| LISTENING TO ARTICLES |
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-magazine-archive-page.htm
Double-click on any word and see its definition from Cambridge Dictionaries Online.
1) Aeroplanes and global warming
by Mike Rayner
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane, Ain't got time to take a fast train. Lonely days are gone, I'm a-goin' home, 'Cause my baby just a-wrote me a letter.
Wayne Carson Thompson The Letter
Have you ever looked out of the window of a passenger plane from 30,000 feet at the vast expanses of empty ocean and uninhabited land, and wondered how people can have any major effect on the Earth? I have. But it is now becoming pretty clear that we are causing a great deal of damage to the natural environment. And the planes which rush us in comfort to destinations around the globe, contribute to one of the biggest environmental problems that we face today – global warming.
For those of us lucky enough to have money to spend, and the free time to spend it in, there are a huge number of fascinating places to explore. The cost of air transport has decreased rapidly over the years, and for many people, especially in rich countries, it is now possible to fly around the world for little more than the contents of our weekly pay packets.
Unfortunately, planes produce far more carbon dioxide (CO2) than any other form of public transport, and CO2 is now known to be a greenhouse gas, a gas which traps the heat of the sun, causing the temperature of the Earth to rise. Scientists predict that in the near future the climate in
As usual, people in the developing world are having to deal with problems created mainly by those of us in developed countries. Beatrice Schell, a spokeswoman for the European Federation for Transport and Environment says that, "One person flying in an airplane for one hour is responsible for the same greenhouse gas emissions as a typical Bangladeshi in a whole year." And every year jet aircraft generate almost as much carbon dioxide as the entire African continent produces.
When you are waiting impatiently in a crowded departure lounge for a delayed flight or trying to find luggage which has gone astray, plane fares may seem unreasonably high, but in reality we are not paying enough for air travel. Under the “polluter pays principle”, where users pay for the bad effects they cause, the damage caused by planes is not being paid for. Aircraft fuel is not taxed on international flights and planes, unlike cars, are not inspected for CO2 emissions. Also, the
So what can be done to solve the problem? Well, although aircraft engine manufacturers are making more efficient engines and researching alternative fuels such as hydrogen, it will be decades before air travel is not damaging to the environment. Governments don’t seem to be taking the problem seriously, so it is up to individual travellers to do what they can to help.
The most obvious way of dealing with the problem is to not travel by plane at all. Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth encourage people to travel by train and plan holidays nearer home. However with prices of flights at an all time low, and exotic destinations more popular than ever, it is hard to persuade British tourists to choose
However there is a way of offsetting the carbon dioxide we produce when we travel by plane. A company called Future Forests, whose supporters include Coldplay and Pink Floyd, offers a service which can relieve the guilty consciences of air travellers. The
Yesterday I returned to
===============================================
2) AWARDS
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
Not all awards are as noble as the Nobels. Even though most countries have a system for recognising, honouring and rewarding people who have done something good in their countries, there are now hundreds of awards and awards ceremonies for all kinds of things.
The Oscars are probably the most famous, a time for the (mostly) American film industry to tell itself how good it is, an annual opportunity for lots of big stars to give each other awards and make tearful speeches. As well as that there are also the Golden Globes, apparently for the same thing.
But it’s not only films – now there are also Grammies, Brits, the Mercury Prize and the MTV and Q awards for music. In
Awards don’t only exist for the arts. There are now awards for Sports Personality of the Year, for European Footballer of the year and World Footballer of the Year. This seems very strange – sometimes awards can be good to give recognition to people who deserve it, or to help people who don’t make a lot of money carry on their work without worrying about finances, but professional soccer players these days certainly aren’t short of cash!
Many small towns and communities all over the world also have their own awards ceremonies, for local writers or artists, or just for people who have gradauted from high school or got a university degree. Even the British Council has its own awards for “Innovation in English Language Teaching”.
Why have all these awards and ceremonies appeared recently? Shakespeare never won a prize, nor did Leonardo da Vinci or Adam Smith or Charles Dickens.
It would be possible to say, however, that in the past, scientists and artists could win “patronage” from rich people – a king or a lord would give the artist or scientist money to have them paint their palaces or help them develop new ways of making money. With the change in social systems across the world, this no longer happens. A lot of scientific research is now either funded by the state or by private companies. Perhaps awards ceremonies are just the most recent face of this process.
However, there is more to it than that. When a film wins an Oscar, many more people will go and see it, or buy the dvd. When a writer wins the Nobel prize, many more people buy their books. When a group win the MTV awards, the ceremony is seen by hundreds of thousands of people across the world. The result? The group sell lots more records.
Most awards ceremonies are now sponsored by big organisations or companies. This means that it is not only the person who wins the award who benefits – but also the sponsors. The MTV awards, for example, are great for publicising not only music, but also MTV itself!
On the surface, it seems to be a “win-win” situation, with everyone being happy, but let me ask you a question – how far do you think that publicity and marketing are winning here, and how much genuine recognition of achievement is taking place?
| 3) bilingualism |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Jo Bertrand |
|
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
What is a bilingual child?
The way I see it, being bilingual means being able to communicate almost perfectly in two languages and also knowing something about both cultures. If I take the example of my daughter it’s about being able to understand when someone is speaking another language and being able to switch automatically into speaking it with them. At two and a half she has already grasped the concept of ‘Daddy speaks French and Mummy speaks English’. She has even picked up that Bai Yuoine speaks Chinese! I think it’s very important for her to know that the cartoon character Noddy is also called Oui Oui by her friends at playgroup and that Marmite and Cadburys chocolate exist as well as croissants. This is what makes it possible for her to communicate with the people around her regardless of whether they are French or English.
Why encourage bilingualism?
In our case it is logical that with an English mother and French father our children should be able to speak both languages to communicate, not only with us, but with their grandparents and extended family. On a wider scale, learning two or more languages helps children to accept cultures other than their own. If speaking their mother tongue(s) at home and at school is encouraged they are more likely to enjoy their difference and view difference in general as a positive thing.
How do you raise a bilingual child?
There may be a dominant language and this will normally depend on the country you live in or the language your child uses most at school. However, it will also depend on what language is spoken in the home. We lived in
What are the dangers?
It can be very difficult for people around you to support what you do. Grandparents can be upset if they don’t understand what you’re saying to their grandchild and worry that they will never be able to communicate with them. This is of course highly unlikely and you should stick to your guns.
Another problem we have encountered was when our daughter refused to listen to either of us. A psychologist advised us that as there wasn’t a common language at home between the parents and child and so I should stop speaking English and spend the weekend speaking only in French. Thankfully I decided to ignore this piece of advice and persisted with my English!
I also know of one child who had problems at school because his friends made fun of him. His parents eventually gave up speaking English to him. Unfortunately children can be cruel and differences whatever they may be are often a source of bullying. Differences need to be promoted and valued and celebrations such as the International Mother Language Day help to do just that.
International Mother Language Day
21st February 2000 saw the first Mother Language Day celebrated internationally. However the importance of this date originated in Bangladesh where in 1952 a handful of students, now known as language martyrs, were killed in demonstrations defending Bangla, their mother language. In 1999 UNESCO decided to take this cause onto an international scale in order to encourage cultural diversity and worldwide tolerance.
The Themes
Each year the celebration is devoted to a different aspect of language. This has ranged from how children learn their literacy skills at school to how to preserve some of the 6000 languages that exist worldwide. One year was about developing the teaching of mother languages and in 2002 the celebration helped raise awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions around the world. This year the International Mother Language Day is dedicated to Braille and Sign Language, two non-verbal languages that are an invaluable source of communication for many people around the world.
A Multilingual Community
It’s essential that we limit alienation throughout the world. By speaking other languages as well as your own, or having two or more mother languages, you can contribute to the creation of a global community. My contribution to this multilingual community is exposing my children to varied cultures and languages, maintaining their mother language, while trying to learn the language of the people around me. Although with my ten or so words of Mandarin I am far from being multilingual!
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| 4) The Eden Project |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Mike Rayner |
|
|
| ||
We are stardust
We are golden
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Joni Mitchell (
According to the Bible, the Garden of Eden was the home of the first two humans, Adam and Eve. In the story, the Garden provided everything the couple needed, and they lived there in peace and happiness until they were banished for breaking the rules. In 1999, Tim Smit, an ex-rock musician and record producer, borrowed the name of the biblical garden for a collection of space-age domes in a corner of southwest
Rock and activism
It is not unusual for people involved in the music business to alert us to environmental and political issues. Bob Geldof (the singer from British punk band The Boomtown Rats) raised a huge amount of money to help feed millions of starving people in Africa in 1985, Bono from U2 has been successful in campaigning for the reduction of debts which developing countries owe to rich nations, and the music festival at Woodstock in 1969 is seen by many as the culmination of the civil rights marches and anti-war protests of the 1960's. Tim Smit’s Eden Project was created to highlight the relationship between humans and the environment, and through information, research and education lead the way to a brighter future.
The problem
The modern world is a far cry from the balance and harmony of the Garden of Eden. By-products of a typical modern lifestyle such as overfishing, deforestation and intensive farming are destroying natural habitats, and creating a world with less biodiversity. These activities are not sustainable, that is the planet is unable to survive if we continue to take more from the Earth than it can replace. Recent research by the World Wildlife Fund suggests that we will have to colonise two planets the same size as the Earth by 2050 unless people in rich countries change the way they live.
The solution
The Eden Project is in on the site of an abandoned clay pit in
As visitors to the domes walk past lakes and waterfalls, through rainforests and over deserts, they discover how the ecosystems in each zone operates, learn how people have damaged each environment, and find out how people native to the different areas can learn to live in harmony with their environment, and have a positive and beneficial effect on it.
Science, Horticulture, Creative, Marketing, Media and Human Resources researchers at the site are constantly investigating ways of combining science, art, technology and communication in new ways to find solutions to the problem of living a modern lifestyle in harmony with the natural world. The researchers form part of a new green movement, which is discovering new uses for plants including plant plastics, medicines and oils.
Success
The Eden Project has been enormously successful in the two years it has been open. Millions of people have flocked to the site, and the biomes also attracted the attention of the director of the James Bond film ‘Die Another Day’, in which the domes featured as the lair of the villain, Gustav Graves. In 2002 the biomes were also the venue for a music festival featuring Pulp, Spiritualized, Doves and other major acts who performed amongst the foliage. Works of art from around the world are also on display, and this summer the events include a play based on a story by Monty Python’s Terry Jones.
The future
But the Eden Project is no Disneyland, “If this place becomes no more than an upmarket theme park, it will all have been a gigantic waste of money” Tim Smit writes in the visitor’s guide (the domes cost 86 million pounds.) After a day spent walking around the biomes in
| 5) Little wooden armies |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Keith Sands |
|
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
1500 years ago
A king in
The minister thought of a game which he had learnt from a Greek soldier. He taught the rules to the king, who found the game so engrossing, such a perfect substitute for war, that he was a happy man again. He asked Sassa :
“How can I reward you? Gold? Jewels? Perhaps you want to marry one of my daughters? Choose anything you like.” But Sassa said :
“Take a grain of rice and place it on the first square of the board. Put two grains on the second square. Keep going, doubling the number of grains each time, until you have covered all the 64 squares on the board.”
At first they laughed at Sassa for his modesty and simplicity. But then they discovered that the rice would exceed all the wealth in the known world.
A mystery
The game, if you haven’t guessed, was chess. It’s interesting that in all the various legends of chess’s origins the game is always said to come from somewhere else. Chess has a number of known ancestors– the four-player Indian game Chaturanga among them – but its ultimate place and date of birth are still a mystery.
What is definitely true in the story is the point Sassa was making with his rice. Chess is pretty much infinite. We don’t know the number of possible games even today, when a supercomputer can beat the World Champion. There’s an Indian proverb: “Chess is a lake in which a mosquito can bathe - and an elephant can drown”.
Children like to command a little wooden army, and even adults like to play Napoleon. That’s how they get started. Later, players realize the technical complexity and finally, they see the game’s awesome artistic beauty. It’s a unique combination of war game, sport, science and art.
A mirror of history
In its long journey around the world, chess has borrowed from the cultures that took it in. The West plays with bishops, knights and queens, because they were powerful people in medieval
Chess moved west but it also moved East, and its Eastern versions - Chinese Xaing-pi and Japanese Shigo – also reflect history. In Shigo, some of the pieces can even change sides, like mercenary soldiers in the age of the Samurai.
The players, too, reflect the spirit of their times. Anatoly Karpov, who dominated the game in the 1970s, played Cold War chess - Iron Curtain chess. He was slow and defensive but almost impossible to beat. Garry Kasparov took the title from him in 1985, on the eve of great changes in the
An extreme sport?
In my passion for chess, I’m in good company. Charlemagne, King Henry II, Napoleon, Tolstoy, Rousseau, Nabokov and Che Guevara. Chess players all.
The French artist Marcel Duchamps took his obsession further. He took three years off from art to become a chess master, and played for
With all these kings, artists and writers playing chess, you might get the idea that chess is the ultimate civilized pursuit. But you’d be wrong.
A Scandinavian manuscript, 900 years old, tells of how one player, who lost a game, picked up the board and smashed his opponent on the head with it. Boards were made of stone in those days. Ouch.
Grandmasters have called it “a blood sport”, “like a fight to the death with broken bottles” and “very dangerous – you have to kill people.”
If you agree with the old saying that life is too short for chess, play blitz chess. Five minutes on the clock. Non-players think chess is slow and boring, but blitz is a high adrenaline sport. And as aggressive as any martial art. In parks in
From the boxing ring to the chess board
With all this aggression, and the stories of nervous breakdowns among chess players, it’s worth remembering that chess can heal as well as harm. My own favourite chess story is that of John Healy. His autobiography, The Grass Arena, was made into a great film by the BBC. Healy was a failed boxer who became the most serious kind of alcoholic. He became homeless. The bottle nearly killed him. But in prison, he discovered chess, and managed to give up drinking completely. He is now a successful chess player, journalist and writer.
