Shimmering Words

SHIMMERING WORDS Language Department Santo Tomás University, Magazin N° 3, april 2010

EDITORIAL

M.A. Gladis Leonor Arias Rodríguez Director of the magazine

The evolution of the society has direct relation with educative process because it is the base of development in social, economic, cultural, scientific and technologic fields. In the same way, English plays a very important role because it contributes with processes that allow the growth and progress of education in the way to construct knowledge in the personal, local, national and international levels; additionally it shows new ways of investigation in the world of teaching and learning a foreign language.

listen read Content write speak PLACES EVERYWHERE 2 SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISES5 PROFESSIONS 8 TEACHERS 15 INTERESTING TOPICS 10 HEALTH 18 FESTIVITIE 12

With the project of bilingualism in our country, English has recovered an important position in schools and universities which makes teachers to face this new tendency with the investigation as the main tool to look for new ways of education. Besides Santo Tomás University offers 5 levels of English that permit students not also to acquire the principal bases of this language but also to enhance students to use that language in different contexts of their daily activities.

This magazine is the outcome of students and teachers' production in the classroom, here we can see the property students have for using English in several contexts; this is part of students' motivation as well as the stimulus in order to practice reading and writing as part of their lives. At the same time I enhance Santo Tomas University community to learn English as a tool for our daily life because it is one of the languages of progress in modern times.

UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA Fr. Erico Juan Macchi Céspedes,O.P. Fr. Luis Alberto Orozco Arcila, O.P. Fr. Tiberio Polanía Ramírez,TUNJA O.P. UNIVERSIDAD UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD Rector Seccional Vicerrector Académico Vicerrector Administrativo Financiero.

SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTODirector: TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SECCIONAL TUNJA GraficUNIVERSIDAD Design Collaborators: Magazine Director: SANTO TOMÁS, Languages Department SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, Comunication Professors: Professor Nery Yolanda Ruiz SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL DepartmentTUNJA TeacherSECCIONAL Team Gladis Leonor Arias Rodríguez SANTO TOMÁS, UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD Santiago Suárez Style Corrector: SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, Adriana Rivera SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD SANTO TOMÁS, SECCIONAL TUNJA UNIVERSIDAD T

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BARRANQUILLA

CARNIVAL Leidy Lisseth Torres Espitia Arquitecture

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arranquilla Carnival is the largest and most important festival in Colombia and one of the most celebrated and colorful carnivals in the world. Over a million and half people among barranquilleros and visitors participate in the party. It is celebrated from Saturday to Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, usually in February and sometimes early March. It has a tradition of over one hundred years. The carnival season begins the second Saturday of January, when they start the festivals public holidays, however, other activities directly related to the carnival take place during the year.

This carnival is a cultural event which expresses and represents all cultural varieties of the Colombian

Caribbean Coast, it unleashes the folk of the region, the most various local cultural events, music and dancing.

The festival, in its variety and cultural wealth, won two major awards: "the National Cultural Heritage", issued by the National Congress of Colombia on 26 November 2001.

The Acropolis Robin López Forero Electronics

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he Acropolis of Athens has dominated this city for its impressive rock for the past 2,500 years.

It is a unique architectural complex that earned a nomination as a World Wonder.

It was not until several centuries later that the place began to be used as an

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area of worship. In the tenth century B.C., it was a temple called Enneapylon as evidence that the Mycenaeans lived in this magnificent hill. For centuries, however, the fort was attacked first by the Spartans, who tore down its walls and many years later by the Persians, commanded by Xerxes.

Pericles was the great architect of what we know today as the Acropolis in Athens and who was responsible for convincing the Athenians of the feasibility of rebuilding the area. The works carried out since then, have given a new life to three temples which can be visited entering by a monumental entrance. Phidias Callicrates and Ictinus were responsible to bring to reality the dreams of Pericles, and so were deployed on the Acropolis the Parthenon, the Propylaea and the Erechtheion, among others.

Started to build the Parthenon in 447 BC to house a giant statue of 12 meters of Athena Parthenos. Finally, the temple was completed in 438 BC and since then, having come to serve as an arsenal even many centuries later, now, the Parthenon is the emblem of Greece and one of the best known monuments

PLACES EVERYWHERE 3 worldwide.

Along with The Propylaea was built the Temple of Athena Nike, on its west side. It was run in 426 B.C. and five years also took to build this small temple to commemorate the victories of the Athenians over the Persians.

The Erechtheion was built between 421 and 406 BC Built on behalf of Erechtheus, king of ancient Athens, mythology note that the temple was built on the spot where Poseidon thrust his trident and olive trees of Athena was born. At its south side stands the Portico of the Caryatids, where the columns were replaced by statues of women.

