Year II, Nos.

2-3, February 2014 June 2015

Edited by Colegiul Na]ional B@n@]ean Timi}oara

Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes

perfect. (Vincent Lombardi)

Year II, Nos. 2-3, February 2014 June 2015

Edited by Colegiul Na]ional B@n@]ean Timi}oara

Prof. Gabriela Pachia

Raluca Petru}
Roxana Andrea Andra}, Cristina
Maria Andra}, Alexandra Gabriela Baranyi, Marco
Stroini, Bianca Eva Kele, Miruna Sorina Matei, Raluca
Petru}, Ioana Miruna Robescu, M@d@lina {treang@

Contact: gabritruth@yahoo.co.uk
Gabriela Pachia
Sunt acceptate reproduceri de texte, destinate strict utiliz@rii / cit@rii justificate n
interes }tiin]ific / pedagogic, cu precizarea obligatorie a sursei.
Edi]ia online: http://www.scribd.com/doc
ISBN 978-606-614-084-3
Editura Waldpress / Waldpress Publishing House, Timi}oara, 2015

Prof. Gabriela Pachia, CNB Alumni: Grade 12th Philology 2 (2014 ~ 2024) . . . . . . . 5
Darian Ciprian Andra}, Cristina Maria Andra}, Roxana Andreea Andra},
Andreea Antal, Ana Maria Bota, Andreea Larisa D@b^ca, Cristina M@d@lina
Drehu]@, Bianca Cristina iordan, Daniel Domi]ian Iuonac, Brenda Daria Lobon],
Adania Pascu, Alina Cristina Pa}ca, M@lina Georgiana Pena, Ana Maria Popescu,
Monica Popovici, Alexandra M@d@lina S@rac, Alice Cecilia Scorobete, Alexandra
Tcaciuc, Prof. Gabriela Pachia, Naturally Natural : Earth Day, Earth Day ~ The
History of a Movement ~ Mother Nature ~ Think Green ! ~ Nature Matters Matter !
~ Reduce, Reuse, Recycle ! ~ Green Tips ~ The Tree of Life ~ Water Day ~ Nature
Is the Art of God . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Doriana C@pitanu, Raul Ciuculescu, Marco Cristea-Nicolici, M@d@lina Iasmina
Golban, Laura Larisa Jurchi]a, Bianca Florentina Laza, Monica Popovici,
Paul Vi]elariu, Prof. Gabriela Pachia, Travelling Broadens the Mind ~ The World
We Want ~ Travel Advice for Globetrotters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Prof. Gabriela Pachia, Perfect Practice Makes Perfect : Evaluation Papers ~
Progress Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Monica Popovici, My Grandpa Loves Excellency ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Prof. Gabriela Pachia, Hyphenated Compound Modifiers (2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 1
Bianca Eva Kele, Prof. Gabriela Pachia, n]elepciune romneasc@ ~ Romanian
Wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 13
Tudor Arghezi, Inscrip]ie de femeie ~ A Woman's Inscription, {tefan Augustin
Doina}, Sympozion ~ Symposion, Nichita St@nescu, n dulcele stil clasic ~ In the
Sweet Classical Style, Marin Sorescu, Var@ de septembrie ~ September Summer,
Adrian P@unescu, C$tec femeiesc ~ Song of Womanhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Prof. Gabriela Pachia, Laparoscopic ~ Laparoscopically, Ro}u la iubire ~
No Love in the Stars ! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Bianca Albu, Alexandra Gabriela Baranyi, Alexandru B@l@}oiu, Cinzia Adelina Bia,
Denisa Nicoleta Bobic, Nicoleta Borzan, Adoria Brebe, Ruxandra Cosmina
D^lgoci, Paula Carina Dud@u, Andreea Roxana Fodor, Daiana Glisici, Mircea
Holho}, Florin Traian Ianco, Eva Bianca Kele, Darius Marcu, Andreea Iulia
Marton, Miruna Matei, Lorena M@ran, Andra Mosor, Raluca Petru}, Darius
P^rvu, Syndus Safya Sabri, Marco Stroini, Felix Szilagyi, M@d@lina {treang@,
Andreea Toma, Andrada Patricia Trifu, Radu [ig, Alexandra Vasilan, Prof.
Gabriela Pachia, Positive Thinking ~ A Pseudopsychotherapy ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Prof. Gabriela Pachia, Half-Full or Half-Empty ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

Ioana Miruna Robescu, Oana C@t@lina Ciosici, Prof. Gabriela Pachia,
Jokespedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Prof. Gabriela Pachia

Colegiul Na]ional B@n@]ean, Timi}oara

Ana Maria Bota (Grade: 9th Social Sciences 1)

Mlina Georgiana Pena, Ana Maria Popescu (Grade: 10th Philology 2)
Bianca Cristina Iodan (Grade: 10th Social Sciences 1),
Monica Popovici (Grade: 10th Mathematics-Informatics),
Alexandra Mdlina Srac (Grade: 11th Mathematics-Informatics 1),
Andreea Larisa Dbca, Cristina Mdlina Drehu, Daniel Domiian Iuonac
(Grade: 11th Mathematics-Informatics 2)
Darian Ciprian Andra, Adania Pascu, Alina Cristina Paca (Grade: 11th Natural Sciences 1)
Roxana Andrea Andra, Cristina Maria Andra, Andreea Antal, Brenda Daria Lobon,
Alice Cecilia Scorobete, Alexandra Tcaciuc, (Grade: 11th Natural Sciences 2)

The earth is what we all have in common. (Wendell Barry)

Let us be good stewards of the Earth we inherited. All of us have to share the Earths
fragile ecosystems and precious resources, and each of us has a role to play in preserving them.
If we are to go on living together on this earth, we must all be responsible for it. (Kofi Annan)
The earth laughs at him who calls a place his own. (Hindustani Saying)
There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew. (Marshall McLuhan, 1964)
Speak to the earth, and it shall teach thee. (Biblical proverb)
Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your
children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.
(Indian Proverb)
You must teach your children that the ground beneath their feet is the ashes of your
grandfathers. So that they will respect the land, tell your children that the earth is rich with the
lives of our kin. Teach your children what we have taught our children, that the earth is our
mother. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the sons of the earth. If men spit upon the ground,
they spit upon themselves. (Native American Wisdom)

Mother Earth, the trees, and all nature are witnesses of your thoughts and deeds.
(Winnebago)
It is a sacred house that I have come to, / It is a sacred house that I have come to,
Holaghei. / Now I have come to the House of the Earth. (Navajo song)
What springs from earth dissolves to earth again, and heaven-born things fly to their native
seat. (Marcus Aurelius)
What region of the earth is not full of our calamities? (Virgil)
The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition. (Hannah Arendt)
My soul can find no staircase to Heaven unless it be through Earths loveliness.
(Michelangelo)
Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent
schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books. (John Lubbock)
Roll on, deep and dark blue ocean, roll. Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man
marks the earth with ruin, but his control stops with the shore. (Lord Byron)
Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth. (Henry D.
Thoreau)
You must love the crust of the earth on which you dwell more than the sweet crust of any
bread or cake; you must be able to extract nutriment out of a sand heap. You must have so good
an appetite as this, else you will live in vain. (Henry David Thoreau)
Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign
yourself to the influence of the earth. (Henry David Thoreau, Walden)
The earth belongs to the living, not to the dead. (Thomas Jefferson)
No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable
to that of the garden. But though an old man, I am but a young gardener. (Th. Jefferson, 1811)
Every moment and every event of every man's life on earth plants something in his soul.
(Thomas Merton)
A piece of the sky and a chunk of the earth / lie lodged in the heart of every human
being. (Thomas Moore)
O earth, what changes hast thou seen! (Alfred Lord Tennyson)
Earth laughs in flowers. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
Earths crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God: But only he who
sees takes off his shoes. (Elizabeth Barrett Browning)
The poetry of the earth is never dead. (John Keats)
The earth, that is sufficient, I do not want the constellations any nearer, I know they are
very well where they are, I know they suffice for those who belong to them. (Walt Whitman)

Mountains are to the rest of the body of the earth, what violent muscular action is to the
body of man. The muscles and tendons of its anatomy are, in the mountain, brought out with
force and convulsive energy, full of expression, passion, and strength. (John Ruskin)
We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on Earth. (George Bernard Shaw)
Earths the right place for love. I dont know where its likely to go better. (Robert Frost)
Remain true to the earth. (Friedrich Nietzsche)
Does wisdom perhaps appear on the earth as a raven which is inspired by the smell of
carrion? (Friedrich Nietzsche)
I conjure you, my brethren, to remain faithful to earth, and do not believe those who speak
unto you of superterrestrial hopes! Poisoners they are, whether they know it or not. (F. Nietzsche)
Life comes from the earth and life returns to the earth. (Zhuangzi)
Earth provides enough to satisfy every mans need, but not every mans greed. (M. Gandhi)
To forget how to dig the earth and to tend the soil is to forget ourselves. (M. Gandhi)
On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it. (Jules Renard)
The earth we abuse and the living things we kill will, in the end, take their revenge; for in
exploiting their presence we are diminishing our future. (Marya Mannes, More in Anger, 1958)
Mankind has probably done more damage to the Earth in the 20th century than in all of
previous human history. (Jacques Yves Cousteau)
Youre on earth. Theres no cure for that. (Samuel Beckett)
This struck me very strongly and I saw that modern civilization is this gigantic, runaway,
Babylonian monster that is chewing up the Earth. (Jos Argelles)
Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values... God made life simple.
It is man who complicates it. (Charles A. Lindbergh, Readers Digest, July 1972)
Humanity is on the march, earth itself is left behind. (David Ehrenfeld, 1978)
If we do not permit the earth to produce beauty and joy, it will in the end not produce food,
either. (Joseph Wood Krutch)
Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary
of life. (Rachel Carson)
I feel more confident than ever that the power to save the planet rests with the individual
consumer. (Denis Hayes)
If we go on using the Earth uncaringly and without replenishing it, then we are just greedy
consumers. (Satish Kumar)
Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with
your hair. (Khalil Gibran)

Spring has returned. The Earth is like a child that knows poems. (Rainer Maria Rilke)
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb
and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didnt feel like a giant. I felt very,
very small. (Neil Armstrong)
Mountains are earths undecaying monuments. (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
The last sound on the worthless earth will be two human beings trying to launch a
homemade spaceship and already quarrelling about where they are going next. (W. Faulkner)
Earth is a flower and its pollinating. (Neil Young)
One planet, one experiment. (Edward O. Wilson)
We are living on this planet as if we had another one to go to. (Terri Swearingen)
The fate of the living planet is the most important issue facing mankind. (Gaylord Nelson)
Im not an environmentalist. Im an Earth warrior. (Darryl Cherney, 1990)
The relationship between our civilization and the earth has been radically transformed. (Al
Gore)
We share the earth not only with our fellow human beings, but with all the other creatures.
(The Dalai Lama)
Try to leave the Earth a better place than when you arrived. (Sidney Sheldon)

Preserve
Preserve your
your world
world !!
Preserve
yourself
Preserve yourself !!

Earth Day Anthem by William Wallace

Original lyrics sung to the melody "Ode to Joy" by Ludwig
van Beethoven
Joyful Joyful we adore our earth in all its wonderment
Simple gifts of nature that all join into a paradise
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love through out all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world
Now we must resolve to protect her
Show her our love through out all time
With our gentle hand and touch
We make our home a newborn world

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. (Lao Tzu)

Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed. (Francis Bacon)
Nature loves to hide itself. (Heraclitus)
Such is the audacity of man, that he hath learned to counterfeit Nature, yea, and is so
bold as to challenge her in her work. (Pliny the Elder, The Natural History)
Nature is not a place to visit, it is home. (Gary Snyder)
The land is a mother that never dies. (Maori Proverb)
I conceive that the land belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living,
and countless numbers are still unborn. (A Chieftain from Nigeria)
When you throw dirt, you lose ground. (Texan Proverb)
Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another. (Juvenal, Satires)
Drive Nature forth by force, shell turn and rout / The false refinements that would keep
her out. (Horace, Odes)
In all things of nature there is something of the marvelous. (Aristotle)
The art of healing comes from nature and not from the physician. Therefore, the physician
must start from nature with an open mind. (Paracelsus)
Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws. (Leonardo
da Vinci)
Nature is the art of God. (Dante Alighieri)
Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occurred in experience. (Leonardo da
Vinci)
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin. (William Shakespeare)
Nature always tends to act in the simplest way. (Daniel Bernoulli)
Nature is an infinite sphere whose centre is everywhere and whose circumference is
nowhere. (Blaise Pascal)
Nature is a good name for an effect whose cause is God. (William Cowper)
Come forth into the light of things. Let Nature be your teacher. (William Wordsworth)
Nature never did betray the heart that loved her. (William Wordsworth)
The very winds whispered in soothing accents, and maternal Nature bade me weep no
more. (Mary Shelley)
Nature is pleased with Simplicity. (Isaac Newton)
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all
inaction. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Adapt or perish, now as ever, is natures inexorable imperative. (H. G. Wells)
Nature is painting for us, day by day, pictures of infinite beauty if only we have eyes to see
them. (John Ruskin)
We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.
(William Hazlitt)

I consider nature a vast chemical laboratory in which all kinds of composition and
decompositions are formed. (Antoine Lavoisier)
All things are artificial, for nature is the art of God. (Thomas Browne)
How strange that nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude! (Emily Dickinson)
How beautifully everything is arranged by Nature; as soon as the child enters the world, it
finds a mother ready to take care of it. (Jules Michelet)
Create each day anew by clothing yourself with heaven and earth, bathing yourself with
wisdom and love, and placing yourself in the heart of Mother Nature. (Morihei Ueshiba)
The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere
where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one
feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple
beauty of nature. (Anne Frank)
Nature will not be admired by proxy. (Winston Churchill)
Keep your eyes on the stars, and your feet on the ground. (Theodore Roosevelt)
The insufferable arrogance of human beings to think that Nature was made solely for their
benefit, as if it was conceivable that the sun had been set afire merely to ripen mens apples
and head their cabbages. (Savinien de Cyrano de Bergerac, tats et empires de la lune, 1656)
Civilization wrecks the planet from seafloor to stratosphere. (Richard Bach)
When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world.
(John Muir)
Keep close to Natures heart... and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a
mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean. (John Muir)
In every walk in nature one receives far more than he seeks. (John Muir)
Allow natures peace to flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. (John Muir)
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Natures peace will flow into you as
sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms
their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves. (John Muir)
Each blade of grass has its spot on earth whence it draws its life, its strength; and so is
man rooted to the land from which he draws his faith together with his life. (Joseph Conrad)
We still do not know one thousandth of one percent of what nature has revealed to us.
(Albert Einstein)
Our task must be to free ourselves by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all
living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty. (Albert Einstein)
We need to find God and He cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend
of silence. See how nature trees, flowers, grass grows in silence; see the stars, the moon,
and the sun, how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls. (Mother
Teresa)
For 200 years weve been conquering Nature. Now were beating it to death. (Tom
McMillan, quoted in Francesca Lyman, The Greenhouse Trap, 1990)
I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving
that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her
seniority. (Elwyn Brooks White, Essays of E. B. White, 1977)
Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites. (William Ruckelshaus,
Business Week, 18 June 1990)

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land
as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect. (Aldo
Leopold, A Sand County Almanac)
Natures laws affirm instead of prohibit. If you violate her laws you are your own
prosecuting attorney, judge, jury, and hangman. (Luther Burbank)
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature
cannot be fooled. (Richard P. Feynman)
Man maketh a death which Nature never made. (Edward Young)
You forget that the fruits belong to all and that the land belongs to no one. (Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, Discours sur lorigine et les fondements de lingalit parmi les hommes, 1755)
We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn
all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be
indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have
enough of nature. (Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods)
Every flower is a soul blossoming in nature. (Grard de Nerval)
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. (Frank L. Wright)
I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. (Frank Lloyd Wright)
If you truly love nature, you will find beauty everywhere. (Vincent van Gogh)
The control man has secured over nature has far outrun his control over himself. (Ernest
Jones, The Life and Work of Sigmund Freud, 1953)
Nature always strikes back. It takes all the running we can do to remain in the same
place. (Rene Dubos, Medical Utopias, 1961)
The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. (J.
Oppenheim)
Understanding the laws of nature does not mean that we are immune to their operations.
(David Gerrold)
The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting,
self-cleansing. Not so with technology. (E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, 1973)
Even with all our technology and the inventions that make modern life so much easier
than it once was, it takes just one big natural disaster to wipe all that away and remind us
that, here on Earth, were still at the mercy of nature. (Neil de Grasse Tyson)
A margin of life is developed by Nature for all living things including man. All life forms
obey Natures demands except man, who has found ways of ignoring them. (Eugene M.
Poirot, Our Margin of Life, 1978)
This is a beautiful planet and not at all fragile. Earth can withstand significant volcanic
eruptions, tectonic cataclysms, and ice ages. But this canny, intelligent, prolific, and extremely
self-centred human creature had proven himself capable of more destruction of life than
Mother Nature herself... Weve got to be stopped. (Michael L. Fischer, Harpers, July 1990)
The proper use of science is not to conquer nature but to live in it. (Barry Commoner)
Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest
leaf, and take an insect view of its plain. (Henry David Thoreau)
Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
When a man says to me, I have the intensest love of nature, at once I know that he has
none. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship. (Ralph Waldo
Emerson)
Let us a little permit Nature to take her own way; she better understands her own affairs
than we. (Michel de Montaigne)
I go to nature to be soothed and healed, and to have my senses put in order. (John
Burroughs)
The farther we get away from the land, the greater our insecurity. (Henry Ford)
Till now man has been up against Nature; from now on he will be up against his own
nature. (Dennis Gabor, Inventing the Future, 1964)
Love is a chain of love as nature is a chain of life. (Truman Capote)

Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a songbird will come.

(Chinese proverb)

As long as youre green, youre growing. As soon as youre ripe, you start to rot. (Ray Kroc)
Absolute green is the most peaceful colour there is: it does not move in any direction, has no
overtones of joy or sorrow or passion, demands nothing, calls out to no one. (Wassily Wassilyevich
Kandinsky)
Green is the prime colour of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises. (Pedro
Calderon de la Barca)
The passions grafted on wounded pride are the most inveterate; they are green and vigorous
in old age. (George Santayana)
All theory, dear friend, is gray, but the golden tree of life springs ever green. (Goethe)
For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious
than if it were made of gold and silver. (Martin Luther)
A man that studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green. (Francis Bacon)
He that studieth revenge keepeth his own wounds green, which otherwise would heal and do
well. (John Milton)
To sit in the shade on a fine day and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.
(Jane Austen)
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that
stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all.
But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself. (William Blake)
When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, / And the dimpling stream runs laughing
by; / When the air does laugh with our merry wit, / And the green hill laughs with the noise of it.
(William Blake)
You could cover the whole earth with asphalt, but sooner or later green grass would break
through. (Ilya Ehrenburg)
The green revolution has an entirely different meaning to most people in the affluent nations
of the privileged world than to those in the developing nations of the forgotten world. (N.
Borlaug)
Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of
silliness. (Ludwig Wittgenstein)
The work an unknown good man has done is like a vein of water flowing hidden underground,
secretly making the ground green. (Thomas Carlyle)
In the old days villains had moustaches and kicked the dog. Audiences are smarter today.
They dont want their villain to be thrown at them with green limelight on his face. They want an
ordinary human being with failings. (Alfred Hitchcock)
Capitalism knows only one colour: that colour is green; all else is necessarily subservient to
it, hence, race, gender and ethnicity cannot be considered within it. (Thomas Sowell)
By reading the scriptures I am so renewed that all nature seems renewed around me and with
me. The sky seems to be a pure, a cooler blue, the trees a deeper green. (Thomas Merton)

I am in love with the green earth. (Charles Lamb)

An optimist is a person who sees a green light everywhere, while the pessimist sees only the
red stop-light. The truly wise person is colour-blind. (Albert Schweitzer)
As a lifelong Oregonian, I prefer our forests green, not black. (Greg Walden)
Its not easy being green. (Kermit, The Frog)
If your knees arent green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your
life. (Bill Watterson)
Green is my favourite. And its my favourite because its the colour of my wifes eyes, grass,
trees, life, and money, and mother earth! (Casper Van Dien)
The pine stays green in winter... wisdom in hardship. (Norman Douglas)
Do not call for black power or green power. Call for brain power. (Barbara Jordan)
If there is a future, it will be green. (Petra Kelly)
Green in nature is one thing, green in literature another. Nature and letters seem to have a
natural antipathy; bring them together and they tear each other to pieces. (Virginia Woolf)
Colourless green ideas sleep furiously. (Noam Chomsky)
The only countries that are going to do well in the future are those that win the green race.
(Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace International)

It was not until we saw the picture of the earth, from the moon,

that we realised how small and how helpless this planet is

something that we must hold in our arms and care for. (Margaret Mead)

UK households produced 30.5 million tonnes of waste in 2003-2004, of which 17% was collected
for recycling, a figure quite low compared to some of our neighbouring EU countries, some recycling
over 50% of their waste. There is still a great deal of waste which could be recycled that ends up in
landfill sites, harmful to the environment. Up to 60% of the rubbish that ends up in the dustbin could
be recycled. The unreleased energy contained in the average dustbin each year could power a
television for 5,000 hours. The largest lake in Britain could be filled with rubbish from the UK in 8
months. On average, 16% of the money you spend on a product pays for the packaging, which
ultimately ends up as rubbish. 50% of waste in the average dustbin could be composted. Up to 80%
of a vehicle can be recycled. 9 out of 10 people would recycle more if it were made easier.
Packages (cans, tins, milk bottles, cartons, yoghurt pots, plastic bags) represent 25%-35% of the
wastebin in spite of the latest adjustments in their weight and thinness. A tonne of potato chips will
be packed in 12,000 bags, which will end in litter bins.
A tonne of recycled waste costs 30 dollars, placing a tonne of waste in landfills costs 50 dollars,
while its incineration costs 75 dollars.
Plastic bags take forever (almost 30 years) to decompose in landfills, and many of those bags
end up in our waterways and oceans. In five years you can keep about 250 to 1,000 plastic grocery
bags out of our landfills. When one ton of plastic bags is reused or recycled, the energy equivalent
of 11 barrels of oil is saved. The use of plastic in Western Europe is growing about 4% each year.
Each recycled bottle of Coca Cola (1.5 l) would provide energy for a 60-Watt incandescent bulb for 6
hours. 275,000 tonnes of plastic are used each year in the UK, thats about 15 million bottles per
day. Most families throw away about 40kg of plastic per year, which could otherwise be recycled.
Plastic bottles take up to 500 years to decompose.

1 recycled tin can would save enough energy to power a television for 3 hours. 1 recycled glass
bottle would save enough energy to power a computer for 25 minutes. 1 recycled plastic bottle
would save enough energy to power a 60-watt light bulb for 3 hours. 70% less energy is required to
recycle paper compared with making it from raw materials.
Polystyrene isnt biodegradable, and after just one use most cups will end up lingering in a
landfill for centuries.
Absorbent sanitary products (diapers, pads, tampons) are hard to eco-friendly dispose of. The
average baby uses 6,000 diapers in their lifetime, adults dispose of 1.3 million tonnes of hygiene
products annually, and 50% of all nursing home residents use incontinence products. Diapers can
take 500 years to decompose in a landfill, but also add untreated sewage to the mix in the meantime,
contaminating groundwater and soil. 1,000 tonnes of recycling diapers saves 8.7 million gallons of
water, 3,400 trees, 145,000 cubic meters of natural gas, 367 tonnes of CO2 emissions, and 3.624
cubic meters of landfill volume.
Cotton is the most pesticide-intensive crop. Non-organic cotton production is responsible for
11% of global pesticide usage. Just a single pair of jeans made from conventional cotton amounts to
2/3 pound of fertiliser and pesticides. A lot of well-known brands are using organic cotton and nontoxic dyes in their denim collections.
An aluminium can is naturally decomposed in 100 years. Aluminium cans can be recycled and
ready to use in just 6 weeks. 24 million tonnes of aluminium is produced annually, 51,000 tonnes of
which ends up as packaging in the UK. If all cans in the UK were recycled, we would need 14 million
fewer dustbins. 36,000,000 worth of aluminium is thrown away each year. The traditional process
of producing aluminium cans requires 20% more energy than recycling the same number of cans.
Aluminium tins and foils represent 2% of the household waste, but 25% of the recyclable waste.
deeurile reciclabile. The recycled aluminium foil is used for components of the new cars. When 1 kg
of aluminium is recycled, 8 kg of bauxite, 4 kg of chemical products and 14 kWh of electricity are
saved. Recycled aluminium can be recycled again, saving all these vast quantities of resources and
energy.
Glass packaging represents 9% of the household waste, but over 70% of the household recycled
packages. Each UK family uses an average of 500 glass bottles and jars annually. 200 glass jars are
being thrown away in the UK each second. The extraction and transport of the raw materials used to
produce glass generates approximately 175 kg of waste products for each tonne of common glass.
If half of these raw materials were replaced with recycled glass, the waste quantity would be
reduced by 80%. Glass is 100% recyclable and can be used again and again. The largest glass
furnace produces over 1 million glass bottles and jars per day. Glass that is thrown away and ends
up in landfills will never decompose.
Americans spend $90 billion each year on food that never gets eaten. 40% of our food ends up in
the trash instead of our stomachs. The United Kingdom cut down their food waste by 18% in just five
years through better awareness. Banana skins and apple cores take 2 years to decompose.
If every U.S. household used the most-efficient washers, it could save the equivalent of up to 40
million barrels of oil a year. The City of Boulder calculated that more than 50% of the citys drinking
water is used for landscaping. The best way to conserve water is to reduce the amount of
landscaping required to maintain your yard.
Home owners rake leaves, clear gardens, and clean yard debris, creating a lot of noise and
pollution. One gas-powered leaf blower can emit as much pollution as 80 cars.

