GEOLOGICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

UNIVERSITAS GADJAH MADA

ENGLISH CLASS

Time : August – December 2018

Day/Time : Tuesday/Wednesday, 07.00 – 08.40
Teacher : Cicilia Dwi Setyorini, S.Pd., M.Hum
Email : setyorinicicilia@yahoo.com
Telp No : 08179432598

I. COURSE DESCRIPTION

The program is ESP – based (English for Specific Purposes) in which students do not simply
learn the language but also use it to improve their knowledge related to their study field,
geological engineering. The skills emphasized in the course are reading and speaking with
some learning practices on extensive reading and presentation using pecha kutcha style.
Writing and listening however will still be used to support the students’ reading and
speaking skills through review writing and discussions within groups. The learning
assessment will include both written and spoken test and the learning strategy applied is
cooperative learning in which every student should be actively and equally involved in the
learning activities.

II. COURSE PROGRESS

(Adjustable to the actual progress of the course)

Meeting Learning Materials/ Topics
1 Mars One - A Human Colony on the Red Planet
2 Astronomers Discover Earth-Sized Planets Around Nearby Star
3 Dinosaurs - Were they warm- or cold-blooded?
4 Planet Nine – A New Planet Beyond Pluto
5 Antarctica ice on the Rise
6 Are bananas becoming extinct?
7 Written Mid-Term Test
8 Introduction to pecha kutcha presentation
Group assignment for the presentation practices
9 Pecha Kutcha 1 (group 1 – 4)
Topic: Mars
10 Pecha Kutcha 2 (group 5 – 8)
Topic: Planets

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 11 Pecha Kutcha 3 (group 9 – 12)
Topic: Dinosaurs
12 Pecha Kutcha 4 (group 13 – 15)
Topic: earthquake
13 Review
14 Final Test 1 (half class)
15 Final Test 2 (another half)

III. SCORING ITEMS

NO KINDS OF PERCENTAGE
ASSESSMENTS
1 Vocabulary quiz 20%
2 Presentation project 20%
3 Mid – Test 25%
4 Final Test 35%

IV. GRADING CRITERIA

SCORING RANGE PREDICATE
> 82 A
72 – 81.99 B
62 – 71.99 C
52 – 61.99 D
< 52 E

V. REFERENCES

Antarctica ice on the Rise (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.english-online.at/news-

articles/science/antarctica-ice-on-rise.htm
Are bananas becoming extinct? (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.english-online.at/news-
articles/science/are-bananas-becoming-extinct.htm
Astronomers Discover Earth-Sized Planets Around Nearby Star (n.d.) Retrieved from
https://www.english-online.at/news-articles/science/astronomers-discover-planets-around-nearby-star.htm
Dinosaurs - Were they warm- or cold-blooded? (n.d.) Retrieved from Retrieved from
https://www.english-online.at/news-articles/science/dinosaurs-warm-or-coldblooded.htm
Mars One - A Human Colony on the Red Planet (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.english-
online.at/news-articles/science/mars-one.htm
Planet Nine – A new Planet beyond Pluto (n.d.) Retrieved from https://www.english-
online.at/news-articles/science/planet-nine-new-planet-beyond-pluto.htm
Robinson, Z. (2011). Muscled at the Shaolin Temple. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fsvtV_MKXg

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Mars One - A Human Colony on the Red Planet

Mars One is a project that wants to put humans on Mars by 2024. It is a private organization
with headquarters in the Netherlands. By 2035 Mars a human colony of 24 people will live
permanently on Mars.

The mission calls for the launch of unmanned spacecraft that will bring the necessary
equipment, living units and survival gear to Mars as soon as 2020. Starting in 2024, the first
four people will start their seven month journey to the red planet. In the following years five
more groups of colonists will fly to Mars.

The project was first announced in 2011 by the head of the mission Bas Lansdorp. He claims
that over 200,000 people from around the world were interested in the project. Mars One
selected a first pool of possible candidates in 2013 and have narrowed the number down to a
hundred. In 2015 the final 24 people will be chosen and split into six teams of four who will be
sent to the red planet.

Mars One is a one-way trip that, according to the Dutch organization, will cost around 6 billion
dollars, much less than any NASA project to put a man on Mars. The project is to be funded by
donations from around the world but most of the money is expected to come from a media
group that will broadcast the whole mission to Earth.

