Tesla's Fully Autonomous Car On the Public Road

What I found in the news

According to The Guardian article  "Tesla releases video of fully autonomous Model X electric car",  Tesla released video of  fully autonomous vehicles and announced that Tesla's car will be built with components required to turn to be a fully autonomous car. The following is the video showed self-driving car driving on the public road without man-control; However a person is required to be on the driving seat due to the US regulation.

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My response

This is first time that I see a fully autonomous self driving. This is very impressive. I imagine that it would be better if there is a self-driver Taxi; Many times, I've had to wait a taxi for a long time, especially when it's raining. However, I think it might be a long time until the self-driving cars can be such commercial uses. I don't know how far it is, but I hope that I can be in the car someday.

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Reference

Tesla releases video of fully autonomous Model X electric car. (2016, October 20). The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/oct/20/tesla-releases-video-of-fully-autonomous-model-x-electric-car

Water - Skillful Reading and Speaking, Unit 9

Source background
On page 87 of Skillful Reading and Writing, the topic of water is introduced in a unit with the same title. As usual, Roger and Wilkins open with a large photograph and some discussion points (2013). We will do that discussion here on our class blog. Clicking the image on the right will show it full size.

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Discuss these questions in a comment below.
There are also some useful language suggestions included in the image. You might like to use some of those expressions in your comments.

1. Where does your drinking water come from? Do you drink tap water or buy bottled water? Why? 
• I usually drink ... because ...  
• It come from ...
   
2. Water covers more than 70% of the Earth's surface, yet many parts of the world don't have enough drinking water. Why is this? How many different reasons might be factors here? 
• Most of the water is ... 
• There isn't enough water in ... because ...
   
3. Which of the following water-related problems do you think is the most serious? Why?
1. drought 
2. flooding 
3. water pollution

Your writing might be more fluent if you do not interrupt it by adding numbers. It is not important in what order you address the questions, or even whether you cover all of them. Their purpose is to serve as prompts to start you thinking. 

___________

Reference

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 2. London: Macmillan.

Art and history

What I found in the news

According to The Guardian article "Last art history A-level axed after Michael Gove cull of 'soft' subjects", one of the biggest exam board in UK called AQA will remove art history out of their A-level subject (2016). Looking statistic, there were only 839 students took the exam this summer. The AQA spokeswomen said that removing this subject doesn't mean this subject is not importance but the subject itself is too hard, which will create risk for students.

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My response
From yesterday conversation and Aon's academic interest about history, I think that history in general is very importance in our life. I would blame the way of teaching history in school that makes children hate or forgot this wonderful and useful subject. Same as Animal Farm, it shows how the world is going on at that time and also what people thing about political system in that specific country and also there are historic importance of Russia revolution that would creates a ripple effect that leads ultimately to cold war and Cuba missile crisis, which smallest mistakes could turn the whole planet to stone age. Without Vasili Arkhipov, the captain of thermonuclear submarine, we won't live like what we live right now because he is the one who vote "no" to launching nuclear warhead. As you can see, with only one person, can change the fate of the world completely and how fragile our political systems are.

Coming back to art. Last term, I had a chance to study pop art. Art is just like history book where it records major changes in human history. Not just the events but also what cpecific artist mind is.

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Reference

Last art history A-level axed after Michael Gove cull of 'soft' subjects (2016, October 12). The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/oct/12/last-art-history-a-level-axed-after-michael-gove-cull-of-soft-subjects?INTCMP=sfl 

The German Napoleon

What I found in the news


According to the BBC News article "Hitler birthplace: Austrian minister retreats on demolition",  Wolfgang Sobotka, Austria's Interior Minister, has changed his mind about destroying Hitler's guest house by renovate it instead(2016). The committee of experts said "demolishing the house come close to a denial of the Nazi history in Austria", so they suggested that the house should be renovated in order to reduce a symbolic power and used it for social purpose.

My response
After we talked on "Animal Farm" and mentioned about Hitler I decided to choose this article for bloging because I would like to know the story of him and some people may not know much about it, so I would like to tell his story briefly.
   According to"Adolf Hitler Biography", Adolf Hitler was born in Austria in 1889 before he became leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party or Nazi party, he has been a painter who was interested in German nationalism. During the World War I, he served in German army and also won several awards for bravery. Unfortunately, Germany lost WWI and Hitler was shocked by German's surrender, he though that the German army was defeated because of civilian leaders and Marxists. After WWI, Hitler still worked for military he joined German Workers’ Party (DAP) as a spy for the Army. When he was in DAP he received many ideas of the anti-Semitic, nationalist and anti-Marxist ideas. In 1971, he became leader of DAP and changed the name of the party into Nazi. Moreover, Hitler was a starter of World War II by invading Poland in  1939. Finally, as we know, Germany could not win the war and Hitler decided to end his life by committed suicide on 30 April 1945.

