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2021-01-22 06:58
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2021年1月22日发(作者:newtype)

中学生百科英语

4
——

Concepts&Comments
1
Navajo Sand Painting
2
Ceramics
3
Cave Paintings
4
Graffiti
5
The United Nations
6
Amnesty International
7
UNICEF
8
The Olympic Movement
9
Hawaii
10
Deserts
11
Antarctica
12
National Parks
13
Satellites
14
Comets
15
Motor Vehicles: The Pros and Cons
16
New Plants
17
Up in Smoke
18
Memory
19
Obesity: The New Epidemic
20
Can Fashion Be Hazardous to Your Health
1
Navajo Sand Painting
More than 500 years ago the ancestors of the Navajo people left the cold northern region that is now part of
western Canada and Alaska and migrated south to what is now the southwestern part of the United States.
The area in which the Navajo finally settled is mainly desert. It is a harsh environment that gets little rain.
The animals and plants that live there have had to adapt in order to survive in the unforgiving climate and
landscape.
When the Navajo arrived in the area, they too had to adapt to the harsh desert conditions in order to survive.
They had to learn to make use of the natural resources in their environment to provide for their shelter, food,
and other necessities. Over time, the Navajo became famous for the things they were able to create from the
natural resources at hand. One of the most famous Navajo creations is called sand painting. Most people
think of a painting as a work of art. For the Navajo, however, sand painting is not artwork. Rather, sand
painting is an important part of a religious ceremony. The making of a sand painting is part of a healing
ceremony that is supposed to restore the health and well-being of a sick person.
The only people who are allowed to create sand paintings are specially trained Navajo
men
different rocks. The rocks are then crushed and ground into sand. Traditionally, a Navajo singer and his
assistants make the sand painting on the floor of a small Navajo house called a hogan. Working under the
direction of the singer, the assistants take colored sand in their hands and drip it on the floor in a line. Using
different colors, they slowly make a picture.
The size of Navajo sand paintings varies. A small sand painting is less than a meter wide, while a large sand
painting can be over 6 meters wide. The number of people assisting the singer also varies. A small sand
painting may have 2 or 3 people working on it and take an hour to complete, while a large painting may


require 10 men and women and take all day to finish.
During the healing ceremony, the sick person moves onto the completed sand painting. The sick person sits
directly on the sand painting so that it can serve as a pathway for evil or illness to leave the person's body and
for goodness or health to return to it. This explains why the Navajo word for sand painting means
where the gods come and go.
and dab some of the sand on themselves so that the sand painting brings health and wellbeing into their lives
too.
At the end of the healing ceremony, it is imperative that the sand painting be destroyed. The Navajo believe
that something terrible will happen if they fail to destroy a sand painting properly. So, in the reverse of the
order in which it was made, the singer sweeps the painting away and returns the sand to the landscape.
Navajo singers make their sand paintings from memory, and they always make the same pictures in exactly
the same way. There are between 600 and 1,000 different pictures for sand paintings. At one point in history,
there was one singer for every 150 Navajos. Today, the ratio is much lower, with one singer for roughly every
2,200 people. One reason for this change is the extensive training required to perform the duties of a singer; it
can take as long as 14 years to train someone. A second reason for the change in ratio is that a singer can
train only one student at a time. This need for one-on- one training has limited the number of students who can
be trained.
While a true sand painting is part of a Navajo ceremony and lasts for only a short time, sand painting as a
permanent art form has also developed. The first permanent sand paintings appeared in the early 1900s.
These early pieces of art were actually tapestries rather than paintings made with sand. The tapestries were
woven by a respected Navajo singer named Hosteen Klah, who copied the pictures from sand paintings.
However, to avoid causing something terrible to happen by making a permanent picture, Klah never made the
picture exactly the same as the original. He would not use a Navajo picture without changing it a little. Before
long, tourists in the area saw Klah's weavings and asked to buy them. Klah finally agreed to sell one of his
weavings if the buyer promised never to put it on the floor or walk on it.
In the 1930s, the Navajo began creating another type of permanent sand painting. They made these
permanent paintings by slowly dripping colored sand onto glue-covered boards. Today, these sand paintings
are considered to be works of art rather than part of a religious ceremony. They are made by artists rather
than singers, and they appear in art shows and in art museums.
There is still controversy over the selling of sand paintings. Some Navajos say that sand paintings are part of
their religion and should not be sold. But others believe that the artists' changes to the pictures protect their
religious power.
(913 words)
2
Ceramics
The most ancient artifacts in our possession today were made out of clay many thousands of years ago. In
fact, much of what we now know about cultures of the past we learned by studying pieces of their clay dishes
and clay figures. Very few things made from other materials have survived to tell us about the cultures that
produced them.
Objects made from clay came to be called ceramics from the Greek word ceramics, which means
clay.
The most common types of ceramics are pottery, stoneware, and porcelain. To make pottery, for example,
clay is fired at about 500 C. Clay fired
°
at about 1200 C become
°
s stoneware. When white clay is fired at an
even higher temperature, it becomes porcelain. Baking the clay at such high temperatures actually changes
the structure of the clay so that it becomes permanently hard and almost indestructible. The art of making
pottery developed in many places around the world. Some of the earliest pieces of pottery were probably
made when people tried to strengthen baskets woven of grass and sticks. Some archeologists think that early
potters in China may have covered the inside of woven baskets with clay so that the baskets would hold