Protecting your skin from UV damage by wearing sunscreen daily indicates that some
sunscreens cause serious environmental damage and negatively impact your own health. Coral
reefs, these amazing ecosystems, are increasingly threatened. Promoting viral infection, sunscreens
potentially play an important role in coral bleaching. When chemicals in sunscreen come in contact
with reefs, the coral becomes stressed, pushing out the algae living inside and leaving behind a
vulnerable skeletal structure. As coral reefs lose their biological inhabitants due to toxins, pollution,
and increased temperatures due to global warming, they also lose their pigments, becoming
bleached. Up to 6,000 tons of sunscreen is released annually by tourists in reef areas, and
because sunscreens are often petroleum based, they dont biodegrade. Many sunscreens lack the
full UVA protection, and some sunscreens contain chemicals that pose health risks. Sunbathers
should beware of sunscreens that could contain harmful nanoparticles, which make sunscreens
appear clear after drying. Nanoparticles are harmful to the environment because they are highly
chemically reactive, are long-lasting, having the capacity to linger in the environment. They also
damage beneficial natural microbes in the environment. Occupational exposure to nano-zinc oxide
at legal workplace limits caused adverse health effects in workers and inhalation of nano-titanium
dioxide led to lung inflammation in rodents. 97% of Americans had traces of a harmful chemical,
oxybenzane, linked to babies with low birth weight, hormone disruption, cellular damage and
allergies. Oxybenzane is used in cosmetics to encourage absorption, being most commonly found in
sunscreen, as the most common active ingredient in 60% of the 500 beach and sport sunscreens.
Car speeding, rapid acceleration, and hard braking are not only unsafe, but they also lower your
gas mileage. Every 5 mph you drive over 50 mph is like paying an additional $0.24 per gallon for gas.
Using cruise control will keep you driving at a more consistent speed and improve fuel efficiency.
Idling wastes fuel. Its more efficient to turn the car off and restart when you are ready to go.
Consider parking and picking up food inside. Driving around with heavy objects in your trunk
comsumes more fuel. Under-inflated car tires lead to poor gas mileage. By avoiding crowds and
high-traffic roadways and travelling on off-peak days people can save hundreds of dollars and do not
waste time in traffic on congested highways. Americans lose a half billion vacation days every year.
Try catalogue shopping.
If your new car gets 10 mpg more than your old one, you can reduce CO 2 emissions by 2,500
pounds a year. If you leave your car at home two days a week, you reduce CO 2 emissions by 1,590
pounds a year. If you replace your existing refrigerator with a high-efficiency model, you reduce your
CO2 emissions by 220 pounds a year.
Reduce, reuse and... recycle. Buying food and other products in reusable or recyclable packaging
can reduce CO2 emissions by 230 pounds a year, while recycling all of your homes waste
newsprint, cardboard, glass and metal can reduce emissions an additional 850 pounds a year. Use a
reusable mug, choose reusable over throwaways.
12.5 million tonnes of paper and cardboard are used annually in the UK. The average person in
the UK gets through 38kg of newspapers per year. It takes 24 trees to make 1 ton of newspaper.
Common employees throw away 55-70 kg of paper per year. The American offices use approximately
4 million tonnes of paper per year. It takes 60% less energy and water to manufacture paper from
recycled stock than from virgin materials. Recycling paper produces 73% less air pollution than if it
were made from raw materials.
Cigarette butts decompose in 2 years, nevertheless they contain pernicious chemicals which
affect the soil. 4,5 trillion cigarette butts endanger nature each year. One cigarette butt in two liters
of seawater will kill water fleas, a species used to test the toxicity of chemicals to aquatic
invertebrates. China has been recently considering cigarette butts as anti-pollution devices, amid
countrys increasing pollution problems.

The manufacture of an average gold ring creates more than 20 tons of mining waste. Steel
manufactured from recycled materials saves 75% of the energy used when produced from raw
materials (coal, coke, iron ore, pig iron, DRI, HBI, ferroalloys, scrap and manganese).
Lighting accounts for about a quarter of all electricity consumed in the U.S. Air conditioning
accounts for 14% of Americas home electricity use, and most of that electricity comes from coal.
24 million homes in the UK have a personal computer and 90% of those homes have printers.
The average household uses 2-3 inkjet cartridges a year and many offices use large numbers of laser
cartridges. Only 15% of the 65 million printer cartridges sold in the UK are recycled, the rest end up
in landfill sites and this is major bad news as the plastic used in a typical cartridge is made of
engineering grade polymers and takes up to1000 years to decompose. Remanufactured printer
cartridges can cost as little as 10% of what original cartridges do. 17 million inkjet cartridges were
recycled in Europe in 2002, thus saving 6 million litres of oil, which could supply 3 olympic pools.
Daily deforestation rises to 20,000 hectares, twice as large as Paris. The loss amounts to 7,3
million hectares annually. As a result, 66% of the rain water pours over an unprotected soil, which
loses 2.5 cm during a storm. This layer has been formed over 100 years and the loss is accompanied
by wasting 450-980 kg nitrogen, 100-190 kg phosphorus, 3000-5000 kg potasium, 15 kg of organic
matter on a single hectare. Besides, the trees along streets reduce the amount of dust with 30%, as
well as the traffic noise with 10-20 decibels.

There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.

Marshall McLuhan, 1964

Get rid of junk mail by contacting mail companies to stop the majority of your bulk mail. More than 100 million
trees are destroyed each year to produce junk mail. 42% of timber harvested nationwide becomes pulpwood for
paper. You can contribute to the reduction of global warming since the energy used to produce and dispose of junk
mail exceeds 2.8 million cars. About 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk each year.
You waste about 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail. Post-Consumer Waste is the paper you throw out or
recycle. Buying paper made from a high percentage of post-consumer waste reduces the number of trees needed to
make paper from scratch, saves energy, and keeps paper out of the landfill. Hemp. Hemp produces its own
natural pesticide, and grows so quickly it produces twice as much fiber per acre as pine. Paper, clothing, and other
materials made from hemp are available. Kenaf, a cousin to the cotton plant, uses 15-25% less energy than pine to
make pulp. Bamboo, a fast-growing grass produces 4 to 5 times the fiber of the fastest-growing commercial tree
species. Agri-pulp combines agricultural waste along with post-consumer waste to make paper. Cotton is a new
paper option, made from organically grown cotton that grows in several colours, including green, brown, and white.
Select a good paper. If choosing bleached paper, select one that is either totally chlorine-free (TCF) or process
chlorine-free (PCF). Bleaching paper with chlorine creates a serious carcinogen called dioxin. Use electronic media
and limit the number of E-mail messages you print out. Avoid wrapping paper by using newspaper or brown craft
paper that you can decorate yourself. Use your regular dishes and flatware instead of buying paper or plastic but if
you have to use disposables, try biodegradable paper plates and compost them along with leaves, produce scraps,
and coffee grounds. Use rags instead of paper towels, cloth napkins instead of paper ones. Buy post-consumer

recycled paper and recycle it when youve used it. Recycle as much as possible: last years cards into this years gift
tags, used ribbons, bows and decorative wrappings, colourful scarves, holiday trees, garlands and wreaths from
leftover construction paper, wild berries, fruits and nuts. Craft homespun centerpieces from boughs and pinecones
gathered in your yard. Reuse cookie tins, baskets and festive food containers.
Paint should be disposed safely. Never pour thinners, solvents or paint down the drain. Put them in tightfitting jars or cans and have them picked up or delivered to a hazardous waste disposal site. Reuse paint thinner.
Over time, paint sludge settles on the bottom of the container. Pour the clean solvent off the top and use. When
the thinner is gone, stuff an absorbent material into the can to dry the sludge before throwing the can into the
trash. Give unused paint thinner or stripper to local furniture refinishing shops or paint contractors. Air out cans
before disposal. If there is a small amount of latex paint left in a can, leave the can open in a well-ventilated place.
When completely dry, the can may be placed in the trash. Donate. Consider donating leftovers to a local theater
group, parks department, school, or organisation, or take it to a community exchange. Many towns have drop and
swaps once or twice a year. Reduce waste. If you have more than half a gallon left over, use it for another project.
Try mixing several colors of similar paints together. Make sure cans are properly labelled.
Cut water waste. The average American uses 1,190 gallons of water per day, much of which is hidden inside the
products we buy, the energy we use and the food we eat, but our laundry, hygiene, dishwashing habits also use
more than the global average. Go meatless since it takes 4,000 to 18,000 gallons of water to produce one
hamburger because of the food, water and facilities that cows need. By reducing meat in your diet, you can
drastically cut down both water use and greenhouse gas emissions. The traditional turf lawn is one of the most
environmentally unfriendly types of landscaping, so opt for a yard that is grass free. Water deeply but
infrequently. Grasses do best when the whole root zone is wetted. Water in the early morning, when temperatures
are cooler, to minimise evaporation. Check your sprinkler system regularly and adjust sprinklers. Collect and use
rainwater for watering your garden. Install a drip irrigation system around your trees and shrubs. Half of the water
we use goes to power generation. Wash Day refers to the energy used to wash, dry, and iron clothes, and the
products used to make clothes come out whiter, brighter, and smelling perfectly. It advises to warm up to cooler
water (hot water for both washing and rinsing uses three and a half times more energy than washing in warm water
and rinsing in cold), not to overheat water, to get loaded (it takes less energy to do one big load than two smaller
ones), to hang laundry up (reducing the need for ironing by taking clothes out of the dryer slightly damp and
hanging them up to save energy).
Waste less food. Shop wisely. Plan meals, use shopping lists, buy from bulk bins, and avoid impulse buys.
Dont succumb to marketing tricks that lead you to buy more food than you need, particularly for perishable items.
Buy funny fruit. Many fruits and vegetables are thrown out because their size, shape, or colour are not right.
Buying these perfectly good funny fruit, at the farmers market or elsewhere, utilizes food that might otherwise go
to waste. Learn when food goes bad, sell-by and use-by dates are not federally regulated and do not indicate
safety, except on certain baby foods they are manufacturer suggestions for peak quality. Most foods can be safely
consumed well after their use-by dates. Mine your fridge and get creative with recipes to use up anything that
might go bad soon. Use your freezer since frozen foods remain safe indefinitely. Freeze fresh produce and
leftovers. Request smaller portions although restaurants will often provide half-portions upon request at reduced
prices. Eat leftovers, pack up your extras so you can eat them later, or freeze them if you dont want to eat
immediately. Only about half of Americans take leftovers home from restaurants. Consider basing the menu around
local and seasonally-available food. Foods that travel across states or around the globe to get to you have high
carbon footprints. Compost food scraps to reduce their climate impact while also recycling their nutrients. Food
makes up almost 13% of the U.S. waste stream, but a much higher percent of landfill-caused methane. They waste
almost 40% of all edible food, mostly through improper storage. Donate non-perishable and unspoiled perishable
food to local food banks, soup kitchens, pantries, and shelters.

Cut light waste. Use the right fit, trust efficient LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) to achieve full brightness
instantly and work well with dimmers, check for the energy star label and look for the blue star label on bulbs you
purchase, meet lumens (Lumens is a measure of this light, labelled on new bulbs) because the amount of energy
it takes to light a room is less important than the amount of light it produces, recycle CFLs because of their mercury
content, and light the future with the new lightning technology working with smartphone apps, to let you control
your LEDs from your phone or tablet. Replace light bulbs: regular incandescent light bulbs are inefficient, 90% of
their energy going to generate heat not light. Replace standard lamps with compact fluorescent (CFL) bulbs , they
cost more per bulb but are far more efficient and last up to ten times longer. Over the life of one CFL, you avoid
replacing up to 13 incandescent bulbs and use 75% less energy! LEDs last 10 times longer (a guaranteed 50,000 hour
bulb life or a lifetime warranty) and use 80% less energy than standard string lights, their flickering lights also inspire
a cozier feel.Use lighting controls: photocells (to turn lights on and off in response to natural light levels), crank
timers (spring-driven and similar to old oven timers, limit lights to short durations where the need for light is brief),
occupancy sensors (to activate lights when you enter a room and turn them off after you leave), dimmers (to
reduce the wattage and output of light bulbs, increasing the life of incandescent bulbs), and even clean or repaint
walls to increase the amount of light they reflect and make the room feel brighter.

Reduce heat loss by opening dampers in the bottom of the firebox, opening the nearest window slightly, and
closing doors leading into the room. Keep it clean, install tempered glass, check the seal on the flue damper, use
grates made of C-shaped metal tubes to draw cool room air into the fireplace and circulate warm air back into the
room, keep your fireplaces damper closed when you arent using it, consider a gas fireplace if you are planning to
install a new one to provide the enjoyment of looking at flames but 70% more efficiency than regular fireplaces.
Electronic waste, or E-waste, created by old cell phones, televisions, ink cartridges, stereos and batteries
release harmful toxins into landfills as they attempt to decompose. Buy refurbished cell phones to save hundreds
of pounds of mined products that go into making circuit boards. Recycle your old cell phones to reduce the need
for new materials. Recycle or refill empty ink cartridges to save money, as this usually costs about half the price of
a new cartridge. Donate old televisions and stereos instead of tossing them. Repair instead of replace.
Pet ownership can be environmentally friendly due to greener grooming and natural food, cleaning up and
ridding them of pests, having your pet spayed or neutered, adopting pets to prevent overpopulation. According to
the ASPCA, approximately 3 to 4 million companion animals are euthanised each year and estimates for stray
animals living in the U.S. are staggering upwards of 70 million for cats alone. Most commercial flea and tick sprays
contain carbaryl, which works by attacking pests nervous systems. Many pesticides dont affect insects eggs and
larvae, which represent 95% of the flea population. But carbaryl also can harm developing fetuses in both animals
and humans. Fortunately, the less-toxic alternatives, for example, pesticides which contain pyrethrin, a natural
ingredient made from chrysanthemums, work just as well, though they should be used with care.

Get the maximum fuel efficiency from your car. A properly maintained car saves you money at the pump, too,
reduces smog and the emissions that contribute to global warming. So change the air filter, avoid speeding, use
cruise control, dont idle, lighten up, inflate tires properly and improve the low mileage (miles per gallon).
Reduce Your Carbon Footprint which leads to global warming. Drive a fuel-efficient car. Walk, bike, car pool
or use mass transit. Weatherise your home by insulating walls and ceilings, caulk and weatherstrip around doors
and windows, and wrap your water heater in an insulating jacket to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 4,000 pounds a
year. Use energy-efficient appliances. Go solar at home. Shop for the greenest electric vehicle.
Turn off the power. Flick off lights and turn off computers and other equipment when you leave your office for
long periods of time. Turn off the lights in the bathroom or any unoccupied room at home and at school. The 10
biggest energy users are: water heaters, refrigerators, freezers, air conditioners, ranges, clothes washers, clothes
dryers, dishwashers, portable heaters, lights. Upgrade your thermostat to a programmable one allows you to
control the temperature in your home at different times of the day without you being home. Keep the heat off
when youre out of the house and set it to turn back up before you get home. Some also have a second set of
settings for weekends, when people usually spend more time at home.
Leaf blowers: rakes are effective and cheaper than a leaf blower. If you need a power tool for a hard to reach
spot (like your roof, or in between shrubbery), try an electric leaf blower rather than a gasoline-powered one.
Electric leaf blowers are quieter and more energy-efficient. Garden trimmers can be electric trimmers, or use
manual shears to trim back evasive bushes and carefully prune your favourite tree. Lawn mowers can be handpowered, very quiet, replacing the roar of a power motor with the quiet whir of the lower-tech model. Choose
electric lawn mowers which make less noise and have a lower environmental impact.
Contribute to the green effort by providing clearly marked trash receptacles for different types of waste
paper, plastic, glass, aluminum, food scraps, liquids, to sort your empties into your recycling bin. Clean up. Using a
dishwasher is actually more environmentally-friendly than washing each dish by hand. Youll use much less soap and
about 80% less water. If you rented the linens or plates for a party, send them back dirty. Rental companies are
required to wash the items upon return, so theres no need to wash them before you send them back.

Green your wardrobe. Buy clothing made from fibers produced with few or no pesticides.
Organic cotton and bamboo threads are a great place to start for sweat-friendly green fabrics. Some
organic cottons require little or no dyeing because they grow in pale colors, such as green, brown and
white. Fabric made from fast-growing, low-impact hemp is used in gloves, jackets, shoes, sandals,
and many other fashion mainstays and accessories. Energy-saving recycled polyester is being made
into pullovers, jackets, vests, and footwear. Whether its the water used in leather processing, or the
working conditions of the people who make our clothes, the apparel industry has environmental and
social impacts. Wash Sparingly, e.g. Levi Strauss' CEO Chip Bergh and designer Tommy Hilfiger have
advised customers to refrain from washing jeans. Buy resale or consignment. Check the label to avoid
clothing that requires dry cleaning. Natural fibers are easier to care for at home. They can be washed
in cool water and hung out to dry, reducing chemical use and energy. Try fabric blends of cotton and
synthetic fibers which can be laundered at home. Dress down. Fancier outfits require more dry
cleaning than casual wear, so encourage your office to implement casual Fridays.
Say NO to one-time use plastic bags and water bottles. Commit to using refillable water bottles
for workouts and everyday hydration. Using a refillable bottle even self-filtering models means
less waste in landfills and more money in your wallet. Use your own cloth or fabric bags when
shopping to save thousands of plastic bags from ending up in landfills, or, even worse,
in ecosystems where they can harm living creatures. Old bags make great in-car trash containers.
Take control of your clutter. Use shredded paper for cheap, reusable packing materials. Reuse
shipping boxes to save resources and money.
Recycle your cross-trainers, droping them off at any Nike store since worn out shoes are used to
build new tracks, basketball and tennis courts.
Reduce your familys exposure to toxic chemicals: reduce plastic use since many kinds of
plastics contain endocrine disrupters that can cause all sorts of health issues from obesity to liver
problems; make friends with the ingredients list of cosmetics and cleaning materials, ranked by
toxicity, and make your own cleaning and personal care products at home; ditch triclosan in hand
soap, toothpaste and other personal care products since this ingredient causes antibiotic resistance,
allergies and other side effects; avoid food treated with antibiotics (livestock has developed
superbugs which cause illness in humans and decrease the effectiveness of certain drugs), buy
organic meat and dairy products or switch to a vegetarian / vegan diet; use non-chemical methods of
rodent control; choose healthy furnishings in paint and fiberboard laced with formaldehyde to flame
retardant chemicals in sofas, to avoid indoor air pollution.

Bring your own chopsticks since disposable chopstick production causes massive forest
devastation. China cuts down 25 million trees a year to make 45 billion chopsticks, which are
eventually thrown away and end up in the ocean.
Change your coffee routine. Invest in the reusable ceramic mug and kick the disposable cup
habit. Resist the temptation to use individually packaged coffee shots, sugars, creamers, and
throwaway stirrers. Go organic and shade-grown. Certified Organic coffee is grown and processed
without toxic chemicals, and shade-grown or bird-friendly coffees conserve forests on coffee
plantations. Be your own barista, try a French press or ceramic coffee dripper which, unlike most
coffee makers, don't require electricity, give a pure taste, and are easy to use. Give your coffee
grounds a second life in the kitchen to scrub grease off pots and pans or try placing them in the
refrigerator to absorb odours. Used coffee grounds also make great plant fertilizer! Toss them in your
compost heap or tumbler to add a natural nitrogen boost. Fight climate change. Coffee only grows in
a very specific climate, so global warming poses a serious threat to your morning cup.
Make your own compost using grass / plant clippings, weeds, leaves, kitchen wastes (peels,
teabags, coffee grounds, stems), woodchips / sawdust. Dump these food scraps, recycle organic
materials to naturally fertilise gardens and farms. Do not compost pet wastes, meat or bones,
chemically treated wood, pernicious weeds such as ivy. Avoid chemicals since chemical fertilizers
and pesticides harm the very organisms that protect and enrich your vibrant garden: toads, wasps,
birds and more. Learn organic gardening methods (composting and companion planting) to eliminate
the need for chemicals. Planting with native plants also reduces the need for chemicals as these
plants are better suited to the local environment. Give wildlife what they need: food, water, cover and
a place to raise young. Birdbaths, flowering plants, and bee houses are just a few of the potential
elements of a wildlife-friendly yard.
Keep the air clean. Rather than use synthetic air fresheners to mask an unpleasant odour, find
the source and clean it up. Install air filters and purifiers and other air cleaning devices. Many indoor
plants absorb air pollutants through their leaves and roots and convert them into breathable air.
Within 24 hours, some plants can remove up to 87% of toxic indoor air. Depending on the species,
one plant can provide effective cleaning for every 100 square feet of space, e.g. 1520 golden pothos
and spider plants can refresh the air in an average 1,800 square-foot home. Some common sources of
indoor air pollution include new carpets; paint; mold and mildew build up, particularly in ventilation
systems; tobacco smoke; restroom air fresheners; chemicals emitted by copying machines; and
formaldehyde and other chemicals seeping out of pressed-wood products like particleboard, plywood
panelling, and fiber-board. Circulate the air. Consider the alternatives. Many chemically-sensitive
consumers opt for carpet made from wool or cotton rather than synthetic fibers; others choose
cabinets made from solid wood and finished with water-based varnishes rather than those
constructed from particleboard or fiberboard. Ask smokers to smoke outside and make appeal to the
instituted smoking policy that minimises nonsmoker exposure to environmental tobacco smoke.
Green the cleaners and disinfectants since they often come laden with toxins and harmful
chemicals. In fact, the air inside our homes is, on average, two to five times more polluted than the air
outside. Common cleaners contain neurotoxins that can depress the nervous system and threaten
the healthy function of the liver and kidneys. These chemicals make their way into our drinking
water by seeping from landfills into groundwater, in our water, while others escape into the air.
Toxins in our water systems activate metals that cause algae blooms and penetrate the fatty tissues of
wildlife, which can infect their endocrine systems, hindering their ability to reproduce. Volatile
organic compounds escape into the air, lending themselves to air pollution, smog, asthma and
restriction of plant growth. Beware of butane and pentane, VOCs that come from air deodorising
sprays, chlorine, used to bleach clothes and clean surfaces, which can kill or poison fish, phosphates,
a water pollutant found in detergents, and Petroleum, a solvent in most cleaners which emit
unhealthy fumes. Reduce exposure to harmful chemicals by choosing cleaning products with package

and contents biodegradability, low toxicity, low VOC content, reduced packaging, reduced fragrance.
Do-It-Yourself Green cleaners: drain cleaner (pour a half-cup of baking soda down the sink and add
at least a cup of vinegar, cover the drain and wait a few minutes, then rinse with a mixture of boiling
water and salt), window cleaner (mix two ounces of vinegar with a quart of water in a spray bottle),
silver polish (put a sheet of aluminum foil into a plastic or glass bowl, sprinkle the foil with salt and
baking soda and fill the bowl with warm water, soak your silver in the bowl and tarnish migrates to
the foil, dry and buff), brass cleaner (cut a lemon in half, sprinkle it with salt and rub the lemon on
the metal, buff with a cloth), rust remover (use vinegar to remove rust on nuts and bolts and other
mineral deposits such as calcium deposits).
Telecommute! Work from home lowers gas consumption, preserving natural resources,
reducing polluting emissions such as carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, and lessening polluting road
run off. Cool the globe! Less commuter-related car emissions reduces global warming. Carbon
dioxide is the major contributor of global warming. See more clearly because nitrogen oxides
produced by excessive car emissions combine with volatile organic compounds and sunlight to
produce ground-level ozone or smog. Help preserve food sources since ozone and nitrous oxides
contribute to an estimated annual crop loss of two to four billion dollars. Less commuting equals
more green, open spaces, fewer cars reduce the demand for new or wider roads, which use up land
and natural resources. Enjoy the silence, less traffic bringing about less noise pollution. Become an
e-commuter, use electronic communications like email, intranet sites, and phone to significantly
reduce paper use and waste. Talk to your employer about a flexible schedule to allow part- or fulltime telecommuting. Live on a mountain top! If you telecommute full-time, your home base is
irrelevant, you can live where you decide the quality of your life is highest, reducing urban sprawl.
Cut home water waste. Use less water, take shorter showers, fill up the dishwasher and laundry
machines before you run them, and turn off the faucet while brushing your teeth. Check for leaks,
look at faucets and pipes to make sure water is not escaping. Choose smart appliances such as watersaving shower heads, low-flow toilets, and faucet aerators can lower your water bill. Go meatless to
cut down water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Plant drought-resistant vegetation native plants,
shrubs, and trees that require less watering. Consider xeriscaping (landscaping and gardening which
reduce or eliminate supplemental water from irrigation). For houseplants, try using water leftover
from cooking instead of running the faucet again. Go renewable because renewable sources like solar
and wind use significantly less water than coal and nuclear. Fill up a water bottle instead of buying
disposable plastic water bottles, fill up a refillable water container to decrease the energy used in
producing, transporting, and disposing plastic bottles. Avoid buying new water-intensive products:
cotton, electronics and paper, which require a lot of water in their production. Buy recycled paper
and resist the urge to get the latest gadget every year if your existing device is in working order.
Involve in the green economy growing particularly in the renewable energy sector. Even though
renewable energy is getting less costly to install each year, the up-front costs for many families and
companies is still difficult to bear. But putting solar panels on your roof isn't the only way to support
renewable energy. A growing number of electric companies are offering green power, green pricing
or renewable energy credits to consumers.
Go organic! It is an earth-friendly way of farming and processing foods using no synthetic
chemicals to control bugs or weeds. It helps conserve soil and protect water supplies. Organic
farmers plant specific bushes and flowers to attract beneficial insects and ward off unwanted pests.
Use dairy products from cows that are not treated with hormones and antibiotics. Buy Organic! Many
fruits and veggies have been shown to have high levels of chemicals. Apples, bell peppers, celery,
cherries, grapes (imported), nectarines, peaches, pears, potatoes, spinach, and strawberries have high
levels of pesticide residue. There are fewer environmental health reasons for buying organic
asparagus, avocados, bananas, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, kiwi, mangos, onions, papaya, pineapples,
and sweet peas: they have low levels of pesticide residue. Organic seafood contains mercury and
other contaminants. Avoid fish high in mercury (tuna and swordfish). Cosmetics, lotions, personal
care products labelled organic have a small fraction of organic ingredients.