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Reference

Hitler birthplace: Austrian minister retreats on demolition (2016 October 18) BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37690981

Adolf Hitler Biography (2016 October 6). Retrieved from http://www.biography.com/people/adolf-hitler-9340144

Father of the Thai Nation

What I found in the news

According to the BBC News article "Thai king death: Thousands queue to pay respects at palace" (2016). King Bhumibol Adulyadej was the world's longest-serving head of state. At the Grand Palace, in the Thai capital, Thousands of people queued up to sign a book of condolences and dressed in black to pay respect to King Bhumibol Adulyadej, who died on Thursday. Also, free buses provided for people from rural areas. On Friday, the King's body was transported in a convoy to the Temple of the Emerald Buddha in the Grand Palace from the hospital where he passed away. Former Prime Minister, Prem Tinsulanonda, would be regent because Prince Vajiralongkorn has asked for a delay while he grieves for his father. During this period, people have been asked to wear black and avoid "joyful events". For the next 30 days, flags are to fly at half-mast and official mourning will last a year.

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My response
Although I was born in 1997 which is already about 50 years of the  King's accession to the throne. So I didn't see the King travel around Thailand to meet people anymore. What I really sad about was I never once see the King with my own eyes.

“We shall reign with righteousness for the benefits and happiness of the Siamese people.” this declaration, spoken by His Majesty at his coronation the ceremony was his first public pledge to promote the welfare of all his subjects.
Throughout his 70-year reign, he has fulfilled this promise to the letter. Early on His Majesty was inspired by the example of his parents to work tirelessly to improve the lives of the Thai people.

After hearing the news, I missed my grandmother a lot. She died last July.
She was the one who taught me about the Royal family and the King Bhumibol Adulyadej. When I was young I never know why there are his majesty's photos everywhere even in my grandmother's house. She said that his majesty is more than just a King but also the father of the country. My grandmother once wished that I could attend a graduation ceremony and receive the graduation certificate for the King.

From my experiences, I have seen and heard a lot of news about his majesty. I know from my heart that the King worked so hard to improve and help Thai people. His majesty traveled around the country to meet his people and explored the country at the same time. After that, the King has produced so many projects. His Majesty’s Royal Chitralada Projects in such fields as agriculture, forestry, and small-scale industries. Rice fields, vegetable beds, groves, livestock enclosures, fish ponds, a rice-mill, and a dairy factory can be seen in the palace grounds. When successful, the results of these experiments will be publicized so that people and organizations can make use of them.

I have no wonder why Thai people love the King so much and I know why I love the King because his majesty is the father of the Thai nation, of us all. The King had left so many things for Thai people especially
His Majesty’s Royal Chitralada Projects and Philosophy of Sufficiency Economy.

As His Majesty said, “development must burst from within.”

I have a lot more to say but if I continued I wouldn't know how to end it. I just realized why some people said that if someone ask  them about the king or why Thai people love their King so much they will ask those people back "How much time do you have to listen?"

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Reference

Thai king death: Thousands queue to pay respects at palace. (2016, October 15). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37665762

Peace Accolades for Putin

What I found in the news
In "Vladimir Putin just Won an International Peace Prize", Bearak first summarized despite what he had done in the past few years, Putin was awarded of Hugo Chavez Price of peace and sovereignty. he also mentioned that Putin also had received Peace award from China.
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My response
It kind of surprise me to know that Putin could win a Peace prize. Very well I don't know much about him but he seems to be a good leader. One of my friends really like him. When I ask her why, she said his method is decisive and bring prosperity into Russia. For me Russia is on a good term with China but not with the States which I think that's how it should be.

Last year however there was a conflict breaking out in Syria. This event reminds me of Cold War between US and Russia when they fought each other in foreign territories. So similar is that if it had not been for the scope of conflict that limits in a few countries, this would have been called Cold War II. This CWII also affect many other countries including Germany, France because these countries have to take refugee and bring a complication into their own countries.

Still I just wish that we would not have any war ever again.