water. When the baskets were either placed on a fire or left there by mistake, the fire burned the grass away
and turned the baskets into hard, durable pots.
Early potters in different parts of the world found interesting ways to decorate their work to make it more
attractive. They scratched the surface of the soft clay to make decorative lines and designs. They also used
glazes, which are a special kind of paint, to make clay objects smooth, shiny, and colorful. The Egyptians
were already decorating their pottery with colors and designs about 5,000 years ago.
Similar styles began to spread throughout the Mediterranean, region. By 3,500 years ago, the people of the
Greek island of Crete were producing their own pottery decorated with designs and images of animals. These
designs survived thousands of years and can still be seen in examples of ancient Greek art. The pottery
makers of China were the first to learn to make porcelain, which is the finest and most fragile type of pottery. If
you hold a piece of porcelain up in the air, light will shine through it. The Chinese exported porcelain to
Europe, where it became highly valued. For many years, European potters tried to copy Chinese porcelain,
but it was not until 1710 that a German scientist finally learned how to make it. By the end of the 18th century,
other European countries were also producing porcelain, and today France and England produce some of the
finest porcelain in the world.
There are different ways to form a clay dish or bowl. The easiest method is to simply hollow out a clay ball,
using your hands. Another simple method is to roll the clay into a long
third method is to spread the clay around something. The invention of the potter's wheel more than 5,000
years ago introduced an entirely new way to form a clay object. With this method, the potter places some clay
in the center of a round, flat wheel that can turn very fast. As the wheel turns, the potter uses his or her hands
to shape the clay.
Using a potter's wheel makes it possible to form clay objects that are smoother and more uniformly round. A
clay object is usually decorated first and then baked. Baking the clay at very high temperatures makes it hard
and strong. Firing also makes the glaze stick to the pottery. When the firing is completed, the potter must
carefully remove the pottery from the oven and let it cool slowly. If it cools too quickly, it could crack and
break.
Over the years, clay objects have served many purposes. Obviously, one of the most common uses of pottery
is for household dishes. Because pottery is strong and waterproof, it makes an excellent dish tor carrying,
storing, cooking, and serving food. Fired clay has also been used to make bricks for building houses and to
make tiles tor covering floors. Ceramics are also incredibly heat resistant, so they can be used where metal
would melt or become weak. Today, ceramics are important in industry and engineering. One rarely discussed
use of ceramics is for burial ceremonies. In some cultures, special ceramic objects were buried along with the
dead person. Archeologists think these ceramic objects were made especially for burial ceremonies because
their decoration is elaborate. In some cultures, parts of a dead person's body were removed, placed in
ceramic vases, and then buried with the body. Ceramic objects showing a dead person's title and offices held
have also been found at burial sites.
Some people refuse to consider the making of ceramics an art form because the obj ects created are so often
useful things. At the same time, however, many of those useful ceramic things are extremely valuable. Some
are even kept in museums. In the country of Iran, ancient pottery is considered to be so valuable to the culture
that there are harsh punishments for anyone who tries to take ceramic artifacts out of the country. The
punishments range from paying money to time in jail. That is certainly a clear indication that ceramics are
valued by many people.
(925 words)
3
Cave Paintings
In December 1994, three amateur cave explorers


Jean-Marie Chauvet, Eliette Brunel Deschamps, and
Christian Hillaire

were investigating an area in southeastern France. On December 18, they noticed the
half-covered entrance to an unnamed cave. Although it didn't look like a very interesting cave, Eliette


