Family Album, 32

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Saddam Hussein

Source: Actual English

Standard: American English

Language level: Advanced

Saddam Hussein

By Aamer Madhani

His regime murdered at least 300.000 of his countrymen, according to estimates by human-right groups. But Saddam also left a legacy in his country as a sort of Mesopotamian revolutionary: a nationalist leader who stood up to the American superpower.

He was born April 28, 1937, to a poor family in the village of al-Awja, near the city of Tikrit. His father died before he was born, and he was sent to live with his maternal uncle.

In 1957, he joined the Baath Party. Two years after, he was found complicity in a failed assassination attempt against President Abdul Karim Qasim, and was forced to flee to Egypt. He returned to Iraq in 1963 after the country’s first Baathist Regime took power in a coup. Five years later, a relative of Saddam’s became president of the Revolutionary Command Council and he took charge of the nation’s security apparatus. On July 15, 1979, Saddam forced Al-Bakr to retire and was sworn in as Iraq’s president.

From his ascension to the presidency, western governments including the United States –recognized Saddam as a ruthless strongman, but someone they could do business with. During the 1980s, the U.S. government tolerated Saddam because they had a common enemy in the Shiite theocracy that ruled Iran. In September 1980, Saddam launched an invasion, setting off an eight  year war in which the U.S. supported his country by providing satellite intelligence and refusing to sell the Iranian military spare parts  for its mostly American made weaponry.

In August 1990, Saddam’s troops invaded another oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait. That was when the U.S. government stopped supporting him. From 1991 to the end of Saddam’s regime in April 2003, Iraq lived under paralyzing United Nations sanctions that turned the oil-rich country into a Middle East backwater. But it wasn’t until the September 11^th, 2001 attacks that the U.S truly focused on ousting Saddam. After the Taliban was ousted, Bush cited evidence that Iraq had attempt to buy weapons grade uranium in Africa, underscoring the need to take with action against Saddam. The allegation later proved to be unfounded.

Without U.N. backing and with a relatively small band of allies, the U.S. began the air assault on Baghdad on March 20, 2003. For more than eight months, Saddam remained on the lam. On December 13^th, 2003, U.S. Army soldiers caught him crouched in a hole dug in the floor of a mud hut where he hid with a a pistol and several hundred thousand dollars in cash. He was executed on December 30^th 2006 for the homicide of 148 Shiites in 1982. AE.

Vocabulary:

Stood up to: To resist or refuse to be cowed by somebody or to refuse to back down; remain solid.

Baath Party: The Arab Socialist Party was founded in 1947 as a radical, secular Arab-Nationalist Political Party.

Complicit: Involved in something illegal or wrong.

Flee: To escape by running away, especially because of danger or fear.

Apparatus: An organization or system, especially a political one.

Sworn in (Phrasal verb,participle of swear) in: To induct into office by administration of an oath.

Ruthless: Without mercy or pitty.

Shiite: A member of the second largest religious movement within Islam, which is based on the belief that Ali, a member of Mohammed’s family, and the teachers who came after him, were the true religious leader.

Theocracy: Government of a state by immediate Divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided.

Set (ting) off: Set in motion or cause to begin.

Crouch (ed) Regular verb: With our knees bent so that you are close to the ground a leaning toward slightly.

Mud hut: Temporary military shelter made of soft wet earth.

Family Album, 31

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Exercises, Actual Magazine

According to the article about Second World War in paragraph bellow indentify 10 errors, do that without check the postings part I and II answer the question bellow.http://englishtips-self-taught.blogspot.com/2011/01/world-war-ii-part-i.html  http://englishtips-self-taught.blogspot.com/2011/01/world-war-part-II.html

The USSR goes after its part in the bargain –the eastern section on the Polish territory, the three Baltic States, and later Finland. A political and military crisis arise and once again the stage was set in Eastern Europe. In 1940, German launched a series of military actions that demonstrated the force of his Blitzkrieg. The Anglo-French troops had fall at preventing the Nazi advance, which would win important victories in Norway, Denmark, Holland and Belgium. The bigger blow, however, was the fall of France. The surrender is announced on signed in the same train car where the armistice of World War I was signed in 1918. The next step was to invade the island of King George VI. Avoiding an clash with the renowned Royal Navy – renowned to be superior, the Germans starts a series of bombings at British soil right away in that same month, the campaign, however, would drag on until October. Great Britain was able to resist, but came out of it somewhat weakened.

Please do the exercise and send me the answer any question carlosrn36@gmail.com 

Are Bone Pieces From Pilot Amelia Earhart?