In the forest no tree grows straight. But they all reach up towards the light and the
goodness in life. (Native American proverb)
Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been
caught will we realise we cannot eat money. (Cree Indian proverb)
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is NOW. (Chinese
proverb)
A tree that falls makes more noise than a forest that grows. (Chinese proverb)
Though a tree grow ever so high, the falling leaves return to the root. (Malay proverb)
A tree is known by its fruit; a man by his deeds. A good deed is never lost; he who sows
courtesy reaps friendship, and he who plants kindness gathers love. (Saint Basil)
As the twig is bent the tree inclines. (Virgil)
And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running
brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything. (William Shakespeare)
The trees that are slow to grow bear the best fruit. (Molire)
He that plants trees, loves others besides himself. (Thomas Fuller)
One that would have the fruit must climb the trees. (Thomas Fuller)
Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple
tree. (Martin Luther)
For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious
than if it were made of gold and silver. (Martin Luther)
God writes the gospel not in the Bible alone, but on trees and flowers and clouds and
stars. (Martin Luther)
Unless a tree has borne blossoms in spring, you will vainly look for fruit on it in autumn.
(Sir Walter Scott)
Love is flower like. Friendship is like a sheltering tree. (Samuel Taylor Coleridge)
Art is the tree of life. Science is the tree of death. (William Blake)
It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses we must plant more trees.
(George Eliot)

Man has been endowed with reason, with the power to create, so that he can add to what
hes been given. But up to now he hasnt been a creator, only a destroyer. Forests keep
disappearing, rivers dry up, wild lifes become extinct, the climates ruined and the land grows
poorer and uglier every day. (Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya, 1897)
It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon mens hearts, as for
that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully
changes and renews a weary spirit. (Robert Louis Stevenson)
Solitary trees, if they grow at all, grow strong. (Winston Churchill)
A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying
the air and giving fresh strength to our people. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches, and a
thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools. (John Muir)
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness. (John Muir)
I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though
fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. (John Muir)
I thank you God for this most amazing day, for the leaping greenly spirits of trees, and for
the blue dream of sky and for everything which is natural, which is infinite, which is yes. (e. e.
cummings)
What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter
into our daily lives? (E. M. Forster)
Trees are the earths endless effort to speak to the listening heaven. (Rabindranath
Tagore)
The trees reflected in the river are unconscious of a spiritual world so near to them. So are
we. (Nathaniel Hawthorne)
Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening my axe.
(Abraham Lincoln)
Character is like a tree and reputation like a shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the
tree is the real thing. (Abraham Lincoln)
I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees. (Henry David Thoreau)
Gardening is civil and social, but it wants the vigor and freedom of the forest and the
outlaw. (Henry David Thoreau)
Giant oak trees... have deep root systems that can extend two-and-one-half times their
height. Such trees rarely are blown down regardless of how violent the storms may bee.
(Joseph B. Wirthlin)
Storms make trees take deeper roots. is an incomprehensible mysteryy. (Dolly Parton)
If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down. (Jack Handey)

Life without love is like a tree without blossom and fruit. (Khalil Gibran)
Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky. (Khalil Gibran)
Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he
can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God. (G. W. Carver)
The best friend of mans earth is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully and
economically, we have one of the greatest resources on the earth. (Frank Lloyd Wright)
What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are
doing to ourselves and to one another. (M. Gandhi)
They kill good trees to put out bad newspapers. (James G. Watt, Newsweek, 8 March 1982)
Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after
them. (Bill Vaughn)
A tree is an incomprehensible mystery. (Jim Woodring)
Look at the trees, look at the birds, look at the clouds, look at the stars and if you have
eyes you will be able to see that the whole existence is joyful. Everything is simply happy. Trees
are happy for no reason; they are not going to become prime ministers or presidents and they
are not going to become rich and they will never have any bank balance. Look at the flowers
for no reason. It is simply unbelievable how happy flowers are. (Osho)
In some mysterious way woods have never seemed to me to be static things. In physical
terms, I move through them; yet in metaphysical ones, they seem to move through me. (John
Fowles)
Someones sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.
(Warren Buffett)
No tree, it is said, can grow to heaven unless its roots reach down to hell. (C. G. Jung)

A waster of water is a waster of better. (Old Irish adage)

When you drink the water, remember the spring. (Chinese proverb)
Flowing water never goes bad. Our doorways never gather termites. (Chinese proverb)
Water can help a boat sail, but it can also flip the boat over. (Chinese proverb)
Water doesnt flow if its level. (Chinese proverb)
No one can see their reflection in running water but in still water. (Taoist proverb)
The highest good is like water. Water gives life to the ten thousand things and does
not strive. It flows in places men reject and so is like the Tao. (Tao Te Ching, 8)
By means of water, we give life to everything. (Koran)
If you saw what the river carried, you would never drink the water. (Jamaican
proverb)
Dont empty the water jar until the rain falls. (Philippine proverb)
The stone in the water knows nothing of the hill which lies parched in the sun. (African
proverb, Hansa language)
Filthy water cannot be washed. (West African proverb)
Indecision is like a stepchild: if he does not wash his hands, he is called dirty, if he
does, he is wasting water. (African proverb)
Only a fool tests the depth of the water with both feet. (African proverb)
The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives. (American Indian saying)
Dont think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm. (Malayan proverb)
Dont throw away the old bucket until you know whether the new one holds water.
(Swedish proverb)
To get clear water, one must go to the source. (French proverb)
A little water is a sea to an ant. (Afghan proverb)
When the river is dry, water always returns in the spring. (Afghan proverb)
It is wise to bring some water when one goes out to look for water. (Arab proverb)
A fool is thirsty in the midst of water. (Ethiopian proverb)
It is the calm and silent water that drowns a man. (Ghanaian proverb)
He who pours water hastily into a bottle spills more than goes in. (Spanish proverb)
Every peasant is proud of the pond in his village because from it he measures the
sea. (Russian proverb)

Dont bargain for fish which are still in the water. (Indian Proverb)
Any water in the desert will do. (Saudi Arabian proverb)
Still waters run deep. (English proverb)
Rain does not fall on one roof alone. (African proverb, Cameroon)
Clouds that thunder do not always rain. (Armenian proverb)
The noblest of the elements is water. (Pindar)
In sweet water there is a pleasure ungrudged by anyone. (Ovid)
Stones are hollowed out by the constant dropping of water. (Ovid)
Fire and water are good servants but cruel masters. (Aesop)
The raindrops make a hole in the stone, not by violence, but by often falling. (Lucretius)
Nothing on earth is so weak and yielding as water, but for breaking down the firm and
strong it has no equal. (Lao-Tsu)
The sound of the water says what I think.' (Chuang Tzu)
You could not step twice into the same river, nor touch mortal substance twice; by the
swiftness and speed of its change, it scatters and collects itself again. (Heraclitus of
Ephesus)
Water is a very good servant, but it is a cruel master. (William Bullein, 1562)
Water is the driving force of all nature. (Leonardo da Vinci)
Our bodies are molded rivers. (Novalis)
Expect poison from the standing water. (W. Blake)
When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water. (Benjamin Franklin)
The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain. (H. W. Longfellow)
When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water. (Benjamin Franklin)
Water in moderation cannot hurt anybody. (Mark Twain)
Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. (W. H. Auden)
Next to blood relationships, come water relationships. (S. Crawford)
Solid stone is just sand and water. Sand and water and a million years gone by.
(Beth Nielsen Chapman)
Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there
is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather. (John Ruskin)
The sea is everything. It covers seven tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure
and healthy. It is an immense desert, where man is never lonely, for he feels life stirring on
all sides. (Jules Verne)

Water is the most neglected nutrient in your diet but one of the most vital. (Kelly
Barton)
We let a river shower its banks with a spirit that invades the people living there, and
we protect that river, knowing that without its blessings the people have no source of soul."
(Thomas Moore)
The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it. (President
Woodrow Wilson)
We think of our land and water and human resources not as static and sterile
possessions but as life giving assets to be directed by wise provisions for future days.
(Franklin D. Roosevelt)
We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one. (Jacques Cousteau)
Water and air, the two essential fluids on which all life depends, have become global
garbage cans. (Jacques Cousteau)
The cure for anything is salt water sweat, tears, or the sea. (Rabindranath Tagore)
Rivers are magnets for the imagination, for conscious pondering and subconscious
dreams, thrills, fears. People stare into the moving water, captivated, as they are when
gazing into a fire. What is it that draws and holds us? The rivers reflections of our lives and
experiences are endless... (Tim Palmer)
What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well. (Saint-Exupry)
A lake is the landscapes most beautiful and expressive feature. It is Earths eye;
looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. (H. D. Thoreau)
A river is more than an amenity, it is a treasure. (Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes)
To trace the history of a river or a raindrop... is also to trace the history of a river is
the history of the soul, the history of the mind descending and arising in the body. In both,
we constantly seek and stumble upon divinity, which like feeding the lake, and the spring
becoming a waterfall, spills, falls, and feeds itself all over again. (Gretel Ehrlich, 1991)
To live by a large river is to be kept in the heart of things. (John Haines)
Rain is grace, rain is the sky condescending to the earth. Without rain, there would
be no life. (John Updike)
For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), its always our self we find in the sea. (e. e.
cummings)
Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who
has no gills. (Ambrose Bierce)
Civilization... a permanent dialogue between human beings and water. (Paolo Lugari)
Anything else youre interested in is not going to happen if you cant breathe the air
and drink the water. Dont sit this one out. Do something. (Carl Sagan)
Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom and lakes die. (Gil Stern)
A pool is the eye of the garden in whose candid depths is mirrored its advancing
grace. (Pablo Neruda)
To understand water is to understand the cosmos, the marvels of nature, and life
itself. (Masaru Emoto, The Hidden Messages in Water)

Selective Bibliography
Acklam, Richard, Burgess, Sally, Gold. Advanced, Longman, 2004.
Begon, M., Townsend, C. R., Harper, J. L., Ecology: From Individuals to Ecosystems, 4th ed., Oxford, UK, Blackwell Publishing,
2006.
Campbell, Neil A., Williamson, Brad, Heyden, Robin J., Biology: Exploring Life, Boston, Massachusetts, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2006.
Gallagher, Winifred, The Power of Place: How Our Surroundings Shape Our Thoughts, Emotions, and Actions, New York, Harper
& Collins, 1993.
Hanski, I., Gaggiotti, O. E. (eds.), Ecology, Genetics and Evolution of Metapopulations, Burlington, MA, Elsevier Academic Press,
2004.
Keller, D. R., Golley, F. B., The Philosophy of Ecology: From Science to Synthesis, Athens, GA, University of Georgia Press, 2000.
McIntosh, R., The Background of Ecology: Concept and Theory, New York, Cambridge University Press, 1985.
Mead, Margaret, Earth Day, EPA Journal, March 1978.
Nelson, Gaylord, Campbell, Susan, Wozniak, Paul R., Beyond Earth Day: Fulfilling the Promise, University of Wisconsin Press,
October 4, 2002. (October 4, 2002).
Noss, R., Cooperrider, A., Saving Natures Legacy: Protecting and Restoring Biodiversity, Washington, DC, Island Press, 1994.
Odum, E. P., Brewer, R. W., Barrett, G. W., Fundamentals of Ecology, Fifth Edition, Ed., Brooks Cole, 2004.
Pimm, S. L., Food Webs, Chicago, The University of Chicago Press, 2002.
Prodromou, Luke, Rising Star. A Pre-First Certificate Course, Macmillan, 2005.
Prodromou, Luke, First Certificate Star, Macmillan-Heinemann, 2005.
Wilson, Ken, Tomalin, Mary, Howard-Williams, Deirdre, Prospects. Super Advanced, Macmillan, 2006.
Rickleffs, Robert, E., The Economy of Nature, University of Chicago Press, 1996.
Vandermeer, J. H., Goldberg, D. E., Population Ecology: First Principles, Woodstock, Oxfordshire, Princeton University Press, 2003.
http://allnaturalme.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day
http://igormorski.pl/
http://vladimirkush.com/
http://www.ascensiongateway.com
http://www.brainyquote.com
http://www.businesseco.eu
http://www.earthanthem.net/p/download.html
http://www.earthdayanthem.homestead.com/
http://www.earthday.org/earth-day-history-movement
http://www.earthshare.org/green-tips.html
http://www.ecobios.ro
http://www.ecomediu.ro
http://www.ecowarriors.ro
http://www.eurogsm.recicleaza
http://www.fallschurchenvironment.org
http://www.gaia.com
http://www.gardendigest.com
http://www.greendrainagesolutions.co.uk
http://www.green fret.com
http://www.greenlivingonline.com
http://www.grinningplanet.com
http://www.infomediu.eu
http://www.josephinewall.co.uk/
http://www.nature.com/
http://www.quotegarden.com
http://www.quoteland.com
http://www.recycling-guide.org.uk/facts.html
http://www.thinkexist.com
http://www.wisdomquotes.com
http://www.yourdictionary.com

Doriana Cpitanu, Mdlina Iasmina Golban, Laura Larisa Jurchi]a,

Bianca Florentina Laza (Grade: 9th Natural Sciences 1),
Raul Ciuculescu, Paul Vi]elariu (Grade: 9th Natural Sciences 2),
Monica Popovici (Grade: 10th Mathematics-Informatics),
Marco Cristea-Nicolici (Grade: 12th Philology 2)
Prof. Gabriela Pachia

Match the following pictures with the name of the corresponding ancient Wonders of the World.
A

The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page. (Saint Augustine)
Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home. (Matsuo Basho)
Wherever you go, go with all your heart. (Confucius)
A good traveller has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving. (Lao Tzu)
It is better to travel well than to arrive. (Buddha)
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been
and there you will long to return. (Leonardo da Vinci)
Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience. (Francis Bacon)
A man who leaves home to mend himself and others is a philosopher; but he who goes from country to country,
guided by the blind impulse of curiosity, is a vagabond. (Oliver Goldsmith)
Travellers repose and dream among my leaves. (William Blake)
I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train. (O. Wilde)
Like all great travellers, I have seen more than I remember, and remember more than I have seen. (B. Disraeli)
I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad. (George Bernard Shaw)
He travels the fastest who travels alone. (Rudyard Kipling)
In spite of the opinions of certain narrow-minded people, who would shut up the human race upon this globe, as
within some magic circle it must never outstep, we shall one day travel to the moon, the planets, and the stars, with the
same facility, rapidity, and certainty as we now make the voyage from Liverpool to New York! (Jules Verne)
It is not fit that every man should travel; it makes a wise man better, and a fool worse. (William Hazlitt)
One travels more usefully when alone, because he reflects more. (Thomas Jefferson)
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. (George A. Moore)

You know more of a road by having travelled it than by all the conjectures and descriptions in the world.
(William Hazlitt)
We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and
know the place for the first time. (T. S. Eliot)
A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We
find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. (John Steinbeck)
Never go on trips with anyone you do not love. (Ernest Hemingway)
We are all travellers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend.
(Robert Louis Stevenson)
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not. (R. W. Emerson)
The traveller sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. (Gilbert K. Chesterton)
To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries. (Aldous Huxley)
Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection. (Lawrence Durrell)
People commonly travel the world over to see rivers and mountains, new stars, garish birds, freak fish, grotesque
breeds of human; they fall into an animal stupor that gapes at existence and they think they have seen something.
(Sren Kierkegaard)
Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory
be your travel bag. (Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn)
The land created me. Im wild and lonesome. Even as I travel the cities, Im more at home in the vacant lots.
(Bob Dylan)
London is a roost for every bird. (Benjamin Disraeli)
Paris is always a good idea. (Audrey Hepburn)
Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning. (Giotto di Bondone)
Venice is like eating an entire box of chocolate liqueurs in one go. (Truman Capote)
To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. (John Muir)
I love short trips to New York; to me it is the finest three-day town on earth. (James Cameron)
A wise traveller never despises his own country. (William Hazlitt)
Bibliography

http://architizer.com/blog/fantasy-island-the-opalescent-lotus-building-and-the-bloom-of-iconic-architecture-in-china/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New7Wonders_of_the_World
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonders_of_the_World
http://galleryhip.com/shanghai-buildings.html
http://geography.about.com/od/lists/a/sevenwonders.htm
http://immagini.4ever.eu/tag/25870/seul
http://informisten.de/m/photos/view/10943721-622681901220402-5336500150155268170-n#view
http://www.archinomy.com/case-studies/709/50-most-amazing-buildings-of-the-world
http://www.architravel.com/architravel/building/expo-2010-denmark-pavilion/
http://www.architravel.com/architravel/papernews/cross-towers-by-big/
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_travel.html
http://www.e-architect.co.uk/korea/dancing-towers-seoul
http://www.parkroyalhotels.com/en/hotels-resorts/singapore/pickering.html

Practice does not make perfect.

Only perfect practice makes perfect.
Vincent Lombardi
Prof. Gabriela Pachia
Colegiul Naional Bnean, Timioara

EVALUATION PAPER
SEMESTER II
Name..................................................... Date........14th May 2014........ Grade...... 12th.......
SUBJECT 1

__________

__ 50 POINTS

___

A. Reading comprehension
a. Read the text below. Are the sentences 1-5 Right (A) or Wrong (B) ? If there is not enough
information to answer Right (A) or Wrong (B), choose Doesnt say (C). Mark A, B, or C on your sheet
(10 points):

The Key Ingredient in the Recipe for Success

A few years ago, on my TV show, we spotlighted 30 Things Everyone Should Know basic things like
how to make a bed, how to iron a shirt and how to mix a margarita. A word of advice: make the bed and
iron the shirt before mixing the margarita. Youll get much better results. Today, I would like to share
with you the Seven Things Every Newly Minted College Graduate Should Know.
The first is very important: Everyone Should Know How to Make an Omelette. An omelette is easy to
prepare, requiring just four ingredients: eggs, butter, salt and pepper a sprig of parsley for garnish if
you want to get fancy.
And, as the French proverb goes, you cant make an omelette without breaking eggs. To create an egg
dish or a business success you must make sacrifices. Im sure that those of you who are graduating today
have sacrificed a lot as you worked toward your degree you have sacrificed time with family and
friends, sleep, and episodes of Modern Family. But now you have this perfect omelette or, more
accurately, a degree that will make a difference for you, your family and your future.
Like many of you, I had to work very hard to realize my dream of earning a college degree. I started
modelling as a teenager to pay for college. I was fortunate to get a scholarship to Barnard College. My
scholarship didnt cover everything. My freshman year, I lived in the apartment of two elderly widows for
whom I cooked five days a week in return for room and board. As a sophomore, I shared college housing
with five young women: six small rooms with a kitchen cost $7 per week back then. That doesnt sound
like much but some weeks I had little to spend on food if I didnt have a modelling assignment or babysitting job. I did not feel deprived, or poor, or unhappy. It was the way things were and I knew, once I
graduated and was working regularly, all would be well.
I tell you this because I learned early on the value of hard work. That is the second thing that everyone
should know. You must be willing to work hard. Its a lesson you have learned over the past years as you

worked toward your degree. And, diploma in hand, its a lesson that you must continue to apply. People
often ask me, What is your recipe for success? There is no single recipe for success, but there is one
essential ingredient: passion. This is the third thing you should know. If you want to be a success, you
must love what you do. How else will you be able to give it the time, energy, and hard work it requires?
I had always loved cooking and baking and entertaining; after my husband, daughter and I moved to
Connecticut, I decided to start a catering business. My first job was an outdoor wedding for more than
300 people. It was a sweltering August afternoon. The wedding cake nearly melted in the heat but I loved
the whole experience. When work is based on passion, it does not feel like work it feels fulfilling and
empowering.
It is my passion for teaching and for easing the challenges of the homemakers everyday life that helped
me turn my homegrown catering business into a successful omnimedia company reaching approximately
66 million consumers across all media platforms each month and with more than 8,500 products in
thousands of retail locations.
Today we hear a lot about young entrepreneurs and tech tycoons like Facebook Founder Mark
Zuckerberg, and Googles Sergey Brin and Larry Page. These men created something new and valuable at
an early age. But not everybody discovers their passion and manages to successfully tap it while still in
their twenties.
I was 40-years-old when I wrote my first book, Entertaining, and I was 50-years-old when I launched
my first magazine, Martha Stewart Living. That is the fourth thing you should know. Its never too late
to achieve.
Our culture often celebrates the achievements of the young but I stand here before you today a proud
late bloomer. When you reach the age of 40, youre at an ideal point in life to build on your career or start
a new one because you know who you are, what you want, what your passions are, and you have a sense
of urgency about your life and career. As a gardener, I can also tell you that late bloomers tend to be
stronger, healthier, and more long lived than their early blooming counterparts.
At this point, I should tell you that every newly minted college graduate should know how to make
lemonade. Pour 3 cups of fresh lemon juice (from about 20 lemons) through a sieve into a pitcher.
Combine 2 cups of superfine sugar, 4 cups of water, some ice and then add... a willingness to look at
those lemons in a new light and a generous amount of perseverance. Thats how you turn lemons into
lemonade.
I know this from personal experience. The idea for Martha Stewart Living magazine didnt spring fully
formed from my head. I had approached my publisher about doing a series of beautiful how to lifestyle
books. They thought it was a terrible idea, a real lemon. I was very disappointed until it occurred to me
that a magazine about beautiful living would actually be even better. Out of my disappointment came one
of the best ideas I ever had. Have I mentioned that lemon is my favourite flavour?
So you may feel that, diploma in hand, youre done with your education, but you must never stop building
your fund of knowledge. What you have learned in college is much greater than the sum total of your
classwork, and papers and exams. You have learned how to learn. And if you remember only one thing I
say today, remember this, the sixth thing you should know: stay curious and keep learning!
And finally there is one more thing that every newly minted graduate should know: take the time to
savour your success and celebrate it with your family and friends. Make the most of today and each and
every day. You deserve it.
Congratulations!
Martha Stewart, Founder and Non-Executive Chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia,
Inc., Commencement Speech at the University of Phoenix on 29th June 2012,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martha-stewart/the-key-ingredient-in-the_b_1643311.html,
Posted 2nd July 2012, Accessed 10th May 2014.

1. Martha Stewart had always loved modelling and baby-sitting.

A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
2. There is no single recipe for success in life.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
3. A chef should know 100 omelette recipes.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
4. Martha Stewarts favourite flavour is mint.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
5. There are at least seven things that every newly minted graduate should know.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say

b. Read the text above. For questions 1-10, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best
according to the text (40 points):
1. Accomplishments of any kind require .......... .
A
B
C
D

many years of hard study: applying, studying, testing, writing, researching, practising, and training
a large number of ingredients
a great deal of sacrifice
learning recipes by heart

2. Hard-earned diplomas teach students the value of ......... .

A
B
C
D

room and board

homemade food
college sophomores
hard work

3. Which is the basic ingredient in the recipe for success? .......... .

A
B
C
D

A scholarship!
A fresh sprig of parsley!
Passion, obviously!
Being strong-willed!

4. When you love what you do, .......... .

A
B
C
D

work feels extremely empowering

work becomes sweltering
work seems a piece of a wedding cake
work consumes your time and energy

5. Martha Stewart started a .......... business.

A
B
C
D

teaching
catering
easing
fulfilling

6. She later turned her business into .......... .

A
B
C
D

a Facebook business page

an omnimedia company
a college subject
Googles counterpart

7. Martha Stewarts magazine provides .......... .

A
B
C
D

Zuckerbergs personal experience

a generous amount of perseverance
the willingness to be stronger, healthier and more long lived
beautiful lifestyle ideas

8. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade is used .......... .

A
B
C
D

to encourage lemon sales

by people who adore lemon flavour
to advertise lemon cheesecakes
to encourage optimism and a can-do attitude in the face of adversity or misfortune

9. Lifelong learning is vital, so .......... !

A
B
C
D

stay curious and keep enriching your knowledge

celebrate your success with your family and friends
celebrate the achievements of the young
learn a lot about young entrepreneurs and tech tycoons

10. Martha Stewart proudly considers herself .......... .

A
B
C
D

an early bloomer
a disappointed publisher
a late bloomer
a passionate entertainer

B. Writing
You have entered a high-school essay competition. Write your 180-200-word opinion essay on: The road to
success is always under construction. (Steve Harvey) (40 points)
NOTE: 10 points for granted

KEY AND MARKING SCHEME

A. Reading comprehension 50 p
1.A.a. _________ 5 sentences x 2p = 10 p
1

1.A.b. _________ 10 sentences x 4p = 40 p

1

10

B. Writing
You have entered a high-school essay competition. Write your 180-200 word opinion essay on: The road to
success is always under construction. (Steve Harvey)
40 p
Marking Scheme
Task: opinion essay (creative writing)
task achievement & original input
relevance of ideas to topic

15 p
7p

organization
- organization / layout
- cohesion and coherence
- length constraint

7p
4p
2p
1p

language accuracy and variety

- correct use of grammar structures
- accurate spelling and punctuation

6p
5p
1p

register and vocabulary

- appropriate register and vocabulary
- range of vocabulary

5p
2p
3p

NOTE: 10 points for granted

___________________________________________________________________________________
Lucrare de evaluare semestrial cu subiect unic Semestrul al II-lea
Limba englez Clasa a XII-a L1
Test elaborat de prof. Gabriela Pachia

EVALUATION PAPER
SEMESTER I
Name..................................................... Date.....26th November 2014.... Grade.... 12th.......
SUBJECT 1

__________

__ 50 POINTS

___

A. Reading comprehension
a. Read the text below. Are the sentences 1-5 Right (A) or Wrong (B) ? If there is not enough
information to answer Right (A) or Wrong (B), choose Doesnt say (C). Mark A, B, or C on your sheet
(10 points):

The 10 Skills Employers Most Want in 2015 Graduates

Constant change is a business reality, and organizations must continually adapt to their environments to stay
competitive or risk becoming obsolete. That is why the ability to incorporate big changes into the DNA of an
enterprise while driving operating results is a much-sought-after competency.
Since the mid-2000s, organisational change management and transformation have become permanent features
of the business landscape. Vast new markets and labour pools have opened up, innovative technologies have
put once-powerful business models on the chopping block, and capital flows and investor demand have become
less predictable. To meet these challenges, firms have become more sophisticated in the best practices for
organisational change management. They are far more sensitive to and more keenly aware of the role that
culture plays. Theyve also had to get much better on their follow-through.
Five key questions are helpful in determining the likelihood that a major change will succeed or fail: How is the
vision different, better and more compelling?, Are the leaders personally committed to the change?, Does
the organization have the capacity to make the change?, How ingrained is the current culture?, and Will the
change actually deliver the identified outcomes?.
Can you work well on a team, make decisions and solve problems? Those are the skills employers most want
when they are deciding which new college graduates to hire. The next-most-important skill: ability to
communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organisation. Employers also want new hires to have
technical knowledge related to the job, but thats not nearly as important as good teamwork, decision-making
and communication skills, and the ability to plan and prioritise work.
The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) a Bethlehem, PA non-profit group that links college
career placement offices with employers, ran a survey from mid-August through early October where it asked
hiring managers what skills they plan to prioritise when they recruit from the class of 2015 at colleges and
graduate schools. Though the survey sample is small NACE collected responses from just 260 employers
the wisdom is sound. New and recent grads should pay attention. (Most of the respondents were large
companies like Chevron, IBM, and Seagate Technology.)
College majors and graduate degrees also matter. The three degrees most in demand for the class of 2015 are
business, engineering, and computer & information sciences. But cutting across all majors and degrees,
employers want new hires who can work well on teams, and who are decisive problem-solvers.
Here are the 10 skills employers say they seek, in order of importance. NACE gave each a rating on a 5-point
scale, where 5 was extremely important, 4 was very important, 3 was somewhat important, etc.:
1. Ability to work in a team structure
2. Ability to make decisions and solve problems (tie)
3. Ability to communicate verbally with people inside and outside an organisation
4. Ability to plan, organise and prioritise work
5. Ability to obtain and process information
6. Ability to analyse quantitative data
7. Technical knowledge related to the job
8. Proficiency with computer software programmes
9. Ability to create and/or edit written reports
10. Ability to sell and influence others.
The good news for grads: No matter what you have studied in school, whether anthropology or French or
computer science, you will have had to learn the top five skills on the list. The trick is to demonstrate that you
have those skills through your cover letter, rsum and interview. Think about class projects where you have
been a team member or leader and jobs where you have had to plan and prioritise. Describe those skills
specifically in your rsum and cover letter and in your job interview.

For instance if you staffed a campus snack bar, say you worked on a team of five people and handled food
orders. Or if you worked in the library, include the size of the staff and that you handled requests from 50
students a day at the circulation desk. Even a job as a counsellor in a summer camp can involve team work,
decision-making and planning. Make sure you spell out those responsibilities briefly but specifically. For
example, you could say you worked on a staff of 20 counsellors, supervised the daily activities of 35 campers
and coordinated group activities for 140 young people.
The survey makes clear that employers want universal skills you can learn across academic disciplines and in
any job where you are working with others. The trick is to communicate clearly that you have those skills.
Organizations that fail to change are typically plagued by protracted transitions and increased costs. As the
pace of change increases, an organisations change capability will become a greater requirement for sustainable
performance. The organisations investing in these capabilities are more likely to capitalise on future
opportunities. Keep in mind ! One common aphorism in change management, borrowed from martial arts, is You
have to go slow to go fast.
(Susan Adams, Forbes Staff, http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2014/11/12/
the-10-skills-employers-most-want-in-2015-graduates/, 2014, Accessed 22nd November 2014)

1. Before initiating a major change, leaders and managers should answer ten key questions.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
2. If companies are not competitive, they lose ground.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
3. In the 21st century many firms have changed their brand names.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
4. Employers greatly appreciate college graduates who master non-verbal communication.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
5. The top universal skills learnt across academic disciplines prevail.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
b. Read the text above. For questions 1-10, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best
according to the text (40 points):
1.
A
B
C
D

Changes in the business world are .......... .

powerful
technical
imperative
common

2.
A
B
C
D

.......... plays a great part in change management.

