Assignment 14

Hello,

I'm contacting you to request a refund over the product I purchased from your website. I ordered a blue floral dress but receiving and trying it on I immediately noticed you had sent me a wrong size and it wasn't equivalent to the picture. I would like to return it and have a compensation. I do not want to replace it with another dress as I wasn't pleased with the quality. 

I also would like to criticize the speed of the delivery. I'm aware of that once the shipment leaves the warehouse, it is not in your power to deliver it any faster. However, in the website it says it takes 5-10 working days to arrive but mine arrived a month later, when it was already too late to wear it to a occasion like I had planned to. I think it would be more than suitable to update the information on your website as I've read there has been multiple incidents similar to mine. 

Thank you for your time and I look forward to hearing from you soon concerning my feedback and request for a refund. 

Sincerely,
Sani Parviainen

Assignment 12

The life of Dwarf

He is a troll and has shaggy brown hair. He is short and his name is Dwarf. Dwarf is young and kind but likes to do tricks on people or on other creatures he meets. He wears worn out clothes.
   Dwarf's personality may be mischievous, but his heart has kindness more than malicious intent. He doesn't mean harm with the pranks he pulls off, but instead seeks enjoyment to his life. In fact he couldn't hurt no one, not even if they were to threaten his life as his overflowing kindness was strong. This often left him feeling bad for some of the victims of the more hardcore pranks, but as pranks were sort of moral gray area, he got over them quickly. A gentle troll with a mischievous mind and a heart of gold and brass that make him humble and kind... well, there is always a hint of pride in the humbleness.
Dwarf lives in a magical world called Scotland where there are 5.4 million other residents living alongside him. The outside is full of buildings, museums and all sorts of stuff. The inside is...well he lives under a rock so I guess darkness? He has been living there for most of his live, 2 months.
Dwarf is member of a cult and he got many friends there. He met Olaf there who is one of his best friends. Olaf is in the same cult with Dwarf.
The dwarf decides that today he could do something else rather than just living under a rock all day. So he decides that today he is going to go out and spend his day downtown and maybe even pull a few light hearted pranks during the day. While doing the pranks accidentally broke his arm while he tried to run from the guy who he did pranks on. The other guy got pissed and tried to beat Dwarf up and while Dwarf running away he stumped on rock and fell by his right hand and broke it. He got to the hospital and his friend Olaf came by to say hello. Dwarf got many surgeries for his arms but Olaf was by his side all the time. Olaf slept by Dwarft's bed and gave him good food. Olaf an Dwarf kept doing their cult things in the hospital so that they didn't miss anything. Eventually they realized that Dwarf needs to get out of the hospital. They run out from the hospital without having a permission to go. Because of the surgeries the arm had an infection. Troll run away to his home and lived a normal life for couple weeks until one morning the infection got him dead..

Assignment 9

The 10th picture had a strong impact on me. This picture of Christians protecting Muslims during their prayer was taken in Cairo, Egypt, in 2011. There had been uprisings during that time and Alexandria bombing a month before this picture was taken.  

The picture in itself is quite blurry. First thing to notice are the streetlights. Because of them it can be concluded that it was a early evening at the moment. Secondly my attention concentrates on the man in front of the picture. He looks a little worried but aware of his surroundings. It makes me think that he wants to take the burden of concern so that the Muslims feel safe during their prayer. 

The situation during uprisings are not calm but in this picture Christians make it possible for Muslims to concentrate on prayer. Respect towards each other is showing well in this picture. Uprisings can be seen in this picture due to placards and protestors in the background. 

It's not always obvious that people representing different religions would protect each other and respect each others beliefs. This picture sends an important message to everyone who looks at it. Returning the favor, protecting Muslims' prayer and Muslims protecting Christians' Coptic churches, proves that people around the world can get along, regardless of the dissenting opinions. I think that's what makes the picture impacting. 

Assignment 3

Street rats

A splendid sun burns my back. I'm passing high buildings while running away from the bazaar of my city. My vest is already sweaty but I keep running and parkouring my way out. I try to zigzag through the people gathered around the plaza but I end up bumping into a girl. She seems to be in some kind of a trouble. I ask her what's going on and before even hearing a respond, an angry shop owner is coming at me. He is raging and accusing the girl of stealing something, and in that moment he recognizes my face. Not the first batch of cat and mouse with this guy. I take her hand and pull her away from the man. People are curiously looking but not willing to help. It's for sure that the owner will not leave this here if he ever sees us again. We run away from the situation, hand in hand.

