COLÉGIO “TYTO ALBA”

TEXTOS PARA ESTUDOS.

PR4 - INGLÊS – PROF. JAMIL 2013.

9º Ano

-         I´m going to go swimming at 5 o´clock. Can you come?

-         Sorry, Debbie, I can´t. I haven´t done my homework.

-         Felipe, can you come, can´t you?

-         No, he can´t, Debbie. You haven´t cleaned your roon, have you, Felipe?

-         No, I haven´t. And you promised to wash the car, didn´t you, Ben?

So you can´t go either, can you?

-         Oh, I suppose I´ll have to go by myself, won´t I?

-         I think you will, Debbie!

-         Today we´re going to talk about Johannes Gutenberg.

-         Who was Gutenberg, Ms Bishop?

-         He was the man who invented the printing press. He printed the Bible in Latin.

-         Why was it in Latin?

-         Because Latin was a language which all educated people in Europe understood then.

-         But I thought Caxton invented the printing press.

-         No, he didn´t. He was the person who introduced the printing press to Britain.

                   PANTANAL: A BRAZILIAN ECOLOGICAL SANCTUARY

            The world’s largest flood plain measures 230,000 sq. km. An area slightly smaller than Great Britain or seven times bigger than Holland. About 140 sq. km. of the Pantanal, a name derived from the world “pântano” which means swamp in Portuguese, are located on Brazilian territory.

            The rest of the morass land extends into Bolivia and Paraguay. Deep in central-west Brazil, the Pantanal is the world’s largest wetland. Tourists all over the planet travel to the Pantanal for a sightseeing safari. No one ever leaves the jungle disappointed. That region is a virtually unspoiled paradise for 650 species of exotic birds, 230 types of fish and variety of mammals and reptiles.

            There are more than 15,000 animal species to be observed. Partially covered by water for half a year, the region teems with relatively docile South American alligators, 20 foot sucuris (a snake related to the anaconda), capivaras (the world’s largest rodent, who weights around 30 kg), pumas, wild boars and rural deers, besides more than 600 species of exotic birds.

            The Pantanal has one of the richest and most interesting ecosystems. The region’s delicate ecology is protected by its remote position in the heart of South America. But, like the Amazon rainforest, its preservation is endangered. Ranchers, funds and government agencies fight to save the untouched fauna and flora of that unique natural paradise.

                                                                                                   

                                                                                  (www.estado.com.br)

1º COL

                                                            SEATMATES

            Peter Shankman sees air travel as a risky business. But it´s not the plane he worries about. It´s the empty seat on his left – and who´s going to fill it. “You watch people coming down the aisle toward you and the theme from Jaws is playing in your head. You´re thinking. “Oh no, not this one” or “That one looks like bathing is optional.” So the 33 year old U.S. marketing and P.R. executive created Airtroductions, an online service that matches up air travelers for business, friendship, romance – whatever you want from an in-flight neighbor. “You have control over everything you do when flying – which flight, what you eat – except who you sit next to. So I thought, let´s see if we can change that.” Since launching last fall, Airtroductions has racked up almost 14,000 members worldwide. Post a free online profile, register your flight details and see if other members are on your flight. If you meet your match, a $5 per-person fee is charged per round-trip. Airtroductions customers meet at the airport and check in together. “I remember sitting on this one flight and next to me is Miss Texas. My four-hour flight took about 14 seconds,” says Shankman. Way to fly the friendly skies, airtroductions.com.

                                                                                   (Time Magazine,2006.)

JUMPING ACROSS CITIES

Forget about expensive gyms, the new sport in cities is free-running. Since it started in a Paris suburb in the 1990s, free running has attracted lots of fans in cities around the world. Instead of walking normally, free-runners jump over or around anything — cars, buildings, trees, or streetlights — in their way.

One of the sport’s inventors told our reporter how freerunning started, “It was boring where we lived, there was nothing for us to do after school. We had done playground games like football and basketball when we were kids but we wanted something new and exciting. We started learning how to jump and run between buildings — and we loved it. Walking is a waste of time. Free-runners have to use their imaginations. Everything — a tree, a streetlight — is part of our outdoor gym. We’re like children because we’ve never stopped playing in the street.”

The sport’s website has lots of rules, for example, don’t break people’s windows, don’t jump on flowerbeds and don’t be rude to people who want you to stop. Safety is also very important. You must start with the easy moves — you have to do thousands of small practice jumps before you try anything difficult. If you make only one mistake, you might hurt yourself badly.

