Siu Yins Articles 24/07/2014

Giant Japanese salamander - level 3

21-07-2014 15:00Level 1Level 2Level 3
A giant salamander slowly and casually walking down a footpath.

A student in Japan found the metre-long amphibious
creature on his morning commute to school.
I was just walking without really paying any attention to it but
once I got close to it, it started to move. That's when I realised it
was this giant salamander and that's how I discovered it.
After finding the huge Japanese giant salamander and taking a
quick video of it, Yu informed the police who watched on, as the
creature made its own way back to the river by itself.
It wasn't measured for length, so its exact dimensions remain a
mystery. The Japanese salamander is on the International Union
for Conservation of Nature's Red List, as a near-threatened
species.
They can grow up to 150 centimetres. Most found in the wild are
between 60-70 centimetres, according to Japanese environment
agency data. The video of the salamander that Yu uploaded to
YouTube has already received over 1.8 million hits and a flurry of
comments comparing it to everything from Godzilla to Pokemon.

Difficult words: casually (relaxed and not
worried), amphibious (able to live on both land and
water), creature (animal), commute (the everyday journey to
work or school), huge (very
big), dimension (measurements), flurry (lots of).



Big event in North Korea - level 3

17-07-2014 15:00Level 1Level 2Level 3

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to have limped on
stage at an event to mark the anniversary of his grandfather's
death. Footage broadcast by the country's state-run television
showed Kim walking into the centre of a large stage with a limp, in
front of a huge portrait of his grandfather printed onto a red flag.

Speeches by government officials were heard during the
memorial service for founding president Kim Il Sung, who died 20
years ago today. State-produced media and propaganda is
highly controlled and choreographed by the isolated country and
any defects with its leadership are usually kept a tightly guarded
secret. Kim Il Sung, who founded the country and ruled until his
death, had a large tennis-ball sized growth on the back of his
neck which meant state propagandists were forbidden from
filming him from certain angles. It's not clear why Kim Jong Un
had developed the limp, but state media has shown the young
leader, in his early 30s, conducting military spot guidance visits on
the east and west coasts of North Korea in recent weeks.

Difficult words: limp (walk with difficulty), footage (video), state-
run (managed by the government), illustrated (shown/ painted/
drawn) propaganda (people make the news show certain
things), isolated (alone), defect (problem).



Chinese boy in a washing machine -
level 3

23-07-2014 15:00Level 1Level 2Level 3

A young boy in eastern China had to be rescued after he found
himself stuck in a washing machine.

Firefighters had to cut the three-year-old free by opening up the
back of the appliance using hydraulic shears.
They managed to remove the drum intact with the boy still inside
and then lifted him out.
His parents said they were entertaining guests at home when the
boy wandered off to the laundry room unsupervised. It wasn't
until they heard him cry out, unable to move, that they knew
where he was and that he was stuck. The child thankfully walked
away without injury.

Difficult words: hydraulic (powered by water), shears (big
scissors), drum (round part inside a machine), wander off (move
away from a place), unsupervised (nobody was looking after
him).