Deschamps pushed herself through the small opening. To her surprise, she saw a huge cave below. The
three explorers returned to their truck to get a ladder, and even though it was already dark, they decided to go
down into the cave. Once there, they discovered a vast network of rooms. On the walls were some of the most
beautiful paintings they had ever seen.
The cave discovered on December 18, 1994, is now called Chauvet Cave, after one of the amateur explorers
who discovered it. Archeologists who inspected the cave paintings soon after they were discovered estimated
that the paintings were about 17,000 years old. A few months later, however, tests showed that three of the
animals in the paintings were at least 31,000 years old. That meant the paintings in Chauvet Cave were the
oldest existing cave paintings in the world.
There are more than 300 paintings in Chauvet Cave. Seventy-three of the paintings are of a type of lion that is
now extinct. Other paintings show panthers, horses, mammoths, wooly rhinoceros, and other animals. There
are also tracings of human hands as well as symbols such as dots forming a semicircle. Many of the paintings
are extraordinarily detailed. For instance, several of the pictures of lions show the varied patterns of whisker
spots that biologists today use to identify individual animals. The artists used the natural curves of the cave
walls to make the animals look real. They used shading and color (black, red, and yellow) to add depth to their
paintings. When the French archeologist Jean Clottes was asked about the cave paintings, he said,
deeply moved when I saw the paintings. They're as good as any art made anywhere in the world.
The paintings in Chauvet Cave were most likely done by a number of artists. Some of the paintings are
extraordinarily sophisticated. With simple lines and shading, the artists created exquisite pictures of wild
animals in action. Some of the paintings, however, are stiff and stylized, and others are quite rough and
amateurish. Some archeologists have suggested that the painters worked with assistants. Perhaps the
assistants made the rough paintings while trying to copy their teachers' paintings.
When the paintings in Chauvet Cave were discovered, they were perfectly preserved on the stone walls. No
sunlight had entered the cave from the time the paintings were made until Chauvet and his friends found
them. Unfortunately, the simple act of exposing paintings so that people can see them can cause the
paintings to disappear. This happened to the paintings in another cave


within six months of the opening of
the cave the paintings had vanished. Now scientists know that they must enter caves carefully and prevent
light and air from damaging the pictures.
Today, Chauvet Cave is closed to the public, because even the breathing of a large number of people could
damage the paintings.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Chauvet Cave is that it has forced archeologists to change their
ideas about art. For many years, archeologists believed that it took thousands of years for humans to
gradually learn how to draw and paint. Chauvet Cave showed that there were great artists 30,000 years ago.
Jean Clottes summed it up, saying,
art. Artistic capacity was one of the components of our species probably right from the start.
only one of many caves in the world that have been decorated by ancient paintings. In Australia, South Africa,
China and many other places, extraordinary ancient works of art have been found. Why did prehistoric people
make these paintings Perhaps they believed that painting the animals gave the artists special strength or
powers. Perhaps the paintings were part of a ceremony, or perhaps they were thought to hold some sort of
magic. The answer to this question will probably always remain a mystery. (700 words) 4 Graffiti A quiet
street, a blank wall, a can of spray paint and a young person goes to work writing graffiti. The term graffiti
means words or drawings scratched or painted on a wall. The word comes from the Greek term graphein ,
which means
people believe that certain types of graffiti have evolved into a genuine art form.
Many of the oldest existing examples of graffiti are from the ancient city of Pompeii on the western coast of
Italy. In the year 79, Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. Ash from the volcano buried the
city, preserving much of it for us to see today. Carved on the walls of Pompeii are many examples of graffiti.