Healy is played in the film by the British actor Mark Rylance. It’s the performance of a lifetime – chess makes surprisingly good cinema. There is a moving scene where Healy tries to find the words to describe how his life has changed. “It’s like boxing again…but not with fists… with the mind.” King Kaid, fighting his imaginary battles, would surely have recognized him.
| | 6) Christmas – the good, the bad and the ugly |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Keith Sands | |
Christmas is one of those holidays which means very different things to different people.
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
It can be a spiritual time, a family time, a time for giving, a time for partying or a time for just over-eating... Most people (in those countries where it is the main religious festival of the year) find something to enjoy about Christmas, whether they are Christians or not. But hasn’t Christmas in the consumer age become just a bit too big? And a lot too commercial?
I think so. The secret of a good Christmas is to be selective. Here is my personal list of the things Christmas (at any rate, Christmas in Britain) would be infinitely better without. Let’s get rid of….
Plastic Christmas trees
Fussy people don’t like trees that drop their needles on the carpet. Surely, in the age of vacuum cleaners, this is not a problem any more? Worst of all are those plastic trees that come with their own decorations already attached, so depriving children of the great pleasure of hanging the decorations themselves.
Replace with : Real fir trees, from sustainable forests.
Fairy lights that don’t work
We have sent people to the moon. Computers have changed our lives. On the Internet, huge amounts of information travel all over the world at the speed of light. So it shouldn’t be too difficult to put a few coloured light bulbs in a row, so they last until New Year without breaking down.
Replace with : Candles. And fireproof fir trees.
Slade’s Merry Christmas Everybody
A stomping, two-chord song from the dark days of 1970s rock. Played endlessly in British pubs and on the radio through December. It is the musical equivalent of jumping up and down with heavy boots on and trying to drink beer at the same time. I remember once, at a Christmas party, picking up my beer and taking a sip - to find out someone had used the can as an ashtray. And this song is the theme tune of that kind of party.
Replace with : The Pogues and Kirsty MacColl’s Fairytale of New York : a great, soulful Christmas song.
Bing Crosby’s White Christmas
While we’re on the subject of Christmas songs, let’s not forget that this sentimental 1950s tune is the biggest selling single of all time. It’s ideal for falling asleep in an armchair but finally just too nostalgic. And very annoying.
Replace with : Silent Night, a beautiful German carol known all over the world.
Office parties
Doesn’t a computer decorated with tinsel, and an office with paper chains hanging from the ceiling, look just a tiny bit depressing? And office Christmas parties are worse. Under the influence of cheap wine in paper coffee-cups, strange things happen with the photocopier. Rude messages are faxed to clients. Most people can’t relax in the office. And those that can will probably do something they’ll regret later.
Replace with : an extra afternoon off work.
British Christmas Weather
In Richard Curtis films (like the recent hit Love, Actually), it always snows at Christmas in
Replace with : Russian Christmas weather.
TV
It’s a fact that we spend more time in front of the TV at Christmas than at any other time of year. The TV schedules are filled with old films, comedy “Christmas Specials”, soap operas with Christmas-related plots, and of course hundreds of adverts. Switch it off and visit your relatives instead.
Replace with : log fires, board games.
In Britain, the usual Christmas dinner is turkey with cranberry sauce – although ultra-traditionalists may prefer goose. Cranberry sauce is basically a kind of jam. We don’t put jam on meat at other times of year, so why at Christmas?
Replace with : No cranberry sauce.
Consumerism
You know what I mean. Adverts for toys on children’s TV. Department stores which put out Christmas decorations as early as September. The stress of Christmas shopping. Everywhere the message is spend, spend, spend. Christmas is a Christian religious festival, to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. It’s not just an excuse for making money.
Replace with :
So that’s my advice. Avoid these things and you’ll have a good chance of having a truly Merry Christmas. Which is what I wish you now. And a happy new year.
7)
| Flea circuses |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Nik Peachey | |
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
Many British people of my generation probably remember watching their first flea circus on Michael Bentine's Potty Time. Potty Time was a children's TV programme which featured comedian Michael Bentine and a group of puppets. Even as a child I never once thought that the flea circus which was featured on his show involved real fleas, and quite probably it didn't, so imagine my surprise when I read an article in a British newspaper about a group of performing fleas being denied entry to the
The fleas and their trainer, Professor Maria Fernanda Cordoso, had been on their way to perform at the Edinburgh Festival, one of
On reading the article I decided to investigate more and discovered that flea circuses have a long history originating in
Training fleas can be very difficult, but there are a few methods that have proven successful. You can limit the height of their jump, if you put a glass ceiling above them, as they don't like to bump their heads. There are also chemicals that they don't like. These can be put on a small ball and put among a group of fleas. The fleas will push the ball away with their legs and give the illusion that they are playing football. Fleas are also very sensitive to heat and light and this can be used to manipulate the fleas to give the appearance that they are well trained performers. It's also believed that the flea orchestras of the past were in fact live fleas that were glued to their seats. The majority of fleas in the flea circus are, however, dead. They can be attached to their circus equipment and manipulated with the use of magnets. This has the added benefit that fleas, which have a very short life, then don't need to be continuously trained and replaced.
So how did something as unlikely as a flea circus become a major event at one of
Well, if this article has left you itching to find out more, here are some little known facts about fleas:
|
|
|
| There is a flea in a |
|
|
|
| A flea can pull up to 160,000 times its own weight. |
|
|
|
| A flea can jump over 150 times its own size. If a man had the same strength, he could jump over |
|
|
|
| When jumping, the flea accelerates 50 times faster than the space shuttle. |
|
|
|
| A flea can jump 30,000 times without a break. |
|
|
|
| Dead fleas dressed as wedding couples were popular collectors' items in the 1920s. |
|
|
|
| Fleas are attracted by carbon dioxide. |
|
|
|
| Fleas alternate the direction of their jumps. |
8)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
Grameen Bank
"If we are looking for one single action which will enable the poor to overcome their poverty, I would focus on credit”. (Dr Muhammad Yunus)
The beginning
Twenty five years ago, Muhammed Yunus, a Bangladeshi economics teacher, was visiting a village when he met a woman who made bamboo stools. She couldn’t afford to buy the bamboo to make the stools, so she had to borrow the money from the bamboo sellers and then pay them a large part of the profit from each one she sold. There was so little money left for her to keep that she couldn’t afford to buy more bamboo, so she had to borrow more money. And so the cycle continued with no way out for her. She couldn’t borrow money from friends or family because they were as poor as she was. She couldn’t borrow from the bank because she had no collateral (property or land) to guarantee that she would pay back the loan.
Yunus went around the village and found forty-two people who were in the same situation - trapped in a cycle of poverty with no escape. When he added up the amount of money that they needed to break free of the cycle, it came to just twenty-seven dollars. As Yunus says “I felt ashamed of myself for being part of a society which could not provide even twenty-seven dollars to forty-two hardworking, skilled human beings.”
He lent them the money and told them to pay it back whenever they could. He got all of it back, so he went to other villages and did the same thing. He always got his money back. The official banks didn’t want to get involved in what he was doing, so Yunus started his own bank. The Grameen bank was born, and with it a new approach to lending money – ‘micro-credit’.
But what makes the Grameen bank so different?
The conventional banking system is based on the principle that the more you have, the more you can borrow. Grameen gives priority to those who have nothing, particularly the poorest women. The loans are small and repayments are made in small amounts spread over a year, with a built-in insurance scheme so that the family doesn’t become responsible for the loan if something happens to the borrower. There is no legal contract between the bank and the borrower, and no danger of legal action if the repayments are not made – the relationship is based on trust and good faith.
Repayment rates are very high for two main reasons. Firstly, borrowers know that they cannot borrow again if they don’t repay the first loan. And secondly, they must join a group of other borrowers who all share some responsibility for other members’ loans and are encouraged to make group decisions. So there is considerable peer pressure and support from the group to encourage them to pay it all back.
Another important difference from conventional banks is that Grameen has a social programme. The system encourages the borrowers to do practical things to improve their living conditions, health and level of education. These are known as the ‘Sixteen Decisions’ which include, for example, not continuing the dowry system, growing fresh vegetables, organising clean drinking water and good sanitation, education for children, and being ready to help each other whenever necessary. Conventional banks would not consider this to be any of their business.
The success
The bank now lends over a billion dollars to more than two million borrowers, 96% of them women, and involving more than half of the villages in
Grameen’s success in Bangladesh has also shown that the developing world has lessons to teach richer countries like the USA and Britain. Both countries have begun to encourage microcredit schemes based on the Grameen model, in an attempt to deal with their own levels of poverty.
9)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Creepy Crawlies |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Alison Driver | |
What is a creepy crawly?
Well, it isn’t easy to give a straight definition so I’ll tell you a couple of stories to try to explain. A few years ago I was on holiday in Holland. I was on a bicycle trip and at the very first sign of a hill, I got off my bike for a rest. I sat down by the side of the road on the grass. A few seconds later, I was covered in ants. They were swarming all over me so I quickly got up and brushed them off. I had obviously sat near an anthill and they were protecting their territory from an invader. It was a strange experience but I soon forgot about it, got back on my bike and tackled the hill.
A couple of years later, I was living in Jordan. I had just moved into a modern flat and was unpacking plates and saucepans, when I saw something move out of the corner of my eye. I looked over at the kitchen drawer, where I had put the knives and forks, and there was a cockroach crawling out of it. I screamed. Then, my heart pounding, and probably still screaming, I grabbed a handy can of insecticide and sprayed half of it on the very hardy cockroach. He ran at me but I jumped out of the way and he scuttled out of the kitchen and under the nearby toilet door. It took me three days before I found the courage to open the toilet door (luckily there was another bathroom in the house!) to see if he was still alive. He wasn’t.
Why did I react so violently to one lone insect when a closer encounter with hundreds of ants hardly affected me? The answer is easy: because cockroaches are creepy crawlies and ants aren’t.
Creepy crawlies are those little bugs which provoke feelings such as apprehension, anxiety or aversion – they make your skin crawl. Flies aren’t creepy crawlies but spiders are. Ladybirds are rather sweet but centipedes are scary. Guess which is a creepy crawly?
Did you know that some people can feel such a fear of bugs that it can even become a phobia? I recognise that my reaction was exaggerated. I knew the cockroach wasn’t going to harm me, even though he did seem to be running straight for me even as I sprayed, but I couldn’t help myself. Why did I react the way I did to a relatively innocuous creature?
Psychologists have offered many explanations. Some say it was an instinctive reaction to a perceived threat, the idea being that these insects were harmful to us many generations back and that this fear is harboured in our subconscious. Others explain it by saying that we associate them with dirt and disease. Or that these are life forms that are so alien to us, that we find them repulsive for their dissimilarity. A more cultural-specific reason proffered is that in Western philosophy the individual is held to be the most important creature of all God’s creatures and other living creatures are subordinate to him. Insects, instead, don’t follow our rules – they just do what they want and invade our space. It is interesting to note that in China, where man is viewed as only one element of the world and humans and nature are one and the same, aversion to insects is not as common.
Whatever the cause, entomologists despair at this squeamish attitude towards their object of study. They would like us to appreciate insects for the benefits they bring, which are many.
So my plea to you is: the next time you feel the urge to stamp on, splatter or spray a creepy crawly, give a thought to the planet and desist !
10)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| development |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by John Kuti | |
Why are there so many people in the world without food, water, schools and doctors?
For people living in the rich countries talking about “development” usually means feeling sorry for poor people in poor countries, or feeling happy about pop stars or politicians who say they have done something to help them. But, if you look at it another way, all of the human race is developing…
Twenty years ago the world was divided into three parts. The “first world” was the rich countries of
Then the second world disappeared. This meant that poor countries were only left with one choice if they wanted to get richer – doing business with everyone else on the planet. Many of the poorest countries got professional “help” to do this from the International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and other organisations. These organisations lent them money and told them what kind of political changes to make in their country.
During the same period the economies of the rich countries have been changing. A lot of industries have closed down or been moved abroad, There has been a big increase in the employment of people who provide services – complicated services like investments or insurance and simple ones like sandwiches. It’s clearly not true that that these countries have finished developing, in fact they are changing faster and faster with every new technology and fashion.
Development is happening everywhere around the world and it has started to be called “globalisation”. There is a serious argument that this process is unfair and that it is causing a lot of poverty in poor countries and in rich ones.
Some of the “anti-globalists” are really not interested about economics at all. However, the economic parts of the argument go something like this:
International trade is good for a minority of people who receive the profits from big transactions. These rich people tend to spend or save their money in the capitals of rich countries, so they don’t do much to help people in their own countries. The worst situation occurs in areas where there are no resources that the rest of the world wants to buy. International trade can’t help these countries at all.
The world’s wealth ends up going to the richest organisations in the richest countries, the banks and the big companies that are involved in international trade. It leaves the poor countries either to pay back loans, or to buy expensive luxuries, weapons and other things that only the “
11)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| QAT – To Chew or Not to Chew |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Chris Wilson | |
Visitors to countries around the Horn of
In much of
By
Now only hours of delight stretch before you.
