As Spanish writer Jorge Manrique said (or even later Bruce Springsteen), our lives are like rivers (have a look at Copla IV, "Coplas por la muerte de su padre"), rivers that die when they arrive at the sea, but which provide so much life in their way down to all the fields alongside. So remember to do your best because you are in the best part of your life, of your river!!!
Here's my musical hint for today: Bruce Springsteen - The River (The River Tour, Tempe 1980)
And do you remember the film by Robert Redford: A River Runs Through It : A Symphony (Mark Isham) and its wonderful soundtrack.
and here's its movie trailer (some other movie clips)
Some activities for you to do: 
Here's a very interesting listening exercise for you to learn about the English language: Is English really English? (The origins of English) (6 Minute English, BBC Learning English) and remember this old post of mine: Where does English come from?
English in a Minute: How to use 'ish' (BBC Learning English)
English in the News : Brazil's political crisis and Covid surge (BBC Learning English)
News Review: Suez Canal: Delays continue (BBC Learning English)
Giant ship blocking Suez canal partially refloated (The Guardian)
The cost of the Suez Canal blockage (BBC News)
How the Suez canal blockage can seriously dent world trade (The Guardian)
LINGOHACK >>>
- Episode 210317 / 17 March 2021 >>> Kenyan fishermen and women saving the planet - Language related to 'fishing'. Need-to-know language: catch, the fruits of, source of income, scarce & labour-intensive.
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ResponderEliminarI don't think that life have something in common with rivers, life is much more different and complicated, it has more obstacles and don't run as fast as the water of the river.
ResponderEliminarEach person interpreted life like they want but I think that with our age all the things that we do know without thinking it will have consequences in our future. All the things that we do know are the progress of a project that will be end in few years, that project is us. All the difficult things that came in our life is like a little exam to be ready if that thing pass in our future, to know how to get over it with out any effort.
I think that much of the people spend his life in have good times and choose the easy choice always for don't have any difficult thing to pass, and my opinion is that you always are going to have a bad time, you need to chose or have a nice time know and have too many difficulties in a future or be a little bit bad know and doing the difficult things to have a better future with out too many obstacles.
LAURA MARTÍN MOLIZ 4ºA
Trading is essential. It make is able to have thing that we don't produce in our country. A big part of the traded things travel by ship. A third of those ships travel across the Suez Canal. The Suez canal connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea and it's the border between Africa and Asia. The Suez canal is the fastest way to go from Europe to Asia because if the Suez canal wasn't there, ships would have to sail around Africa, which takes a lot more time.
ResponderEliminarA few weeks ago, a huge ship got stuck in the Suez canal and the canal got blocked. It was very strange because this year around 110 similar ships crossed the canal without any problem. The canal hadn't been blocked since 2013 and that was only for a few hours. It was a huge problem because ships often transport medicines and food and they have to travel quickly. Ever Given, which is the name of the ship, is enormous and some ships who came after it found the canal blocked and decided to sail around Africa.
They need a week to release the ship. Two or three days after all the ships could pass without difficulties. Now the Suez canal want to find the responsible of the accident. The owner of the ship or the company who was driving it has to pay around 850 million euros, which was the cost of the block.
Fortunately, the canal isn't blocked now and all the ships can pass without problems. There will be many discussions about who was the responsible of the accident and who has to pay for it. People don't know what made the Ever Given to get blocked, so they won't decide who will pay until they know what caused the block.
Trade is one of the most important things for almost everyone, almost all the things that are traded go by boat also by plane but most of it is by boat, much of that ships cross the Suez Canal, this connects the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea and is the border between Africa and Asia. Trade is so important because when a ship is stranded in the Suez Canal it affects the world economy because many countries are left short of products and products such as oil and derivatives become more expensive, which affects our pockets. This canal is the fastest way to go from Europe to Asia because if the canal was not there, the ships would have to sail around Africa, and it would take much longer.
