Task & Activities

Native Americans :)

1.       About 50% of the Native Indian population lives on federal reservations. The majority of the reservations are situated west of the Mississippi River, and the Indians continue to live there to maintain their traditions.

2.       Some of the social challenges the Native Americans face are unemployment, poverty, alcoholism and drug abuse. High rates of diabetes and heart disease are also a concern. Some of the possible causes of this is that since they live in reservations they are “cut off” from the rest of the world, one of the reasons for their high alcohol problem is that many of them have had a rough childhood, neither does it help that Native Americans have a very low tolerance for alcohol.

3.       Limitations on tribal powers of self-government include the same limitations applicable to states; for example, neither tribes nor states have the power to make war, engage in foreign relations, or coin money (this includes paper currency).

4.       Native Americans rights point out that the US Federal Government's claim to recognize the "sovereignty" of Native American peoples falls short.

5.       The BIA states that its responsibility when it comes to Indian lands, is for the “administration and management of 55,700,000 acres (225,000  km2) of land held in trust by the United States for American Indians, Indian tribes , and Alaskan Natives.”

Checkpoints p. 317

1. The Aborigines came from the Asian mainland and the island north of the Australian continent.

2.  Unknown diseases, like smallpox were the reason that the aboriginal population was halved soon after the European arrival.

3.   It is believed that more than 100 000 aboriginal children were taken away from their family.

Research and discover p.317

1. The Maoris are the indigenous people of New Zealand. The Maoris originated with settlers from eastern Polynesia, who arrived in New Zealand in several waves of canoe voyages at some time between 1250 and 1300 CE. Today, the Maoris makes up 10% of the New Zealand´s population, a number that is slowly growing.

2. The Australian aborigines arrived in Australia many years before the Maoris arrived in New Zealand. Both of the peoples were the first to inhabit their receptive lands, and were later pushed away from their territories.

3. Because of the huge difference between the arrivals of the two peoples, there must surely been different lifestyles and experiences. Also the Maoris were not treated as bad as the Aboriginals.

Task 1

30 minutes.

Words that are easily confused;

Some words are more difficult to spell than others, as their pronunciation is similar to the pronunciation of another word.

then, than

which, witch

through, threw

there, their, and they`re

to, too, two

lose, loose

MEMORIZE, SEARCH THE WEB AND WRITEJ

Learn these words.  Make a visual device/ dictionary – perhaps using a picture, to remember the definition.

Example;

Which (way)?

Witch

When you`ve finished this, use 5 minutes working with these tasks;

http://stunt.samlaget.no/en/chapters/chapter-5/textras/spelling%20rules/spelling%20tips.aspx

Task 2

 20 minutes

Capital letters

Capital letters are more frequently used in English than in Norwegian. Here is a list of English words which start with capital letters:

1.      In titles of books, poems, films and short stories all the important words start with capital letters; “ The Road Not Taken” , “The Mayor of Casterbridge”, “ A Day`s Wait”.

2.      Languages and nationalities are spelt with capital letters:  He is Norwegian and he speaks Spanish.

3.      Names of weekdays, months and holidays need a capital letter: Thursday, January, Thanksgiving, Boxing Day.

4.      Historic periods or historic events: the Renaissance, the Great War.

5.      Buildings; the White House, Buckingham Palace

6.      Political parties; the Conservatives, the Democrats

7.      The names of religions: Protestantism, Buddhism

8.      Titles: Mr. Anderson, Queen Elisabeth II

WRITE

Write a text about an imaginary person where you make use of as many capitalized words as possible. You can for example talk about where he or she comes from, day and month of birth, language, religion and political sympathies. Be creative and try to include all eight categories.

Hey, I am Roger Mini. You probably know me from the famous Tetris Movie. You can also read the book if you haven’t already. It’s translated into 56 different languages such as Spanish, English and much more. Last Saturday it was released in Swedish as well. The book is a comparison of the Great Game Tetris and The Great War. Even Barack Obama enjoy this great book. “This book looks great in my bookshelf here in the White House” he said. This book fits everyone even though you don’t know what Tetris is. Catholic, Democrat, Buddhist, Protestant or Hindu, we can all read this book. So, if you want to know more about me and less about my awesome book come meet me at my place. Don’t forget to buy the Great Tetris book, available in stores now.

Viewpoints p. 265

1.      Rural - Away from city, non-metropolitan areas where people live. Typically, agricultural, woodland, mountainous and natural settings.

Urban - City-like. From the Latin word "urbs", which means "city".

2.      The differences between rural and urban areas in Norway are not so large. We can settle in a rural area without being a farmer and we can visit the larger cities easily. The differences are not that huge, because we are rich and the cities are not that large.  In India, it is different; there the difference between poor and rich is huge. Therefore, they got huge cities with the newest high modern technology, but large parts of India is living in poverty. Which means the difference between rural and urban in India is great.