Some of the graffiti are declarations of love, while others are insults. Some of the graffiti are complaints about
store owners who were cheating people, while others are political statements or rough drawings of people.
Although the messages differ, the graffiti have one important thing in common; they were all written without
the permission of the owner of the wall. For historians however, these graffiti are some of the tow available
sources of information about the lives of the common people of Pompeii and their everyday concerns.
While people have been writing graffiti on walls for thousands of years, in the 1960s a new type of graffiti
started appearing on city walls in the United States.
Some people called this type of graffiti
territory. Gang graffiti consisted simply of the gang's name, or
stay away. A gang's tag had to be distinctive and easy to make quickly but it was not meant to be artistic.
By the end of the 1970s, the practice of
connection to a gang were writing their names on flat surfaces all around the city. Their goal was to become
famous by getting their name on as many surfaces as possible. However, as more and more people got
involved in tagging, it became increasingly difficult for writers to get attention.
This led some writers to begin experimenting with ways to make their tags stand out. Some started making
their tags bigger and bolder, while others combined letters with pictures. As tags became increasingly
elaborate, individual styles could be identified.
From tagging, graffiti developed into something called graffiti art, or aerosol art. Graffiti artists combined their
unique letter styles with pictures to create large paintings that covered an entire wall or the entire side of a
subway car. During the 1970s and 1980s the subway cars of New York became a moving museum of art for
graffiti artists. The purpose of graffiti art, unlike that of gang graffiti, is self-expression and creativity. According
to one graffiti artist,
Today, most graffiti art is made with spray paint, although some artists also use brushes and markers. For
graffiti artists, just about anything can serve as a surface for their artwork, even rocks, roads, and billboards.
Of course not everyone likes or approves of the graffiti on city walls. In fact, most people think of creating
graffiti as vandalism rather than art. For the majority of people, doing graffiti without someone's permission is
not freedom of expression; it is arrogance. And the presence of graffiti in their neighborhoods makes many
people feel less safe. Seeing graffiti all around them makes many people feel that danger is just around the
corner.
In the 1980s, many cities started taking action against graffiti. The city of New York, for example, started a
campaign to get rid of graffiti on subway cars. By painting over the graffiti soon after they were made, the city
was able to discourage graffiti artists from decorating the subway cars. Then, in 1987, a new type or paint-
resistant subway car became available, making it impossible for graffiti artists to paint on the cars.
The city of Los Angeles bought several
around the city looking for graffiti and painting over them immediately. The city's goal was to discourage
graffiti artists by painting over their graffiti within 24 hours. Other cities have used protective coatings and
special building materials to prevent people from writing graffiti.
Although these solutions have been effective, they are very expensive.
Does this mean the end of graffiti Not quite. In some countries, such as Japan, England, and the United
States, graffiti artists are allowed to do their work on specially designated walls in a city. Graffiti art is shown in
museums, and in Australia, well-known companies sponsor graffiti competitions. There are also hundreds of
web sites dealing with graffiti art, as well as many books and instructional videos. And, of course, there are
still people who will try to leave their mark on someone else's wall.
(855 words)
5
The United Nations
In 1945 delegates from 50 countries met in San Francisco, California, to make plans for an organization called
the United Nations. World War II had just ended, millions of people had died, and there was destruction


everywhere. People hoped they could build a future of world peace through this new organization.
The charter of the United Nations (UN) states the four main goals and purposes of the organization. They are
1.
To work together for international peace and to solve international problems;
2.
To develop friendly relations among nations;
3.
To work together for human rights for everyone of all races, religions, languages, and of both sexes; and
4.
To build a center where nations can work together for these goals.
The United Nations has grown from an organization of 51 countries in 1945 to 191 nations in 2004. Today,
almost every country in the world is a member of the UN. Each country that joins the United Nations signs an
agreement that says:
1.
All members are equal.
2.
All members promise to solve international problems in a peaceful way.
3.
No member will use force against another member.
4.
All members will help the UN in its actions.
5.
The UN will not try to solve problems within countries except to enforce international peace.
The headquarters of the United Nations is in New York City. This is where the General Assembly, the main
body of the United Nations, meets every year from September to December. The General Assembly is made
up of representatives from each member country, who discuss issues related to peace and security and make
recommendations. However, the General Assembly does not have the power to enforce its recommendations.
A second UN body, the 15-member Security Council has the main responsibility for maintaining international
peace. Five members