Predictability
Demand
Sophistication
Culture

3.
A
B
C
D

A successful change involves .......... .

people from different cultures
facing many challenges
vision, commitment, potential, as well as method
prompt delivery

4.
A
B
C
D

Permanent transformation can be seen .......... .

in new markets, labour pools, and state-of-art technologies
in the landscape
in songs and plays
in the chopping blocks

5.
A
B
C
D

Hiring managers would recruit highly-skilled college graduates who can .......... .
use a computer, repair engines, and cook food in a camp
work in a team, make decisions, solve problems, but also use verbal communication perfectly
prioritise tasks, play baseball, and write good articles
search for and process information, organise events, and take good photos

6.
A
B
C
D

Nevertheless, the degrees most in demand are .......... .

anthropology, leadership, and catering
engineering, business, and computer and information sciences
computer science, statistics, and counselling
management, letter writing, and legal studies

7.
A
B
C
D

Many other skills have been rated as very important, such as .......... .
never making mistakes
speaking three foreign languages
engaging in charity campaigns
prioritising work, processing quantitative and qualitative data, and being persuasive

8.
A
B
C
D

Graduates can specify their skills in their .......... .

public relations
project working groups
tricks
rsums, cover letters, and job interviews

9.
A
B
C
D

In martial arts, You have to go slow to go fast means .......... .

Be relaxed untense, flexible to move as quickly as you are capable of.
Get out of your comfort zone.
Go fast enough to get there, but slow enough to see.
Less is more.

10. Much-sought-after (line 4) means .......... .

A searching for information
B much ado about nothing
C wanted or desired very much
D much the same

B. Writing

You have entered a high-school essay competition. Write your final

180-200-word for and against version on: To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have
changed often. (John Henry Cardinal Newman) (40 points).
NOTE: 10 points for granted

KEY AND MARKING SCHEME

A. Reading comprehension 50 p
1.A.a. _________ 5 sentences x 2p = 10 p
1

1.A.b. _________ 10 sentences x 4p = 40 p

1

10

B. Writing 40 p
You have entered a high-school essay competition. Write your final 180-200-word for and against version on: To
live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often. (John Henry Cardinal Newman)
40 p
Marking Scheme
Task: for and against essay (creative writing)
task achievement & original input
relevance of ideas to topic

15 p
7p

organization
- organization / layout
- cohesion and coherence
- length constraint

7p
4p
2p
1p

language accuracy and variety

- correct use of grammar structures
- accurate spelling and punctuation

6p
5p
1p

register and vocabulary

- appropriate register and vocabulary
- range of vocabulary

5p
2p
3p

NOTE: 10 points for granted

___________________________________________________________________________________
Lucrare de evaluare semestrial cu subiect unic Semestrul I
Limba englez Clasa a XII-a L1
Test elaborat de prof. Gabriela Pachia

EVALUATION PAPER
SEMESTER II
Name..................................................... Date......22nd April 2015...... Grade....... 12th.........
SUBJECT 1
A. Reading comprehension

__________

_50 POINTS___________

a. Read the text below. Are the sentences 1-5 Right (A) or Wrong (B) ? If there is not enough
information to answer Right (A) or Wrong (B), choose Doesnt say (C). Mark A, B, or C on your sheet
(10 points):

The Strongest, Bravest, Fiercest, Most Stubborn Woman Ive Ever Known
Wouldnt it be nice when something significant was about to be said, if a bright sign would appear alerting us to
this fact? As close as Ive ever come to this actually happening was in college. In the middle of a mind-numbingly
boring lecture, my professor would change the cadence and volume of his voice and announce, Now write this
down. It will be on the exam. I would scribble whatever came out of his mouth next and then wander back in
my mind to some place more exciting than my current surroundings. Thanks to his early-warning system, I
managed to pass the class with a B despite retaining very little of the content he shared in class.
When I was recently asked what the most important advice was that Id ever received, I was hard pressed to
come up with a single answer. How does one start with a question like that? Nary a day goes by without some
form of advice being shared, so how does one choose that one thing that rises above all the rest as being the
most pivotal, valuable words of wisdom? Its a lot easier to recall the worst advice especially when there are
scars to remind us of our foolhardy decisions. Most of my Worst-of-All-Time Hall-of-Famers begin with phrases
like They wont be mad; you should do it. or It wont hurt. Really. Nothing good ever happened when I
opted to believe advice that began with that kind of logic.
And some advice, as inane and obvious as it sounds, pays off every single time. For example, the advice to use
my manners thats been pretty useful. Seriously. It has resulted in many a positive result and has helped me
inspire colleagues to try a proposed course of action which places them far outside their comfort zone. When I
was told that please and thank you are magic words, it was good advice. They hold incredible power to
change the attitudes, minds, opinions, and decisions of those around us.
But when I consider what it is that I come back to time and again when I am in the midst of a struggle,
whether it is in my personal or professional life, it would have to be the words of my great-grandmother, Zelma
Carder. She was a larger-than-life figure of my childhood who walked straight out of a Zane Grey Western
novel and into my life. Shed lived this incredibly difficult but exciting life. She homesteaded in the barren,
windswept prairies of northern New Mexico in the 1800s, survived the Dust Bowl years despite losing almost
everything she owned except for a grand piano (which now sits in our living room). She travelled in a
conestoga wagon (with her grand piano in tow) to live as a migrant worker, picking cotton alongside her
husband and children to survive the desperate years after the Great Depression. She learned to carry the
heartbreak of burying several of her family, including her own child, during a flu epidemic in the early 1900s.
She crocheted rugs out of bread bags and turned butter tubs into the most wonderful doll beds filled with satin
beds hand stitched from old night gowns and covered with colourful crocheted skirts. She was a true pioneer of
sustainability, the ultimate conservationist. The stories she told me were the things of grand novels, and she
was, by far, the strongest, bravest, fiercest, most stubborn woman Ive ever known.
While visiting her when I was six or seven-years-old, she scolded me for crying after losing a game to her. I
had no idea at the time that her words would ring in my ears every time I faced a situation where I felt treated
unfairly or had an uphill battle to reach my goal. As I sat in my chair across from her, swallowing my tears, she
said, No one in this life is going to feel sorry for you. If you sit there feeling sorry for yourself, you just decided
to give up on yourself. And then youre the loser, not because of anyone else, but because of yourself. If youre
going to play, do it because you love the game. And then when you win, you can celebrate, but even when you
lose, youll still be the winner because you got to play the game you love.
Especially now as I serve as CEO of a startup, her words spur me to grow, be courageous and focus on the
vision of the future I know is possible. While our team deploys and refines our technology that is impacting the
lives of others and has the potential of impacting lives across the glove, I know Im in this game because I love
it. But on the hard days, when everything goes wrong, my great-grandmothers words remind me that its up to
me to dig deep, toughen up and find the courage to brush off the disappointment and push forward to the next
pinnacle where the view of the future is clearly visible once again.

Cleve Edward Littlefield * Top Commenter * Western High School, Las Vegas, Nevada
Grandma Zelda was a force of nature and the Matriarch of the family and I had the great fortune to have her in my Familys life for a
big part of my formative life. She had a wonderful, loving way of making each grandchild feel like they were her favourite without
any of them knowing the difference. (Sorry to let it out now but I was her favourite lol.) I know you were playing dominos as that is
how she taught all her grandchildren how to do simple math and how to lose with manners as she never threw a game. When you
could win a game or two playing Grandma then you had accomplished something worth celebrating as she was sharp as a tack.

April 17 at 3:52pm
Lisa Abeyta * Top Commenter * Founder, CEO at APPCityLife * 149 followers
So very true, Cleve. I was pretty sure I was her favourite, but youve killed that illusion!
She trounced me at every game we
played dominos, cards... she never let anyone win and she celebrated with you if you beat her.

April 17 at 6:25pm

(Lisa Abeyta, Founder/CEO, APPCityLife Inc. & Cofounder, Hautepreneurs and HauteHopes,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-abeyta/post_9270_b_7080804.html, 2015,
Accessed 17th April 2015)

1. Students took notes because the topics were on the exam.

A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
2. Lisa was right when she made foolhardy decisions.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
3. Zelma Carder had a book of Nineteenth Century Best Quotes.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
4. Lisas great-grandmother endured and overcame the worst of lifes hardships.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
5. As the ultimate conservationist, Zelma Carder was a smaller-than-life figure.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
b. Read the text above. For questions 1-10, choose the answer (A, B, C or D) which you think fits best
according to the text (40 points):
1.
A
B
C
D

The teacher would use .......... in class.

an ealy-warning system
a wireless fire alarm system
a share-if-you-care system
an easy-to-use system

2.
A
B
C
D

Using pearls of wisdom .......... .

pays up
pays back
pays off
pays down

3.
A
B
C
D

Pieces of advice .......... .

are invaluable words of wisdom
are mind-numbing
are scars
inane and obvious

4.
A
B
C
D

Zelma Carder proved herself to be .......... .

the heroine of a western movie
the best in her personal and professional life
the author of grand novels
a pioneer of sustainability

5.
A
B
C
D

The authors great-grandmother led a hard life in .......... .

her New Mexico homestead
Zane Grey
her comfort zone
the Great Depression Valley

6.
A
B
C
D

Her .......... survived in spite of all the hardships.

fruit bowls
carpets and rugs
grand piano
gloves

7.
A
B
C
D

Wherever her family travelled during the worldwide economic downturn in the 1930s, they .......... .
played tic-tac-toe
went on tiptoe
went piano in tow
went toe-to-toe

8.
A
B
C
D

Zelmas advice is, .......... .

Take up crocheting !
Never feel sorry for yourself !
Feel sorry for everybody around you !
Teach yourself to play the piano !

9.
A
B
C
D

Great-grandmothers words spur people .......... .

to grow, be courageous, and pick cotton
to pick cotton, dig deep, and make doll beds
to dig deep, be courageous, brush off disappointment, and focus on the future
to travel in a conestoga wagon, swallow their tears, and push their dreams forward

10. Cleve and Lisa knew that Grandma Zelda was .......... .
A as American as apple pie
B as luck would have it
C as good as ones word
D as sharp as a razor

B. Writing

You have entered a high-school essay competition. Write your final 180-220word opinion essay on: Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your
life. (Confucius) (40 points).
NOTE: 10 points for granted

KEY AND MARKING SCHEME

A. Reading comprehension 50 p
1.A.a. _________ 5 sentences x 2p = 10 p
1

1.A.b. _________ 10 sentences x 4p = 40 p

1

10

B. Writing
You have entered a high-school essay competition. Write your final 180-220-word opinion essay on: Choose a
job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. (Confucius) (40 points).
40 p
Marking Scheme
Task: opinion essay (creative writing)
task achievement & original input
relevance of ideas to topic

15 p
7p

organization
- organization / layout
- cohesion and coherence
- length constraint

7p
4p
2p
1p

language accuracy and variety

- correct use of grammar structures
- accurate spelling and punctuation

6p
5p
1p

register and vocabulary

- appropriate register and vocabulary
- range of vocabulary

5p
2p
3p

NOTE: 10 points for granted

___________________________________________________________________________________
Lucrare de evaluare semestrial cu subiect unic Semestrul al II-lea
Limba englez Clasa a XII-a L1
Test elaborat de prof. Gabriela Pachia

PROGRESS TEST (UNITS 811)

SEMESTER II
Name..................................................... Date......22nd March 2014...... Grade...... 12th........
SUBJECT 1

__________

_50 POINTS___________

A. Reading comprehension
a. Read the text below. Are the sentences 1-5 Right (A) or Wrong (B) ? If there is not enough
information to answer Right (A) or Wrong (B), choose Doesnt say (C). Mark A, B, or C on your sheet
(20 points):

10 Ways Men and Women Communicate Differently

Its the middle of the day during a long drive. Hes sitting at the wheel, cruising along. Shes sitting in the
passenger seat, reading, glancing up now and then at the passing scenery. Suddenly, she turns to him and
cries, Talk to me! Shes not stir crazy; hes not ignoring her. Theyre just living the classic divide in
communication between men and women. Shes more discussion-oriented; hes all action. One reason for these
differences stems from the way relationships develop during childhood. Girls friendships focus on making
connections talk is essential to this process. Sharing secrets, relating experiences, revealing problems and
discussing options are essential during girls development. Boys generally take another approach to friendship.
Their camaraderie is not less profound; its just different. Buddy groups tend to be larger, focusing on activities
rather than conversation. This differentiation in youth leads to dissimilar communication styles in adulthood.
Women communicate through dialogue, discussing emotions, choices and problems. Males remain actionoriented the goal of communication is to achieve something. Research indicates that one way to classify
male-female interactions is to examine them through the lens of childhood: talk versus deeds. Here is a list of
10 ways that (most) men and women communicate differently and how these affect their interactions.
10. Nonverbal Communication
Fingers tapping. Eyes squinting. Legs crossing. Hands fluttering. Heads nodding.
Nonverbal communication involves varying levels of body expression, with women usually functioning at high
intensity. Faces are animated and hands are in motion, often touching others. Men are more conservative in
facial movement and body contact. However, they do tend to be unreserved in sitting styles: sprawling,
stretching and spreading out. The intensity level for women drops for the sitting position they tend to draw
in, keeping arms and legs close to their bodies. Womens actions focus on maintaining the relationship:
providing attention and encouraging participation. The goal for men, however, depends upon the task. Want to
appear in charge? Use the body to control the discussion space. Want to preserve calm and prevent emotional
escalation? Keep the face quiet and impassive.
9. Body Orientation
Picture this: On one side of the room, theres a group of women, deep in conversation. Their chairs are all
turned toward each other, and they continually make eye contact. On the other side of the room, theres a
group of four men. They sit at angles to each other. During much of their discussion, their eyes roam around
the room, glancing at each other infrequently. When group members are engaged with the other gender these
preferences may cause problems. One specific aspect of nonverbal communication is body orientation. If a man
wont make eye contact or face his female conversational partner, she may interpret this as a lack of interest.
He may become annoyed that she is rejecting his efforts; to him, his relaxed body position is actually helping
him concentrate. The vast differences in physical alignment make it difficult for talkers to reconcile the two styles.
8. Arguments
In a nutshell, each genders argumentation style looks like this: women often try to get their point across by
asking many types of questions: defiant, informational and rhetorical. The questions are designed to present an
opposition or gather data. Mens contributions to arguments are often simple and direct. Theyre so
straightforward, in contrast to womens questions, that men might not even realise that a conflict is occurring.
When, finally, both parties realize they are disagreeing, their communication styles have great impact. Men are
concerned with being right and less concerned about anyone elses feelings. This perceived lack of compassion
upsets women. Men dislike questions, interpreting them as censure, and they react by closing down
emotionally. This pattern leads women to become increasingly suspicious and wary. Time to go to separate
corners. Women often use questions in an argument. Its how they present their opposition. Men are more
likely to take the simple, direct approach.
7. Apologising
After the argument comes the apology. Maybe. Women use apologies to try to create or maintain connections.
Men, on the other hand, are concerned with what an apology might do: it might lower them to a subordinate
position, a place where theyve never wanted to be since boyhood. After a male-female quarrel, gender
differences can prolong negative feelings. If a man fears losing power and avoids apologising, a woman might
consider this insensitive behaviour, becoming offended and annoyed. Thus the argument continues.

6. Giving Compliments
Well, if the apology doesnt go well, maybe a compliment is in order. But that path is also tricky since gender
variations are making things difficult. From a young age, females learn to give compliments; its almost
reflexive. Compliments are a way of reaching out to one another, an offer of affirmation and inclusion. Men are
more likely to volunteer evaluations instead of hand out compliments. Similarly, they will not seek out
compliments because they want to avoid being critiqued themselves. Naturally, these differing approaches
complicate communication. If a woman asks a question with the hope of being praised or flattered, a man may
well see it as a way to offer advice. This affects their relative power: the advice-giver is automatically shifted to
a higher position, with the woman having lower status.
5. Problem Solving
The car died. Again. Its time to buy a new car. He suggests a slightly used car because cars depreciate quickly.
She says shed like to ask her friends how they like their cars. He wants to look at car reviews on-line. Shes
worried about the car payment. He offers to go right then to a few dealerships. She relates a story about the
first time she bought a car and how exciting it had been. He declares he wants to look at hybrids. This is not
problem solving at its finest but at its most common. Men and women approach an analytical discussion
differently. Men tend to focus on facts and seek immediate resolutions; action is the conversational goal.
Women desire more extensive talk about problems, sharing feelings and finding common experiences. Even if
theres a mutual dilemma to resolve, such diverse communication goals can lead to frustration. Men dont
understand why women dont want to solve problems, why they seem ungrateful for direct help. Women are
hurt by the perceived disregard for emotions and frustrated when they believe they are being pushed to
acquiesce too quickly. Their approaches to problem solving are likely to be different women want to examine
the situation, but men might already be out the door to the dealership.
4. Getting Your Way
Men and women have very different ways of trying to get what they want, which makes it difficult to come to
an agreement. Women are typically in conversation mode; they are more likely to ask questions. Their goal is
to get others to acquiesce through agreement. Men often interpret this approach as manipulation. They will
make statements rather than suggestions. Their objective is to get their way directly and quickly. If that
doesnt work, theyll exit the discussion; they may either be angry or simply less passionate about the subject.
These discussions often do not go smoothly. Men are resentful, believing women are trying to trick them. If
men wont participate in back and forth negotiations, women feel slighted. This could easily turn into an
argument no one intended.
3. Chatterbox
Who talks more, men or women? Take into consideration all interactions during the day, with family, work,
friends and businesses. Would you guess women are more loquacious? Research indicates that there is no
significant difference between women and men in the amount of words spoken, although, when they do talk,
men tend to use more words at a time. The major difference appears to be when men and women do their
talking. Women spend more talking time with family and close friends, expressing support and discussing
experiences. Men tend to talk more at work and in formal and social settings. Their goal is the exchange of
information, even when conversing with a buddy. At home, women do talk more and become perturbed with
less responsive partners. Women try to work on their relationships, while men see little need to speak unless
there is a specific purpose a problem to solve, a decision to make.
2. Interrupting
Most people dislike being interrupted, but most people do it at one time or another. Women interrupt to show
concern, but they think men disrupt the discussion by shifting the subject. Men do try to control the conversation
by disrupting it. They also believe a womans supportive interjections (e.g. go on) are interruptions. Frequent
interruptions, no matter the cause, no matter the target, can lead to frustration. This can build to anger and,
unless the guilty party gets things under control, the discussion will come to a screeching halt. Or just screeching.
1. E-mail
E-mail. So helpful, convenient and quick. So overused, annoying and redundant. Its also pervasive. A 2009
study found 1.4 billion people worldwide use e-mail, sending 247 billion messages daily. The tone of most
messages is conversational, with little attempt to revise that pattern. Most of the e-mail women send revolves
around relationships: being supportive, making suggestions, apologising, asking questions and offering thanks.
Mens e-mail messages are very different. Not only do men more often portray themselves as subject experts,
but they have a more contentious interaction style, employing sarcasm, profanity and insults. Men may be
looking for information from others through e-mail, but they are also seeking influence and respect.
Communication, whether non-verbal, verbal or typed into a computer, is open to interpretation. That is
especially true when men and women are evaluating each other. Awareness of variability in communication
styles can be the difference between an effective, fulfilling conversation and a distressing upsetting, prolonged
argument. Men might wish to come off as experts in some of their e-mails, while women tend to write more
supportive, less aggressive communications.
(Susan Sherwood, Ph.D., http://dsc.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/
topics/10-ways-men-women-communicate-differently.htm, Accessed 15th March 2014)

1. Women are all action, while men are discussion-oriented.

A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
2. Male-female interaction problems rise from their childhood habits.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
3. Men often jump as a form of nonverbal communication to maintain control.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
4. In an argument, men use a lot of questions, and show compassion to women.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
5. Men never apologise since it might put them in a lower-ranking position.
A Right
B Wrong
C Doesnt say
I.A.b. Read the texts below. For sentences 1-5, choose the correct answer (A, B, C or D) which you think
fits best according to the text (20 points):
1. Talk is an essential process. ..........
A It helps frustrations, anger and mutual control.
B It contributes to a male-female quarrel, to the prolongation of negative feelings.
C It solves womens worries and mens wrong choices.
D It includes discussing emotions, options or choices, sharing secrets, relating experiences, and revealing problems.
2. Giving compliments is a way ........... .
A to achieve the conversational goal.
B of reaching out to one another, so as to avoid being critiqued.
C to get ones way directly and quickly.
D to shift the subject.
3. Women are generally concerned with ........... .
A manipulating men.
B being supportive, making suggestions, apologising, asking questions and offering thanks.
C initiating more aggressive communications.
D arguing, asking a lot of questions and weeping.
4. Men want to be acknowledged as .......... .
A aware of womens being eternal tricksters.
B self-concerned beings.
C insensitive and more conservative.
D contentious subject experts, influential and respected seekers of information.
5. Gender variations .......... .
A lead to an exit from discussion.
B remain a dilemma for all parts involved.
C complicate communication at all levels and in all circumstances.
D distress and upset people, leading to prolonged argument.

B. Writing
Finish the following sentences on men versus women. Use the prompts in the picture below, as well as
your own justification, examples, and/or reasons (10 points).
1. While men ...............................................................................................................................................
2. Generally speaking, ..................................................................................................................................
3. Since ......................................................................................................................................................
4. It goes without saying that ........................................................................................................................
5. I strongly believe that ...............................................................................................................................

SUBJECT 2

___________40 POINTS__________

II.a. Match the sentences AJ to their corresponding endings/clauses 110, paying attention to the
proper connectors (20 points):
A. My home
B. Practice
C. Laughter

1. live as if youll die tomorrow.

2. everything they say, everything they do.
3. and the world around you changes.

D. Dream as if youll live forever;

E. Never
F. Women have their faults, men have only two:
G. Change your thoughts

4.
5.
6.
7.

H. Success
I. Shallow men believe in luck.
J. All women become

8. is my castle.
9. say never.
10. is the best medicine.

Strong men believe in cause and effect.

makes perfect.
breeds confidence.
like their mothers.

II.b. Complete the spaces with one word only (20 points):
1. When in ..............., do like the ............... do.
2. Australia is the ..............., driest and most venomous continent.
3. Uluru, or Ayers ..............., the large sandstone rock in Australia, is sacred to the Anangu people.
4. An Englishman, even if he is alone, likes to form an orderly queue of ............... .
5. Is the glass half-full or half-................ ?
6. Laugh and the whole world laughs with you. ............... and you ............... alone.
7. People are encouraged to believe in the power of ............... thinking.
8. If you want to eat well in England, eat ............... breakfasts.
9. Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about ............... .
10. Dream ..............., live bigger.
NOTE: 10 points for granted

KEY AND MARKING SCHEME

A. Reading comprehension 50 p
SUBJECT I

(50 points)

I.A.a. _________ 5 sentences x 4p = 20 p

1

I.A.b. _________ 5 sentences x 4p = 20 p

1

* wary = prudent, circumspect

* acquiesce = accept, acknowledge, admit, agree to, conform, consent, cooperate, submit, subscribe, surrender
* contentious = quarrelsome, argumentative, belligerent

B. Writing
I.B. __________ 5 sentences x 2p = 10 p
SUBJECT II

(40 points)

II.a. __________ 10 sentences x 2p = 20 points

A

10

II.b. _________ 10 x 2p = 20 points

1

NOTE: 10 points for granted

______________________________________________________________________________________________
Lucrare de evaluare de progres Semestrul al II-lea
Limba englez Clasa a XII-a L1
Test elaborat de prof. Gabriela Pachia

Women always worry about things that men forget.

Men always worry about the things that women remember.
(Albert Einstein)
Men marry women with the hope they will never change. Women marry men
with the hope they will change. Invariably they are both disappointed.
(Albert Einstein)

My Grandpa Loves Excellency!

- Sample Monica Popovici
Grade: 10th Mathematics-Informatics
I have always been impressed by Grandpas elephant
memory as well as by his perspicacity in finding the most
ingenious solutions to problems. He deals with all Maths
branches, such as Arithmetic, Algebra, Geometry,
Probabilities and Trigonometry. He is highly qualified in
Geometry and in teaching high-school students. He
specialised in Mathematics and Physics at The West
University in Timi{oara in the 1950s and then applied for a
position as a lecturer at the same university. All his life he
has been responsible for educating the students minds and
for discovering top performers in Mathematics. He is also
skilled in writing articles in his domain.
You may be asking yourself why I have chosen to
write about my Grandpa. As everybody knows, he is the
kindest man I have ever met. He never loses his temper
when one of his students or even myself forgets the rules,
or cannot draw a geometrical figure properly. I think he
would be able to explain the same thing over and over again,
trying to convey Mathematical knowledge to his younger
learners. By the way, you can notice how immeasurably
patient he is by the way he prepares his lectures thoroughly,
the manner in which he jots down notes, by his graceful
handwriting, or even by the way he plants the vegetables in
our garden. Now you might think my Grandpa is boring or
annoying but I bet you are wrong. He will tell funny jokes
whenever students are two stressed, or too embarrassed to
admit they simply cannot solve a problem. I remember a
class in which he interrupted his well-thought explanations
and asked the surprised students, Do you know what
happened to the plant in the Maths class? Since nobody
knew exactly what the story was about, he answered, Well,
it grew square roots! I couldnt help laughing, so I added a
joke of my own, inspired from my liking for the English
language. It went like this, Where do Maths teachers go on

vacation? He unsuccessfully tried to give some common

sense answers, but I replied, Obviously, to Times Square, Sir!
He laughed heartily and promised he would find more
solutions to that problem.
I admit Grandpa can be moralising at times, but whos
not? It served me well. He would check my homework, my
timetable, he would ask me to tell him formulae from
different chapters a random testing, you know the kind, all
science teachers use the method , he would ask me about
Aristotle, Pythagoras, or Archimedes, Gauss or Newton, often
uttering long quotes from their works. It was a fascinating
lesson, fostering my wish to learn more about all the worlds
scientists. When our long talks were over, I used to cheer
him asking, Grandpa, what is the difference between a
mathematician and a philosopher? He invariably replied,
The mathematician only needs paper, a pencil, and a trash
bin for his work, the philosopher can do without the trash
bin! I insisted and asked, What does the zero say to the
eight? Nice belt! you see, Grandpa knew all the answers
in the world!
Paraphrasing the proverb Like father, like son, I
would say Like Grandfather, like granddaughter. I am very
interested in Mathematics too and, to tell you the truth,
quite skilled at learning Informatics. Why do I think I am
good at it? The answer is good guidance and my Grandpas
wisdom. Due to his scrutinising eyes, I solved thousands of
exercises and then started winning prizes in competitions.
that my thinking abilities are suitable for this abstract
science. My Grandpa is guiding me towards a career in
Mathematics. He gives me extra homework, he asks me
complex questions in order to use more sciences, and he
prepares me for the high-school Olympiads. Not to say that
he encourages me and congratulates me on each and every
success, however small it might seem to other people. Thats
why I have decided to fill in an application at the Faculty of
Mathematics in Timi{oara. (Would you kindly remind me to
write other descriptions of my family and the great
mathematicians and IT specialists I see around every day?)
You see, I love Grandpa from minus infinity to plus
infinity! Grandpa loves excellency and I love Grandpa; it
results that I love Excellency!