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Reference

Bearak, M. (2016, October 11). Vladimir Putin just won an international peace prize. The Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/10/11/vladimir-putin-just-won-an-international-peace-prize/

Another step of medical field

What I found in the news
According to the Economist's "How to spot children’s speaking and listening problems early",
Ms. Gong and Dr. Guttag, both computer scientist, teach the machine to diagnose language and speech disorder. They did the experiment with 231 children by recording their speech and let the machine to distinguish the disorder, then compare to the result diagnosed by two speech pathologists, Ms. Hogan and Dr. Green. The accuracy of the machine distinguisher is 72 %. They believe if such system were developed and converted to an application, it would help parents to test their children and receive the warning sign earlier whether something wrong.

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My response
I like their idea that they use the machines to help other people. Even though it is not 100 % correct in their algorithm, it can be developed and get better.

I believe computer science, in the future, even at the present, plays the important role in medical field more and more. Many medications and vaccines cannot be invented without computer science.

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Reference

How to spot children’s speaking and listening problems early. (2016, October 8th). The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21708217-how-spot-childrens-speaking-and-listening-problems-early-sounds-trouble

Rewriting our stories (Skillful, p.82, Critical thinking 1 & 2)

Source background
On page 82, Rogers and Wilkin ask a couple of questions to practice our critical thinking skills.

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Discuss these question in a comment below.

1. Do you agree that past events and how we view them shape who we become in the future?

• I think (that) past events shape / don't shape us because …

2. Why do you think that people focus on positive rather than negative memories?

• We tend to focus on positive memories because …

Think about the ideas from the two readings "National Hero" and "Mixed Memories".

1. Why do we rewrite the stories of famous people in history? Is it for the same reasons we rewrite our own life stories?
• The reasons are / aren't the same because … 
• It is / isn't the same because ... 
2. When talking about the past, how can you change how a situation is portrayed? 
• The main factors are … 

___________

Reference

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 2. London: Macmillan.

What is the priority of having children ?

What I found in the news
According to the BBC News article "What should come first, a baby or a flat?

", Nowadays Singapore is facing a problem of an ageing population because of lowing birth rates so their government try to solve the problem by encourage citizens to have their children. One of politician, Ms. Josephine Teo, candidate was asked that if some reasons of not having children especially young Singaporeans was because they had to wait too long to have their own houses and It’s hard to have babies if they still live with their parents. Ms. Teo gave her viewpoint that Accommodation shouldn't be a priority and she also gave some examples of being family and have children process from other countries in otherwise in the formation tell about the price of accommodation in Singapore is very expensive and likely difficult to get their own. After that her suggestions instigated ferocious discuss in online society.

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My response

I think this problem is happening in many countries and it will effects to economics but when i was reading this article I thought about one point that she may forgot to think about quality of childern because sometimes accommodation can show that they are affordable.for Thailand I think we are facing with this problem too but in specific class of people , most graduated people have less children because they plan a lot of things and moreover people who have more children likely have  lower income and don't plan to have them and we can see it in the NEWS sometimes. 

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Reference

What should come first, a baby or a flat?. (2016 October 12).BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-37627269

To fight with sugary foods

What I found in the news

According to "World Health Organisation backs tax on sugary foods and drinks", WHO supports the countries  that launch measures about charging tax on sugary products(2016). The WHO wants to improve a nutrition status of people by reducing a consumption of "free sugar" in sugary products . This "free sugar" is a kind of sugar that a producer add its on his products and it can lead to many diseases.

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My response
I hope that Thai government will launch this kind of tax measures. It may help reducing consuming sugar of Thai people. Nowadays there are so many sugary products in the market. If you walk into a convenient store and look for a drinking water in refrigerators you will realize most of them are sugary drinks. Especially green tea, that is suppose to be a healthy drink but the producer add a very high level of sugar on his products to make it becomes more tasty. Some green tea companies launch a campaign to increase their sale volume by using lottery gambling. For example, one company giveaway  smart phones or luxury cars to the lucky customer who drinks his product. This promotion is very successful, although the price of each green tea is not cheap but many bottles of green tea sold each day because customer want to get a prize even a chance of hitting a prize is very low. But I think the customers of this green tea will suffer from diabetes before they could win a prize. So It show that sometimes a price may not be a factor that customers decide to choose a product.

I think that charging tax on sugary products may not be the best way to help people reduces their consuming  of sugar. I think the better way is giving education to people and teach them about the negative effect of consuming too much sugar. It may help them avoid eating sugary products and choose a healthier food.

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Reference

World Health Organisation backs tax on sugary foods and drinks. (2016 October 11) BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/health-37620087

Stories - Skillful Reading and Speaking, Unit 8

Source background
On page 77 of Skillful Reading and Writing, the topic of fear is introduced in a unit with the same title. As usual, Roger and Wilkins open with a large photograph and some discussion points 2013). We will do that discussion here on our class blog. Clicking the image on the right will show it full size.