Nearly half a century later built the Theater of Dionysus, built by Lycurgus in 342 BC the stadium opened in 326 B.C. 161 B.C. Theater of Herodes Atticus, also known as Odeon.

Athens in Greece is the capital and largest city which dominates the Attica periphery. It is considered one of the world's oldest cities, which history spans around 3,400 years.

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MY TOWN ON THE MAP Paola Castro

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here are many kinds of regions in COLOMBIA. In these places there are many young people. I am in Boyacá and I will tell you about three places where three of my friends live. Think about if these three places are like or unlike your own. They are Oicata, Paipa and Sogamoso.

want to learn how to sell and buy things help and stay with traders.

Hi! My name is Gonzalo, and I live in Paipa, Boyacá.

Paipa is a wonderful town where there are many things to do. For example swimming. There are five swimming pools, six hotels and a lake to share with your family. If you do not have a program for next weekend, please come to Paipa, you will have fun.

My name is Carlos. I live in Oicata, it is a town next to Tunja, Boyacá. It's a great place to live! Oicata is on the east of Boyacá. This is an important part where livestock and agriculture support economy. In my town almost everyone works in farmers. Some of my neighbors are businesspeople. My father sells cows, horses and sheep. About half of the farmers sell in this town on Sundays and all the animals and food come from the different towns of Boyacá. Young people who

This is Laura. I live Sogamoso, but I study in Tunja at Universidad Santo Tomas. Sogamoso is a mediumsize city. It is well known as “Ciudad del Sol y del Acero”, because this city have several temples, monuments, museums and churches. This place, owns ancient relics which keep secrets of our natives.

Its people are very kind and friendly. Come to share with all sogamoseños. Lifestyle in Sogamoso is nice you can live there, study and work too.

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Competitions at Universidad Santo Tomas- Tunja Diego Caldas Dueñas Civil Engineering

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ost of the students at the university like practicing sports. They participate in swimming, soccer, tae-kondo, basketball and athletics during the semester and their performances are excellent. In these days, some friends and I are spending time exercising at the gym, playground and

Pyramids of Mexico Luis Carlos Reyes Parra Electronic Engineering

in the stadium. My friend Yeferson Peña trained a lot because he represented Colombia in the “Suramericanos of athletics” in Bolivia. I think, practicing sports is a great way to make friends. You become a better friend by sharing laughings, peace, and love and time.

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hichén Itza is one of the biggest places in the Maya culture, the name 'the mouth of the cenotes of Izta' was contributed of Itza tribe and Maya culture. This tribe is religious, there 'chac', the rain god offered sacrifices by the Mayas. The building is a pyramidal stage with stairs widen; the walls has prominent alive colors.

The house of nuns, the santury connote, the snail and the chapel of warlike are others notables buildings. The snail is located in Yucatan peninsula – Mexico. The snail was used as astronomic observatory and the name snail was received because of his spiral stairs in his inside.

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THE LOUVRE MUSEUM María Alejandra Rojas Ruiz

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he Louvre museum is the largest national museum of France. It is very admired by French people and tourists around the world becoming in one of the most visited museum in the world, and a historical monument.

LOCATION The Louvre is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the 1st arrondissement. The Louvre Palace was built by Philip II in the 12th century.

HISTORY The Palace has been re built many times by a lot of architects to form the present Louvre Palace. The Louvre museum was founded by the French National Assembly during the French Revolution, trying to display the

nation masterpieces. The museum opened on 10 August 1793.All the works were taken to the Louvre by artists and several intellectuals who confiscated the church and royal properties. The size of the collection was increased by Napoleon when the museum was renamed the Musée Napoléon.

EXHIBITIONS In 2008 the collection of the museum was divided by the director Henri Loyrette among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan, and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; and Prints and Drawings.

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The Grand Canyon

Diana Sofía Melo Law

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he area was inhabited by Native Americans who built many caves and settlements within canyon, before the European immigration. The Grand Canyon was created by the Colorado River over a six million year period. The canyon began in the west, followed by another that formed in the east.

The merger apparently occurred where the river today bends to the west, in the area known as the Kaibab Arch. The Grand Canyon is one of the first national `parks in the United States.

The Grand Canyon is a Steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. The canyon is 277 miles long, ranges is width from 4 to 18 miles and attains a depth of over a mile.

The president Theodore Roosevelt was a major proponent to preserve the Grand Canyon visiting on numerous occasions to hunt and enjoy the scenery.

The first European known to have viewed the Grand Canyon was Garcia Lopez de Cárdenas from Spain, who arrived there in 1540. This national park is one of the world's premier natural attractions, attracting about five million visitors per year. The Grand Canyon is a massive rift in the Colorado plateau that exposes uplifted Proterozoic and Paleozoic strata, and is also one of the six distinct Physiographic sections of the Colorado plateau province.

