DICTATIONS SECOND SENIORS (22,23,24)

Vampire Bats

         While much of the world sleeps, vampire bats emerge from dark caves, mines, hollow tree trunks and abandoned buildings in Mexico and Central and South America. Like the legendary monster from which they get their name, these small mammals drink the blood of other animals for survival. Though it is uncommon, vampire bats occasionally bite humans for blood. They do not actually suck the blood of their victims. They make a sharp cut with their teeth and then lap up the blood with their tongues. These bats are very light and agile and are able to drink blood for 30 minutes without waking it up. The blood sucking does not hurt the animal.

         Vampire bats, unlike other bats, have special adaptations for their feeding necessities. They can walk, run and jump. They also have strong hind legs, and special heat sensors on their noses help them find the best spot on the animal’s body. If they can’t find blood two nights in a row, they will die. Contrary to popular opinion, bat bites are not really harmful. Their only danger is that they can spread rabies among their victims.

 Mummies

         The people of ancient Egypt believed that a person’s soul split into several parts when he or she died, and continued to live on in an afterlife. The best-known forms of the spirit were the ba, the akh, and the ka. The ba was the personality, and it was shown as a bird with a human head, the head of the person it belonged to.The akh was represented by a bird called a crested ibis, and at the moment of death, the akh left the body and flew to the stars to spend eternity in the heavens. The ka was the life force, like our definition of soul, and looked exactly like its person. The ka lived in the tomb for eternity. so it needed personal possessions, such as furniture, weapons, clothing, food and drink. But the most important thing the ka needed was a body to inhabit. If the body rotted away, there would be no afterlife, so it was absolutely necessary to preserve the body as a mummy. That is why the Egyptians made mummies to guarantee eternal life. This process lasted 70 days in total.

The Guillotine

         The guillotine is a device used for carrying out executions by decapitation. It consists of a tall upright frame from which a heavy blade is suspended. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, severing the victim’s head from his or her body. The guillotine is famous for having been the main method of execution in France, especially during the French Revolution.   

   

It was introduced into France by a man called Joseph-Ignace Guillotin, an anatomy professor who was part of a committee in charge of studying a new method to be used on all condemned people regardless of class. It was considered to be a humane form of execution, in contrast to other forms. Noble people were beheaded using either the sword or the axe, with which it was at times necessary to deal several blows, whereas common people were hanged and this sometimes took several minutes. So the guillotine was seen to deliver an immediate death, without misses.