5. When did Thorpe withdraw from professional swimming?

Juan Cortés doesn’t speak Spanglish because he feels stupid when he tries

Norma Rodríguez doesn’t notice when she is speaking Spanglish

Spanglish is mainly used in formal contexts.

More people are interested in studying Spanish than before

7.In which city can you read signs like “Aparca your car aquí” or “Cuidado con los pickpockets”? Travelguide investigates. 1.2 million Hispanics live in the Big Apple and one in five New Yorkers speaks Spanish at home. In the last ten years, the Hispanic population has grown by 400 000. This reflects the enormous increase in the Hispanic population in the States. There are now 42 million Hispanics resident in the USA, representing 15% of the total population. There is a new language, SPANGLISH – a strange mixture of Spanish and English – which is invading the city. The New York Times recently said that it had become the city’s third official language. Its use is colloquial and often limited to short sentences and signs. Many New Yorkers now wear socketines on their feet, drop something on the carpeta, shop for grocerias and have cornfley (“cornflakes”) for breakfast. Norma Rodríguez, a 45-year-old Cuban living in Washington Heights, says it forms a part of her life now: “Sometimes, you don’t realize that you’re mixing the two languages. You just hear them both all the time and find that you’re inventing new words.” Other people, however, are fighting against this new street language. Businessman Juan Cortés sees it as a sign that the Spanish language is being destroyed. “It’s difficult, but I try not to speak it – it feels vulgar to me.” Meanwhile, a surprising number of academics have spoken in favour of Spanglish. José María Ruiz, from NY State University, even runs courses in Spanglish and has written a dictionary. “It is a dialogue between two languages and cultures. We have to accept that languages change and evolve. The only languages that never change are dead ones.”//////////////The Spanish-speaking population has grown very fast recently.

People read books and websites in the same way

Many teachers think computer games are only for having fun or killing time

Digital natives are comfortable using laptops and flash drives

Marc Prensky is interested in teaching with technology.

6.David is not very comfortable with new technology and he does not have many gadgets. Lucy loves new technology. She owns a games console, an MP3 player, and a mobile phone with a built-in digital camera. David is a teacher. Lucy is his student. Like Lucy, many children grow up using computers almost every day and often know more about technology than adults. Educator Marc Prensky calls children like Lucy “digital natives”. Digital natives can quickly learn how to use new gadgets and new software, while non-digital natives spend a lot of time reading manuals and worrying about computer viruses. In fact, many parents try to save time by asking their children to teach them how to use new technology! The divide between digital natives and non-digital natives can cause problems at school because students and teachers grow up with very different ideas about technology. Many teachers think that playing computer games is a waste of time and that technology has made children unable to concentrate. However, many students think their classes are slow and boring, and want to use computers to study. Prensky believes that digital natives have learned a lot from technology, but that they learn things in a different way. For example, reading a website is different from reading a book, so digital natives are good at finding the information they need and choosing what they want to read. So perhaps teachers need to change the way they teach and use more technology in class – because the number of digital natives will keep increasing!///////////////David is a digital native