impact magazine issue 3 june 2010
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EFIA TQ College MagazineTRANSCRIPT
ImpAct - June 2010
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Juan
Preparation Course Student
EDITOR
ImpAct�
Team
Sergey Erentsenov
IB Student
Journalist
Quizzes & Puzzles
Elfleise Ngan
A Level Student
Journalist
Karl Tjensvoll
IB Student
Journalist
Adrian Harrington
IT Teacher
Editorial Support
& Design
Hi, welcome to our third issue of IMPACT, the
magazine for EF International Academy Torquay.
Each issue IMAPCT Magazine designates space for
creative and expressive coverage of the College,
students, events and more, therefore if you would
like to contribute to the magazine please contact one
of our team.
Preparation Course
The Preparation Course has been a life changing experience. I have learned so
many new things, met new people, learned about different cultures all around
the world, learned about English Culture, etc. All of this has been a deeply
enjoyable experience, but all of this wouldn’t have been possible without the
help of the 2 tutors Adrian and Rebecca. Both of them have helped all the
students at any time without hesitating. Rebecca has organized trips to several
trips to different place in England to enrich our knowledge about the English
Culture; among the several places we have visited there is Bath, Bristol, Lyme
Regis, Cockington, the Ashcombe Activity Centre, Cardiff and the Berry Pomeroy
Castle.
There are many reasons why the Preparation Course is an enjoyable experience
but I think the main one is the sense of family that is always present. You really
feel attached to the people in the group. You learned to work together and get
along, no matter what nationality the student is. Also the relationship with the
teacher is really close. Thanks to the support of each one of them you learn to
correct yourself and be critical about your actions and, of course, improve as a
student, gaining the knowledge of your subjects. The classes are very appealing
because they are interactive; every student has the chance to participate and
communicate with each other, they learned to work as one, always helping each
other.
In conclusion, this has been a truly enjoyable year and I want to teach to all my
teachers because I have improved myself thanks to them. I will recommend this
experience to all my friends in Mexico. The whole experience has been
spontaneous and truly life changing. Thanks to all the students in the
Preparation that I learned to like as they were my brothers.
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In This Issue
Fossil Walk & Festival Page 4
General Election 2010 Page 8
EFIA Torquay Summer Ball 2010 Page 12
Iron Man Review Page 21
Ashcombe Adventure Centre Page 23
Business Trip Tutor2U Revision Day Page 28
Photography Club Page 29
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A Jurassic A Jurassic A Jurassic A Jurassic
CoastCoastCoastCoast
ExperienceExperienceExperienceExperience Rebecca Nichols
On Sunday May 2nd 2010 a group of IAP and A level students accompanied by Adrian, Muriel,
Claire and Rebecca set out for the Dorset coast; famous for its Jurassic era fossils. The group
headed to Lyme Regis which was holding its annual fossil festival and despite the rain; the group
was in high spirits as it set off from Torquay. The group was also accompanied by Arian and
Muriel’s daughter, Lila-May who immediately took a shine to the students and attached herself
to Samuel’s coattails.
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Most students were ready for the 9 o’clock departure; however, Caspar and Samuel struggled to
get out of bed having participated in a paint-balling activity the previous day and had to be
collected from their host families. This gave the rest of the group the opportunity to indulge in a
MacDonald’s breakfast, without which an IAP trip never quite seems complete!
We arrived in the beautiful, old town of Lyme Regis at 11.00 and meandered down the high
street towards the fossil festival which was located on the one of the beaches that forms part of
the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
The Natural History Museum sent more than 20 scientists to participate in the event and soon
Kira, Adison, Henry and Caspar were extracting DNA from strawberries whilst others examined
and admired the exhibitions by Natural England, National
Oceanography Centre, British Antarctic Survey, National
Museum of Wales, Dinosaur Isle, Dorset Geologist's
Association, the National Trust and the RSPB.
The students were also able to visit the Fossil Fair too,
where local collectors were selling fossils from as little as
50p. A number of students bought small souvenirs whilst
others decided to wait until the afternoon fossil walk;
determined to find their own. There was plenty for the
students to see in Lyme Regis including the gravity defying
stone balancing of Adrian Gray. Students could also work
on art pieces of their own should they choose to do so and a
number participated in stone carving.
At 1.30, when the tide was low, we met up with
two local geologists Brandon and Ian Lennon who
took us on a fossil walk. We were told about the
coastline, its precarious nature and the very
important work carried out by Mary Anning, a
nineteenth century fossil hunter and scientist.