Hyphenated Compound Modifiers (2)

Prof. Gabriela Pachia
Colegiul Naional Bnean, Timioara

Match the following sentences which include a hyphenated compound modifier

(attribute) with the sentences which have a corresponding meaning:
Dont expect a parade or a flower-petal-showered reception.
Try to understand your psyche and your deep-seated motives.
Fashion seems the highest-powered industry which spends heavily to influence our
subliminal self-images.
Exams can create anxiety-ridden days and sleepless nights.
New Years Eve is one of those love-it-or-hate-it holidays.
Are you ready for more nerve-rattling, cosmic fun and games?
A goody-goody person is moral or pious in an affected or canting way, is affectedly sweet,
good, or virtuous.
He has found that many baby-faced grown-ups, particularly young men, overcompensate for
misperceptions by cultivating tougher-than-average personalities in an attempt to ward off cheekpinching aunts.
Your dime-store philosophy has almost got them convinced that you are intelligent.
According to Briers, it was the crash-and-burn type of failure, not the sanitised NLP
Failure Lite, i.e. the failure-that-isnt really-failure sort of failure that propelled individuals to success.
Hes a sweet teeny-weeny.
Following this ground-breaking work, Ralph Waldo Emerson gave a speech entitled
The American Scholar in 1837, which Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. considered to be Americas
Intellectual Declaration of Independence.
The hyperbolic discounting refers to the peoples tendency to choose a smallersooner reward over a larger-later reward.
Throw into the mix the largest star in the heavens, that lucky old Sun helped by the
clever, fast-thinking, always-quick-to-spot-the-right-opportunity persons, and the stage is set
to reach for that dream.
The problem with the Internet-is-making-us-illiterate theory, of course, is that bad
prose has burdened readers in every era.

The most honest folk are the goody two-shoes people of Devon and Cornwall.
The latest model includes several innovative features and improvements, never done before.
Because the televisions feature more than 8 million individual pixels, the agency decided it was
fitting that they use at least that many flower petals and project them as if they were erupting from a
volcano in Costa Rica and spewing into the nearby village, so that the cascading layers of biodegradable
red, white, purple, pink, and yellow flowers descending from the skies was stunning.
People taking brisk trips Londonwards peered into the darkness outside the carriage windows, and saw
only a rare, flickering, vanishing spark dance up from the direction of Horsell, a red glow and a thin veil of
smoke driving across the stars, and thought that nothing more serious than a heath fire was happening.

Be aware that sugar is present in foods you may not suspect, like ketchup and fruit juice, not to say
anything about the food on store shelves, filled with harmful chemicals.
They offered a five-and-ten menu.
Tell me about times when you seized opportunities and grabbed something and ran, about people who
react very quickly when presented with two options, or do everything as quickly and effectively as they can.

The rosy man had grown pale; his flesh had fallen away; he was visibly balder and older; and yet it
was not so much these tokens of a swift physical decay that arrested the lawyers notice, as a look in the
eye and quality of manner that seemed to testify to some long-established terror of the mind.
Highly dynamic Harley-Davidson is looking for a highly motivated and experienced Parts & Accessories
Manager, an excellent opportunity to join one of the fastest growing dealer groups in the country. We are
looking for an aggressive, take charge parts manager to lead a busy and growing Department.
Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?, Is Pinterest Making Us Blind?, Is the
Kindle Making Us Illiterate?, Are Houses Making Us Homeless?, Is This Dress Making Us Look Fat?, Are
Paperweights Making Our Papers Fly Away?, Is Mom Making Us Dinner Tonight?, Are Inner Tubes Making Us
Sink?, Is Artisanal Coffee Making Us Douchebags? Read more...
There is always ah enormous temptation in all of life to fool around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals
and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end.
Is it an invasion of the childs space? Is it demeaning? Is the child so cute? Or do grown-ups want to put
the colour into their pale face? I remember it as a kid and hating it because it really hurts and there is nothing
endearing about it. There are better ways of expressing adoration.

When Gil lost his job and the company went bankrupt, he also watched his parents marriage
dissolve since it was a complete failure. e company crashed and burned.
The standard experiment is to compare short-term preferences with long-term preferences. For instance,
Would you prefer a dollar today or three dollars tomorrow? or Would you prefer a dollar in one year or three
dollars in one year and one day? For certain range of offerings, a significant fraction of subjects will take the
lesser amount today, but will gladly wait one extra day in a year in order to receive the higher amount instead,
such individuals being described as present-biased.
Negative beliefs such as I lack the necessary skills to perform the task, and a preoccupation with the
fear and anxiety associated with negative beliefs can get in the way of ones progress.

Selection and English version:

Bianca Eva Kele (Grade: 12th Philology 2)
Prof. Gabriela Pachia

! Vremea dasc@lul }i nv@]@torul tuturor este. (Dimitrie Cantemir)

! Poporul romn e una din minunile lui Dumnezeu n mersul lui pe p@mnt. (Petre [u]ea)
! Putem accepta orice adev@r, orict de zdrobitor, cu condi]ia s@ nlocuiasc@ totul, s@ aib@
tot atta vitalitate ct speran]a c@reia i s-a substituit. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Du}manii se recruteaz@ dintre prieteni. (Grigore Moisil)
! Taina existen]ei umane nu const@ n a tr@i, ci n a }ti pentru ce tr@ie}ti. (Nicolae Iorga)
! A iubi nseamn@ a suferi }i, cum mul]i fug de suferin]@, pu]ini }tiu s@ iubeasc@. (Emil M.
Cioran)
! Ce este o c@l@torie dac@ nu o ncercare de a vedea cum, n alte condi]ii, sufletul nostru
r@mne acela}i. (Ana Blandiana)
! n via]@, joac@ teatru numai cei care n-au niciun rol. (Tudor Mu}atescu)
! Nu este alta mai frumoas@ }i mai de folos n toat@ via]a omului z@bav@ dect cetitul
c@r]ilor. (Miron Costin)
! Romnul }i iube}te p@mntul unde s-a n@scut ca un rai, din care tiraniile cele mai crude
nu sunt n stare a-l goni. (Vasile Alecsandri)
! Un popor care nu-}i cunoa}te istoria e ca un copil care nu-}i cunoa}te p@rin]ii. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Via]a e nimicitoarea iluziilor. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Libertatea absolut@ se c}tig@ prin dragoste. C@ci doar dragostea l elibereaz@ pe om de
natura sa. (Mircea Eliade)
! Limba unui popor este expresiunea }i totodat@ instrumentul gndirii sale. (A. D. Xenopol)
! Trufa}ul nu poate fi recunosc@tor; el crede totdeauna c@ a meritat mai mult. (N. Iorga)
! Cel mai dureros lucru n dragoste e c@ sufletul ]i-l fur@ de obicei cel ce are mai pu]in@
nevoie de el. (Ion Luca Caragiale)
! Oamenii sunt p@s@ri nemaintlnite, / cu aripi crescute nl@untru, / care bat plutind,
plannd, / ntr-un aer mai curat care e gndul! (Nichita St@nescu)
! Cine crede-n zbor e st@pn peste zare. (Lucian Blaga)
! Orice om are o idee bun@ }i fix@ care arat@ incapacitatea lui de libertate. (Tudor Arghezi)
! Pn@ la sufletul t@u nu poate p@trunde nicio suli]@ dinafar@, dac@ nu afl@ n@untru un
ajutor, p@catul t@u. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Simplitatea n art@ este, n general, o complexitate rezolvat@. (Constantin Brncu}i)
! Frumosul este singurul atribut potrivit al lumii, tot a}a de nem@rginit ca }i dnsa. (Ion
Luca Caragiale)
! Este curios cum lucrurilor grave le place s@ se deghizeze n haine frivole pentru a nu fi
luate n seam@. (Ana Blandiana)
! Pu]ini sunt oamenii care-au nv@]at s@ pre]uiasc@ prietenia. (Tudor Arghezi)

! Exist@ dou@ realit@]i a c@ror imens@, zdrobitoare greutate nu o sim]im, dar f@r@ de care
nu putem tr@i: aerul }i istoria. (Lucian Blaga)
! Degrab s@ ascul]i, trziu s@ gr@ie}ti }i la mnie cu totul s@ z@bove}ti. (Iordache Golescu)
! Pe p@mnt, tot ce exist@ are nevoie, din cnd n cnd, s@ plng@. (Nichita St@nescu)
! {arpele e odios nu pentru c@ mu}c@, ci pentru c@ se ascunde pentru ca s@ mu}te.
(Nicolae Iorga)
! ndr@gosti]ii simt nevoia s@ }i trmbi]eze pu]in dragostea, dar }i dragostea prea
trmbi]at@ este de calitate inferioar@ }i nu poate s@ fie durabil@. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Dou@ calit@]i pe lume nu pot fi simulate }i nici nlocuite: inteligen]a }i bun@tatea! (Ileana
Vulpescu)
! Pericolul simplit@]ii este trivialul. (Constantin Brncu}i)
! Mai vrtos s@ n]elegi ce cite}ti, c@ a citi }i a nu n]elege este a vntura vntul }i a
fierbe apa. (Miron Costin)
! Gr@dina ncuiat@ }i fntna pecetluit@, de dnsele de-amndou@ ce folosu-i? (Dosoftei)
! S@ nu fii nici oaie ntre lupi, nici lup ntre oi. (Dimitrie [ichindeal)
! Scumpul nu este st@pn pe banii s@i, ci banii l st@pnesc pe el. (Anton Pann)
! Zgrcitul nici el nu m@nnc@, nici pe altul nu va s@ vaz@ mncnd. (Anton Pann)
! n casa zgrcitului nici }oarecii nu se duc. (Anton Pann)
! Dect s@ min]i bine, mai bine spui adev@rul prost. (Tudor Mu}atescu)
! Cine iube}te }i este iubit nu va mai fi niciodat@ acela}i om ca nainte. (Octavian Paler)
! De ce oamenii }i pierd timpul cu lucruri care nu le folosesc dup@ moarte? (M. Sorescu, Iona)
! Iubirea adev@rat@ nfrunt@ lumea, e generoas@ }i mndr@. Nicio pl@cere n iubire nu se poate
compara cu afi}area ei n fa]a oamenilor. Numai iubirea vinovat@ se ascunde. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Poate c@, ntr-adev@r, ochii femeii iubite sunt marginea lumii. (Grigore Vieru)
! Cel mai mare p@cat al oamenilor e frica, spaima de-a privi n fa]@ }-a recunoa}te
adev@rul. El e crud, acest adev@r, dar numai el folose}te. (Mihai Eminescu)
! Oceanul adev@rului este nesfr}it. n zadar se nainteaz@ pe urmele lui. Orizontul se
ndep@rteaz@ mereu. (A. D. Xenopol)
! Arhitectura este sculptur@ locuit@. (Constantin Brncu}i)
! Adversarul care ]i este o obsesie a devenit o parte din tine. (Lucian Blaga)
! Gndirea e cimentul ce fixeaz@ pulberea ideilor. (Tudor Vianu)
! Rezisten]e mari }i piedici mari se opun n lumea asta numai unei voin]e mari. (Lucian Blaga)
! S@ creezi ca un zeu, s@ porunce}ti ca un rege, s@ munce}ti ca un rob! (Constantin Brncu}i)
! Oportunismul }i la}itatea ucid avnturile. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Nu e de p@rerea ta cel ce te aprob@, ci cel ce te imit@. (Grigore Moisil)
! Orice eroare este un fost adev@r. (E. M. Cioran)
! Cei r@i pot avea noroc. Numai cei buni pot fi ferici]i. Norocul? De cnd alergi dup@ el,
]i-l f@ceai singur. (Alexandru Vlahu]@)
! Tot omul e ros de un vierme }i obsedat de un el nsu}i inexistent, de ceea ce ar fi
dorit el s@ fie. (Tudor Arghezi)
! Cine spune minciuna nti obrazul }i ru}ineaz@, iar mai pre urm@ sufletul }i ucide.
(Dimitrie Cantemir)
! Ocazia e iute la fug@ }i lene}@ la ntors. (Mihai Eminescu)
! O fapt@ rea se-ndreapt@ printr-o fapt@ bun@, o vorb@ rea nu se ndreapt@ prin nimic.
(Ileana Vulpescu)

! Nu putem inventa sentimente. Le putem descoperi }i exprima, iubi }i ur, le putem

apropia de inim@ sau le putem respinge. (Nichita St@nescu)
! Fericirea nu vine niciodat@ atunci cnd trebuie, o s@ m@ bucur de clipele astea att de
importante cine }tie cnd. (Marin Sorescu)
! Nimic durabil nu se poate ntemeia pe indiferen]@. (Octavian Paler)
! Cel drept, nv@]at }i n]elept totdeauna se nva]@ }i totdeauna }tie c@ foarte pu]intel au nv@]at
}i pentru aceea nici i vine n minte cndva s@ se ]in@ m@re] despre }tiin]ele lui. (Simion
Mehedin]i)
! Banul duce la destr@marea imperiilor }i la pr@bu}irea cet@]ilor. (Miron Costin)
! Pu]in@ laud@ va auzi un cinstit de la un nenv@]at. (Antim Ivireanul)
! Vremea nva]@ pre aceia ce n-au dasc@l. (Anton Pann)
! Lucrurile lumii sunt ca praful n b@taia vntului. (Dimitrie Cantemir)
! Omul n]elept, de ar }ti ct }i mai ct, totu}i ascult@ cu mare aten]ie ce vorbesc al]ii.
(Dimitrie [ichindeal)
! Democra]ia }i libertatea adev@rat@, mai nainte de toate, cer moralitate. (Ion Heliade R@dulescu)
! Nu este n lumea aceasta totul de}ert@ciune, r@mne ceva statornic; r@mn faptele mari,
care sunt nepieritoare. (Mihail Kog@lniceanu)
! Via]a nu merit@ tr@it@, dac@ e tr@it@ n genunchi n fa]a altora. (Nicolae B@lcescu)
! F@]@rnicia este una din cele mai grele arte de care poate s@ se mndreasc@ r@utatea
omeneasc@. (A. D. Xenopol)
! Adev@rul a}teapt@. Numai minciuna e gr@bit@. (Alexandru Vlahu]@)
! Invidia, m@rturisit@ sau nu, este totdeauna semn de inferioritate. (Simion Mehedin]i)
! O femeie are nevoie de geniu }i de o mare modestie pentru ca ceilal]i s@-i tolereze
inteligen]a. (Iulia Ha}deu)
! Dac@ a} fi sigur c@ mntuirea mi-e indiferent@, a} fi de departe cel mai fericit om care-a
fost vreodat@. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Viciile sunt c@l@i care te omoar@ ncet, ca o sabie neascu]it@. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Exist@ un scop n orice lucru. Pentru a-l atinge, trebuie s@ te lepezi de tine nsu]i. (C. Brncu}i)
! Este mare lucru s@ fii ncredin]at c@ nu te po]i bizui dect pe tine. (Tudor Arghezi)
! Pierderea vremii bune este maica }i s@mn]a vremii rele. (Dimitrie Cantemir)
! Mult@ vreme am crezut c@ ar trebui s@ m@ tem de oameni care ]i vor r@ul, de prieteni
care pot tr@da, de sentimente care pot provoca durere, de gesturi tandre care pot p@rea
ridicole... Nu eram preg@tit s@ pricep c@ indiferen]a poate fi mult mai traumatizant@ }i
demoralizant@ dect toate acestea. (Octavian Paler)
! Dou@ lucruri sunt imposibile: a vedea cu ochii pe Dumnezeu }i a povesti dragostea.
(Adrian P@unescu)
! Marea n]elepciune e s@-]i alegi prieteni care nu te vor sili la compromisuri. (Camil Petrescu)
! Nimic nu e mai amar dect otrava prieteniei false. (Emil Grleanu)
! Pe inima }i pe gndurile mele numai eu sunt }i voi fi st@pn ct voi tr@i. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Om liber este acela care nu are nevoie s@ spun@ nicio minciun@. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Cine defaim@ pe altul naintea ta, el }i pe tine o s@ te defaime naintea altuia. (Anton Pann)
! Trei mari s@rb@tori are omul n via]a asta: Cr@ciunul, Pa}tele }i copil@ria. (Grigore Vieru)
! Sentimentele nu-}i nsu}esc niciodat@ filozofia min]ii. (Ionel Teodoreanu)
! Cnd iei via]a peste picior, ]i pune piedici. (Tudor Mu}atescu)
! Cinstea niciodat@ n-are odihn@. (Neagoe Basarab)

! Apa setea potole}te }i pinea foamea, dar iubirea de argint nici cu marea nu se
potole}te. (Iordache Golescu)
! Fii recunosc@tor f@c@torilor t@i de bine n timpul cnd ai avut trebuin]@ de dn}ii }i nu-i
uita n timpul fericirii tale. (Anton Pann)
! E o mare primejdie s@ ajungi a fi mul]umit de tine nsu]i. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Inteligen]a, orict de mare, nu e suficient@ pentru a te cur@]a de prejudec@]i. Cu ct inteligen]a
e mai mare, cu att prejudecata e mai voinic@, pentru c@ ai aparat s-o justifici. (Petre [u]ea)
! Dintre toate roadele p@mntului, omul e singurul care nu se coace niciodat@. (Constantin
Noica)
! Lumea nu e a cui o str@bate cu piciorul, ci a cui o n]elege cu gndul. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Dintre toate religiile, cea mai frumoas@ este mama. (Grigore Vieru)
! Cela ce gr@ie}te n limb@, pe sine zide}te. (Dosoftei)
! Vorbirea semnific@ disperarea de a avea un trup viu. A vorbi nseamn@ a fi viu. (Nichita
St@nescu)
! E o fericire s@ fii iubit. E una }i mai mare: s@ iube}ti. Cine le are pe amndou@ e mai
presus de lumea timpului, mai tare dect soarta, mai tare dect moartea. (Alexandru Vlahu]@)
! Sper@, nu nceta un moment a spera c@ str@duin]a ta cinstit@ va ajunge r@spl@tit@
cndva. (Ion Luca Caragiale)
! Nimic nu e adev@rat dac@ nu e exprimat, nimic nu e exprimat dac@ nu e tr@it. (George
C@linescu)
! n clipele cele mai grele, tocmai atunci, omul e sortit s@ r@mn@ singur. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Un adev@r }i o minciun@ formeaz@ o confuzie, un monstru periculos, fiindc@ partea de
adev@r ce este n el l face s@ tr@iasc@, pe cnd minciuna curat@ e stafie, e nimic. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Ale}ii dragostei absolute sunt excep]ii tot att de rare ca geniile. (Camil Petrescu)
! Crea]iile spiritului sunt un indicator al insuportabilului vie]ii. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Poezia este copilul care r@mne n sufletul adolescentului, al omului matur }i al b@trnilor,
peste durere, dezam@gire }i suferin]@. (Tudor Arghezi)
! C@r]ile: glasuri eterne n spa]iu. (Alexandru Vlahu]@)
! Defectul tuturor oamenilor este c@ a}teapt@ s@ tr@iasc@, deoarece n-au curajul fiec@rei
clipe, to]i nv@]@m s@ tr@im dup@ ce nu mai avem nimic de a}teptat, iar cnd tr@im nu
putem nv@]a nimic, fiindc@ nu tr@im n prezentul concret }i viu, ci ntr-un viitor fad }i
ndep@rtat. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Ura e o boal@, o stare sufleteasc@ de care mori dac@ n-o vindeci, nu exist@ ceva mai
odios n lume dect s@-mpr@}tii ur@. (Ileana Vulpescu)
! A ierta e o manier@ teribil@ de a te r@zbuna. (Cezar Petrescu)
! Cu tine ai totdeauna doi tovar@}i: tot binele pe care l-ai f@cut }i tot r@ul. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Timpul }terge... Da, dar el }tie s@ p@streze ca nimeni altul ceea ce nu trebuie
pierdut... (Amza Pellea)
! Atinge steaua de neatins }i nu-i uita pe cei ce au crezut n tine. (Octavian Paler)
! n curnd oamenii se vor mp@r]i n dou@ categorii: oameni b@trni }i oameni care }tiu s@
lucreze pe calculator. (Grigore Moisil)
! Exist@ trei prilejuri de a te cunoa}te pe tine nsu]i: munca, iubirea }i cump@na. (Grigore Vieru)
! F@-]i datoria oricnd. Totdeauna va fi cineva care s@ te vad@. (Nicolae Iorga)

116

Translating is writing. (Marguerite Yourcenar)

To have another language is to possess a second soul. (Charlemagne)
Without translation, we would be living in provinces bordering on silence. (George Steiner)
Writers create national literatures with their language, but world literature is written by translators.
(Jos Saramango, 1998 Nobel Prize for Literature)

! Time is everyones master and teacher. (Dimitrie Cantemir)

! The Romanian people is one of Almighty Gods wonders while walking the Earth. (Petre [u]ea)
! We can accept any truth, however crushing, provided that it replaces everything,
possessing as much vitality as the hope whose place it has taken. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Enemies are recruited from amongst friends. (Grigore Moisil)
! The secret of human existence consists not in merely living, but in the knowingness of
the purpose one is living for. (Nicolae Iorga)
! To love is to suffer and, since many shun suffering, only few know how to love. (Emil M. Cioran)
! What is a journey if not an attempt to comprehend how, under different circumstances,
our soul stays the same. (Ana Blandiana)
! In life, it is only those who have failed to be cast that are shamming. (Tudor Mu}atescu)
! Mans entire life knows no other loftier and more gratifying pastime than reading books.
(Miron Costin)
! The Romanians love their native lands like a Paradise whence the cruellest of tyrannies
would not be able to cast him out. (Vasile Alecsandri)
! The people that lacks knowledge of its history is like a child that lacks knowledge of his
parents. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Life is the wrecker of illusions. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Absolute freedom is gained through love. Since only love can free man from his nature. (M. Eliade)
! The language of a people is the expression and, at the same time, the instrument of its
thinking. (A. D. Xenopol)
! The haughty man is incapable of showing gratitude; he consistently believes that he
deserved more. (Nicolae Iorga)
! The most distressing thing about love is the fact that the one who steals your soul
usually needs it the least. (Ion Luca Caragiale)
! People are rare birds, / their inwardly grown wings / flap soaring, hovering, / within the purer
air thought! (Nichita St@nescu)
! He who believes in flight is the master of the celestial prospects above the horizon. (L. Blaga)
! Every man has a wholesome fixed idea which betrays his inability to be free. (Tudor Arghezi)
! No lance can reach your soul unless it reaps advantage from the inside, your sin. (Nicolae Iorga)
! On the whole, simplicity in art is resolved complexity. (Constantin Brncu}i)
! Beauty is the sole quality most becoming to the world and as immeasurable as it is. (I. L. Caragiale)
! It is bewildering how serious matters enjoy disguising themselves in frivolous clothes in
order to pass unnoticed. (Ana Blandiana)
! Scarce are the people who have learnt to treasure friendship. (Tudor Arghezi)

! Make haste to listen, adjourn to speak, and tarry to anger. (Iordache Golescu)
! There are two realities of whose tremendously overwhelming burden we are less aware,
although we cannot do without them: the air and history. (Lucian Blaga)
! All that exists on our Earth cannot forbear weeping every now and then. (Nichita St@nescu)
! The snake is odious not for its bite, but for hiding in order to bite. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Lovers cannot spare a little trumpeting of their love, though the much-trumpeted love is
of poor quality and cannot last long. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! In this world two qualities can be neither feigned nor replaced: intelligence and
kindness! (Ileana Vulpescu)
! The danger of simplicity is coarseness. (Constantin Brncu}i)
! Make sure your reading is thoroughgoing, since reading without comprehending is like
winnowing the wind and boiling the water. (Miron Costin)
! Whats the good of a locked garden or a sealed fountain? (Dosoftei)
! Be neither a sheep amongst wolves, nor a wolf amongst sheep. (Dimitrie [ichindeal)
! The penny pincher is not the master of his money, but is mastered by it. (Anton Pann)
! The pinchgut would not eat himself, nor would he suffer anyone else to have their
meals. (Anton Pann)
! Not a creature would enter a misers house, not even a mouse. (Anton Pann)
! Youd better be a bad teller of truth rather than a good teller of lies. (Tudor Mu}atescu)
! He who loves and is loved will never be the same person as before. (Octavian Paler)
! Why do people waste their time on things that will be of no use to them after death?
(Marin Sorescu, Jonah)
! True love defies the world, it is generous and proud. No pleasure in love can be
compared to making itself conspicuous. Tis but guilty love that hides itself. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! One might say that the eyes of the beloved woman are the edge of the world. (Grigore Vieru)
! Mens greatest sin is fear, the fright to look truth in the face and admit it. Truth is
cruel, yet one can derive benefits solely from it. (Mihai Eminescu)
! The ocean of truth is boundless. In vain do people advance on its tracks. The horizon
keeps ceaselessly moving off. (A. D. Xenopol)
! Arhitecture is inhabited sculpture. (Constantin Brncu}i)
! The adversary you are obsessed with has become a part of yourself. (Lucian Blaga)
! Cogitation is the cement which consolidates the dust of ideas. (Tudor Vianu)
! In our world, violent opposition and insurmountable obstacles are encountered only by
the strong-willed. (Lucian Blaga)
! Create like a god, command like a king, toil like a slave! (Constantin Brncu}i)
! Opportunism and cowardliness smother the surges of enthusiasm. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! It is not of your opinion he who approves of you, but he who imitates you. (Grigore Moisil)
! Any error represents a former truth. (E. M. Cioran)
! The wicked may enjoy fortunateness. Nonetheless, only the righteous can enjoy happiness.
Good luck? Since you have been chasing it, you could have brought it all on your side. (Al. Vlahu]@)
! Every man is nibbled by a worm and obsessed with an inexistent I myself, with what
he wishes he had been. (Tudor Arghezi)
! He who deals in lies blemishes his reputation at first, but shortly thereafter poisons his
soul. (Dimitrie Cantemir)
! Opportunity would swiftly flee but lazily revisit. (Mihai Eminescu)

! An evil deed is redeemed by a good deed, a harmful word knows no redeeming. (I. Vulpescu)
! Feelings cannot be invented. We can ferret them out and convey them, love and hate
them, we can draw them closer to our hearts or we can reject them. (Nichita St@nescu)
! Happiness never arrives when needed, only God knows when Ill take delight in these
most valuable moments. (Marin Sorescu)
! Nothing perdurable can be grounded in indifference. (Octavian Paler)
! The fair-minded and learned wise man keeps learning incessantly, being always aware
that he possesses less than a whit of knowledge and, therefore, it wouldnt ever cross his
mind to put on supercilious airs about his knowledge. (Simion Mehedin]i)
! Money causes the disintegration of empires and the collapse of fortified towns. (Miron Costin)
! Little praise will the honest man receive from the uneducated. (Antim Ivireanul)
! Time teaches those who have no schoolmaster. (Anton Pann)
! The worlds possessions are like the wind-driven dust. (Dimitrie Cantemir)
! The wise man, however conversant with human affairs, still lends an attentive ear when
the others speak their minds. (Dimitrie [ichindeal)
! Democracy and true freedom require morality above all else. (Ion Heliade R@dulescu)
! Not everything this world offers means vaingloriousness, perdurable things live on; the
great deeds abide since they are everlasting. (Mihail Kog@lniceanu)
! Life isnt worth living if lived on bended knees, against ones subduers. (Nicolae B@lcescu)
! Two-facedness is one of the most painstaking arts which human wickedness can take
pride in. (A. D. Xenopol)
! Truth would wait. Only lie makes haste. (Alexandru Vlahu]@)
! Envy, be it confessed or not, is invariably a sign of inferiority. (Simion Mehedin]i)
! A woman needs genius and great modesty so that the others should tolerate her
intelligence. (Iulia Ha}deu)
! If I were certain that redemption were inconsequential to me, I would be by far the
happiest man that has ever lived. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Vices are executioners who kill you slowly, like unsharpened swords. (Nicolae Iorga)
! There is a goal in every thing. In order to reach it, one must liberate oneself from one's
individuality. (Constantin Brncu}i)
! It is a great thing to be unfalteringly convinced that you can rely solely on yourself.
(Tudor Arghezi)
! Wasting the auspicious times is the mother and seed of unpropitious times. (D. Cantemir)
! For a long time I have been thinking that I should fear the people who wish you all the
worst in life, the friends who can betray you, the feelings which may torment you, the tender
gestures which might seem ridiculous... I was not prepared to understand that indifference can
be by far more traumatising and demoralising than all the former afflictions. (Octavian Paler)
! Two things prove impossible: beholding our God Almighty and narrating love. (A. P@unescu)
! The greatest wisdom is your choosing friends who will never force you into
compromise. (Camil Petrescu)
! Nothing tastes bitterer than the poison of false friendship. (Emil Grleanu)
! I am the master of my own heart and thoughts for as long as I may live. (Liviu Rebreanu)
! Free must be the man who neednt tell any lies. (Nicolae Iorga)
! He who defames a person in your presence will, in turn, defame you in the presence of
that person. (Anton Pann)
! Man has three great holidays in his life: Christmas, Easter, and his childhood. (Grigore Vieru)

!
!
!
!