Britain, China, France, the Russian Federation, and the United States


are
permanent members of the Security Council. The remaining 10members are elected by the General Assembly
and serve two-year terms. A third organ of the UN, the Economic and Social Council, is responsible for the
social and economic work of the UN.
Over the years, the United Nations has had some successes in its role of world peacemaker. It has negotiated
172 peaceful settlements and helped to end two wars. It has also helped to slow the spread of nuclear
weapons by inspecting nuclear facilities in 90 countries.
As a peacekeeper, the UN has also had a number of successes. Since 1945, UN peacekeeping forces have
been involved in 56 missions. They have supervised ceasefires and the withdrawal of troops, and they have
monitored elections. Over the years, roughly 130 nations have participated in the peacekeeping missions. In
1988, the UN peacekeeping forces received the Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, member nations have
been unwilling to give UN peacekeeping forces the independence and financial support they need to be even
more effective.
In evaluating the success of the UN, it is important to keep in mind that the organization has many functions in
addition to preventing or ending wars. The United Nations is really a
are working to provide a better life for people everywhere. One part of the UN family is UNICEF, an
organization that provides food, medical care, and many other services to poor children wherever they live.
Thanks to the efforts of UNICEF, the immunization rate of children in developing countries has jumped from 5
percent in 1974 to more than 80 percent today. Another part of the UN family is the World Health Organization
(WHO), which develops medical programs for people all over the world. In 1980, WHO announced that, after
13 years of work, it had succeeded in ridding the world of the disease smallpox.
To support its humanitarian efforts the UN employs thousands of people all around the world. They work as
planners to increase production in farming and industry. They provide medical services, improve education
programs, and spread scientific information. They develop programs that provide jobs and better living
conditions. They also help countries control their population growth.
The United Nations also organizes large international conferences, where people meet to discuss important
world issues. One conference was about the uses and ownership of oceans; another was about women. The
United Nations also designates a specific problem for people to focus on each year. For example, the year


2003 was declared the International Year of Fresh Water. During these special years, people work together to
find solutions to the designated problems.
Many people believe that the best way for the United Nations to work for world peace is through its
humanitarian activities. They hope that promoting contact and communication among people will make wars
less likely.
(791 words)
6
Amnesty International
In 1960, two students in Portugal were sentenced to seven years in prison. The reason They had made critical
remarks about their government. In England, a lawyer by the name of Peter Benenson read about this
incident and decided he had to do something. Benenson wrote a newspaper article called
Prisoners.
In the newspaper article, Benenson asked readers to j oin him in a year-long campaign against the
imprisonment of people for their political or religious beliefs. It was Benenson's hope that people would write
letters to government officials calling for the release of these prisoners. In the first months of the campaign,
people sent thousands of letters demanding the release of the prisoners. By the end of 1961, the campaign
had developed into a permanent international organization called Amnesty International, and it was already
working on the cases of 210 prisoners.
Amnesty International's primary goal is to obtain the release of
who have been imprisoned for their beliefs; they have neither used violence themselves nor encouraged
anyone else to use violence.
Toni Ambatielos, one of the six prisoners of conscience whom Benenson wrote about in 1961, was put in
prison for his trade union activities. Another one of the prisoners, Dr. Agostino Neto, was jailed for trying to
improve health care in his country.
In the 1960s, many Amnesty members formed small groups to
group adopted a prisoner of conscience, it concentrated on helping that specific prisoner. Members of the
group would regularly write letters to officials in the prisoner's government, and when possible, they would try
to help the prisoner's family. Today, there are more than 2,000 adoption groups, each focusing its efforts on
two or more prisoners.
As Amnesty International grew, it expanded its mission to include other victims of human rights abuse. Today
the organization is working to make sure all prisoners get a fair trial and to end all types of torture. It is also
involved in a major campaign to end the death penalty.
Amnesty International has become an effective organization in large part because of its impartiality and
reliability. To maintain its impartiality, Amnesty is careful to remain independent of all national governments. It
gets its money from individual contributions and special events. To maintain its reliability, Amnesty puts much
time, effort, and money into getting accurate information about prisoners. Research teams carefully check the
facts about human rights abuses.
Fact-finding teams interview prisoners, family members, witnesses, and government officials. This information
is used to create a profile with the facts about each person's imprisonment.
Amnesty International works to help individual prisoners; it does not try to change the governments that are
holding the prisoners of conscience. After some negative publicity in the late 1960s, Amnesty International
adopted a rule that members of the organization could not work on cases inside their own country.
The organization worried that members working in their own country would not be able to stay impartial. In
1977, Amnesty International was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the same year, Steve Biko, an African
anti- apartheid activist, was imprisoned for his political activities. While Biko was in prison, he was tortured and
eventually murdered for his beliefs. A popular musician named Peter Gabriel wrote a song called
protest his murder and to support the work of Amnesty International. Over 25 years later, when audiences
hear the song
helped by a number of other well- known musicians. To help the organization, the musicians gave concerts