Photography: Oleg
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We then set off on our walk and were soon stepping over the ammonite graveyard and
searching for our own fossils. Nina soon unearthed a tiny ammonite but her find was to be
eclipsed by Marie’s discovery of a fossilised plesiosaur vertebra. Brandon became quite excited
by her find and told her that experienced fossil-hunters would be pleased to make such a
discovery. He went on to compliment her on her fossil-hunting skill. Henry found some
ammonites, other students found some oyster shells and Lila-May thought she’d found the
tooth of a T-Rex which was a funny shaped rock.
Just as we were about to head back across the
beach, Luka found an enormous and beautifully
preserved sponge with which she then had to
struggle to carry back to Lyme Regis.
By then it was almost 4 o’clock and a number of
students claimed to be starving so we found a
restaurant that could accommodate us and sat
down to discuss our experiences whilst sampling
some warming local food.
Most students thoroughly enjoyed the visit; the
only complaints being that some people wished
they had worn warmer clothing and hats as the
day was quite windy and wet. ‘We should
definitely do this next year’, commented one
participant whilst the youngest member of our
group, Lila-May commented that she loved the
students in her daddy’s class before falling asleep
for the entire journey back to Torquay.
Photography: Oleg
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Photography: Henrika
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UK General Election 2010 Elfleise Ngan
‘Man is by nature a political animal’ is a quote from Aristotle. We did not and do not create
politics out of egotism, but altruism. It is also what enables governments to manage a country,
and to care about others. As outsiders like you and I who are not actually involve in the electoral
process, we should not put our political mind into the refrigerator. Being in the UK now, why
don’t we take this chance and take it out of the fridge?
Although the title here is the general election, it is still worth mentioning the whole British
political system in a nutshell. The ‘UK Government’ consists of four major bodies - Legislature,
Executive, Judiciary, and the Monarchy. To be
relevant to the topic, we will be focusing on the
Legislature - especially the House of Commons in
the Parliament - and the Executive, which people
commonly abbreviate as the Government. The
election not only indicates a change to the
Parliament, to be specific the House of Commons,
but also the Government, which is normally led by
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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the party who holds the majority of seats in Parliament and that party can form a ‘majority
government’.
An interesting thing has happened this year. A majority is defined as being over a half of the
total number of seats in the House of Commons, i.e. 326 out of the total of 650. Every UK citizen
aged 18 or above is entitled to cast their vote in their particular constituency (or area). Each
constituency will then have a representative, who stands for a party which they are in. Results
from the 650 areas will come altogether and generate the final result which will lead to a change
to the government. This year the UK has a ‘hung parliament’ which is usually described as a
parliament in which no political party has an outright majority, and it has not happened since
1974.
The Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrats are the three main parties in Britain. In this
election, although the Conservative had 306 seats and became the leading party in the election,
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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it still does not mean that David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative, is guaranteed for the
place of Prime Minister. Because of this, it made all the hearts pumping excitingly throughout
the country at that time. No one could guess what would happen next, including me who stayed
up till 5 to wait for the results coming from each place minute by minute - but I am here to warn
you that this is really a stupid thing to do. Followed by the Conservatives, Labour came second
with 258 seats, and the Liberal Democrats third with 57 seats. Apparently, no one party has got
at least 326 seats to form a majority government directly, or I should say the Conservatives. The
consequences can go deep down to complex legal areas, but I am sure that at that time opinions
were just like boiling water!
Let’s simplify everything. Traditionally, the Tories (Conservatives) stood for the Crown, which is
currently the Queen, while the Whigs (Liberals) stood for the Parliament, and acted against the
Monarchy. Therefore, their policies are more or less against each other. The Labour party joined
in the British political world in 1906, but the Labour you can see today is not that Labour as in
1906. It is called the ‘New Labour’, in which Gordon Brown
was the leader. Both the Liberal Democrats and Labour are
more socialist. You would say that they can be allies. Yet, it
goes again deep down to the parties themselves that they
always go against each other, or I would say they don’t
appreciate each other very well. With these, it makes the
mystery more mysterious.
