TETS 16

The World Trade Centre was built by the American architect Minoru Yamasaki in the late 1960s and early 1970s. At their opening in 1972 they were the world's tallest buildings. They were over 400 metres tall and were made of 200,000 tons of steel. Each tower had 110 floors and 97 elevators.

Skyscrapers of this size have to be built in solid bedrock. In New York the solid rock starts at about 15 to 20 metres below the surface. When the builders of the WTC started digging they found out that after a few metres, water from the nearby Hudson River started pouring in. So they dug out small boxes and put steel and concrete into them to give the building a firm stand.

When the World Trade Centre opened in 1973 the project was not very popular among New Yorkers. But as time went on and more and more companies started moving their offices to the twin towers they became more and more popular. The two towers also became famous through movies like “King Kong” and “Superman”.

            Extreme sportsmen chose the WTC as the place to try out many stunts. Skydivers parachuted from the top of the towers, climbers went up to the top on the outside walls and a French acrobat walked from one tower to the other on a tightrope. Within a few years the towers were on postcards, T-shirts and ads.

The World Trade Centre also gave the New Yorkers another tourist attraction. On a clear day it was possible to see over 60 km in all directions. Visitors could travel up to the top of the North tower and eat in a luxurious restaurant called “Windows of the World”.

            The Twin Towers were like a small city. Over 500 companies , including banks, law firms, television stations and airlines had their offices here and 50,000 people worked in the two buildings every day. On a typical day as many as 200,000 visitors from all over the world passed through the buildings.

            In 1993 the World Trade Centre was the target of an earlier terrorist attack. A truck with 600 kg of explosives drove into the basement garage of the building . When it exploded, a few stories were completely destroyed , but only 6 people were killed.

On September 11, 2001 , terrorists hijacked 4 airplanes and crashed two of them into the towers of the World Trade Centre. At 8:45 a.m. the first plane crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Centre. 20 minutes later, the second plane hit the south tower. Flames and smoke came out of the towers and the people who were working there tried to escape. About an hour after the attack both towers collapsed.

            In the months after September 11, 2001 thousands of workers helped to clean up the place where the World Trade Centre once stood - known as Ground Zero. Many architects all over the world were called to present designs for rebuilding the site. In the future, glass towers will surround a memorialof September 11.

TEST 17

The baroque was a style of art that existed from the late 1500s to the middle of the 18th century. The works of art were rich, dramatic and had a lot of detail. Baroque was a contrast to the Renaissance, which dominated much of European life in the period before. Renaissance art was orderly and balanced. It often used geometric figures and shapes. Baroque artists and architects concentrated on curves and arches.

Many European rulers wanted to show how powerful they were during the baroque period. They paid architects to build palaces with great gardens in baroque style. Versailles near Paris and the Belvedere in Vienna are examples for such architecture.

Baroque buildings were not the same in all of Europe. In Austria, Spain and Latin America the inside of these buildings were covered with many decorations. Baroque architecture of France was more classical and orderly. In England, Sir Christopher Wren was the prime architect of the period. He rebuilt London’s St. Paul’s Cathedral after it had been burned down by a fire in 1666 and replaced the old Gothic with a newer baroque style.

Baroque sculpture was characterized by movement. The most famous representative was Giovanni Bernini of Italy. He created marble sculptures, designed fountains and made altarpieces. He also played an important role in rebuilding St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. In the 1650s he designed the great square, or piazza, in front of the Catholic world’s most important cathedral.

Baroque paintings were famous for their large forms. Italian artists painted the ceilings of churches with massive colourful figures. Michelangelo Caravaggio was thought to be the first great painter of the baroque era. We worked mainly in Rome, where he painted scenes of the New Testament on large canvases. He chose biblical stories and put them into modern settings.

In Flanders, present-day Belgium, Peter Paul Rubens was the main baroque artist. He painted majestic scenes of Christ’s birth, as well as altarpieces and other religious objects. All of them were huge and expressed dynamic movement. In Holland, Rembrandt was the great painter of the era. He painted portraits of individuals, groups and sometimes himself. Jan Vermeer specialized in painting the interior of rooms of middle class houses.

In Spain, Velazquez created scenes of everyday life, as well as portraits of the Spanish royal family and other historical figures.Biology

TEST 18

Amphibians are animals that live on land and in water. They were the ancestors of today’s  reptiles and mammals and the first vertebrates to appear on land, about 350 million years ago. Over 4000 types of amphibians live in almost all regions of the world, especially in hot and humid areas. Among the most popular amphibians are frogs and salamanders.

Physical features

Amphibians can grow to different sizes, smaller ones are only 1 cm in length  and larger ones can reach up to one and a half metres. Those that live mostly on land breathe through their lungs, others, which live mainly in water have gills. An amphibian’s skin is wet and often covered with a sticky fluid that prevents it from becoming dry. Some species lose their outer skin layer several times a year. Others produce poison that protects them from enemies.

