In the News

Lately we have heard about many natural disasters, wars and fighting.  We wake up to hear about tsunamis that have destroyed towns, washing away people who could not flee.  It doesn't end there.  The tsunami is followed by an earthquake that causes even more damage to a population already suffering.  Not only was there a tsunami followed by an earthquake, next, there is a nuclear disaster.  The earthquake damaged nuclear power plants and radiation is being poured into the air.  You might hope it will end there, but it doesn't.  After a week or so, the newscasters stop following this disaster and begin to follow something else.  The other day it was a tornado in Alabama, that took the life of over 300 people, as well as leaving people without homes or any of their personal possessions.  Those who survived are just glad to be alive.  Tonight I heard about the situation now in Libya.  The war there started months ago.  Today it is in the news again because NATO killed one of the Libyan leader, Qadaffi's sons and three of his grandchildren.  The only good news I have heard in the past weeks on the news was the wedding of Prince William and Kate in England, but that is over now too.
It leaves me to wonder, why do we get so caught up in tragedies and then just move on to something else a few days or a week later.  I still wonder, what is the situation in Japan with the nuclear reactor?  Have they found a way to contain it? Are people still being affected by it?  However, that is all old news now.  No one talks about it anymore.  It has been cast aside for the news of the moment. We hang onto a piece of news for only a short time, a few days, a week at the most, and then it is forgotten.  But, do the people who are living those experiences get to forget them the way all of us who are safe just pass them on?  Or are they all living in the nightmare that we have all long forgotten.  We have become so desensitized to everything.  We hear about it, we think about it a short time, then, we move on and it is forgotten.  The worst part is, we don't do anything to help, and if we don't do anything to change things, all these things will simply pass away in our minds, it will be as if they had never occurred and those affected will be left without hope.  Even one person can make a difference.  Even one person can change the world, a little bit at a time.

Vocabulary
1.tsunamis: a giant wave that floods the land
2.destroyed: ruin
3.flee: run away from
4.earthquake: a shaking of the earth the breaks the land
5.population: a group of people in a certain place
6.disaster: damage,
7.tornados: funnel cloud, weather condition that brings wind, rain, hail and damage
8.possessions:belongings
9.survive: to stay alive, to live through
10.tragedies: bad events; harsh events
11. contain: keep inside
12.cast aside: push away, let go of
13. experiences: events
14. desensitized: unaffected

Activity
1.  To stay alive or live through is to _______________________.
2. The keep inside is to ____________________________.
3.  A giant wave that floods the land is a ________________________.
4. To be desensitized means to be _____________________________.
5.  To push away, or let go of means to ___________________________.
6.  To ruin means to ____________________________.
7.  A weather condition that causes a funnel cloud is called a _______________________.
8. Belongings are the same thing as __________________________.
9.  To run away from means to_________________________.
10.  Events are ____________________________.
11. To stay alive or live through means to _______________________.
12.  Bad events or harsh events are _________________________.
13. A shaking of the earth that breaks the land is called an __________________________.
14.  A group of people from a certain place are called a ___________________________.

Grammar Point
Throughout the passage I used conjunctions.  Conjunctions are words that combine two sentences.  The most common conjunctions are and, but, and or.  Commas are used before a conjunction.  Here is a video clip and song about conjunctions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkO87mkgcNo

Grammar Activity

Find five sentences in the paragraph that use conjunctions.  Write each sentence circling the conjunction.  Then write a paragraph about something in the news using each of the three most common conjunctions (and, but, and or).

Helping Others

          I have sponsored several children over the past 6 years.  The children I sponsor are young girls who live in impoverished nations whose parents cannot support their family and afford the costs of schooling, clothing, and food.  The photo shows one of my sponsored children.  Her name is Magda. This photo shows Magda when I first began sponsoring her.  She was only three years old.  Through my sponsorship, Magda is able to stay in school.  She receives things that are necessary for schooling in her country, Guatemala, that her family might not otherwise be able to afford.  Every year she receives her school uniform and new shoes as well as school supplies so that she can attend school.  Many young children living in poverty are not able to go to school because their parents can't afford these essentials or because the families need their children to work to earn money to help support the family.  Every few months I receive letters from Magda.  She is now nine years old and has started to write her letters by herself. I always enjoy reading them and writing her back.  It has been a great joy for me to sponsor children around the world and help them to complete their education, receive medical care, and food that is necessary for survival.  The cost is just a small cost for me, but a great benefit to the families, many of whom have incomes under $100 a month and no other access to healthcare. I am greatly blessed to be able to give to others and to help these families who are in need so that they can feel less of a burden. The photo below is a photo of Magda today at nine years of age. There are many things we can do to help others and not all of them cost money.   We could visit the sick in the hospital, or help the elderly who cannot leave their homes.  We could also feed the homeless at a soup kitchen or work at a clothing pantry. Even simpler things include helping our neighbor or our own family by babysitting, or cooking or cleaning for them.  Last week we celebrated Earth Day.  Think about what great things we can do for our environment by cleaning up the beach or the park, turning the lights off to save electricity, or turning off the water.  Everyone can do a little something to help others and when you do you will definately reap the rewards.  When my sponsored children write to me about their lives and I see the benefits they receive from my small gift and I feel like I am doing something special in the world.  Reach out to someone in your community, help a neighbor, family member or your teacher, or do something to take care of our environment. You say you are too young?  No, you aren't!   You can make a difference!  It doesn't matter how young or old you are!  Everyone can do something to help others!