The Grand Canyon in the north side tends to give a better impression to expanse canyon than those from the south side. The Grand Canyon has suffered some problems with air pollution, attribute to the nearby Navajo generating station a coal –burning power plant.

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ITALY

Jesika Astrid Guío Pinto Law

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taly is a wonderful country with a rich culture, it is located just in the center of Europe. The professed religion is the Christianity. It possesses sandy beaches, lovely sculpture for example: the Fontana of Trevi, the roman coliseum and lastly the city of the Vatican.

It is an unforgettable city because of its beauty, not only for it is beautiful buildings but also for it is people. Italian people are good looking, they are tall with delicate features they have got blond hair, clear eyes and white skin. The Italians are friendly people who are well known for being loving and kind. Most people in Italy live at very luxurious homes, perfectly built and very modern in the different cities of the country. The people usually work in the fields, designer, vineyard and they are merchants. Italy food is very special and delicious it includes spaghetti, pizza, sheep, wines, cheese. In the free time, the people dance, read and listen to folk music.

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GERMANY Eliana Arévalo Law

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ermany is placed in central Europe, its capital is Berlin, and its weather is warm, you can find animals like red foxes and otters, you can also find plants like the oak and the pine, its biggest rivers are Danube, Rhine and the Elba. Most of the people in Germany are tall, thin, and blond; they usually have blue eyes. Christianity is the official religion and German is its language.

The economy depends on the exports, fishing, means of transportation, electronic machines and chemical products. The most common places to live are huge houses and luxury apartments.

The traditional food is pig and cow sausages, cereals, and bread with jam, the favorite foreign food is Italian and Arabian. The sports people practice are basketball and football, they also love to drink beer and eat all kind of bread.

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uerto Colombia Hotel is located in a city called Puerto Colombia, in the Atlantic Colombian coast, near Barranquilla; there Puerto Colombia Hotel is special for many issues, one of this is that it is a nice place that offers variety of things and activities to do.

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Puerto Colombia Hotel Enrique Núñez Castillo Civil Engineering student

The hotel has a bar in the beach, for that reason you have the chance to drink a beer, this hotel also has another bar next to the pool. The rooms are fantastic, for example, you have the chance to enjoy your time in the Jacuzzi, since each room has one; they have television, air condition and a freezer too. The restaurant is a singular and nice place, because there you can eat all kind of sea food mainly, obviously you can eat some other food like rice, corn and other dishes.

You can do many things in that place, for example, you can go to fish in the Magdalena's river because it is next to the hotel, you also can swim in the pool or in the sea; you might enjoy the weather and the sun too.

On the one hand, I recommend you this hotel because it is a fantastic place to do different things; in the other hand, the best time to go there is on vacation, like in the end of the year or in June.

BURJ AL ARAB HOTEL Christian Torres System Engineering

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he Burj Al Arab hotel was built on an artificial island, this hotel is located 17 kilometers south of Dubai. The Burj Al Arab hotel is considered the most luxurious, since it has the best architectural works in the world. Therefore, Burj Al Arab is the only place that is considered a "7 star” for its fantastic views of the desert, a unique landscape. The Sheikh of Dubai considered one of the richest men in the world owns it.

The hotel has an outdoor and indoor swimming pool, a spa room, private beach, a huge gym, machines and qualified staff and a heliport. Besides all, guests can choose from seven great restaurants, the Al Mahara, an underwater restaurant where you can have dinner with a real marine environment, sharks, corals and other species that make you feel an exciting feeling in the deepest sea and having some surprises for customers that opt for lunch or dinner there. The Burj Al Arab hotel is the most wonderful hotel around the world.

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SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISES 11

Lisseth Camargo Chaparro Business Administration

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he company Coltejer was founded by Alexander Echeverria on October 22, 1907, with one thousand gold pesos, four looms and twelve men. Since then, growth and the desire to diversify it into the production of new standards in fabrics and yarns, constituted a challenge that years later took its position as the leading textile company in Colombia and the first in Latin America.

On the thirties, the company began the process of printing and finishing modernized processes. During the decade of the forties and fifties the company went through the most critical stage, characterized by its expansion and consolidation. On the decades of the sixties and seventies

it was structured around a renewed policy of decentralization and diversification, besides great impetus to culture activities.

Coltejer marks the beginning of a favourable time for the incursion of the textile industry in the country. Currently, the company processes annually 30.000 tons of string (cotton, polyester, lined, and nylon) in 186.776 spindles and produces 100 million square meters of fabric in 1305 looms.

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ostobon is a century of innovation and leadership in Colombia. Its history began in the canter of Medellin. Gabriel Posada and Valerio Tobon began with the beverages on October 11 of 1904. Cola Champagne, was the name of the first drink that was produced by Postobon. The drink became famous in shops, social clubs and at homes. Posada and Tobon opened a factory in Manizales in 1906 and other in Cali in August of the same year. In 1917 Agua Cristal and Agua Pura were thrown. In the 20s Postobon was announced internationally during the exhibition of Rome in 1924. The same year freskola won the golden medal great cross diplomat.

