, benefits, DNA, editing.
Is It Ethical to Use CRISPR-Cas 9 Gene Modification Technique to Improve Humans? In the 1860s when Johann Friedrich Miescher accidentally identified DNA while analyzing the constituents of red blood cells (Genome Research Limited, 2016), he could have never imagined how fast the genetic branch of biology would advance. Now a days, less than two centuries after its discovery, scientist know the precise structure, components, and methods of transmission of DNA-information from one generation to the next. Medical sciences also accelerated abruptly thanks to the study of genetic material. There exist great lists accounting for genetic diseases. Some of them are for example cystic fibrosis and Sickle Cell Anemia. The former causes an excessive production of mucus or sweat on lungs, pancreas, liver, intestines, sinuses, and sex organs that can lead to dangerous infections. The last affects the circulatory system by the codification of an abnormal hemoglobin which results in weak red blood cells that will rupture causing anemia (Stöppler, 2016). However, DNA does not help us only to identify disease’s causes; biologists alongside with medics all around the world have been and are conducting research on how to hack our own genetic information. This is done with many purposes such as creating personalized treatments or correct fetus’s abnormalities before the birth. Deletion, writing and cut-and-paste tools for DNA have been conceived for this objective. Here is when ethics come into play because more than only reading, we are trying to edit our own genetic fingerprint. But, as the reader will see, it is because of its benefits that the usage of CRISPR-Cas 9 should be allowed. First of all and for the sake of the uninformed reader a description on the fundamentals of CRISPR-Cas 9 will be given. CRISPR-Cas 9 stands for: clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats, which is complicated English for A bunch of little DNA segments separated by the same distance in a short DNA section. It was first found on E. coli as a means of defense
against viruses. It works as a very precise pattern identifier; whenever the bacteria survives an infection, it keeps a portion of the hostile virus DNA which is then divided into little pieces that are used lately to recognize the virus and kill it before it causes damage. The interest on this technology lies on its recognizing system. Its precision is way higher than the other available technologies, thus becoming an efficient way to localize and delete, edit or copy any section of our DNA. It may now be clear how many ethical implications such a technology may have. As a way to develop better and safer medical treatments, it should be considered unethical not to use it. From the beginning it could make the entire human population immune to any virulent transmitted diseases from a simple flu to the assassin AIDS. It could also be used to prevent medically recommended abortions by changing the damaged part of the fetus’s genome. Also, if one thinks about it, almost any illness haunting humanity has a relationship with the DNA. As an example let’s take gastritis, which affects about half the world's population (Ferri, 2012); if we were able to make our stomach’s cells more resistant to acids we might solve the problem of gastritis. By means of DNA correction we could end with any disease haunting humanity, guaranteeing a better life quality to every human being in the world. Getting all humans to become healthy specimens is something, but why shall we stop there? CRISPR-Cas 9 could be used to improve humans for specific tasks, for example smarter pre-birth designed brains so that engineers can work faster. We could also be able to make stronger people so that those that work doing physical activities can work better. We can engineer human bodies so that they don’t need to eat three times a day. Finishing in that way once and for all with hunger related deaths. It shouldn’t be considered ethical to let all those
people keep starving to death just because we don’t want to play God. Whether it will be effective or not to enhance human for specific jobs is still to be seen. While the benefits this technology has in store for humans keep appearing, one tumbles onto space colonization. Since we launched the first human into space in 1961, space is no longer the last frontier. We finally got free from the confinement to this little rock we call Earth. The next thing to do was visiting our moon, which we did in 1969. We have launched probes to every planet in the solar system and beyond. We have scanned also some great asteroids racing out there in the ring that separates inner planets from outer ones. Nevertheless, we haven’t been able to visit another planet. It is not that we don’t think about it, is that it is too difficult for “normal humans” to go there. Normal humans need oxygen, food they are used to, protection from UV rays, protection against high pressures, and so on. For that we need to carry a lot of equipment. Unfortunately, space colonization