Dictations First Seniors
Antarctica Cruises
Antarctica is an inhospitable place. There are no towns or cities. In fact, nobody lives there permanently, except for a few scientists and those who represent armed forces on a rotation basis.
However, things have now begun to change. Since the 1980s, polar tourism has grown rapidly. These have become extremely popular because of the beauty of the polar landscape and the wildlife, such as penguins, whales and dolphins. Although these cruises are expensive because the ships need to be very strong to break the ice, more and more tourists go on them, taking day tours to icebergs, visiting glaciers and beaches.
Unfortunately, this tourism has started to cause problems. Scientific studies show that tourists are destroying the ecosystem of the Antarctic. The numbers of some species of wildlife have gone down rapidly. Many ecologists now feel that we should leave this beautiful continent alone.
Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali was a famous Spanish artist, born in 1904. When he was a child he showed strange behaviour, and often interrupted his classes at school. As he got older, he started to paint pictures that came from his dreams. His dreams and his paintings were scary and unreal.
He went to art school in Madrid, but he didn’t finish his studies because he was expelled. However, he continued to paint, and his style of art became known as surrealism. Dali drew and painted everyday items, but changed them in odd ways. For example, one of his paintings is of melting clocks.
Before he died, at the age of 85, he had created works of art in ballet, films, opera, fashion jewellery and advertising illustrations.
Aborigines – The Native Australians
Aborigines probably came to Australia from Indonesia 50,000 years ago.They were nomads, who didn’t have a sense of land ownership, although Aboriginal children were taught from an early age that they belonged to the land and must respect tribal boundaries. Tribes returned to particular places to bury their dead. Some places, like Urulu, were sacred because they were associated with the ‘Dreamtime’, the time when the earth was formed and cycles of life and nature were begun.
The arrival of white people gradually brought an end to the traditional Aboriginal way of life. The ‘new’ Australians began to settle on Aborigine tribal lands. Today, most Aborigines live in cities, towns, or isolated settlements near tribal lands, and few continue the old nomadic way of life.
In recent years, white Australians have become more sensitive to their native countrymen’s situation, and the result has been an increase in health and education service, greater recognition of land rights and a growing appreciation of Aboriginal culture.
3 comentarios
isabella poggi -
is it on the blog ??
xD !
Christine -
Belen Anjari -
bueno miss, saludos!