Milli Hermida's Folder Oct 20th

FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Hermida Adrogué, María Milagros AR512 0067

Assignment 1 – Informative, analytical and/or argumentative

Self-defense should be allowed Insecurity, nowadays, is a common topic of conversation among Argentine citizens. People are always afraid and careful in every move they make. Daily, people are murdered in the streets just because they refuse to be robbed. What is more, sometimes law is very unfair. Although law allows self-defense to a charge in a criminal case, it may imprison an innocent person and set the guilty one free. Many times I’ve asked myself what I would do if I was robbed. Thank God I’ve never experienced a moment like this and I hope I do not in my whole life, but it is certainly a debate. What is a person being attacked supposed to do? I would say that he/she should defend him/herself. But what is passing through his mind at that exact moment? By trying to take care of his possessions the victim is risking his own life. Supposedly law protects the right of individuals over their private property, as well as their physical and moral integrity if they become victims of an attack. If the attacked person counted with a weapon to keep himself safe, would he be sure that if he killed the thief law would be on his side? From my point of view, self-defense is about the protection of yourself and your property, and you are supposed to take care of that. Is a criminal who invades a private property to steal from it supposed to be treated well? I think that self-defense should be allowed but with reasonable limits. No one would choose to fight potentially violent criminals, they would rather wait for the police to be able to respond swiftly to a crime in progress, but the police may take a while to arrive. So, the person might be forced to react, and do something before. Furthermore, if thieves know that they will be punished for committing a crime, they will think it twice before doing anything, law is discouraging crime. Law shows what it is correct and what is not, so this law is supporting those who live properly without bothering others. On the other hand, sometimes people think that victims value property over a person’s life, and that this also moves away from the basic sense of proportion. Not only this, but they say, what if the householder attacked an innocent person by mistake because he thought that was a burglar? From my point of view, what should an innocent person be doing in private property? They are not supposed to be there, so it is not common that people attacked the wrong person by accident. To conclude, I think that laws should be well-known by every citizen, so that thieves are conscious of what they are doing. In this way, they would know what they can expect from victims. Everybody should defend him/herself and be sure that law will protect him/her. The world would be a much more peaceful place if this law was respected. This is a rather messy essay. It is not quite clear in the end whether the candidate is for or against self-defense, despite the title. Vocabulary and structures are quite clear, but ideas are not well organized for a better understanding. 22 out of 40 point should be OK.

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Hermida Adrogué, María Milagros AR512 0067 Assignment 2 – Imaginative, descriptive and/or narrative

Lost without you I’m lost Don’t know what to do Too confused to think Wish I could sleep Full of questions too lost, too resigned, My mind is just blank… No ideas coming back Wish to have a solution… Somehow I don’t, Somehow I’m lost. Wish you would come back… Somehow you won’t Somehow I’m lost. Dreaming awake, Wish someone Wouldn’t bring me back to earth. Making an effort… Wish this would end. My mind is just blank, No ideas coming back. The end

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Hermida Adrogué, María Milagros AR512 0067 Thoughts of a desperate Mother In the year 1994, Argentina suffered and Islamic attempt to the building of the AMIA (Association Mutual Israelite Argentine) in Buenos Aires, where 85 people died and more that 200 people were injured. This had a big impact on our society, because many innocent people that were just working lost their lives there. I was only 5 years old when this happened, but I remember my mother desperately calling her aunt because she lived only 2 blocks away from the devastated place. Imagining the whole situation among the debris, I tried to reflect a victim’s mother feelings in the poem written above. A person who feels totally lost, and does not know how to go on, wants to keep the hope of finding her daughter. That’s why I looked up for a photo that could reflect this tense situation. When I look at the picture I feel a hole inside. And that’s what I am trying to reflect in the poem, to understand and assist everyone who has lost someone there. Someone who wonders why didn’t her little girl go to buy something at that moment, and save her life… We can see that she’d already assumed what had happened when she says: “Wish to have a solution… Somehow I don’t” But, although she knows that she can’t turn time back, she wants to know why, she wants someone to explain to her and give her a solution, even though she knows she can’t have her daughter back, so there is no solution. The same occurs when we read: “Wish you would come back… Somehow she won’t” The mother imagines what would be like if that had never happened. How old would her daughter be nowadays, would she still be working there? And many questions that will never be answered. And although she knows that she is dreaming, that it is not true, she prefers to keep on living in a dream where she can be happy, either than living true life where she’s without her daughter: “Dreaming awake, Wish someone Wouldn’t bring me back to earth.” Finally, the woman, as she knows that nothing will ever be as before again, prays for violence to finish. Although she knows she can’t have her girl back, she prays for every mother’s daughter, for them not to suffer as much as she has: “Making an effort… Wish this would end” To conclude, I have tried to write a very effective poem, to reflect the feelings of people involved in this attempt. By reading this poem, I attempt to make a person who did not know anything about this tragedy, understand perfectly what occurred. This poem is quite effective in describing both, the devastating picture as well as the devastating moments lived that day in Argentina, which is clearly portrayed