Words

 according to = as said by …
 announce = to say officially, make something public
 billion = a thousand million
 broadcast = to send out television programmes
 certain = special
 challenge = problem
 choose = select
 claim = to say that something is true
 compare = put side by side
 controversy = discussion
 currently = at the moment
 deadline = time or date, at which something must happen
 decade = ten years
 donation = gift in the form of money
 encounter = come across
 equipment = machines and tools
 expect = believe
 face = meet, deal with
 fund = finance ; get money from
 head = leader
 headquarters = here: where an organisation does its work
 however = but
 humans = people
 in addition = also

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 including = also
 journey = trip
 launch = take-off, start
 level = amount
 living unit = here: block that can be put together, so that people can live there
 magnetic field = an area around a plant that has magnetic power
 mission = trip, adventure
 narrow = get smaller
 necessary = what is needed
 one-way = here: without being able to return back to earth
 permanently = forever
 pool = group
 psychological = about the way you mind works and the way this changes the way you act
 qualifications = skill, talent, ability
 radiation = form of energy that you cannot see and is dangerous in high amounts
 recently = a short time ago
 scientist = person who is trained in science and works in a lab
 select = choose
 serious = critical, dangerous
 skilled = talented ; to be able to do a job
 spacecraft = a machine that can travel to space
 split = divide
 supply = provide, offer
 support = to be for something
 surface = the outer layer of …
 survival gear = clothes and other things that are needed to live in such a dangerous place
 survive = live on in a dangerous situation
 undergo = go through

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Astronomers Discover Earth-Sized Planets Around Nearby Star

NASA has discovered seven rocky planets about the size of the earth revolving around a star in
our Milky Way. The planets belong to a dwarf star named Trappist-1, which is about 40 light
years away from earth. Astronomers have become excited by the discovery , feeling that the
planets may have conditions needed to support life.

It is the first time that a solar system like ours has been discovered with so many planets
revolving around it. The planets are so close to their star that it only takes them between 1 and
20 days to move around it. In contrast, our sun’s closest planet, Mercury, needs 88 days to
move around it once. Scientists also believe that, like our moon, the same side of the planets
always face the star.

Trappist-1 is a small star that is thousands of times less brighter than our sun. It burns hydrogen
so slowly that it will exist for trillions of years. Even though the planets get much less light than
we do , three of them are near enough to make them temperate. Water could be found on their
surfaces, but scientists do not know anything about their atmospheres.

Because the Trappist-1 system is so close to us, NASA is looking forward to getting new
information when the powerful new James Webb Space Telescope is launched next year.

The first planets outside our solar system were discovered in the 1990s. Since then about 3500
exoplanets have been found.

Words

 astronomer = person who studies the stars and the planets

 atmosphere = the mixture of gases that is around a planet
 condition = the state that something is in
 discover = to find something for the first time
 dwarf star = a small star that is not very bright
 even though = while
 exist = to be around
 hydrogen = a gas that can burn and give energy
 in contrast = on the other side
 launch = here: to put into orbit
 light year = the distance that it takes for light to travel in one year = about 9 trillion kilometres
 revolve = move around
 solar system = a star with planets moving around it
 support = here: to have the elements that would allow life
 surface = the top layer of an object
 telescope = instrument with which you can see things far away
 temperate = not too hot and not too cold
 trillion = a thousand billion

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Dinosaurs - Were they warm- or cold-blooded?

For a long time scientists have been trying to find out if dinosaurs were warm- or cold-blooded.
For some time they thought that dinosaurs, which became extinct 65 million years ago, were
reptiles and therefore cold-blooded like their successors.

In today's world, creatures are either warm-blooded, with a constant body temperature or cold-
blooded, with a body temperature that changes in the world around them.

New facts suggest that they might have been neither, and both at the same time. Today, tuna
fish, white sharks and leatherback turtles are animals that fall into this category.

In recent research, scientists have started comparing dinosaur bones to those of modern
mammals. Similar to the rings of a tree, examining bones can show you how fast an animal
grows or gains weight. According to the results, they had growth rates and metabolic rates
that are somewhere in-between warm- and cold-blooded animals. Information shows that
dinosaurs had high a metabolic rate, letting them to grow faster. This allowed dinosaurs to get
bigger than they would normally have become. Warm-blooded animals, mammals and birds,
usually eat a lot to keep up their body temperature.

Cold-blooded animals need less food and are rather slow in their movements. While this is the
case with most dinosaurs, there were also some, like the Tyrannosaurus rex, that were rather
fast.

Words

 according to = look at …
 category = group
 compare = look at two things closely, side by side
 constant = always the same
 creature = something living
 examine = to look at closely
 extinct = die out; not survive
 gain weight = become heavier
 growth rate = how fast an animal grows
 keep up = maintain, hold
 mammal = animal that drinks milk from its mother when it is young; humans, dogs and
whales are mammals
 metabolic rate = how fast food is changed into energy
 movement = move from one place to another
 neither = here: none of both
 rather = somewhat, quite
 recent = new, latest
 reptile = animal, like a snake or a lizard, whose body temperature changes according to
the world around it
 research =study about a subject in order to find out more facts

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 scientist = person who works in a lab and is trained in science
 similar = like
 successor = here: animal that grew out an animal that lived before it
 suggest = show
 turtle = reptile that lives mostly in water and has a soft body covered with a hard shell
 tyrannosaurus rex = very large, meat-eating dinosaur

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Planet Nine - A New Planet Beyond Pluto?