and contributed their profits to Amnesty International.
The concerts gave the organization valuable publicity as well as financial support,and it was able to increase
the size of its staff and the number of offices worldwide.
In 2004, the United States chapter of Amnesty International released the Music for Human Rights CD with
some of the hottest musicians of the year and offered it for free to new members. The support of popular
musicians helped to inform young people and interest them in Amnesty International.
Amnesty International now has million members in 162 countries. It continues to petition for improvements in
prisons, the end of torture, and the release of prisoners of conscience. Amnesty members continue to
tirelessly write letters and hold benefits, vigils, and fundraisers for prisoners of conscience around the world.
And what happened to the six prisoners of conscience whom Benenson wrote about in 1961 All of them
eventually gained their freedom.
(782 words)
7
UNICEF
The acronym UNICEF stands for United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund. This organization
was created by the United Nations in 1946 to provide emergency help to children in post-war Europe and
China. In 1950, UNICEF's responsibilities were expanded to providing long- term help to children and mothers
in all developing countries. Three years later, UNICEF became a permanent part of the United Nations
system, and its name was changed to United Nations Children's Fund. Despite the name change, the
acronym UNICEF was kept, and today most people know of the organization by its acronym rather than its
name.
UNICEF works with the governments of individual countries to provide three kinds of services. It plans and
develops programs, trains people to work in these programs, and provides the supplies and equipment to help
the programs function.
The programs that UNICEF develops cover five main areas: immunization, education for girls, child protection,
early childhood development, and HIV/AIDS.
In the area of immunization, UNICEF has had many successes, but it still has much work to do. Among its
successes are the eradication of smallpox, the near eradication of polio, and a sharp decrease in the numbers
of deaths from measles and tetanus. However, there are still countries that do not provide routine
immunization, and in these countries diseases such as measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, tuberculosis,
and tetanus persist. According to UNICEF, more than 2 million children die each year from diseases that could
have been prevented by inexpensive vaccines.
A second goal of UNICEF is giving children the best possible start in life. In fact, more than half of UNICEF's
budget is used to help children in their first years of life by providing them with better health care, nutrition,
water, sanitation and education. But the needs of young children around the world are overwhelming.
According to UNICEF,
first five years of life, 26 will not be immunized against the basic childhood diseases, 19 will lack access to
safe drinking water and 40 to adequate sanitation, and 17 will never go to school.
cause the death of 11 million children under the age of 5. That means each day 30,000 children die, and most
of these deaths could be prevented.
One of the biggest challenges facing UNICEF today is HIV/ AIDS. Globally, there are now 42 million people
with HIV /AIDS; more than 3 million of them are children under the age of 15, and 12 million are young people
between the ages of 15 and 24. One of the primary reasons for the increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases
is ignorance about how the disease is spread. Surveys done in 60countries have revealed that the majority of
young people do not understand how HIV/ AIDS is transmitted from one person to another. To change this,
UNICEF focuses much of its attention on educating young people about the disease. In addition to its
educational programs, UNICEF is also involved in taking care of people with the disease and protecting them
from discrimination.
While much of UNICEF's work is now in long-term projects, it still plays a vital role in emergency situations. In


cases of natural disasters, such as floods and earthquakes, UNICEF is able to respond quickly to people's
needs, especially the needs of children. For example, when monsoon rains caused rivers in Bangladesh to
flood in 2004, millions of people were affected. The floods contaminated drinking water supplies, quickly
spreading disease. UNICEF was able to move in quickly with medical supplies and equipment to set up
sanitation systems. The organization's rapid response to disaster prevented the deaths of many children.
Again, when a tsunami hit countries in southeast Asia in 2004, UNICEF was able to rush relief assistance to
the area to help the survivors. In addition to providing safe drinking water in order to prevent the spread of
disease UNICEF was involved in helping thousands of children who were separated from or lost their parents
when the tsunami hit, as well as many more who were traumatized by the event.
How does UNICEF pay for all this Three- fourths of the organization's money comes from the contributions of
governments. The remaining one-fourth comes from individual contributions, the sale of UNICEF's greeting
cards and products, and special events held to collect money for the organization. For example, in 2004, a
chef in London decided he had to do something to help the victims of the tsunami. He organized an event
called UNICHEF in which more than 150 restaurants joined together to raise money for UNICEF's Tsunami
Children's Emergency Appeal. Restaurants participating in the UNICHEF event donated a large part of their
earnings. With the help of people and organizations like that, UNICEF will be able to continue helping children
around the world.
(809 words)
8
The Olympic Movement
The Olympic Movement encompasses organizations, athletes, and other persons who agree to be guided by
the Olympic Charter.
Who Belongs to the Olympic Movement
The Olympic Movement groups together all those who agree to be guided by the Olympic Charter and who
recognize the authority of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)


