(Reading Practice (Improve your pronunciation in English

[Music] foreign practice makes perfect listen and practice ice hockey is one of the most popular winter sports it is very popular in cold weather countries like Canada Russia and the Czech Republic in those countries kids play ice hockey on Frozen ponds and rivers things you need to play Ice Hockey are hockey skates a hockey stick and a puck ice hockey is a great winter sport listen and practice my hometown hi my name's Jeremy and I live in Kyoto I'm from the U.S but I work for an international company here we make video games Kyoto's a

great City it's really cosmopolitan people from all over the world live here every Friday after work my wife and I go to Nishiki market and have Delicious Japanese food it's my favorite the weather can be really hot in the summer and cold in the winter but the spring and fall are beautiful especially after the rainy season I love art and Kyoto has many good art museums we can see modern art or Ancient Art in the same day my favorite is ancient Japanese art there are also beautiful gardens all over Kyoto that are like works of

art I also go bicycling with my wife sometimes we bicycle through the university and sometimes we bike near nijou Castle why doesn't everyone want to live in Kyoto it's the best place in the world listen and practice turning pain to gain seven years ago Mackenzie barup hurt her knee she was just 10 years old a week later the pain was still there the pain didn't stop then she found out about a disease called RSD this disease tells the brain her knee is still injured even though it isn't there is no cure for the pain her

knee feels terrible all the time sometimes Mackenzie felt so awful that she stayed in bed for months it was very difficult to walk her doctors tried everything medicine exercise and other treatments nothing worked except books Mackenzie read lots of books the books helped her stop thinking about the pain and she decided to help other children forget their pain too she found out about a treatment center for children nearby the center had a new library but no books she asked all her friends and her parents friends to give books then she put ads in newspapers and

made a website MacKenzie's goal was to give 300 books to the library but she soon had 3 000 books and more were on the way today that number is more than forty thousand she started an organization Sheltering books now helps children in many states in the U.S MacKenzie's knee still hurts all the time but she feels better because she's helping other kids with their pain listen and practice the benefits of chocolate most of us have a sweet tooth and a favorite form of confectionery is chocolate whether this comes in the form of Sweets chocolate bars

or cakes the huge range of chocolate products on display in sweet shops and supermarkets shows us how popular chocolate is indeed some of us are so fond of it that we become chocoholics we are regularly told that a diet containing too much sugar and too much fat is bad for us and chocolate contains a great deal of both of these thus we have got used to the idea that eating chocolate is a sinful pleasure eating chocolate often makes us feel good even some health experts do not deny this because it is thought to have a

biochemical effect on the part of the brain that is concerned with pleasure if you are feeling depressed some chocolate can be a real tonic which cheers you up instantly unfortunately this effect is transitory and you soon feel down again nutritionists have tended to concentrate on the negative side effects of chocolate pointing out that the combination of a high fat content and a high sugar content can be a cause of obesity in people who over indulge in it they also remind us that foods which are high in fat can lead to heart disease chocolate is also

said to cause headaches in some people and is considered to be one of the main triggers of migraine after such bad news from dietitians people who love to binge on chocolate will be relieved to hear that some doctors have now discovered some benefits in chocolate Recent research suggests that chocolate like aspirin can delay blood clotting making it potentially useful in preventing thrombosis it has also been found that chocolate like fruit and vegetables is rich in flavonoids which help to prevent heart attacks and strokes at last there is some good news for chocolate eaters they can

enjoy this delicious treat without feeling guilty safe in the knowledge that it could be improving their health listen and practice we wear clothes because we want to be comfortable in hot or cold weather in hot weather tight clothes are uncomfortable if we wear loose clothes the air can move around our bodies and help us to stay cool the men above live in a hot country they are wearing long white shirts called dish dashas white clothes are cool in hot weather the men's turbans and scarves protect their heads from the Sun in colder countries people also

cover their heads this is because they don't want to lose heat in places where the winter is very cold people wear hats made of wool or fur heat from the body stays in the wool or fur and keeps people warm listen and practice glass and ice most buildings are made of concrete bricks metal or wood some buildings use different materials Biosphere 2 in Arizona in the USA is Made of Glass and Metal it's nearly as big as two and a half American football fields inside there's a rain forest an ocean a desert a farm and