ResponderEliminarRecently a huge ship got stuck in the Suez Canal and this canal became blocked. This channel had not been blocked since 2013 but it was for a few hours. This caused many problems for the other ships because they had to go around Africa and these ships must go fast because they transport food, medicine ...
A few hours later they managed to get the boat out and the other boats had no problems to pass, there are discussions about who was responsible for the accident and who will have to pay the fine. The owner of the boat or the company that was driving it has to pay around 850 million euros, which was the cost of the block.
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ResponderEliminarJorge Manrique is such a brilliant spanish writer and he has written many books. One of his most important books is "Coplas por la muerte de su padre", in it, he say things like the rivers look like to the life.
ResponderEliminarIn my opinion Jorge Manrique is absolutely right. The rivers resemble lifes in many ways like the birth or the death. Althought there are other things which Jorge Manrique said and I don't agree with them. For example, the life is more complicated than the rivers, and it has more obstacles than the rivers.
Currently all of us are living a really difficult situations because of the covid and we must keep up studying or working and make decisions by ourselves for the best future and to have your ideal lifestyle. I go along with Jorge Manrique in that all the rivers arrive at the sea and therefore we should take advantage of the time.
RAÚL GARCÍA JIMÉNEZ 4ºA
I think that this comparison is a very good comparison, because I also think in our lives like rivers, our lives is the route of the river, living different adventures, like obstacles or other things, and bringing live where it pass. One of his most important books is «Coplas por la muerte de su padre», in it, he say things like the rivers look like to the life. The rivers resemble lifes in many ways like the birth or the death. I go along with Jorge Manrique in that all the rivers arrive at the sea and therefore we should take advantage of the time.
ResponderEliminarDANI 4A
The Suez Canal in Middle East (Egypt). It's long and very narrow. It starts in the Red Sea and leave to Mediterranean Sea. It's and will be a of the routes most important of world. All the ships of merchandise will cross for transport products from countries of Asia as China, Taiwan, Japan, India, Vietnam and South Korea across the Indic Ocean, go to countries of Europe as Spain, Italy, Greece, France and Turkey.
ResponderEliminarRussia wants in the present and in the future the ships will change his routes for will go to the Artic Route in the North Pole. If the ships cross this route, the ships will save a lot of fuel and days of travel and the products should will be more inexpensive and all will leave we win. Thank to Suez Canal we won't miss anything products.
Ruben Sabio Prados 2º ESO A
I think that rivers can have something in common with life.
ResponderEliminarEach person has a point of view of what life is but no one has the exact answer, like a river, life is a long journey full of all kinds of obstacles which always has an end.
If you stop to think about it, it is interesting to see how everything you have done, all the way you have traveled always comes to an end so unpredictable and so inevitable.
Like a river, we have a source, a long road and an end.
At this age we do not understand much of what life is about since I, for example, I take it as a kind of transition in which we assimilate different scenarios, different points of view, etc.
When I think about it, I am a little scared to know that all this is going to have an end which no one knows when it will arrive and the only thing we can do is live as well as possible, or at least try.
MIRIAM NAZARET POZO MANCILLA 4ºA
n general, I don't like water, I have thalassophobia which is a phobia of the sea or ocean, so everything related to that kind of thing scares me.
ResponderEliminarThere are very beautiful rivers and, seen from the outside, I like them, but because of my fear, it doesn't attract much attention. The longest river in the world is the Amazon, located in Peru.
In Spain there are many well-known and important rivers, some of them are: Guadalquivir, Tajo, Ebro, Guadiana, Duero ... etc.
Rocio Avellanedas Nocete 2ºESO A
Nowadays we are passing through a lot of problems because of the pandemic, although we need to continue, trying to pass this obstacle, to continue with our lives in the way that we like, and with this case there are a very useful comparison, the comparison that did the Spanish writer, Jorge Manrique in his Copla IV.