A local person said, “It’s good that young people have something to do. But when they jump off buildings like cats they sometimes frighten other people.”

                                                                                                                      (Headway)

Don’t try this at home -  the basics of free-running

Blind jump a jump where you can’t see the landing spot.

Tic-tac run and put your foot on a small step, go forward and jump over the next thing.

Basic jump run and jump, land on two feet while bending your knees. To finish roll into head-over-heels.

Cat jump run towards a wall, put both hands on the top of the wall and jump through your arms.

2º COL.

                                                       WITCH NEWS

            A Job Centre in Somerset (England) recently advertised a vacancy for a witch. Wookey Hole Caves, a tourist attraction near Wells requires a resident witch because the previous one is retiring. And the job description? Well, candidate witches must be able to cackle and must also live in the caves during the tourist season. “Wookey Hole wants the appointee to go about her everyday business as a hag, so that people passing through the caves can get a sense of what the place was like in the Dark Ages.” The salary? £50,000.

            On the other hand, witches still suffer discrimination. For Instance, the Crystal Cauldron Coven in Stockport booked the Our Lady’s Social Club in Stockport for their Halloween Witches Ball. However, the Diocese of Shrewsbury subsequently decided that the party was “not in keeping with the church’s ethos

and cancelled the reservation. Sandra Davis, spokesperson for the Crystal Cauldron accused the Catholic Church of ‘prejudice’.

                                        EATING 64-YEAR-OLD FOOD

            In these tough economic times many people are making their food go a little further than they perhaps used to. And for many that might mean ignoring the best before date, but one German man has taken it to the extreme by eating the contents of a 54-year-old tin.

            In the late 1940´s the United States was helping Germany overcome the hardships of the Second World War Food parcels were a vital part of the rebuilding effort and Swift’s bland lard was one of the less exciting ingredients. But it was apparently durable. The tin with its red, white and blue label still intact survived in Hans Feldmeier´s cupboard. So the 87-year-old retired chemist decided to test its edibility:

            “I didn’t open it because I thought the situation could get even worse. I hope that we are not running into tough times like we had after World War II, even despite the financial crisis we are facing”, said Hans Feldmeier.

            And his gamble paid off. The tests run by scientists in his home town of Rostock showed it was indeed fit for consumption, saving Mr Feldmeir a precious few Euros. But he did fork out on a loaf of black bread on which it was spread before he and the scientists ate it. So what did it taste like?

            “I thought it would taste rancid, but it doesn’t. I’m totally surprised that it shows absolutely no sign of rancidity”, said a female employee of Office of Agriculture, Food Safety and Fisheries.

                                                                                              (BBC)

3º COL

  DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME CAN BE A PROBLEM FOR SLEEP-DEPRIVED

March, 9, 2012

     Sunday’s start of daylight saving time will throw off the clock only by an hour, but that’s enough to leave people feeling groggy for a day or two, sleep experts say.

     By setting clocks ahead an hour, daylight saving time allows us more light through the spring, summer and fall. But when the time changes at 2 a.m. Sunday (except in Arizona and Hawaii), it will cost one hour of sleep. We’ll regain that when the clocks fall back on Nov. 4.

     “Losing an hour is harder than gaining an hour,” says Steven Feinsilver, director of the Center for Sleep Medicine in New York.

     It takes no more than 48 hours to adjust to a one-hour loss, says New York sleep specialist Nicholas Rummo. “The day or two after people aren’t quite alert,” he says. “Most people might feel t Monday info Tuesday.”

     Some people will be more sluggish than others Monday morning – particularly those without regular sleep habits, such as working up at a consistent time or snoozing seven to eight hours each night.

     Sleep directly affects health and safety, and the sleep loss associated with daylight saving time has been linked to increases in traffic and on-the-job accidents the Monday following the time change.

                                                                                                   (USA Today)

                                   COWS TO PRODUCE HUMAN BREAST MILK

            Media reports are saying Chinese scientists have developed genetically modified cows that can produce human milk. A British newspaper says a laboratory in China has introduced human genes into dairy cows to produce milk almost identical to human breast milk. The researchers believe the new GM milk is a healthy alternative to milk powder, which many infant nutritionists say is not so good for

babies. Researcher Professor Ning Li addressed people’s concerns that the milk from GM cows could be harmful. He said it would be as safe as

milk from ordinary dairy cows. He added the GM milk contains a human protein called lysozyme, which helps to protect babies from infections in the days and weeks after their birth.