First a big lunch is necessary. You never feel hungry after Qat, so if you’re going to eat you’d better do it before. Then, well stocked, not only with your washed and shiny leaves on their juicy stems, but also with water, Pepsi, cigarettes or a shisha (water pipe), you sit down to chew. This may be a solitary thing but usually it is with a few good friends. How you sit is very important. You half sit, half recline on a mattress on the floor, supported on the left by a hard cushion. All doors and windows are firmly closed so as not to let in any drafts and the air rapidly becomes thick with smoke. Before long everyone is animated, talking loudly. Conversation ranges far and wide, from politics to poetry, from prices to philosophy. And the amazing thing is that, as the Qat takes effect, all the problems of the world suddenly seem so easily solved.
Although it is mostly men who chew the habit is increasing amongst mainly middle class women. They arrive at each other’s homes covered in black of course, but once inside, disrobe to reveal the latest fashions, quantities of gold, make up and elaborate hairstyles. The room is fragrant with incense and as the chewing gets underway there is laughter, reportedly ever more bawdy jokes, music and even dancing.
In Sana’a sunset is known as The Hour of Suleyman. As the last rays flood the room you notice a sudden quiet. All talking has ceased and everyone is withdrawn and meditative. The only sound is the gurgle of the water pipe or the odd heavy sigh…. It is at this point that one is supposed to enter a state known as Kayf, in which one experiences a sort of contented enlightenment (or enlightened contentment?) Some do actually manage to sustain this and end up floating in perfect bliss, but for most it does not last all that long. Once it begins to wear off many people begin to feel distinctly depressed and melancholic, and everything that seemed so easy before now feels insurmountable.
The Qat tree, Cathula Edilis, grows wild in many parts of east and southern
There are many other arguments against growing Qat. It is responsible for laziness, lethargy and – amongst the poor – malnutrition, as some men prefer to spend what little they have on Qat for themselves rather than food for their children. Whether it is actually a “drug” or not is debatable. Chewers claim it is not addictive. When they go abroad, for instance, to places where Qat is unobtainable, they simply forget about it and do not experience any withdrawal symptoms. On the other hand the minute they get back home and see everyone else chewing they can’t wait to do so as well.
Not much research has been done into the physical side effects. It certainly causes weight loss and insomnia. It may also be the cause of mouth cancer and, although many claim it is an excellent aphrodisiac, in the long term it probably also results in impotence.
In the
The question as to whether it is, like alcohol, forbidden in Islam or not is an interesting one. In
Whatever : everyone agrees it is the major impediment to development in the region. With most of the male populations busily chewing every day it is hard to get much done. Their unfortunate governments however have an insoluble problem on their hands. No matter how dearly they would love to completely get rid of Qat, to try to do so would surely end in their own spectacular demise.
12)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
Ecotourism
Imagine the scene. You're sitting in the hot sunshine beside the swimming pool of your international luxury hotel, drinking your imported gin and tonic. In front of you is the beach, reserved for hotel guests with motor boats for hire. Behind you is an 18-hole golf course, which was cleared from the native forest and is kept green by hundreds of water sprinklers. Around the hotel are familiar international restaurant chains and the same shops that you have at home. You've seen some local people - some of them sell local handicrafts outside the hotel. You bought a small wooden statue and after arguing for half an hour you only paid a quarter of what the man was asking. Really cheap!
Is this your idea of heaven or would you prefer something different?
Before you read on, try the vocabulary activity, which practises words and phrases that are important for you to understand the text.
Nowadays, many of us try to live in a way that will damage the environment as little as possible. We recycle our newspapers and bottles, we take public transport to get to work, we try to buy locally produced fruit and vegetables and we stopped using aerosol sprays years ago. And we want to take these attitudes on holiday with us. This is why alternative forms of tourism are becoming more popular all over the world.
But what is ecotourism?
There are lots of names for these new forms of tourism: responsible tourism, alternative tourism, sustainable tourism, nature tourism, adventure tourism, educational tourism and more. Ecotourism probably involves a little of all of them. Everyone has a different definition but most people agree that ecotourism must:
1 conserve the wildlife and culture of the area.
2 benefit the local people and involve the local community
3 be sustainable, that is make a profit without destroying natural resources
4 provide an experience that tourists want to pay for.
So for example, in a true ecotourism project, a nature reserve allows a small number of tourists to visit its rare animals and uses the money that is generated to continue with important conservation work. The local people have jobs in the nature reserve as guides and wardens, but also have a voice in how the project develops. Tourists stay in local houses with local people, not in specially built hotels. So they experience the local culture and do not take precious energy and water away from the local population. They travel on foot, by boat, bicycle or elephant so that there is no pollution. And they have a special experience that they will remember all of their lives.
This type of tourism can only involve small numbers of people so it can be expensive. But you can apply the principles of ecotourism wherever you go for your holiday. Just remember these basic rules.
|
|
|
| Be prepared. Learn about the place that you're going to visit. Find out about its culture and history. Learn a little of the native language, at least basics like 'Please', 'Thank you', and 'Good Morning'. Think of your holiday as an opportunity to learn something. |
|
|
|
| Have respect for local culture. Wear clothes that will not offend people. Always ask permission before you take a photograph. Remember that you are a visitor. |
|
|
|
| Don't waste resources. If the area doesn't have much water, don't take two showers every day. |
|
|
|
| Remember the phrase "Leave nothing behind you except footprints and take nothing away except photographs." Take as much care of the places that you visit as you take of your own home. · Don't buy souvenirs made from endangered animals or plants. |
|
|
|
| Walk or use other non-polluting forms of transport whenever you can. |
|
|
|
| Be flexible and keep a sense of humour when things go wrong. |
Stay in local hotels and eat in local restaurants. Buy local products whenever possible and pay a fair price for what you buy.
Choose your holiday carefully. Don't be afraid to ask the holiday company about what they do that is 'eco'. Remember that 'eco' is very fashionable today and a lot of holidays that are advertised as ecotourism are not much better than traditional tourism.
But before you get too enthusiastic, think about how you are going to get to your dream 'eco' paradise. Flying is one of the biggest man-made sources of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Friends of the Earth say that one return flight from
13) You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Environmental Protest Groups |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Mike Rayner | |
They took all the trees
And put them in a tree museum
And they charged all the people
A dollar and a half to see 'em
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you've got
’Till it's gone
They paved paradise
And they put up a parking lot
(Joni Mitchell – Big Yellow Taxi)
Facts about the state of the global environment read like quotes on a poster for an epic
However, many people feel that the governments of countries around the world are not taking environmental issues seriously enough. To allow the voices of concerned people to be heard, a large number of protest groups have been set up by ordinary people to raise awareness of the issues, and to put pressure on politicians to act before it is too late. A few of the organisations have become household names, particularly Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace. Two smaller groups, Surfers Against Sewage and Reclaim The Streets, are less well known, but take themselves just as seriously.
Surfers Against Sewage (SAS)
Surfers Against Sewage was founded in 1990 by water sports enthusiasts, who were becoming more and more concerned about the health risks they faced when using beaches in
SAS alerted people to the problem by going to public events with their surfboards, where they handed out leaflets wearing wetsuits and gasmasks. They soon attracted the attention of the media and other concerned water users from around Britain and were able to put pressure on the government to ban dumping untreated waste in the sea, rivers and lakes. The group was so successful that in 1998, only 8 years after they started campaigning, the government agreed to spend 8.5 billion pounds on cleaning up Britain’s aquatic environment.
Surfers Against Sewage has acquired a cool image over the years. In 1999 the director of The Beach, a Hollywood blockbuster starring Leonardo Di Caprio, wanted to use the SAS logo on actors’ backpacks. SAS refused permission however, because they were concerned about the environmental damage that making the film had caused to the tiny tropical
Reclaim The Streets (RTS)
Reclaim The Streets was started in
RTS campaigns by stopping traffic and turning roads and motorways into huge street parties. Members of the group dig up tarmac and plant trees, make beaches and paddling pools for children to play in, decorate the street with colourful banners, and give out free food and drink. A huge sound system is set up, bands, jugglers and clowns perform, and hundreds or even thousands of people dance and party. The carnival is usually broken up by the police after a few hours, and in the past some of the demonstrations have been marred by violence between police and protesters.
RTS doesn’t have any clear aims, and says that it is a ‘disorganisation’ rather than an organisation, since there is no one in charge, but the methods that the group uses have caught on, and are now used worldwide. As the RTS website says, “The Reclaim The Streets idea has grown up and left home, street parties and suchlike often happen without anyone in RTS London hearing about them until afterwards.”
Protest and the Internet
Both SAS and RTS have extensive websites providing information about their activities, and providing links to like-minded groups around the world. It seems that nowadays the Internet is helping more and more people express their dissatisfaction with the status quo, and work together to find solutions to the problems that the modern world faces.
14)
English Exams for Speakers of Other Languages
The Cambridge ESOL examinations have more than a million candidates every year. There are five different levels of general English exams, starting with the Key English Test for people who have studied English for about 200 hours, right up to the “Certificate of Proficiency in English” which most native speakers of English would probably fail (if they were allowed to take it). In total, these five exams make up a complete description of everything modern teachers think you should be able to learn to do with a foreign language. People tend to prepare for one exam at a time, but I thought it might be interesting to look at the whole lot as one system and what they have in common.
All the exams have parts that test each of the four skills – reading, writing, listening and speaking. The two lower level exams (KET and PET) test reading and writing together in one paper, while the higher level ones have separate sections for these, and also another paper called “Use of English” which tests grammar and vocabulary. As you go up the levels, the number of words that you have to read and write increases. The CPE writing paper asks for 2 compositions, each at least 300 words long. The FCE and CPE exams also have set books which students can read during the year, this will then give them the chance to answer a writing question about that book. This year the set books for FCE are as follows:
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
1984 by George Orwell
The Citadel by A. J. Cronin
Three Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Listening
For the lower levels, people in the recordings speak more slowly. Even in the highest levels you nearly always listen twice (except in part 2 of the CAE listening test). Often it seems surprising to students that the answers to questions are things that you don’t actually hear people say. For example, in a CPE test you have to say whether the speaker felt proud, embarrassed or confused. What he actually says is “I would somehow swallow my pride and stand up”. Good exam-takers get used to spotting tricks like this.
Speaking
Candidates nearly always attend their interview in pairs, although sometimes it can happen that a group of three is organised because there is an odd number of candidates. For most of the levels, there is a stage where students have to speak on their own. The examiners call this a “long turn” although it is usually only a minute long. There isn’t a long turn in KET because it would be too difficult. Instead, one student gets a card with information on, for example about a bookshop, and the other gets some words like “sell/ travel books?” which they have to make into a question (“Do they…?”) In the levels PET, FCE and CAE candidates talk about a photograph in their long turn. In the top level, candidates for CPE have to talk about much more abstract and complicated things - so there is no photograph. Their long turn question might be “How far can human beings control the future of life on this planet?”
Levels
The most popular
15) You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
It's all been done before
Today's amazing newspaper headline!
First family of four to walk to the South Pole wearing Mickey Mouse ears and clown's shoes.
No, not really. It isn't true. I invented it. But I wouldn't be surprised to see it one day soon. It seems that every week someone becomes 'the first' or 'the youngest' or 'the oldest' or even 'the first married couple' to do something that doesn't seem to be very useful to the rest of humanity.
This year I've seen headlines saying 'The youngest person to sail the Atlantic alone', 'The youngest Briton to climb Mount Everest', 'The first person to cross the Pacific Ocean on a windsurfing board', and 'The first people to fly around the world in a hot air balloon'. Why do they do it? Don't they have better things to do with their time and money? And why should I be interested anyway?
Human beings have already climbed the highest mountains, sailed across the oceans and flown around the world. People have already reached the most remote parts of our planet. Many of these things were done a long, long time ago. There just isn't anything left to explore nowadays. I suppose there's still a lot of the universe left, and the bottom of the oceans is still a bit of a mystery, but you need a lot of technology to explore areas like that. So, those people who feel the need for adventure can only do things that have been done before. So they have to try and do it in a new way, or be 'the fastest' or 'the youngest' or 'the oldest' to do something that isn't really new at all. Or they can start new combinations of achievements. 'The first woman to walk to both the North and South Poles and skateboard down
What is so great about climbing
In May this year, a British man became the first person to walk alone from
In January 2003 a helicopter carrying two British men crashed into the sea near
Talking of taxpayers, many Australians are getting a bit fed up with record breakers. A lot of people trying to break sailing or rowing records get into trouble in the seas around
What do you think? Are these explorers heroes or a danger to other people? Examples of courage and determination which should inspire the rest of us? Or a waste of time, energy and money?
16)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Gardening: The beginnings |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by John Russell | |
Our
By singing: -"Oh, how beautiful!" and sitting in the shade.
Rudyard Kipling, "The Glory of the Garden"
Are gardens a recent invention?
The modern garden has a history going back many thousands of years. Early humans were hunters and gatherers, and didn’t usually stay in one place for a long time. Instead, they travelled from place to place following the food (plants and animals) according to the seasons. During the Neolithic period (over 10,000 years ago) this slowly began to change; humans started to domesticate certain plants, which meant they could remain in one place and grow their own food. The first ‘garden’, was a vegetable-garden, where early humans cultivated different types of plants for food.
What plants did people grow?
Evidence of early agriculture in Europe includes edible plants such as wheat or lentils, but also includes more ornamental plants for other purposes. Plants for medicine were grown (such as sage), as were herbs and spices for flavouring or preserving food. Certain plants also had religious or spiritual value and were not only grown because they were useful or edible. Growing of plants not only for food was the beginning of gardening.
Why did people plant gardens?
Gardens today are beautiful places to go and relax, but have had many purposes over the years. In the past they were planted to honour the gods, or used in religious ceremonies such as funerals and weddings. Certain trees were also sacred in some cultures; Yew trees were important for Celts, as were Sycamores in Egypt. The ancient Greeks planted groves for their Gods, and many cultures believed gardens were holy.