ResponderEliminarJorge Manrique did this comparision in his most famous work, that is "Coplas a la muerte de su padre", in this work he remmeber his father Rodrigo Manrique, and all of this work was dedicated to his father. In this work Manrique did one comparison, in that he comparated the rivers with the life, and that when the rivers arrive to the ocean, is when our lifes finish, is when we die.
Manrique did a fascinating comparision, with that I am agreeing, I think that the rivers is as our lifes with a lot of obstacles, and difficults, but bringing life where it pass. And our death is when the river arrive to the ocean, and it ends. There are one thing with that I am not agree, that is because I think that we can decided our lifes and change if it necessary, but the rivers can't. I think that we have to live our lives the best that we can, and enjoy a lot of.
I think that this comparision is fascinating and that Manrique did a big comparision, except for this that I said, that we can change our lifes when we want.
I agree with Jorge Manrique because our lives are like rivers that often change. People don’t have a specific path, we create our path with our decisions throughout our life.
ResponderEliminarThis pandemic has made me think about my life and all the good things that I have. In the situation that we are living, the most important is to know and value the people who are always there. We have to help other people in their difficult moments, because due to coronavirus everybody has a lot of problems, especially economic problems.
My opinion is that, although we don’t know how our path will be in the future or where our river will arrive, we have to be good people. We have to be sympathetic.
Leo Maldonado Castro 1ºBach
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ResponderEliminarEach one has a different point of view, in my opinion, I think that rivers are similar to life, because both are long, but the difference is that life has obstacles, for the other side, the rivers have not.
ResponderEliminarIf you don't well things, then you will have the consequences that will affect your future. Many people choose to make things easy and with the least possible effort, for this, later in the future it goes badly for them.
But, there are other people who do an effort to do things well for their future and this is the correct form.
LARA QUESADA SOSA 4ºA
I basically like that kind of thing about the seas and oceans, although I am also afraid of some things that can be lost at sea.
ResponderEliminarThe longest and most scandalous river at the same time is the Amzonas, which runs from Peru to the Atlantic Ocean, passing through Colombia and Brazil.
In Spain there are also some very famous rivers such as: El Tajo, El Guadalquivir, El Ebro, El Duero, El Besaya ...
I know that some people suffer from thalassophobia (fear of going deep into the sea), and I do not deny that it IS very scary to go very far to the sea. I hope in summer to be able to go back to the beach or go to see famous rivers in Spain.
Dunia Arnedo Martin 2ºA
Nowadays we are passing through a lot of problems because of the pandemic and a lot of other problems, although we need to continue, trying to go over this obstacle, to continue living our lives in the way that we like, and with this case there is a very useful comparison, the one that the Spanish writer Jorge Manrique did in his Copla IV.
ResponderEliminarJorge Manrique did a comparison in his most famous work that is "Coplas a la muerte de su padre" he wrote this to honor his father, Rodrigo Manrique, and that with these poems the people could remember his father forever, but with this work all the people remember Jorge Manrique instead of his father. In this work, he did a comparison, he compared our lives with rivers, and he said that our death was when the river gets to the sea.
I think that this comparison is a very good comparison, because I also think in our lives are like rivers, our lives is the route of the river, living different adventures, like obstacles or other things, and bringing live to all the places it goes through. And our death is when the river ends, when it arrives at the sea. However, I don't agree with all this comparison, because in my opinion, we can change our lives, the routes of our rivers with different choices that we can do.
Finally, I think that we should enjoy now, because we are still in the best part of our lives, of our river, so we need to enjoy and to worry less about things without importance, before it is too late.
Francisco González 1ºBach
The comparison that Jorge Manrique does between lives and rivers seems very true to me. We must enjoy life because it´s as short as the course of a river. We often think that we have plenty of time and that we can leave it all for later, but we never know when we are going to live our last day.
ResponderEliminarWe, teenagers, tend to think that we are living a difficult time, a time of changes, arguments with friends or family, many exams, many problems... But despite all this, we are constantly complaining, I think we are living the best part of our lives. When we are older, we will remember these years, because they will be possibly the funniest of our lives.
