Refugee trends: Lost in limbo | The Economist

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Refugee trends: Lost in limbo | The Economist

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Speed Reading

To be an efficient university student, you must be able to read quickly. This will give you more time to do other things.

Try this exercise to practice your speed reading.
Press Start and read the passage.
Press Stop to find out your reading speed.
Then press Yes to take a short quiz on the text.
You can find out the answers by clicking Submit at the bottom of the page.

How long did it take you to read this?

A New beginning...II

Here is a great website on Obama's speech from the New York Times .

Case studies of the effects of Globalisation

Listen and read each story. What effect has globalisation had on each country?

Bolivia

Ghana

New Zealand

Swine Flu?

What is Swine Flu?

How big is the problem?



How can we solve this problem?

Immigration in the USA

Watch this great audio slideshow.

Look at this graphic.

Read this article.

How is the US immigration situation different to the Australian situation?

TV shows and Education?

Read this article. Do you agree or disagree?

Mateship in Australia

Go to this website. Watch the movie clip and read the information under it to understand why mateship is so important in Australia.

What is DHMO?

This website will teach you about DHMO. Read the questions on the left side then read the text to find the answer.

Frankenfoods?

Have you ever heard of the character Frankenstein? How does it relate to food?

Read this story and find out.

Why do stars twinkle?

Read or listen to this story to find out the answer.

A great read with Three Cups of Tea

Three Cups of Tea is one of the most high acclaimed books in recent years.

Here is a summary from wikipedia:

In 1993, Greg Mortenson, to honor his deceased sister Christa's memory, attempted to climb K2, the world's second highest mountain, in the Karakoram range of northern Pakistan.[5] After more than 70 days on the mountain, Greg and three other climbers had their ascent interrupted by the need to complete a 75-hour life-saving rescue of a fifth climber. The rescue took too much out of Mortenson, forcing him to accept failure and descend the mountain. After getting lost during the descent, he became weak and exhausted, and by chance alone, instead of arriving in Askole, where his porters awaited, he came across Korphe, a small and unremarkable village built on a shelf jutting out from a canyon. He was greeted and taken in by the chief of Korphe, Haji Ali.[6]
To pay the remote community back for their compassion, Mortenson promised to build a school for the village. After a frustrating time trying to raise money, Mortenson was introduced to Jean Hoerni, a Silicon Valley pioneer. Jean, who climbed mountains in the region as a younger man, donated the money Greg needed for his school. In the last months of Hoerni's life, he co-founded the Central Asia Institute, endowing the CAI to build schools in rural Pakistan and Afghanistan.[7]
Co-author Relin recounts Mortenson's efforts in fascinating detail, presenting compelling portraits of the village elders, con artists, philanthropists, mujahideen, Taliban officials, ambitious school girls and upright Muslims Mortenson met along the way. As the book moves into the post-9/11 world, Mortenson argues that extremism in the region can be detered through collaborative efforts to alleviate poverty and improve access to education, especially for girls.[8]
Mortenson faced daunting challenges in his quest to raise funds for the building of more than 55 schools in Taliban territory, including death threats from Islamic mullahs, long periods of separation from his family, and being kidnapped by Taliban sympathizers. Relin, an award-winning journalist, describes how Mortenson became a one-man mission with the goal of bringing educational structures and resources to young girls in Afghanistan and Pakistan.[9]

This website is an e-book version of Three Cups of Tea. You can look at the text and listen to it at the same time.

Australia's International Students

Here is an article from this week's Australian newspaper. It is about the number of international students coming to Australia.

What do think about the article? Are all the opinions true?

Ssssssppppppeeeeeeeddddddd Reading

This is a great game that will help you read faster.

First, read the words that appear on the screen. Please note that the words will not make sense. They are randomly put together.

Then, type the words in the box. Press continue to see if you are correct.

If you enter the words coreectly, the next group of words will be longer.

Good Luck!!!

Mobile Phones + Driving = ???

Brainstorm some vocabulary about the title above.

Here is an article for you to read.

When you are reading, try to answer the following questions:

1. What does this this article say about mobile phones and driving?


2. Where was the study published?


3. Who did they test in the latest study?


4. What did the latest study show?


5. What explanation did the researchers give for the results?


6. How likely are you to have an accident if you use a mobile phone while you drive?

You can find the answers in the comments section of this post.

Is Australian TV racist?

Soap Operas are popular in many countries throughout the world. Australia is no exception. Neighbours and Home and Away the two most popular enjoying success not ony in Australia but also the United Kingdom.

However, this article brings up an interesting issue about Australian soap operas. Are they too white? Most of the characters are white Australians and this does not reflect Australia's multicultural society.

Is Australian TV racist? What do you think?

Neighbours airs weeknight (Monday to Friday) at 6:30pm on channel 10.

Home and Away airs weeknights at 7pm on channel 7.

Half of Cambridge students admit cheating

The headline to this article immediately caught my eye. Cambridge University is one of the most prestigious universities in the world! Is the cheating situation better or worse in other universitites?

Wikipedia: Too easy? Not academic?

Many students use Wikipedia as a resource for research. Many academics at university believe that students should not use Wikipedia as a research tool. However, many people give a strong case for using it.

What do you think?

Many international student feel that Wikpedia is written in a difficult way. Simple English Wikipedia is written for students who are studying English as a second language.

Is the Simple English Wikipedia website easier to understand than the regular Wikipedia website?

Search the word stress on both pages. Which one is easier? Which one is better?

Skimming Practice

Click on these articles to read them.

Spend two minutes on this article trying to find the "general idea."

Students say no to podcasts

Read this article and try to find the answers to these questions.

What does bogan mean?

What does norm mean?

What does "Britney Spears" mean?

Bogans, petrolheads make dictionary

Foreign students on par with locals

Here is an interesting artcle from today's newspaper.


What do you think?