They were also a way to show that their owners were rich or powerful. Ancient rulers created huge gardens to display their wealth, in the same way that large palaces were symbols of prosperity. In Roman times the garden became an extension of the house, representing the owner’s status in society, rather than a holy place.
What does paradise mean?
Sir Francis Bacon described gardens as “the purest of human pleasures.” Pleasure and happiness are ideas linked with gardens. The ancient Greeks believed growing food was a job for the poor, but gardens were places for enjoyment and contemplation. The English word paradise comes from the ancient Persian word Pairidaeza – meaning a walled space, a garden. The gardens of the Middle East, described in The Arabian Nights, were places of great beauty and splendour where people enjoyed the pleasures of life.
What was the most famous garden?
One of the most famous early gardens was the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. One of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was created around 2600 years ago near the river Euphrates and contained many plants, flowers, fruit trees, stone columns and waterfalls. It was designed so the river could continually irrigate it and as a result was green all year round.
Are gardens artistic?
As gardens have developed over the years, design and beauty have become more and more important. Humans have learnt to control nature and to design gardens precisely, like a work of art or a building. The Gardens of Versailles in France are an excellent example of ‘garden architecture’, everything is symmetrical and even the trees are pruned to fit in with the design.
Carefully planned or not, gardens are still beautiful and relaxing places to visit. On a fine day you might even find a little part of paradise, if you look hard enough…
17)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Aeroplanes and Global Warming |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Mike Rayner | |
Gimme a ticket for an aeroplane,
Ain't got time to take a fast train.
Lonely days are gone, I'm a-goin' home,
'Cause my baby just a-wrote me a letter.
Wayne Carson Thompson The Letter
Have you ever looked out of the window of a passenger plane from 30,000 feet at the vast expanses of empty ocean and uninhabited land, and wondered how people can have any major effect on the Earth? I have. But it is now becoming pretty clear that we are causing a great deal of damage to the natural environment. And the planes which rush us in comfort to destinations around the globe, contribute to one of the biggest environmental problems that we face today – global warming.
For those of us lucky enough to have money to spend, and the free time to spend it in, there are a huge number of fascinating places to explore. The cost of air transport has decreased rapidly over the years, and for many people, especially in rich countries, it is now possible to fly around the world for little more than the contents of our weekly pay packets.
Unfortunately, planes produce far more carbon dioxide (CO2) than any other form of public transport, and CO2 is now known to be a greenhouse gas, a gas which traps the heat of the sun, causing the temperature of the Earth to rise. Scientists predict that in the near future the climate in
As usual, people in the developing world are having to deal with problems created mainly by those of us in developed countries. Beatrice Schell, a spokeswoman for the European Federation for Transport and Environment says that, "One person flying in an airplane for one hour is responsible for the same greenhouse gas emissions as a typical Bangladeshi in a whole year." And every year jet aircraft generate almost as much carbon dioxide as the entire African continent produces.
When you are waiting impatiently in a crowded departure lounge for a delayed flight or trying to find luggage which has gone astray, plane fares may seem unreasonably high, but in reality we are not paying enough for air travel. Under the “polluter pays principle”, where users pay for the bad effects they cause, the damage caused by planes is not being paid for. Aircraft fuel is not taxed on international flights and planes, unlike cars, are not inspected for CO2 emissions. Also, the
So what can be done to solve the problem? Well, although aircraft engine manufacturers are making more efficient engines and researching alternative fuels such as hydrogen, it will be decades before air travel is not damaging to the environment. Governments don’t seem to be taking the problem seriously, so it is up to individual travellers to do what they can to help.
The most obvious way of dealing with the problem is to not travel by plane at all. Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth encourage people to travel by train and plan holidays nearer home. However with prices of flights at an all time low, and exotic destinations more popular than ever, it is hard to persuade British tourists to choose
However there is a way of offsetting the carbon dioxide we produce when we travel by plane. A company called Future Forests, whose supporters include Coldplay and Pink Floyd, offers a service which can relieve the guilty consciences of air travellers. The
Yesterday I returned to
18) When you think of animal farming, cows, sheep, goats, horses, pigs, chickens and ducks probably come to mind.
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on you PC
Most people are aware that nowadays many types of fish are also farmed - in
The Green Iguana
Physical Appearance: Full-grown green iguanas are usually between four and six feet, although they have been known to grow up to seven feet long. This includes the tail, however, which can make up about half the body length and, in addition to its green colour, has black stripes. Green iguanas, not surprisingly, are green in colour, but can be found in many different shades ranging from bright green, to a dull, greyish-green. Their skin is rough, with a set of pointy scales along the iguana's back. Green iguanas have long fingers and claws to help them climb and grasp.
Habitat: Iguanas live in tropical rainforest areas, generally in lower altitudes in areas near water sources, such as rivers or streams. They spend most of their time high in the forest canopy, about 40-50 feet above the ground.
Behaviour: Iguanas are diurnal, meaning that they are awake during the day. They are also cold-blooded, which means they do not produce their own body heat. In other words, if it is cold, the iguana is cold too. So to stay warm, green iguanas bask in the sun, lying on warm rocks as they soak up the sun's heat.
Source: The Wild Ones Animal Index
Iguanas or cattle?
The green iguana, also known as "bamboo chicken" or "chicken of the tree", has been used as a source of food in Central and
Firstly, the iguanas' behaviour does not help their cause. When an iguana feels threatened, its natural reaction is to drop out of a tree and into water below, where it will wait for the threat to pass. But humans are more intelligent than other predators, and will go into the water, where it is easy to catch the iguanas.
Secondly, the best catch for a hunter is a pregnant female. Consequently, the number of female iguanas that are of reproductive age has been greatly reduced.
Added to these factors is the problem of deforestation. In some parts of Central and
If estimates are true that iguanas can yield as much protein per unit area as cattle, then it seems to make good sense to concentrate on the restoration and protection of tropical forests for food and habitat, and farm the native iguanas rather than the intruding cattle.
How to farm iguanas
"The key elements of iguana farming are reproduction in captivity, controlled incubation, and raising hatchlings in captivity. Once the hatchlings are seven months old, they are released into forested areas on farms, where they grow to harvestable size in two additional years.
To create the farms, enclosures are constructed using sheet-metal walls sunk 30 cm into the ground. Inside, the animals sleep in shelters made of bamboo and other vegetation. Each shelter has an adjustable entrance slit through which young lizards can slither, but predators, which are usually larger, cannot. Most enclosures are set on stilts and food is served in the shade underneath. With this system, 20 to 60 young iguanas are kept in a 10 square metre area. The iguana farms also include an artificial nest consisting of a "tunnel" leading to a sand-filled, egg-laying chamber. Both tunnel and chamber are made of predator-safe material and are easily accessible by the farmer.
Artificial nests increase the number of hatched eggs and their survival rate to 90%, versus 50% in the wild. Using food supplements (iguana chow), it is estimated that the population can be maintained at 6 to 10 times the level possible in a rainforest, or around 50 adult iguanas per hectare. Iguana chow is a mixture of broken rice, meat, bone, and fish meal, papayas, mangos, bananas, avocados, as well as a variety of leaves and flowers. Smallholders can erect simple feeding stations and keep them stocked with table scraps or weedy vegetation. This makes for low-cost production before the iguanas reach harvesting size."
Source: Iguana Farming - A Source of Food and a Method of Tropical Forest Preservation
Where are iguanas being farmed?
The pioneer of iguana farming is Dr Dagmar Werner, a German herpetologist, who founded the Pro Iguana Verde Foundation. She is currently working with six Panamanian communities, and is involving others in
The Foundation has set up "
In
And in the La Mosquitia rainforest in
With initiatives like these, we can only hope that the future of iguana farming is assured.
19)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Rainforests rule! |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Claire Powell | |
A world like no other – perhaps this is the best way to describe the world of the rainforest. No rainforest is exactly the same – yet most rainforests are now distributed in the small land area 22.5 degrees north and 22.5 degrees south of the Equator, between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Tropic of Cancer. You can find tropical rainforests in
Despite occupying a relatively small area, rainforests have a colossal role to play in maintaining the world as we know it. Tropical rainforests are home to a rich, colourful variety of medicinal plants, food, birds and animals. Can you believe that a single bush in the Amazon may have more species of ants than the whole of
Rainforests are the lungs of the planet – storing vast quantities of carbon dioxide and producing a significant amount of the world’s oxygen. Rainforests have their own perfect system for ensuring their own survival; the tall trees make a canopy of branches and leaves which protect themselves, smaller plants, and the forest animals from heavy rain, intense dry heat from the sun and strong winds.
Amazingly, the trees grow in such a way that their leaves and branches, although close together, never actually touch those of another tree. Scientists think this is a deliberate tactic to prevent the spread of any tree diseases and make life more difficult for leaf-eating insects like caterpillars. To survive in the forest, animals must climb, jump, fly or glide across the gaps. The ground floor of the forest is not all tangled leaves and bushes, like in films, but is actually fairly clear. It is where leaves decompose into food for the trees and other forest life.
They are not called rainforests for nothing! Rainforests can generate 75% of their own rain. At least 80 inches of rain a year is normal – and in some areas there may be as much as 430 inches of rain annually. This is real rain – your umbrella may protect you in a shower, but it won’t keep you dry if there is a full rainstorm. In just two hours, streams can rise ten to twenty feet. The humidity of large rainforests contributes to the formation of rainclouds that may travel to other countries in need of rain.
Worryingly, rainforests around the world are disappearing at an alarming rate, thanks to deforestation, river pollution, and soil erosion as land is being claimed for agriculture and trees are felled for wood. A few thousand years ago, tropical rainforests covered as much as 12% of the land surface on Earth, but today this has fallen to less than 5.3%.
We can only hope that the world governments work together with environmentalists and businesses to use their environmental knowledge and power to preserve the rainforests – awe-inspiring, beautiful and vital for our existence.
20)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Chris Wilson | |
Recently a competition was held in
Diversity, it seems, is a key word. It is a useless exercise to try and pigeonhole Kenya and Kenyans. They spill over, whichever category you put them into, with their different languages - Gikuyu, Swahili, Luo, religions - Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, tribal and urban traditions, food, music and styles of clothes.
Geography may have much to do with this. Kenya is on the equator and the coast is hot, humid and tropical. Moving inland it rapidly becomes dry and arid. The north east, particularly along the border with Somalia, is desert, inhabited by nomads and camels. In the south is the Masai Mara, vast, open savanna, teeming with game. Just over the border in Tanzania, but floating in the sky and dominating the landscape for hundreds of miles is Kilimanjaro. To the north of Nairobi it becomes higher, more and more rugged and greener until you get to the jagged peak of Mount Kenya, a completely different shape from the famous volcano but also capped in snow. Splitting the country right down the middle is the Rift Valley, that runs from the
What a fantastic, incredible part of the world this is!
One of the best ways to understand a place is to read what writers have to say about it.
Binyavanga Wainaina, winner of the Caine Prize for African writing 2002, tells, with good humour, how astounded he is, when reading literature by Europeans in his country, “by the amount of game that appears for breakfast at their patios and the snakes that drop into baths and cheetah cubs that become family pets. I have seen five or six snakes in my life. I don’t know anyone who has been bitten by one”.*
Karen Blixen or Isak Dinesen, was, of course, the most famous European writer with her novel Out of Africa. Both the book and the film were heavily criticised for over romanticising the colonial way of life. This in reality was not nearly so “noble and dignified” but in fact extremely debauched and sordid, full of racist, small minded people. Nevertheless many loved it, and those who know Kenya know that the beautiful photography was no exaggeration. Some also hold on to that vision of African nobility, dignity and beauty, maintaining that it is not something patronising or elitist but indeed still something worth striving for.
Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s books are set in that same fantastic landscape, yet focus firmly on the people and the characters are as wonderful or nasty as in real life. He is famous for writing in his own language - Gikuyu - and for telling the story of the fight for independence as it really was, not simply heroic black stereotypes against the nasty, oppressive British. The traumatised characters in “A Grain of Wheat” are victims of atrocities by their own people vying with each other for power. His later books, particularly “Petals of Blood”, speak of the post independence slide into corruption, nepotism etc. and he ended up in exile in the
So no, black writers, it seems, do not have to shoo elephants off the veranda or lie in bed listening to lions roaring outside the window. Their preoccupations are entirely different. While whites yearn for vast, empty landscapes, blacks love their kith and kin, their extended families and close knit communities. Whatever this says about their differences
Or is it?
As the population expands the country seems to shrink. It is increasingly difficult to get lost in the vastness of
Dr Richard Leakey, the renowned paleonanthropologist and environmentalist who later became head of Kenya’s Wildlife Department and embarked on a crusade to save its natural resources, particularly the African elephant, came into conflict with all sorts of powerful people and ended up losing his legs in a plane crash that many say was no accident.
A BBC headline recently read “Little to celebrate as
Looking on the bright side, Kenyans have recently played a very important role in both the Sudanese and Somali peace processes with, it seems, some long awaited success.
And there is Wangari Maathi! To her complete surprise she won the Nobel Peace Prize this year for her environmental and human rights work, the first African woman to do so. She is the Deputy Environment Minister and is known as “The Tree Woman” because of her campaign to plant trees. The Green Belt Movement has done much to slow deforestation and so long as Kenyans have people like her perhaps they need not be so pessimistic.
But, then,
*Discovering Home, Binyavanga Wainaina.
21)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Land-locked countries |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Richard Sidaway | |
Is geography important? Here’s a question for you to answer.
What have the following countries got in common:
Quite easy if you can picture them on the globe - they are all islands.
Now how about this question...
