English Tips Self-Taught

terça-feira, 2 de novembro de 2010

Dilma: the first woman president of Brazil

Dilma: the first woman president of

Brazil

Source: www.maganews.com.br

Dilma Rousseff has gone down in Brazilian history by becoming the country's first woman president. The PT candidate won 56. 05% of the votes compared with 43.95% of the PSDB candidate, José Serra

In her first speech as president-elect, Dilma said one of the highest priorities for her government will be to eradicate poverty in the country. Currently there are around 20 million Brazilians living below the poverty line. She also promised to maintain economic stability and expand the social programs begun by the Lula government. During the speech, Dilma emotionally thanked President Lula, who was primarily responsible for her being elected. The president-elect will take office on January 1, 2011. During her campaign she said that education would be a high priority in her government, as well as health, security and sanitation.

Drama and achievement in the new president's life

Dilma had a comfortable childhood in Belo Horizonte-MG. Her father was a successful entrepreneur who was born in

Bulgaria

, and her mother was a teacher. Her life began to change in 1964 when the military seized power and began to rule the country with an iron fist, putting an end to freedom of the press and persecuting anyone who opposed the military government. Dilma dared to fight against the military regime and was imprisoned in 1970. She was tortured and spent nearly two and a half years in prison before being released in late 1972. Dilma rebuilt her life in Porto Alegre with her second husband, a lawyer called Carlos Araújo. It was there that Paula was born, their only child. With a degree in economics, Dilma held important positions in the city of Porto Alegre and then the government of Rio Grande do Sul, between 1980 and 1990. In 2003 she won the top post of her career by being made a Minister by President Lula. Over the years she was the outstanding Minister in the federal government. Dilma faced up to tragedy before beginning her election campaign: she was diagnosed with cancer in 2009. After spending several months in treatment, she was cured. As of 2011 it will be up to her to care for the country's economic, political and social health.

www.maganews.com.br

Photos - Ricardo Stuckert

Tornados

Author: Judit Jekkel

Source: www.englishexercises.org

Watch the video and fill in the missing information in the following table.

Speed	Up to miles per hour
	A billion dollars
Tim Samaras’ job	Electronics
Number of probes in his van
of one probe	45 pounds
The probes measure	Biometric speed Wind Temperature
Cameras in the probes	Video
The name of the area in the US where tornadoes mostly occur	Tornado
Starting date of the experiment	3rd
Distance that they covered	miles
Number of states visited
Time that Tim needs to place a probe	Less than 10

Watch the video again and decide whether the following statements are true, false or not mentioned.

1 Tornadoes are one of the most understood natural phenomena.

2 Tim Samaras works on his own.

3 Tim has never been able to get data from the centre of a tornado.

4 A probe has been designed by Nat Geo workers.

5 Storm chasers try to put their measuring devices in the path of tornadoes.

6 Tornadoes are formed when there is warm humid air and cool dry air in the atmosphere.

7 All tornadoes look the same.

8 Tornadoes usually hit and form very fast.

9 Strom chaser are often hit by tornadoes.

10 The tornado has left some marks on the probe.

11 The pressure inside a tornado never drops.

12 They have managed to get images from the centre of the tornado.

segunda-feira, 1 de novembro de 2010

Words and Their Stories: It Will Not Wash

Source: www.voanews.com

I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

Young Mister Smith had an idea for his employer. It was an idea for saving money for the company by increasing prices. At the same time, Smith suggested that the company sell goods of less value.

If his employer liked the idea, Smith might be given more pay. Perhaps he might even get a better job with the company.

Business had been very slow. So Mister Smith's employer thought a few minutes about the idea. But then she shook her head. "I am sorry, Smith," his employer said. "It just will not wash."

Now, the meaning of these English words should be, "It will not get clean." Yet Smith's idea did not have anything to do with making something clean. So why did his employer say, "It will not wash?"

Most word experts agree that "it will not wash" means it will not work. Eric Partridge wrote that the saying probably developed in Britain in the eighteen hundreds. Charlotte Bronte used it in a story published in eighteen forty-nine. She wrote, "That wiln't wash, miss." Mizz Bronte seems to have meant that the dyes used to color a piece of clothing were not good. The colors could not be depended on to stay in the material.

In nineteenth century England, the expression came to mean an undependable statement. It was used mainly to describe an idea. But sometimes it was used about a person.

A critic once said of the poet Robert Browning, "He won't wash." The critic did not mean that the poet was not a clean person. He meant that Browning's poems could not be depended on to last.

