Brazil's National Museum Today is an incredibly sad day for me and for many other Brazilians. Last night our oldest museum was consumed by fire. The National Museum was a 200-year-old museum with an archive of 20 million items of invaluable collections of Brazil's history and science and Egyptian and Greco-Roman artifacts. Among the items believed to be destroyed are fossils, dinosaurs, a meteorite, a 12,000-year-old skeleton and indigenous artifacts. The fire could have been put out, but the firefighters didn't have enough water to battle the blaze because the hydrants were completely dry for the lack of maintenance. For many years the National Museum fell into disrepair and fought to get resources from the government for preservation. Now we have nothing to preserve anymore. The governmental cuts to science and education are to blame for the loss of our history. This is what happens when a country cares more about building soccer stadiums than preserving its history.

Monday If you ask people what are their favorite day of the week, probably no one is going to say Monday and I get it. I've always hated Monday and the feeling of starting all over again, but this feeling can actually be a good thing, especially if you're planning to achieve a goal. Every year people write their New Year's resolutions and there's a good chance they fail to keep it, but there are plenty of other opportunities to try once more. Scientists have studied something called the fresh start effect, which is when we feel motivated to leave laziness and excuses behind and pursue goals and new beginnings. The fresh start effect is caused by a psychological shift that happens at specific dates, such as your birthday, the beginning of a new year, semester, month or... week. Therefore, every Monday you can experience the fresh start effect and try to work on your resolutions again, and if it doesn't work this week, there's always the next Monday. So instead of complaining about Monday, why don't you make the most of the energy the beginning of a week provides and start working on that language goal of yours?

Sentences Today I wrote a few sentences using some words/phrasal verbs I selected from my anki (spaced repetition system app) and I want to check if it's correct. It takes a lot of effort to build an excellent career. You have to shoot for greatness. (effort, excellent, career, shoot for) The chief was very brave to fight his enemies alone as he had the disadvantage of being far out from the other tribe members. (chief, brave, enemy, disadvantage, far out) The girl gave me a thick brochure that smelled old. (thick, brochure, smell) John overheard his brothers planning a game at the yard. He stepped in when the younger brother asked: "who's in?" (overhear, step in, who's in) It took a while to sink in that she turned down my invitation. (sink in, turn down) I waited in the bar for one hour, ordering the waitress to top up my glass until I could accept that she'd blown me off again. (top up, blow off)

The Girl on the Train A couple of weeks ago I started reading a book called "The Girl on the Train". It was the first book I read in English without reading in my native language before, so I had to choose something that would keep me interested despite the difficulties of reading in a foreign language. This book was a perfect choice because it is very interesting and unputdownable. It tells the story of a woman called Rachel who commutes by train every weekday and has a particular interest in the life of a couple she watches from the train window. For her, those people were the perfect couple and they made her remember her ex-husband and how her life was good when they were married. One day, however, when passing by the couple's house, she sees the woman kissing another man, destroying her illusions about the golden couple. The next day, the woman is missing and Rachel feel as though she has to help to solve the mystery. As the story went by, I found myself hating Rachel and pitying her on the same page. And just like her, no character is what you expected. At the end of the book, there's a good plot twist and a great ending. Reading this book was a great experience and I hope to find other good books like this one.

Foreign Accent Syndrome How would you feel if you woke up speaking with a different accent? That's what happened with an American woman, who went to bed and woke up with an Australian, Irish and, finally, a British accent, the latter enduring for about two years. She was diagnosed with a rare condition called Foreign Accent Syndrome, a disorder that is often caused by a brain damage. When I first read this news, I thought it was a joke, but that's actually real. About 60 people were diagnosed with this syndrome over the past century. The woman in question described her situation as "really difficult" because people make fun of her and think she's pretending. Meanwhile, I believe many language learners would feel very lucky for waking up with an accent from a language they are trying to master. I know I would. However, this condition can be permanent, and you might never speak your mother tongue as a native speaker anymore.

Immortality Last weekend I watched a movie called "The Age of Adaline", which tells the story of a woman who can't get old after a combination of odd incidents (psychics and chemistry explanations that I can't explain). For decades, Adaline had to run away and hide so people wouldn't find out about her secret. She avoided getting too close to anyone and when she did, she fell in love with a man but had to abandon him. While I was watching this movie I realized that even though most of us would do anything to earn infinite years on Earth, it might be a burden. Adaline had to leave her daughter and watch people she loved dying while she kept being young. Therefore, I think that immortality is overrated and would only be worth it if we all could be immortal. If that happened, I believe our lives would be more interesting though. People would feel free to take more time to make important decisions, such as your profession, and we would have plenty of time to make mistakes. And I can't even think about how many things we would be able to learn and to experience! All the languages we could learn, all the countries we could travel to. What do you think? Is immortality a burden or a gift?

Aliens Do you believe in extraterrestrial life? In 1947, there was a big amount of reports about UFO sightings. In that year, something crashed on a ranch in Roswell, New Mexico. Whether it was a simple weather balloon or a spacecraft, we might never know. The whole Roswell case is very intriguing and controversial, which makes me consider even more the possibility of life in outer space. Many people believe that aliens are just a bedtime story and their existence is unlikely, while many other people believe in them and some even claim to have seen them. We don't know which side is the correct one, but one thing we can't discuss is that we know very little about the universe and we don't know how big it is. We haven't even explored the whole ocean. By knowing that, it's impossible to know what's out there and what's not. I can't accept that among billions of galaxies and billions of planets, our planet is the only one that sustains life and we are the only living things. I don't think aliens would look like humans though, they are probably completely different and they might as well even be microorganisms. Either way, maybe within some years we can discover more about the universe and its mysteries.

What's the difference between... Breast and chest Cup and mug Pot, pan and saucepan Plate and dish Cabinet and cupboard