Universidad Europea de Madrid

Water drops: Gotas de lluvia

It's raining. The raindrops fall into the pond or lake, puddle or pool. And in the same place drops of water pop up. Are these the same drops that fall?

Where do the droplets come from?

For non PhD's: There's a thin layer of air separating the drop from the water below. It's like an elastic sheet. The connection is pinched off and a smaller droplet is formed, again and again until the tiny droplet can be absorbed.

Once I was swimming and the rain was falling. The sunlight was coming in horizontally and the water drops were popping up all around me. It was quite an amazing sight! Wendy

Click here: Water Drop at 2000 Frames per Second

raindrops: gotas de lluvia

fall into: caer dentro de

pond: lago pequeño, charco

lake: lago

puddle: charco muy pequeño, como en la calle o en un camino

pool: piscina, charco de agua limpia

tiny droplet: gotita de agua

pop up: saltar para arriba

sight: vista

Publicado por shakespeare

Tech Support

We're lucky here at the UEM. Yes, we are. We have a great Tech Support team , the TIC, hidden away in Building C. They keep tabs on the main computer and solve all our computer issues. You'll see them in the cafeteria or on the bridge, or when you are desperate because your laptop refuses to obey you. Yes, we do have the occasional computer glitch, but it's usually the user who's complicating the issue. At least it is in my case. I admit it. I'm one of the computer illiterate. Well, not completely. I've made great progress since I first learned to double-click. What a strange concept:double click. I'm very grateful to all the friends and colleagues and computer geeks who've helped me over the years. And are still heard saying "Oh, NO" when I cry out for help.

The members of our TIC department speak Spanish! That is a BIG plus in the modern world. Some also speak English. We can communicate with the TIC team: in person, by email, by phone. They respond. They're patient. They're helpful. They understand that many of us have no computer smarts so they try not to speak to us in computerese. We just wouldn't understand what they were saying in any language because we don't know what's going on inside our computers. We can often be heard talking to the computer screens, "No, no , NO! Where did my document go? Not now! Please...don't shut down!"

Yep, we're lucky. We have a very sophisticated TIC department at the UEM. Wendy

VOCABULARY:

to be lucky: tener suerte
tech support tea: equipo de apoyo técnico
hidden away: escondido
keep tabs on: controlar
issues: problems
laptop: portatil
refuse: negarse
obey: obedecer
glitch: fallo en el sistema
grateful: agradecido
geeks: friki del ordenador
computer smarts: mano para el ordenador
computerese: idioma informática
language: idioma
screen: pantalla
shut down: cerrar, apagar

Publicado por shakespeare