            Professor Li said the new milk will be on supermarket shelves within ten years. He believes. it will be very popular, saying: “The milk tastes stronger than normal milk.” He spoke about how important his team’s research is. He said: “There are 1.5 billion people in the world who don't get enough to eat. It's our duty to develop science and technology, not to hold it back. We need to feed people first, before we consider ideals and convictions.” People on Britain’s Sky News website had differing views. One commented: “It’s totally disgusting. This planet is on a downward spiral into hell.” Another said: “We interfere with nature every time we prevent death by taking engineered drugs. Get used to it.”

                                                                                              (breakingnewsenglish)

                                                           DNA

            CRAIG HARMAN was drunk when, in May 2003, he killed Michael Little by throwing a brick from a motorway overpass. He had neither motive nor connection to the victim, meaning that, under normal circumstances, his crime would have been almost impossible to solve. Unfortunately for Mr. Harman, he left traces of blood on the brick; even more unluckily, he was related to someone who had once been arrested, and whose DNA was therefore held on a database. On April 19th, he became the first person to be convicted following an investigation into someone else's genetic “fingerprint”.

            The technique that led police to their man is a novel but simple one. Scientists at the Forensic Intelligence Bureau coded the DNA recovered from the crime scene as a 20-number sequence, and fed it into a computer. A few hours later, they had a list of people who shared 11 or more genetic markers with the brick-thrower (while two people chosen at random are likely to share six or seven markers, 11 or more suggests a blood relative.)

            Two basic assumptions helped to narrow the list further, according to Jonathan Whitaker, a scientist at the bureau. “First, offenders tend to commit crimes on their own doorstep, and, second, family members don't move far away from one another.” Having counted out faraway and genetically dissimilar people, investigators were left with a local man whose DNA shared 16 markers with the blood sample. He was Mr. Harman's brother.

                                                                                (The Economist)

ENGLISH WORK – TEXTOS PARA O 3º “COL” - NOT

4º BIMESTRE – 2013

WHY ZEBRAS HAVE STRIPES

            Scientists claim to have solved the mystery of why zebras have their characteristic Black and White stripes. A study published in the Journal of Experimental Biology showed that the striped pattern made the animals much less attractive to insects.

            There have been many theories to explain the zebra´s unmistakable stripes. Scientists have suggested that each zebra has a unique pattern that lets other animals recognize it. Or that the mass of black and white in a vast herd provides confusing camouflage that puts off predators.

            But this team set out to test exactly what effect the stripes had on a zebra´s most irritating and ubiquitous enemy – the blood-sucking horsefly.

            As part of their experiment the team put sticky horse models – one white, one black and one zebra-striped – into a fly-infested field. When they collected the flies that had landed and stuck to each of the models, they found that the model zebra attracted by far the fewest flies.

            The researchers think that zebras had a black-coated ancestor, which envolved its white stripes in an evolutionary arms race, with an insect that´s become the biting, disease-carrying scourge of most horse herds.

                                                                                  (Victoria Gill)

PARALYSED MAN TAKES HOPEFUL FIRST STEPS

            A medical breakthrough has given hope to millions of people who are unable to walk. Doctors pioneered a special procedure that electrically stimulated the spine of ex-athlete Rob Summers. Mr Summers, 25, was paralysed below the chest in a hit-and-run car accident in 2006. Professor Susan Harkema, of the Kentucky Spinal Cord Injury Research Center, gave the revolutionary treatment to “dead” nerves in Mr Summers’ spinal cords. He was able to move his legs and toes and take a few steps with the help of a walking frame. Dr Harkema said: “This is a breakthrough.

It opens a huge opportunity to improve the daily functioning of individuals but we have a long road ahead.” She said this is “going to have a major impact” on people with disabilities.

            The treatment is called epidural stimulation. It has taken over three decades of research to get to this stage. The process works when electrical signals go round the brain to tell the spinal cord what to do. The signals allow the limbs to function independently of the brain. Mr Summers said the treatment has been life-changing.

            “This procedure has completely changed my life. For someone who for four years was unable to even move a toe, to have the freedom and ability to stand on my own is the most amazing feeling,” he said. He added: “My sense of wellbeing has changed. My physique and muscle tone have improved greatly. Most people don’t even believe I’m paralysed.” Five other patients are also taking part in the trial.

