A new shop in Villamayor

Social Sciences: vocabulary unit 6

The economic organization of society

Economic activity: the different processes involved in the production and consumption of goods and services.

Economic agent: a person, group or institution involved in the economy.

Goods: tangible economic products.

Services: economic activities that are intangible.

Production: and activity that provides goods and services for consumption.

Distribution: the marketing, delivery and sale of goods and services.

Marketing: the act of researching, promoting and advertising a product or service in order to sell it.

Consumption: the use of a product or service to satisfy needs or desires.

Supply: availability of something for use or sale.

Demand: the desire to own something in the market and the willingness to pay  for it.

Inflation: a rise in a general level of prices of goods and services in the economy or a decrease in value of the purchasing power of money.

Profit: the monetary gain of a business after all expenses have been met.

Tax: a monetary contribution to the government required of people, groups, or business.

Raw material: is the basic material from which goods, finished products or intermediate materials are made.
Telecommuting: the use of home computers, telephones, etc. to enable a person to work from home.
Employer: type of worker who are the proprietors or administrators of the companies.

Employee: type of worker who carry out their work in exchange for a salary.
Self-employed: is the act of generating one's income directly from customers, clients or other organizations.
Active population: people between 16-67 years old that are employed, unemployed or looking for their first job.
Inactive population: people under 16 years old or above 67 years old, students, retired or disable people.
Disabled: people with one or more mental or/and physical impairments.
Retired: person that has left his/her work because is 67 or more years old.
Full-time contracts: work a minimum hours.(five eight-hours days)
Part-time contracts: work a few hours per week.

Idioms: 3

Idioms:
-To ask for the moon: means to take unreasonable demands for things or to wish something impossible to archieve or to obtain.
-When you hold the fort: it means that you take care of a place when the person, nomally in change, is away.
-Under the table: is a phrase used to describe secretive behaviour often suggesting corruption or illegality.
-To horse around: means to behave in a silly way making noise and causing disruption/interraption.
-When you say someone has chickened out of something: you mean they have failed to do something or they haven't tried to do it because they were afraid.
-When you say someone is a wise old owl you mean they are very experienced in life.
-A night owl: is someone who stays up late into the night.
-When you say someone is in safe hands you mean they are being cared for someone who is confident and skilled.
-A safe pair of hands: is a similar expression. It refers to someone who can be trusted to do a good job avoiding mistakes.
-If someone tells you to hold your tongue: it means they want you to stop talking because they don't like what you are saying.
-If a situation is black and white: it means you have a clear opinion about it. You can easily see what you think is right and wrong.
-The phrase money doesn't grow on trees means you must not spend too much money as there is a limited amount of it.
-The phrase money is no object: means that you have a lot of money available to spend.
-Let the chips fall where they may:means to allow things to happen no matter what the consequences are.
-When you say something is  as cheap as chips you mean it's very cheap.
-If you are chasing your tail you are very busy doing a lot of different things but not archieving very much.

My future city

Letter to a friend from Canada

Social Sciences: vocabulary unit 5

Spain: politics and territory

National sovereignty: all Spanish citizens elect the members of the Congress of Deputies, the Senate, the autonomous parliaments, the town halls and the European Parliament every four years.

Constitutional Monarchy: a system of government in which the king is the head of the state but the parliament chooses the government. The government manages the politics of the state.

The Crown: the part of a constitutional monarchy represented by the king.

Arbitrator: a person chosen to decide a dispute or settle defenses. In a constitutional monarchy, the king is the arbitrator between governmental institutions.

Decentralized Government: a system of government in which decision-making is devolved to a local level and is therefore closer to the citizens.

Motion of no confidence: is a vote which states that a person in a superior position is no longer deemed fit to hold that position.

Ministers: government officials that, together with the president, make up the Spanish cabinet.

Municipality: the most basic administrative body in the Spanish territory. It's made up of one or several settlements.

Town Council: the organization that governs each municipality in Spain.

Mayor: person that governs the town hall.

Councilors: government officials that, together with the mayor, make up the town council. They elect the mayor.

Province: an administrative body made up of several municipalities in the Spanish territory.

Self-government: a system of government in which a community or region has authority to govern itself without the intervention of any other authority.

Statute of Autonomy: a law describing the institutions, laws and responsibilities for each of the autonomous communities in the Spanish territory.

Subsidiarity: the services the municipality can provide need not to be provided by the autonomous community.

Autonomous Community: one of 17 regions that form part of the Spanish territory with its own devolved government.

Exclusive authority: local government power over laws related to town planning, housing, monuments, health care and education.

Share authority: local government and state power over laws related to transport or labor market. 

Post-industrial society: a society in which the economy has undergone a shift from the production of goods to the provision of services.

Well-being: the level of satisfaction of a population  measured by education levels, health care, life expentancy and consumption.

Life expectancy: the number of years a person or population is expected to live.

Illiteracy: unable to read and write.

Extended family: a traditional big family with grandparents, parents, children...

Nuclear family: contemporary family wth parents and children.

Single parent family: family with a mother or father and children.

Same sex marriages: marriage between two people of the same biological sex.

Is necessary the Constitution?

In my opinion I think that the Constitution is a very important thing in our country. It is the collection of the most important laws and rights in a country, where you can find how is the state organized. Without it the country will be a chaos. Everybody will do whatever he wants. We need it to be coordinated, to know how the state works. It's a guide where the politics and the people should search if they don't know something. 

The Constitution it's the essencial part of a country, the rights and duties that every person has to follow.