lunes, 1 de noviembre de 2010

Famous monuments in the world

1- The Bridge of Sighs (Italian: Ponte dei Sospiri) is a bridge in Venice, northern Italy . The enclosed bridge is made of white limestone and has windows with stone bars. It passes over the Rio di Palazzo and connects the old prisons to the interrogation rooms in the Doge's Palace. It was designed by Antoni Contino (whose uncle Antonio da Ponte had designed the Rialto Bridge), and built in 1602.

The view from the Bridge of Sighs was the last view of Venice that convicts saw before their imprisonment. The bridge name, given by Lord Byron in the 19th century, comes from the suggestion that prisoners would sigh at their final view of beautiful Venice out the window before being taken down to their cells. In reality, the days of inquisitions and summary executions were over by the time the bridge was built and the cells under the palace roof were occupied mostly by small-time criminals. In addition, little could be seen from inside the Bridge due to the stone grills covering the windows.
A local legend says that lovers will be granted everlasting love and bliss if they kiss on a gondola at sunset under the bridge and be in love and happily married to a blissful husband or wife for the rest of your life.
The bridge and the walls of the palazzo facing towards the bridge are under construction and currently the view does not live up to the expectations.









2- The Statue of Liberty (Liberty Enlightening the World [French: La Liberté éclairant le monde]) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, designed by Frédéric Bartholdi and dedicated on October 28, 1886. The statue, a gift to the United States from the people of France, is of a robed female figure representing Libertas, the Roman goddess of freedom, who bears a torch and a tabula ansata (a tablet evoking the law) upon which is inscribed the date of the American Declaration of Independence. A broken chain lies at her feet. The statue has become an iconic symbol of freedom and of the United States.







3- He Arc de Triomphe, (Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile), is a monument in Paris that stands in the centre of the Place Charles de Gaulle, (originally named Place de l'Étoile), at the western end of the Champs-Élysées.[1] There is a smaller arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, which stands west of the Louvre. The Arc de Triomphe, (in English: Triumphal Arch)[2], honors those who fought and died for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces. Underneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.






4- La Portada (Spanish: "The Gateway") is a natural arch on the coast of Chile, 18 km (11 miles) north of Antofagasta. It is one of fifteen natural monuments included among the protected areas of Chile.
There is another similar but smaller structure in the spa town of Pucatrihue, Osorno Province.








5- The Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco, California, is a popular feature of Golden Gate Park, originally built as part of a sprawling World's Fair, the California Midwinter International Exposition of 1894. For more than 20 years San Francisco Parks Trusts' Park Guides have given free tours to San Francisco Parks trust members,[1] providing context and history for this historic Japanese-style garden.

The oldest public Japanese garden in the United States, this complex of many paths, ponds and a teahouse features native Japanese and Chinese plants. Also hidden throughout its five acres (20,000 m²) are sculptures and bridges.






6- Moai are monolithic human figures carved from rock on the Polynesian island of Easter Island, Chile between the years 1250 and 1500. Nearly half are still at Rano Raraku, the main moai quarry, but hundreds were transported from there and set on stone platforms called ahu around the island's perimeter. Almost all moai have overly large heads three-fifths the size of their bodies. The moai are chiefly the living faces (aringa ora) of deified ancestors (aringa ora ata tepuna). The statues still gazed inland across their clan lands when Europeans first visited the island, but most would be cast down during later conflicts between clans.
The 887 statues production and transportation is considered a remarkable creative and physical feat. The tallest moai erected, called Paro, was almost 10 metres (33 ft) high and weighed 75 tonnes; the heaviest erected was a shorter but squatter moai at Ahu Tongariki, weighing 86 tons; and one unfinished sculpture, if completed, would have been approximately 21 metres (69 ft) tall with a weight of about 270 tons.





7 -The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening of the San Francisco Bay into the Pacific Ocean. As part of both U.S. Route 101 and California State Route 1, it connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula to Marin County. The Golden Gate Bridge was the longest suspension bridge span in the world when it was completed during the year 1937, and has become one of the most internationally recognized symbols of San Francisco, California, and of the United States. Despite its span length being surpassed by eight other bridges since its completion, it still has the second longest suspension bridge main span in the United States, after the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in New York City. It has been declared one of the modern Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers. The Frommers travel guide considers the Golden Gate Bridge the "possibly the most beautiful, certainly the most photographed, bridge in the world" (although Frommers also bestows the most photographed honor on Tower Bridge in London, England).





8- The Faro Monumental de La Serena, Chile is a beacon located in the town of La Serena, was built between 1950 and 1951 at the request of President Gabriel Gonzalez Videla in the Plan called Serena. The work was led by civil engineer Cisternas Larenas The October 24, 1953 this structure was delivered to Mr. Mayor Juan Cortez spikes of the Municipality of La Serena, later dropped its lighting system, being in charts and publications as a used to make significant reference. On November 7, 1985 the then Commander in Chief of the Navy Admiral Jose Toribio Merino Castro handed over the lighthouse as a tourist resort for the city to the then Mayor Eugenio Rodríguez Munizaga. On May 12, 1986, the Governor delivered Coquimbo Marine officer Faro Monumental La Serena to the Municipality of La Serena, in order to offer her a tourist attraction, taking over its maintenance.








