Recycling Aluminum

17. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Economy, Environment · Tags: , ,

Aluminum is one of the materials that can be used over and over again. About two-thirds of all the aluminum that has ever been made still exists.  Although it takes a lot of power to create aluminum, when you get the oxygen out of the metal you can use it over and over again. Aluminum is pressed into bales and taken to smelters where it is heated and turned into new aluminum sheets for cans. The life cycle of such an aluminum can is about 60 to 90 days.

 

http://youtu.be/AOpGhAdQFEY

Words

  • aluminum oxide = aluminum is mixed together with oxygen
  • bale = to press something into a block
  • beverage = something to drink
  • circulate = to go through a cycle and come back again
  • conveyor = a band of rubber on which you put things  to move them from one place to another; you find it in factories
  • crusher = a machine that presses things together
  • cut = make lower
  • demand = need for …
  • dump = to let something fall down on the floor
  • greenhouse gas = gas, like carbon dioxide or methane, that cannot escape from our atmosphere; it is one of the causes of global warming
  • in existence = here: is still used
  • incredibly = unbelievable
  • life cycle = the different phases in something’s life
  • massive = very big
  • melt = to make something so hot that it becomes a liquid
  • mill = factory
  • press = machine that makes something flat
  • remove = take away
  • required = needed
  • scrap = bit
  • smelter= machine that removes the aluminum from the other material
  • stable = does not change
  • staggering = surprising
  • strip = take away
  • virgin = something in a natural state

Speed of Light – How the Earth Was Formed

16. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Science · Tags: ,

The speed of light was discovered over 300 years ago.  Because of this discovery we can see back in time. The further we look out the further back in time we see. When we see our sun we see what it looked like 8 minutes ago. It takes light from Jupiter half an hour to reach the Earth. Light from the closest star takes 4 years to get to our planet.

 

Words

  • big bang = a theory that says the universe began with one single big  explosion and that the pieces are still flying apart
  • cluster = when many objects form a small group in an area
  • discovery = something new that someone finds out about
  • distance = space
  • distant = faraway
  • dust = very small particles of dirt
  • edge = far, far away from the center
  • galaxy = one of the large group of stars that make up the universe
  • minor = very small
  • speed = how fast something is
  • stare = to look at something in a very concentrated way

South Africa’s Threatened Rhinos

16. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Africa, Animals, World · Tags: , ,

About 80% of Africa’s rhinos live in South Africa. But they are more and more threatened by poachers. They hunt rhinos for their valuable horn which they can sell to Asia at high prices. Most rhinos are killed by well-organized gangs.

 

Words

  • against the odds = difficulties which make success unlikely
  • armed = to have weapons
  • auction = a place where things are sold to people who offers the most money
  • concern = worry
  • conservation = the protection of animals
  • demand = if you want to have something
  • dirty w ork = here: to kill the animals
  • disbelief = doubt, distrust
  • footage = film
  • former = having a certain position in the past
  • game = wild animals and birds that are hunted
  • horn = the hard pointed thing that grows on the heads of animals
  • joy = pleasure
  • poacher = someone who illegally hunts wild animals
  • pride = feeling of pleasure
  • riddled = full of
  • security = safety
  • stand no chance = does not have a chance
  • suspect = a person who you think has committed a crime
  • tame = not wild any more because you have trained them
  • target = to choose something to attack
  • trial = when a judge and a jury decide if a person is guilty or not
  • vet = someone who is trained as a doctor for animals
  • victim = someone who suffers because something bad has happened
  • vital = very important
  • well-equipped = to have all the things you need to do a job
  • wildlife reserve = an area in which wild animals live and are protected

 

Scientists Warn Severe Weather Will Increase in the Future

16. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Environment · Tags:

Scientists around the world predict more extreme weather in the future. Flooding in Pakistan is only one weather phenomenon with more to come. Because the climate is getting hotter more rain is expected over the next few years, US climatologists expect extreme weather conditions to become normal around the world.

 

Words

  • ambassador = an important person who represents his or her country in the world
  • circumstances = situation
  • contribute = to help make something happen
  • devastating = badly damaging or destroying
  • divert = to keep from doing something
  • evidence = proof
  • flood relief = to help people who suffer from floods
  • foreseeable = near
  • greenhouse gas = a gas like carbon dioxide that is in the atmosphere and does not let heat out
  • increase = to become more
  • insist = to say that something is not true, even if other people think so
  • insurgent = a group of people fighting against their own government
  • likelihood = probability , chance
  • man-made pollutants = material and substances that people make that makes the atmosphere dirty
  • peak = height, climax, highest point
  • security = safety
  • severe = bad, extreme
  • source = where something comes from
  • take adavantage = to use a situation to do or get what you want
  • torrential = very heavy, strong
  • unfortunately = when you talk about something that you wish were not true
  • unprecedented = never happening before
  • unpredictable = something that you cannot foresee
  • vulnerable = weak

 

Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico

16. May 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: Environment · Tags: ,

On April 20, 2010 an oil drilling rig exploded off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico. 11 people were killed and up to now hundreds of millions of gallons of oil have spilled into the sea.

When the oil rig exploded the platform and the pipe connecting it with the well head were dragged into the sea. BP has three options to stop the oil leaks.

 

 

Words

  • barrel = 159 liters
  • drag = pull
  • drilling rig = the platform from which oil is pumped out of the earth
  • engineer = a person who builds roads, bridges, machines and other technical objects
  • flow = the movement of a liquid
  • leak = hole in the pipe
  • massive = big
  • option = possibility
  • relief well = a second pipe through which the oil could be pumped to the surface
  • reveal = show
  • riser = long pipe that reaches form the platform to  the seabed
  • several = many
  • shutoff valve = a part of the pipe which you can turn on and off and which controls the flow of oil
  • stem =stop
  • submarine = a boat that can travel underwater
  • twist = turn around, bend
  • well head = where the pipe goes into the earth
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