IS AID HURTING AFRICA? Despite its population of more than one billion and its rich land and natural resources, the continent of Africa remains poor. The combined economies of its 54 states equal that of one European country: the Netherlands. It is difficult to speak of Africa as a unit as its states differ from …
Global Warming Day after day we hear about how anthropogenic development is causing global warming. According to an increasingly vocal minority, however, we should be asking ourselves how much of this is media hype cud how much is based on real evidence. It seems, as so often is the ease, that it depends on which …
The return of monkey life Rain forest trees growing anew on Central American farmland are helping scientists find ways for monkey and agriculture to benefit one another. A. Hacienda La Pacifica, a remote working cattle ranch in Guanacaste province of northern Costa Rica, has for decades been home to a community of mantled howler monkeys. …
Questions 1-6 What does the speaker say about each of the following collections? Choose SIX answers from the box and write the correct letter, A-G, next to Questions 1-6. Comments A was given by one person B was recently publicised in the media C includes some items given by members of the public D includes some items given by the artists E includes the …
Whale culture A Most social scientists stubbornly resist the idea that animals have culture. Even such advanced cetacean mammals as whales and dolphins clearly don’t have art. literature, or architecture. But patient observation over many years has begun to reveal behaviors that can only have been learnt from other whales. And that, say whale biologists, …
The Discovery of Uranus Someone once put forward an attractive though unlikely theory. Throughout the Earth’s annual revolution around the sun, there is one point of space always hidden from our eyes. This point is the opposite part of the Earth’s orbit, which is always hidden by the sun. Could there be another planet there, …
Classical music over the centuries INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC The origins of Indian classical music can be found from the oldest of scriptures, part of the Hindus tradition, the Vedas. Samaveda, one of the four Vedas, describes music at length. Indian classical music has its origins as a meditation tool for attaining self realization. All different …
The development of the silk industry Silk, a natural fibre produced by a particular worm called a silkworm, has been used in clothing for many centuries. When silk was first discovered in China over 4,500 years ago, it was reserved exclusively for the use of the emperor, his close relations and the very highest of …
The discovery of a baby mammoth A near-perfect frozen mammoth offers clues to a great vanished species A On a May morning in 2007, on the Yamal Peninsula in northwestern Siberia, a Nenets reindeer herder named Yuri Khudi stood on a sandbar on the Yuribey River, looking carefully at a diminutive corpse. Although he’d never seen …
What makes a musical expert? How does someone become expert in music? And IS it really possible to have a ‘talent’ for music? Does that class of people acknowledged to be musical experts just have more of the same basic skills we are all endowed with, or do they have a set of abilities – or …