Feelings never assume the philosophy of the mind. (Ionel Teodoreanu)

When you jest at life, it will hinder your progress. (Tudor Mu}atescu)
Honesty cannot afford a moments rest. (Neagoe Basarab)
Water would quench the thirst, bread would appease hunger, but no sea can assuage
ones love for silver and gold. (Iordache Golescu)
! Be grateful to your benefactors in your hour of need and do not forget them in times of
comfort and ease. (Anton Pann)
! You are in great danger when you are overcome by self-satisfaction. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Intelligence, however high, is not sufficient for getting rid of ones prejudices. The higher
ones intelligence, the more robust their prejudice, since man possesses the apparatus to
justify it. (P. [u]ea)
! Of all the fruits of the Earth, man is the only one that never fully ripens. (Constantin Noica)
! The world belongs not to those who wander through it, but to those who perceive it
with their minds. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Of all religions, Mother is the most beautiful. (Grigore Vieru)
! Speaking signifies the despair of having a living body. Speaking means being alive. (N. St@nescu)
! Theres happiness in being loved. Theres even greater happiness in loving. He who enjoys
both is above times kingdom, stronger than destiny, more powerful than death. (Al. Vlahu]@)
! Keep on hoping, do not stop hoping even for one moment that your earnest endeavour
will be rewarded one day. (Ion Luca Caragiale)
! Nothing is true unless it has been expressed, nothing is expressed unless it has been
experienced. (G. C@linescu)
! Its in the hardest of times, of all times, that man is foredoomed to be left alone. (L. Rebreanu)
! A truth and a lie build up a confusion, a perilous monster, since the truth within makes
it live on, whereas the genuine lie is a ghost, or empty talk. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Those chosen by absolute love are exceptions as rare as geniuses. (Camil Petrescu)
! The creations of the spirit are an indicator of lifes unbearableness. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Poetry is the child who abides in the soul of the adolescent, the adult, and the elderly,
over grief, disappointment, and suffering. (Tudor Arghezi)
! Books: eternal voices in space. (Alexandru Vlahu]@)
! The peoples defect is waiting to live fully, since they lack the courage to embrace each
moment, all of us learn how to live after we have nothing else to expect, whereas while
living we are not able to learn anything, since we do not live in the lively actual moment,
but in an insipid distant future. (Emil M. Cioran)
! Hatred is a mental disease, a mood of which you might die unless you cure it, there is
nothing more odious than spreading hatred. (Ileana Vulpescu)
! Forgiving is a stupendous way of taking vengeance. (Cezar Petrescu)
! You are always attended by two companions: all the good and all the evil you have
done. (Nicolae Iorga)
! Time obliterates everything... Indeed, all the same it knows how to preserve in memory
like nobody else the things which must never be lost... (Amza Pellea)
! Reach the untouchable star and never fail to remember those who had faith in you. (O. Paler)
! Pretty soon people will fall into two categories: the elderly and the people who have
working knowledge of computers. (Grigore Moisil)
! There are three occasions to know yourself: work, love, and adversity. (Grigore Vieru)
! Do your duty today, tomorrow, or whenever. There will always be somebody to eyewitness.
(Nicolae Iorga)

1 2

Bianca Albu, Alexandru B@l@oiu, Nicoleta Borzan, Adoria Brebe, Daiana Glisici,
Mircea Holho, Florin Traian Ianco, Darius Marcu, Miruna Matei, Lorena M@ran,
Darius Prvu, Syndus Safya Sabri, Marco Stroini, Felix Szilagyi, M@d@lina treang@
(Grade: 12th Philology 1)
Alexandra Gabriela Baranyi, Cinzia Adelina Bia, Denisa Nicoleta Bobic, Ruxandra Cosmina Dlgoci,
Paula Carina Dud@u, Andreea Roxana Fodor, Eva Bianca Kele, Andreea Iulia Marton,
Andra Mosor, Raluca Petru, Andreea Toma, Andrada Patricia Trifu, Radu [ig, Alexandra Vasilan
(Grade: 12th Philology 2)
Prof. Gabriela Pachia, Master of Journalism
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked. The deeper that sorrow carves into your being,
the more joy you can contain. And the selfsame well from which your laughter
rises was oftentimes filled with your tears. (Khalil Gibran)
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority,
it is time to pause and reflect. (Mark Twain)
Happiness is always shallow; sadness always deep. Happiness is like a wave,
sadness is like the innermost depth of an ocean. In sadness you remain with
yourself. In happiness you start moving with people, you start sharing.
In sadness you close your eyes; you delve deep within yourself. (Osho)
Sadness gives depth. Happiness gives height. Sadness gives roots.
Happiness gives branches. Happiness is like a tree going into the sky, and sadness
is like the roots going down into the womb of the earth. Both are needed,
and the higher a tree goes, the deeper it goes, simultaneously. The bigger the tree,
the bigger will be its roots. In fact, it is always in proportion. Thats its balance. (Osho)

Our mental space, as well as the media space, has been invaded by terms and syntagms such as

positive thinking, optimism versus pessimism, organisation, sincerity, inter/intrapersonalemotional

intelligence, personaldevelopment, the management of emotions, the mental hygiene, visualisation, the
art of happiness, inner meditation, emotional contagion, empathy, mental shortcuts, inner landscape,
the mind map, the autotelic computer-brain (having inner purpose / motivation M. Cskszentmihlyi,
1996), neuromythologies, metaprogamming (R. Bandler, 1975), the map is not the territory (Alfred
Korzybski, 1931), emotional comfort, all of which are meant to be panaceas for failure, misfortune,
insuccess, lack of development opportunities etc. The representatives of the positive thinking such as
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People, 1936; How to Stop Worrying and Start Living! ,

1948, Joseph Murphy The Miracles of Your Mind, 1953, Norman Vincent Peale The Power of Positive
Thinking,, 1952, Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich, 1937, Richard Carlson Dont Sweat the Small
Stuff and Its All Small Stuff , 1985, Erhard F. Freitag The Subconscious Mind: A Source of Unlimited
Power, 2003, John J. Murphy, Half-Full: Your Perception Becomes Your Reality , 2014; Habits Die Hard: 10
Steps to Building Successful Habits , 2013; Stepping UP: 10 Take-Aways for Advancing Your Career, 2013;
Beyond Doubt: Four Steps to Inner Peace, 2009; The Eight Disciplines: An Enticing Look Into Your
Personality, 1998; Agent of Change: Leading a Cultural Revolution, 1999; Get a Real Life: A Lesson in
Personal Empowerment, 1997; Pulling Together: The Power of Teamwork, 1997; Reinvent Yourself: A
Lesson in Personal Leadership, 1996, Robert H. Schuller Way to the Good Life, 1963; Move Ahead With
Possibility Thinking, 1967; Self-Love, 1975; You Can Be the Person You Want to Be, 1976; Toughminded
Faith for Tenderhearted People, 1979; Self-Esteem: The New Reformation, 1982; Tough Times Never Last
but Tough People Do, 1983; The Power of Being Debt Free, 1985; Living Positively One Day at a Time,
1986; Success Is Never Ending, Failure Is Never Final , 1990; Lifes Not Fair, But God Is Good, 1991; Prayer:
My Souls Adventure with God, 1995; My Journey: From an Iowa Farm to a Cathedral of Dreams , 2001;
Hours of Power, 2004; Dont Throw Away Tomorrow, 2005, Robert A. Schuller Life Changers, 1981; Be an
Extra Ordinary Person in an Ordinary World, 1984; Getting Through the Going Through Stage, 1986; Power
to Grow Beyond Yourself, 1987; Worlds Greatest Comebacks, 1988; Strength for the Fragile Spirit,
1989; Just Because Youre on a Roll Doesnt Mean Youre going Down Hill , 1990; Dump Your Hang-Ups:
Without Dumping Them on Others, 1993; What Happens to Good People When Bad Things Happen to
Them, 1995; In Search of Morality, 1997; Possibility Living, 2000; Walking in Your Own Shoes, 2007; Gods
Answer for Your Physical, Financial and Spiritual Health, 2007; Power for Life Bible, 2008; Where Jesus
Walked, 2008; Leaning into God When Life is Pushing You Away , 2009; When Youre Down to Nothing,
God Is Up to Something, 2012, Earl Nightingale The Essence of Success, 2007; Lead the Field, 2007; How
to Completely Change Your Life in 30 Seconds , 2012, D. P. Yonggi Cho The Fourth Dimension, 1979, David
J. Abbott Maximum Strength Positive Thinking: Learning to Speak the Language of the Mind , 2013;
Owners Manual for the Mind, 2013; Positive Christian Self-Talk, 2013; Real Power: Maxing Out on Gods
Power, 2013; Zero Tolerance to Negative Thinking, 2013; Programmers Manual for Your Mind, 2014;
Quantum Self-Talk, 2014 alongside therapists, ministers, gurus, have made fortunes trading the
placebo-effect therapy.
Genuine concern for mental health (human relationships, affiliations, interests, relaxation, the
management of stress, self-confidence, self-esteem, well-being, self-fulfilment, fear, efficiency, high
personal skills / talent / genius etc.) has been shown among the psychology specialists (Abraham
Maslow Motivation and Personality, 1954, Carl Rogers, Erich Fromm, Ed Diener, Mihly Cskszentmihlyi,
Ch. Peterson, Carol Dweck, Barbara Fredrickson, Sonja Lyubomirsky, Kennon Sheldon, Jonathan Haidt,
Shelley Taylor, C. R. Snyder, Robert Biswas-Diener, Albert Bandura, Charles S. Carver, Robert Emmons,
Michael McCullough, Phil Zimbardo, Martin Seligmanand the positive psychology 1998), although
theories of happiness and social/self-fulfilment the pursuit of happiness have been issued
throughout philosophical thinking, ranging from finding the purpose of life, self-knowledge, the rational
activity, practising the virtues, enjoying the simple pleasures of life to approaching life with detachment
and objectivity, the identification with God, the afterlife, expressing the individual creative abilities, the
Utilitarian morality, freedom, the search for love / the golden / predestined pairand the expression of
personal emotions, happiness / dissatisfaction and the axis of time, the development of the behavioural
repertoire, the concurence of the spheres towards achieving personal (physiological, social, conceptual)
fulfilment, reaching social, financial, and emotional security, life planning and goal achievement, dreams
and aspirations, minimising suffering, reaching moral elevation (Jonathan Haidt), motivation through
conscious conscious goal-setting etc. Attitudes are hypothetical constructs which express the degree in
which an individual sympathisesor hates another person, thing, place, event, concept etc., manifesting
themselves in positive or negative forms, but also in conflictual / ambivalente ones when both of them
coexist. Attitudes imply judgements based on affections, behaviour and knowledge (Van den Berg et al.,
2006; Eagly & Chaiken, 1998): the affective reaction is an emotional response in accordance with the
persons preferences for a certain entity, the behavioural intention is a typical verbal-behavioural
indicator, while the cognitive reaction is a cognitive evaluation engendered by the individuals beliefs
with regard to that particular entity. Most attitudes are formed during direct experience, by observing
the environment, so that unlike personality attitudes change in the interaction with the environment.

The cognitive self-consistency theory (i.e. we are consistent with what we value and believe in,
since the method of self-help stresses the defense mechanism of resistance, as a primary motivating
force in human behaviour Prescott Lecky), adjoins the cognitive dissonance-reduction theory (i.e.
reducing the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more
contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, or is confronted by new information that
conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values, so that humans strive for internal consistency by avoiding
situations and information likely to increase it, by adjusting our beliefs to be in line with our actions and
reduce dissonance Leon Festinger), as well as relating to the balance theory (i.e. a motivational
theory of attitude change, when sentiment or liking relationships are balanced if the affect valence in a
system multiplies out to a positive result, e.g. three positive links, or two negatives with one positive,
while two positive links and one negative like the example above creates imbalance Fritz Heider), in
the attempt to modify attitudes by means of persuasion. Persuasiveness or attitude change focuses on
responses to communication and has in view the following factors: characteristics of the target public
(the mind frame and mood of the target: intelligent, well-informed people, having high self-esteem
levels, are likely to be less easily persuaded by one-sided messages Rhodes & Woods, 1992), the
credibility / trustworthiness / expertise / perceived wisdom and attractivity of the source / interpersonal
attraction (e.g. messages from specialists / professionals are perceived / accepted much faster,despite
the occurrence of the sleeper effect Hovland & Weiss, 1951), the features of the message
(presentation of the contradictory points of view / both sides of the story, the involvement of the
individuals in the cognitive evaluation by expressing their opinions / affective or intellectual motivation,
the great number of arguments), the cognitive routes (the central route presents the data, motivating
the inndividuals to evaluate them and to change their attitudes, whereas the peripheral route appeals to
the primordiality of the source of information but not of the content: doctors / physicians / experts / film
stars / VIPs).
The appeal to emotions is a basic component of influencing attitudes / preferences via the massmedia, advertisements, campaigns, thus attempting to supress the web of cognitive and conative
mental associations. Prefabricated emotions are served to the public, thus skipping the need to make
any decision, to appeal to reason, to analyse and predict future events. Similarly, there deliberately
results an avoidance of fear, tension or stress, which constitute the centre of major interest in social
psychology. The slogans of positive thinking have gradually subdued the mass media, the clichd
everyday communication (e.g. food is invariably associated with love). From love, joy, generosity,
nonchalance to jealousy, sadness, vexation, disgust, indignation, anger, disturbance, obsession, haunting,
and fear, emotions represent manipulative resources, considerable long-term means due to the constant
repetition of the persuasive message. In order to prevent the rejection / reactance of the emotional
appeal, motivation plays an important part: humour targets the less-educated social categories and
generates inconsequential thinking, accessibility due to commonplaceness and trivialisation desituates
the event, nonverbal communication presents a higher impact (Dillard, 1994), the message repeatability
and salience reactivate previously learnt attitudes and reactions, while involvement enhances motivation

etc. Nevertheless, C. G. Jung scientifically defined attitudes as a readiness of the psyche to act or react
in a certain way (par. 687), also establishing the way in which they function: attitudes very often come
in pairs of antithetical elements, one conscious and the other unconscious : consciousness and the
unconscious (their disagreement leading to neurosis), extraversion and introversion (an elementary pair,
labelled by Jung attitude-types), the rational and irrational attitudes (reason is conceived as an attitude,
the rational attitude subdividing into the thinking and feeling psychological functions, each with its
attitude, whereas the irrational attitude subdivides into the sensing and intuition psychological functions,
each with its attitude par. 691, 785, there thus resulting a typical thinking, feeling, sensation, and
intuitive attitude), the concrete and abstract attitudes (sarcastic creationism being a peculiarity of
thinking and feeling as the antithesis of abstraction par. 696), the individual and social attitudes.
Positive thinking would not allow to be mistaken for gratuitous optimism, superficiality or
indifference. Positive thinking defines itself as a way of encountering life / reality based on corrective
principles. It urges shaping self-consciousness, showing tenacity in goal pursuit and life goal attainment,
patience, the control of emotions, the prevention of physical and psychical exhaustion, the
compensation of stress through joy and prayer, keeping the inner score of success and failure, learning
and practising optimism as a way of life , the amalgamation of the notions of pleasant good / moral
meaningful (Howard Gardner), the self-awareness of ones strengths and weaknesses, the individual
and group performances, the flexibility and adaptability when faced with difficulties / obstacles,
enhancing self-efficacy, spotting / cultivating / fulfilling ones skills, the appreciation of eustress /
positive stress, involvement and job satisfaction, the ego boost etc.
Nevertheless, a great number of cognitive distorsions (i.e. automatic thinking or inaccurate
thoughts which reinforce negative thinking / emotions, serving us not to feel bad about ourselves
although these thoughts are different from logical fallacies) lead to perceiving reality as hostile:
arbitrariness and free choice / free will, overgeneralisation (hasty generalisations from insufficient
experiences and evidence, a very broad conclusion based on a single incident or a single piece of
evidence, e.g. something bad which happens only once is expected
to happen over and over again), labelling and mislabelling (as more severe type of overgeneralization,
consists of attributing a persons actions to their character instead of some accidental attribute, so that
the person assigns a label to someone / something that implies the character of that person / thing,
while mislabelling involves describing an event with language that has a strong connotation of a
persons evaluation of the event; e.g. the belief that one is a loser, because only a loser would make a
particular kind of mistake, or labelling someone who made a bad first impression), selective
abstractisation (which ignores the whole), magnification / catastrophising and minimisation (giving
proportionally greater weight to a perceived failure / weakness / threat, or lesser weight to a perceived
success / strength / opportunity, so the weight differs from that assigned to the event or thing by others;
exaggerating the positive characteristics of other people and understating their negative characteristics;
catastrophising by giving greater weight to the worst possible outcome, however unlikely, or
experiencing a situation as unbearable or impossible when it is just uncomfortable; the
alarmist personality, always expecting the worst of possible futures; e.g. to make a mountain out of a
molehill; exaggeration and minimisation are commonly adopted by narcissists as a defense against
psychic pain), over/underevaluation (unrealistic expectations, ignoring socioeconomic laws and cycles,
low self-esteem), daydreaming, visualisation either of obstacles or of a future success, happiness and
wealth, all-or-nothing thinking / dichotomous reasoning (splitting perception by seeing things in black or
white as opposed to shades of gray, thinking in terms of false dilemmas, using terms such as always,
every or never when this is neither true, nor equivalent to the truth; e.g. when an admired person
makes a minor mistake, the admiration is turned into contempt), filtering (focusing entirely on negative
elements of a situation, to the exclusion of the positive, as well as the brains tendency to filter out
information which does not conform to already held beliefs; e.g. after receiving comments about a work
presentation, a person focuses on the single critical comment and ignores what went well), disqualifying

the positive (discounting positive events; e.g. upon receiving congratulations, a person dismisses it outof-hand, believing it as undeserved, and automatically interpreting the compliment as flattery or as
arising out of navet), jumping to conclusions (reaching preliminary conclusions, usually negative, from
little, if any evidence): mind reading (inferring a persons possible or probable usually negative
thoughts from their behaviour and nonverbal communication; taking precautions against the worst
reasonably suspected case or some other preliminary conclusion, without asking the person; e.g. a
student assuming that the readers / evaluators of their paper have already made up their mind
concerning its topic, and therefore writing the paper is a pointless exercise) and fortune-telling
(predicting negative outcomes of events; e.g. being convinced of failure before a test, when the student
is in fact prepared), emotional reasoning (presuming that negative feelings expose the true nature of
things, experiencing reality as a reflection of emotionally linked thoughts, thinking something is true,
solely based on a feeling; e.g. the fear of flying in planes leads to considering planes are a very
dangerous way to travel), personalisation (attributing personal responsibility, including the resulting
praise or blame, for events over which a person has no control), blaming (as the opposite of
personalisation, involves holding other people responsible for the harm they cause, especially for
their intentional or negligent infliction of emotional distress on us), scapegoating, always being right
(prioritising self-interest over the feelings of another person), should statements (doing, or expecting
others to do, what they morally should or ought to do irrespective of a particular case, conforming
strenuously to ethical categorical imperatives) etc.
Positive thinking is also subject to biases (irrational inclinations / preferences of temperament
or outlook synonymous with prejudice or bigotry to present or hold a partial / one-sided / narrowminded perspective, accompanied by a refusal to consider the possible merits of alternative points of
view, thus lacking a neutral viewpoint). Biases are found in all fields of life: the media, economy, politics,
society, culture, education, species, behaviour, beliefs etc. Cognitive biases are defined as tendencies to
think in ways that lead to systematic deviations from a standard of rationality or good judgement.
Cognitive biases / heuristics are the effects of information-processing rules (i.e. mental shortcuts), used
by the brain to produce decisions or judgements. Biases in judgement or decision-making can also result
from motivation (e.g. beliefs distorted by wishful thinking). Both optimism and pessimism biases
seem to overlook / ignore in-depth analysis, jumping to conclusions but also over/underevaluating
reality. At the optimistic pole, the individual can experience the optimism bias / unrealistic personal
optimism (Armor & Taylor) / unrealistic / comparative optimism (i.e. the tendency to be overoptimistic
systematically, to believe that a person is less at risk of experiencing a negative event compared to
others, thus overestimating favourable and pleasing outcomes): the positive outcome bias (the
publication bias the tendency for researchers to publish research which had a positive outcome; the
valence effect a prediction bias in which people overestimate the probability of good things
happening to them; wishful thinking the formation of beliefs and making decisions influenced by
the active brain regions: rostral anterior cingulate cortex and the right amygdala according to what
might be pleasing to imagine, instead of appealing to evidence, rationality, and reality, thus trying to
resolve the conflicts between belief and desire, i.e. we assume that because we wish something to be
true or false, it is actually true or false); the positivity bias the public evaluates individuals positively
even when they have negative evaluations from the group to which the individual belongs; the
Pygmalion effect / Rosenthal effect the greater the expectation placed on people, the better they
perform, therefore positive thinking and positive labelling of people might be able to positively influence
behaviour by bringing about better results; the Pollyanna principle / Pollyannaism the peoples
tendency to remember pleasant items, e.g. flattery, more accurately at the subconscious level, whereas,
at the conscious level, they have a tendency to focus on the negative); the self-serving bias a
cognitive or perceptual process distorted by the need to maintain and enhance self-esteem, so that
individuals reject the validity of negative feedback, focusing on their strengths and achievements and
overlooking their faults and failures, thus protecting the ego from threat and injury, while perpetuating
illusion and error, e.g. students who attribute their good grades to their own intelligence and
preparation, whereas their poor grades are attributed to the teachers poor teaching ability and to unfair

test questions; the self-fulfilling prophecy (Robert K. Merton, 1948) a prediction which directly or
indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedfack
between belief and behaviour, thus perpetuating error; the behavioural confirmation effect (Mark
Snyder, 1984) behaviour, influenced by ones initial (and often erroneous) expectations, causes those
expections to come true, e.g. the physical attractiveness stereotype; the illusory superiority (Van
Yperen & Buunk, 1991) / superiority bias / above average effect / leniency error / sense of relative
superiority / the primus inter pares effect / Lake Wobegon effect a cognitive bias whereby
individuals overestimate their own qualities and abilities, relative to others, thus maintaining positive
illusion; the overconfidence effect a miscalibration of subjective probabilities, a personss
subjective confidence in his or her judgements is reliably greater than the objective accuracy of those
judgements, especially when confidence is relatively high, resulting in: overestimation of ones actual
performance, overplacement of ones performance relative to others, and overprecision, the
excessive certainty regarding the accuracy of ones beliefs; the planning fallacy (Daniel Kahneman &
Amos Tversky, 1979; Lovallo & Kahneman, 2003) predictions about how much time will be needed to
complete a future task display an optimistic bias, i.e. underestimate the time needed, as well as the
costs and risks of future actions, at the same time overestimating the benefits of those actions; the
illusion of control (Ellen Langer) the peoples tendency to overestimate their ability to control events,
particularly in stressful and competitive situations, a positive illusion which fosters mental health ans is
closely related to the belief in the paranormal and to the gamblers fallacy / Monte Carlo fallacy /
fallacy of the maturity of chances the mistaken belief that, if something happens more frequently
than normal during some period, it will happen less frequently in the future, or that, if something
happens less frequently than normal during some period, it will happen more frequently in the future;
the hyperbolic discounting the peoples tendency to choose a smaller-sooner reward over a largerlater reward; the rosy retrospection rating past moments more positively than they actually rated
them when the event happened, seeing through rose-tinted glasses, not noticing or recalling
undesirable or negative aspects etc. The results of these biases are to be found: when participants view
future positive events as more positive than past positive events and negative events as more
temporally distant; when recalling autobiographical moments related to life events and rating happy
memories higher than negative ones; in over/underestimating costs / cost overruns, benefits / benefit
shortfalls, deadends, time overruns, delays, financial evolutions, bankruptcy, skills, job offers, divorces,
defeat, instability, life expectancy, the risks of getting ill / dying, the chance of living exceptional events,
however pernicious they might be. Overoptimism has an adaptative-protective effect against depression
(Seligman & Maier), although it might be misinterpreted as a false strategic representation, whose costs
are underestimated while its benefits are overestimated. The reference class forecasting aims at
reducing overoptimism in prognosis, planning, and decision-making. Gregory Bateson (anthropologist,
semiotician, cybernetician,as well as a reliable source of inspirationfor the pseudopsychotherapists)
has certified the law of optimal balance: Rather, for all objects and experiences, there is a quantity that

has optimum value. Above that quantity, the variable becomes toxic. To fall below that value is to be
deprived, while Winston Churchill remains a charming model of wisdom: A pessimist sees the difficulty
in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.
Pessimism resembles the depressive symptoms caused by emotional pain. Depression may be
triggered by negative and unrealistic representations of reality / negative thoughts (Aaron Beck, 1967),

leading to suicide (Beck Depression Inventory). The pessimists / skeptics are able to give reasons to
support their views on life (Beck Hopelessness Scale; depressive realism / pessimistic realism ;
defensive pessimism Barbara Ehrenreich, 2010). The pessimistic attitudes existential nihilism,
disease, the impossibility of knowledge, destructive phenomena represent the explanations for the
expectancy / self-abandonment experienced by individuals who have suffered defeat, refusing to take
risks after failure, whereas those who have been successful tend to enhance risks, thus maximising
reward. If chronic diseases cannot be cured by the power of the mind, if happiness cannot wholly cover
the concepts optimism or pessimism, the circumspect / phlegmatic attitudes when facing the intrusive

realitites (e.g. the economic crisis) offer a greater help as compared to overoptimism. The pessimistic
shades reveal the individuals strength of character, their power of adaptability, their skill in finding
proper solutions. At the pessimistic pole, the individual can be affected by: the pessimism bias the
principles of the optimistic bias are ineffective (the individuals regard themselves as worse off than
others; they are subject to a distortion of self-perception; outside observers predict task completion
times and the individual overestimates the time needed; the person overestimates the likelihood of
negative events to happen); the negativity bias a psychological phenomenon by which humans have
a tendency to recall unpleasant memories rather than positive ones; the negativity effect peoples
tendency, when evaluating a person they dislike, to attribute their positive behaviours to the
environment and their negative behaviours to the persons inherent nature; the self-defeating
prophecy / the prophets dilemma a prediction which prevents what it predicts from happening,
often as the result of rebellion to the prediction, e.g. the prediction regarding the inability of a group to
meet the task deadend can be counteracted by the groups rebellion and a positive outcome of task
achievement; the golem effect a psychological phenomenon in which low expectations placed upon
individuals lead to poorer performance by the individual; delusion / self-delusion / confabulation /
dogma / illusion a belief held with strong conviction, despite superior evidence to the contrary,
declaring something as true when it is actually false etc. With balanced or slightly negativistic persons,
thinking has positive effects, since the thinking individuals are less nave / credulous, more attentive to
details, exempt from prejudice, have a closer-to-reality perception, a good memory and a great
argumentative capacity (Joseph Forgas). Depressive realism (Lauren Alloy & Lyn Yvonne Abramson)
argues that negativity may lead to a more accurate approach to reality.
The antidotes inflicted by the positive preachers, by the NLP / Neuro-linguistic Programming
therapists (Richard Bandler & John Grinder, 1970s) are: mantras Repetition of the same thought or
physical action develops into a habit which, repeated frequently enough, becomes an automatic reflex
(N. V. Peale), Never talk defeat. Use words like hope, belief, faith, victory (N. V. Peale); the
affirmative prayer a metaphysical technique of achieving a positive state, health and purification, but
also subsequent miracles Start each day by affirming peaceful, contented and happy attitudes and
your days will tend to be pleasant and successful. (N. V. Peale); optimism as self-imposed disposition
(Scheier & Carver, Life Orientation Test LOT, 1985; Martin Seligman: expecting the best result, as a result
of adopting the positive explanatory style in thinking life, is external, unstable, specific to a challenge,
while the fascination of the paranormal is detrimental to scientific explanation) prevails optimal thinking
(realistic, stable, global, environment-based, previously-learnt, hereditary due to intelligence,
temperament, health); panglosiannism / unwarranted optimism the denial of the need for
constructive action, resulting in complacency and a worsening of peoples worldly woes; exaptation:
using a structure / feature for a function other than that for which it was developed through natural
selection Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Lewontin, Voltaire; agathism a doctrine which preaches the
belief that all things incline towards the good; laughter therapy / institutionalised smile; cognitive
therapy with a view to increase self-awareness about ones distorted images in their minds and
perception as being unsupported by life facts, by the indubitable reality: I must come first in the
exam!, Everybody must like me!, also correcting the its-all-or-nothing way of thinking which,
unfortunately, overlooks extremes, dangers and risks, compromises; creative visualisation; exercising
gratitude I am grateful that you exist!, A thankful heart is a happy heart., Gratitude turns what we
have into ENOUGH.; volunteer / charity work; positive neuroassociations / instant positive thinking
like in the case of Pavlovian conditioned reflexes / respondent conditioning, images, photographs,
expressions or sayings, a touch, a smell, a taste, associated with certain actions or gestures, so that
pleasant emotions are triggered from our inner reservoir, i.e. resource anchoring a NLP technique
which enable people to make available mind states in order to boost energy, confidence, motivation,
calmness, zeal, reactualising the positive potential of an action or state.