Many amphibians are colourful animals that blend in with their surroundings.

Some amphibians, for example frogs have thick bodies and four powerful legs that they use to leap and swim. Toads have shorter legs than frogs  and a drier skin. They have no tail.

Salamanders are amphibians with a short body and a long tail, which they  can grow if  they lose them. These creatures , which are found mostly in temperate climate zones , live  near rivers and under rocks.

Caecilians look a lot like worms. They have long thin bodies without legs. These tropical amphibians are nearly blind because their eyes are covered with skin or bone. Only few of them live in water.

How amphibians live

Amphibians are cold blooded animals. Their body temperature is about the same as their surroundings. Most animals  move to other places to adjust their body temperature if it gets too hot or too cold. Depending on the climate, amphibians hibernate or are inactive during the year when it gets too hot or cold. They eat many different kinds of food  including insects and worms.

Life cycle

Most amphibians lay their eggs in the water.  Young animals have fish-like features. After living as a larva they  grow gills which allow them to breathe under water. During a phase called metamorphosis a young amphibian develops from a larva into an adult. This stage can take from a few weeks to several years. Some amphibians then lose their gills and develop lungs for breathing. Often they also change their appearance.

TEST 19

Petroleum or oil is a thick, yellow to black liquid found in rock layers. It is made up of organic material, formed millions of years ago from dead plants and animals.  Deep in the ground pressure and heat transformed them into oil.  Crude oil is oil in its natural state. Many other products are made out of petroleum. Every day our planet consumes about 90 million barrels of oil. Because oil needs millions of years to develop we will run out of the energy, which we so much depend on.

History of oil

Oil has been used in one form or another over thousands of years but it has become really important to our economy in the last 2 centuries. It has been the most important source of energy since the end of World War II.

The first oil well was created in the middle of the 19th century in Pennsylvania.  By 1870 oil production had spread to other American states. During the latter part of the 19th century oil was also produced in Canada and in European countries.

The automobile boom of the early 20th century led to a higher demand of oil. It played an important role as the main fuel for tanks and planes in the two world wars.

By 1950 the United States had become the world’s largest oil producer.  In the second part of the 20th century Saudi Arabia and Russia produced even more than the USA.

Today more than 90 percent of all vehicles are powered by oil products. It is the most important source of energy in our world.  About 80% of the world’s oil reserves are located in the Middle East. Other notable producers are Venezuela, Great Britain and Indonesia.

What  petroleum is made out of

Crude oil consists mainly of hydrocarbons, a combination of hydrogenand carbon. Each deposit of petroleum has a different combination of hydrocarbons, thus making it a thicker or thinner liquid. It also has sulphur, nitrogen and other elements in it.

How oil is produced

Before oil can be extracted from the earth geologists first must examine the land and the rock layers that lie underneath the surface. Up to about 30 years ago drilling for oil was a great risk. Geologists could not guarantee that oil would be found where they presumed. Today modern exploration methods make it possible to find oil with a 70% success rate.

Most of the world’s oil is produced by drilling into the crust of the earth. Crude oil is found together with gas, which floats above the oil layer.  Sometimes gas is extracted together with oil during the drilling process, at other times it is simply burned off when it comes to the surface.

Before oil can be brought to the surface a drilling rig is set up. Oil is often buried deep down in rock layers, so that drills must go down to a depth of 10000 meters and more. Offshore rigs operate on platforms in the ocean. They drill for oil underneath the ocean floor.

After it is brought up to the surface crude oil is brought to refineries, where it is made into petrol or gas, heating oil, kerosene, fuel for airplanes and plastic products. Other chemicals and fertilizers are also made out of crude oil.
Not all oil is found in rock below the surface. Some lies trapped in oil sands, but production is still expensive.

Petroleum industry

The oil industry combines many different tasks. In addition to exploring new reserves, drilling and refining oil, the industry must also bring oil products to the consumer.  Giant supertankers transport crude oil across the oceans all over the world. Pipelines bring oil over land from one part of a continent to another.

Price of oil

The price of oil changes constantly, depending on how much is produced and consumed. Many factors can influence the price of oil. Especially wars and conflicts in oil-producing countries can lead to a rise in oil prices.  The energy crisis of the 1970s, for example, led to a dramatic rise in oil prices and threw the world’s economy into a deep recession. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has had a great influence on production and the price of oil since the 1970s.

Oil consumption

Most of the world’s oil is needed in the western world.  The United States is the world’s largest oil consumer. It uses up about a fifth of the daily oil production. Japan, the European Union and China are other major consumers of oil.

Environmental effects of oil production

Producing and consuming oil and oil products affects our environment in many ways.