After the hung parliament, a minority government, a coalition
government or a fresh election are available options. A
minority government where the Conservatives will still form
an administration despite being short of 20 seats in this case
is absolutely unlikely to happen as it is said to be unstable and
tend to collapse easily. Of course, there were very few
examples which proved to have functioned well, provided
that there was strong supporting power. However, it would
not be the case this time. A fresh election also carries the
lowest possibility as the three leaders of the main parties
know very well in their mind that the result of another
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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election would be probably the same. Under
this situation, with a lot of influences from
economic, sociological and political aspects,
most of the people would vote for the same
person or choose to discard their voting
power in the second voting, so it is totally
uneconomic. It is obvious that coalition
government is the most possible alternative.
A coalition government is formed by more
than one party to sum up the seats in total of
at least 326. Under this circumstance, the
most probable solutions would be a coalition-
Lib Dem government or a Lab - Lib Dem
government. However, it has been warned
that the task for Gordon Brown this time would not be easy since 316 votes would not be
sufficient enough for a Lab - Lib Dem government to be formed, i.e. He would need to seek the
others. Meanwhile, 361 votes would be more than enough for a Con - Lib Dem government.
Obviously, all the things are clear now that the latter has come true, but no one can be sure
what will happen with this new alliance. An effect of uncertainty has immediately come along
that the sterling has been dropping lately, you know that if you are constantly aware of the
exchange market. Some teachers expressed their views that it could be a good ending as the
power has now fallen into two parties, but not centrally the Tories. For instance, the Liberal
Democrat is in charge of the education
department, where education has always
been a major concern in every manifesto.
Some might say that we will be seeing the UK
falling down. No one knows and dares to
predict, but I would say it is a crucial time for
the Liberal Democrats. Would you not agree?
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
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the founder of the Singer Sewing Machine
Company. Many students arrived there by
luxury car and there was a professional
photographer who took everyone’s photo as
we arrived.
The main party was held on the second floor
so we walked up a magnificent marble
staircase and were offered some drinks
prepared for us with strawberries.
The place was sparkling with all the lights
and luxury decorations. At about 8, all the
second year students were called outside by
the Principal David Davis to have our photo
taken.
On the 3rd
of June, we had an amazing Summer
Ball which many of us had been waiting for a
long time. The whole idea of this ball is to have
a party before our students leave and to
recognise a year of effort and hard work from
both teachers and students. It is also a
celebration to say goodbye to our second years
before they depart to university.
All the students were dressed to impress, girls
wore evening dresses and boys wore suits and
ties.
The venue was Oldway mansion, a grand 100
roomed mansion built by Isaac Merritt Singer
EFIA Summer Ball 2010 Cara Shuting Li
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The moment we were all expecting came
when our visiting 3rd year student, Irina,
started to host the ball. The evening started
with some amazing performances. Firstly Olga,
Mark, Alina, Samuel, Pet and Boris gave us a
great performance of singing different popular
songs, afterwards, olga, Mark, Karl, Frankie
and Samuel started dancing, which I think was
the most exciting part of the whole evening.
Finally there was a performance from Valeria,
a first year student, dancing We Will Rock You,
which was stunning.
The performance ended, and everyone
enjoyed themselves so much, and they were
dancing, taking photos and chatting with each
other. Although it was a party night, there was
one bit that I found moving, it was when all
the teachers went on to the stage and all the
students thanked them for the efforts they
had put in.
The evening finally drew to a close, all in all it
was a great party, people enjoyed themselves
so much. As for me, as a second year student
who is going to graduate in just a few days, it
was a great memory for me, and I will
remember it for a very long time.
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Last week I saw Iron Man 2 with some Preparation Group students, and I am glad to say
that I enjoyed it, but don’t get me wrong this is no masterpiece of cinema, but it’s a
great and entertaining popcorn flick. So the good things…ACTING! Robert Downey Jr. has loads of charisma and fills Tony
Starks shoes perfectly! Downey handles the drinking, party animal superhero perfectly,
and is a delight to see him throw his lines. But I am sorry to say the ones that steal the
show in this movie are the bad guys. Mickey Rourke as the villain Ivan Vanko A.K.A
Whiplash with his tough Russian accent and his evil look are simply great.
His scenes with Downey Jr. show the tension that should be between the hero and the
villain. AND! Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer is sensational. He plays the fast talking
arms dealer that wishes to be Stark but fails. His character could be easily pointed as a
simple comic relief but Rockwell gives him the certain amount of
danger that a villain should have.
SPECIAL EFFECTS! The action scenes are intense! See Iron Man and
War Machine fighting together is visually brilliant. The best action
scene in the movie is the one when Tony is racing in the Grand Pix
and the lethal Whiplash comes across and crashes cars, as they were
toys. That scene makes the movie worth seeing.