Alexandra Márquez Business Administration From 1927 Postobon initiated the distribution of “Coca Cola” until 1936. In 1986 Postobon initiated the sponsorship of a cycle team. From 1998 Postobon is responsible of the Atletico National football club. In 2005 la Revista Cambio considered this company as the most competitive of the country; nowadays, the company is part of the Ardila Lulles portfolio. It possesses 16 plants bottling works all over the country.

Cesar Pinzón Public Accountancy

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azda is an automobile manufacturer with headquarters in Hiroshima, Japan. In 2005, it produced nearly 800.000 cars with sales in Japan, Europe, North and South America. Mazda was founded in Japan in 1920 as Tokyo Cork kogyo Ltd. Originally, it manufactured tools and machinery, but switched to the construction of the first model, the Mazda-Go in 1931. The company formally changed its name to Mazda in 1984. The first model with four wheels was the R360, it was introduced in 1960, followed by the Mazda carol in 1962. The ford motor company has been in control of 25% of Mazda since 1979.

In 2008 Ford sold 20% of its participation in order to obtain liquidity to financial difficulties, going to own 13%. The

agreement in Mazda and Ford in 1979, allowed Ford to sell Mazda cars under the Ford brand in Asia and Australia. In the 60s was the anniversary of Mazda as an automaker.

Besides, Mazda entered the U.S market later this decade. They celebrated designing a sports car with the Mazda Cosmo.

Internationally, the 70s also saw the first economic crisis, which Ford took to buy 25% of the company. The first RX-7 launched in 1978 should be a powerful image of Mazda´s leadership. But their sales were not traced to the early 80s. The 80s was the most productive decade for Mazda. Early models like the 323 or the 626 were a resounding success. The 323 was the best selling car in Japan over the Toyota Corolla.

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Mazda finished the decade with the revolutionary sports Mazda MX-5 car in 1989.

This model revitalized the sports market since the 70s. It became an icon of the enterprise. In the 90s saw declined of Mazda. Mazda embarked on a disastrous attempt to diversify the names of its models. With the purpose of doubling its sales, Mazda used new names in Japan, Eunos, Efini and Autozam.

In others markets, Mazda´s identity crisis was increased by doubts about which logo to choose. Until 1998 is still used today.

This logo is present on all models and is considerably larger than previous ones.

2001 was a very difficult year for Mazda as though the new models already in development.

The company would have nothing to offer until 2003. In 2004, Mazda outsold its rival Mitsubishi motors.

Mónica Soriano Business Administration

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PRING 1995: Sergey Brin and Larry Page met in a ceremony organized by Stanford University for PhD candidates in Computer Science.

AUTUMN 1995: Larry and Sergey started working on the “Digital Library Project” of Stanford University.

Larry Page, with experience in web design and Electrical Engineering degree, and Sergey Brin, an expert in data processing and Bachelor of Computer and Mathematical Science, they began to create an algorithm for data searches. This technology will later become the heart that will run on Google.

JANUARY 1996: They begin to develop a search engine called “BackRub”. Its name was given because the greater ability of this search engine was to analyze the “back links”.

1997: “BackRub” turned into “Google”. This mane was given for its resemblance to the word “google”, which Next

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in English the name is given to the figure “10 to 100”.

Nowadays it has indexed 24 million pages. In this year, Larry and Sergey registered the domain “google.com”.

They have also letting known its technology to the “Office of Technology Licensing” at Stanford University, which will be responsible for contacting with different Internet companies that may be interested in Google.

JANUARY 1998: Sergey and Larry do not like any of the tenders received, either because it is economically available, or because they will not success develop the technology. Therefore, they decide to create their own company. That´s when Larry Page´s bedroom became the new home of Google, carrying all the computer equipment at his bedside. Sergey Brin´s room, located next to Larry, became the finance office.

SUMMER 1998: On the porch of the house of a mutual friend, Sergey and Larry knew Andy Bechtolsheim (vice president of Cisco Systems), and begin to talk about Google. After thirty minutes, Bechtolsheim

signed a check for US100.000 in the name of “Google Inc.”. However, “Google Inc.” as such didn´t exist, and in order to cash the check they have to find a room and start a new company:”Google Inc.”.

SEPTEMBER 1998: The Company opened its doors in a garage that a friend of Sergey and Larry were rent in Melo Park, California.

In 2008, Google was awarded the Prince of Asturias Prize for Communications and Humanities.