 Vocabulary:
1.sponsored: to help; give aid to
2.several: more than one
3.impoverished: poor
4.necessary: things that are needed
5.essential:  what one must have
6.complete: finish
7.survival: to live
8.benefit: to gain; something that helps one
9.income: what you earn; money you receive from working
10.access: to be able to receive; to have near you for use
11.burden: great stress upon you; a heavy load; a lot of pressure
12.elderly: old
13. simpler: easier

Find the vocabulary words in the puzzle below.

S   I   M   P   L   E   R   Q   H   C   B   U  B   D   D   O   L
G  H  K   W  E   L   D   E   R    L   Y  H  E    K   F   S   A
R  I   W   Q   S   N   L   P   F    S    U  D  N   Q   A   S   Z
G  I   P    O   R   A   C  C   E    S    S   Y  E    I    L   J    I
R  E  W  Q   A   E    B  U   R   D    E   N  F   J    G   S   N
S  P   O   N   S   O    R  R   E    D   Y  W  I    E    R  V  C
M G  J    C   O   M   P   L   E    T    E  D  T   H    F   I    O
W Q  I    A   X   R    D  S   U    R    V  I   V  A    L  W  M
I    P  T   W  Y   F    W  E   S    S     E  T   I   A    L  E   E
N  E  C    E  S    S    A   R   Y   S     E  V  E   R   A  L   K
W I   R    I   M   P    O   V   E   R     I   S   H   E   D  N  H

Grammar Point: Count Nouns and Uncount Nouns
There are count nouns and uncountable nouns in the English language.  Count nouns are nouns that have a singular and plural form, for example, apple.  We can have one apple, or we can have three apples.  Therefore, apple is a count noun because it has a singular and plural form.  Uncount nouns have only one form.  For example, money is an uncount noun.  We can have only money, not moneys.  

Activity:
In the above paragraph there are many nouns.  Some are count nouns and some are uncount nouns.  Please look through the paragraph and find at least ten nouns.  Then, label these nouns as either count nouns or uncount nouns. 

www.compassion.com

Faraway Friends 2

                                                                            In Belgium


After spending so many years writing to pen pals all over the world, I made the decision, at the age of 21, to expand my horizons and take my very first trip abroad.  I had always wanted to visit my pen pals and to live in another country for a short time and all of a sudden I was given that opportunity.  In 1997, my pen pal Anna in Greece invited me to come spend some weeks at her home in Piraeus, the port city to Athens.  I accepted, planned my flight, applied for my first passport and in a few months was on a plane to Athens, Greece.  I didn't know what to expect at all, but was very excited.  When arriving in the airport at first Anna and I didn't recognize one another.  Apparently, in the photo I had sent her my hair was much different and I wasn't wearing glasses.  Finally, when the whole airport emptied out, we realized that we were waiting for each other!  This trip would be the first in a series of trips abroad that I would take to visit my pen pals.  I only knew these friends through letters and photos which we had exchanged for many years or in some instances just  a year or two.  Since this first trip, I have also visited pen pals in Germany, Sweden, England, and Belgium.  Many people think it is a crazy thing to go half way around the world to meet and live with someone that you have never met, but these experiences have been the best ones of my life.  I have enjoyed every trip I have taken.  You learn so much when you live in another culture for even just a short time.  My trips usually lasted only two or three weeks.  However, even in such a short time you start to pick up on the language and you find a way to communicate with others who do not speak English.  The most difficult part of a journey like this is the cultural differences you will face, but if you are open and ready to accept the differences it can be a great learning experience.  Through the long conversations I have had with my friends while living and touring with them I have learned so much about other peoples and cultures, about history, and about the similarities and differences between the American culture and other cultures around the world.  It is one thing to see the world through a tourists eyes and another thing to live the culture like a native.  My goal when traveling abroad is not to see every tourist destination, but to see the things in a country that are important to the people of that nation and to see the world through my friends eyes. I would encourage anyone who is given the opportunity, to travel abroad and find a way to be like a native rather than like a tourist.  It is the best learning experience in the world.