But it is true that we must act thinking about the future, since all the things we do have future consequences. Right now we are going to start college, and we must choose a degree that we like because we are going to dedicate to it for the rest of our lives. But to enter in the degree that we like, we must first study a lot in high school and get the best possible mark.
We must do our best because, as I said before, life is very short. Also, sometimes it is not easy. Life puts difficulties for you and you must overcome them, just as it happens in rivers. However, Jorge Manrique makes a very good reflection, since he says that all rivers end in the sea, it doesn´t care the amount of water they carry. The same happens in life; we all, rich and poor, pass away.
“Our lives are like rivers” is a good comparison because life goes very fast without stopping, and when you realise that you left a big part of it.
ResponderEliminarWe think that in our ages we are so busy and we don't have time to do all that we want do, but we should take advantage of these years because they are the bestest and the lastest without having responsibilities.
We have to enjoy the present without thinking in the future because if you don't do it you wont have enjoyed the past, you are not enjoying the present and you won't enjoy the future. And when you arrive at the end of the river you can't come back to the beginning.
RAQUEL PEINADO TORRES 4ºA
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ResponderEliminarLife is like a river that flow, a river that is always in movement, in action, in continuous change and progress. For this reason it should never stop, although it is something that does happen. But, why? Why suddenly that river stops flowing?.
ResponderEliminarOnly we can take control of our life. We decide with our actions what happen in our lives and we have the power of change whatever we want. However, life is much more complicated than we think and sometimes the "river" stops. Due to situations that affect us, due to experiences that we live, our life stops flowing and we find ourselves paralyzed, without future expectations.
But the truth is that we can't get anything positive if we stand still and do not nothing. Without progress we cannot achieve what we want and makes us feel better. For that reason, we must try to continuous with our life even if it seems a little difficult at times. Try to make the most of your time and put aside worries because life there is only one.
To sum up, if you feel catch, search the way to escape and continuous experimenting. Live, experience, suffer, but never stop reaching your dreams, because life is like a river that we must keep moving.
rivers are natural environments. I like to go for a walk in the forest. I believe that in the future if we all take care of the planet it will not be polluted and clean. In the summer I usually go with my cousins in August to hike through the sketch and we also bathe. Abel Martínez 2A
ResponderEliminarEach one has a different point of view, in my opinion, I think that rivers are similar to life, because both are long, but the difference is that life has obstacles,but the rivers haven't.
ResponderEliminarIf you don't do things well, then you will have the consequences that will affect your future. Other people who make an effort, for this, later in the future it goes badly for them.
But, there are other people who do an effort to do things well for their future and this is the correct way.
LARA QUESADA SOSA 4ºA
Jorge Manrique is one of the best poets in Spain, he made great poems, one of the most important is the Coplas a la muerte de su padre, in which he talks about the course of life, he says that life is like a river and its arrival at the sea symbolises death. This comparison seems very good and real to me. In this poem he wants to teach in a formal and philosophical way what life and death are.
ResponderEliminarMany times we are not aware of how quickly everything happens or of the things that are really important and we entertain ourselves or worry about things that are not important. In my case and in that of many teenagers, it takes time to realize things and when something happens to us we think that it is the worst in the world, and we are unable to solve it simply because of the way we deal with them. However, little by little we are realizing the problems that are really important and that we have to worry about.
In conclusion, we must enjoy life more, realize that we have to worry and that we do not, since life passes very quickly.