_______________________________________ 

Discuss these questions in a comment below.
There are also some useful language suggestions included in the image. You might like to use some of those expressions in your comments.

1. Who are some of the most famous people or national heroes in your country? Are they writers, politicians, athletes, ... ? 
• One of the most famous people is ....  He/She is a ... 
• ... is a national hero. He/She was ...
   
2. What are the stories about these people? Does everyone believe these stories? 
• One well-known story about ... is ... 
• Most people believe this, but ...
   
3. Why do you think the facts in stories sometimes get changed? 
• The facts can change because ... 

You have ten minutes total to respond to the questions here. For the next ten minutes, do not open any book or look at any other website. We are responding to the questions, not writing an essay or doing a research project.

Your writing might be more fluent if you do not interrupt it by adding numbers. It is not important in what order you address the questions, or even whether you cover all of them. Their purpose is to serve as prompts to start you thinking. 

___________

Reference

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 2. London: Macmillan.

The future has arrived

What I found in the news
According to the BBC News article "China's elevated bus: Futuristic 'straddling bus' hits the road" (2016). After releasing the video of a mini - model of the vehicle in May, China started a test to run in Qinhuangdao, north China's Hebei Province. The road-straddling bus is 2 meters high, can carry up to 300 passengers and predicted to reach up up to 60 km per hour. Believed that only needed one straddling buses to replace 40 conventional buses. Online users of Weibo seem to be very excited about this new kind vehicle but China has not yet confirmed whether it will be widely used in China or not.

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My response

I first got interested about this vehicle when I saw the article about it on the Thai magazine called "Secret". After that I went home and searched for some more news about this road-straddling bus then I found many news about this on The Guardian, BBC News and The Washington post but I chose the latest news that was published on BBC News to write about in this blog.

This bus reminds me of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban there is a scene that Harry gets on the knight bus which is fast and can pass every objects even little space between 2 cars. I wanted the world to have that kinds of bus since I watched the Harry Potter. Today one of my wishes came true we have it the road-straddling bus.

Back to the road-straddling bus, I love the idea about this thing because it will help people to get out of the traffic jams. Traffic is boring to everyone especially the driver its painful even I'm the passenger feel sympathy for them. Also I believe that we can get a lot of benefits from this new transportation such as reduce the traffic congestion, lower carbon on the road and help less problems of climate change. As it said on the news that it tests to run in the north-eastern city of Qinhuangdao, China. I'm hoping that I could see this bus around the world in 5-10 years but for Thailand I think we'd take a long time to follow those technology.

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Reference

China's elevated bus: Futuristic 'straddling bus' hits the road. (2016, August 3). BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-36961433

Will Google Succeed in Brand New Gadgets?

What I found in the news

The Pixel Phong

According to "Google Gets Aggressive With New Phones, Other Gadgets",  Google continues to release the brand new gadgets, which are the Pixel phone, Google wifi, Google Home(virtual gadget that can answer simple questions and perform some easier tasks), and Daydream View(VR), in order to beat Apple and Amazon. Google have changed the direction of company, which build both hardware and software, likes Apple strategy mastered for over 15 years.The Pixel will replace the Nexus phone, which google have never hailed as its own phone, but only the example of how best of android work; and the Pixel is highlighted a highest rated smartphone camera,  a 7 hours battery with 15 minutes changing, ultimate storage on google drives and a first smartphone with Google assistant, which go against Siri of Apple and Echo of Amazon. In addition, Google new Home's feature design to beat the Amazon's Echo.

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My response

Google Home

This advent could change the world. Google continue release the incredible gadgets. One of the feature that I think it will work well is the Google assistant. This feature is compatible for the Pixel phone and Google Home. I believe that this could be the best virtual agent in the world because of their database. Even though Siri and Amazon Echo are good, as I watch the Google Home advertising which Google home are better.

However I think the Pixel phone cannot get though the Apple customer because Apple got a very strong group of Apple's fans. Most of Apple fans use Iphone because the stability of their software and if google cannot make the android better than IOS, it is very hard to grab those markets. In stead of that, the majority of Pixel customers should be the Samsung fans, which use the same software, android.

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Reference

Google Gets Aggressive With New Phones, Other Gadgets.(2016, October 4). The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/10/04/technology/ap-us-tec-google-event.html

Fears: The origins of fear. (Skillful, p.71, Critical thinking 2)

Source background
On page 71, Rogers and Wilkin ask a couple of questions  in the second exercise to develop critical thinking.

_______________________________________ 

Think about the ideas in the readings "Fears, Reactions, Coping" and "Superhuman Powers". Discuss the following question in a blog comment.