Photo: AP

Amelia Earhart disappeared with her navigator Fred Noonan in 1937 in a Lockheed Electra 10E while attempting a round-the-world flight. Scientists are studying bone fragments found on a South Pacific island.

Source: www.voanews.com improve your English with Voa Special English, promote this site for friends, I think is the best content on the net.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Christopher Cruise.

FAITH LAPIDUS: And I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, we will tell about an effort to learn what happened to American pilot Amelia Earhart. We will tell about a group that studies developments in technology to predict the future. And we will tell about a complex health disorder called chronic fatigue syndrome.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: American scientists are attempting to recover genetic material in bone fragments that could be from Amelia Earhart. The famous pilot disappeared while flying over the southwest Pacific Ocean more than seventy years ago.

The world has changed greatly since her airplane went missing on July second, nineteen thirty-seven. But public interest in her life and death remains high.

Small bone fragments may help answer continuing questions about her death. Scientists at the University of Oklahoma are performing genetic tests at the Molecular Anthropology Laboratories in Norman, Oklahoma.

FAITH LAPIDUS: When last heard from, Amelia Earhart was seeking to become the first female pilot to fly a plane around the world. Earhart was already internationally known at the time. She had been the first woman to fly a plane alone over the Atlantic Ocean. Still, she was not satisfied.

Earhart wanted to guide her aircraft forty-three thousand kilometers around the equator. Fred Noonan served as navigator for the flight. His job was to plot the plane’s movement.

Earhart and Noonan had completed their planned trip over South America, Africa and Asia when they stopped in New Guinea for fuel. After that, they seemingly did not touch land again. Their bodies and parts of their plane were never found.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Bones that might help solve the mystery were discovered last year on the unpopulated Pacific island of Nikumaroro. The island was known as Gardner Island in Earhart’s time. It is about three thousand kilometers south of Hawaii.

Nikumaroro Island could have been on Earhart’s way to Howland Island. Her flight plan called for her to stop on Howland to refuel her specially-designed Lockheed Electra plane.

Scientists are testing bone from Nikumaroro to learn if DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid, can be recovered from it. DNA contains all the genetic information about an organism. If researchers find human DNA, it can be compared with DNA provided by a member of Amelia Earhart’s family. The long-time mystery of how Earhart died could be solved if the two DNA samples show family similarities.

An organization interested in aircraft and flight history found the bone material and other objects on Nikumaroro. Volunteers who belong to the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery had explored the island repeatedly in the past.

Earlier explorations had found shoes and other objects. The objects might have belonged to the two-person flight team. But that has not been proven.

Volunteers for the group made the new discovery in what appears to have been a camping area. They also found a container with a woman’s face make-up and glass bottles. The bottles were made before World War Two. In the same area was a knife with its blades removed. Opened seashells were nearby. There was also evidence of small fires.

FAITH LAPIDUS: A television program on the Discovery Channel tells about the group’s findings and work. But an expert about Amelia Earhart’s life says she did not land on an island. Instead, writer Susan Butler believes an American court declaration in nineteen thirty-nine. It ruled that Earhart died when her plane crashed into the ocean and sank.

And that is how a recent film about the pilot represents her death. The movie is called “Amelia.” It is one of a long list of shows, books and films about America’s lost woman hero of flight.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: An organization called the World Future Society publishes a yearly report about how technology, the economy and society are influencing the world. Tim Mack heads the World Future Society. He says medicine is one area of growth.

TIM MACK: “I was surprised by the enormous growth in medical technology.”

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Mr. Mack says the fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology and information technology are working together to create new ways to help patients. These include better ways to provide medicine and identify disease without invasive operations.

Mr. Mack also says developments in artificial intelligence could lead to a future where disabled patients could be cared for by a voice-activated robot.

US Army

A surgeon performs an operation using robotic assistance

FAITH LAPIDUS: The World Future Society also publishes The Futurist magazine. Every year it examines developments in technology and other areas to predict the future. The magazine released the top ten predictions from the Outlook 2011 report.

The report said Internet search engines will soon include both text and spoken results. It said television broadcasts and other recordings could be gathered using programs developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Intelligent Analysis.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: Outlook 2011 also examined refuse collection. It said industrial nations will send much more waste to developing countries. This will cause protests in those countries. In about fifteen years, developing countries will stop accepting foreign waste. This will force industrial nations to develop better waste-to-energy programs and recycling technologies.

