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?

Crisis Nursery

Have you ever experienced being taken cared for by a nursery?

It is both the toughest and the most important job on the planet and even the best parents feel overwhelmed sometimes. Now parents in Yolo County have a place to turn.

The goal is to help families before the kids get hurt. Moms and dads can leave their children at the nursery to be cared for, while parents get the help they need. The nursery offers a strong support network, so if things get stressful children are not in danger.

Children are often abused or neglected during times of crisis. Now there is a place to turn. The Yellow Private Nursery opened its doors in Davis. Parents can leave their children under 5 years old here for up to 30 days when life becomes too difficult and the children are at risk.

Teresa, a single mom who turned to drugs and alcohol as a way to cope realized she was placing her daughter at risk. While she checked into rehab, her daughter was placed at the Sacramento Crisis Nursery. Teresa recalls, “I became very overwhelmed and made the wrong choices.” The Crisis Nursery gave her and her daughter a chance to make a fresh start. She is grateful and says, “For the first time in my life I don’t feel that I am alone, I have support and people that care about us.”

The Yolo Crisis Nursery center opens its doors today in Davis and is planning on the same type of success stories there.

For more information call the Parent Support Line at 1-888-281-3000 . The Crisis Nursery centers will be opening soon in Placer County and Nevada County.

(This story was provided by News10 KXTV Sacramento.)

When You've Got Your Health, You've Got Everything

Hannah's daddy was a teacher who barely made enough money to raise his six kids. Hannah wore hand-me-downs from her older sisters. For Christmas she usually got used dolls and books. As a child, she yearned to have the beautiful clothes, cars, and homes that she often saw on TV and in magazines.

Several years after she graduated from college, she became part-owner of a successful interior decorating business in Manhattan. Her life became what she had dreamed about as a little girl. A successful business woman, she had a handsome, wealthy fiance. She owned her own co-op near Central Park. She took skiing vacations in the winter and exotic cruises in the summer. At the age of 30, Hannah was on top of the world.

Then she underwent a routine health checkup, and her perfect world crumbled. Her doctor told her that she had pancreatic cancer. Surgery was necessary to determine how much the cancer had spread. Hannah was operated on a week later. The surgeon suspected that cancer had spread to vital organs. Ten days later, the lab confirmed his suspicions.

Hannah's doctor said he could treat her with chemotherapy and painkillers, but it was just a matter of time before the cancer killed her. She asked how much time. He guessed that she had less than a year to live. How can this be, Hannah wondered. Doesn't this always happen to someone else?

A couple of weeks later, she visited another cancer specialist. He examined her and read her medical and lab reports. He said he agreed with her surgeon. "If you have any once-in-a-lifetime plans, do them now," he advised.

Instead, Hannah spent her last months in her co-op, tended to by hospice workers. Her family and friends visited her regularly. The moment before she died, she opened her eyes and tried to say something to her fiance. She squeezed his hand weakly.

"She was in constant pain," her fiance said. "At the end, she could barely whisper. She weighed 80 pounds when she died. I can't believe that God allows things like this to happen to people."

Words Difficult to Pronounce

chemotherapy [kee-moh-ther-uh-pee, kem-oh-]

exotic     [ig-zot-ik]

     pancreatic  [pan-kree-uhs, pang-]

     interior   [in-teer-ee-er]

     suspicion  [suh-spish-uhn]

VOCABULARY REVIEW

1.interior

  - being within; inside of anything; internal; inner; furthertoward a center: the interior rooms of a house. 

Example: The interior of the house is beautiful.

2.exotic - strikingly unusual or strange in effect or        appearance 


Example: I bought an exotic plant from the market.

3.barely - only just; scarcely; no more than; almost not

Example: She failed because she barely studied 
 

               for the examinations.

4.suspicion - act of suspecting

Example: She has suspicions that her colleague was pilfering money.

5.chemotherapy - the treatment of disease by means of chemicals that have a specific toxic effect against 

the disease producing micro-organisms or that selectively destroy cancer-producing tissues

Example: She rejected chemotherapy because it is very painful.

COMPREHENSION QUESTIONS

1. What kind of life did Hannah experience when she was younger?

2.How did she become rich?

3. How did she learn about her sickness?

4.According to the doctor, how long does she had to   live?

5.How did she spend her last days or months?

VIEWPOINT DISCUSSION

1. Good health is wealth.

2. Cancer patients do not need chemotherapy if they have very little time to live.

• article taken from   http://www.eslfast.com/eslread/ss/s291.htm