3.      The people living in industrialized countries consume enormous amounts to fulfill their demands. In addition, we would need eight planets if every single person were going to consume that much.  We who are living in the industrialized countries does not really think and understand how much poverty it is in this world when we are going on a shopping tour buying whatever we want. We just think of ourselves as lucky who are living in a rich country.

4.      The people who choose to almost go back in time and live as we did before; a simple lifestyle without modern technology, cars, machines and so forth. Why do they choose to live like this? The answer is probably that they are tired of the normal life nowadays. In addition, they probably liked it better the way it was before. They think it has gone too far and want to live simple and without all the mechanism.

5.      Rules for “Simple living”:

You don’t need belongings, just a few.

Food and water is necessary, but don’t be greedy.

A house could be good, but as long as you have somewhere to sleep, it’s ok.

Money is trash.

6.      Top 3 priorities of life:

·         Live a long life

·         Food

·         Do a lot of cool stuff, live the life to it’s fullest. 

1.       Give a description of Alan Turing. What were his weaknesses and what was his strength.

Alan Turing was an intelligent and smart person, but he worked best on his own. He did not get along with other people, because he was so rude and arrogant. His weakness was probably that he didn’t get so many friends at first, because he tried to avoid people. Later he found out that he needed some friends. His strength could be his great mind. Alan used this to create a machine, which was going to help them end the war. He did everything to make the machine work and spent a lot of time working on it. It seemed like hopeless and meaningless waste of time, but he never gave up, even though he was met with some trouble along the way. Great success!

Technology – blessing or burden?

Our modern digital technology is definitely necessary, but is it a blessing? “Yes, of course!”  many of us would probably say. Others hate the technology, and some even mean it is dangerous to stay in the same room as a mobile phone, because of the radiation. When we think about moving forward creating new stuff, do research and discovering new things, we often think of developing the technology or using the technology to discover new useful devices, which can help us in our daily lives.

“Modern digital technology is a blessing and the only way forward”, some of us would agree to this. As they are thinking, the technology helps us to discover, we can explore the many opportunities, which technology brings us. We can make our lives easier and more comfortable. Machines take over our jobs, we just program them to do whatever we need. We are able to do this, because of the technology. Technology is included in our daily lives, “who does not carry a mobile phone?”,for instance. Everyone uses the technology. The car, the bus, the washing machine, the mobile phone, the computer and so forth. It is so many devices, boxes, machines, or whatever you want to call them, in our houses and everywhere around us. We live in a world full of technology, but we can still discover more.

If we think about technology, is it a blessing or a burden? Technology has developed whole countries, saved thousands of lives and made our daily lives much easier. For instance if I am going to visit my friend or ask him something, I can just send a text right away, with my phone or computer. We are talking seconds here; I can send the text to all over the globe with just a few keystrokes. If we go a little back in time, only a hundred years back they had to write letters, walk or ride a horse if they were going to contact someone else. This could take weeks. Moreover, if we compare that with today, it is ridiculous how simple it is today. Today we are able to send a sms, which takes approximately 2 seconds, and if we are going on a visit, we got vehicles such as: cars, boats, trains, busses, airplanes and a few even got their own helicopter.

On the other side, technology can also be a burden. People invest so much time in their many digital devices. Many of us almost addicted to our mobile phones, computers or other devices. We keep checking our phones for updates or news and create a bad habit out of it. When we are staring down on our mobile phone, we tend to become asocial. It is less talking face to face, because it is much easier to send a message. When a group of people is sitting down and talking to each other for instance, if some of them get bored, they just pick up their phones. Another burden might be that the internet and the technology brings many security issues. The great amount of hackers and scammers online take advantage of these issues. In addition, cyberbullying is a huge problem, because it is much easier to drop negative comments online instead of face-to-face.

To sum it all up, our modern digital technology is greatly in use all over the world and we totally need it. We find the technology in the computers, mobiles, vehicles and a lot more. We can’t imagine a world without the technology we have today, at least almost can’t. We have developed so much and discovered incredible opportunities over the last hundred years. Just some decades back in time, they didn’t even think of the possibility to send a message so fast and so simple, it was impossible. Even though we have improved so much and developed such great tools, it brings some cons as well. Hackers, scammers, time-consuming devices and cyberbullies are just a few of many. So the modern digital technology might be both a blessing and a burden.

A review of the movie «Disconnect»

a)      A brief introduction of the film:

I just watched the film called “Disconnect”. It shows us different negative ways people use technology in this modern wired world. How we addicted to the internet, how everyone can get access to personal information and everything that we can say in chat over the internet.

b)      Your opinion about the issues presented in the film - are there any familiar elements?

There was three different stories in this movie, but they was all about negative use of our modern technology.