We stop in the corner of a street, exhausted from half walking and half running. Not until now has she a chance to explain what had happened earlier. I ask for her name and she responds under her breath: "I'm Leyla." She takes a few seconds before continuing. "Thank you for helping me. I really wasn't stealing anything! He made me look guilty in front of everyone when I actually was ashamed. I was not given any chance to defend myself." That had happened to me, too. A lot of times. I could tell she wasn't a shy person who couldn't stand up for herself. "Sometimes it's better to fade from a situation. I get it. Would you want a cup of coffee or tea? At my place?" I ask her. She agrees to my suggestion.

I open the front door for her and let her step in first. I observe the expressions on her face and she seems not convinced. "Do you really live here?," she wonders. "Yeah, I do. Let me show you something. The views from up here are breathtaking." I take a few steps forward and open the dark curtains in front of my big window. The sunlight brightens the room and Leyla is curiously waiting to see what I'm talking about. We sit down by the window and look down on the city. Everything could be seen from up here. She admits to having been wrong and praises my place, wishing to be able to see the city like this forever. In a little while I hear loud music and people. "There's a parade but I have no clue what it is for..," I point out unable to finish my sentence when Leyla stands up and rushes to the door, "Thank you for the tea, it's time for me to leave. Hope to see you again." She opens the door and leaves me agaped. I wonder what had I done wrong or what did she see to leave like that. Will I ever know?

Assignment 10

Super powers

When you found me over there

I was a mess, there was a great aflutter

We agreed to meet when sober

I guess you're a soothsayer

You saw something in me that I couldn't

How we could complete each other

I had no slightest idea how to do this

thought this couldn't happen anymore

I had given up

Inscrutable were the ways of the simple minded

It wore out the shoes

Simple, intricate man 

You accepted the challenge

Perhaps you saw how to fix it

How can I deserve you?

I don't get how you make this work

You must have super powers

You're a superwoman, you keep it together when I fall apart

You lift me up when I start to sink

I'm not the easiest one

Can't even apologize for the flaws

Others won't see the dark side of me

But you get more than enough of it

And it's hard for both of us

But somehow you always shape up

And when I shatter into hundred pieces

You have the power to combine them into a mosaic 

You're not giving up,

and I won't rest until I've fixed it all

You keep up with me, even though I am a simple, intricate man

Not always a bed of roses

I know I'm lacking balance

But I want to change with you, yeah..

I don't get how you make this work

You must have super powers

You're a superwoman, you keep it together when I fall apart

You lift me up when I start to sink

Against all odds, you anyways think about me

You look out for me, there's no doubting

Against all odds, I'll never be alone again

I'll never be alone again!

I don't get how you make this work

You must have super powers

You're a superwoman, you keep it together when I fall apart

You lift me up when I start to sink (x2)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ngv94AqdPew 

Assignment 8

ROAD TRIP TO ANCHORAGE 

I'm so excited to get to tell my readers about this road trip I did with my friends to Anchorage, Alaska. We started our trip from Fairbanks, so it was a six-hour car ride. From the beginning we planned to visit Chena River State Recreation Area to go hiking and eat lunch. We had rented a minibus to be able to rest on the way. It was spacious for five people. The purpose of our trip was to enjoy each other and to get to know some new places. The views were amazing at the Recreation Area, there was a subsided lake and a large forest. While eating our lunch, sandwiches and crisps, we noticed a kayak shop where it was possible to rent them. It was an exciting experience and I could recommend for everyone to try it. 

After kayaking, the sun shined brightly behind grey-ish clouds. It wasn't a rainy day though. Returning the kayaks, we kept on going. We turned on the music and sang along the songs from my playlist. At first, I was suspicious of this road trip as it wasn't a route I would have chosen. There wasn't anything super special to see but with the right company you could make fun of everything. 

The next and the last stop was in Anchorage's Alaska Zoo, which I was really curious to visit. Especially seeing a polar bear intrigued me. We chatted a lot about the animals' conditions in zoos in general and decided to revise Alaska Zoo's feedback. I found out the zoo was nonprofit and their mission was to promote conservation of Arctic species. It warmed my heart and knew I could visit the zoo with a good conscience. Arriving to the zoo it was already dusk. We had arrived to our destination and were all tired from a long day. Despite my doubts, it was a great trip and would definitely do it again!

Assignment 7

Assignment 6

3 HAIKUS

Autumn

It's already fall,

the wind's blowing leaves again,

it's magnificent

Music

Nights full of music,

sparkle and happiness are 

nights full of magic

New Year's Eve

New Year beginning,

time for fireworks, laughter,

and midnight kisses 

Assignment 5

A chimpanzee recognizes the face as well as a human does

The skill may be inherited from mutual ancestors.

A human recognizes the face sooner and in a different way from other shapes. This has earlier been thought to only be a quality of ours but it has now turned out that also chimpanzees observe faces humanlikely efficient. 

The matter became clear when the Japanese Masaki Tomonaga ja Tomoko Imura taught 3 female chimps to look for example cars, bananas and faces among other pictures. 