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SUCCESSFUL ENTERPRISES 15

History of Oscar Robles Business Administration

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n May 1886 Coca Cola was created by Doctor John Pemberton a pharmacist from Atlanta, Georgia, the soft drink was first sold to the public at the soda fountain in Jacob's pharmacy in Atlanta on May 8, 1886. In 1891 in Atlanta Asa Candler acquired the complete ownership of the Coca Cola business, Pemberton was forced to sell it because he had health problems and was in debt, Candler acquired the whole company for $2.300 US. Candler helped to expand the consumption of Coca Cola to every state and territory of USA. In 1893 in January Coca Cola was registered in the U.S patent office. In 1894 the first syrup plant, outside of Atlanta,

was opened in Dallas, in 1906 the first two countries outside the United States, which bottled Coca Cola were cub and panama.

In 1917, Coca Cola sold per day 3 million and is the most recognized trademark; in 1919 the Coca Cola company was sold to a group of investors for $ 25 million. In 1940 Coca Cola is bottled in over 40 countries , and 1950 advertising on the TV began, which let to open more doors around the world, in 1952 “the big beverage” the first novel about Coca Cola was written by William Campbell, in 1961 Sprite was introduced.

In 1978 Coca Cola introduced plastic bottles; in 1995 coke was consumed aboard the spaceshuttle DISCOVERY, marking the third trip into space for Coca Cola. Nowadays Coca Cola is advertised on over 500 TV channels around the world, Coca Cola is sold in more than 200 countries.

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Erika Arias Business Administration

Es entrega segura!

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as founded in 1982 in November twenty nine by Guerrero Hernandez brothers. They where born in Jenesano Boyacá. They idea born when they worked in one of transportation charge. They saw the opportunity to open a factory with good service around the nation.

This company grows; because the owners have good know ledge about “marketing” and they put these know ledge, in order to have a good, interesting and recognized name. These strategies were to make publishing through the communication as radio TV news. The company applies modern points of administration as well as the people's enable.

For this reason this began to be one of the most important company in new time.

Our country is known by many people thanks to this company. This business began operations with three daily sends; they called it send twenty four hours, of the day between Bogotá, Cali, and Buenaventura cities. This project was excellent and for this reason the business was spread by all our country. This company has many cars which have as a badge a green color.

It has many officers, for example in this city there are three places where the people go to send their commends to other different cities of Colombia.

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PROFESSIONS 17

Tunja

SYSTEM ENGINEERING S

ystem Engineering includes many areas of technology with the operative systems in cell phones, computers, programming and management of networks. One of the greatest advances and discoveries of the Systems Engineering is internet, because anyone needs this tool. Bill Gates is who contributed in the advance of Systems Engineering because he “created” the most used operative system around the world, it is Windows.

Manuel Rodriguez System Engineering

Windows is a company that makes computers, Operatives Systems and hardware, along with UNIX, Apple Computers and IBM. This is one of the most important and powerful technology company in the market. I am a System engineering student, and I think that this is a very important profession, because all necessary objects or not necessary in this moment, need and have technology. I am happy because I am learning a lot in this program.

THE SOLDIER

Lina Carreño Civil Engineering

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n Colombia, the soldier is a person particularly of masculine sex that voluntarily or for obligation links himself with the armed forces of the country to play a labor of honor with their mother land.

The term soldier refers to one of the lowest position of the armed forces and he is not always a warrior; he can also progress up the position of command, providing youth conscription and can be removed after a while and he has many advantages. The work done within the armed forces depends on their physical appearance and health.

Time ago, people thought that men were the only ones to join to the armed forces but, nowadays the women also can join the armed forces doing it for their own will and for taking advantage of the benefits that the armed forces offers for them and their families.

The soldiers are most often isolated from their families for long, and taken to the forest to meet battles against war fares and other armed groups that are not legal. Some of the soldiers are not led to the forest to battle but they are placed in the city since they see for the safety of some politicians. Any way, people working in the armed forces have benefits such as health, economic support, security for the family, and after a working time get a retirement.

The soldier's life is not very easy because they have a very strict and extensive exercise, and in return, they have few hours of rest.

They are exposed to hours of exercise to go out to the forest; their nourishment is very nourishing since they have to be awakening for long time and their wear physical is too much. It is gratifying to have soldiers in our land because they are who fight for our safety and those who risk their lives for us to have a better future.

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Accounting importance

Yeny Solanyi Alfonso Garavito Public accounting

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ccounting is the backbone of the business financial world. Accounting is needed because it is the only way for businesses to grow and flourish. The concepts of assets liabilities and income and the need to recognize these areas are still the basis for all accounting functions today.

Accountants should be unbiased to decide what we need in order to build solid business decisions about current status or future project state of a company. I think that it is very important that the principles must be correctly enforced because the potential for greed, theft and dishonesty exist in almost all companies.

