In the name of international and domestic security, billions of dollars are wasted on unproductive military spending in both developed and developing countries, when millions are starving and living without basic human needs. This book contains articles relating to military spending, military industrial establishments, and peace keeping.
On its own, or in conjunction with a variety of free online resources—grammar and vocabulary exercises, pronunciation drills, and more—this accurate and well-organized book is the ideal reference for students of Spanish at any level.
(abridged and revised) This reference grammar offers intermediate and advanced students a reason ably comprehensive guide to the morphology and syntax of educated speech and plain prose in Spain and Latin America at the end of the twentieth century. Spanish is the main, usually the sole official language of twenty-one countries,} and it is set fair to overtake English by the year 2000 in numbers 2 of native speakers. This vast geographical and political diversity ensures that Spanish is a good deal less unified than French, German or even English, the latter more or less internationally standardized according to either American or British norms. Until the 1960s, the criteria of internationally correct Spanish were dictated by the Real Academia Espanola, but the prestige of this institution has now sunk so low that its most solemn decrees are hardly taken seriously - witness the fate of the spelling reforms listed in the Nuevas normas de prosodia y ortograjia, which were supposed to come into force in all Spanish-speaking countries in 1959 and, nearly forty years later, are still selectively ignored by publishers and literate persons everywhere. The fact is that in Spanish 'correctness' is nowadays decided, as it is in all living languages, by the consensus of native speakers; but consensus about linguistic usage is obviously difficult to achieve between more than twenty independent, widely scattered and sometimes mutually hostile countries. Peninsular Spanish is itself in flux.
Designed to engage students and inspire lively conversational practice, ¡Vámonos al cine! Short Movies for Spanish Conversation provides language learners with a collection of short films in Spanish, coupled with vocabulary and grammar activities, to support language acquisition and improve their speaking ability. The book and movies help students learn new vocabulary, review grammar, and develop an understanding of Hispanic culture, history, and social habits. The text and movies cover a variety of unique and interesting topics, including the influence of technology on personal relationships, romantic and familial relationships, Hispanic culture and history, personal identity and social pressure, immigration, and more. For each topical area, students are challenged to read new vocabulary, answer preliminary questions, and make predictions about the movie they are going to watch. Links and QR codes within the text-which have been updated or replaced for the revised first edition-provide students with easy access to the individual films. After watching a film, students read related articles, answer questions, and review a specific grammatical aspect of the language used in the movie. Finally, they are prompted to create dialogues and perform a scene from the movie or participate in debates about the topics covered in the film or in class. Highly innovative in approach, ¡Vámonos al cine! is a valuable learning resource for intermediate level Spanish courses, especially those with focus on conversational Spanish.