Upside down the face does not show up

For human the face recognition is based on perceiving the big picture quickly and that seems to apply for chimps as well. 

Just like humans, chimpanzees did perceive faces considerably worse when turning the picture upside down. Also covering eyes, nose and mouth slowed down performance. Instead changing the picture into black and white didn't disrupt recognizing a face. 

The chimpanzees found faces as quickly as bananas from a bunch of pictures, which gave the researchers a headache. However, the quick noticing of a fruit wasn't about the same kind of perceiving the big picture as in face recognition. 

When the pictures were replaced into black and white, the bananas became invisible as if they disappeared. Easy recognition of the fruit was due to the yellow color.  

Human beats makaki 

Surprisingly chimps spotted human faces as sensitively as their own species' face. The phenomenon could hardly be explained only by that test animals have been socializing a lot with their caretakers. They recognized the Japanese macaque's faces poorly even though this spieces of monkeys live right next to their cages. The chimpanzees reacted more quickly to human babies' faces than to the macaques's faces even without meeting the babies before.
Was it either about the human or the members of the same species, the chimps spotted faces better from pictures taken in front of the faces than the faces which were pictured from the side. This refers to that eye contact is one thing of which brings the face into chimps' consciousness. Similar to this has been observed on human.
"These results are worth taking into consideration while thinking about the improvement of social intelligence. Both of the species might utilize the information passed by faces in their social lives in a similar way," Tomonag, who works in Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, estimates in his research bulletin.
The research was published by Scientific Reports.

Assignment 4

1 - h)
2 - j)
3 - i)
4 - a)
5 - c)
6 - e)
7 - g)
8 - d)
9 - b)
10 - f)

Collocations
1. Guess
2. Scenario
3. Treat
4. Glance
5. Detailed
6. Behavior
7. Boundaries
8. False

Exploring a dictionary page
1. The stressed syllable in these words is -ro
2. Coronet
3. singular: /ko:/   plural: /ko:z/
4. Coronation
5. Culture, identity, image, planning, strategy, structure
6. No
7. Cornflakes are made of small flat dried pieces of maize
8. Cornish 'pasty
9. Cornrow
10. Coronary, corral

Assignment 2

A blessing in disguise

It was a day I will never forget. My friend urged me to go see a fortuneteller. I never believed someone could really foretell someone's future by rolling the dice or palm reading. It was hard and challenging for me to trust a stranger but I wanted to give it a go. Before booking an appointment I started to get curious, so I wanted to dig in and learn more about fortune-telling. After finding a lot of information and tips on what to ask the fortuneteller, I headed right away to make an appointment. 

At the fortuneteller I wanted to know if something would change my life somehow. I wanted to find happiness and believed being filthy rich would fill that hole of unhappiness in me.  I was told I would get my chance of becoming wealthy soon. A few days later I realized that nothing out of normal hadn't happened. I stormed my way back to demand my money back and to accuse the fortuneteller of tricking me. I slammed the door open and rushed in. The fortuneteller was acting infuriatingly calm but I wasn't there to listen to her excuses. She anyway got my attention by pointing out that her forecast had penciled as she had predicted. I regretted the way I had made my entrance so I asked the fortuneteller if we could wipe the slate clean. I went outside and this time rang the doorbell. Just a few seconds later the door opened and after apologizing to her I left for a walk back home. 

Arriving to a park I saw something shiny on the corner. I reached to it and figured out it was a thick, leathery wallet full of cash. Why could I not keep it, finders keepers, I thought. Then a thought came into my mind. She was right, I did get my chance to be rich after all. Thinking of what had happened with the fortuneteller I decided to return the property to its owner. He was so grateful and generous to give me 20 euros.

I felt great for making someone else's day better. It was a feeling I hadn't experienced before, I was on cloud nine. Jumping for joy I accidentally kicked off my shoe and sighed, what a day. I would never question fortunetellers ever again and learned that happiness is what I have to find in me, not in fortunes. 

Assignment 1

My recipe for a great text

1 big bowl

2 teaspoons courage

1 cup opinions
1 1/2 cups interest

3/4 cup interesting topics 

1 tablespoon perspective

a pinch of orderliness

Make sure you have most of the ingredients before starting but if you happen to forget some of them, you could always add them along later. Start by pouring a cup of your own opinions and 2 teaspoons courage into the bowl to make the text describe you and your line of thought. It's very important to mix 1 1/2 cups of interest to make this taste great. Add interesting topics and perspective, then let the mixture chill in the fridge at least for a day. The longer the better as it will absorb all the ingredients in itself with time. The next day, pour in a pinch of orderliness and taste it to know if there is something missing. If it needs more boost, try adding more of the ingredients listed above or spices of your own!