Furthermore, accounting is the awareness of the business world, when handled with care and with respect, it performs as expected. However, when abuse occurs and the system is circumvented or made ineffective (because of dishonesty and greed), it doesn´t work correctly. Likewise, we must advice the

head of the company and work with him in order to make solid business and help other people. In my opinion, accounting must be used in a correct way because the reputation is an important element that takes up or down a company or person.

Accounting Ethics A

ll professions have codes of professional conduct. In our career is very important to have rules or principles for behavior. The rules provide framework for each country. Colombia has laws such as 93/1991 where the Institute of Public Accountants is authorized to design technical standards about principles of professional conduct, responsibilities and nature of the accounting services.

Accounting ethic rules are formal rules made by accountants after considering state societies, boards, practices and parties. These rules summarize particular interpretations about common mistakes or professional problems. The code also maintains a level of self discipline that goes beyond national regulations.

Today, we have a new field: International Accounting Rules in which United States is the main authority on accountant regulations; in 1988, it adopted a professional accounting code for providing guidance to all members.

Around the world, there are different kinds of institutions that state high ethical standards and describe the behavior of clients, credit grantors, governments, employers, investors business, financial community and others, in order to support the correct functioning of the profession. Some of the institutions responsible of stating them are: AICPA (American Institute of CPAs), IMA (Institute of management Accountants) and IIA (Institute of Internal Auditors).

Fredy Alonso Hernández Castañeda Electronic Engineering

These organizations recognize the importance of values and responsibilities.

The responsibilities considered for accounting professionals require competence, confidentiality, integrity and objectivity. They should be used not only in the accounting task, but also in all processes with clients to avoid fraud and legal problems. As accountants, we also need to avoid conflicts of interest, and for that, we must use independence, what means, all information has to be impartial and objective.

When you, as an accountant, do not follow ethical codes, you can get fired from a professional organization because the reputation is something extremely important for them: apart from that, you can also have government penalties.

Our ethic code is a great tool for regulating business activities in different ways. It is a guide for establishing rules when we have conflicts, but some of our colleagues do not believe in those codes and commit fraud. Even though, in these cases the government has created laws that consist in money or jail.

I feel absolutely positive that ethic codes are a great guidance for all accountants because we do not know how to proceed in specific circumstances and how we can help our client if he had problems.

Santo Tomås University, Magazin Shimmering Words N° 3, april 2010

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TEACHERS' PRODUCTION 19

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Reflection about the universal language: english

Eliana Edith Roberto FlĂłrez M.A. Candidate

I

want to share my opinion in general, taking into account the teaching and learning process of a foreign Language: English.

Nowadays people all around the world are learning English for specific purposes, (including children, teenagers and adults) because it is the universal language but also there are many reasons such as: improve life-style, have access to information, to communicate people from different countries, bilingualism program etc. English is not only the most useful language in the world. It is also one of the easiest languages to learn and to use and it gives you a lot of satisfaction.

English is learnt and taught in many different contexts; also people are unique in their learning process, in their personalities, cultural experiences and values.

Different people prefer different learning environments, learning modalities and they all exhibit unique strengths, talents and weaknesses. If we are successful in leading our students through the task of learning we must provide a variety of learning approaches so that these differences can be recognized and provided for every classroom.

Understanding the different ways that people learn, interact and process information can help us modify the way we teach so that all students have an equal opportunity to succeed, but we also must take into account several aspects as: age, motivation, atmosphere, gender and responsibility.

Varying teaching strategies makes sure that students will occasionally learn in a manner compatible with their own learning preference but also expands their repertoire of alternative learning strategies in turn. The Multiple Intelligences Theory is very helpful for helping teachers recognize that students have differing aptitude in different subject areas.

Consider very different behaviours or strategies that individual students use to learn a new language, it does not matter how old they are. Shy, introverted, analytically-oriented and so on. For example one child can learn English through grammar drills and sentence analysis, another student avoids grammar drills but seeks out social conversation in English, his new language; he is content to get the general meaning without knowing every word, another student attuned more to the senses (movement, sound, sight, and touch) than to intuition, looks for English texts that proceed one step at a time. They can use flashcards, and with their classmates, they initiate "total physical response" exercises that involve all the senses. Some of them can learn doing exercises in their workbook or just have fun with their language but they can have troubles organizing their work.

These learners are using different kinds of language learning strategies, or specific actions and behaviours to help them learn. Their strategies differ greatly, at least in part because their general learning styles are so varied.

Next

Santo Tomås University, Magazin Shimmering Words N° 3, april 2010

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20 EACHERS' PRODUCTION Learning style is used to encompass four aspects of the person: cognitive style: for example: preferred or habitual patterns of mental functioning; patterns of attitudes and interests that affect what an individual will pay most attention in a learning process.

The most successful learners tend to use learning strategies that are appropriate to the material, to the task, and to their own goals, needs, and stage of learning. More proficient learners appear to use a wider range of strategies in a greater number of situations than do less proficient learners.