Some of the positive-thinking affirmations are metaphorical, though hazardous, therefore

humorous: Tomorrow is yesterday. (Star Trek), Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about
yesterday. (Dale Carnegie), Every problem has in it the seeds of its own solution. If you dont have any
problems, you dont get any seeds. (N. V. Peale), The way out is different than the way in. (David J.
Abbott) etc. They seem successful paradoxes on causality and the passing of time, but they are
illogisms since they are not scientifically founded, they do not offer details about the mentioned
realities, and which is worse and more confusing they elude the most important moment of life: the
Present. Ill become a millionnaire!, Think and grow rich! express hopes which obey the rules of
probability theory. Change begins with you! is a neurotrigger which urges us to transform ourselves,
without clearly indicating the goal, the means of achieving it etc. Act enthusiastic, and youll become
more enthusiastic! (Dale Carnegie) is a piece of advice which ignores the structure of any intensional
definition: the genus and the differentia, so that enthusiasm cannot be defined through itself. The same
author of motivational literature resorts to a pun when attempting to give a definition: Success is
getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. The alchemies of positive thinking are not
scientifically based: You are responsible for the chemistry of your brain. When you choose your

thoughts, you choose your chemistry. When you change your thoughts, you change your chemistry. You
are not the victim of your chemistry; you are its creator. If you dont like your brain chemistry, you can
change it by changing what you put into your mind. / What you think about determines the chemistry
of your brain. When you think anxious thoughts, you create the chemistry of anxiety, and you become
anxious. When you think depressing thoughts, you create the chemistry of depression, and you become
depressed. / The type of thoughts you think determine the chemical environment inside your brain. If
you choose to think depressing thoughts, you create the chemistry of depression. If you choose to think
anxious thoughts, you create the chemistry of anxiety. If you choose to think negative thoughts, you
produce the chemistry of negativity. If you choose to think angry thoughts, you produce the chemistry
of anger. (David J. Abbott).

Equally confusing / abracadabrant for those familiar with the human anatomy, with cybernetics,
mathematics, and logic,are the following positive notions: positive brain, negative brain, healthy
thinking, the mathematics of positive change, POS = Positive Operating System = positively congruent
, NOS = Negative Operating System = negatively congruent , while positive self-esteem induces the
pleonasm. The overall expectations from the positive thinker are: Be transformed by the renewing of
your mind! , Reprogram Your Mind! , Restructure yourself for success! Prioritise! , easy-to-achieve
desiderata by successfully manoeuvering the good mirrors and breaking the distorted ones, i.e. the
inherited mirrors of the mind: (1) All-or-nothing Thinking, (2) Overgeneralisation, (3) Mental Filter, (4)
Disqualifying the Positive, (5) Jumping to Conclusions, (6) Magnification and Minimisation, (7)
Emotional Reasoning, (8) Should Statements, (9) Labelling and Mislabelling, (10) Personalisation. The
laws of the miraculous positive focus defy contemporary science and include: The Supreme Law of
Change, The Law of Positive Self-talk, Powerful Self-talk Comes 90% from Your Heart, Recognise Your
Cognitive Distorsions, Reject Your Cognitive Distorsions, Accidents Happen but Cognitive Distortions
Are Optional, Renew Your Mind, Talk to Your Mind, Maximum Strength Positive Thinking, The
Mega-affirmation, Zero Tolerance to Negatve Thinking, Take Enthusiastic, Positive, and Fearless
Action, Turn Bad Things into Better Things, When you think positive, your life starts to improve,
Positive thinking is the natural software of your mind, Never Quit, Think Big (David J. Abbott), The
more you lose yourself in something bigger than yourself, the more energy you will have. (N. V. Peale),
Four things for success: work and pray, think and believe (N. V. Peale), Live your life and forget your
age. (N. V. Peale), All generalizations are lies (R. Bandler), Excellence comes from having many choices.
Wisdom comes from having multiple perspectives. (NLP), Positive thinking will let you do everything
better than negative thinking will (Zig Ziglar).
Positive-thinking practitioners have thoroughly investigated the sphere of negative
manifestations, mental slippage, offering generous advice: Negative thoughts alert you that something
is wrong , people should show zero tolerance to negative thinking, negativity generates a distorted

image of reality since Negativity is the most powerful thought magnet, Negativity is the black hole of
the mind, Negativity destroys opportunity, Think one negative thought, and automatically a

multitude of negative thoughts flash into your mind to reinforce the negation that initiated the whole
process, Think of disaster and you attract disaster. Besides, the negative elements diminish the

individuals adaptability and survival, produce depression, abandonment, social exclusion, although they
have a motivational value and generate considerable feedback, displaying the ability to be transformed
into positive thoughts, praticularly through Christian action. The religious extraction is obvious in the
guidelines referring to: giving up guilt, the relationships between conflict risk sacrifices fight
counterattack victory, compensating suffering through love and eternal gratitude. Nevertheless, by
fighting against / getting rid of / annihilating the individuals natural negative attitudes, the emotional
landscape may suffer, since the dichotomies / attitudinal drives are genuinely born as the energetic
basis of the human psychic. The overuse of positive thinking as a law of life might as well become a
source for negative thoughts. Emotional intelligence (Wayne Paine 1985, Daniel Goleman 1995),
often considered to be pop psychology (Mayer, Roberts, & Barsade 2008), may contribute to success
by emotional management, but also induces the confusion between the abstract and the concrete,
reason and emotion, abilities and achievements, attitudes and values, characteristics of personality
intelligence emotions, also ignoring the unfortunate character of emotion-based decisions.
The recommendations to See the full half of the glass!, You can what you think you can,
Imagine favourable developments!, Visualise!, I am fine, I am fine, I am fine!, Formulate and stamp

indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never
permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture... Do not build up obstacles in your
imagination! (N. V. Peale) merely take into consideration the advantages, leading to self-delusion,
unrealistic expectations / wishful thinking and deception. Reliving the happy experiences through the
mental house of mirrors may degenerate into obsessions, such as the case of media happiness and
that which is due to an unbalanced perception of the past and the present. Remember that a kick in
the ass is a step forward is a statement which skips the steps of logical inference: any failure is,
primarily, a failure. Todays bliss will turn into tomorrows grief and todays sorrow will become
tomorrows happiness (J. R. Parrish) includes an untruth since it equals antonymic terms, proclaiming it
to be a philosophy of life. Empty pockets never held anyone back. Only empty heads and empty hearts
can do that (N. V. Peale) deliberately ignores the importance of material factors in life, relying on cheap
sentimentalism. Failure makes success taste even sweeter (Jason R. Karp) contains perception biases,
so that the individual may wrongly think that a throng of failures equals a single success. Oftentimes the
terms of an equation are taken from different domains: Theres no such thing as failure only feedback.
(R. Bandler). At the same time, judging life from the point of view of success vs. failure reflects a society
based on competition rather than on cooperation, thus distorting the meaning of life itself . Escape from
Perfection the Great Pretender!, Escape the web of spiritual Perfection!, Perfection steals dreams,
Life is still terrific even when its not perfect! , Dissatisfaction leads to misery, Do not let Perfection
take over your personality! , Perfect is the enemy of Good! , Perfection has the wrong focus,
Perfection sells a perfect life but delivers a miserable one (David J. Abbott), Happiness is in the eye of
the beholder, Drop the idea that you are Atlas carrying the world on your shoulders. The world would
go on even without you. Dont take yourself so seriously! , Dont take tomorrow to bed with you!,
You cannot please everybody at the same time, Accept yourself the way you are! (N. V. Peale)
represent comforting words for less-than-mediocre individuals who cannot understand that certain
phenomena / features take a longer time to achieve, as well as physical, financial, intellectual efforts,
personal and collective / group sacrifices. Dissatisfaction leads to disease is a more realistic statement,
although it can also lead to great social, artistic, cultural, intellectual achievements. Self-satisfaction is
equally dangerous, even if it is limited to the inner life of a single human being.
Methodologically, the multitude of viewpoints leads to the dissipation of the structure, so that the
phenomenon can no longer be defined since it does not fit any class of objects / phenomena. The
positive-thinking statements are incomplete, inaccurate, unscientific, and too general. These motivational

quotes disjoint the physical and the mental levels, destroying the cause-effect relationships. As a
pseudotherapy closely connected to hypnosis, positive thinking shuns critical thinking, engenders
confusion between solving problems in an emotional and mental / rational manner: Reach for a
better feeling thought! , What you think about activates a vibration within you (Abraham Hicks),
Emotions shut down your rational mind, Affirmations overwhelm your emotional mind, Affirmations
for the inner skeptic, You are a creature of emotions, Negative thoughts cannot survive in a heart full
of love (David J. Abbott), Getting people to like you is merely the other side of liking them , Love and
respect yourself and you will attract people who love and respect you (N. V. Peale) all these precepts
arise from the Biblical confession of Jesus as Lord. In a similar manner, confusion arises from avoiding
the differences between internal versus external, stable versus unstable, global versus specific, the
creative imagination and desire, hope and happiness as an obligation , belief and self-suggestion, so that
the human mind can no longer distinguish the old precepts. There arises even more confusion between
reality and fiction, feelings and actions, between reason and creativity / inspiration, between failure and
good luck, individual, social, cosmic / the omnipotent human being and Lord God : Be happy of whats
coming!, Your Vortex is regnant with what you want, You are the creator of your own life

experience, and as the creator of your experience, it is important to understand that it is not by virtue of
your action, not by virtue of your doing, it is not even by virtue of what you are saying that you are
creating. You are creating by virtue of the thought that you are offering , Your choice of action may be
limited, but your choices of thought are not, You have sole ownership of your vision. And the Universe
will give you what you want within your vision. What happens with most people is that they muddy
their vision with reality , The truth is, the Universe will always take care of you, You can be happy
or sad, it doesnt matter. You get to choose. You can go this way or that way. You get to choose. Figure
it all out as you go. Theres not one right path. There are many right paths. Do anything you can do
which means think it or speak it or do it that makes you feel a little better, You are the Master of
your own thoughts, The entire Universe is set up to produce wanting within you. You cannot squelch
wanting. You are born wanters. Wanting is a good thing , Create your day in advance by thinking the
way you want it to go, and you will create your life intentionally (Abraham Hicks), genetic conditioning
and further personal developments: Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude (Ralph Marston), between
experience and dogma: Inner happiness actually is the fuel of success (John Hagelin), Let go of
difficulties from your past, cultural codes, and social beliefs. You are the only one who can create the life
you deserve. (Abraham Hicks), the demonstrable laws of all sciences and the ad hoc laws of positive
thinking The Law of Attraction, The Law of Allowing, The Law of Deliberate Creation (Abraham
Hicks); The New Law of Attraction refers to the mutual attraction between phenomena of the same
kind: The thought that you think, you think, which attracts to it so you think it some more, which

attracts to it so you think it some more. In other words, when you have an expectation, youve got a
dominant thought going on, and Law of Attraction is going to deliver that to you again and again and
again (Abraham Hicks), Gratitude is a powerful process for shifting your energy and bringing more of
what you want into your life. Be grateful for what you already have, and you will attract more good
things, Joy increases as you give it, and diminishes as you try to keep it for yourself (N. V. Peale); The
Law of Positive Focus: A persistently positive focus creates a consistently positive mind ; The Law of
Positive Change: When you change the things you look at, the way you look at things changes. When
you change the things you talk about, the way you talk about things changes. When you change the
things you think about, the way you think about things changes ; or (I) What you think about

expands. When you focus on positive things, you push your mind in a positive direction, your inner voice
turns positive, and your life starts to improve. / What you talk about expands / What you write about
expands / What you look at expands, What you listen to expands, (II) Your mind can think only one
thought at a time. When you focus on a thought, it displaces all others from your mind. When you focus
on positive thoughts, negative ones disappear, (III) Positive pictures create a positive focus that drives
depression from your mind, (IV) A positive focus turns on a positive operating system in your mind (V)
You can change your focus by changing what you say when you talk to your mind (David J. Abbott).

A fast digestion of the new-generation / New Age motivational quotes reveals the idea
theft/ the convenient adaptationof the traditional quotes / pearls of wisdom (such as Arthur
Schopenhauers The World as Will and Representation / Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung, 1818), the
latter words of wisdom belonging to brilliant thinkers of humanity. Slightly reformulating famous
thoughts, based on authentic life experience, profound mental powers, analytical and synthetical
abilities, genius and erudition, the new preachers / therapists employ a profitable marketing strategy,
misleading their readers and parishioners.
Change your thoughts and you change your world. (N. V. Peale)
If you have zest and enthusiasm you attract zest and enthusiasm. Life does give back in kind. (N. V. Peale)
If you paint in your mind a picture of bright and happy expectations, you put yourself into a condition
conducive to your goal. (N. V. Peale)
If you put off everything till youre sure of it, youll never get anything done. (N. V. Peale)
Imagination is the true magic carpet. (N. V. Peale)
It is of practical value to learn to like yourself. Since you must spend so much time with yourself you
might as well get some satisfaction out of the relationship. (N. V. Peale)
Its always too early to quit. (N. V. Peale)
Stand up to your obstacles and do something about them. You will find that they havent half the strength
you think they have. (N. V. Peale)
Part of the happiness of life consists not in fighting battles, but in avoiding them. A masterly retreat is in
itself a victory. (N. V. Peale)
There is a real magic in enthusiasm. It spells the difference between mediocrity and accomplishment. (N.
V. Peale)
We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities. (N. V. Peale)
We tend to get what we expect. (N. V. Peale)
When every physical and mental resources is focused, ones power to solve a problem multiplies
tremendously. (N. V. Peale)
You will soon break the bow if you keep it always stretched. (N. V. Peale)
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own
powers you cannot be successful or happy. (N. V. Peale)
Become a possibilitarian. No matter how dark things seem to be or actually are, raise your sights and see
possibilities always see them, for theyre always there. (N. V. Peale)
Action is a great restorer and builder of confidence. Inaction is not only the result, but the cause, of fear.
(N. V. Peale)
Do not be awestruck by other people and try to copy them. Nobody can be you as efficiently as you can.
(N. V. Peale)

Forget yesterday. It has already forgotten you. Do not sweat tomorrow. You havent even met yet. Instead,
open your eyes, and your heart to a truly precious gift: TODAY. (N. V. Peale)
Throw your heart over the fence and the rest will follow. (N. V. Peale)
Everythings gonna be alright. / Everything will be all right. (Sweetbox; Bob Marley; The Killers; Douglas
Wallace)
Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. (Dale Carnegie)
Act enthusiastic and you will be enthusiastic. (Dale Carnegie)
Happiness doesnt depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude. (Dale
Carnegie)
Success is getting what you want. Happiness is wanting what you get. (Dale Carnegie)
Your life is your garden, your thoughts are your seeds. If your life isnt awesome, youve been watering
the weeds. (Terry Prince)
We go where our vision is. (Joseph Murphy)
You can build radiant health, success and happiness by the thoughts you think in the hidden studio of
your mind. (Joseph Murphy)
The Law of Attraction attracts to you everything you need, according to the nature of your thought life.
Your environment and financial condition are the perfect reflection of your habitual thinking. Thought rules the
world. (Joseph Murphy)
A man must be big enough to admit his mistakes, smart enough to profit from them, and strong enough
to correct them. Educators take something simple and make it complicated. Communicators take something
complicated and make it simple. (John Maxwell)
You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself. (Napoleon Hill)
Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success. (Napoleon Hill)
The ladder of success is never crowded at the top. (Napoleon Hill)
Happy thoughts attract happy people into your life. (Remez Sasson)
You can change anything, anywhere, anytime. (Richard Bandler)
We have the resources within us to achieve what we want. (Richard Bandler)
Success is a state of mind. If you want success, start thinking of yourself as a success. (Dr. Joyce Brothers)
Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will. (Zig Ziglar)
When you put faith, hope and love together, you can raise positive kids in a negative world. (Zig Ziglar)
Create your day in advance by thinking the way you want it to go, and you will create your life
intentionally. (Abraham Hicks)
Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own
powers you cannot be successful or happy. (Norman Vincent Peale)
Keller)

Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope or confidence. (Helen
Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow. (Helen Keller)
Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, youll start having positive results. (Willie Nelson)

Your circumstances may be uncongenial, but they shall not remain so if you only perceive an ideal and
strive to reach it. You cannot travel within and stand still without. (James Allen)
Work joyfully and peacefully, knowing that right thoughts and right efforts will inevitable bring about right
results. (James Allen)
There is little difference in people, but that little difference makes a big difference. The little difference is
attitude. The big difference is whether it is positive or negative. (W. Clement Stone)
Positive anything is better than negative nothing. (Elbert Hubbard)
Say Yes to the seedlings and a giant forest cleaves the sky. Say Yes to the universe and the planets
become your neighbours. Say Yes to dreams of love and freedom. It is the password to utopia. (Brooks Atkinson)
Success is due less to ability than to zeal. (Charles Buxton)
Youve done it before and you can do it now. See the positive possibilities. Redirect the substantial energy
of your frustration and turn it into positive, effective, unstoppable determination. (Ralph Marston)
Dont compare yourself to anyone but your highest internal idea of your own standards. (Terry Elston)
Worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrow, it empties today of strength. (Corrie Ten Boom)
Be enthusiastic. Remember the placebo effect 30% of medicine is showbiz. (Ronald Spark)
You may be DISAPPOINTED if you fail... but you are DOOMED if you dont try. (Beverly Sills)
If you dont think every day is a good day, just try missing one. (Robert Cavett)
One of the largest tributaries of the RIVER OF GREATNESS is always the STREAM OF ADVERSITY. (R. Cavett)
Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful thorns have roses. (A. Karr)
Defeat is not bitter unless you swallow it. (Joe Clark)
Positive thinking is the natural software of your mind. (David J. Abbott)
Emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. (Daniel Goleman, 1998)
Unhappiness is best defined as the difference between our talents and our expectations. (Edward de Bono)
Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another steppingstone to greatness. (Oprah Winfrey)
If your mind carries a heavy burden of past, you will experience more of the same. The past perpetuates
itself through lack of presence. The quality of your consciousness at this moment is what shapes the future.
(Eckhart Tolle)
If you deliberately set out to be less than you are capable, youll be unhappy for the rest of your life.
(Abraham Harold Maslow)
Make peace with your past so it wont destroy your present. (Paulo Coelho)
Life was always a matter of waiting for the right moment to act. (Paulo Coelho)
When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. (Paulo Coelho)
Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely
happen a third time. (Paulo Coelho)
The wise are wise only because they love. The fool are fools only because they think they can understand
love. (Paulo Coelho)

Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) is a model of coaching, a controversial approach to

communication, personal development, and psychotheray (Richard Wayne Bandler, psychology student /
later, psychotherapist & John Grinder, linguist, University of California, 1970s), based on presumable
connection between the neurological processes (neuro), language (linguistic) and behavioural patterns
learned through experience (programming). Its founders started from modelling the work of famous
psychotherapists such as Virginia Satir (family therapist), Milton Erickson (hypnotherapist), and Fritz Perls
(the father of Gestalt therapy), drawing inspiration from the theories of Gregory Bateson
(anthropologist, semiotician, cybernetician), Alfred Korzybski (engineer, philosopher, mathematician,
general semantics), Noam Chomsky (linguist / transformational grammar / the father of modern
linguistics / metalinguistics, philosopher / analytic philosophy / philosophy of language / philosophy of
mind, cognitive scientist, psychologist, logician, political commentator, social justice activist, prominent
cultural figure, the worlds top public intellectual 2005), from the ideas and techniques used by Carlos
Castaneda (anthropologist, shamanism). Bandler and Grinder pretended their new theory could model
/ reduplicate / mentally clone the specific features and the subjective life / emotions / skills / success
behaviour patterns of exceptional people, performers, success people, and could also codify all the
formerly mentioned scientific discoveries with a view to help all individuals and groups achieve higher
goals in life (NLP is a neurolinguistic programme, a model of interpersonal communication chiefly
concerned with the relationship between successful patterns of behaviour and the subjective
experiences (esp. patterns of thought) underlying them; a system of alternative therapy based on this
which seeks to educate people in self-awareness and effective communication, and to change their
patterns of mental and emotional behaviour Oxford English Dictionary, 2009). The NLP therapeutic
magic was the amalgamation of extremely valuable ideas picked from these famous specialists: the
Meta-Model (from modelling Virginia Satir, a model for gathering information and challenging a clients
language and underlying thinking: linguistic distortions, specifying generalisations, recovering deleted
information in the clients statements, since the transformational grammar concepts of surface
structure were said to yield a more complete representation of the underlying deep structure and to
have therapeutic benefits; Satir was also the source for applying anchoring, future pacing, and
representational systems); the Milton-Model (from Milton Erickson, a model of the purportedly hypnotic
language of Milton Erickson, which B & G considered to be artfully vague and metaphoric); both
models were used as a softener, to induce trance and to deliver indirect therapeutic suggestion and
apparently as namedropping; Alfred Korzybski argued that human knowledge of the world is limited
both by the human nervous system and the languages humans have developed, and thus no one can
have direct access to reality, given that the most we can know is that which is filtered through the
brains responses to reality.
NLP is a largely discredited pseudoscience since it offers insufficient scientific evidence, it contains
numerous factual errors, and fails to produce the results asserted by proponents. Karen Stollznow
(linguist) emphsises the fact that B & G used reference to experts as namedropping, but they never
collaborated with them, except for Virginia Satir: [o]ther than borrowing terminology, NLP does not bear
authentic resemblance to any of Chomskys theories or philosophies linguistic, cognitive or political.
Andr Muller Weitzenhoffer criticised B & G for a variety of reasons: glaring misstatements of facts, the
major weakness of Bandler and Grinders linguistic analysis is that so much of it is built upon untested
hypotheses and is supported by totally inadequate data, B & G misuse formal logic and mathematics,
redefine or misunderstand terms from the linguistics lexicon (e.g. nominalisation), create a scientific
faade by needlessly complicating Ericksonian concepts with unfounded claims, make factual errors, and
disregard or confuse concepts central to the Ericksonian approach, ignore the existence and function of
suggestion, which even in Ericksons own writings and those done with Rossi, is a central idea etc. The
philosopher Robert Todd Carroll considered that Grinder did not properly understand Thoman Kuhns The
Structure of Scientific Revolutions: individual scientists have never created paradigm shifts volitionally,
particularly when they are unqualified in a field of science and when there is no current need for
adopting a new paradigm / a paradigmatic crisis. Donald Eisner calls NLP a superficial and gimmicky

approach to dealing with mental health problems [...] the first in a long line of mass marketing seminars
that purport to virtually cure any mental disorder [...] NLP has no empirical or scientific support as to the
underlying tenets of its theory or clinical effectiveness. What remains is a mass-marketed serving of
psychopablum. Stephen Briers gave a negative verdict: NLP is not really a cohesive therapy but a
ragbag of different techniques without a particularly clear theoretical basis, [its] evidence base is
virtually non-existent, NLP is narcissistic, self-centred and divorced from notions of moral responsibility.
The scientific interest in NLP has faded due to its ineffectiveness as a therapeutic method, the lack of
empirical support and research testing, lack of relationship to neural structures, linguistics or
programming. The scientists agree that NLP is pseudoscience limited to anecdotes and personal
testimony (e.g. portmanteau words psychology, religion, mythology: the Wheel of Change < the
Wheel of Fortune, the Wind of Change), while its name uses jargon words to impress readers and
obfuscate ideas. NLP is ranked as a New Age quasi-religion : folk magic / syncretic folk religion /
shamanism (J. M. Langford, anthropologist, 1999), psycho shamanism (Marcus J. C. Tye, 1994), syncretic
religion (Lionel & Patricia Fanthorpe, 2008), a guru practice (St. J. Hunt, 2003), a New Age psychoreligion (S. Aupers, D. Houtman, 2010, K. M. Bovbjerg accessing the hidden resources of the unconscious
self, achieving self-perfection in a never-ending transformation of the self, D. Jeremiah, 1995).
As a psychofraud / scam invented by a sociopath who displays a compulsive behavioural
pattern If you got a bad [personal history] the first time around, go back and make yourself a better
one. Everybody really ought to have several histories (R. Bandler) , the cure-all NLP claims that it can
treat problems, particularly in decision-making, team building, organisational development, sports, the
management of conflict, inter/intrapersonal communication, modelling behaviour, negociation, business,
learning disorders, phobias, depression, insomnia, psychosomatic illnesses, myopia, epilepsy, dyslexia,
allergy, common cold etc. often in a single session. The positive programming of the minds , the
conferences / workshops / the NLP handbooks on the power of the mind resort to self-suggestion /
self-induced hallucination / the transfiguration / mystification / pervertion of reality, resulting in psychic
diseases, addictions, states of euphoria, the atrophy of discernment / irresponsibility / the dismissal of
pernicious events and conflictual situations , cowardice, mental and perceptive disorder /
pseudoperception / psychic lability, uncertainty, obedience, social uninvolvement / self-imposed
isolation / fabulatory loneliness, lack of vigilance etc. Nowadays self-knowledge requires the analysis
and rethinking of the mental space on scientific bases, the use of critical thinking instead of readymade concepts which create optimism addiction . The manipulation through the positive thinking
persuasive ritual aims at reducing ones power of decision-making, as well as the ability to interpret /
evaluate social events, annihilating intuition as affective forecasting, achieving a false emotional
comfort and a stereotyped / one-sided behaviour, obscuring the unsuccessful life-and-emotion
management. In spite of sharp criticism, NLP is a brainwashing practice (Dave Hunt, 1985) which eludes
the power of the cognitive power of the human being: Four things for success: work and pray, think and
believe. (N. V. Peale), Believe it is possible to solve your problem. Tremendous things happen to the
believer. So believe the answer will come. It will. (N. V. Peale). Life is a miracle Know that you
yourself are a miracle (N. V. Peale) and happiness is contagious. Nevertheless, it appears as more
trustworthy to guide ourselves according to Charles Boninis Paradox, which states that models or
simulations that explain the workings of complex systems are seemingly impossible to construct: The

less information a model carries about its subject, the less useful its going to be in helping someone
understand that subject. And yet, the more information a model carries about its subject, the less useful
its going to be in helping someone understand any single point of that subject. Any sufficiently detailed
map of a region is going to be just as dense and difficult as the region itself. Any sufficiently detailed
model of a brain is going to be a brain, in other words, As a model of a complex system becomes more
complete, it becomes less understandable; for it to be more understandable it must be less complete
and therefore less accurate. When the model becomes accurate, it is just as difficult to understand as
the real-world processes it represents (J. M. Dutton, W. H. Starbuck, Computer Simulation of Human
Behaviour, 1971). This truth was grasped by Paul Valry in 1937: Everything simple is false. Everything
which is complex is unusable. Ren Descartes is more reasonable than ever: Youd better THINK!