Now the bad stuff…TOO MUCH PLOT! The script is filled! In one side
you have Tony dealing with his sickness, in the other the War
Iron Man 2 Review Juan Moreno
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Machine born, also the bad guys development, and the SHIELD force entering into the
plot. The screenwriter doesn’t know how to handle all these themes and by the third act
of the movie, action scenes are the only salvation of the messed up plot. Also Gwyneth
Paltrow and Don Cheadle are completely wasted! Their characters are just their filling
blank spaces! The Downey Jr and Paltrow relationship is poorly executed and rushed!
And with Cheadle, his reasons for becoming War Machine are never really explained and
appears to become a superhero just for the sake of being there.
In conclusion, accept Iron Man 2 for what it is. A very entertaining and smartly acted
movie. You may find a few bumps in the ride but at the end Iron Man delivers. Also is
great see these two wonderful villains in the cinema!
Source: www.imdb.com / www.filmofilia.com
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ASHCOMBE ASHCOMBE ASHCOMBE ASHCOMBE
ADVENTURADVENTURADVENTURADVENTURE E E E
CENTRECENTRECENTRECENTRE Adrian Harrington
FFFFrom the 18th
- 20th
May 2010 the
Preparation Group embarked on a 3 day teambuilding event at Ashcombe adventure centre
near Dawlish. Considering how well the group had already bonded during the course, this
promised to be a memorable and rewarding time for everyone.
When the group arrived they were offered some refreshments, shown to their accommodation
and given some time to settle in before the adventure began. After being divided in to teams
the group were presented with their first competitive activities - the Aggravator Puzzles which
consisted of 10 mentally challenging, team orientated puzzles, which were ran as a circuit. The
teams had to start at different points around the circuit, and gain points as they completed each
of the 3D logic puzzles. The first winning team of the activities were Alvaro, William, Rebecca,
Khang, Caspar, Somnus and Nina. Needless to say the competitive spirit had begun, but this was
a gentle start to the activities and more was yet to come.
Photography: Oleg
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After a buffet style lunch which
included quiches, green salad, rice
salad, mini jacket potatoes, pasta
salad, cold meats, cheddar puffs,
boiled eggs, chicken goujons and
bread rolls, the group were taken to
the Archery range.
Once on the range the budding
young Robin Hoods divided in to
their teams and the arrows began
to fly. Victor quickly organised his team in
to a formation, which Robin Hood himself
would have been be proud of, and became
the archery instructor. Xian looked really
professional and Serana soon became the
focus of attention as she elegantly fired at
the target. Unfortunately Victor was not
impressed with how sharp the arrows were.
Although he managed to hit the balloons
attached to the target they had a life of
their own and somehow managed to
deflect every shot.
The stars of the show were Quang’s team,
Bob, Xian, Adison and Serena who scored
the highest. Quang was a little disappointed
with not receiving a winner’s kiss form a fair maiden, but consoled himself knowing that life is
not the same as portrayed in the movies.
After the evening meal, the group spent the evening chatting outside and discussing the
memorable events of the day. Khang, Oleg and Victor retired to the common room for an
eagerly awaited table football knockout competition with Bob. Kira, Adison and Frank took on
Adrian at table tennis and were quire surprised that winning was more difficult than they had
expected. We then ended the evening with an entertaining game of charades and the medal
awarding ceremony. High quality gold plated plastic medals were presented to the winners of
the day’s competitions and Alvaro and Marie were awarded Princesses of the day and were
highly delighted receiving their diamond encrusted, no expense spared tiaras.
Photography: Oleg
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Day 2, and what a day this was about to
be. After breakfast and a gentle walk
around the outdoor centre, cunningly
disguised as a treasure hunt, the group
prepared themselves for the raft
building competition. This had been a
talking point for the last 24 hours, no
one had the faintest intention of ending
up in this lake as it smelled and looked
like a primordial swamp from Jurrasic
Park. All we needed were a few
creatures from where nightmares
come from and a T-Rex and the scene
would have been complete.
We were given long wooden poles,
some ropes and plastic water barrels to
build our rafts. With no design plans
and a 20 minute time limit the rafts
quickly took shape…or maybe not.