Jorge Manrique was a poet who was very famous in Spain. He made a lot of poems. The most famous poem was 'Coplas de sangre'. In this poem rivers are compared with the life. In my opinion rivers don't have anythings in common with the life. In the life there are many obstacles that we have to overcome them. Teenagers don't think the things what we do. I think that these obstacles are very important, to make us achieve all things that we propose in the future. Howevwe, we can't forget that life is too short and we have to enjoy. Many people spend their lifes working, to have a better life but many times this future doesn't arrive. I think that family is the most important in the life and we should be always with them. JOSÉ ADRIÁN GONZÁLEZ 4ºA
ResponderEliminarJorge Manrique is a well-known and famous Spanish poet in his time who makes reference in one of his poems, called "Coplas for the death of his father", to the similarities that a river has with life.
ResponderEliminarI think we do have something in common with rivers. The path of the river would be our life and what we would have to do is never give up and overcome all the obstacles that lie in front of us, like the water of a river that does not stop from when it is born on top of a mountain until that flows into a sea despite the many obstacles that lie ahead. Life passes very quickly and we have to enjoy it to the fullest, but always carefully because young people do things without thinking and everything we do now will have consequences for our future. Life has to be spent with the people you love the most and you have to be very smart, because many people will approach you only out of necessity and then they will fail you.
MARÍA ROMERO 4ºA
As Jorge Manrique tells us in his work "Coplas to the death of his father" life is like a river, it begins when we are born, as rivers do in the mountains, it continues along its course in which despite the difficulties that presents this path continues to its destination which is to reach the sea.
ResponderEliminarOur life is something very valuable, because it has been given to us to have experiences, incredible experiences and not so incredible experiences, to learn new things every day, to give the best of ourselves and to become that person we really want to be.
The path that the river travels, our life, is essential because it is the path that we travel to be able to fulfill ourselves as the people that we are. This path is full of opportunities, sacrifices, bad and good experiences, illusions and disappointments, but the most important thing is to enjoy each and every one of them, because the path is very short.
In my opinion, this work teaches many of the essential values that people should have, from this work we can extract many lessons from our daily lives, such as being aware of our facts and taking responsibility for them, always enjoying life to the fullest.
SUSANA P. BOSCH 1º BACH
Jorge Manrique was a pre-renaissance poet. He was part of an important family of poets. It is one of the most important authors in the whole spanish literature. His works have inspired lots of later authors, being his best work the "Coplas a la muerte de su padre". This is a book composed of 40 stanzas where he talks about the death of his father, Rodrigo Manrique. In this book, we can see shown the three lives: the eartly life, the eternal life and the life of fame.
ResponderEliminarTalking about the sentence you have mentioned in the post, "Our lives are like rivers". The full sentence is: "Our lifes are the rives who end up in the sea, what is dying". This is a really beatiful metaphor which talks about the fugacity of the human´s life. When we want to realize, most of our life will have passed. And to this, Manrique adds that everyone ends in the same sea, rich people, famous people, poor people, everyone end up in the same place, so we should care more about the memories we create during our life than the material thing we earn, because these will fade away one day, but the memories will stay in the people alive.
In my opinion, this fugacity of the human´s life is what brings it his "magic". I think it is really beautiful that we know this life will end one day, because this way we try to squeeze every moment, giving importance to everything that happens in our daily routine. So, the little things of our day to day are what stay in our memory, making us feel alive. Jorge Manrique says that there is a way to survive death, fame. To Manrique fame is the way to make people remember you, and I think he is totally right.
In summary, I think Jorge Manrique was a really good author, being nowadays a representative poet of his time. He has left us lots of good poems to read and learn from. We have seen some of the traditions of the time thanks to him, and he have taught us why is life important, and why we should live it without regretings. Finally, Manrique managed to reach fame and stay alive in our time, I´m sure his father would be proud of him!
David Bacas 1º Bach
As Jorge Manrique tells us in his work «Coplas to the death of his father» life is like a river, it begins when we are born, as rivers do in the mountains, it continues along its course in which despite the difficulties that presents this path continues to its destination which is to reach the sea.
ResponderEliminarThis path is full of opportunities, sacrifices, bad and good experiences, illusions and disappointments, but the most important thing is to enjoy each and every one of them, because the path is very short.