                                                                       (breakingnewsenglish)

RENT – A-FRIEND AGENCIES GROWING IN JAPAN

            There are many new ways of making friends in today´s world. The best known of these is meeting new pals online. The Japanese are doing things a little differently. There is a growth in rent-a-friend agencies. The only cath is that is that the friends you meet will not become your true friends. You simply rent one when you need one for a specific occasion. The friends for rent are profissional fakers. They will pretend to be anyone you want them to be. They serve a very useful purposes in Japan, where it´s very important to keep up social appearences. If you do not have a best man for your wedding or you need a rich aunt to seal a business deal, rent-a-friend agencies will provide you with the perfec impersonator.

            Britain´s Guardian newspaper reports on Ryuichi Ichinokawa, the owner of the “ I want to cheer” agencie. He has been the best man at weedings, making jokes about happy couples he did know, and  acted as the uncle of sutdents at school sports days. The Guardian says: “he dutifully cheered them on, recorded theirefforts on his video camera and joined in the adult-and-child races.” Ichinokawa charges just orver $150 as a rental charge, but says there are extra fees for singing at a karaoke party or making a speed at a wedding. Ryuich says he plans everything  in dentail so he doesn´t embarrass his client. He boats: “In three and a half years I´ve never once in been caught out.

                                                                                  (breakingnewsenglish)

ENGLISH WORK – TEXTOS PARA O 2º “COL”

4º BIMESTRE – 2013

The Financial District

The Dutch were the first Europeans to settle Manhattan. To project themselves from attacks, they built a strong wooden wall. Although it’s now long gone, this wall gave its name to a street in Lower Manhattan and the street, in turn, became synonymous with American capitalism. The street, of course, is Wall Street.

It is easy to see why “Wall Street” means capitalism. The New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange are both in the Wall Street area. So are many stockbrokers, investment banks and other banks, and headquarters of many large corporations. There is also the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, a branch of the national bank of the United States – and the only branch that buys and sells government securities.

On any weekday you can visit the New York Stock Exchange, which began with several merchants meeting under a tree on Wall Street, now has over 1,350 members. From the visitor is gallery you can watch as trading goes on at a frantic pace below you.

Outside on the street, the pace is just as frantic (but only during working hours – the city is nightlife is elsewhere). The area is narrow streets and tall buildings can feel confining and can make the crowds seem scared.

To escape the commotion of Wall Street, you can visit the nearby South Street Seaport. The seaport is an open area of low buildings on the East River. In addition to many shops and restaurants, the seaport has a museum. You can tour old houses, ships, and shipyards – reminders of the days when New Yourk was above all a port. At the seaport, you can also tour the Fulton Fish Market, Where city restaurants buy their fish – if you can be there at five in the morning!

Appropriately, the very first business deal in Manhattan was made in what became the financial district. As every American schoolchild knows, the Dutch bought Manhattan from the Indians, for the ridiculously low price of 24 dollars worth of beads and trinkets.

            From: FALK, R. Spotlight on the USA. New York: Oxford University Press, (Adapted) FEPESE – Fundação de Estudos e Pesquisas Sócioeconômicas (BADESC)

The 21 Club

Underage drinking and deaths have prompted a movement for change

NEARLY 5,000 people below the age of 21 die because of excessive alcohol consumption. Each year. Oddly, this has triggered a new movement to lower the drinking age. In America, young people can vote, drive, marry, divorce, hunt and go to war before alcohol is legally allowed to touch their lips. Many states once set their minimum drinking-age at 18. But in 1984 Ronald Reagan oversaw the passage of the “21 law”, which requires states to set 21 as the minimum drinking-age or risk losing 10% of their highway funds. Now campaigners want to move it back.

In the past, states have been too fiscally timid to challenge the 21 law. But calls for change are growing louder.

Supporters of the status quo, including the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving, say that the law has averted thousands of fatalities. But skeptics point out that other countries, like Canada, have seen similar declines, even though their drinking-age is 18. They also argue that barring young people from drinking does not stop the from consuming alcohol: it just makes them drink more quickly.

John Mc Cardell, former president of Middlebury College in Vermont, is part of the Amethyst Initiative, a group of educators who are pushing for 18-year-olds to be allowed to drink. Those who have graduated from high school, have a clean record and completed an alcohol-education programme should qualify for a drinking licence, he says, in the same way that people who go to driving school receive a licence to operate a vehicle.