The report also had a prediction about education. It said young people use technologies for socializing as well as working and learning. So they solve problems more as teams instead of competing. In this way, social networking is supporting different kinds of learning outside the classroom.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: Health experts say chronic fatigue syndrome, also known as CFS, is a complex disorder. They say it can cause people to feel fatigued or extremely tired. CFS may also cause physical weakness, muscle and joint pain, problems with memory or thinking, or trouble sleeping. Many people with the disorder have a higher than normal body temperature. They may also have throat pain and weakness in the lymph nodes near the cervix or under the arms.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that between one million and four million Americans suffer from CFS. Those affected are often unable to perform at their normal level of ability. Bed rest does nothing to ease their problems. Increased physical activity often makes their symptoms worse.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: There is no test to confirm chronic fatigue syndrome.Instead, doctors use a patient's medical history and testing to dismiss other treatable conditions. Those who are confirmed to have the disorder must experience at least four of the symptoms of CFS for at least six months.

CFS was not widely accepted as a medical condition until the late nineteen eighties. Until then, many people who had it were said to be suffering from mental problems or stress.

It is not yet known what causes the disorder. Scientists have been studying the condition and debating its causes for hundreds of years. Some believe the cause is a viral infection.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Last month, experts urged America’s Food and Drug Administration to ban blood donations from people with a history of CFS. The experts noted conflicting results concerning a possible link between the disorder and a group of viruses known as murine leukemia viruses. MLVs are a kind of retrovirus known to cause cancer in mice. They include xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus, also known as XMRV.

Last year, researchers tested blood from thirty-seven patients with chronic fatigue syndrome. They also looked at forty-four healthy blood donors. They reported evidence of MLVs in eighty-seven percent of the CFS patients. This compared to seven percent of the healthy patients.

The evidence supports a two thousand nine study that found evidence of XMRV in about two thirds of CFS patients. However, similar studies have found no such link.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE:

A recent report in the journal Retrovirology found that xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus is not the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome. Study organizers said the blood samples in the earlier studies had likely been mixed with DNA from mice.

The Food and Drug Administration has not made a decision about whether or not to ban blood from donors with CFS. But the American Red Cross said that, in the interest of public safety, it would no longer accept blood donations from people who admit to having the condition.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Jerilyn Watson and June Simms, who was also our producer. I’m Faith Lapidus.

CHRISTOPHER CRUISE: And I’m Christopher Cruise. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

Eight things about São Sebastião

Tourism - The São Paulo Coastline

 Source: www.maganews.com.br adquira já sua assinatura, recomendo, muito boa a revista.

Eight things about São Sebastião

Historic buildings, beautiful beaches, crystalline water, an Indian village, and Maresias, the liveliest beach on the São Paulo coast. These are some of the attractions of São Sebastião, the oldest city in the North Coast

Maresias is for people from São Paulo State what Ipanema is for people from Rio. It is the liveliest beach on the São Paulo coast.  The sand is fine and white, the sea is beautiful and the waves are great for surfing. All this is surrounded by the beauty of the Atlantic Forest [1]. Twenty-six kilometers from the center of São Sebastião, Maresias is home to some of the best bars, restaurants and nightclubs on the North Coast. The most famous nightclub is Sirena, considered to be one of the best inBrazil. With a capacity to hold 3,000 people, it has been played by some of the most famous DJs in the world to get the weekends going [2].  Maresias is just one of the attractions of São Sebastião. See below eight things you need to know about the city.

ONE: DISTANCE – São Sebastião is just over 200 km from São Paulo and

 110 km from São José dos Campos. The main access point to this resort is by the Tamoios highway.

TWO:  HISTORY AND POPULATION – It is the oldest city on theNorth Coast. On March 16^th 1636, São Sebastião became a village, and the city’s anniversary is celebrated on March 16^th. Today the city has a population of about 75,000 people.

THREE: INDIANS – Before being colonized by the Portuguese, the region was inhabited by Indians from the Tupinambá and Tupiniquim tribes. As the centuries went by [3], the Indians remained [4] in the city and now São Sebastião is home to a village of Guarani Indians.

FOUR: MOST FAMOUS BEACHES – The São Sebastião coast is just over 100 km long and has over 30 beaches. In São Sebastião you can find crystalline water, desert beaches and even dolphins[5]. The most famous beaches are Maresias, Camburí and Guaecá (the three favorites amongst tourists), Boiçucanga, Juréia, Calhetas, Juquehy, São Francisco, Barra do Una, Paúba, Baleia and Sahi.

FIVE: SPORTS – If you like sports then São Sebastião is the place for you. There are great places to sail [6], surf, dive [7], canoe [8], rappel, mountain bike and hike along trails [9]. You can also enjoy bathing in waterfalls [10] and take a boat trip [11] to some of the islands around São Sebastião.

SIX:  ISLANDS – The main islands are: Ilha das Couves, Arquipélago de Alcatrazes, Ilhas, Ilha do Gato, Montão de Trigo and  Ilha de Toque-Toque.