namely, the International
Federations (IFs) of sports on the program of the Olympic Games, the National Olympic Committees (NOCs),
the Organizing Committees of the Olympic Games (OCOGs), athletes, judges and referees, associations and
clubs, as well as all the organizations and institutions recognized by the IOC.
Birth of the Olympic Movement
When he announced in Paris, on a winter's evening in 1892, the forthcoming re-establishment of the Olympic
Games, Pierre de Coubertin was applauded, but nobody at the time imagined the scale of the project entailed
in reviving the ancient Olympic Games, appointing a committee in charge of organizing them, and creating an
international movement. The IOC was created on June 23, 1894; the first Olympic Games of the modern era
opened in Athens on April 6, 1896; and the Olympic Movement has not stopped growing ever since.
Olympism is a state of mind based on equality of sports which are international and democratic. It is a
philosophy of life, exalting and combining in a balanced whole the qualities of body, will, and mind. Goals of
the Olympic Movement
The goal of the Olympic Movement is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth
through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind, in a spirit of friendship, solidarity, and fair play. The
Olympic Movement is defined also by the numerous activities in which it engages, such as Promoting sport
and competitions through the intermediary of national and international sports institutions worldwide.
Cooperation with public and private organizations to place sport at the service of mankind.
Assistance to develop
Advancement of women in sport at all levels and in all structures with a view to achieving equality between
men and women.
Opposition to all forms of commercial exploitation of sport and athletes.
The fight against doping.
Promoting sports ethics and fair play.


Raising awareness of environmental problems.
Financial and educational support for developing countries through the IOC institution Olympic Solidarity.
sports for all people. This is surely a phrase that people will consider foolishly Utopian. That prospect troubles
me not at all. I have pondered and studied it at length, and know that it is correct and possible,
de Coubertin in 1919. The future proved him right.
(440 words)
9
Hawaii
If you travel 3,700 kilometers southwest from Los Angeles across the Pacific Ocean, you will reach the islands
of Hawaii, the 50th state of the United States.
This group of islands has a land area of only 16,700 square kilometers, stretched over 2,500 kilometers of
ocean. The eight main Hawaiian Islands are Niihau, Lanai, Kauai, Maui, Oahu, Molokai, Kahoolawe, and the
Big Island of Hawaii.
Not all of the Hawaiian Islands are popular tourist spots. In fact, one of them is uninhabitable and off-limits to
tourists. That's the island of Kahoolawe, the smallest of the Hawaiian Islands. Many years ago, this island was
covered with vegetation; today it is barren and inhospitable. The blame for this goes first to European settlers
who brought grazing animals to the island. When the animals finished eating all of the vegetation, nothing
remained to protect the soil from the Pacific winds. It's possible that as much as 2 million metric tons of soil
gets blown off the island each year. Kahoolawe was also used as a target by the . Navy, and today there are
still enough unexploded shells on the ground to discourage even the most foolhardy tourist. At present the
island is being restored, and scientists hope that someday Kahoolawe will be the beautiful place it once was.
A second rarely visited part of Hawaii is the island of Niihau, which is known as
privately owned island has fewer than 250inhabitants, and you need an invitation from one of them to be
allowed onto the island. The owner of Niihau raises cattle on his secluded ranch, and many of the people on
the island work for him. People say that there is no electricity on the island and that the inhabitants have
chosen to live in the traditional way in order to preserve traditional Hawaiian culture.
The remaining six Hawaiian Islands are open to tourists, though three of them attract far fewer tourists than
the others. Molokai is home to more native Hawaiians than any other island. This island boasts the highest
sea cliffs in the world and a wildlife park with rare animals from Africa and India. For many years, Molokai was
one of the most beautiful
island. But the only crime these people had committed was to suffer from Hansen's disease formerly known
as leprosy).
Until a treatment for the disease was discovered in the late 1940s, anyone suspected of carrying the disease
was sent to live in isolation on Molokai. Molokai is also home to the Kalokeoli Fishpond, which is an example
of the sophisticated aquaculture used on the island at least 700 years ago.
South of Molokai lies the island of Lanai. Lanai is a relatively dry island because the mountains on Molokai
block the rain clouds from reaching the island.
That doesn't mean Lanai is barren and infertile. Today, one-fifth of all Hawaiian pineapples come from this
island. The island of Kauai has the honor of being one of the wettest places on Earth, with an average of
1,240 centimeters of rain per year.
The remaining three islands, Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii, are all popular destinations for tourists. With its
wonderful surfing, beaches, and golf courses, Oahu draws the most tourists of all. Oahu also has the only
royal palace in the United States and the largest wind generator in the world. The island of Maui draws visitors
who want to see the world's largest inactive volcano, while the most daring tourists travel to the island of
Hawaii, which has the world's most active volcano. Hawaii is also the largest island in the group. In fact,
Hawaii is twice the size of the other seven islands combined. Hawaii also produces some of the world's best
coffee and macadamia nuts and one-third of the world's supply of pineapples.
Of all the states in the United States, Hawaii has perhaps the most ethnically diverse population, and that may


