Second Draft: Application letter

Dear Sir,

I am writing you in response to your advertisement which I saw in today’s “The Guardian”. I am an English teacher and I would really like to work at your school.

My name is Astrid Campos and I am an EFL teacher. I graduated from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso six years ago. I had been teaching at public and multilingual schools in Chile for two years before moving to the UK. Afterwards, I successfully completed my PhD in didactics, social integration and multiculturalism at the University of Cambridge. For the last two years I have been working at public schools here in London.

Due to my wide experience teaching in different contexts, I could perfectly fit in your school environment since I know, through your advertisement, that you receive students from all over the world. In addition, I am quite familiarized with your educational system, so with my knowledge of didactics and multiculturalism it is highly possible that your students could have even better results without losing their identity as members of a different culture.

The enclosed résumé provides more details about my teaching formation and career. If you have any doubts or you want further information, please do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience.

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

Yours faithfully,

Astrid Campos.

Second Draft - Writing Test

Doping

For a long time, athletes have been trying to enhace their physical performance in order to break world records and achieve better time marks. The easiest way to achieve these goals is taking drugs, which is known as doping. Moreover, this doping has turned into gene doping, which is at cellular or more specific genes level.However, this kind of practice shouldn't be accepted neither by society nor Olympic judges and coaches.

Although it's an illegal practice, there're some people and athletes who not only state that it isn't harmful at all, but also that it's helpful for enhacing thier muscles and physical performance quite quickly.

On the other hand, scientists and athletes, who really understand the purpose of the Olympics, establish that this practice has side effects, such as adverse reactions,  higher stress levels and untimely death. Beside, if you're caught taking drugs or using gene doping, the Olympic council will take you out of the competition and also you won't be able to carry on with your sport career.

All in all, society and the Olympic council should ban this practice since it's dangerous and it doesn't reflect the real Olympic spirit.

Second Draft - Formal Letter

Dear Sir,
            First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Anne Watson and I am writing to you because I saw a quite interesting advertisment on the magazine of this month, in which there were a lot of different choices for holidays that you offer, but the one that caught my attention was the ballooning across Europe, since it said that it is an incredibly astounding experience because the passenger is in a hot-air balloon, flying through the breath taking landscapes of Europe and appreciating its beauty from a whole different angle. However, a few doubts come up to my mind while I was reading, so I was wondering if you could tell me some details about it.
             Firstly, it seems to me that on your advertisment did not appear the price, that is why I would be really grateful if you could tell me how much this holiday costs, if there is any discount or bargain and finally, but not less important, would you mind telling me what the price includes, if possible.
             Secondly, I would like to know more details about the accommodation, that is to say, whether it is included on the holiday's price and if it is so, could you tell me what kind of accommodation is, because I would prefer a cabin instead of a hotel, provided that the cabin is fully equipped.
             Finally, I must say that I have never done this activity before, so I am quite unsure about the dress code for this occasion. I was wondering if you could tell me which kind of clothes I should wear and also whether I need to carry some special equipment dor doing this activity or if you provide it.
             I am looking forward to hearing from you more details about my request.
             Yours faithfully,
             Anne Watson.  

Second Draft - Description of an event

Summer vacations
The last summer, my family and I went on vacations and our goal was to arrive to Coyhaique.
Coyhaique is a city located in the south of Chile and from where I live, there are approximately 1900 km. So, as you could imagine, it was a long but stunning trip.
We had been planing this journey since 2009, but we had never had the chance or the money foor doing it until last summer.
Therefore, we gathered all the stuff that we needed for it, such as food, backpages, etc, and we set off this amazing journey on January 8th.
By the time that we had arrived to Coyhaique, a lot of anecdotes had happened to us, for instance in the middle of the road (Carretera Austral) our car broke down and my father had to change the wheels with my brother. Also, another day we helped two Italian guys who were very lost in the city because they couldn't find the way to get to the square in where their tourist guide was waiting for them.
But the thing that I liked the most was the road and its scenery. The first one was on a deplorable state but the scenery.... the scenery was one of the most extraordinary, stunning, astonishing and breath taking that I'd ever seen, this was because the road pass through national reservations such as Queulat Park and so on and so forth. As the journey went on, snowy mountains, lakes and rivers of blue water, different animals and forests appeared right in front of our eyes in such a beautiful and majestic way that you were really amazed by the whole scenery.
Definitely, that is an adventure that you certainly have to do some day in your life. It's so worthy that you wont even regret it.

Speaking 1 - Video

That is my first speaking video and it is about robotic prostheses...
I hope you enjoy it
Bests, Astrid

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eL_VlZCsjwo

Second Draft: Science and Humanities

                For a long, long time both science and humanities have been researching and publishing a lot of new material, which leads to one single question: Is one more important than the other? The answer is no, definitely no. Science and humanities are conected in such a delicate way that they complement each other.
                However, some scientist or people related to this field think that their area is more important because there are plenty of new discoveries and because they are trying to explain the beginning of the universe. On the other hand, humanists  state that their area is related to history, which leads to the identity of countries and to language, which is helpful for communication and so on and so forth.
                The thing is that science is as important as humanities, they are related and connected. For instance, science takes papers from bygone ages studied by history and the scientific method, their theses and papers follow structures from the study of language.
                In summary, science and humanities complement each other. It is like they are meant to be together. Without one, the other discipline is incomplete or is not able to explain what they are trying to. There is no discipline more important than the other.