READING AND SPEAKING
I've never seen, anything like, it

Pre-reading task
Look at the photos, the
Captions, and the titles of
the articles. Find some
Strange facts about...
... Professor Mangle-Wurzle
... Antarctica
... The black box
Find other words for: mad strange of the reading
I decide which article you want to read in detail.
What questions do you want answered when you read the article? Where does he live? How many people live in Antarctica? Why is it called 'the black box'?
2 Now read the article.

Antarctica

Antarctica is the fifth largest of the earth's seven continents. During the winter it doubles in size because of the large amount of sea ice that forms at its edges. The names Arctic and Antarctica come from arktos - Greek for 'bear'. This refers to the constellation 'The Great Bear', which can always be seen in the north.

• Antarctica h more than 95% covered in ice* and it curtains about 90% of the world's fresh water. Because of its thick ice cover, it is the highest of all continents. The snow and ice of Antarctica are the purestin the world. The general isolation from the remainder of the world has allowed it to avoid the industrial pollution that is common to the other continents.
• Antarctica is the coldest continent. The lowest temperature ever recorded anywhere on earth, -88.3°C, was in 1960, at the Soviet Union's Vostok Station.

Antarctica can be classified as a true desert, as the equivalent of just 7cm of water falls annually. It hasn't rained at the South Pole since the end of the Pleistocene era, 1,000,000 years ago. The interior has almost continuous daylight during the summer and continuous darkness during the winter.

• It has only two species of flowering plants, and virtually no flying insects. The surrounding ocean, however, abound in living creatures. Large numbers of whales feed on the rich marine life. Seals and birds live and breed, but the most prominent inhabitant of the Antarctic is the penguin, of which there are overtwelve million.

Today, around a thousand people cali Antarctica home for several years at a time. Braving winds that freeze the flesh, the Constant threat of snowblindness, and the intense, unremitting cold, they are there for the extraordinary scientific treasures that await discovery. The tee retains ancient atmospheric samples and meteorites; the skies offer a direct line to space. This is the one place style untouched by man that is a barometer for the potentially ruinous impact our species is having on the planet.

Antarctica: Glossary

KING OF THE ECCENTRICS

Could it be that being completely crazy is not only good fun but good for your healtDr David Weeks, an American psychologist who works at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, is extremely well qualified to comment on eccentricity.

One of his most striking findings was the good health that eccentrics enjoy. 'Almost all of them visit the
doctor only once every eight or nine years.' They are also a happiest. They are very curious about everything. This gives them a goal in life, which is a recipe for happiness.'
of all the eccentrics he has come across, Dr Weeks believes that Professor Jake Jonathon Zebedee
Mangle-WurzSe is the most remarkable. 'He displays all the usual characteristics
- he's obstinate, non-conformist, and creative - but he's more extreme than my other cases.'
The professor lives on the outskirts of Huddersfield in his very own kingdom of Wurzie-land. He rarely ventures out of his kingdom except to perform eccentric feats, such as his famous drive from Leeds to Huddersfield, in reverse.
He is something of a celebrity, giving free-guided tours to people from all over the world. He rejects all religious belief and he preaches daily, trying to convert his kingdom to
atheism. The only problem with this
Pain is that all his followers are sheep.
The professor has just divorced his third wife and claims he is delighted.
'It's the best Christmas gift live ever had.' This development might have been predicted by Dr Weeks' research. His study shows that there are more marriages, separations, and divorces among eccentrics than in the general
populations. 'They admit that they are people who are difficult to work with and live with. They often feel that they are ahead' of their time, and that it is the rest of the world that is completely so insane, not themselves.'

King of eccentrics: Glossary

The Orange Black Box

The mysterious machine that records crashes

There's a story that is retold whenever a plane crash hits the headlines; if only the aircraft were made of the same material as the black box, then everybody would survive.
The legendary invincibility of the famous box is familiar to most of us. Yet for such a well-known object, it's remarkably mysterious. How many of us know that the 'black' box is in fact painted fluorescent orange?
'It was originally called a black box in the days when anything to do with electronics was new and strange,' explains Pete Cook, from a flight recorder manufacturer. They're painted orange nowadays to make
them more easily visible in the event of a crash.'
There are two kinds of black box;the flight data recorder (FDR) and 25the cockpit voice recorder (CVR).
Both are normally stored at the rear of an aircraft,where the fuselage meetsthe upper tail fin -the 30 art of planes that has the best survival record.
The same principle applies to human passengers - you're safer at the back.
Despite their reputation, neither box is in fact indestructible. However, they can withstand a temperature of l,100°C for 30 minutes and 250°C for 10 hours. « They must also be able to survive an impact force of 3,500g - that's 3,500 times the force of gravity. -To take this kind of stream, flight ""' recorders are encased" in two « thicknesses of titanium. Memory chips hold the flight data. While FDRs make an electronic record of the plane's mechanical performance, CVRs record the 50 communications between the crew. 'After a crash in water, they send out a sonar 'ping^ so that they can be found,' says Cook. 'But they are still only recovered in 80 per cent 55 of accidents.'

The Orange Black Box: Glossary

Comprehension check ?>,
1 Did you find the answers to
your questions?
2 Here is a list of questions that
relate to the three articles. Put a
tick (/) next to the questions
that go with your article, then
answer them.
a What is the story that is told
cagai and again?
b What is the origin of its name?
cHow is he typical of his kind?
d Why is there so little pollution?
e How does he spend his days?
f Where are they stored? Why?
g How does he feel after his
third divorce?
h Is it impossible to destroy them?
i Is there much plant and
animal life?
j What living creatures are there in
the seas around?
k How are they made?
1 Why are they happy people?
m Why is the area special from a
scientific point of view?
n What do these people think of the
rest of the world?
o Are they always found after a crash?
3 Find people who read the other
stories. Tell them about what
you read. Together, answer all
the questions.
What do you think?
Which article do you find most interesting? Which article do you find most remarkable?


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