becomes a very expensive t task. Now if we could engineer humans to breathe underwater, to be resistant to UV rays, to breathe less oxygen (or even none at all), we could reduce the amount of equipment sent per mission and save a lot of money. So, using gene modification techniques we could rapidly start the race for other worlds. Another problem of space exploration is time; humans don’t last forever. Right now spaceships can attain velocities of up to 39 000 km/h. It seems fast, but at the universe scale it is ludicrously slow. For example, Alpha Centauri A, the closest star to our solar system is more or less at 41 trillion km; at current speeds it will take around 120 thousand years to get there. If we send normal humans, they will need to breed during the mission and raise kids and turn them into astronauts. All this should be done again and again until they get there. This velocity problem might be solved with new engines which are currently under research. But what if we could rejuvenate humans again and again while they travel so that the same astronauts we send are the
ones arriving to destination. From the point of view of space exploration it could be possible that we even just send fetuses with many different alterations into space. So that some of them will develop in the case they find some friendly environment. Now we may realize that any new technology has its own disadvantage. The discovery of nuclear power, for example, carried within it the problem of nuclear weapons. Before that, during World War Two, rockets were also firstly used to fight in wars rather than a means for visiting space. A very good point against human enhancement is stated by Andy Miah in the article “The Ethics of Human Enhancement” When he says “perhaps the most pressing issue is the degree to which the use of human enhancements requires a global response, rather than just domestic policy” (2016). This is a crucial problem that should be analyzed carefully because we will need global rules to determine the usage of this technology. For example if country A does not allow human improvement but country B does, would it be right that people from country A go to country B just to be enhanced? And further, would they be allowed to come back to country A? Another counter argument could be the possibility that this technology be used for military purposes. Should it be ethical to allow scientific research over a topic that could result in a new way of making war? To start with, it is true that the ethical issues this technology will arise are highly important. And for that same reason we should allow scientists to keep up the research and the publishing of information. Because if we prohibit the investigation, first the investigation won’t cease; scientists will move to a place where governments and people cannot know about them. Second, we will lose access to the information about this research. And this technology might find investors with not much of a good purpose. For example, terrorist groups could pay for the research and who knows what they would do with it. The problem related with enhancement-
migration could be solved just by getting all the countries in the world to sign into a consensus about the correct usage of this technology, so that all countries obey the same rules when it gets to the legitimacy of some enhancement. The truth is that any new technology has its ethical implications from the first rocket to self-driving cars. And while there could be a lot of unexpected or bad result coming out of the application of these technologies, the research should keep going so that we find a good use for these new tools we now have access to. The benefits that CRISPR-Cas 9 offers as a gene modification technique are beyond any other technique ever used before, and also surpass any disadvantage its incorrect usage may present. From guaranteeing a healthy way of life to allowing us to travel further into space, passing through the improvement of intelligence of the entire species, it represents the true expression of the power DNA has hidden for us to find. That is why we, humans, as a species cannot let pass by this opportunity to overcome all the problems we face now.
References Ferri, F. F. (2012). Ferri's Clinical Advisor 2013. . Providence: Elsevier Health Sciences. Genome Research Limited. (2016, June 14). The discovery of DNA. Retrieved December 4, 2016, from Yourgenome: http://www.yourgenome.org/stories/the-discovery-of-dna Miah, A. (2016, September 8). The ethics of human enhancement. Retrieved December 4, 2016, from MIT Technology Review: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602342/the-ethicsof-human-enhancement/ Stรถppler, M. C. (2016, August 22). What is a genetic disease? Retrieved December 4, 2016, from medicenet: http://www.medicinenet.com/genetic_disease/article.htm
Someone able of reading through all my portfolio to the end surely deserves a thanks. So, thank you. Hopefully this was as great an experience for you to read it as it was for me to write it. Sincerely, David Lajones