What have these five nations got in common? Hungary, Botswana, Kazakhstan, Paraguay and Liechtenstein. A bit more difficult to answer, but of course you’ve already read the title of this article. Yes, they are all landlocked. In other words, in contrast to the first five countries whose coastline forms their border, the second five have no coastline at all. If you are a Hungarian or a Paraguayan, you have to pass through somebody else’s country if you want to go to the beach.
So how do countries become landlocked? If you are Swiss or Nepalese, you have probably never thought things could be any other way.
Take
Then there are countries like
But why does coastline matter so much? Throughout history people have preferred to live near the sea, and not just for the fish. Sea means trade, which means wealth. Think of the great empires of the past based around the
Not having coastline is not so critical if you can get to somebody else’s seaport via a river. In
In central
So what can these countries do to escape the disadvantage of being landlocked? You can’t move mountains or make rivers, but perhaps other means of transport can be improved. The United Nations has its own High Representative to look at ways of improving cooperation from those countries that stand between the landlocked and the sea, most recently at an international meeting in
And what about redrawing the map? Some African intellectuals suggest a second
Geography, it seems, can make a big difference.
22)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| the meaning of tingo |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Chris Rose | |
I recently found a book by the writer Adam Jacot de Boinod called The Meaning Of Tingo. As a native speaker of English, I was a bit confused. I had never heard of this word “tingo”, and was curious about the title of the book.
As I soon found out, even if you are not a native speaker, then going to your dictionary and looking up the word “tingo” will not help. In fact, you probably won’t find the word “tingo” there at all, and not least because of the fact that “tingo” is not an English word. “Tingo”, it seems, is one of very many words which cannot be translated into English – or at least one of those words which are very difficult to try and translate into English, or even into your own native language.
The book The Meaning of Tingo is a kind of dictionary, but perhaps a dictionary you will not find useful in the same way that your usual dictionary is. The Meaning of Tingo is a list of words from languages all over the world which have very specific, not to say very unusual, meanings.
English is a language that has always been omnivorous, taking words from other languages to enrich its own vocabulary. English has taken the words pyjamas from Hindi to describe the loose clothes you may wear when you go to bed, croissant from French to describe a particular kind of sweet bread roll, or catastrophe from Greek to describe a particularly bad event, or angst from German to describe a particular mixture of fear and anger. And these are just a few of the many examples of words that English has made its own.
However, it is interesting to look at words that even a greedy language such as English has not (at least yet) made its own.
Japanese, for example, may have given us manga to describe a particular style of comic book, but the English have not yet adopted the useful expression katahara itai - laughing so much that your stomach hurts. The Japanese, it seems, have many such useful words – another one for example, is bakku-shan - a girl who appears pretty from behind but not from the front. Have you ever wanted to say that in merely one word? Now you can.
As well as Japanese, it seems that German is also a useful language. German often makes “compound words” – one or more words joined together to make a new word. Putzfimmel, for example, is a mania for cleaning while Backpfeifengesicht apparently describes the kind of face that people want to hit.
Jacot de Boinod’s book is not only amusing, but, he claims, shows that way in which a language is inextricably linked to the culture in which it is spoken. Is it really true, then, that in Germany there are a lot of people who have faces which other people want to punch? Or that Japan has more than its share of of bakku-shan? The reader may not at first be convinced by this, but when you read that Hawaiians have 108 words for sweet potato, 65 for fishing nets and 47 for banana (simply because in Hawaii there are indeed 108 different kinds of sweet potato, 65 fishing nets and 47 different types of banana), it makes more sense. Albanians are famous for their moustaches – and indeed the Albanian language contains 27 different words for “moustache”- madh, for example, is a bushy moustache, posht is a moustache hanging down at the ends while a fshes is a long moustache with short hairs. People from Holland and Belgium appear to be more fun-loving. Dutch has a word uitwaaien - “walking in windy weather for fun”, while people in the Netherlands apparently often go to plimpplampplettere. What are they doing? Just think about the sound – they are skimming stones on water.
More evidence of this link between language and culture can be seen in the words which different languages have for jobs which exist only in their cultures. Some of these jobs are pretty unusual: a koshatnik in Russian is a dealer in stolen cats, while Spanish speakers in central America often have to work with an aviador - a government employee who only shows up on payday.
So, what exactly does “tingo” mean then? Well, to find that out, you’ll just have to find the book. No, not really! It's from the Pascuense language of Easter Island, meaning "to borrow objects from a friend's house, one by one, until there's nothing left".
POSTSCRIPT
Some reviewers of the book have said that it contains a number of mistakes. For example, the etymology, or explanation of where words come from. They have also said that many definitions lack explanation, which suggests that his research is really quite superficial. Perhaps most importantly, one reviewer noted that de Boinod writes that the word “papa” is used to mean “father” in 70% of all languages in the world. This seems interesting, but then the reveiwer points out that seeing as there are more than 6 000 langauges in the world (a fact which de Boinod includes), this means that he must have looked at around 4,200 languages – when he says that he looked at only 270 dictionaries!
23)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Martial Arts |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Mike Rayner |
|
|
| ||
|
|
Everybody was kung-fu fighting
Those cats were fast as lightning
In fact it was a little bit frightening
But they fought with expert timing
Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas
Martial arts have never been more popular.
From the graceful, dance like moves of t’ai chi and capoeira to the explosive fighting styles of kung fu and karate, there is a martial art to suit every taste. Rock stars to bus conductors, vicars to politicians - people of all ages and from all walks of life are discovering the physical and mental benefits of practising a martial art.
Music
Rock stars have often used martial arts to spice up their live performances. Elvis, who was a karate black belt, entertained his fans on stage with his karate kicking antics, and Madonna’s recent tour features dance routines heavily influenced by martial arts. Jean Jacques Burnel, the French bass player in British punk band The Stranglers, shared Elvis’ love for karate and often demonstrated his skill to fans. Unfortunately, however, his enthusiasm sometimes got the better of him – in the punk era he was well known for using karate to intimidate rival bands and music journalists.
Health
Many doctors have realised that practising martial arts can replace drug therapy for patients suffering from psychological conditions. The more aggressive styles such as kendo and kick-boxing appear to help people with problems such as depression, while the softer disciplines of aikido and t’ai chi can help people who are anxious or under a lot of stress. Lou Reed, singer and guitarist from the seminal
Politics
There can’t be many jobs more stressful than being a politician. American president Theodore Roosevelt was perhaps the first head of state to be associated with martial arts – he became fascinated by judo after watching a demonstration by a Japanese teacher at the White House, and was the first American to get a judo brown belt. Vladimir Putin, Russian president and ex-KGB official, holds an advanced rank in judo, and has won both junior and senior tournaments in
Difficult jobs
Of course martial arts were originally developed as effective ways of attacking or defending yourself against enemies. It comes as no surprise that soldiers and police forces around the world are trained in fighting arts, but people in other jobs who may often face difficult situations can also benefit from a knowledge of martial arts. Vicars in
So, perhaps it’s time to put on your gi, turn off the video, put down the joystick, and head off to your local sports centre to uncover the joys of martial arts for yourself.
Glossary
antics (n): unusual or bad behaviour that entertains or annoys people.
blockbuster (n): a book, film, etc that is very popular and successful.
discipline (n): a particular subject of study.
dojo (n): a place where people practise martial arts.
enthusiast (n): someone who is very interested in and involved with a particular activity or subject.
gi (n): a special suit worn for doing martial arts.
influence (v): to affect or change how someone or something develops, behaves, or thinks.
intimidate (v): to intentionally frighten someone, especially so that they will do what you want.
litter (v): leave pieces of paper and other waste in public places.
martial art (n): a sport that is a traditional Japanese or Chinese form of fighting or defending yourself.
pepper sth with sth (v): to include a lot of something.
psychological (adj): relating to the human mind and feelings.
rival (n): someone or something that is competing with another person or thing.
samurai (n): a member of a military class of high social rank in the 11th to 19th century in
seminal (adj): containing important new ideas and being very influential on later work.
spice sth up (v): to make something more interesting or exciting.
temperament (n): the part of your character that affects your moods and the way you behave.
therapy (n): the work of treating mental or physical illness without using an operation.
vicar (n): a priest in some Christian churches.
24)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
Peace symbols
The concept of peace is a very important one in cultures all over the world. Think about how we greet people. In some languages, the phrases for greetings contain the word for peace. In some cultures we greet people by shaking hands or with another gesture to show that we are not carrying weapons - that we come in peace. And there are certain symbols which people in very different cutures recognise as representing peace. Let's look at the origins of a few of them.
The dove
The dove has been a symbol of peace and innocence for thousands of years in many different cultures. In ancient Greek mythology it was a symbol of love and the renewal of life. In ancient
There was a tradition in
But it was Pablo Picasso who made the dove a modern symbol of peace when he used it on a poster for the World Peace Congress in 1949.
The rainbow
The rainbow is another ancient and universal symbol, often representing the connection between human beings and their gods. In Greek mythology it was associated with Iris, the goddess who brought messages from the gods on
Mistletoe
This plant was sacred in many cultures, generally representing peace and love. Most people know of the tradition of kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas time, which probably comes from Scandinavian mythology. The goddess Freya's son was killed by an arrow made of mistletoe, so, in honour of him, she declared that it would always be a symbol of peace. It was often hung in doorways as a sign of friendship.
The ancient Druids believed that hanging mistletoe in your doorway protected you from evil spirits. Tribes would stop fighting for a period of time if they found a tree with mistletoe. But you will never see mistletoe in a Christian church - it is banned because of its associations with pagan religion and superstition.
The olive branch
The olive tree has always been a valuable source of food and oil. In Greek mythology, the goddess Athene gave the olive tree to the people of
The ankh
The ankh is an ancient symbol which was adopted by the hippie movement in the 1960s to represent peace and love. It was found in many Asian cultures, but is generally associated with ancient
================================================================
25)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Peacekeeping |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Richard Sidaway | |
What is it?
Wherever there is conflict in the world and enemies have agreed to let a third party or neutral force come in to try and maintain the peace, it is usually the familiar blue helmets of the United Nations that we see on the scene.
The actual definition of peacekeeping is a bit unclear and it was never written into the original UN Charter, but it goes something like 'using military personnel from different countries under the command of the UN to control and resolve armed conflict either between or within states’. Peacekeeping is neither just finding out the facts nor full-scale military intervention, but something in between.
Over the last ten years it has become clear that for peacekeeping to work certain things must already be in place – the conflict must actually have finished and there must be a genuine desire for peace on both sides. The peacekeeping force must have clear international support and a mandate that shows it is strictly neutral; and it needs adequate resources to do the job.
How long has it been going on?
There have been 56 UN peacekeeping operations in total since 1948, although over 30 of those have happened since 1990.
Two of these operations have in fact never stopped since 1948: the interventions in the Arab/Israeli conflict following the foundation of the state of
Another that has been going on for over forty years is on the divided
Are all UN peacekeeping missions similar?
There are different types of intervention, some more discrete than others:
Observation/monitoring only, for example of Cuban troops leaving
Assisting a country to independence, for example in
Armed intervention, for example in the
Who are the peacekeepers?
They are professional soldiers, civilian police and military observers from any member country of the UN. These countries also provide supplies, transportation, telecommunications, and administrative help, amongst other things.
Who pays?
These forces are paid for by all UN member countries. The budget is currently $2.82 billion, although they have been a bit behind in their payments recently- $2.3 billion is still owing!
What do they actually do?
The typical image of a peacekeeper is a soldier sitting in a watchtower with a pair of binoculars keeping an eye on a border, but they also organise the clearing of mines, supervise elections, monitor human rights and oversee the return of refugees to their homes.
It is a risky occupation and sometimes they have to resort to force to defend themselves, recently for example in
Give me some success stories
UN peacekeeping missions have intervened very successfully following the end of civil wars such as in El Salvador 1991-95, Mozambique 1992-94 and Cambodia 1991-93 where they verified agreements on ceasefires, elections, land and electoral reform, organised the demobilization of soldiers and helped create new police forces.
In
Didn’t peacekeeping get a bad name in the 1990s?
Four UN missions to
The future
Now that the Cold War is over and small localised wars break out ever more frequently, there have been calls for the establishment of a UN Rapid Response force, so that it doesn’t take the international community six months to assemble a peacekeeping mission, by which time it is often too late.
The attack on UN headquarters in
Nevertheless, most people agree that the world still needs some kind of neutral body, backed by force if necessary, for helping former enemies make the transition from war to peace.
=================================================================
26)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| | Philosophy |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Julie Bray | |
“We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”
(Shakespeare)
Does this sentence make you think? What does it make you think about? Shakespeare was a dreamer, and some say he was a philosopher too. In this sentence he tells us that our lives are short but we can think up big and important ideas in that short time.
The two Greek words – “philo”, which means love and “sophia”, which means wisdom are the beginnings of the word we use today; Philosophy, the love of wisdom.
Most people have a philosophy on life. Everybody has an idea of what is right and what is wrong, and why things are the way they are, and who they are and who to trust. A lot of people believe somebody else’s philosophy. That person may be a religious or political leader, or anybody you look up to. Some people have their own philosophy on life which might be a mixture of theories. Others are philosophers; people who want to know the truth about life for themselves and spend their time studying, thinking and asking questions.
One of the earliest Eastern philosophies was Taoism, which came from
The first western philosophers lived in
Today philosophers are still encouraging people to think. Schools in some countries teach philosophy to children. Reading books written by old philosophers can be difficult because the language is from the past. So stories are used to help schoolchildren make their own decisions about what is right and wrong and think about the best way to solve problems.