After a couple of extra time extensions
the home made Kon-Tikis were ready
to be launched. There was no time for
the traditional bottle of champagne
smashing against the hulls of these
craft to send them on their maiden
voyage as the race had begun. Caspar’s
team went round in circles deciding
that Columbus was wrong and world
was definitely flat. Juan’s team, Oleg,
Frankie and Victor decided to make a
mad splash across the lake and ram
any rafts in their way. Not a bad tactic
as this resulted in winning the
competition, but in all the excitement
the raft broke apart and Captain
Frankie decided to go down with the
ship. Photography: Oleg
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This had to be on of the best moments of the
adventure as people made a desperate attempt to get
back to dry land. Juan could not be consoled as his flag
ship disappeared under the water, Marie and Yoko
were so pleased to be reunited with each other and
Frank was full of pride after informing us of his heroic
deed. Armed with his trusty paddle he had managed to
fight off an evil giant octopus which lived in the lake.
Soaking wet, tired but full of excitement the intrepid
seafarers headed off for a well deserved shower and
lunch and prepare themselves for the most gruelling
task yet to come.
The assault course was one of the final team building
exercises the groups were presented with. Already
washed and changed the groups were under no illusions
how challenging this would be and the sight of cold wet
mud waiting for them sent a chill down their spines.
Slippery poles, tyre swinging, rabbit holes and wooden
walls were just a few of the obstacles they had to
contend with, but this is where the comradeship of each
group helped them face adversity. Everyone helped
each other around the course regardless of which team
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they were in. William had a
great time throughout the
course, taking each obstacle in
his stride. Xian could not believe
how dirty the water was and was
screaming with joy once she had
been pulled out and Bob
attacked the monkey bars with such determination that he crossed without get his shoes dirty,
but star of the show was Nina and her ability to sink up to her knees in mud.
The final evening saw the group freshly showered for the second
time in a day and embarking on one last activity. The group was
divided in to pairs and had to beg steal and borrow various items
and complete around 20 small tasks ranging from finding a
hairdryer to building a scale model of the Great Wall of China with
whatever they could lay their hands on. Judging the competition
was a difficult task for both Adrian and Rebecca as the teams soon
realised that bonus points were being awarded for almost
anything. Kira demonstrated a talent for balancing small stones on
top of each other, Jerry and Oleg spent ages heckling the judges
that a towel was good enough for a hairdryer, Marie wanted extra
points for her Great Wall of China after stealing every bar of soap
from all the shower rooms, but the extreme extra points went to
Nina, Somnus and Serena for slug touching, except that the points
were almost taken away as Somnus wanted to keep the slug for a pet.
Once again there was the medal ceremony and the whole group erupted in applause as Victor
and William were deservedly crowned Princesses for the day.
This experience was unforgettable and the Preparation Course would like to thank Rebecca,
Bob, Adrian and International Academy Torquay for making this possible.
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Business Studies Revision Day Rachel Hawkins
On Monday 26th
April, Tutor2u held Business Studies Revision days at Cribbs Causway, Bristol.
This is the 4th
successful year that students from EF International Academy have attended these
intensive revision courses, and as usual, the day was useful and extremely informative.
Both AS and A2 students were given “revision packs” that included CDs that were full of revision
presentations, exam paper style questions and mark schemes.
The day consisted of working through case studies, looking at exam techniques and tips on how
to answer typical evaluative questions that can occur in the papers.
All students involved benefited from this inspiring and useful day.
Source: www.tutor2u.net
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Photography Club
The students have been working brilliantly as a team to create
these images. They started a little tentatively, getting used to the
camera and becoming comfortable in front of the lens, eventually
everyone relaxed and they took control of the shoot with
confidence and a great deal of creativity.
I am extremely impressed by the quality of the final images and the
students involved should be very proud of their achievements!
ClaireClaireClaireClaire
Here are my favourite portrait images this term
Anastasia
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Sofia
Semyon
Woody
Sergey
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We are aiming to take portrait pictures of all IB students at EFIA for our CAS project.
We have been taking portrait images for the last few weeks. We used our imagination to create
a professional-style studio in one of the classrooms by using a black blind as a background and a
table lamp to create strong shadows to highlight specific facial features.
The experience was very different from what we expected because we were having loads of fun,
and experimenting with different angles while talking and laughing.
This experience became natural and the models relaxed and in the end all of them liked their
pictures. We are still in the process of taking these pictures but here are a few of the best ones
so far.
Sofia and Semyon
speak, see, hear no evil
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Well Done To All 2nd Years And Good
Luck At University
Have a good summer break and see
you in September 2010
If you would like to contribute to�ImpAct, please contact
a member of the team.