Traditional wisdom reveals its verified-and-true character:

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them. (Epictetus)
Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.
Sickness may challenge your body. But are you merely your body? Lameness may impede your legs. But you are
not merely your legs. Your will is bigger than your legs. Your will neednt be affected by an incident unless you let
it. (Epictetus)
Happiness depends upon ourselves. (Aristotle)
Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. (Aristotle)
Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others. (Cicero)
The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. (Marcus Aurelius)
Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times. (Aeschylus)
I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldnt learn something from him. (Galileo Galilei)
The most positive men are the most credulous. (Alexander Pope)
Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without. (Confucius)
If the skies fall, one may hope to catch larks. (Francis Rabelais)
When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hold
on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn. (H. Beecher Stowe)
Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right and stick to it. (T.S. Eliot)
A person will sometimes devote all his life to the development of one part of his body: the wishbone.
(Robert Frost)
Laugh and the world laughs with you. Weep and you weep alone. (Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Solitude, 1883)
There are always flowers for those who want to see them. (Henri Matisse)
Those who wish to sing, always find a song. (Swedish proverb)
Fear less, hope more; Eat less, chew more; Whine less, breathe more; Talk less, say more; Love more, and all
good things will be yours (Swedish proverb)
To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it. (Confucius)
All that we are is a result of what we have thought. (Buddha)
When the sun rises, it rises for everyone. (Cuban proverb)
Turn your face to the sun and the shadows fall behind you. (Maori proverb)
Life is a shipwreck but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats. (Voltaire)
I am a little deaf, a little blind, a little impotent, and on top of this are two or three abominable infirmities,
but nothing destroys my hope. (Voltaire)
Impossible is a word only to be found in the dictionary of fools. (Napoleon)
Rules for Happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for. (Immanuel Kant)

A man is but the product of his thoughts what he thinks, he becomes. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will. (Mahatma Ghandi)
Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain
thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief
that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning. (M. Gandhi)
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony. (Mahatma Gandhi)
Life is suffering. (Buddhism)
A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfecting without trials. (Chinese proverb)
Dream no small dreams because they have no power to move the hearts of men. (J. W. von Goethe)
I have found that if you love life, life will love you back. (Arthur Rubinstein)
These then are my last words to you. Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living and your belief will
help create the fact. (William James)
Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
For every minute you are angry you lose sixty seconds of happiness. (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
The Universe is wider than our views of it. (Henry David Thoreau)
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with
spring. (George Santayana)
In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer. (Albert Camus)
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls
blossom. (Marcel Proust)
In order to move others deeply we must deliberately allow ourselves to be carried away beyond the bounds
of our normal sensibility. (Joseph Conrad)
The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to
your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to
yourself, respect; to all men, charity. (Benjamin Franklin)
I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. (Abraham Lincoln)
I dont like that man. I must get to know him better. (Abraham Lincoln)
When I do good, I feel good, when I do bad, I feel bad, and that is my religion. (Abraham Lincoln)
Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. Always bear in mind that your own
resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. (Abraham Lincoln)
Its not the size of the dog in the fight, its the size of the fight in the dog. (Mark Twain)
A mans character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation. (M. Twain)
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great
make you feel that you, too, can become great. (Mark Twain)
Nothing contributes so much to tranquilise the mind as a steady purpose a point on which the soul may
fix its intellectual eye. (Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
The crisis of yesterday is the joke of tomorrow. (H. G. Wells)
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
(G. B. Shaw)
It is important that you recognise your progress and take pride in your accomplishments. Share your
achievements with others. Brag a little. The recognition and support of those around you is nurturing. (R. Rossetti)

The block of granite which was an obstacle in the pathway of the weak, became a stepping-stone in the
pathway of the strong. (Thomas Carlyle)
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. (Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermeres Fan)
The basis of optimism is sheer terror. (Oscar Wilde)
If you dont get everything you want, think of the things you dont get that you dont want. (Oscar Wilde)
What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. (Oscar Wilde)
The main object of religion is not to get a man into heaven, but to get heaven into him. (Thomas Hardy)
Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways. (S. Freud)
I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by
wonder. (G. K. Chesterton)
One fails forward toward success. (C. S. Lewis)
Life is the sum of all your choices. (Albert Camus)
The secret of being happy is not doing what one likes, but liking what one does. (J. M. Barrie)
Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin. (Mother Teresa)
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. / Amicus meus, inimicus inimici mei. (18th-century saying; Sanskrit)
I not only bow to the inevitable; I am fortified by it. (Thornton Wilder)
Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action. (William James)
Many of lifes failures are people who did not realise how close they were to success when they gave up.
(Th. Edison)
I am an optimist. It does not seem to be much use being anything else. A pessimist sees the difficulty in
every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty. (Winston Churchill)
Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. (Winston Churchill)
Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort. (Franklin D. Roosevelt)
You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else. (A. Einstein)
There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though as nothing is a miracle. The other is as though
everything is a miracle. (Albert Einstein)
If you have good thoughts, they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.
(Roald Dahl)
As a model of a complex system becomes more complete, it becomes less understandable. Alternatively, as
a model grows more realistic, it also becomes just as difficult to understand as the real-world processes it
represents. (J. M. Dutton, W. H. Starbuck, Computer Simulation of Human Behaviour, 1971; Charles Boninis Paradox).
Hope is a leaf-joy, which may be beaten out to a great extension, like gold. (Francis Bacon)
Enjoyment appears at the boundary between boredom and anxiety, when the challenges are just balanced
with the persons capacity to act. (Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi)
No medicine cures what happiness cannot. (Gabriel Garca Mrquez)
People are zealous for a cause when they are not quite positive that it is true. (Bertrand Russell)
In the transmission of human culture, people always attempt to replicate, to pass on to the next generation
the skills and values of the parents, but the attempt always fails because cultural transmission is geared to
learning, not DNA. We do not know enough about how the present will lead into the future. (Gregory Bateson)
All experience is subjective. (Gregory Bateson)

Prof. Gabriela Pachia

Nowadays the human thinking and the media space have been invaded by suggestions
concerning the ways people can improve their lives. Positive thinking appears to be a
pseudopsychotherapy, although its pieces of advice sound coherent and empowering. Then,
why did Winston Churchill express his optimism, which is different from todays positive
stereotypes, I am an optimist. It does not seem to be much use being anything else ? I
strongly believe that triggering positive neuroassociations creates inner balance, a positive
state of mind as well as a boost in ones confidence, pushing thoughts in a productive
direction.
Firstly, the benefits of positive thinking are obvious. It can become the gateway to
success, fuel ones achievements, and signal a wide range of opportunities. If people think
big or visualise their future, they may become the masters of their fate. For example,
they can manage their emotions, compensate stress with cheerfulness, thus confirming that
life is worth living. Low-esteem persons can boost their self-confidence by banishing worries,
fear, and other negative thoughts from their minds. In this way, depression can be
vanquished.
Secondly, self-imposed optimism does not drain people of their energy. Once people
adopt the habit of seeing the half-full side of life, they will be more creative, grateful for
their chances and companions, but also empowered and ready to face lifes battles. By
affirming the value of peace, love, and happiness, people become more confident,
communicative, and empathetic. The distressing memories coming from a troubled past will
be forgotten or, at least, relieved since today is the tomorrow you worried about
yesterday. Moreover, the past can be recreated in a convenient way.
Thirdly, positive thinking teaches us to be selective. People should use critical
thinking so that they can choose to leave aside unessential events, unfortunate steps in
life, invaluable objects, people, and experiences. For instance, we should periodically empty
our minds and hearts of sorrows, regrets or frustrations. Our environment should be given
the same consideration by throwing away objects and memories which no longer prove
helpful or no longer support our progress. Furthermore, our circle of friends might need to
be refreshed, not to mention the necessity to stop judging and criticising people. After all,

the old pile of labels, complaints, and criticisms are roadblocks which prevent our inner
growth. As one positive piece of advice goes, People who look for good things will find
them . Or, as another author puts it, Life isnt about finding yourself, life is about
creating yourself .
On the other hand, positive thinking has its pitfalls since you may be hurting your
chances of success if you paint your life in too rosy a hue. Idealised thinking can sap
motivation, focusing on can-do attitudes and ignoring the balance between long-term and
short-term goals. By using wishful thinking, this kind of philosophy relies on all or nothing
or its now or never slogans. As a result, people might not be aware of their failures and
weaknesses, of would-be threats and dangers, of contradictions between reason and
emotions, of discrepancies between illusions and reality, while overstating their strengths
and never-ending opportunities. Consequently, a persons dreams might remain in the realm
of a happy mind, without being applied into practice. Similarly, some expectations, if not all
of them, may be distorted, unrealistic, and one-sided. Equally displeasing, the positive
statements are sometimes illogical, childish or superficial, representing false paradoxes:
The way out is different from the way in , Tomorrow is yesterday, Change your
thoughts and you change your world! , Think and grow rich! , Reprogramme your mind! ,
Positive thinking is the natural software of your mind , Every kick is a step forward ,
Perfection is the enemy of Good , Misfortunes are disguised blessings , Excellence is
not a skill; its an attitude . Such ready-made concepts aim at creating a false emotional
security, debilitating the individual and blocking the knowledge of the world, therefore
resulting in optimism-addiction.
All these having been taken into consideration, positive thinking overestimates ones
powers and the possibility of chances endlessly arising on the way, while underestimating
risks, inabilities, and unforeseen misfortunes. Positive thinking seems to be pop
psychology rather than a science. As far as I am concerned, I speak on behalf of a
balanced realism, by adopting critical thinking. I think there must have been a reason for
which Marcus Aurelius and, later, James Dean, wisely advised people, Dream as if youll
live forever, live as if youll die tomorrow!

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Oana C@t@lina Ciosici, Miruna Ioana Robescu

Grade: 9th Philology
Prof. Gabriela Pachia
A sense of humour is a sense of proportion. (Khalil Gibran)
Humour is the sublime wisdom of pity and tolerance in which man recognizes
the utter futility of his own enterprise and importance. (Charles Darwin)
A day without laughter is a day wasted. (Charlie Chaplin)
There is little success where there is little laughter. (Andrew Carnegie)
Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine. (Lord Byron)
The only cure for vanity is laughter, and the only
fault that is laughable is vanity. (Henri Bergson)
A little laughter goes a long way. (Proverb)
The body heals with play, the mind heals with laughter,
and the spirit heals with joy. (Proverb)

Q: How does every English joke start ?

A: By looking over your shoulder.
Q: Whats the difference between a smart English man and a unicorn ?
A: Nothing, theyre both fictional characters.
Q: Whats the difference between England and a tea bag ?
A: The tea bag stays in the cup longer.
Q: Why did the Siamese twins move to England ?
A: So the other one could drive !
Q: What do you call an Englishman in the knockout stages of the World Cup ?
A: A Referee.
Q: Why was Fabio Capello speeding ?
A: To get three points.
Q: What does the Loch Ness monster eat ?
A: Fish and ships.
Q: What is the Guillotine ?
A: A French chopping centre.
Q: Why arent the England football team allowed to own a dog ?
A: Because they cant hold on to a lead.

Q: Whos the best football player in England ?

A: Tom Daley because he dives a lot.
Q: Why did the bald man paint rabbits on his head ?
A: Because from a distance they looked like hares !
Q: What did Anne Boleyns mother say when her daughter said
that she had fallen in love with Henry the VIII and was going to marry him ?
A: That mans not worth losing your head over.
Q: Did you hear about the winner of the English beauty contest ?
A: Me neither.
Q: What is the longest word in the English language ?
A: Smiles. Because there is a mile between its first and last letters.
Q: What kind of ears does an engine have ?
A: Engineers.
Q: How do you count a herd of cattle ?
A: With a cowculator.
Q: What do you get from a pampered cow ?
A: Spoiled milk.
Q: Youre a high-priced lawyer ! If I give you 500 dollars, will you answer two questions ?
A: Absolutely ! Whats the second question ?
Q: Waitress, he said, theres dirt in my coffee !
A: Thats not surprising, sir, it was ground only half an hour ago.
Q: Are you sure that you can do this operation safely, Doc ?
A: That is what I want to find out myself.
Q: Doctor, Doctor... I cant stop stealing things. What shall I do ?
A: Take these pills for a week. If that doesnt work, Ill have a colour TV.
Q: How did the dentist become a brain surgeon ?
A: His hand slipped.
Q: Dad, do you know what I dreamt last night ? You gave me some money.
A: You can keep it, Tim !
Q: Wheres the less-than-four-legs dog ?
A: Where you left it !
Q: Will you do something with your dog ? Yesterday he was howling so much
that my daughter had to stop her singing lesson !
A: Excuse me, but your daughter started first.
Q: How did the rabbit propose to his girlfriend ?
A: With a 14-carrot ring !
Q: Is life like ketchup ?
A: Like ketchup, good things in life come slow and are worth waiting for.
Q: Whats the difference between knowledge and wisdom ?
A: Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
Q: What time is it if a fly and a flee pass each other ?
A: Fly past flee !
Q: So, Mr. Abhas, you say that you are a software engineer. Do you know Microsoft Office ?
A: If you give me the address, I will go there, Sir.
Q: Has John has married a widow ? Id never want to be the second husband for a widow.
A: Would you prefer to be the first one ?
Q: Have you talked to the hero who has saved your mother-in-law from drowning in the river ?
A: Yes, I did. He came and apologised.
Q: What kind of key opens the door for Thanksgiving ?
A: A turkey.

Q: Wherever we keep the money, our son steals it. Where shall I keep the money ?
A: Keep it in his books. He never touches them !
Q: Johnny, why are you late again ?
A: But you said that its never too late to learn...
Q: What is red and goes up and down ?
A: A tomato in an elevator.
Q: What do cows do for fun ?
A: They go to the moo-vies !
Q: What did one computer say to the other ?
A: 010101101010101010101.
Q: Why did the tomato go out with a prune ?
A: Because he couldnt find a date.
Q: Anything wrong ?
A: Im on a whiskey diet. Ive lost three days already.
Q: What happens to a hamburger that misses a lot of school ?
A: It has a lot of ketchup time !
Q: Whats the difference between a piano and a tuna ?
A: You can tuna piano, but you cant piano a tuna.
Q: When driving through fog, what should you use ?
A: Your steering wheel.
Q: What is the difference between a flashing red traffic light and a flashing yellow traffic light ?
A: The colour.
Q: Did you enjoy your first day ay school, Lana ?
A: First day ? Do you mean I have to go back tomorrow ?
Q: Do you have trouble in making decisions ?
A: Well, teacher... yes and no...
Q: What do you think, Peter ? John says Im pretty. Andy says Im ugly.
A: I think youre pretty ugly.
Q: What did the bird say after its cage fell apart ?
A: Cheap, cheap !
Q: How much does it cost a pirate to pierce his ears ?
A: A buck an ear.
Q: Two coins add up to thirty cents, and one of them is not a nickel. What are they ?
A: A quarter and a nickel. Only one of them is not a nickel.
Q: Why did Beethoven kill his chicken ?
A: It kept saying, Bach, Bach, Bach.
Q: Do you still love me ?
A: Obviously, you are my only investment in life that has doubled !
Q: Linda, do you think my salary is sufficient for you ?
A: It is sufficient for me, but how will you survive, Dalin ?
Q: Madame Schumann-Heink, youre not going to eat that steak alone ?
A: Certainly not, dear Caruso. With potatoes.

An Alsatian went to a telegram office, took out a blank form and wrote, Woof. Woof. Woof.
Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. Woof. The clerk examined the paper and politely told the dog,
There are only nine words here. You could send another Woof for the same price. But, the dog
replied, that would make no sense at all !
Randy, a Texan farmer goes to Australia for a vacation. There he meets Glen, an Aussie
farmer and gets talking. The Aussie shows off his big wheat field and the Texan says, Oh yeah. We
have wheat fields that are at least twice as large. Then they walk around the ranch a little, and the
Glen shows off his herd of cattle. Then Randy immediately says, We have longhorns that are at
least twice as large as your cows. The conversation has, meanwhile, almost died when the Texan
sees a herd of kangaroos hopping through the field and so he asks, And what are those? Glen,
the Aussie replies with an incredulous look, Dont you have any grasshoppers in Texas ?
A man asked for a meal in a restaurant. The waiter brought the food and put it on the table.
After a moment, the man called the waiter and said, Waiter ! Waiter ! Theres a fly in my soup !
Please dont speak so loudly, sir, said the waiter, or everyone will want one.
A well spoken English gentleman sauntered into a pub in Llandrindod Wells and drawled,
Whats the quickest way to get to Brecon from here ? Rhodri Owen, the landlord answered, Are
you walking or going by car ? The Englishman answered, By car, of course, my man. Well, thats
the quickest way, retorted the landlord smartly.
A guy phones the local hospital and yells, Youve gotta send help ! My wifes in labour ! The
nurse says, Calm down ! Is this her first child ? He replies, No ! This is her husband !
The doctor to the patient, You are very sick. The patient to the doctor, Can I get a second
opinion ? The doctor again, Yes, you are very ugly too...
An Englishman went into a hardware store and asked to buy a sink. Would you like one
with a plug? asked the assistant. Dont tell me theyve gone electric, said the Englishman.
A man brings his cat to a veterinarian. He lives the cat there and returns in two days, as
preagreed. He asks the veterinarian, Is my cat still alive ? Still not...
There are two types of ostriches Grey and Blue. The Grey ones, when scared,
hide their head in the sand. The Blue ones sit in the bushes waiting for this moment.
I rang up British Telecom, I want to report a nuisance caller. The operator said, Not you again!
The first of September, first lesson. Teacher, Please, sit quietly, if you want to ask
something raise your hand. Peter immediately raises his hand. Do you want to ask something
? No. Just checking how the system works.
A man fishes and thoroughly watches the float. A crocodile swims beside. He notices the
fisherman, looks at him, then at the float, then back at him. At last the crocodile asks, So what, no
success ? Nope. Lets bathe then, ah ?
Waiter, waiter ! Whats this fly doing in my soup ! Taking swimming lessons.

Waiter, waiter ! Theres a frog in my soup ! Sorry, sir, the fly is on vacation.
If a lion is chasing you, what would you do ? Id climb a tree. If the lion climbs a tree ?
I will jump in the lake and swim. If the lion also jumps in the water and swims after you ?
Teacher, are you on my side or on the lions ?
A Scotsman, a Welshman and an Irishman were chatting about their children. The Scotsman
says, Meet my son, Andrew, we called him Andrew because he was born on 30 th of November. The
Welshman says, Thats a coincidence ! Meet my son, David. He was born on St Davids day. The
Irishman says, Fancy that ! Would you believe ? Thats amazing ! Then Paddy calls over to his
son, O, Pancake, come over here !
Mrs Hopkins ordered a shoulder of Welsh lamb from her butcher, Mr Davies. She suspected
the meat she had been given was not the genuine article. Are you certain this is real Welsh lamb ?
Mrs Hopkins demanded, angrily. Ah, well, Mrs Hopkins, confessed Mr Davies, the butcher. Look,
that lamb was actually born in New Zealand, but I can assure you that it had Welsh parents !
At an auction in Manchester a wealthy American announced that he had lost his wallet
containing 10,000 and would give a reward of 100 to the person who found it. From the back of
the hall a Scottish voice shouted, Ill give 150 !
Three farmers chat. The first one tells, Ive grown such a big apple that when I put it on a
chair, it broke down. The second farmer says, Ive grown an even bigger apple when I put it on a
table, it broke. The third one says, Ive grown an extremely big apple. I put it in a carriage. The
other two farmers interrupt him, Did it break ??? No, a worm got out of it and ate the horse !
A little kid wished Happy Birthday to his grandmother and asked her how old she was. I am
62, replied his grandma. Did you start at 1 ?
A five-year old boy asked his father, Dad, can we go to McDonalds today ? His father said,
Ya, but only when you spell McDonalds correctly. Kid thought for a moment and said, Ok, forget
it, Dad. How about going to KFC ?
Son-in-law tells his mother-in-law, We have been happy with your daughter for twenty years
! And what happened then ? We met each other...
Hey, I got married ! Oh, dats gud ! No. dats bad. Shes ugly ! Oh, dats bad ! No, dats
gud ! Shes rich ! Oh, dats gud ! No, dats bad ! She wont give me a cent ! Oh, dats bad ! No,
dats gud ! She bought me a big house ! Oh, dats gud ! No, dats bad ! The house burnt down !
Oh, dats bad ! No, dats gud ! She was atome !
Two blondes and a brunette got stuck in the elevator. One blonde starts to shout, Heeelp !!!
The other one, Heeelp !!! A brunette brings in a piece of advice, Girls, shout together, it will be
louder. The blondes shout, Togeeether !!! Togeeether !!!...
A group of chess enthusiasts checked into a hotel and were standing in the lobby discussing
their recent tournament victories. After about an hour, the manager came out of the office and
asked them to disperse. But why ? they asked, as they moved off. Because I cant stand chess
nuts boasting in an open foyer.

I was born in California. Which part ? All of me.

bill !

I saw in my dream that you were buying a diamond ring for me ! I saw your dad paying the

A sandwich walks into a bar. The barman says, Sorry, we dont serve food in here !
Doctor, I think I will call my little newborn Anna. Sorry, that name is already taken, but
you can name her Anna532 or Anna_153.
A woman gets into a taxi and asks, To maternity hospital, please... After a while she asks
the driver, Do not drive so fast, please, Im simply working there.
So, Mr Atkins, these are the two golden rules of our company: our second golden rule is
Cleanliness. Did you wipe your feet on the mat before coming in ? Yes, Sir, I did. Our first
golden rule is Trustworthiness. There was no mat !
Why are all those people running ? They are running a race to get a cup. Who will get the
cup ? The person who wins. Then why are all the others running ?
Three mice are being chased by a cat. The mice were cornered when one of the mice turned
around and barked, Ruff ! Ruff ! Ruff ! The surprised cat ran away scared. Later when the mice
told their mother what happened, she smiled and said, You see, it pays to be bilingual !
Nick, what is the past participle of the verb to ring ? What do you think it is, Sir ? I dont
think, I KNOW ! I dont think I know either, Sir !
Someone asked the other day, What was your favourite food when you were growing up ?
We didnt have fast food when I was growing up, I informed him. All the food was slow. Cmon,
seriously. Where did you eat ? It was a place called at home, I explained. Mum cooked every
day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I
didnt like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it. By this time, the
other person was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I
didnt tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.
Joe asked God, How much is a penny worth in heaven ?
God replied, $1 million.
Joe asked, How long is a minute in heaven ?
God said, One million years.
Joe asked for a penny.
God said, Sure, in a minute.
You know, I have Google+, Facebook, Twitter, Skype accounts... Man, and do you have a
life ? OMG, no ! Could you send me a link ?
Doc, I cant stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home ! That sounds like Tom Jones
syndrome. Is it common ? Its not unusual !

Jean Claude Van Dam, Steven Segal, and Arnold Schwarzenagger decide to go out trick-ortreating as musical composers for Halloween. They go into a costume store and look for masks.
Jean Claude sees a costume that he likes and says, I think Ill go as Beethoven. Steven Segal sees
a costume that grabs his attention, Ill be Mozart. Arnold has a tough time finding a costume, but
he eventually finds one that appeases his interest. He picks up the costume saying, Ill be Bach.
A Japanese tourist hailed a taxi in downtown Delhi and asked to be taken to the Indira
Gandhi airport. On the way, a car zoomed by and the tourist responded, Oh ! Toyota Made in
Japan ! Very fast ! Not too long afterward, another car flew by the taxi. Oh ! Nissan Made in
Japan ! Very fast ! Yet another car zipped by, and the tourist said, Oh ! Mitsubishi Made in
Japan ! Very fast ! The taxi driver, who was 100% Indian, was starting to get a little annoyed that
the Japanese made cars were passing his taxi, when yet another car passed the taxi as they were
turning into the airport. Oh ! Honda Made in Japan ! Very fast ! The taxi driver stopped the car,
pointed to the meter, and said, Thatll be Rupees 500. Rupees 500 ? It was short ride ! Why so
much ? The Taxi driver smiled as he replied, Meter Made in India ! Very fast !
Peter starts his new job at the London Zoo and is given three tasks. First is to clear the exotic
fish pool of weeds. As he does this, a huge fish jumps out and bites him. To show who is boss,
Peter beats it to death with a spade. Realising his employer wont be best pleased, he disposes of
the fish by feeding it to the lions, as lions will eat anything. Moving on to the second job of clearing
out the chimp house, Peter is attacked by the chimps that pelt him with coconuts. He swipes at two
chimps with a spade killing them both. What can he do? Feed them to the lions, Peter says to
himself, because lions eat anything. He hurls the corpses into the lion enclosure. Peter moves on
to the last job which is to collect honey from the South American Bees. As soon as he starts, he is
attacked by the bees. He grabs the spade and smashes the bees to a pulp. By now he knows what
to do and throws them into the lions cage because lions eat anything. Later that day a new lion
arrives at the zoo. He wanders up to another lion and says, Whats the food like here ? The elder
resident lion replies, Absolutely brilliant !... Today we had fish and chimps with mushy bees.
Gilbert Parsons went to the police station to file a missing person report for his missing
wife, this is a true transcript of his conversation with the police officer.
Husband: I lost my wife Gale, she went shopping at Macys and hasnt come back yet.
Officer: How tall is she?
Husband: I never checked.
Officer: Slim or healthy ?
Husband: Not slim, can be healthy.
Officer: What colour are Gales eyes ?
Husband: Never noticed.
Officer: Colour of her hair ?
Husband: That changes according to season.
Officer: What was she wearing ?
Husband: Not sure whether it was a dress or a suit.
Officer: Was she driving ?
Husband: Yes.
Officer: Colour of the car ?
Husband: Silver Ford Focus Zetec 1.6 engine, automatic drive, 2013 plate. Scratch on the offside
drivers panel, crack in the front headlight... And then the husband started to cry...
Officer: Dont worry sir... we will find your car.