Valentine's day Gifts

These two pie charts illustrate the kind of gifts men and women buy for each other on Valentine's day.

The top three gifts men buy for women are cards which are 18%, flowers which are 16% and candy which is 14%. Whereas the top three gifts women buy for men are cards, which is the same as men, but with more percentage which is 27%. Candy comes second with 21% followed by flowers with 11%. The most popular gift for both men and women is cards which is something in common. However, the second most common gift men buy is flowers, but it’s candy for women. The rest of the gifts men buy would be jewelry 10%, lingerie 7%, spa/personal care 6% and finally perfume 4%. Whereas the rest of gifts women buy for men are perfume 10%, jewelry 9%, lingerie 4% and finally spa/personal care which got a very small portion that is only 1% of the whole.

In conclusion, it looks like cards, candy and flowers got the biggest segments and that’s because they’re the most common gifts for both men and women.

Top Ten Producing Countries 2001

This bar chart illustrates information about the top ten date producing countries in the year 2001 which is mentioned in tonnes.

Overall, the top three date producers are first, Egypt with 1,100,000 tonnes which is the most abundant. This is followed by Iran with 900,000 tonnes. The UAE comes third with around 780,000 tonnes. Fourth comes Suadi Arabia which is a little less than the UAE with approximatly 770,000 tonnes. The production of Iraq and Pakistan are nearly the same. Finally came Algeria, Oman, Sudan and Libya which has the least production of all. Six countries produce more than half a million tonnes a year. If we caculate the production of Iraq, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, we’ll get about 2,700,000 tonnes of dates.

In coclusion, Egypt and Iran took the majority of date production while Sudan and Libya are in the minority.

UK Budget 1996

This pie chart shows information about the spending of the UK government in 1996 which is divided into ten different segments.

First comes the social security which has the highest rate. That’s because the UK government thinks that the social security is an important issue, therefore it spent £100 billion on social security. Then comes health and personal social services which got an amount of £53 billion. That’s nearly half of what the social security got. It’s the government responsibility to take care of the citizens and their needs. Third comes the education which plays a big role in developing the country. Then comes the debt interest followed by other expenditure and defence which got a similar amount of money. After that comes the law and order which the government spent £17 billion on. Then comes housing heritage and environment. It got £15 billion. It’s important that the country looks clean. After that come the industry, agriculture and employment where the government spent £13 billion. Finally comes the transport which got the smallest portion which was £9 billion.

The UK government spent a total of £315 billion. That’s a big number to spend, but it’s for the people's sake. The amount spent on social security was almost a third of the total budget.

Reflection 2

Few days are left until the end of this semester. Mr. Hedley and Mr. Paul have spent a great effort teaching us English 125 which includes the writing, the reading and the listening which I have good results in. Although It was a little rough because we had to go through a lot of writing, but I have gained more experience in English. However, I have met nice and wonderful classmates.

How to make Popcorn

Usually we buy popcorn at the movies, but it’s very easy to make popcorn at home. To do so, you have to follow some simple steps.

First, three tablespoons of oil are put in a large pot. Then, the oil is heated on a high flame until one kernel of popcorn pops when it is dropped into the hot oil. Now, a quarter cup of popcorn is poured into the pot and the pot is covered with a lid. After that, the flame should be reduced and the pot is gently shaken. It should be shaken constantly and carefully watched because the popcorn maybe burned. Finally, the popcorn must be emptied into a large bowl and melted butter and salt could be added.

Now you can enjoy your popcorn while watching your favorite movie.

A Journey from Brunei to Sarawak

Thirty years ago, Hedley, with his wife Mary and daughter Katie, visited the Niah caves in Sarawak, East Malaysia. They travelled by car, ferry and boat.

They set off from Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei and drove to the border with Sarawak. They crossed two large rivers by ferry, stopped in Miri for lunch and then continued to Niah, a small river township. Then they hired a small boat and sailed upriver to a government rest house, where they spent the night. They ate with the small group of scientists who lived in the rest house and shared the cold drinks they had brought with them in a cool box. It was a remote spot, deep in the jungle. They slept in bunk beds with no airconditioning. It was a novel experience.

The next morning, they walked along a jungle path for half an hour until they reached the Niah caves. Inside the caves, which were very high, they saw men who climbed up tall bamboo poles. The men wore lights on their hats because it was so dark. At the top of the poles they scraped off birds' nest from the roof of the caves. The nests were collected by their mates on the cave floor and packed into sacks. These nests were later sold and make into bird's nest soup, a Chinese delicacy.

That afternoon, they said goodbye to their new-found friends in the rest house and set off on the long drive home. It was quite an adventure and one they would never forget.

Reflection

In this course, my English teachers Mr. Hedley and Mr. Paul are preparing us for the IELTS Exam. They have given us a lot of necessary procedures to deal with the listening, the reading and the writing in useful steps. With my teachers efforts my English has become much better than it was before. In this course we did compare and contrast and writing procedure essays. We had our first progress test which I had good marks in. I hope I can do better in future.  In my point of view, this course is really interesting. Finally, I would like to thank my teachers for their teaching techniques, my classmates for their support and myself for writing this essay.