                                                                            (The Economist)

                                                                                                                         

Letter

Dear Sir,

I am writing to inform you of the kind of services rendered by some of your employees of your company, the Kopeh Omnibus Company.

Firstly, the drivers of some of the buses often do not stop buses directly in front of the bus-stop, as one would expect, but twenty or thirty meters before or after them. This results in the people having to run to catch the bus. I use the word ‘run’ because, after stopping for only about two minutes, the bus starts off again. The bus-driver and conductor seem to be unable to see that people who are walking towards the bus might also be interested in catching it. I know this for certain because, having a heart condition, I try to make it a practice not to run. As a result, I have been left behind by your buses six times.

Secondly, your conductors seem to feel that they are in charge of educating the public. Once, I was rudely told “You are a man. Why do not you stand up for this lady?” by a conductor half my years in age. It was very embarrassing. Let us leave aside the point that, having a heart condition, it was inadvisable for me to stand up for the whole journey. Do you think that the conductor has the right to speak like that to the passengers? Are they not on the buses to serve us rather than insult us?

The Kopeh Omnibus Company has the monopoly of bus services in Kopeh. Thus, perhaps, the question of competition has never occurred to spur your employees on to better service. However, as it manager, I am sure that you will wish the public to have a good impression of the company.

                                                                                     

                                                                                  “lnsulted”

                                                                       (Englishdaily)

HEALTH

WHO ARE THESE ALIENS?

            A spaceship lands on Earth. Inside we find several ugly, fat, hairless beings with no legs. What are these amorphous extraterrestrials? Jabba the Hutt? No, returning human astronauts, according to Dr Lewis Dartnell of University College London. Ease of movement in low or zero gravity will cause muscle wastage, while at the same time causing fluids to gather in their heads, which would make their faces puff up. The benevolent artificial environment inside a spacecraft would result in hair loss. Dr Dartnell even suggested that future astronauts would choose to have their legs amputated as ones lower limbs only get in the way in zero gravity. And if the astronauts had had children during their years in space travelling to other planets they would probably be stunted as well as bald and fat. A study from NASAʼs Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California has found that when newts tails are amputated to re-grow in space, the new tails are only half as long as they would be on Earth. Researchers affirm that gravity plays a role in cell division. Do you still want to grow up to be an astronaut?

                                                                                              (Think in English)

*newts: small semiaquatic salamanders of North America and Europe and northern Asia.

NEW LAW TARGETS FAST-FOOD TOYS

            San Francisco has passed a law banning fast-food restaurants from giving away toys with some children's meals. Supporters say many fast food meals are very unhealthy, but McDonald's called the legislation misguided.

            It could mean the end of the Happy Meal, the fast-food snack that's a hit with children at McDonald's, because it comes with a free toy. City leaders in San Francisco argued the same meals also come with too many calories and they say that has added to a situation where nearly 20% of American children are obese.

            Now San Francisco has become the first major US city to ban fast-food restaurants from giving away toys with meals that don't meet nutritional recommendations. In future, you'll only get the toy if you buy a healthy snack.

            The burger giant McDonald's sent senior executives to the city to oppose the measure. In a statement, the company said: ''Parents tell us it's their right and responsibility, not the government's, to make their own decisions and to choose what's right for their children.''

            McDonald's, Burger King and 15 other food companies have accepted to self-regulate how they advertise

food to youngsters.

                                                           (Rajesh Mirchandani, BBC News)

ENGLISH WORK – TEXTOS PARA O 1º “COL”

4º BIMESTRE – 2013

NAPPLES PIZZA PROTECTED BY EU

            Pizza makers in Naples are celebrating after gaining official European Union recognition. It’s the end of a battle that began 25 years ago and is aimed at protecting Neapolitan pizzas from imitations.

            For 25 years pizza makers in Naples have been trying to get their product protected, and now it is, being granted a TSG, or Traditional Speciality Guaranteed label by EU. The head of the pizza makers’ association said the trademark was a great honour. The EU’s agriculture commissioner said Neapolitan pizza was now part of Europe’s food heritage.

            It means that all pizzerias aspiring to supply the real thing are, in future, supposed to be vetted by a special commission that will check standards. They include using only San Marzano tomatoes and fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese.

The Italian farmers’ association says that half of Italy’s 25.000 pizzerias currently use wrong ingredients, like East European cheese or Ukrainian flour.