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FIRST LANGUAGE ENGLISH Coursework portfolio Hermida Adrogué, María Milagros AR512 0067 in the explanation written by this candidate. I allot this 28 points.

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Assignment 3 – Reading and writing Refugee mother and child by Chinua Achebe

No Madonna and Child could touch That picture of a mother's tenderness For a son she soon would have to forget. The air was heavy with odours Of diarrhoea of unwashed children With washed-out ribs and dried-up Bottoms struggling in laboured Steps behind blown empty bellies. Most Mothers there had long ceased To care but not this one; she held A ghost smile between her teeth And in her eyes the ghost of a mother's Pride as she combed the rust-coloured Hair left on his skull and then Singing in her eyes - began carefully To part it...In another life this Must have been a little daily Act of no consequence before his Breakfast and school; now she Did it like putting flowers On a tiny grave. A discussion over the poem There has always been poverty in the world. Maybe, a wealthy person does not value what he has, while a poor person is grateful when he has a little money to feed his family. Just by reading the title “Refugee mother and Child” we have an idea of what this poem will deal with: refugees. The poet conveys the way of life of refugee children, their mothers, and their emotions. How they deal daily with death, and they have to simply accept it. The tone is pessimistic, hopeless and gloomy, since it makes us realize what is happening in the poor countries in the world. The sad truth is presented harshly, though we may not want to accept it and we try to act indifferently to it many times. Achebe portrays how an African mother suffers because she knows her son is dying and she can do nothing to stop it, ” […] a mother's tenderness for a son she soon would have to forget.” It compares the situation of Africa, where there is too much poverty, and people die of hunger, with a common life in any common country, where children have an education, and can have a meal everyday, ” […] In another life this must have been a little daily

act of no consequence before his breakfast and school; now she did it like putting flowers on a tiny grave.” This is a very shocking stanza because we get to know that this occurs everyday, lots of children die daily, and apparently, there isn’t much we can do about it.. The author was born in Ogidi, Nigeria, so he perfectly understands the whole situation, and from my point of view, in this poem he wants to make everybody aware of his people’s suffering in his country, and make us value and thank every little belonging that we have. The mother in the composition knows that she can not do anything, but she still keeps taking care of his son until his last minute. Achebe relates perfectly this image with the idea of Mary and her child, Jesus. The ideal image of motherhood, ”No Madonna and Child could touch that picture […] “ I agree with the author, because many times we forget to thank everything we have, everything our parents do for us, but when I read this poem, and I see pictures of kids who don’t even have something to eat, it makes me thank every little part of my life. I also think that what the poet intends to do by writing this poem was to help his country. All around the world, people know about the poverty that Africa suffers, and as this poem is so shocking, it makes us want to help. Nowadays, there are many organisations that help, and take food for children and their mothers, so Chinua Achebe may have completed his desire. To conclude, I believe this is a very impressive and shocking poem, since it is very realistic, and tells the bare truth. Also the fact that, as the author is African, he perfectly understands his people’s situation, and can describe it better than anyone else. This candidate has analysed and evaluated the ideas expressed in the poem quite at length. She has also included her own, relating them to the text. So, I allot this reading 9 points out of 10.

Draft

I'm lost I don't know what to do Too lazy to think Wish I could sleep I'm full of ideas somehow I'm lost, somehow I’m bored, my mind is just blank... no ideas coming back This was my first piece. I wrote this because I didn’t know what to write, so I just started writing how I felt, and that is what now, with some modifications, turned to be Assignment 2.