Why do we need philosophy? There are plenty of people who think that killing animals is cruel, but eating animals is fine. If you are one of these people, you should ask yourself why. Why is killing animals cruel? Why is it okay to eat animals? You might find that the answer to each question is very different and you could have an argument by yourself using your own ideas! Go on and argue - you will understand more about what you believe. You will begin to understand the subject more deeply. And this helps you to feel comfortable with it. And you might change something or you might not. When we ask ourselves questions, we start to understand ourselves and our lives, and it’s up to us to make changes or not. If the ideas in your head agree, this means you have integrity. What you say and what you do are the same. Everyone respects someone who has integrity!
By thinking and questioning, we can understand more and maybe prevent problems caused by misunderstanding. But philosophy can also cause problems and conflict when people don’t agree. When one group of people choose one philosophy to believe and another group of people choose a different philosophy, when they need to think or make a decision together, they start trying to change each other instead of working together on bigger ideas about life.
So when you have some spare time, ask yourself the following philosophical questions:
Does the world own us or do we own the world?
Which is more important, humans or stars?
If a tree falls where nobody can hear it, does it make a sound?
And the Zen Buddist riddle: What is the sound of one hand clapping?
==================================================================
27)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Pirates and piracy |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Paul Millard | |
Piracy - the act of robbery from ships at sea - has existed for thousands of years. It was written about by the ancient Greeks and has been written about ever since. As long as some people have moved valuable cargo in ships, other people have wanted to rob them.
However, to most people in
Many of these ideas and images come from books, such as Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’, Defoe’s ‘King of Pyrates’ and Barrie’s ‘Peter Pan’. As you may have noticed, pirates are well-represented in films and cartoons, from Errol Flynn to Walt Disney right up to the Curse of the Black Pearl.
Why is this era of piracy written about so much in English literature? One obvious reason is that the pirates were British and American. While many stories show them to be cruel robbers and killers, another view of piracy is commonly depicted, in which the pirates are much more heroic and adventurous. There are a number of reasons for this. One is that rebellious outlaws are often attractive figures, especially if they are from another time in history. More importantly, many pirates were acting in the national interest and became heroes for this. It was quite common for governments to give permission for pirates to attack ships belonging to enemy nations. These pirates were known as ‘privateers’.
The British privateers in the
Similarly, pirates often have a heroic image in the
There is another reason why pirates have a positive image in popular history. Most pirate ships were surprisingly egalitarian and democratic. It was normal for the captain to be elected and most issues were decided by a vote. The stolen goods were fairly divided amongst the crew members. Many pirates were men who had escaped from the harder discipline of the merchant ships and the navy. In their escape from authority, they created a model of a more just and fair society, many years ahead of the revolutions in
To many of us, pirates are an interesting and colourful part of history, useful as entertainment but not much else. However, modern piracy is alive and well and increasing every year. In 2002, there were 370 incidences of piracy world-wide. These days, the
Some acts of piracy are opportunistic, simple affairs – robbers boarding a ship that is waiting in a port, hoping to take money and anything else that can be easily carried. Others use advanced technology and are very organised. Sometimes, the pirates take the valuables from a ship and sometimes they take the entire ship. This is especially true if the cargo is a valuable one that can easily be transferred to another ship, such as oil or gas. Very often, a stolen ship can be repainted, renamed and reused elsewhere. Operations of this size are difficult to hide and money is often paid to government officials to get their help and cooperation. Sometimes, government employees are the pirates – one victim of Asian piracy in the 1990s complained that his attackers appeared to be members of the Navy that was supposed to protect him.
Protecting ships is difficult. Most ships have fewer sailors than they did in the past, and they no longer carry weapons. One defence mechanism now on the market is an electric fence that deters attackers with a 9,000 volt shock. Whether it works or not, it is too late for the fourteen crew of one Indonesian vessel. On
Do you have a romantic image of piracy or do you think pirates are just common criminals? Are there any famous pirates from your country?
28)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| | The Post |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by John Russell | |
How did the postal service begin?
For as long as humans have existed there has been a need to keep in touch, to transfer information between people in different places. This could have been news about important events, military information, or families staying in contact. Before the invention of writing, spoken - oral messages were carried from one person to another or between towns. Writing made it much easier to send longer messages; however, it was still difficult to make sure that your message got to the right place.
Who organised the first delivery system?
The Romans created an organised system of mail delivery, called Cursus Publicus. This was used by the Emperor and officials to transfer information throughout the Empire. Staging posts and a relay system with horses and carriages meant that messages could move quickly, by using many riders instead of one. It was very important for law and order, business, and military reasons that good communication systems existed. However, the Romans were not (as many people think) the first to realise this. In 2000 BC the Egyptians used a similar messenger system to keep people informed about the laws in the country. The Chinese and Persian empires also used systems of horses and riders more than 500 years before the Romans.
What came after the Romans?
After the Roman postal service disappeared, other systems were created, but never again as large as the Roman’s. Rulers of countries or regions (such as Charlemagne) and even the church created their own official mail network. It was also very important for business between countries that good communication existed; international traders and many capital cities set up unofficial postal links. There was one such link between
Who could use the post?
Until the mid 1600's in
How was it paid for?
Before the invention of the postage stamp, letters were 'franked.' This meant that it was marked on the letter that delivery had been paid for. This could have been either written or stamped. A post-mark was also stamped on the letter. Invented in 1660 in England, this was a mark that showed where and when the letter had been posted. It was used to see how long it took to deliver the letter - to make sure the service was reliable.
When were stamps invented?
A number of countries claim to have invented the idea of stamps - placing a piece of paper on the letter showing that delivery had been paid for. But the first widely available stamp was the Penny Blank, introduced in Britain by a man called Rowland Hill in 1840. It was a black stamp with a white picture of the Queen’s head on it. Hill changed the idea of payment from distance to weight, which meant you paid for how heavy your letter was, not how far it travelled. The year before its introduction about 75 million letters had been posted in Britain, yet only 10 years later over 340 million letters were sent using stamps. It was a very important invention and completely changed the postal system. To buy a first-edition of this stamp today can cost over £1000!
Who decides international prices?
Until the 1870's it was still very expensive to send mail to other countries. The Universal Postal Union was created in 1874 to help countries work together and set reasonable prices for international mail prices. It cannot tell individual countries how much to charge, but it encourages co-operation. Its main aim is to make sure that "all people have affordable and reliable access to postal services."
What is snail mail?
With the creation of airmail, it's now cheap and quick to send letters to most parts of the world. Unfortunately, the growth of new technology (The Internet, emails, fax machines) means that traditional postal services are becoming less popular. Many people now call traditional post “snail mail”, because it does not have the speed of an email or a text message. Remember though, it has been here for over 2000 years, and is still a way of delivering a personal message. Why don't you write a letter to someone today?
Glossary
affordable (adj): not expensive.
carriage (n): a vehicle with four wheels, which is usually pulled by horses and was used especially in the past.
deliver (v): to take goods, letters, parcels etc. to people's houses or places of work.
first edition (n): an original version of something. E.g. a book / painting.
keep in touch (idiom): If you are in touch with someone, your knowledge about him or her is recent.
network (n): a large system consisting of many similar parts that are connected together.
official (adj) agreed to or arranged by people in positions of authority.
reliable (adj): something or someone that is reliable can be trusted or believed because they work or behave well in the way you expect.
relay (n): a group of people who continue an activity that others from the same team or organization have been doing previously.
rider (n): a person who travels along on a horse.
staging posts (n): a place where stops are regularly made on long journeys.
stamp (v): putting a mark on an object either by printing on it or pushing into it.
state (n): a country or its government.
trader (n): a person who buys and sells things.
unofficial (adj): opposite of official (see above)
29)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Puppets |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Linda Baxter | |
Watch a group of children playing with their toys. At first they might be happy to put the plastic animals in their cages at the zoo and take them out again, or dress the dolls in different clothes, but after a while things get a bit boring. So the toys will be moved across the floor as if they had real legs, the animals will start to speak to each other and the dolls will pay visits to each other's houses and talk about what they've been doing today, all in slightly different voices of course. It seems that the impulse to make inanimate figures move and talk is a very natural one, and, of course, that's exactly what puppets are all about. And that's probably why they've existed for thousands of years - and are known to children and adults all over the world.
The basic types
Shadow puppets are one-dimensional silhouettes which move against a light background so that they can be clearly seen by the audience. They usually have moveable arms and legs which the puppeteer controls. These ancient puppets still survive in some parts of the world, for example, the leather puppets of
Rod puppets are three-dimensional figures controlled by pieces of wood or bamboo attached to different parts of their bodies. The simplest form, and one of the earliest, is just a head on a stick - an early form of doll. But more sophisticated versions have many moveable body parts and can be moved in a very realistic way. Once again, Java has probably the most famous rod puppets in the world - the Wayang Golek.
As the name suggests, string puppets (or marionettes) are three dimensional figures controlled by strings. The standard puppet has strings attached to its arms, legs, shoulders, back and head. These are attached to a cross of wood which the puppeteer holds in one hand while moving individual strings with the other. Different versions of string puppets are found all over the world.
Hand puppets (also known as glove puppets) are three-dimensional figures which are usually made of cloth and worn on the puppeteer's hand or arm. They are probably the most common form of puppet all over the world because they are easy to make and to manipulate. The famous Punch and Judy puppets, which every British adult remembers from childhood days at the seaside, are glove puppets.
How they developed
Very little is known about the origins of puppets. Puppets have been found in ancient Egyptian and Chinese sites and puppets were mentioned by Plato and Aristotle but we have no details about how they were used. All we know is that different cultures had them and they developed in different ways.
The earliest puppets were probably simple shadow puppets. Later, when rods were added to give more control to the silhouettes, the three-dimensional rod puppets developed and then the types that we know today.
In
Punch and Judy arrived at this time from
Puppets today
Nowadays in
And of course, on a lighter note, let's not forget the new generations of puppets that television has brought us through the years, from the old classics like Thunderbirds, to Kermit and Miss Piggy of the Muppets, and the satire of Spitting Image. It really does seem that puppets are not just for children.
30)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Records |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Craig Duncan | |
Paul Hunn of north
When the world-famous Guinness Book of Records was first published in 1955, its intended purpose was to solve arguments about sporting statistics. Sports still figure highly in the modern version of the book, but each year more and more surreal achievements edge their way in. The farthest distance a strand of spaghetti can be fired out of a man’s nose? 19 centimetres. The largest number of venomous cobras kissed consecutively by one man? 11.
We are all familiar with inspiring stories about a young athlete who discovers a sport that he or she loves, trains hard, and rises through the ranks of professional competition to become a world-class sports star. Anything can trigger off an interest. British Olympic cyclist Jason Queally had never even considered competing professionally until a leisurely afternoon’s cycling with his girlfriend’s brother-in-law changed his mind. Five years and a lot of training later, he won gold and silver medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Are the holders of the more bizarre records motivated in the same way? Most record-holders seem to thinks so. Ken Blackburn, who holds the world record for keeping a paper aeroplane in the air, describes his early interest in the field:
“I have always liked airplanes. At about 10 years old I discovered some paper airplane books with good flying planes. I began trying to design my own paper airplanes based on the aerodynamic principles in books about real airplanes. At 15 my parents bought me a Guinness book. The time aloft record was 15.0 seconds. My planes were close, so I had a goal.”
As a college student Ken finally achieved his goal, recognition as the world’s most successful paper plane-maker. Since then he has broken his own world record several times. Gordon Cates, whose record-breaking achievement is having kissed the heads of 11 deadly cobras in a row, is a professional snake-handler whose ability to read snakes’ body language gave him the courage to attempt this dangerous feat. Kevin Cole, the world’s most talented man in the field of firing spaghetti out of his own nose, started with an interest in firing noodles out of his nose for fun, and slowly worked his way up to full-sized spaghetti!
Some might argue that a lot of these records are pointless. But is there really any difference between being the most successful athlete and being the most successful paper plane-builder? Some records, especially sporting records, are widely viewed as being of great importance, even though they don’t necessarily add anything to humanity’s lot other than providing us with entertainment. More people are interested in, say, athletics than in cobra-kissing, but does that make an athletic record-breaker more important?
Everyone likes to have their achievements recognised, and there is no greater recognition than being named as the best in the world in your chosen field. Perhaps you’re reading this and thinking about a special talent of your own that you’d like to be well-known for. Or perhaps you’re thinking that you could fire a strand of spaghetti out of your nose for a much longer distance than 19 centimetres! Whatever your talent, there’s a high chance that someone holds the world record for it. With the right amounts of skill and practice, perhaps the next world record-holder could be you? Personally, I hope to beat the record currently held by Hendrikje Van Andel-Schipper– at 114 years old, she’s the oldest person alive!
31)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Refugees |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Claire Powell and Dave Collett | |
What is a Refugee?
A refugee, defined by the United Nations, is a person who is unable or unwilling to return to their country because of a well-founded fear of persecution based on their race, religion, nationality, political opinion or because they belong to a particular social group.
Why Do They Come?
Most refugees flee their country to escape armed conflict. They often leave with their families and apply for asylum in another country. Many of them do not want to leave their own country but have no choice. The journeys they undertake to reach a safe place may be almost as risky as staying in their own country. They would do anything to escape their suffering; crossing deserts, mountains, seas and rivers, sometimes using dangerous means of transport. They also hide in parts of ships that are too cramped, too hot and too smelly for anyone to check. Many never arrive.
World Refugee Day
On the 20th June each year people celebrate World Refugee Day. An important part of this celebration is the award given to a person or group who excels in helping refugee causes.
To Help or Not To Help?
There are an estimated 14 million refugees and asylum seekers in the world. Some countries in the world, especially the rich, are adamant against allowing too many refugees coming into their country. One worry is that there may be too many of them seeking asylum therefore causing a great problem for these developed countries. Their next worry is resources. These refugees may fill their hospitals, their schools, take over their jobs as well as abusing their social welfare system. At the end of the day, some fear there could be no more resources left for the people of these developed nations. Another worry is the thought that the refugees might not be genuine. Also, the fact that the country they flee to is culturally different to their own makes the citizens of these developed nations feel that their culture is being stolen from them.
