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)