Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis

Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Crisis

On March 11, 2011, an earthquake struck off the coast of Japan, churning up a devastating tsunami that swept over cities and farmland in the northern part of the country and set off warnings as far away the west coast of the United States and South America. Recorded as 9.0 on the Richter scale, it was the most powerful quake ever to hit the country.

As the nation struggled with a rescue effort, it also faced the worst nuclear emergency since Chernobyl; explosions and leaks of radioactive gas took place in three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station that suffered partial meltdowns, while spent fuel rods at another reactor overheated and caught fire, releasing radioactive material directly into the atmosphere. Japanese officials turned to increasingly desperate measures, as traces of radiation were found in Tokyo's water and in water pouring from the reactors into the ocean.

By July, the count of dead and missing was above 22,000. Tens of thousands of people remained housed in temporary shelters or evacuated their homes due to the nuclear crisis.

The crisis also disrupted Japan's already turbulent political life, as Mr. Kan staved off a vote of no confidence only by promising to resign once the worst of the crisis was over. And it gave insight into the deep divisions between Mr. Kan's government and the alliance of bureaucrats and corporations that has dominated Japanese public life for decade. A onetime grass-roots activist, Mr. Kan struggled to manage the nuclear crisis because he felt he could not rely on the very mechanisms established by his predecessors to respond to such a crisis. In August, he was forced to resign.

In interviews and public statements, some current and former government officials have admitted that Japanese authorities engaged in a pattern of withholding damaging information and denying facts of the nuclear disaster — in order, some of them said, to limit the size of costly and disruptive evacuations in land-scarce Japan and to avoid public questioning of the politically powerful nuclear industry.


Words Difficult to Pronounce

 tsunami     [tsoo-nah-mee]
 nuclear        [noo-klee-er, nyoo-]
 Richter         [ rik-ter ]
 reactors       [ree-ak-ter]
 earthquake  [urth-kweyk]
 northern       [nawr-thern]

VOCABULARY

1.  churning [chur-ning] - to shake or agitate with violence or   

                                       continued motion
 Example: The storm churned the sea.

2. devastating  [dev-uh-stey-ting] - to lay waste; to render 
                                                           desolate; to overwhelm
Example: The invaders devastated the city.

3. set - off - triggered; initiate; precipitate 

Example:  The howl from inside the haunted house set - off the children running into different direction.

4. desperate [des-per-it, -prit] - rash, frantic

Example: Incarceration would be a last desperate necessity, not an easy first choice.

5.  staved [steyvd] -  break to pieces; splinter; smash

Example: Tens of billions of dollars of outsiders' money staved off 
                  a catastrophe.

Discussion 

1. What are the measures that your country implemented to prepare for an earthquake devastation?

2. What  are the things that you do to prepare for any disaster?

How music helped Gabrielle Giffords relearn words

How music helped Gabrielle Giffords relearn words

  

Do you know of any politicians in your country who has been injured in an accident? What did her doctors do to help her recover from the accident?

In January, when Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded, it was unclear whether she would fully recuperate or regain her ability to talk. Giffords was injured on the left side of her brain near the section called Broca’s area that controls language.
However, recovery specialists have started using a unique, unexpected therapy to help patients recover their language ability: music. Even though we understand and create language on the left side of our brain, we understand music primarily on the right side. The way the brain relates to music is very unique. When we have a song stuck in our head or listen to a song by imagining it, our brain is very active as if we were really listening to that song. Neuroscience research has shown that music has an incredible impact across the entire brain. For example, earlier this year scientists in Montreal found that music actually creates a surge of dopamine, the neurotransmitter that communicates pleasure, scientifically proving why music makes you feel good. To read more about this study, see Jonah Lehrer’s article in Wired.
Because music relies on pitch and rhythm in addition to speech, it is interpreted in different parts of the brain, not solely the music or language areas. When rehabilitating injured patients like Giffords, rather than trying to redevelop the language area directly, this new therapy retrains the connections in the brain and creates a new language area in the music region of the brain. Giffords’s music therapist, Meghan Morrow compared to this approach to a highway detour in an interview with ABC News.
Learn more about language and the brain here.
In his book Musicophilia, neurologist Oliver Sacks traces other ways that music affects our brains. Music triggers long-lost memories in Alzheimer’s patients, and it can have a remarkable impact on Parkinson’s patients as well, including helping them regain movement. In a more mundane example, teachers also use the elements of music to help their students learn. As early as the ABCs, students acquire knowledge more efficiently when it’s tied to song.

VOCABULARY AND PRONOUNCIATION


1. RECUPERATE [ri-koo-puh-reyt, -kyoo-] - to recover from sickness or exhaustion; regain health                                                                               or  strength ;  to recover from financial loss.

    Example : The doctor who checked on her condition is not sure if she will recuperate from her sickness.

  

2. SPECIALIST  [spesh-uh-list] -   a person who devotes himself or herself to one subject or  to a                                                        particular branch of subject or pursuit; a medical practitioner who 

                                                       devotes attention to a particular class of diseases, patients, etc

                              
Example : When she finishes medical school, she dreams to continue to become a specialist of the brain.

3.AREA [air-ee-uh]   - any particular extent of space or surface; part; a geographical region; tract; any  

                                      section reserved for a specific function 

Example : The business area is located near the bus terminal.

4. NEUROTRANSMITTER  [noor-oh-trans-mit-er, -tranz-, nyoor-] - any of several chemical substances, as epinephrine or acetylcholine, that transmit nerve impulses across a synapse to a postsynaptic element, as another nerve, muscle, or gland.

Example : Epinephrine is one of the chemicals found in the brain that acts as a neurotransmitter.

5. MUNDANE  [muhn-deyn, muhn-deyn] - of or pertaining to the world, universe, or earth; common; 

                                                                       ordinary; banal; unimaginative

 

Example:  She is continually bothered by the mundane things in this world. 

DISCUSSION

 

1. What kind of therapy did Gabrielle Giffords' recovery specialist used to help her regain her ability to speak?

 

2. How did music help in her therapy?