Criminal activity seems to be a growing concern. People worry that asylum seekers who arrive penniless and without any documents might be criminals or involved in acts of terrorism. In many countries, new anti-terrorism laws have made migration legislation much stricter. Increasingly, governments are locking asylum seekers in detention centres regardless of their status. Unfortunately, this causes further criminalisation as genuine asylum seekers resist what they see as injustice. However, protests and riots lead to criminal charges and prison sentences.
These negative assumptions are not true. First of all, numbers indicate that
Perhaps politicians should remind themselves of the fact that, whether they are dealing with genuine asylum seekers or economic migrants, they are dealing with human beings, not numbers, and the people should be treated humanely.
Glossary
absurd (adj): ridiculous or unreasonable.
adamant (adj): impossible to persuade, or unwilling to change an opinion or decision.
armed conflict (n): an active disagreement between people with opposing opinions or principles where weapons are used in the disagreement.
assumption (n): something that you accept as true without question or proof.
asylum (n): protection or safety, especially that given by a government to foreigners who have been forced to leave their own countries for political reasons.
asylum seeker (n): someone who leaves their own country for their safety, often for political reasons or because of war, and who travels to another country hoping that the government will protect them and allow them to live there.
backbone (n): the part of something that provides strength and support.
cramped (adj): not having enough space.
detention centre (n): a place where people who have entered a country without the necessary documents can be kept for short periods of time.
influx (n): the arrival of a large number of people or things at the same time.
legislation (n): a law or set of laws suggested by a government and made official by a parliament.
minority (n): a national or racial group living in a country or area which contains a larger group of people of a different race or nationality.
persecution (n): from the verb persecute (v): to treat someone unfairly or cruelly over a long period of time because of their race, religion, or political beliefs or to annoy someone by refusing to leave them alone.
status (n): an official position, especially in a social group.
swamped (adj): If something swamps a person, system or place, they receive more of it than they can easily deal with.
well-founded (adj): based on facts.
32)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Be your own investigative journalist |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by John Kuti |
|
|
| ||
| |
News in the age of information
We are often told that the age of the “information economy” has arrived. The idea is that intellectual work is becoming a more important source of wealth than manufacturing. There are already too many factories for the number of people who want to buy stuff, so the winners in the marketplace need to have a lead in terms of fashion, or technology to beat the competition. You can easily see this process at work in important industries like cars and clothing and computers where big companies prefer to concentrate on promoting their brand and let subcontractors do the less profitable work of manufacturing the products.
But there is a problem with information as an organising principle in society. It only counts if people pay attention to it. Together with inventors and designers, the information economy needs Public Relations executives to make sure customers are getting the right message. So, faced with the increasing claims on our attention, organisations in other spheres of life have to do more to get their share of it too. So PR people may work for politicians (then we call them “spin doctors”) or they may work for artists (then we call them “publicists” or “pluggers”.) A lot of our news is actually compiled from press releases and reports of events deliberately staged for journalists. Journalists spend their time, not investigating, but passing on the words of a spokesperson, publicist or other professional propagandist.
Quoting from Evelyn Waugh
The manipulation of news is most clearly visible in times of war. A BBC journalist speaking about the present war in
Don’t believe everything you read in the papers
The best joke in Scoop is about the newspaper’s owner, Lord Copper. The editors can never disagree with him. When he’s right about something they answer “definitely”, and when he’s wrong they say “up to a point, Lord Copper.” It seems reasonable to suppose that, in the real world, the opinions of such powerful tycoons still influence the journalists and editors who work for them.
Info-tainment
In countries where the news is not officially controlled, it is likely to be provided by commercial organisations who depend on advertising. The news has to attract viewers and maintain its audience ratings. I suspect that some stories get air-time just because there happen to be exciting pictures to show. In
Alternative reporters
There is an argument that with spreading access to the internet and cheap technology for recording sound and images we will all be able to find exactly the information we want. People around the world will be able to publish their own eye-witness accounts and compete with the established news-gatherers on something like equal terms.
I think this is true, up to a point. But what it will mean also is that we’ll be subjected to a still greater amount of nonsense and lies. Any web log may contain the scoop of the year, or equally, a fabricated story that you will never be able to check.
Have you ever wished you were better informed?
Maybe the time has come to do something about it, and I don’t just mean changing your choice of TV channel or newspaper. In a world where everyone wants you to listen to their version, you only have two choices: switch off altogether or start looking for sources you can trust. The investigative journalist of the future is everyone who wants to know the truth.
Glossary
armed with (adj): equipped with, carrying.
audience ratings (n): the measure of the number of people who watch or listen to a programme on TV or radio.
claim (n): demand, asking for something that you think you have a right to.
compile (v): to put together.
definitely (adv): certainly, of course.
eye-witness (n): a person who sees something happening with their own eyes.
fabricated (adj): invented, untrue, made-up.
news-gatherer (n): a person or organisation that collects news information.
scoop (n): an exclusive story that only one journalist knows about.
source (n): the origin, the place where something comes from.
subcontractors (n): people who carry out part of a job for the person who sells the finished product.
tycoon (n): a successful business person who owns a number of different companies.
web log (n): a diary which is regularly published on the internet. Often shortened to “blog”.
33)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Royalty |
|
|
|
|
| Everything you never needed to know about some of the Kings of |
ALFRED THE GREAT, King of
Actually he was only really King of Essex, Kent and
EDGAR, King of England (944-75)
The younger son of King Edmund and great-grandson of Alfred the Great, King Edgar was reprimanded by Archbishop Dunstan for seducing a nun.
EADRED, King of England (reigned 946-955)
Little is known of King Eadred save that he died of a fatal quinsy (a disease of the throat in AD 955).
ETHELRED II, King of England (c. 968-1016)
Son of Edgar by his second wife Aelfthryth, his baptism was marked by him urinating in the font. It gives the wrong impression to call him Ethelred the Unready. He was called Rede-less from his inability to recognise good rede, or counsel.
CANUTE, King of England (c. 994-1035)
The son of Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark, Canute claimed the English throne at the age of 19 on Sweyn's death. He is remembered chiefly for his attempt to hold back the waves. In his reign the penalty for an adulteress was to forfeit "both nose and ears".
EDWARD THE CONFESSOR, King of
Son of Ethelred the Unready and brother of Hardicanute, who invited him
HAROLD II, King of the English (c. 1026-66)
Brother-in-law of Edward the Confessor, no relation of Harold I, known as Harold the Harefoot. After the battle of
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, King of England (1027-1087)
He was an illegitimate child. His wife, Queen Matilda, was only 4 ft. 2 in. in height, making her the shortest monarch
WILLIAM II, King of
William Rufus (or the Red King), like his predecessor and father William the Conqueror, met his end in an accident. Out hunting with his friend Walter Tyrrel, the King's last words, on spotting a deer, were: "Shoot, Walter, shoot; as if it were the devil". Walter shot, but the arrow ricocheted off a tree and killed the King.
HENRY I, King of
Third surviving son of William the Conqueror and the only one to have been born in
HENRY II, King of
Son of Geoffrey of
RICHARD I, King of England (1157-99)
Affectionately known as Coeur de Lion, the Lionheart, Richard I is the nearest thing
Source: all information from The Ultimate Irrelevant Encyclopaedia by Bill Hartson & Jill Dawson.
34)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Sea monsters |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Linda Baxter |
|
| Question: What animal is over 30 feet long, has a big head, enormous eyes, a mane like a lion, a long neck, a body like a snake and lots of arms like an octopus? |
But sailors have been telling stories about giant creatures of the sea for hundreds of years. The monsters that sailors and fishermen describe are all slightly different but it's often an animal like a giant snake, at least 30 feet long, with an enormous head and neck. It sometimes actually attacks the ship. Some of these sea monsters turned out to be big pieces of seaweed or wood, but other stories are not so easy to explain. So what can these monsters be?
They could be sharks
There is an unusual type of shark that is shaped like an eel. It has a frill around its neck, which could look like a lion's mane. But the biggest one ever caught was only 25 feet long. Another type of shark, the 'basking shark', can grow to about 40 feet in length. In the 1970s a Japanese fishing boat caught an enormous dead 'monster' with a long neck. Scientists tested some small pieces of the animal and discovered that it was a basking shark. When these sharks die, parts of them rot very quickly, which gives them a very strange shape. But this doesn't explain stories about living, moving sea monsters.
They could be just very big snakes
The biggest snake in the world is the anaconda. One was found in the 1940s measuring 35 feet but there are no photographs to prove it. South American Indians tell stories of even bigger ones. The problem with this theory is that the anaconda is native to South America and can't survive in cold water.
They could be giant squid
This is an interesting theory. Scientists all accept that the giant squid really exists but we don't see them very often because they live in deep, cold water. They can be up to 50 feet in length and have the biggest eyes in the animal kingdom - over one-foot in diameter. And there are reports of much bigger ones too. They have a strong mouth like a bird's beak that can cut through steel cables and five pairs of arms, or tentacles. One pair is longer and thinner and is used to catch food. People have seen giant squid attacking whales for food. In the 1960s some Russian sailors reported watching a fight between a whale and a giant squid. Both animals died; the whale was found dead with the squid's arms wrapped around its neck, and the squid's head was found in the whale's stomach. There are also reports of giant squid attacking ships, maybe thinking that they were whales. So stories of giant sea snakes wrapped around ships could actually be one or two arms of a giant squid.
They could be giant octopuses
These creatures also exist. There are varieties of octopus with bodies as big as 23 feet around. But there are also stories that there may be an unknown variety that grows much, much bigger. An enormous animal was found dead and rotting on a beach in Florida in the 1890s. Parts of it seemed to be huge arms - over 30 feet long. Scientists tested a small part of the body but couldn't agree whether it was a whale or an octopus. The giant octopus has a strong mouth like the giant squid, but only has eight arms. They live at the bottom of the sea and use their arms to move around over the rocks. This explains why we don't see them very often.
They could be ancient sea animals, which have survived from the time of the dinosaurs
We know that strange animals lived in the sea during pre-historic times and many of them were very big indeed. They didn't look like fish and they had to come up to the surface of the water to breathe air. Perhaps when the dinosaurs died out, these sea creatures survived and have lived in the oceans ever since. Is that possible? Well maybe it is. In 1938 a strange fish was caught in the Indian Ocean. Scientists eventually identified it as a coelacanth (pronounced 'seel-a-kanth') which everyone thought had died out over 70 million years ago. And another type of coelacanth was found in the 1990s in South East Asia.
So, do any of these explanations convince you? Or do you think that deep down at the bottom of the sea, where we have never explored, there are strange creatures that are still completely unknown to science?
35)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Slavery |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by John Russell |
|
| No one shall be held in slavery or servitude. Article 4; Universal Declaration of Human Rights.(The United Nations) |
What does slavery mean?
Slavery is the idea that a human is someone’s property, that he/she can be bought, sold and owned; and forced to work without being paid. This concept has been around for thousands of years and all major civilizations used slaves at some point. They were used in many different positions, such as; labourers, soldiers, servants, farmers. Although the word slavery makes us think of the transatlantic slave trade (from
Is it right to buy and sell people?
In the past there were different concepts about human-rights and what was moral or immoral. It is only in the last 300 years that these ideas have begun to change. Most people accepted that types of people were born to be slaves; or that if you won a war you could sell your captured enemies. The Koran and the Bible both mention slavery as a fact, without criticizing it.
The life of a slave, although difficult, was not always the end of a person’s life. It was possible for a slave to buy his freedom, for a slave soldier to become a general, or for a freed slave to become an important member of society. The Transatlantic Slave Trade ended this possibility.
What was the Transatlantic Slave Trade?
Slavery was as common in
Slaves in this system had no opportunity for advancement or release; even if they were freed they had few legal rights. In the past owning slaves in many countries had been a status symbol, and owners were usually fair. In this new system, profit was the most important aspect. As a result, conditions of work and living were also very tough. Millions died because of mistreatment and difficult working conditions. Some African slave traders, learning of these conditions, started to oppose the trade.
When did people’s ideas begin to change?
A number of African countries (such as the
In the
What were the ideas behind abolition?
In the 19th Century, newer political ideals of freedom and equality were anti-slavery. It is ironic that the two countries at the time associated with freedom and equality;
Dr. David Livingstone was the most famous British missionary in
Does slavery still exist?
Legally,
Glossary
abolish (v): to officially end something, especially a law or system.
advancement (n): progress.
capture (v): to catch someone and make them your prisoner.
colony (n): a country or area controlled in an official, political way by a more powerful country.
debt (n): an amount of money that you owe someone.
export (v): to send goods to another country in order to sell them there.
free (v): to allow someone to leave a prison or place where they have been kept.
immoral (adj): opposite of moral.
labourer (n): a worker who uses a lot of physical effort in their job.
missionaries (n): someone who travels to another country to teach people about the Christian religion.
mistreat (v): to treat a person or animal badly, cruelly or unfairly.
moral (adj): behaving in a way that most people think is correct and honest.
plantation (n): an area of land in a hot country where a crop is grown.
prohibit (v): to officially forbid something.
push (v): make someone do something that they do not want to do.