Vocabulary:
1. expand: increase; spread out
2. horizons: outlook; what I can see and experience
3. abroad: to another country; overseas
4. opportunity: chance
5. recognize: to know; know who one is
6. apparently: it seems
7. exchanged: traded
8. instances: times; occasions
9. experiences: opportunities; chances
10. communicate: to talk
11. conversations: speech; things one talks about
12. native: someone who is from an area/country

Matching column

1.  communicate                                              a.  someone who is from an area/country
2. exchanged                                                   b. times; occasions
3. horizons                                                      c. speech; things one talks about
4. expand.                                                      d.  it seems
5. abroad                                                        e. chance
6. native                                                          f. spread out
7. instances                                                     g. to know;, know who one is
8. conversations                                              h. traded
9. opportunity                                                  i. outlook; what I can see and experience
10. apparently                                                 j. to another country; overseas
11. recognize                                                  k. to talk
12. experiences                                               l. increase; spread out

                                           View from the Medieval Castle in South of Belgium
Grammar Point:  When writing words in the past tense we often add the ending -ed.  The -ed ending can be pronounced like "t," "id," or "d.  For example, in the paragraph above, the word wanted ends in -ed. This -ed ending is pronounced like "id, " but the word "planned,"  is pronounced "d."

Activity:  Please find all the words in the paragraph that end in -ed and make a list classifying them by the way the -ed ending is pronounced.

Faraway Friends-

When I was eleven years old I became interested in knowing people around the world.  I thought the best way to do this would be to find a pen pal.  At that time I was reading teen magazines and in one issue I found an advertisement for a pen pal match-up. I was so excited.  I filled out the form and soon had my very first pen pal. Her name was Jessica and she lived in West Virginia.  However, I really wanted to write to young girls overseas even more.  In another issue of that same magazine I saw another advertisement, but this one was for pen pals all over the world.  After sending in this application, I soon had pen pals in Sweden, Switzerland, New Zealand, and what were then East and West Germany.  When I started writing to pen pals in other nations, I never could have imagined what I would learn.  I had a great interest in cultures and wanted to see what life was like for teenagers around the world.  It was amazing to see how different life was like in these far off countries.  School wasn't even set up the same way.  All the young girls I wrote to were my age, but they were already writing English, whereas, I had only begun to learn Spanish.  More than anything though, the most important experiences I had were the lessons in history that one could not learn in a classroom.  I lived through the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany with my friends who were now considered just Germans, and no longer East or West Germans.  I heard personal accounts of the war in the ex-Yugoslavia, and was told of the terrible atrocities committed in Croatia and Bosnia during this horrible time.  I experienced the excitement of the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe with my friends living in Romania and Bulgaria at the time.  However, while we all rejoiced over Communism being toppled, they struggled to survive, waiting for hours on line just to get a small loaf of bread.  I learned so much that can't be learned in a textbook, and not only did I learn these things, I also felt them along with my friends.  Now, I am 35 years old, and I still love learning about cultures.  I have taken the time to travel abroad and have even met some of my current pen pals. I no longer write to most of those I wrote when I was young, but I have new pen pals who I write to now and even with my difficult schedule I try to keep in touch as much as I can.  Having faraway friends has changed my life and how I view events in our world.  I want to see peace, I want to see an end to poverty, and I want to see a change for the better in our world.  I just received a letter from my friend in Japan saying that she and her family are fine and were not effected by the tsunami and earthquake.  I thank God for that.  My experience writing to friends abroad changed my life and I continue to long for more experiences like these.

Vocabulay
1. pen pal- a person who writes letters to another person
2.advertisement- a picture or article talking about something you can buy or apply for
3.excited- to be very happy
4.nations- countries
5. amazing- exciting, new, something you can't believe
6. reunification- to bring back together
7. accounts- stories
8. atrocities- horrors, bad/terrible things
9.  horrible- very bad, terrible
10. rejoiced- to be happy over
11. toppled- to fall down
12. struggled- to have a hard time with

Activity:
Fill in the blank using the words in the vocabulary list above.
1. No one could believe the ____________________ told by the Japanese people about the tsunami and earthquake in their country.
2.  She went to the post office to mail the letter she had written to her new ________________.
3. She had a great time traveling to Sweden.  The trip was the __________________ adventure she had ever been on.
4.  When learning about the Holocaust, she couldn't believe the _______________________ that occurred in the concentration camps.
5.  Sarah and her family ________________________ over the birth of her new baby girl.
6.  She saw an __________________________ in the magazine for a toy that she just had to have.
7.  The situation in Eastern Europe was very bad when Communism was finally ___________________.
8. Living in poor city she ___________________________ to feed her family each day.
9.  The German people waited many years for the _______________________ that would bring their country back together.
10.  She wanted to bring the message of peace to all the _______________________.
11. When she fell off her bike she felt __________________________ pain in her knee.
12. She was so __________________ when she learned she had passed her English exam.

Grammar Point:
When writing sentences or a paragraph we can make them more interesting by adding descriptive words to our sentences.  For example, in the paragraph above, I described my schedule as difficult and the atrocities in Bosnia and Croatia as terrible.  Adding descriptive words, or adjectives to a paragraph helps the reader to see exactly what you are trying to show them.  It makes the story more realistic and more exciting for the reader.
Activity:
Please write a paragraph about something that  you have experienced in the history of your nation, either first hand, or through someone else's experiences, using descriptive words throughout the paragraph.  The paragraph should contain at least 8 sentences.