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I think that metacognitive and cognitive strategies are the most important strategies even if there are more useful strategies.

It is clear that students can be taught to use better strategies, and research suggests that better strategies improve language performance. Just how language learning strategies should be taught is open to question, but so far it has been confirmed that strategy training is generally more effective when woven into regular classroom activities than when presented as a separate strategy course.

Research indicates that language learners at all levels use strategies, but that some learners are not aware of the strategies they use or the strategies that might be most beneficial to take.

In conclusion, I think that both styles and strategies affect learning outcomes. Language learning styles and strategies appear to be among the most important variables influencing performance in a foreign language.

Many different strategies can be used by language learners: metacognitive techniques for organizing, focusing, and evaluating one's own learning; affective strategies for handling emotions or attitudes; social strategies for cooperating with others in the learning process; cognitive strategies for linking new information; memory strategies for entering new information into memory and compensation strategies (such as guessing or using gestures).

We as teachers need to become more aware of both learning styles and learning strategies through appropriate teacher training. We can help our students by designing instruction that meets the needs of individuals with different stylistic preferences and by teaching students how to improve their learning strategies.

How can a language teacher foster students' autonomy?

A

utonomy concerns to aspects of learning such as determining objectives, selecting methods and techniques to be used; at the same time it is important to mention that, autonomy is about people taking more control over their lives individually or collectively. From this point of view, autonomy involves interests, attitudes, abilities and motivations that people possess.

This way, there are many approaches to encourage students to be an

Adriana Rivera M.A. Candidate

autonomous learner; to start the teacher can engage students in an autonomous environment by pushing them to develop activities that deal with students' interests and based on those interests, attitude plays an important role since when one enjoys doing something one shows positive attitude . Interests because teachers can involve students in activities they like through a game o just leaving students to develop an activity in the way they want so students are autonomous because they are proposing in order to use language, besides, it has been said that when one like doing something one can learn from it.

Hence, motivation also plays an important role to foster students' autonomy given that, the kind of introduction and development of activities teachers assign, can enroll students to work by themselves.

When students know what to do in an activity and how to develop it, they can feel self-confident to work on a given task. For this, teachers need to be creative in order to make attractive the activities they suggest.

Lastly, it is crucial to mention that teachers should guide students' work and development by showing and providing them different sources of learning to help them become autonomous learners; then, the teacher becomes a tool to promote learning by including students' interests and motivations to strength students' attitudes.

Santo Tomás University, Magazin Shimmering Words N° 3, april 2010

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TEACHERS' PRODUCTION 21

REFLECTION ABOUT IMPLICIT AND EXPLICIT TEACHING OF GRAMMAR Eliana Edith Roberto Flórez M.A. Candidate

T

he topic about “Implicit and explicit teaching of grammar” called my attention in different ways and that is the main topic of this reflection.

Grammar is a huge issue because it is one of the main points of the teaching of a foreign language (in this case English) and it can be taught using many kinds of methodologies.

My own definition of grammar is: a set of rules that organize the structures of a language in order to communicate opinions in written and spoken way and I think that my attitudes about grammar is positive because it helps students understand easier and faster.

Many languages teachers think that teaching grammar is the best way to learn a foreign language and they use the same methodologies during many years ago.

They keep in their mind that learning grammar is learning another language.

Some students think that filling up exercises in an English book is enough for learning grammar and their troubles start to show off when they want to keep a conversation or communicate their feelings.

Otherwise, there are some teachers who think that grammar is not as important as other aspects during the teaching and learning process of a foreign language because they use methodologies which are not based on grammar (implicit grammar).

According to McDermott, he points out that Implicit teaching is simply providing opportunities for language use without any attention to form and Explicit teaching is teaching that overtly points out some feature of the language.

I totally agree with these definitions because it is difficult to learn a foreign language without taking care of its form and also students must be aware they are learning grammar in order to be communicative.

Taking into account my experiences as a teacher, I think that students' performance is better with explicit teaching of grammar, but it is necessary to use many approach and be open – minded.

My reflection position is: it is important to reflect upon implicit and explicit teaching of grammar because the aim is to enrich teaching practices and improve them.

We as teachers must be aware of the methodologies that we are using for teaching grammar.

I agree with some conclusion about grammar because I apply into my methodology and these strategies work correctly.

These are: Select the language learners are exposed to on the basis of a grammatical progression.

Instruct and give direct practice.

Let learners draw conclusions from their own observation and experiences: I do it with students who are in a high level and it is useful.

Focus on grammar by extracting it from context.

Focus on grammar and then apply it to context.

In conclusion, grammar depends on many things like: the teacher, the learner, the age, the context, the level, etc., and the most important aspect is that grammar must be clear and comprehensible even if it is taught in an explicit or implicit way.

