DRIVE 12/2012

DECEMBER 2012

MAGA ZINE FOR S TUDENTs OF ENGLISH / LE VEL a 2– b1

T H r o u g h

y o u r

e n g l i s h

The End of the World 2012 – The year of the apocalypse

Glasses Up! Or down?

What’s inside cola drinks

One Direction

Perhaps in Prague next Autumn 2013!

open your mouth, please!

Interview with a dentist

CD with Christmas stories inside!

Our partner for 2012/13

MAGA ZINE FOR STUDENTs OF ENGLISH / LE VEL a2– B1

T H r o u g h

Tip

na vánoční dárek

y o u r

Contents / issue december /20 1 2 Drink, Drank, Drunk

Find out what and how much our readers drink.

Glasses Up! Or Down?

Více informací na telefonu +420 608 539 129 nebo na webových stránkách:

Chinese Construction Wonders

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4

econom y

6

tec hnolog y

7

Read how the economic crisis is affecting the construction industry.

Look at two examples of special Chinese buildings.

Christmas Panda

8

true story

Read and listen to this slightly different Christmas story.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year?

photo story

9

c ulture / reading

10

Joe is getting ready for Christmas.

Hi There, Bookworms

Read and listen about some simplified books and compete to win one.

: období

Our p�

health

Find out what is good and bad about cola drinks.

Road to Euro 2012

�� pouri�� � � � o D�ř�rd�pl�tn� č�sopisu D

3

O pinion Poll

Předplaťte časopis Drive svým blízkým a pod stromeček jim dejte náš dárkový poukaz.

www.drive.gradus.cz/ predplatne

e n g l i s h

for 20

12 /13

.c� �dus

One Direction

12

c ulture /c ele b rities

Is there anything you don’t know about this boy band?

The End of the World

planet/animals

14

WO R K / PR O F E S S I O N S

16

Are you getting ready for the apocalypse?

Open Your Mouth, Please! p. 18 1a), 2b), 3c), 4a), 5a), 6c), 7c), 7c) p. 6 1T, 2F, 3T, 4T

Solutions Web task – extra exercises on our website www.drive.gradus.cz.

Read our interview with a dentist (and hurry to buy an interdental brush).

Christmas Time Is Here!

T E S T YO U R S E L F

18

Check whether you know everything about Christmas.

Listening web task – extra listening exercises on our website.

CD recording – text is recorded on the included CD.

Předplatné 2012/2013 Časopis Drive vychází měsíčně, objednat si můžete: na www.drive.gradus.cz / mailem objednávky.drive@gradus.cz telefonicky na čísle +420 608 539 129 Předplatné listopad–červen (8 čísel) 200 Kč + poštovné 160 Kč.

CELOROČNÍ BONUSY/HROMADNÉ OBJEDNÁVKY 10–17 ks = 1 výtisk zdarma 18–30 ks = 2 výtisky zdarma + poštovné zdarma 31–45 ks = 3 výtisky zdarma + poštovné zdarma 45< ks = 4 výtisky zdarma + poštovné zdarma

Nejsme plátci DPH.

This issue contains a CD!

difficulty

O p i n i o n Po l l

On pages 4–5, we report on how healthy (or unhealthy) some drinks are.

We asked our readers about their “drinking” habits:

What is your favourite drink? What do you drink the most? How much do you drink a day? How much and how often do you drink cola?

Katka, 15 years My favourite drink is water – I drink it every day.

I usually drink two litres a day and if I don’t, I get a headache. I don’t like sweet drinks very much, so I only drink cola about once or twice a month.

Martin, 19 years I don’t drink a lot, usually about one and a half litres.

My favourite drink is tapwater,1 but I also drink tea, especially for breakfast.

I don’t drink cola a lot, just during the summer.

Karolina, 17 years I have to drink a lot because I am an athlete.

I drink tea in the morning and evening, and during the day I drink still water. During races2 I drink cola, which has been boiled3 and has no bubbles. And sometimes I drink cola at parties.

Barbora, 16 years My favourite drink is Kofola, but I drink it rarely.4 I drink water most because it’s very good for sports people. I try hard to drink 1.5–2 litres a day, even if I’m not thirsty.

I don’t drink cola at all, but I drink Kofola once a month.

Water!

Water? Where?

did yo u k n ow ?