Quaker (n): a member of a Christian group called the Society of Friends.
servitude (n): the state of being under the control of someone else and of having no freedom.
trader (n): a person who buys and sells things.
transatlantic (adj): crossing the
36)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Solar power |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Richard Sidaway |
|
| Which form of energy is free during the day, produces no dangerous waste products and will be available for the next 4 billion years? Solar power, of course. |
Here are just some of the things you can do with it, with a bit of simple technology
Cooking
Get a metal box and put some mirrors and a pot inside. Hey presto, you’ve got an oven! The mirrors focus the sunlight onto the pot to cook the food. The temperature can go to at least 200ºC. Somebody first invented a solar oven in
Heating water
This is the most common use of solar energy at the moment. It works like this. A system of tubes heats up in contact with sunlight. The tubes go into a tank with water in it. A few hours sunshine will give most houses enough hot water for a whole day. Swimming pools can be heated this way, too.
Lighting
Many shops now sell small lights which collect the sun’s energy during the day using a small solar panel. At night they can illuminate your garden. The lights on a mobile phone work on a similar principle. Recently, a university student used this idea in a common women’s accessory- she invented the solar-powered handbag. When you open it, a light comes on. Now it is much easier to look for your door key when you get home at night.
Operating small devices
If you put a small photovoltaic cell on top of a parking meter, an emergency telephone or a calculator, there is no need to be near an electricity supply. Photovoltaic cells are also used to operate satellites in space. There is a problem- they are expensive because they are made from silicon.
Keeping things cool
Solar-powered refrigerators are now available on the market. They are useful in places where there is no conventional electricity supply. In the mountains of
Driving
Every two years, teams of car designers try to cross
Recharging your batteries
If you’ve got a laptop computer, a mobile phone or a portable music player and you can’t find an electric socket, don’t worry. There are now solar panels that fold up and go in a small bag so that you can carry them around with you. They only weigh 250 grams.
Making buildings self-sufficient
Large solar panels are becoming common on the sides or tops of buildings to provide electricity for the people working inside. In Britain, there’s an office block in Manchester which is covered in them. In Greece, twenty per cent of houses have them.
Providing electricity to the masses
In the middle of Australia they have nearly finished the construction of a huge chimney. It will make enormous amounts of electricity. It’s called a solar tower, it’s about 1,000m tall, and it works by sucking hot air upwards. The air has enough force to drive 32 large turbines. This will create power for about 200,000 homes.
Building your house the right way round
The easiest way of using the sun’s energy is to make your house face south. Then you make sure that the rooms on that side are the ones where you spend the most time, like the kitchen or living room. It also helps to put lots of windows on this side of the building. In the winter they will catch the maximum amount of sunlight.
37)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Surfing |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Nik Peachey |
|
| "I've spent most of my entire life surfing, the rest I've wasted." (Anonymous) |
It seems that the oceans of the world have become many things to many different people. For some the ocean is a source of food and income, for others a source of inspiration and fascination, for some a beautiful garden with hidden depths to explore and for others a dumping ground for their toxic waste, but of all people the ones that probably appreciate, admire and perhaps even understand the changing landscape of the ocean best are surfers.
Surfing, which is thought to have originated among the Polynesian peoples of the
Nowadays the hierarchy between surfers is determined more by their courage and none are more courageous than the surfers who brave the jaws of
The idea of surfing, however, with its images of sun-tanned youths and tropical beaches, has always seemed to me somehow at odds with the weather and culture of the
38)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Technophobia |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Katherine Bilsborough | |
Technophobia – What?
Technophobe: Someone who does not like, trust, or want to use technology, especially computers. (Macmillan English Dictionary)
Technophobia is not a new term and technophobes have existed since the Industrial Revolution and probably for a lot longer in some shape or form. Today we are living in the Age of Technology. Things that were once deemed Science Fiction are becoming a reality. We either accept these changes and move with the times or we resist and become technophobes.
Technophobia - Why?
The reality is much simpler than saying that technophobes fear technological advance. Technophobes are anxious because the environment in which they live and work is changing. Most phobias are expressed by a strong physical reaction. People who are claustrophobic suffer palpitations and anxiety attacks when they are enclosed in a small area. An agarophobic suffers in a similar way if they are exposed to the great outdoors. Technophobes, on the other hand, experience milder symptoms. They suffer feelings of self doubt and anxiety. They often feel insecure and obsolete. Some worry that they will lose their job because they cannot keep up with the times. In more extreme cases, technophobes convince themselves that technology will take over the world or that humans will be controlled by computers and robots. At other times they are afraid that if they press the wrong button on their keyboard, the computer will explode.
Technophobia - Who?
In most cases technophobes belong to older generations who were not brought up playing with computer games and mobile phones. They have never sent a text message or heard of an i-pod. Not only do they not possess a DVD, they still have not worked out how to use their VHS. These examples seem to validate the old saying; “You can’t teach a dog old tricks”. It is understandable that technophobia exists. Experts in the field of technology are becoming younger and younger. Being taught by somebody who is young enough to be your grandson goes against the laws of nature. Traditionally information and knowledge has been passed down from older generations to younger generations. Young people were taught to respect their elders in part because of the knowledge they possess. If this system is turned upside down, then what happens to the respect for our elders?
Technophobia - The answer
If ignorance is, in most cases, the cause of technophobia, then it follows that knowledge and learning is the way to rectify the situation. What technophobes need is information. Simple computer classes often prove highly successful, especially where the student groups are made up of peer groups; like-minded people of a similar age who are willing to learn but who have no desire to be patronised by fellow students who are twenty years younger and possibly quicker on the up-take. It is equally important that groups of technophobes who have decided “to give it a go” have an appropriate teacher; somebody as similar as possible as themselves in age. Somebody who will send out a message that says “If I can do it, then so can you”.
39)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| Theatre |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Chris Rose |
|
| In many parts of the world, and not only in the |
“Theatre” is not often seen as being a pastime that many ordinary people do. Ordinary people watch tv, or go to the cinema, or go out to eat with friends. The theatre is for rich, upper class intellectuals.
Like a lot of clichés, there is some truth in this. Theatre tickets are quite expensive. They cost more than cinema tickets. Theatres which show new plays are usually only in big cities.
However, even though this is true, there are a lot of theatre companies who are challenging this idea. And the way they are challenging this idea is by working with schools. In the
One company that has made educational work their speciality is the David Glass Ensemble. The work they do, however, is quite different. The David Glass Ensemble run an ongoing project called “The Lost Child”. “The Lost Child” is not a play which they travel around the world to perform. “The Lost Child” doesn’t even have a script. What exactly is “The Lost Child” then?
“The Lost Child” is a series of activities which actors from the David Glass Ensemble do together with children who are in difficult situations. They have worked with refugees and victims of child abuse all over the world, mostly in
Three or four actors from the company spend a period of time, usually three or four weeks, starting from games, drawing and singing to develop the children’s confidence and give them a sense of security. Out of the childrens’ drawings, and from talking to them, the actors identify some of the children’s problems and ideas, and then they develop a play based on these ideas. Sometimes they have made short films. Sometimes the plays are a series of sketches and songs. Sometimes the plays tell one story.
Children who have taken part in “The Lost Child” almost always end up with a better sense of security, and feel more confident about themselves. They can show that they have intelligence and creativity, no matter what has happened or is happening in their lives. They also have more interest in theatre and film.
In Shakespeare’s day going to the theatre was an activity which everyone did. There were expensive seats for the rich people, and other people could buy a cheap ticket to stand up and watch the play. (This still happens at the rebuilt Globe theatre in
40)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| | Tobacco |
|
|
|
|
|
| ||
|
| by Claire Powell and Dave Collett | |
What’s in a cigarette?
What’s in a puff? Tobacco smoke contains about 4,000 chemicals. Some of which are harmful, others deadly. Here are 3 of the deadliest.
Tar
Tar, a mixture of chemicals such as formaldehyde, arsenic and cyanide, can cause serious lung diseases. Seventy percent of the tar from tobacco smoke remains in the smoker’s lungs.
Nicotine
Many people are unaware that nicotine is more addictive than heroine. A powerful and fast-acting drug, nicotine reaches the brain in about seven seconds. One of the major effects of nicotine is an increased heart rate and blood pressure.
Carbon monoxide
Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas formed when a cigarette is lit. The red blood cells absorb the gas more easily than oxygen, so up to fifteen percent of a smoker’s blood may be carrying carbon monoxide instead of oxygen. Breathing becomes more difficult because the heart has to work harder to pump less oxygen around the body.
From seed to smoke
What do tomatoes and tobacco have in common? They are both a member of the same botanical family. Tobacco is grown in more than one hundred countries with
Seeds and fertiliser are often provided by British American Tobacco. The seeds are so small that they must be protected in seedbeds for sixty days before transplanting to the field. Two weeks later, soil is carefully pushed up against the seedlings to further protect them and help to develop a good root system. Finally, after a couple of months, the flowering plants and some of the upper leaves are cut to allow more growth in the remaining leaves. The crop gradually grows towards the harvesting stage.
Harvest
In most countries harvesting is done by hand. The farmer takes off a few leaves from the lower part of each plant. A typical farmer can expect to harvest about 15,000 plants. This is quite a lot considering each plant contains around 22 leaves.
Curing
There are four main methods.
Air-cured tobacco is hung in unheated, ventilated barns until the tobacco dries and the tobacco leaf becomes a light to medium brown colour.
Flue-cured tobacco is made when heat is introduced into a barn through pipes from a furnace outside. The leaves are heated until they turn yellow.
Sun-cured tobacco leaves are hung out on racks and exposed to the sun’s rays. The direct heat turns the leaves a yellow to orange colour.
For fire curing, wood is burnt under the tobacco leaves, which dries the tobacco and produces a smoky fragrance.
Processing
There are four stages in processing. Dirt is removed from the cured tobacco. The leaf is separated from the stem (a process known as threshing). The moisture content is checked carefully. The processed tobacco is packed into 200kg cardboard boxes, for shipping to manufacturing sites.
Manufacturing
At the factory, the matured tobacco is checked for quality and then carefully blended with other ingredients which are needed for the brand recipe, such as flavourings.
Moisture content is crucial. Too dry and the tobacco leaf will crumble; too moist and it may spoil during storage. The blended tobacco is treated with just the right amount of steam and water to make it supple, and then cut into the form in which it appears in the cigarette. The cut tobacco is then given a quality check.
Cigarette making, once done entirely by hand, is today almost fully automated with the cut tobacco, cigarette paper and filters continuously fed into the cigarette-making machines.
Packing machines put the cigarettes into the familiar brand packs, wrap the packs in protective film, and group them into cartons and cases. The completed cases, time-dated to ensure the freshest product possible, are then ready for distribution.
Glossary
addictive (adj): unable to stop doing something that can be dangerous.
arsenic (n): a very strong poison that can kill people.
automated (adj): from the verb automate - to make a process in a factory or office operate by machines or computers, in order to reduce the amount of work done by humans and the time taken to do the work.
brand (n): a type of product made by a particular company.
crumble (v): to break, or cause something to break, into small pieces.
spoil (v): when something spoils or is spoilt, it is no longer good enough to use.
cure (v): to treat food, tobacco, etc. with smoke or salt, etc. in order to stop it decaying, to preserve food.
cyanide (n): a highly poisonous substance.
deadly (adj): very dangerous.
fertiliser (n): a natural or chemical substance used to make plants grow.
film (n): a thin layer of plastic to cover and protect an object.
formaldehyde (n): a strong smelling gas used for preservation.
fragrance (n): a smell.
stem (n): the stick-like central part of a plant which grows above the ground and from which leaves and flowers grow, or a smaller thin part which grows from the central part and which supports the leaves and flowers.
furnace (n): a piece of equipment for heating a building.
income (n): the money you receive from doing work.
puff (n): amount of smoke inhaled each time a smoker puts a cigarette to his/her mouth.
seedling (n): a young plant grown from a seed.
supple (adj): bending or able to be bent easily; not stiff.
ventilated (adj): from the verb to ventilate, provide air to cause fresh air to enter and move around an enclosed space.
41)
You can also listen to this article:
Download mp3 file or listen on your PC
| The life of trees |
|
|
|
|
| When I was a child I read a science fiction story that made me think about trees in a new way. In the story, visitors from an advanced civilisation come to our planet and their spaceship lands in the middle of a forest. The aliens have a long conversation with the trees of the forest, and then leave again, happy to think that the inhabitants of earth are noble, intelligent and peaceful. Trees have always fascinated people. They are the biggest living things on our planet, and one of the most beautiful. Trees appear in many religions and have inspired artists for thousands of years. |
The oldest trees
Trees are also the oldest living organisms on earth. They are a direct link with thousands of years of history. The great age of trees makes them useful for all sorts of scientific research. The rings inside a tree are particularly useful to tell scientists about changes in the climate that happened many thousands of years ago before written records were kept.
The oldest living organism on earth is a bristlecone pine tree (see http://www.sonic.net/bristlecone/intro.html) which grows in the
Sri Maha Bodhi is a banyan tree growing in
The gingko tree is one of the oldest species of tree still living today (see http://www.xs4all.nl/~kwanten/). We know that it was living 160 million years ago when dinosaurs ruled the earth. Watch out for it if you see the film '
The community of trees
Trees may have a lot to teach us about being part of a community and how co-operation is better for a society than competition. Scientists are only just beginning to understand how it all works, but we now know that a community of trees growing together share all of the available resources with each other. So, strong trees in a good position will share food and water with weaker trees that receive less sunlight. They do this through their roots, through the soil, and also through the networks of tiny fungi that grow in the soil between them.
And they don't only share with trees of the same species - any type of tree can benefit. A community of trees makes itself stronger by working together. The roots of giant redwood trees, for example, grow together under the ground. It's as if they are holding hands. This means that they are much stronger when there are heavy winds or floods.
Trees that are grown in city conditions do not live as long as trees that grow in a natural environment, maybe because they are more isolated. And people who work with trees know that a community with a good mixture of different species is stronger and more resistant to insects and diseases.