be a result of the way in which the islands were settled. The first people to make their home on the Hawaiian
Islands sailed there from other Pacific islands between the years 300 and 600. Much later, the English
explorer and mapmaker Captain James Cook sailed to the Hawaiian Islands. In 1778, Cook put the islands on
his maps, and before long whaling ships were stopping there for supplies. In the 1820s, missionaries from the
United States arrived to teach the Hawaiian people about Christianity. Some of the missionaries settled there
permanently and started farms to grow sugar and, later, pineapples. As the farms grew and more farm
workers were needed, the farm owners brought in workers from other countries. In 1852, workers arrived from
China, followed by an influx of Japanese workers in 1868 and workers from the Philippines in 1906.
Later, people from Korea, Portugal, and Puerto Rico came to work on the farms.
Over time, people from the different ethnic groups intermarried, handing down a rich mix of cultures to their
children and grandchildren. For example, a Hawaiian child might have a Chinese-Hawaiian mother and a
Portuguese-Filipino father.
Today about million people live in Hawaii, but only 10,000 are native Hawaiians.
Hawaii is known as the Aloha State. Aloha means
the average tourist is likely to say many times while visiting the Hawaiian Islands.
(910 words)
10
Deserts
They are some of the coldest places on Earth and some of the hottest. They exist on every continent except
Europe, and together they cover roughly one-third of the land on Earth. We call them deserts, and they all
have one thing in common


they get less than 250 millimeters of rain a year.
The world's largest and hottest desert spreads across North Africa from the Red Sea to the Atlantic Ocean,
covering more than 9 million square kilometers. It's called the Sahara, which means
But the Sahara was not always a barren wilderness. At one time, it was an area of lush vegetation with huge
river systems; cave paintings found in the area reveal that elephants, giraffes, and other animals once lived
there.
There is nothing static about deserts. The sizes and locations of the world's deserts are always changing.
Over millions of years, as the climate changed and mountains rose, new dry areas developed. But within the
last 100 years, deserts have been growing at a frightening speed. This is due. in part, to climate chance but
the greatest desert makers of all are humans.
The process of turning productive land into desert-like land is called desertification. Desertification takes place
slowly as small pieces of degraded land spread and merge together. Desertification can take place naturally
on the edges of existing deserts, or it can start in small patches hundreds of miles away from the nearest
desert. When there is a drought, for example, the winds and high temperatures dry the soil out. Eventually, the
topsoil is blown or washed away, and nothing can grow in the area. Unfortunately, these natural processes
are greatly accelerated by the activities of human beings.
The human activity most destructive to the soil is overgrazing. When there are too many animals eating the
vegetation in an area, the root systems of the plants are destroyed and the soil is left without a protective
cover. The unprotected soil can then be easily eroded. Any land that is cleared of vegetation becomes
vulnerable to desertification.
A second cause of desertification is improper irrigation. Farmers in many parts of the world divert water
supplies for their crops. However, one area's gain is another area's loss. In China's Xinjiang Autonomous
Region, for example, the building of dams and the withdrawal of water for irrigation have dried up the Tarim
River. This has caused the trees and other vegetation that acted as a barrier between the Taklimakan and
Kumtag deserts to die off. Now the two deserts are spreading toward each other, and they may eventually
merge.
Deforestation also contributes significantly to desertification. In developing countries, 90 percent of the people
use wood for cooking and heating. However, cutting down trees for firewood leaves the land exposed to the

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