If you don’t drink enough, you get dehydrated; you feel tired and sleepy, you have a headache, and you have dry lips and skin. So, how much should we drink? At normal temperature, when you are not doing sports or sweat­ing, 5 you should drink about half a litre of water per 15 kg of your weight. For example: If you weigh 60 kg, then 60 ÷ 15 = 4 and 4 x 0.5 = 2.

You should drink 2 litres of water a day.

Discuss

And how much should you drink?

tap-water – voda z kohoutku V o c races [reɪsɪs] – závody 3 has been boiled [bɔɪlt] – vařila se 4 rarely [ˈreəlɪ] – vzácně, výjimečně 5 to sweat [swet] – potit se 1

abulary

2

drive / December 2012

| 3

H e a lth

difficulty

Glasses Up! Or Down?

What are all the bitter, sweet, bubbly, brown drinks good for?

When Africans started chewing1 kola nuts and South American Indians started chewing coca leaves*, they had no idea how much they would inspire our modern Western civilization. Now these drinks are everywhere, but where did they come from? / Ryan Kelley, USA

There has been a lot of talk about how healthy or unhealthy cola drinks are. Before we look “inside” the drinks, let’s go back in time a bit.

The history of cola drinks The first extract of coca was mixed with wine in Corsica in 1863. This medicine was called coca wine and it contained 2 alcohol and cocaine.

In 1886, an American pharmacist

4 | Health

added3 kola nut extract and sugar to the coca wine. He sold this alcoholic “medicine” with cocaine and caffeine in his pharmacy. Since there was prohibition in the USA at that time, he soon stopped adding wine and added more caffeine, and a new soft drink was born! It contained sugar, caffeine and coca, and people believed it cured4 many different diseases, like headaches and impotence.

In 1888, soda was used instead of still water, creating a new fizzy** soft drink. Around 1904, producers started to use cocaine-free coca leaf * extracts.

Cola drinks today With no alcohol and no cocaine, what is left? Each maker has its own recipe with a “secret ingredient”,5 but all these drinks have some things in common:

1. They are brown

4. They are bitter

All colas are made using caramel coloring. Unfortunately, it’s not the caramel you can make at home; this caramel is chemically produced.

Some organizations say that this caramel coloring causes6 cancer.7

The bitter taste is made with different flavorings. Most cola drinks contain caffeine (except for their “caffeine-free“ alternatives) which makes them bitter, too. Caffeine acts as a stimulant and is the world’s most-consumed psychoactive drug. So, it will wake you up for a moment, but too much caffeine can cause high blood pressure,9 addiction,10 and other problems.

Taking more than 250 mg of caffeine a day is dangerous, so don’t

2. They are sweet Yes, very sweet; in one can,*** you usually drink as much sugar as in about eight sugar cubes. Would you put so much sugar in your tea or coffee? The most common sweeteners are corn syrup and sugar. There are also “diet” or “sugar-free” cola drinks, but they are sweetened with artificial sweeteners (e.g. cyclamates or aspartame), which can cause cancer.

drink more than 1.7 liters of Kofola or 2.5 liters of Coca-Cola per day!

Cola drinks are refreshing, stimulating, and taste good, but after learning the risks of being overweight, having cancer, bad teeth, and other health problems, are they worth it? If you decide not to take the risks, don’t throw out the bottle in your fridge. Save it, and take a few spoonfuls when you feel sick; use it as a medicine, as it was used 120 years ago.

DID YO U KN OW ?

Kola nuts The kola nut has a bitter taste and contains caffeine, used in some cola drinks. It is chewed in many West African cultures. Kola nuts help minimize feelings of hunger and treat coughing and asthma. Chewing kola nuts also makes your teeth brown.

3. They are sour In the past, pharmacists used lemon or lime juice to make their “cola medicine” sour. But now, phosphoric acid and citric acid make the drink sour. There are discussions about the dangerous effects of these acids on our bodies.

But they definitely harm your teeth.

Did you know that phosphoric acid is used in dentistry to etch8 teeth?

Coca leaves Coca leaf extract (but without the cocaine!) is used in Coca-Cola for flavor. Coca acts as a stimulant; when you chew it, you don‘t feel hungry, thirsty, or tired, and you don‘t feel pain as much.

But you don‘t get much cocaine from chewing leaves. Chewing coca leaves doesn‘t have the same effect as using pure11 cocaine powder.12

Language notes * leaf (list) – leaves (listy) ** fizzy = bubbly *** can (Am. E.) = tin (Br. E.)

