Unit 4

The Tipping Point

Mavens: People who know a lot and talk a lot about a particular subject

Word-of-mouth: Related to people telling people

Epidemic: Large number of cases of an infection

Got a hold of: Contacted; communicated with

Profiled: Described

Goes a long way toward: Succeeds in

Unit 3

The Bold and the Bashful

Reticent: Unwilling to talk

Phobia: Very strong fear

Merit: Value

Extroverted: Very sociable

Adverse: Negative

Syndrome: Condition

Chronic: Continual (in a medical sense)

Kindred soul: People having similar traits

Misattributions: False assumptions

Handicap: Disadvantage

Aloof: Distant

Condescending: Treating others as inferior

Unit 2

Honesty Is the Best Policy

Tattling on each other: Tell something bad that another person has done.

Inflated: Exaggerated; overly important.

Veneer: A cover that hides the way someone or something really is.

Intrusive: Affecting someone’s private life in an annoying way.

Finely honed: sharpened; perfect

Conceal: hide something carefully.

Preoccupation: The condition of thinking about only one thing.

Pervasive: existing or spreading everywhere.

Trivial: unimportant; of little value

Mislead: make someone believe something that is not true.

Relentless: continuing without stopping or losing strength.

Erosion: The gradual reduction of wearing down of something.

Mull over: Think a lot about something.

Put one over: to fool

Put the pieces together: Clear Idea

Unit 1

The Internet and other Addictions

Surf: Look for Information (on the Internet).

Engaging in: Taking part in or become involved in.

Turning each other in: Identifying each other to the police or an authority.

Devoting: Giving or using something (time, effort) for an activity or purpose.

Compulsiveness: Inability to control certain behavior.

Therapy: Treatment of problems by talking about them.

Putting together: Organizing.

Support Groups: People who meet to help each other with a problem they all share.

Present with: Shows signs of an illness by having a particular type of behavior or condition.

Coming out: Becoming publicly known.

Fulfillment: Personal satisfaction.

MICROFINANCE

To give an assertive point of view, we need to understand the meaning of microfinance. According to Wikipedia microfinance is “the provision of financial services to low-income clients, including consumers and the self-employed, who traditionally lack access to banking and related services.”


We already know how difficult it is to get a loan nowadays because you need to present a lot of papers showing that you can pay for the loan. Each organization that offers loans has some rules that a person has to follow to get a loan, for example, you have to present a proof of salary and if your income is lower than the ones that bank requests the loan is going to be denied. So, what kind of opportunity do people that do not have a job and need money to overcome a situation have? It is here where the microfinance comes to the rescue. These kinds of loans are accessible for poor people that do not have resources to survive.

Here is Costa Rica we have PYME which is an organization that helps micro, little and big companies with financial plans. They offer different kinds of plans, for example, they have a plan called PROPYME that is to finance the development of innovation projects and technological research.

They have another project for entrepreneur women. I think that this is very important because as we already know, sometimes it is very difficult for women to start a business because they do not have a stable job or have kids, so these opportunities are excellent; they give an alternative to those women that bear the brunt.

The final objective of Microfinance is to give money to start a cottage business, so they give like $25, for example, to buy the ingredients to make “empanadas”, and when the person sells the empanadas, he or she has to pay the money that the bank gave him/her and with the rest of the money they can continue with the business.