places for people to live and work it's a research center in a village in Sweden near the Arctic there is a hotel made of ice called Ice Hotel the hotel is open from December to April it has 80 rooms there are ice sculptors in the rooms the beds chairs and tables are also made of ice even the drinking glasses are made of ice every year Ice Hotel is built again with new ice listen and practice pasta is the most typical food in Italy Italian pasta is made from wheat flour and comes in many different shapes

for example spaghetti is long and straight ly pasta is a spiral shape and stellini pasta is a star shape what type of pasta do you prefer Pizza is another typical dish in Italy Italian pizza is usually made with wheat flour tomato and mozzarella cheese some people also add meat seafood or vegetables most pizzas are round but in Rome they also make special square pizzas foreign listen and practice rice is a very important Korean food and most Koreans eat some rice every day they often eat rice with dishes of meat seafood and vegetables Koreans also use

rice to make soup rice cakes and a sweet dessert drink called CK do you like spicy food you should try some Korean kimchi it's a spicy dish made with cabbage onions garlic chili peppers and salt many people have their own special recipe most Koreans eat some kimchi every day it's a very healthy food because it has lots of vitamins listen and practice come to the carnival the carnival in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil is one of the biggest festivals in the world it's always in February or March there's a parade with big floats there's music

in the streets people wear colorful costumes they dance and have fun the carnival in Rio de Janeiro is all day and all night many people don't go to bed that night listen and practice food chains all living things need food in most ecosystems plants use sunlight to make their food from carbon dioxide in the air and water animals eat plants or other animals that eat plants decomposers are living things that feed on things like dead leaves or dead animals food chains show us how plants and animals in an ecosystem work together they show us what

eats what in an ecosystem in the food chain above a grasshopper eats grass snake eats the grasshopper and a Buzzard eats the snake when the buzzer dies its body falls onto the land there decomposers like bacteria and fungi feed on the Buzzard when they do this some of the nutrients from the Buzzard's body go into the land plants like grass then use these nutrients to help them to grow listen and practice rivers and waterfalls Rivers usually begin as streams in mountains the water comes from rain or snow All Rivers then go to the ocean big

rivers are very strong when the ground under a river is soft the river makes valleys when the ground under it is hard rock there are waterfalls or Rapids one incredible waterfall is The Iguazu Falls between Argentina and Brazil Iguazu means big water in an old language of South America listen and practice there's more water in the river Amazon than in any other river in the world it begins in the mountains in Peru and Ecuador then it goes through the rain forest in Brazil and to the Atlantic Ocean there are no bridges on the Amazon first

the river goes through rainforest and there are no roads then near the ocean the river is very wide so people can't build Bridges they cross the river by boat the Amazon is the home of one of the longest snakes called anacondas some grow to nine meters long listen and practice mammals mammals are the only animals that give birth to their young they don't lay eggs like fish amphibians reptiles or birds do mammal mothers are special because they produce milk for their babies to drink today we can find many different types of mammal some live on

land like horses camels and monkeys others live in the ocean like whales and dolphins bats are special because they are the only mammals that can fly did you know that you are a mammal too listen and practice some animals live in fresh water they live in rivers and lakes fish frogs beavers and ducks live in fresh water big animals also live in fresh water the Nile crocodile lives in rivers and lakes in Africa when large animals come to drink it pulls them under the water and eats them foreign animals need water too they drink water

in the African savannah animals like zebras giraffes and elephants come to the water hole to drink the Savannah can be very hot and dry and these animals cannot live without water hippos need water to keep their skin healthy they stay in water all day to keep cool if they don't have water they get sunburned listen and practice earthquakes and tsunamis usually Earth's crust moves very slowly only a few millimeters every year sometimes two pieces of the crust move suddenly in different directions and then there's an earthquake earthquakes are dangerous because buildings sometimes fall down when