            Italy now tops the EU chart for products that are protected. It has 180, more than Spain or France. Protected status enables producers to not only boast about their exclusivity but also charge a premium. And now pizza makers from Naples will get their slice of the action. 

                                                          

                                                                       (Duncan kennedy – BBC News, Italy)

GOOGLE TESTING SELF-DRIVING CAR

            Google is testing a car it believes is the future of motoring. The Internet giant has been testing the car that drives itself for several months. It has driven along thousands of miles of public roads in California. The car is guided by sensors, lasers and video cameras. A Google spokesperson explained to concerned motorists that the car has never been driven “unmanned,” and had test drivers, just in case things went wrong. The tech company says its vehicles are still “very much at the experimental stage”. Google’s interest in artificial intelligence is a sign that it wants to branch out beyond the web. It is an extension of its Street View project, in which millions of streets have been photographed and put online.

            Google’s blog said the company’s entry into the world of automotive technology is part of its plans to make the world a better place. “Larry [Page] and Sergey [Brin] founded Google because they wanted to help solve really big problems using technology,” it wrote. The blog continued: “One of the big problems we’re working on today is car safety and efficiency. Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.” Google CEO Eric Schmidt said last month that it was unfortunate that cars were invented before computers: “Your car should drive itself; it’s amazing to me that we let humans drive cars,” he told reporters.

                                                                                  (breakingnewsenglish)

CANINE SUICIDE PUZZLE

             Can dogs commit suicide? That is the puzzling question being asked by dog lovers and animal behaviourists today in a small town in Scotland. At least five dogs are known to have leaped 13 metres to their deaths from a bridge in the town of Dumbarton. The bridge is now known as Rover’s Leap and is next to a  supposedly  haunted mansion  built in  1863, which was used as the location for a BBC TV series called Tales from the Madhouse. The latest suicidal canine completely distressed its owner by suddenly making a beeline for the bridge and jumping to its death. Animal psychologists are baffled at this abnormal behaviour and are keen to understand what is triggering it. Dogs are not like lemmings, which jump to their deaths in thousands, but are fully able to understand heights, just as humans are. Dogs would also have no reason to take their own lives  –  something unheard  of in the canine world, especially happy pet dogs from good families. All dog owners in the area have been advised to keep their dogs on a leash when they approach the bridge in future, until this mystery has been cleared up.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                               (braklinglishnewsenglish)

SUNBED: CANCER RISK FOR TEENS

            A World Health Organization (WHO) press release* has warned against the use of sunbeds, highlighting the risks they pose of developing deadly skin cancers. They particularly recommend teenagers avoid sunbed use, “It is known that young people who get burnt from exposure to ultraviolet will have a greater risk of developing melanoma [the most dangerous form of skin cancer] later in life.” Research proves there is a direct link between the use of sunbeds and cancer. The press release warns that “some sunbeds have the capacity to emit levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation many times stronger than the mid-day summer sun”. Despite this little-known fact, sunbeds remain very popular with young people, especially women. Teenagers have become obsessed with getting or maintaining a sun tan, which has become a very powerful fashion statement.

            The WHO offers some scary statistics for sun and sunbed worshippers. It estimates there to be “132,000 cases of malignant melanoma … annually, and an estimated 66,000 deaths from malignant melanoma and other skin cancers.” It says fairest-skinned people, where the sun tanning culture is strongest, are most at risk: Australians, New Zealanders, North Americans and northern Europeans. Other very real dangers include eye damage; premature skin ageing (wrinkles); and a reduction in the effectiveness of the immune system, which can lead to a greater risk of infectious diseases.                   

                                                                       (breakinginewsenglish)

THE RIGHT OF RETURN

            Recently, Nebraska introduced a low that allows parents to abandon their unwanted children in designated hospitals - no questions asked. The law was designed to help young women who had got pregnant by mistake to be able to give up their babies without fear of prosecution. However, the law was so vaguely defined that it effectively allows any parent to abandon any child up to the age of 18 at one of the hospitals. Numerous teenagers have already been dumped. For instance, one single father handed over nine of his ten children - aged between 20 months and 17 years old. Now people from out of state are taking advantage of the law. In October 2008 a 14-year-old girl from lowa was dumped in an Omaha hospital by her grandparents. That girl was eventually returned home but a week later a woman from Michigan drove for 12 hours in order to get rid of her 13-year-old son.

                                                                                  (THINKIN ENGLISH)