Saturday, December 19, 2009

In recent years people have become increasingly aware that the key to living a long, healthy life is to adopt a proactive lifestyle in which you actively work to promote and maintain your health so that you don't become ill. What to ingredients do you regard as the keys to such a lifestyle?


Nowadays are trying to determine the factors that can provide them a long, healthy life. In my opinion, there are two main ingredients for having a long, healthy life: exercising and balanced nourishment.

For me, the most important factor for a healthy future is exercising. No matter how busy we are, I believe that we can dedicate one hour of our day to exercise. And not necessarily at a gym. We can exercise at our homes or we can just go jogging. By exercising we manage to control our stress better. In addition, we avoid to put on weight, which means that we benefit our immune and respiratory system.

The secon ingredient, for a long healthy life is the balanced nourishing, which also interacts with the first ingredient. We should have a programmon what we eat and when we eat every meal. I believe that we must eat at least four times a day and we must prefer healthy products. For example, fruits, juices, milk, vegetables and fish are better than meat, sweets and junk food. If we manage to eat healthy products and have several but balanced meals, we will protect our organisms from heart attacks or cancer.

In coconclusion, I believe that exercising in combination with balanced diet protect us from many health problems and that they both are the key to living a long healthy life.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

THE TELL-TALE HEART BY EDGAR ALLAN POE

A few days earlier I read a story written by Edgar Allan Poe and I answered in some questions...I don't really like him but I am trying to improve my English.You can also find this story at http://www.literature.org/authors/poe-edgar-allan/tell-tale-heart.html.

1. What does the opening paragraph imply about the narrator's reliability?

The narrator is unreliable because he admits that he can hear everything from heaven, earth and heel...

2. For seven days the narrator plans the old man's murder. What does the narrator do every night that he believes is proof of his sanity?

Every night at midnight he turned the latch of the old man's door and opened it gently.And then he thrust in his head very slowly so that he might not disturb the old man's sleep. And then when his head was well in the room he undid the lantern so much that a single thin ray fell upon the vulture eye. However he believes he is sane because he meticoulously planned the murder.

3. The narrators account contains numerous situations of word repetition. Why does Poe use this technique?

He uses this technique in order to be more precise, to make his story more detailed, to arouse the readers' interest and to create suspense.

4. The narrator is vexed at the old man's "Evil Eye". In superstitious belief, one who possesses an "Evil Eye" has the power to harm another person with a mere look. In view of this belief, how might the reader's perspective of the narrator's insanity change, if at all?

No he can't prove that the old man can cause harm to the narrator, so I believe that he has no reason to kill him.

5. How does the narrator kill the old man?

He threw open the lantern and leaped into the room. He dragged him to the floor and pulled the havy bed over him. After a few minutes the old man went dead.(He was suffocated).

6. How does the narrator dispose of the body?

He cut the body into pieces and placed them under the floor boards.

7. Why is it ironic that the narrator feels compelled to confess his crime?

Because everything he does is irrational. He murdered the old man without reason and although he could keep his secret, he reveals it to the officers again without reason.

8. What is the meaning of the title?

The "Tell-Tale Heart" is the heart which thumps, thus making the narrator tell his story of the heinous deed.

9. Explain how the story portrays love and hate as inseparable emotions.

In this story, love and hate seem to be the two sides of the same coin, as they are both extreme emotions. Although, the narrator loved the old-man and took care of him, he feels hatred for his evil eye and eventually kills him.

Thursday, October 29, 2009

October's Calendar

1. The land inclined gently towards the shore.
2. That uniform makes the guards look absurd.
3. The food shortage can soon reach crisis proportions.
4. The police evacuated the building immediately.
5. More money has been allocated by the government in order to repair the roads.
6. The bonding of the soldiers during a war is difficult to be explained.
7. Leaders like Hitler and Kaligoulas have been characterized as insane.
8. The jury compelled the parent to pay 400euros every month for his child.
9. It is compalsory for the Greeks to join the army.
10. The greenhouse effect has been gaining credence over the last years.
11. Suddenly, in the darkness, a boat full of immigrants materialized near the cost.
12. The primary concern of the government must be the educational system.
13. During the 2nd World war, primitive types of radar were used.
14. This film is a replication of the original one. Didn't you know this is illegal?
15. Due to the greenhouse effect, the evaporation of the lakes has started to become dangerous.
16. He started studying mathematics, but dropped out after two years.
17. The current government is trying to provide for the poor.
18. Because of my duties, I have the authority on deciding whether a soldier will be on leave or not.
19. Can you be more precise on this topic please?
20. The president described with great explicitness the economical policy of the governement.
21. Although it was his swearing ceremony, he was solemn.
22. Situations get out of hand when people make unreasonable demands.
23. I imagined myself winning the lottery and leading a life of total indulgence.
24. The government is doing everything in its power to remedy increasing unemployment.
25. The army recruits new soldiers.
26. We can drive to Thessaloniki or, alternatively, go by train.
27. The two software companies formed a merger in hopes of increasing their market share.
28. They have tentative plans to vacation in Hawaii next month, but they may decide to postpone their trip for a month or so.
29. A person such as a historian is typically known as a man of letters.
30. Western convention demands that you write a thank you note to everyone who sends you a gift.
31. Company regulations prescribe that smoking is strictly forbidden throughout the building.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