there's an earthquake people in buildings go under a heavy table or they stand between two rooms these are good ideas they can help to keep people safe there are earthquakes under the ocean too usually they are small and not dangerous sometimes an earthquake under the ocean makes a giant wave called a tsunami tsunamis can be very dangerous after a tsunami there are often floods there's water everywhere houses cars and trees are in the water the water isn't clean so many people are sick in 2004 there was a very big tsunami in the Indian Ocean many

people died listen and practice mountains and lakes the biggest mountain chain in the world is the Himalayas in Asia it began when two pieces of Earth's crust met and moved up they began to move about 50 million years ago and they are moving now very slowly the top of Mount Everest in the Himalayas is the highest place on Earth it's about nine kilometers above the ocean Everest is very big and it's getting bigger the top of Everest goes up about five millimeters every year because Earth's crust is moving all the time foreign mountains there are

often deep Lakes the deepest lake in the world is Lake Baikal in Russia it's more than 1 600 meters deep scientists are exploring the lake in small submarines Lake Baikal began when pieces of Earth's crust moved and made a deep hole water from 330 Rivers goes into Lake Baikal there's more water here than in all the great lakes in North America listen and practice making medicines the medicines that are made in Laboratories and factories are often copies of medicines made from plants malaria is a disease that causes fever and can kill people can get it

when an insect called a mosquito bites them to cure malaria people first made a medicine from quinine quinine is a substance that comes from a rainforest tree then scientists started to make copies of this medicine in a laboratory today quinine drugs are made without plants thousands of medicines have been made from rainforest plants if people cut down rainforests we will lose plants that could make more medicines listen and practice ocean animals lots of animals live in water some animals live in salt water they live in seas and oceans the biggest ocean animal is the blue

whale it can be more than 30 meters long and 200 metric tons it eats very small ocean animals called krill it can eat four metric tons of krill in a day blue whales live in most of the oceans the blue whale is the biggest animal on Earth it can be as big as 25 elephants many other animals live in salt water there are sharks and lots of other fish all ocean animals need water gives them food and oxygen jellyfish are not fish they are invertebrates they don't have a skeleton they need water to support their

bodies listen and practice traditional medicines in many places around the world people use mostly traditional medicines traditional medicines are medicines that people have used for hundreds of years or longer traditional medicines are made from plants and from animals like insects for example most people in Africa use traditional medicines and a lot of people in Asia do too in some places people use traditional medicines because they don't live near a hospital or because traditional medicines are cheap in other places people use both traditional medicines and medicines that are made by scientists in Laboratories listen and practice

when we think of deserts we imagine rocks and sand and a place that's very hot and dry it's difficult to live in a hot desert but some plants and animals are adapted to this ecosystem deserts are dry because it almost never rains desert plants collect the rain and store it so that they can live during the dry season cactus plants have stems that become fat when they are full of water they also have sharp spikes to stop thirsty animals breaking the stems to drink the water inside listen and practice I started using eBay a few

years ago I lost my cell phone and needed to get a new one new phones are more than three hundred dollars from the cell phone company and I didn't have much money so I decided to buy one on eBay I started to bid on a phone and it was really fun I bid 50 and I was winning but in the last minute someone bid 52 dollars and won I decided to try again with another phone this time I won it only cost me 45 dollars the phone came in the mail a week later it's a

little old but it works well and I saved 255 dollars now that's a great deal listen and practice making music is very popular all around the world it's a very important part of life in Nigeria in Africa people here sing dance and play music at important times in their lives in traditional Nigerian music there is singing and people play instruments there are percussion instruments like drums bells and rattles there are other instruments like pipes and trumpets too Nigerian children sometimes make their own instruments they make drums from tin cans and pipes from plants they also

make rattles from fruits lots of different types of modern music are popular in Nigeria too some modern music like jazz reggae and Rock came from traditional African music listen and practice spring is a very pretty season maybe it's the prettiest season of all it's usually sunny and there are lots of flowers in Japan people love cherry blossom these pink flowers open in Spring between January and April people have picnics under the cherry trees they sit and eat and they look at the cherry blossom in Ghana the rainy season starts in May this is a good