9- The Eiffel Tower (French: La Tour Eiffel, nickname La dame de fer, the iron lady) is an 1889 iron lattice tower located on the Champ de Mars in Paris that has become both a global icon of France and one of the most recognizable structures in the world. The tallest building in Paris, it is the most-visited paid monument in the world; millions of people ascend it every year. Named for its designer, engineer Gustave Eiffel, the tower was built as the entrance arch to the 1889 World's Fair.
The tower stands 324 metres (1,063 ft) tall, about the same height as an 81-storey building. Upon its completion, it usurped the Washington Monument to assume the title of tallest man-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years, until the Chrysler Building in New York City was built in 1930. Not including broadcast antennas, it is the second-tallest structure in France after the 2004 Millau Viaduct.
The tower has three levels for visitors. Tickets can be purchased to ascend, by stairs or lift, to the first and second levels. The walk to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the walk from the first to the second level. The third and highest level is accessible only by elevator. Both the first and second levels feature restaurants.
The tower has become the most prominent symbol of both Paris and France, often in the establishing shot of films set in the city.







10- The Leaning Tower of Pisa or simply the Tower of Pisa (La Torre di Pisa) is the campanile, or freestanding bell tower, of the cathedral of the Italian city of Pisa. It is situated behind the Cathedral and is the third oldest structure in Pisa's Cathedral Square after the Cathedral and the Baptistry.

The height of the tower is 55.86 m (183.27 ft) from the ground on the low side and 56.70 m (186.02 ft) on the high side. The width of the walls at the base is 4.09 m (13.42 ft) and at the top 2.48 m (8.14 ft). Its weight is estimated at 14,500 metric tons (16,000 short tons). The tower has 296 or 294 steps; the seventh floor has two fewer steps on the north-facing staircase. Prior to restoration work performed between 1990 and 2001, the tower leaned at an angle of 5.5 degrees, but the tower now leans at about 3.99 degrees. This means that the top of the tower stands 3.9 metres (12 ft 10 in) lower from where it would stand if the structure were perfectly vertical.






Job dialogue:

A: so, what’s your name?
B: my name is Mauricio S.
A: And what’s your job?
B: I’m a teacher.
A: really, of what?
B: Of music
A: I love music, since when are you working in this job?
B: since 5 years ago, in this school, because I have been teacher for 8 years
A: and what’s the more difficult of your job?
B: make that the students respect me
A: jaja, seriously…
B: seriously, the students don’t have me any respect, because I’m young and nice.
A: so, are you happy with your job?
B: yes, because I don’t see it like a job, but like a hobby
A: that’s great, no many people are happy with they jobs you are lucky.
B: I know…
A: and what kind of people do you think that are good for this job?
B: anyone can do it, is not complicated to do.
A: and is the career of musician teacher difficult?
B: jaja difficult, this career is for fools
A: so thank for your time
B: you’re welcome.

Marco:

In the future I want to be: Industrial civil engineer.

Always I been good in math and science, but never liked me the idea of work with numbers locked in an office because I thought that I would lose my freedom, however one day talking with my big brother about the engineering career, he recommended a book called the engineers and the ivory tower, made by a famous civil engineer, and I read it and I realized that be an engineer is more than work with numbers and make projects , be an engineer is be an integral professional who know how fix problems, lead and innovate. Also this book gave me another conception of the engineering career, because before of read the book I thought that this career was a scientific career, then I realized that the engineer is rather an humanist because he must know how treat to the persons and help to the development of the society.
Of all the careers of the engineering, I like the Industrial civil engineering because I think that is the most comprehensive of the careers of the engineering because it has math and science, and a series of classes focused on making a integral professional, with knowledge and prepared for the changing world we live in.
In the university that I would like to study this career would be the Concepción University, because it has prestige, docent quality, good infrastructure and because it is near to my house.
For that I can study this career I need to have a good score in the PSU test, and is for that reason that I have been studying hard, because I want to be in this university and this career the next year.



Diego:

In the future I want to be: Engineer in biotechnology

In these times it has opened a new field in the biology, due the new technology and studies from Scientifics that have allowed the manipulation of animals and vegetables for improve the human life quality.

The biotechnology is an old field in the biology but in these times it has experienced a great development, changin not only the foods, but also the animals and the medicine. but still are many things to investigate about the biotechnology, is for that reason that I want to study engineering in biotechnology. I would like become a great scientific, and make impressive discoveries that help to the sciences to improve the human life quality. so I will study this career in the concepción unversity, because is a great university, is near to my house and have a lot of prestige.

For study this career I need to have a good score in the PSU and once in the career I need to be constant, because it is a difficult career and it have a lot of competence.