domingo, 20 de março de 2011

Japan’s Early Warning System One of the Best in the World

Source: http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Japans-Early-Warning-System-One-of-the-Best-in-the-World-118258934.html access and promote VOA around the world, give opportunity to English learners practise and improve their English.


A man searches for a family member in the ruins of a tsunami-hit area in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man searches for a family member in the ruins of a tsunami-hit area in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan
This is the VOA Special English Technology Report.
A powerful earthquake struck the northeastern coast of Japan at two forty-six p.m. local time on March eleventh. Japan’s Meteorological Agency released its first tsunami warnings just three minutes later. The country has one of the best earthquake early warning systems in the world.
There are more than four thousand Seismic Intensity Meters in place throughout Japan to measure earthquake activity. These meters provide information within two minutes of an earthquake happening. Information about the strength and the center of the earthquake can be learned within three minutes.
There are also concrete sea walls around much of the Japanese coastline. But these measures proved no match for the powerful earthquake and tsunami.
Costas Synolakis is a tsunami expert with the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
COSTAS SYNOLAKIS: "Japan is one of those most well-prepared countries on earth in terms of tsunami warning. They had a warning. I think what went wrong is that they had not anticipated the size of this event.”
He says there are two reasons for this. Japan has not had any event anywhere near as big as this one in the last one hundred fifty years. And scientists had not expected such a large earthquake happening off the coast of Japan.
The nine point zero magnitude earthquake was the fourth most powerful earthquake ever recorded worldwide. It was also the worst earthquake ever to hit Japan. The tsunami waves that followed were reported to have reached as high as thirteen meters in some areas.
Costas Synolakis says Japan’s concrete sea walls were not built to handle such high waves.
COSTAS SYNOLAKIS: "The concrete seawalls in many places in Japan are about 10 meters, that's about 33 feet. In Sendai, they were about three meters, that's about 10 feet. So that shows you that at least in that area they were not expecting such a sizeable wave because they would have built a higher seawall.”
A tsunami wave can travel as fast as eight hundred kilometers per hour. To get to higher ground people would often have to travel for many kilometers. This can take more time than a fast traveling tsunami will permit. This is especially true in cases like Japan, where the center of the earthquake struck so close to the coastline. The tsunami waves followed almost immediately.
Experts say early warning systems will continue to be limited by these facts until earthquakes and tsunamis can be predicted
And that's the VOA Special English Technology Report, written by June Simms. You can find more news about the disaster in Japan at our website, voaspecialenglish.com. You can also find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our reports. And you can find us on Facebook and YouTube at VOA Learning English. I'm Steve Ember.

Tom Boy


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1087 Tomboy

Rebecca talks about growing up as a tomboy and what made her change.  Promote here.

Family Album, USA 51



Source: Family Album USA.

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Hollywood's actor and actrees Screen names

HOLLYWOOD STYLE


Source: Speak Up
Speaker: Chuck Rollando
Language level: Upper Intermediate


In the golden age of Hollywood studios created personas for their stars. They chose names that sounded sexier, more American or simply memorable. These days actors are not owned by studios, but still make adjustments to the names they were born with. Why?

SEXY

Frances Gumm sounds ordinary and boring, but Judy Garland is adorable, Virginia McMath doesn’t sound like a dancing sensation, but Ginger Rogers does  (a child’s mispronunciation of Virgina, plus her stepfather’s surname). Lauren Bacall was a wonderful femme fatale, but would she have won Humphrey Bogart’s heart if she was still Betty Joan Perske? The sexiest improvement was surely from Norma Jeane Baker to Marilyn Monroe.

It works for men, too. Archibald Leach sounds like a tired old shopkeeper. Cary Grant is much more sophisticated. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV makes little impression, but we all know Tom Cruise.

SIMPLICITY AND STYLE

Simplicity is crucial for all actors, from comedians to romantic stars. Stan Laurel, of comedy duo Laurel and Hardy, sounds funnier than Arthur Stanley Jefferson. Maurice Micklewhite might be a great actor, but his iconic status is helped by the name Michael Cain.camille Javal sounds interesting, but surely not as memorable as Brigitte Bardot.

Sometimes a small change does wonders. Jodie foster, Sigourney Weaver an Meryl  Streep have a movie magic about them that Alicia Foster, Susan Weaver and Mary Louise Streep do not. Frank cooper could not be the western hero that Gary Cooper became.

The starts of My Fair Lady both simplified their names: Reginald Harrison became the archetypal English gentlemen  Rex Harrison; Edda Van Heemstra Ruston disguised her European origins with the name Audrey Hepburn.

EXOTIC/

Many stars hope to hide ethnic origins –or just want their names to be easier to pronounce. The Graduate’s Anne Bancroft had to change form Anne Italiano. Alan Alda, from M*A*S*H, created his surname from initial letters of his real name, Alphonso D”Abruzzo. Would comedy partners Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin have been as popular as Joseph Levitch and Dino Crocetti?

Al Jolson sounds more American than Asa Yoelson. Woody Allen and Mel Brooks are easier to recognize than Allen Kronigsberg and Mel Kaminsky. Walter Matthau is memorable, but would you remember Walter Matasschanskayasky:  Doris Kappelhoff lacks the girl-next-door magic of Doris day. Freeric Austerlitz hid his German roots by becoming Fred Astaire. Issur Demsky’s Russian family turned him into heroic Kirk Douglas. Charles Buchinksky sounds tougher as Charles Bronson, while Martin Sheen won star roles by changing from Ramones Estevez.

English actor William Pratt is the exception. He became screen legend Boris Karloff a middle European name, perfect for horror movies.

ALL IN THE FAMILY

Some try to avoid accusations of nepotism. Emilio Estevez his father’s real surname, while Brother Charlie Sheen kept the screen name. Would Nicholas Cage have succeeded sooner if he had still been Nicholas Coppola, nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola?

Others changed embarrassing names: Marion Morrison, a woman’s name was no good for the epitome of masculinity John Wayne.

The strangest story is that of Yul Brynner. He often claimed he was Taidje Khan, of Mongolian-Japanese origins, but his name was really Yul Brynner and has parents Russian.

SCREEN NAME
REAL NAME
Joan Crawford
Lucille Fay LeSueur
Cher
Cherllyn Sarkisian
Dirk Bogarde
Derek Jules Caspard Ulric Niven
Van den Bogaerde
Lou Costello
Louis Francis Cristillo
Tony Curtis
Bernard Schwartz
Bette Davis
Ruth Elizabeth Davis
Marlene Dietrich
Marie Magdalene Deitrich
Mia Farrow
Maria de Lourdes Villers-Farrow
Jean Harlow
Harlean Carpentier
Rita Hayworth
Margarita Carmen Cansino
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes Hope
Rock Hudson
Roy Harold Scherer Jr.
Buster Keaton
Joseph Frank Keaton VI
Michael Keaton
Michael John Douglas
Natassja Kinski
Nastassja Naksyzns
Hedy Lamarr
Hedwig Eva Maria Kiester
Bruce Lee
Lee Jun Fan
Vivien Leigh
Vivian Hartley
Sophia Loren
Sofia villani Scicolone
Bela Lugosi
Bela Ferenc Dezso Blasko
Shirley MacLaine
Rosmarie Magdelena Albach
Barbara Stanwyck
Ruby Stevens
Rudolph Valentino
Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello
Guglielmi di Valentina
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Svensson
Shelley Winters
Shirley Schrift.