In my opinion, this work teaches many of the essential values that people should have, from this work we can extract many lessons from our daily lives, such as being aware of our facts and taking responsibility for them, always enjoying life to the fullest.
I think we do have something in common with rivers. The path of the river would be our life and what we would have to do is never give up and overcome all the obstacles that lie in front of us, like the water of a river that does not stop from when it is born on top of a mountain until that flows into a sea despite the many obstacles that lie ahead.
Álvaro Molina Martín 4ºA
Life like rivers as a great Spanish poet Jorge Manrique says in his work "Copla a la muerte de su padre" is a great comparison.
ResponderEliminarIn my opinion, this comparison makes a lot of sense. Life is like a river full of turbulence and does not rest until it empties into the sea.
Those turbulences would be the different phases that humans go through. At the end of all that road the river empties into the sea that would mean death.
I think that this comparison is like a life lesson where it compares people with rivers to tell us that we can overcome any obstacle that life prepares for us, just as the water from the river separates everything and reaches the sea.
We are currently going through many problems due to the pandemic, although we have to continue, trying to overcome this obstacle and try to reach normalcy by complying with all the safety regulations, to continue living our life the way we like, and in this case with this pandemic, try to overcome this obstacle
ResponderEliminarJorge Manrique is one of the best poets in Spain, he wrote great poems, one of the most important is The Coplas on the death of his father, in which he tells us and talks about the course of life: life is like a river, It begins when we are born, as rivers do in the mountains, it continues along its course in which despite the difficulties it presents, the path continues to its destination which is to reach the sea. Its arrival at the sea symbolizes death.
This path is full of opportunities, sacrifices, bad and good experiences, illusions and disappointments, but the most important thing is to enjoy each and every one of them, because the path is very short. The path of the river would be our lives and we would not have to never give up and overcome the bumps that are placed in the middle of the road, like the water of the river that does not stop for many obstacles that are placed in the middle of the road.
In my opinion, the comparison that Jorge Manrique makes between lives and rivers seems very true. This path is full of opportunities, sacrifices, bad and good experiences, illusions and disappointments, but the most important thing is to enjoy each and every one of them. , because the road is very short.
Now we must act with the future in mind, as all the things we do have future consequences.
We are currently going through many problems due to the pandemic, although we have to continue, trying to overcome this obstacle and try to reach normalcy by complying with all the safety regulations, to continue living our life the way we like, and in this case with this pandemic, try to overcome this obstacle
ResponderEliminarJorge Manrique is one of the best poets in Spain, he wrote great poems, one of the most important is The Coplas on the death of his father, in which he tells us and talks about the course of life: life is like a river, It begins when we are born, as rivers do in the mountains, it continues along its course in which despite the difficulties it presents, the path continues to its destination which is to reach the sea. Its arrival at the sea symbolizes death.
This path is full of opportunities, sacrifices, bad and good experiences, illusions and disappointments, but the most important thing is to enjoy each and every one of them, because the path is very short. The path of the river would be our lives and we would not have to never give up and overcome the bumps that are placed in the middle of the road, like the water of the river that does not stop for many obstacles that are placed in the middle of the road.
In my opinion, the comparison that Jorge Manrique makes between lives and rivers seems very true. This path is full of opportunities, sacrifices, bad and good experiences, illusions and disappointments, but the most important thing is to enjoy each and every one of them. , because the road is very short.
Now we must act with the future in mind, as all the things we do have future consequences.
Jorge Manrique was a pre-Renaissance poet and Castilian man-at-arms, member of the House of Manrique de Lara, one of the oldest families of the Castilian nobility, and nephew of the also poet Gómez Manrique. He is the author of the Coplas a la muerte de su padre, one of the classic poems of Spanish literature of all time. He has also composed various love and burlesque poems and is considered one of the most important poets in the General Songbook. His poetic work is not extensive, approximately 50 compositions, including most of them in the General Songbook.
ResponderEliminarSara Rodriguez