Vocabul ary

to chew [tʃuː] – žvýkat 2 to contain [kənˈteɪn] – obsahovat 3 to add [æd] – přidat 4 to cure [kjʊə] – léčit 5 ingredient [ɪnˈgriːdɪənt] – přísada 6 to cause [kɔːz] – způsobit 7 cancer [ˈkænsə] – rakovina 8 to etch [etʃ] – leptat 9 high blood pressure – vysoký krevní tlak 10 addiction [əˈdɪkʃən] – závislost 11 pure [pjʊə] – čistý 12 powder [ˈpaʊdə] – prášek 1

Web task

Task Compare these three products.

In one can (354 ml)

Caramel coloring, E150d

Sugar

Phosphoric acid, E338

Citric Caffeine acid, E330

Coca-Cola

yes

39 g

yes

yes

34 mg

Pepsi Cola

yes

41 g

yes

yes

38 mg

Kofola

yes

28 g

no

yes

53.1 mg

1. Which contains the least caffeine?

2. Which contains the least sugar?

3. Which has the most caffeine?

4. Which has the most sugar?

5. Which doesn’t contain phosphoric acid?

6. Which is the least harmful for your teeth? Why?

drive / December 2012

| 5

Economy

difficulty

Road to Euro 2012 Construction industry1 and economic crisis The construction industry means big business. That’s a lot of houses, buildings, roads, bridges, towers and all the other things that we build to keep2 our cities and societies running. How is the economic crisis affecting3 the construction industry? / Seb Noltorp (AUS)

The economy affects every industry. In the construction industry, the situation can be very complicated. We can see both the decline and growth* of this industry in different countries at the same time. In some European countries, for example Ireland and Spain, about 15–25 % people working in construction have lost their jobs as a result of the crisis. At the same time, China has seen a big increase in new construction projects over the last ten years.

that COVEC quickly went over budget6 and they had to stop the project. The Polish government7 then had to hire8 a European construction company to complete the highway for a much higher price.

COVEC was not the only company to lose a lot of money. Many smaller Polish construction companies have had trouble as well. They were sub-contracted9 by COVEC, but COVEC hasn’t paid them. Some of these sub-contractors have gone bankrupt.10

But Chinese construction companies are not always successful. Look at this example: To prepare for Euro 2012, Poland had to modernize its highway system. They opened a tender (competition) for the highway work and it was a Chinese company called China Overseas Engineering Group (COVEC) which won the contract.4 They got a contract to build a section of highway for USD 450 billion, which was only about half of what was estimated.5 But the price of materials and transport costs (oil prices) increased. These, and a number of other reasons, meant

As you can see, the world of construction can be very complicated and tough for everyone. However, China is becoming a rich country and can afford11 very expensive projects. Let’s hope Europe will soon be able to afford such interesting and expensive projects soon, too.

Language notes * decline X growth – pokles X nárůst ** GDP – Gross Domestic Product (hrubý domácí produkt)

Vocabul ary construction industry [kənˈstrʌkʃən ˈɪndəstrɪ] – stavební průmysl 2 to keep running – udržet v provozu 3 to affect [əˈfect] – zasáhnout, ovlivnit 4 a contract/to contract [ˈkontræct] – smlouva/ nasmlouvat 5 to estimate [ˈestɪmeɪt] – odhadovat 1

6 | Economy

1234

The construction industry in numbers

• It is estimated that 10 % of the world’s GDP** comes from the construction industry.

• The construction industry employs around 7 % of the world’s workers.

• The construction industry uses about 40 % of the entire world’s energy.

(The numbers are taken from: www.industryleadersmagazine.com)

Task to go over budget [ˈbʌdʒɪt] – překročit rozpočet 7 government [ˈgʌvəmənt] – vláda 8 to hire [haɪə] – najmout 9 to sub-contract [sʌb ˈkontræct] – zadat zakázku dodavateli 10 to go bankrupt [ˈbæŋkrəpt] – zkrachovat 11 to afford [əˈfɔːd] – dovolit si, dopřát si

True or False?

6

1. The economic crisis affects the construction industry.

2. COVEC is a French company.

3. COVEC won the tender to construct highways in Poland.

4. COVEC had to stop the project.

Solution on page 2

Discuss

Are there any big construction projects where you live/in your country?

Web task