Write an argumentative essay. This writing was proposed after reading Isaac Asimov's The Eureka Phenomenon.

High school graduates should have a gap year before starting University.

When people finish school being 18 years old, they are fed up of studying and want to have some time to do whatever they like doing, However, they usually have to go to university immediately, and have to study even harder, which is even more stressing. Because of this I think every student should have a compulsory gap year.

Some people think that this is not good for some reasons. Firstly, having a gap year means you will use a year's class, which means you will finish your career later. Secondly, after being studying your whole life, you will probably forget some things you have learned or how to study.

In spite of these disadvantages, gap years have advantages. To begin with, studying every year is stressing, so if you have some time to do what you like, you might study with a better attitude next year. Secondly, in your gap year you will get some job or travel which will make you gain some experience and even make some useful money. This amount of time will also help you decide your career, as when you finish school, you have to choose immediately.

To sum up, we all need a rest and enough time to decide what your life will be like; that's why I think we should all have a gap year.

Guillermo Symonds

Write about a car accident. Include at least one example of reported speech and another one of quoted or direct speech.

Terrible holiday crash

 

It was a sunny Sunday morning, on the 20th of January. Many people were leaving their cities to go to the beach and other holiday destinations.

Some people were going to Almiron’s hot springs. They were driving by route 25 in a red Fiat 600, which is a car that can’t go too fast. But this Fiat 600 had been modified to increase its speed and go faster. Another car was coming out of a farm and tried to take the road in the opposite direction. But when the car was in the middle of its turn the red car crashed into it at about 140 km/h. The sound of the crash was really loud, people in the area compared the noise with the sound of a gas explosion. A woman who lived there was very scared. “Oh my god!”, she cried. “What was that?!”, shouted the woman. Then people realised that there had been a horrible crash out there and immediately they called for an ambulance. After a few minutes, ambulances, police cars and many more arrived to the place and noticed that two people had already died.

After taking the injured people out of the vehicles they took them to Young and arrived to the hospital very fast. One year later, justice decided who was guilty for the accident and took him to prison. It was one of the most terrible accidents that had happened there so people would never forget it.

Dennis Skorupsky

Stop

“Stop!!!” I shouted to my father when I saw those two lights coming towards us. We –my father and I- were coming back from Montevideo, it was 23:48 at night. I remember the exact time, I don’t know why but I know we were really nervous.

My father pushed the breaks immediately and he realized that if he didn’t turn towards the gutter we would get killed. I was shouting, I couldn’t stop shouting until everything finished. The car went down to the kerb and everything happened in a few seconds, I hit my head with the car’s window and broke it, I had blood all over my head. When the car stopped I stopped shouting and I looked at my father. He was unconscious, I didn’t know what to do, I was alone, there, in the dark, until a lorry driver came. He called an ambulance. The ambulance came quickly and we were taken to the hospital. Everything was fine so an hour later we were at home.

It was the worst moment of my life. In a few seconds so many things crossed my mind… I thought I would never forget that day.

 

Mercedes Lusiardo