1. Do you think we learn fears and reactions, or are we born with them?

Useful language:

• It could be argued that … because …

You have eight minutes to respond to the questions. You might not want to spend time on all of parts of them.
Do try to use at least some of the useful language.

___________

Reference

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 2. London: Macmillan.

Does android dream of electric sheep?

What I found in the news

What is like to wear Oculus Rift.

According to "'VR isn't a thing you do it's a place you visit': readers review Oculus Rift" , Rachel Obordo and Guardian readers are reviewing the brand new technology: Oculus Rift. The average score is quite high varies from four to five out of five. All of the reviewer are more than 24 years old and the highest is 57 year old. Most of them really love the feature of VR which transform the world around us in to the world of video game. Also, they love brand new experience of travelling in a graphic world because we as people never be in this kind of world where all the stuff around us are generated by computer.

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My response
Expensive. Still I want to have this gadget from Facebook. As a game developer. I found out that VR technologies are the future of gaming or maybe life. Imagine living/eating in the imaginary world where you are "god". You can do anything that you want because it is only an array of logic gates that control the whole world. How realistic it is? that's a problem. Can we really know we are living or doing homework in the virtual world? Is there anyone who is very smart and know every detail in some extend that trying to deceive us using this extreme-detailed VR world?

Imagine, there is someone who know everything in detailed. Every atom in this room. Every atom in people mind. With this we can imply that this person car predict the future. What people in this room will think/do with ease. This problem is well known as Laplace's demon. However, I have proven it wrong using one theorem of the universe: Chaos theorem and the power of irrational number.

But I think that the problem of Laplace's demon is difference from this question about smart person who trying to make us think is this in a real world. Since the law of the universe is determine by this person unlike Laplace's demon where "fortune teller" has to obey the "real" universe law. Thinking about when we are sleeping. How do we know that we are sleeping? Our eye/nose and other sensing organ tell us so? Are we a program inside super computer? For me and other, it sounds easy that we are not dreaming and reading this blog post.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Rachel Obordo and Guardian readers. (2016, September 28). 'VR isn't a thing you do it's a place you visit': readers review Oculus Rift. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/sep/28/vr-isnt-a-thing-you-do-its-a-place-you-visit-readers-review-oculus-rift

What makes good children?

What I found in the news
"To be good children "

According to The Washington post article "How to raise kinder, less entitled kids" , the way to understand why children act entitled and how to teach them to be more kind and less claim to receive or do something  by the research called behavioral economics which consists of four main point.First, teaching children to care other people's feeling ,don't make themselves to feel to be a center of the universe and teach them to appreciate whatever they got from others and don't expect it to happen all the times. Second,Always remind them whether thing around them is normal or not and they should realize their standard probably not be other standard because children usually have their standard if they see many example.Finally, teach children that they should help other without expecting money as a reward cause helping others with kindness is better.

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My response
The article shows us the result very clearly and sensibly and it's make parents what should they do. In this article have some cases are interested.I think if i have my own children it will help me very much because.
In the article "Fear, Reactions, Coping" developed fears by experience that if their parent have a fear of height so children tend to have a fear of height.I think it similar as habit and personality that children perhaps habit and personality like parent but of course some are different .
However, In my opinion the best way that parents can  teach children to be good peron are to be good examples because children like cleanness cloth so everything parents do they will remember and follow parent's actions.

_______________________________________ 

Reference

Karen Weese (2016, October 4) How to raise kinder, less entitled kids (according to science). The Washington Post. Retrieved from  https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/on-parenting/how-to-raise-kinder-less-entitled-kids-according-to-science/2016/10/03/1a74fa3a-7525-11e6-b786-19d0cb1ed06c_story.html

Fears: How might fear be positive? (Skillful, p.71, Critical thinking 1)

Source background
On page 71, Rogers and Wilkin ask a couple of questions to practice our critical thinking skills.

_______________________________________ 

Discuss these question in a comment below.

1. How might fear be positive in each of these situations?

• being near a dangerous snake
• giving a presentation
• running a race
• taking an exam

Useful language:

• Fear could be positive when … because …
• I think that fear would help you if you were … because …

2. Do you agree that fear can be positive? Why?

Useful language:

• I think that fear can be positive because …
• In my opinion, fear is always negative because …

You have eight minutes total to respond to the questions. You might not want to spend time on all of parts of them.
Do try to use at least some of the useful language.

___________

Reference

Rogers, L. & Wilkin, J. (2013). Skillful Reading & Writing, Student's Book 2. London: Macmillan.