It is a major cause of global warming because burning fuel releases carbon dioxide, thus causing the greenhouse effect. Oil drilling is often damaging to the environment because chemicals are used to separate oil from water.

In the past decades there have been a series of tanker accidents that have polluted the world’s oceans and seas.  The biggest disaster was the sinking of the Exxon Valdez off the coast of Alaska in 1989.  In 2010 an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico spread to coastal areas in the USA and Mexico and polluted thousands of square kilometers of water.

TEST 20

The giant panda is a bear that lives in central China. It is special because of its black and white fur. Pandas belong to the most endangered species of our world. About 2000 pandas live in the wilderness, 300 live in various zoos around the world.

Recently, there have been campaigns in many countries to save the giant panda. It has been driven away from its natural habitat because of deforestation, intensive farming and the creation of new settlements.

The giant panda can reach a height of up to 1.5 metres and weigh up to 150 kg. Pandas have bodies like bears, but scientists do not know why they grow a black and white fur. The thick fur keeps them warm during the cold winter months and the white colour protects them from possible enemies in the snow-covered mountains in which they live.  Pandas have large teeth, which they need to eat bamboo, their basic food. The animals can eat up to 15 kg of bamboo a day. Because it is low in nutritional value it does not give pandas much energy to move around for longer periods of time. They spend most of the day roaming around and looking for food and water

Giant pandas can live up to 20 years in the wilderness and 30 years in zoos. They start reproducing between 4 and 8 years of age. Mothers carry their babies in their bodies for a period of 3 to 5 months. When panda cubs are born they are blind. They are extremely tiny, only about a thousandth the size of the mother. Like all mammals, they get their food from their mother, whom they stay with for one and a half to three years before being able to survive alone.

Pandas have a low birth rate. When a female gives birth to two pandas, only one normally survives. In her lifetime, a female may give birth to 5 to 8 cubs a year.  They are in danger of dying out completely because their living space is becoming smaller. Giant pandas have been hunted for centuries, mainly because of their soft fur.

Pandas have been an important species throughout history. They first became known in the western world during the middle of the 19th century. In the 1960s, the Chinese government realized it had to do something to protect the giant pandas. Since then they have set up 40 reserves in which the animals are protected. In the 1970s, pandas played a part in the opening of Communist China to the west. They were sold to zoos in other countries.

Today, about 45 pandas live in zoos outside China. The first one arrived in New York in 1937. Zoologists are putting millions of dollars into breeding the animals in captivity. When they get older they may be released again into their natural habitat.

TEST 21

Vertical farming is the method of growing plants and crops over each other, mostly in buildings with many storeys. They often look like skyscrapers with glass around them, similar to a giant greenhouse. Such farming methods can already be seen in cities. For agriculture experts vertical farming will be in widespread use in the future because the world’s population is growing constantly and there is more need for farming land.

The idea comes from Dickson Despommier, a professor at Columbia University, who in 1999, developed a method of growing food in city skyscrapers that could be as tall as thirty storeys. Today, such projects are carried out in many countries, for example Korea, Japan, Abu Dhabi and Singapore.

Vertical farming offers many advantages. Crops can be grown on a smaller area of land, water can be recycled and used over and over again. Plants grow on minerals and do not need soil.  Many farming products can be harvested more than once per year. With some fruits, like strawberries, up to 30 harvests would be possible.

This new form of farming can also help nature and the environment recover from mistakes humans make when farming. Many resources could be saved, forests could be preserved and desertification limited. Burning less fossil fuels would result in fewer emissions, a reduction of global warming and healthier environments. Especially tropical regions with their high risk of getting diseases like malaria would benefit.

Vertical farming can protect crops from bad weather or disasters like hurricanes, storms, droughts or floods. The same weather conditions all year round provide ideal conditions for perfect crops.

With traditional farming, 30% of all food does not find its way to the consumer, either because it becomes spoilt during transport or is infested with bacteria. Vertical farming produces food where it is needed.

On the other side, building such vertical farms can prove to be a costly undertaking.  During the beginning of such a project a lot of energy is needed. Because plants require large amounts of sunlight buildings need to be provided with artificial sunlight the whole year. But compared to traditional farms that take up a lot of space vertical farming has a low carbon footprint. It can do without fossil fuels because it relies on energy from the sun. Overall transportation costs are lower because products are consumed in the cities in which they are produced. This could be extremely cost effective because trends show that more and more people are moving to cities. By the middle of the 21st century about 80% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas.

Critics are not sure whether vertical farming projects can really be profitable in the long term. They claim that initial costs are too high and suggest that such farms actually need more light and power than in normal regions. Heating and cooling costs would also be enormous.

They also say that not all crops can be grown in this way. Wheat and maize, for example, among the world’s most important food source, would be almost impossible to grow because they are too large and heavy. Such farming methods could only apply for lightweight produce, like small fruits, lettuce and other vegetables.