Today, we know that judgment was wrong. Robert Browning still is considered a major poet. But very few people remember the man who said Browning would not wash.

Happily for the young employee Smith, his employer wanted him to do well in the company. So the employer "talked turkey" to him. She said, "Your idea would be unfair to our buyers. Think of another way to save money."

A century ago, to talk turkey meant to talk pleasantly. Turkeys in the barnyard were thought to be speaking pleasantly to one another. In recent years, the saying has come to mean an attempt to teach something important.

Word expert Charles Funk tells how he believes this change took place.

He says two men were shooting turkeys together. One of them was a white man. The other was an American Indian. The white man began stating reasons why he should get all the turkeys for himself. But the American Indian stopped him. He told the white man, "Now, I talk turkey to you."

Mister Smith thought of a better idea after his employer talked turkey to him. He was given an increase in pay. So if your idea "will not wash," try"talking turkey" to yourself and come up with a better idea.

(MUSIC)

This WORDS AND THEIR STORIES program was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark.

Winter Wonderland

Language level: Advanced

Standard: American Standard accent

Source: Speak Up

Winter Wonderland

In winter Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming appears to be a peaceful world of white: all frozen silence and stillness. But beneath the ice and snow it remains a very dynamic place. Plumes of steam point to the raw volcanic power that lies not far below the surface. The stench of sulphur hangs in the air as further evidence of the unique chemistry here. Yellowstone is world-famous for its powerful geysers like Old Faithful, as well a colorful hydrothermal sights like the Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces.

Yellowstone became America’s first National Park when it was founded in 1872. It quickly gained the nickname “Wonderland” and it’s not hard to see why. Every year three million people come to get a glimpse of Yellowstone’s well-protected wilderness and enjoy a wide range of outdoor activities. They enjoy its abundant wildlife, magnificent mountain scenery, river canyons, waterfalls and forests.

MOTHER NATURE

Many visitors bring binoculars, telescopes and cameras in the hope of capturing some of the park’s most popular animals: bears (which hibernate in winter), bison, elk, moose and wolves. A single-sighting can bring traffic to a standstill and dozens of enthusiasts to the roadside. With only 150.000 visitors entering Yellowstone in winter, it’s an ideal time to view the wildlife close-up and away from the crowds. But even sights like the bison, icicles clinging to their shaggy beards as they forage through the snow for food, are due to the area’s underlying geology, explains Henry Heasler, Park Geologist for Yellowstone National Park.

Hen Heaster

(Standard American Accent)

Geology is the foundation of Yellowstone, Ok? It defines the soils, it defines the amount of heat coming out of the ground, that affects the plants and soils OK? The plants then affect the openness of an area and the habitat that’s available and then affects that the animals. So I very easily can go through and give you the underpinning of the ecology of an area based on the geology in Yellowstone. There’s a very clear connection and it’s fascinating to go round and look at that connection.

UNDER THE VOLCANO

Yellowstone is part of the spectacular Rocky mountain region. And while you can’t normally feel it, the national park is constantly on the move. There are hundreds, even thousands, of small earthquakes here each year. The Yellowstone caldera, covering some 4.000 square kilometros, rises and falls as if breathing. In the past two years alone, the whole area has uplifted about 17 centimetres. Yellowstone has experienced three catastrophic eruptions in its history: 2.1 million years ago,1.3 million years ago, and most recently, 640.000 years ago. The Yellowstone volcano is constantly monitored and Henry Heasler doesn’t think that another catastrophic eruption, which could wipe out much of northwest America, is coming just yet. But he does believe that Yellowstone offers lessons to us all about the power of nature:

Yellowstone in some ways is very frightening to some people because there is so much raw power here associated with eruptions, with earthquakes and that. I sometimes get the question, can’t we do something to control the volcanic forces? Very interesting suggestions about drilling or using other techniques. And the Yellowstone volcano is not anything that we as humans can control. We can be aware of it, we can live with it, we can destroy hot springs and geysers and that, but we will not affect the underlying processes and that’s one of the lessons of Yellowstone –is that nature always wins. It may take a hundred years, a thousand years, a hundred years, but natural processes are what’s going to win and Yellowstone’s, I think, a very beautiful reminder of that principle.

Off-Topic

Here Capitan Lenilson and me were sightseeing with Students from Parelhas, we climbed the Mount Rooster (Pilgrim tourism spot) and after that we getting around the downtown.

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quarta-feira, 3 de novembro de 2010

TECHNOLOGY, POD ENGLISH, LESSON 67

LISTENING, WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HAWAII?