Astronomers may have discovered a ninth planet, beyond Pluto, in our solar system. Planet
Nine, as it is called, may have ten times the mass of the earth and four times the size. The planet,
which has not yet been detected by telescopes, may take up 20,000 years to orbit the sun.

The closest the new planet comes to the sun may be about 15 times the distance of Pluto. Then
it heads out to a distance of 93 billion miles, or 75 times farther than the dwarf
planet. Scientists are hoping to detect it when it comes closer to earth. Today's telescopes are so
strong that the planet should be able to be seen within the next few years.

Astronomers made the discovery when they saw small objects that were aligned in a row in the
Kuiper Belt, a region that contains countless objects that orbit the sun near Pluto. This meant
that they might be pulled towards another , far larger object, that couldn't be seen.

The former planet Pluto is also thought to be one of the Kuiper Belt objects which
have unusual orbits, unlike the orbits of the other planets. Planet Nine may be an object that
was knocked out of the solar system when it was created.

For a long time scientists and astronomers have wondered if there were any planets outside the
orbit of Pluto. Ironically, the astronomers who discovered the possible existence of Planet Nine
are the same who degraded Pluto to a dwarf planet a few years ago.

Words

 align = to put things in a straight line

 astronomer = person who studies the stars and planets
 contain = to have in it
 countless = so many that you cannot count them
 create = make
 billion = a thousand million
 degrade = here: to lower the status from planet to dwarf planet
 detect = discover something that is not easy to see
 discover = to find something for the first time
 distance = the space between two things
 dwarf planet = object that goes around the sun but is smaller than a planet
 existence = the situation that something exists
 former = in the past
 head out = move away
 ironically = something that is the opposite of what you would expect
 knock out = hit
 orbit = to move around
 scientist = person who is trained in science and works in a lab
 size = how big something is
 solar system = the sun and the planets that go around it
 telescope = object that looks like a tube and is used for making faraway things look larger
 towards = to ; in something's direction
 unusual = not normal, not like the others

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Antarctica Ice on the Rise

The American space agency NASA has recently found out that Antarctica's ice sheet is
growing. Satellite images show that between 1992 and 2001 ice on
the southernmost continent grew at a rate of 112 billion tons a year. After that the ice sheets
still became bigger, but at a slower pace.

The new discovery comes at a time when many scientists claim that, due to global warming, the
ice on Earth is melting away. In another discovery, scientists have found out that some parts of
Antarctica are becoming higher, but they say this is because of more snowfall in the area.

According to NASA, global warming has led to rising temperatures, thus making it possible for
more snow to fall on the continent. As a result the snow becomes more compact
and eventually turns into ice. In the future NASA hopes to measure ice thickness more exactly
when they plan to launch new satellites into space by 2018.

Words

 according to = as said by ...

 claim = to say that something is true
 discovery = when you find important information for the first time
 due to = because of
 eventually = slowly
 ice sheet = cover of ice over an area of land
 launch = start, send
 measure = to find the size or length of something
 pace = speed
 rate = speed
 recently = only a short time ago
 southernmost = furthest south
 space agency = organization that controls the launching of spacecraft in a country
 thus = that is why

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Are Bananas Becoming Extinct?

The banana, one of the world's most popular fruits, is in danger of

becoming extinct. Scientists have found that a virus has been attacking Cavendish bananas,
the most widely-eaten banana, in Asia and Australia for some years. At the moment there is no
way to fight off the disease. Because bananas are grown in plantations , a disease can attack all
of the bananas of the same kind. It spreads through infected plants, soil and water.

The new virus is similar to the Panama disease which wiped out certain types of bananas in the
1800s. The disease attacks the banana plant and kills it off completely. Scientists fear that the
new virus called Tropical Race 4, a mutation of the Panama disease, will eventually spread to
Latin America, where most of the world's bananas are produced.It has already destroyed whole
plantations in south-east Asia and northern Australia.

Although Tropical Race 4 has been around for some decades , it has spread more quickly in the
past few years. Currently, food experts are trying to contain the disease and stop it
from spreading to other continents. Millions of people around the world rely on the banana as
a source of food. About 12 % of the world's banana production of over 140 million tons are
exported .

Words

 attack = hit
 completely = totally, all of them
 contain = stop something from spreading
 currently = now, at the moment
 decade = ten years
 destroy = damage something so badly that it does not exist any more
 disease = illness
 eventually = slowly, in the end
 extinct = to die out and not exist any more
 infected = plants or animals that have viruses in them
 mutation = a change in the genetic structure of an animal or plant that makes it different
from the others
 plantation = large area in a tropical or subtropical country where only one product is
grown
 popular = much-liked
 rely = depend on, need
 scientist = person who has studied science and works in a lab
 similar = like
 source = place where something comes from
 spread = move from one place to another
 virus = very small living thing that can cause a disease
 widely-eaten = eaten by many people
 wipe out = destroy completely

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