quarta-feira, 19 de novembro de 2014

Trains: from then to now

'I have always been fascinated by all kinds of transportation and where they originated. Trains, however, have always been my favourite kind of transportation. So, let's take a look at where it all started. The train is not a modern invention as most people think. The first ones were made of wood, and wagons were pulled by horses.









At the star of the Industrial Revolution in Britain, it was necessary to transport raw materials, such as coal. A network of canals and rail was created to link between towns. As the way was so slow, the speed of railway wagons needed to be increased. By 1800 many industries began using steam engines. designed by James Watt. Later, Richard Trevithick created the first locomotive for an Iron Works in Wales. It was called ‘puffer’ because of the noise it made, and on the first journey it traveled at almost 8km/h an hour. Can you guess what happened? It was so heavy that it broke the rails, so it could make only three journeys.



                                                    


But  steam engines could be used to move trains, and speeds began to increase. The most famous locomotive, then was The Rocket.




The next 130 years can be described as a Golden Age of Steam, and so railways were built all over the world and the size, speed and comfort continued to increase. By 1870 it was possible to cross America by train. There were famous trains and journeys at the time. The Orient Express carried people through more than 13 countries between France and Turkey.




The Flying Scotsman reached speeds of over 130 km/h.






The Trans-Siberian railway was finished in 1916, and is still the longest railway line in the world. It goes between St. Petersburg and Vladivostok, is over 9000 km long and even today the journey takes over a week.






The fastest steam train in the world was The Mallard. It reached 202 km/h.






Now it is commom to have trains running on electrified line on most railways. They are faster and cleaner than steam engines although many people miss the puffing sound and the romance of steam.
Nowadays only a few countries use high speed trains: Bullet Train in Japan and the TGV in France whose speeds are over 300km/h.



The future of train travel could be in Maglev trains. These trains are supported by electro-magnets and hover off the ground. 








How nice to see this marvellous means of transportation and the long way since the first one was created!

quinta-feira, 15 de outubro de 2009

sexta-feira, 9 de outubro de 2009

Happy Children's Day

Por Camila Rennó
CHILDREN’S DAY IN THE WORLD


Sadly, few cultures have a day dedicated to children. Japan seems to be the only country that goes in for honouring children in a big way. They have a Coming-of-age Day (Seijin-no-hi, January 15), Girl’s Festival (Hina-matsuri, March 3), Boy’s Festival (Kodomo-no-hi, May 5) and a festival for children aged 3, 5, and 7 (Sichi-go-san, November 15).

STATEMENTS OF CHILDREN’S DAY IN THE WORLD:

In Mexico all the movies are half price or free on Children’s Day, and the parks too. Adults give children presents – toys, clothes, and candies. Children really look forward to it. (Claudia Cano, Mexico)

We have Children’s Day in June. We have parties at school and then we go on excursions with our teachers. All the amusement parks are free on this day. (Lucia Oliveira Noversa, Portugal)

In the US we don’t have a Children’s Day. Some people wanted to organize a national day for children, but they were told that children were celebrated every day, so there was no need for one. But I think there should be one. (Natashia Hancock, USA)

It would be good to have a special day when children could say what they really think about things, because parents, and adults in general, make a lot of decisions involving us without ever asking us. (Andrew Brogdon, Great Britain)

In Japan we have two big secular festivals for children – one for girls and one for boys, on different days. This division is part of Japanese tradition. In fact until the Second World War they thought that girls and boys shouldn’t play and study together after age of seven. We can see this difference in the two festivals. On the girl’s day, which is not a national holiday, the girls play with special dolls which they keep and display until they are married. On the boy’s day, which is also known as Children’s Day, there is no school. Boys show off weapons and fly banners of carps – the carp is a symbol of strength, as it is a fish which can swim upstream. (Yoshie Kojima, Japan)

HOW IS THE CHILDREN’S DAY IN YOUR COUNTRY? DO YOU THINK IT IS A GOOD CELEBRATION?


Fonte: Teacher Karina Wou

terça-feira, 6 de outubro de 2009

Sites para aprender a língua inglesa

Por Camila Rennó
Pate papo, você poderá conversar com varias pessoas de varios paises, aprender linguas e suas culturas.
http://www.paltalk.com/

Por Stela Cazelotto

English as a second language, ideal para quem já tem um básico e quer aprimorar.
http://esl.about.com/od/beginningenglish/u/start.htm#s1

Este site mostra como se pronuncia palavras em diversos idiomas e principalmente o inglês com diversos sotaques.
http://www.oddcast.com/home/demos/tts/tts_example.php

Short History - The Guitar

Por :Lais, Rafael e Patrícia

Mary was cleaning all her husband´s guitars in his studio, when she looked his favorite on the chair.
“He’ll never hold me as he holds that guitar. Hasn’t touched me that way in years”.
At that moment, she started to compare her shape and the guitar’s. And looked to herself:
“I’ll get inside the guitar, to be in his arms again”.
After cleaning she started to dress and make her up, and chose her best dress with the same color that her favorite husband’s guitar.
She spent all day sacrificing shape, voice, everything but desire to be held. Finally, in the studio, mute, invisible, she stayed next to the other guitars and waited.
She heard her husband’s steps coming to studio’s direction, and his screaming:
“Honey, I’m home! I bought a new guitar! Honey…?”
At that moment, the husband got surprised to see his wife and then he said:
“Look! A new guitar!”
“I can’t believe you! I spent the whole day trying to look like your old guitar and now, you come up with this and that means that I spent so long to look like your new guitar too!”
“What, honey? Did you try what? What are you saying?”
“Let it go, you wouldn’t understand, never!”
“Well, I can’t understand what you’re saying, but I also spent too long buying this new guitar to make a surprise for you: play a special song.”
“What? Special song?”
“Yes, listen: ‘You are so beautiful, to me…’”
Mary smiled relieved and kissed her husband.

Olimpíadas 2016 no BRASIL


sexta-feira, 25 de setembro de 2009

Contos de Beatrix Potter

Helen Beatrix Potter (28 de julho de 1866 em Kensington, Londres; † 22 de dezembro de 1943, próximo de Sawrey, Cúmbria) foi uma autora e ilustradora inglesa, conhecida principalmente pelos seus livros infantis, que contavam as histórias de personagens animais tais como o coelho Peter Rabbit. Foi uma escritora, ilustradora, micologista e conservacionista.
"Na minha infancia eu assitia muito a TV cultura, e lá tinha um desenho, "Peter rabbit", que era sobre os livros de Beatrix."
Livros em português
No dia 2 de julho de 2009, a Editora Lótus do Saber publicou no Brasil o livro "A História do Pedro Coelho", como parte da coleção dos livros de Beatrix Potter nunca antes editados no formato original
Cinema
Em 2006, a vida de Beatrix Potter foi transformada em um filme, Miss Potter de Chris
Noonan, com Renée Zellweger e Ewan McGregor como protagonistas.
Curiosidade
Muitas fontes afirmam que J. K. Rowling deu o sobrenome do seu personagem principal, Harry Potter, porque gostava da autora Beatrix. Porém, até hoje, a autora de Harry Potter nunca confirmou nada. Além disso, existe outra referência a Beatrix nas obras de Rowling: Beatrix Bloxam é uma escritora de livros infantis no universo de Harry Potter.








Veja no link o livro completo com a Hitória de Peter Rabbit.
http://www.bygosh.com/peterrabbit/index.htm






Fonte: The World Of Beatrix Potter - http://www.peterrabbit.com/potters-world-introduction.asp