Santo Tomås University, Magazin Shimmering Words N° 3, april 2010

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22 EACHERS' PRODUCTION

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ENGLISH AT USTA S

Eliana Edith Roberto FlĂłrez M.A. Candidate

tudents belong to the several academic programs at Saint Thomas University take five English levels during their careers. I as English teacher have analyzed the way English is taught at USTA. Some students are able to attend class during the day and around 20% of them can attend class during the evenings. Learners have to take their first English level since they begin their studies. They take 3 hours per week and 1 tutoring hour. Most of them have to face implications and troubles during their learning process of English as a foreign language because they realize that this subject is not as important as other subjects.

There are some students who had the chance to travel abroad and after they came back to Colombia, they concluded that learning how to ask and answer questions is one of the most important issues in English because when they were in United States they found many difficulties even if they can speak English because they did not understand the meaning of many questions that native speakers use in their daily conversations. Considering the previous experiences and issues, this study was focused on helping learners by guiding them in the use of yes/no questions and wh/questions in order to improve their communicative skills.

I applied a small-scale project with Law students at Saint Thomas University. They attended 40 hours in order to achieve their purposes during the course. In the English course, there were several components such as: grammar, reading, speaking, listening and writing through the use of yes/no questions and wh/questions. Students did not know how to understand and use general questions correctly in their process of learning a foreign language (English).

Also they were not aware about the importance of this issue.

Students were used to deduce/give wrong meanings or translated word by word when they found different kind of questions in reading texts, in order to understand the workshops that were given as complement activities. Based on these aspects, several workshops were designed to help students to begin the use of yes/no questions and wh/questions as an important part during the development of the learning process. The main question is below: Why is important to learn, use and understand yes/no questions and wh/questions in an English learning program?

The participants of this mini-project were 6 students.

The learners belong to Law and they were attending English I. There are around 16 and 18 years old. The course offered to these students was developed every Tuesday in the morning and every Wednesday in the morning. All of them are full-time students and they live

with their parents and have a high social status.

Sometimes they were motivated but sometimes they felt stressful because they had to attend to many subjects. Most of them do not have enough knowledge of the English languages but a few of them have good level because they studied in Bilingual Schools.

The teacher taught the topics as part of the planner and gave students material according to the topic about yes/no questions and wh/questions. Also the teacher guided students permanently.

There were several instruments which were used with the purpose of collecting information. These were: questionnaires, oral questions to students and dialogues. The oral questions were made at the beginning of the semester in order to know what students though or understand about yes/no questions and wh/questions and how important these kind of questions are for them and their advantages or disadvantages of using and understanding yes/no questions and wh/questions in the English program.

The questionnaires were focused on knowing how students were using yes/no questions and eh/questions after giving input about this issue. Finally students produce dialogues using different yes/no questions and wh/questions worked in class.

I can conclude that: A few students have previous knowledge about yes/no questions and wh/questions.

Students have troubles when they want to share their ideas because they are not able to understand questions and for that reason they answer wrong.

Students need to improve speaking skill asking and answering questions correctly.

Santo Tomås University, Magazin Shimmering Words N° 3, april 2010

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TEACHERS' PRODUCTION 23

TEACHING VOCABULARY IN ENGLISH Adriana Rivera M.A. Candidate

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n order to achieve an effective learning of a second language, in this case English, it is important to involve a wide variety of vocabulary words. Taking into account students' level (preschool, elementary, junior high, high school), it is necessary teachers develop activities in the classroom such as drawing a word or picture description which provide them learning of new words in a foreign language to improve students' vocabulary. Additionally, strategic vocabulary should be taught with the purpose of students use it not only in the classroom but also in a real context.

Drawing a word is a strategy teachers can use to teach vocabulary in a dynamic way. Therefore, the learners of a second language can start familiarizing with the English language then, one of the teachers' roles would be to let students to draw their own graphics, in

order to recognize different words and give meaning to them. So, teaching vocabulary (in a second language) could be funny way to learn not only adjective, nouns verbs but also letters, sound words and chunks.

In order to know if students are gathering the information provided about vocabulary, it is necessary students produce the acquisition of that new vocabulary. Here, picture description can be a way to motivate students to learn constantly. Besides, students have the chance to use over and over again different words to understand and internalize their meaning. Thus, it is crucial teachers open a space to help students by teaching them, to decipher words through context and given that, students could make predictions about the meaning.

In conclusion, teaching vocabulary in English through activities such as drawing a word or picture description are good starting to get involved students with a foreign language. Depending on the variety of activities teachers implement in the classroom students could learn in a very active way, keeping in mind that students need to recognize, learn and produce about what they have been learning. In addition, it is important teachers provide target vocabulary depending on the context where it is going to be used that way, students use words in real situations.