time for farmers so they have a big festival called homowo there are parades in the streets with music and dancing Villa Franca dolima is in Portugal in May there's a festival here with lots of flowers girls carry flowers on their head the flowers are heavy listen and practice Three Kings in the story of Jesus Christ three good people visited Jesus when he was a baby they gave him presents later Christians called these people the three kings in January Christians have a festival called Twelfth Night it's called Twelfth Night because it's 12 nights after Christmas at

this time Christians think about the three kings who visited Jesus with their presence in some countries people eat a big cake Twelfth Night is a big Festival in Spain there are lots of parades with people in costumes people throw candy to children in the streets on Twelfth Night Spanish children put their shoes under the Christmas tree in the morning they find presents in their shoes listen and practice oceans on Earth there is more Ocean than land the Pacific Ocean is the biggest ocean it's bigger than Africa did you know that there are mountains and valleys

under the ocean some of these mountains are bigger than the biggest mountains on land in the deepest parts of the ocean the water is 10 kilometers deep the water in the ocean is always moving waves hit the land and break the rocks sometimes big pieces of rock fall into the ocean they leave big Cliffs like the beautiful uluwatu cliffs in Bali in Indonesia where the ocean is warm we sometimes find Coral Coral is made of millions of very small animals that make hard covers around themselves when the animals die the hard covers make the coral

reef the Great Barrier Reef near Australia is the biggest Coral Reef in the world it's 2600 kilometers long sea turtles dolphins and many other amazing animals live there listen and practice plastic plastic is newer than a lot of other materials no one really knows how long it takes to decompose maybe up to 1 000 years around the world people make more than 200 million metric tons of plastic every year all of this plastic is probably still on Earth we don't recycle much plastic because it's hard to sort the different types of plastic and there aren't

many factories that recycle plastic we can recycle plastic from bottles and from parts of refrigerators and cars people sort the different types of plastic and then they take them to a plastic recycling Factory different factories recycle different types of plastic at the factory machines clean the plastic and cut it into small pieces other machines melt the plastic and clean it again then machines cut this clean plastic into small pellets other factories use these pellets to make new plastic things we can use recycled plastic to make phones clothes chairs toys and much more listen and practice

metal there are lots of different metals and they all come from rocks to get most metals out of rocks people have to use machines to make the Rocks very very hot the machines use a lot of energy it's good to recycle metals because we save this energy metal is a good material to recycle because we can recycle it again and again we can recycle All Metals but we recycle different Metals in different ways let's look at aluminum aluminum is the metal in most drinks cans it's also in Plains cars bicycles computers buildings and things that

we cook with at the recycling Factory machines cut the waste aluminum into small pieces then very hot air blows off all the words and pictures on the metal next machines melt the metal and make bars other factories melt These Bars to make new metal things listen and practice be careful mountains can be dangerous you can fall or get lost in the mountains helicopters come and help people the weather in the mountains can be nice and sunny but it can be cloudy and rainy too high in the mountains it is cold so take warm clothes take

water when you walk in the mountains don't drink water from a river take food it's good to eat cheese bread fruit and chocolate take a map and a compass too have fun in the mountains but be careful listen and practice ice and snow in the mountains you can see rivers of ice a river of ice is called a glacier what makes a glacier in Winter lots of snow falls on the mountains then new snow falls on the old snow and makes ice the ice moves down the mountain in a glacier glaciers move very very slowly

in some glaciers there are big crevasses crevasses are holes in the ice crevasses are dangerous in snowy weather people don't see a crevasse then they can fall in Avalanches are dangerous too in an avalanche lots of snow falls from the mountain it can fall on people listen and practice mammals and birds a mammal is an animal that drinks milk from its mother and breathes air most mammals like people and elephants live on land some mammals live in the ocean because they feed and move in water ocean mammals are different from Land mammals in many ways

the sea Lion's body has a shape like a fish so it can swim very fast it doesn't have front legs but it has flippers that pull it through the water some birds live feed and sleep on the ocean they catch fish by diving under the water some birds only come to the seashore to make nests and to lay eggs