My favourite holiday (Blogging challenge week 7)

I have a dream, to travel, to feel. I always had this dream. I want to visit as many places as I can, to speak with new people and to come in touch with different cultures. Unfortunatelly until now I didn't have the opportunity to go abroad, but, Greece is known for the variety of its places and the differences of its people. Taking as grantednthat Santoriny became from a Volcano's explosion, I thought that visiting that island would be a great experience for me and it was.



Two years ago I visited Santoriny. I travelled by ship From Heraklion and after four hours we arrived at Sanoriny's port, "Athinios". I rented a car and drove to my hotel in "Akrotiri". A small village placed in the South of the island, with a great view to "Caldera" and "Oia". I bought a map and I started discovering the island.



My first station was the crowded "Caldera". The capital of Santoriny which is built on a huge volcano rock. I enjoyed my walk to the thousands lanes. I was stopping in every shop, taking a look arround and I tasted the local wines the producers make. Of course my photo camera was on fire. The beauty of the sites can't easily be explained.

After "Caldera" I visited the village of "Oia". The village is placed on the northern tip of the island and it is a popular destination for the visitors because of the sunset viewing site. The theme is that there is an uninterrupted view of the sun as it finally sinks below the horizon. Altough the prices are high, I will never regret I had my afternoon coffee there.

Except of Caldera and Oia, I also visited "Kamari" and "perissa. These villages are on the eastern island. Altough there weren't great sites to see, I enjoyed the sun and I relaxed for a long time while I was drinking cocktails to the huge beaches of that places.The last place I visited was a beach named "Vlihada". Actually I stayed speechless. After a five minutes walk trough rocks I saw a wild beauty of red rocks that surround the small beach.

Altough I stayed only three days in Santoriny I enjoyed every minute of my time there and i recommend this island not only to young people like me, but also, to older people because there are a huge variety of activities for all ages there.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Academic education or general knowledge?

Communication is an indispensable part of our lives.Consequently, in order to communicate, we need to have general knowledge and experience. On the other hand, if we want to create or to discover new things, we need to have academic education. I believe that not only academic education but general experience and knowledge are also important to have.

It is a common belief that if someone wants to be a member of a group of people, he needs to have general education and knowledge, otherwise, he will feel estranged because it wiil be diggicult for this person to communicate with the other people and possibly he wiil becom isolated.

On the other hand, wiyhout academic education, the science, the arts and technology will stop developing. This means that human beings will stop developing and that is contrary to our nature and may be unhealthy.

In conclusion I believe that both types of knowledge are very important. The first completes the second, because academic education is necessary for development, while general knowledge and experience are very important for communication and friendship.

Essay on the educational system-Michigan Proficiency.

The ministry of education wants to take action and punish schools whose students perform poorly on examinations. Who do you think is to blame when students perform poorly? Use specific examples to support your opinion.


It is a common belief in the Greek society that the educational system is not one of the best in the European Union. The small amounts that spent for education by the government, results in the lack of facilities. Also the lack of interest from the students themselves has as a main result the poor performance of the students on examinations. I believe that schools shouldn't t be punished when the students perform poorly on examinations.

We must not forget that the public schools are usually housed in old buildings that have problems with central heating during winter. They lack laboratories for physics, chemistry and computers and sometimes they don’t even have enough classrooms.

In addition to this, most schools belong to the public sector, which means that when a teacher manages to acquire a position, he will have that position for the rest of his career. As a result of this, many teachers are not interested in educating, nor correcting the students nor in making them ready for the difficult examinations they will have to pass in order to continue their studies to a university.

Moreover, not a single government has tried to create a system of informing and re-educating the teachers in new methods of education and in the changes required by universities. And of course nobody has tried to create a way of controlling the teachers or of punishing the bad ones.

On the other hand, many children nowadays have outside school interests, such as learning at least two foreign languages, at the same time they have to study for the school. And taking as granted that a child needs to have sometime to relax, it is possible that the child will stop being interested in the area that is less attractive. And that area, unfortunately, is education.

In conclusion I believe that the ministry of education should take measures to improve the educational system and not to punish schools whose students perform poorly on examinations.