SEVEN - PORT – São Sebastião is home to one of the largest ports in Brazil and has a Petrobrás terminal.

EIGHT: HISTORIC CENTER – You will feel as if you are traveling in time as you walk along the streets in the historic center of the city. There are many buildings dating back to the XVII and XVIII centuries, such as the Igreja Matriz, the old Casa de Câmara, the Cadeia Pública, the Capela de São Gonçalo and the Fazenda Santana.

Matéria publicada na edição de número 42 da revista Maganews.

Fotos:  Celso Moraes e Felipe Queiroz (Prefeitura Municipal de São Sebastião).

Vocabulary

 1 Atlantic Forest – Mata Atlântica

2 to get the weekends going – para agitar os finais de semana

3 as the centuries went by  -  os séculos se passaram

4 to remain – permanecer

5 dolphin – golfinho

6 to sail - velejar

7 to dive - mergulhar

8 canoe – canoa / navegar em canoa

9 hike along trails – caminhar em trilhas

10 bathing in waterfalls – banho em cachoeira

11 boat trip – passeio de barco

World War, part II

Source: Actual English Magazine

Standard: American Accent

Language level: Basic

Important information, the both Second World War part I and part II use the same podcast, just update it after the part I. Did you like this post, please pass this information for friends twit or share on Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg, among others.

Word War part II

THE PACIFIC THEATER

1941 also marked another important episode in the chronology of the war with the inauguration of the Pacific Theater. Eyeing the British and French Colonies in Southeast, Asia, the Japanese Emperor Hiroito aligned himself with the Axis Powers. The United States obviously did not look too favorably on the Japanese expansionism. When the Japanese Imperial Arm occupied Indochina in July 1941, the US announced embargos of fuel and strategic materials to Japan. Japan’s response came on December 7 with the treacherous surprise attack against the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

The aggressive act demanded an immediate response from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who had been reelected president the year before with the promise that he would not drag the US into the war. The US President had to abandon his stance on political isolationism, declare war on Japan, and form a major coalition with the Allied Powers finally giving in to the repeated appeals of Winston Churchill, who curiously enough had become the British Prime Minister the year before due to his stance as a leader in the war against Germany.

In 1942, the tide began to turn and the Allied Powers won significant victories. Between October and November, the British waged the Second Battled of El Alamein in Egypt and successfully prevented the Nazis from taking control of the Suez Canal, a strategic path to the Middle East. It was also in this same year in July that the Battle of Stalingrad, a bloody campaign, would drag on until the following years. At risk was not only an important industrial center and access route to the Caucus region, but the city was also the namesake of the Soviet leader. The success of this and other military actions, such as the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, were vital for the Red Army to be able to reach Berlin.

Shortly after Kursk, with the triumph of the North African Campaign, the Allied Forces succeed in invading Italy. The advance of the enemy troops into their territory and the rising opposition to Mussolini, not only with the general populace but also within the government, forced the Italians to surrender. The Allied troops were able to take Rome on the 4^th of July in 1944, just two days later Operation Overlord was launched – the invasion of Normandy on D-Day in France, which would culminate in the liberation of Paris on August 25.

THE END OF WAR?

1945 sealed the destiny of the soldiers. Mussolini was captured and executed on April 28. Defeated, Hitler committed suicide two days later as The Red Army were advancing on Berlin, after having liberating several Nazi concentration camps and have revealed to the world the horrors of the Holocaust. Equally tragic would be the demonstration of the destructive power of the atomic bombs dropped by the Americans over the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on the 6^th and 9^th of August, and which eventually forced the surrender of Japan.

These two dark chapters in the history of mankind would become emblematic of the Second World War. There is, nevertheless, another event that may not seem so dramatic or reflect the brutal and deadly character of the conflict, but does, however, illustrate its impact on the course of world history –the division of Germany into four administrative zones controlled by the Allies – which in practice would become two (capitalist and communist). With the bipolarization o the world, expressed in the image of the Berlin Wall in the German Capital, came the pronouncement that the cease-fire would not be the end of the hostilities.

As Norman Davies observes, “if 1918 can be seen as the beginning of a hiatus in the middle of a major conflict, the same happened in relation to 1945. There are excellent reasons to consider the Cold War a continuation of unfinished business from the Second World War. In this case, it should be seen as Europe’s “75 year war” (1914-1989)…This could very well be the framework adopted by the historians of the future.

These are slave laborers in the Buchenwald concentration camp near Jena: many had died from malnutrition when U.S. troops of the 80^th Division entered the camp. Pvt. H. Miller, Germany, April 16, 1945.