The first one was that some people at school made up a virtual girl called Jessica. Two boys made up this girl just as a joke, to have some fun messing with a lonely boy called Ben Boyd. It all went wrong and ended up with Ben Boyd committing suicide.

The second one was a couple, which had lost their kid, and they had some problems in their relationship. The man was working and had trouble talking to his beloved. She struggled as well, and needed someone to talk to. That’s why she chatted over the internet and gave away all the information about herself and her man. They ended up being robbed, because of the chatting. They was hacked and lost all their money.

The third story was about a 17 years old boy, which was doing “private shows” over the webcam on internet. This show was an illegal business, which included underage pornography. The boy recruited more under aged people to join the business.

c)      Did you like the film? Why/why not?

I think this was a good movie. It was sad and probably a bit depressing too, but the movie gives us an important message and shows it in a really good way. This movie can show us what the dangers of the internet community we are living in today can be.

d)      Which part of the film made an impression on you?

The part about Ben Boyd and the guys at school made the biggest impression on me. The reason for this is, because this is seems closest to the community I know and live in. It could really happen at school for instance, I don’t think it does or will, but as the movie shows it could happen without noticing. That is dangerous. The other stories seems a bit more far away, and therefore don’t affect me as much. 

Technology – better or worse?

I just read some texts about technology from different perspectives. They said that technology could be both a good thing and a bad thing. Technology is a particularly new thing, but we discover new ways to improve our devices and make our lives easier. I am not talking about the technology which have been here on our planet since the first humans discovered different tools to hunt and gather food, I am talking about the electronically technology that has shaped the humans living today. The technology that has improved greatly over the last hundred year and how they have affected the living of our generation. The different devices has taken a huge part in our daily lives.

The message in this text is that the technology we have today could be used to improve and make our lives easier, but on the other side, it could also take a lot of time and make us a bit boring. The article said, “We can be on multiple places at the same time” which means that with the technology we got today your location doesn’t matter, for instance can you order a pizza to your home when you are thousands miles away. In our daily lives, many people stressing a lot probably because of our many devices, which requires a lot of attention.

For me technology is a great part of my life. I wake up in the morning by my mobile phone ringing. When I get to school, I use a personal computer instead of notebooks. Nonetheless, I always carry my mobile with me wherever I go. When I get home I might do some homework at my computer. After that, I usually watch some TV-series on my own television or play some games with friends over the internet on my other computer.

To sum it all up, the technology could be both used for a good sake and a bad. Our generation is almost addicted to our many devices like our mobile phones or computers. We do researches to make new and better devices, and the technology is taking a larger and larger part of our daily lives.

Events in American History

After having read p. 166 - 171 in Stunt, answer these questions:

1. Do you think the colonies had good reason to declare Independence? Why?

2. Should one country be able to colonize another? When should a colony be granted Independence?

3. The Bill of Rights guarantees Americans "the right to bear arms". Many Americans still feel this is important for personal safety and in case they need to revolt  against their own government, They argue that the Minutemen and the local militias only won the fight for Independence beacause they had firearms.

What do you think?

Should everyone have the right to bear arms? All kinds of arms?

4. If you were to present your nation's history in the same way as above, which events would you choose? Why?

- List the events and write a couple of sentences about them.

1.      I think the colonies had good reason to declare Independence, because as they said themselves: “All men are created equal with equal rights: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The people in the colonies should be treated the same way as any other human being so they can rule for themselves and therefore declare Independence.

2.      I think that today one country should not be able to colonize another, instead be able to declare independence if another country got the power. If we go back in time in American history and history in general, the people had to explore the world, settle down and make communities, so then they should be able to colonize. A colony should be granted Independence when the colony can rule for themselves and keep the colony going.

3.      I don’t think that it is a good thing that everyone can get their hands on weapons. It brings so much bad use of the weapons, like for instance school massacres and murders. Some people use the weapons as self-defence and mistakes will occur. People will be harmed. Nonetheless, you can get access to huge guns and different weapons, not only handguns, which makes it a lot more dangerous.

4.      List of historical events: The Viking Period: was from between 800-1100 AD, At the start of the Viking Period, Norway was not one united country, but many small kingdoms. Harald Fairhair (Harald Hårfagre) became king of a large portion of Norway in 872. The union between Denmark and Norway: During the 1300s Denmark gained more and more influence over Norway and, in 1397, Norway was absorbed into a formal union with Denmark and Sweden. The union was ruled by a common king. Sweden gradually seceded from the union, but Denmark and Norway remained united until 1814. The union was governed from Denmark. Copenhagen was the cultural centre of the union and Norwegians read and wrote in Danish. The plague: The black death came to Norway in 1349, in short time it had killed a third of the norwegian population. The Norweigan constitution: The Norwegian constitution was formed in 1814, and thus we broke free of the danish grasp. WW2: The natzi's invaded us in 9th of April 1940, and by that, Norway was drawn into the war.