homework - Swine flu

Info:

Swine flu is moving from being an epidemic to a pandemic.

An epidemic is when a disease is spreading quickly. A pandemic is when a disease is in two different areas of the world at the same time. 

Right now, swine flu is in Mexico, Australia, North America, South America, Europe, Hong Kong, and elsewhere.

The last global flu pandemic came in 1968 over the Hong Kong flu.
That pandemic killed about one million people.

Questions:

1) What is an epidemic?

2) What is a pandemic?

3) Name the countries where swine flu is spreading.

4) When was the last pandemic?

Info taken from BBC

homework - Technology, new iphone!

Read the info. Answer the questions.

Apple is expected to release the latest model of its popular iPhone at the worldwide developer's conference in San Francisco later today. 

Sources have revealed that the new handset will have double the memory that it had before. This means you can store up to 7,000 songs or 40 hours of video. 

It also has a faster processor, and an improved camera that can record video.

Questions:

1) When will the new iphone be released?

2) How many songs can you have on the new iphone?

3) How many hours of video can you store?

4) What else is improved on the new iphone?

info and pic taken from bild.com 

Homework - Science, Komodo Dragons

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Komodo Dragons are the world’s biggest lizards and can grow to be 10 feet long and weigh more than 300 pounds.  Komodo dragons run fast and eat almost any kind of meat, including dead animals, other Komodo dragons, and people. “These things are incredible killing machines,” says Bryan Fry, a biologist.

If that was not bad enough, consider the bite of a Komodo dragon. According to a new study, it may kill like snakes do by injecting venom (poison).

Scientists have only recently begun to understand why a Komodo dragon is so lethal. Some people used to believe that a Komodo dragon’s bite contained bacteria from the mouth that would cause a severe infection in the victim’s blood. The infection would eventually kill the animal, but it could take days. Until then, the Komodo dragon would follow the wounded animal.

This is not true. Komodo dragons actually have venom glands in their jaws that they use to inject poison when they bite something. So you will die very quickly if they bite you.

Komodo dragons live in Indonesia.

Questions:

1) What is the world biggest lizard called?

2) How big can they get?

3) How do they kill people and animals?

4)Where do Komodo dragons live?

Info from Sciencenews.org. Pic from k12.hi.us

homework - current events, robot sub

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A robotic submarine called Nereus has reached the deepest part of the ocean.

The dive went down to 6.8 miles and took place on 31 May, at the Challenger Deep which is located in the Pacific Ocean.

This makes Nereus the deepest-diving vehicle in service. There are no people in the submarine when it dives. The robot vehicle is attached to a ship that floats above it by a long line.  Pilots in the ship floating above the submarine control it through this line.

The Challenger Deep is the deepest part of the ocean. It is over 6 miles under the surface of the ocean. That is 1.2 miles deeper than Mount Everest is high. The pressure down there is 1100 times the pressure up here. That is enough pressure to crush an elephant!

Questions:

1) What is the name of the robot submarine?

2) How deep did the submarine go?

3) When did the dive happen?

4) Where did the dive happen?

5) How do the pilots control the submarine?

Info from the BBC. Pic from the fabricator.com

homework - current events, missing plane

Read the info. Answer the questions.

"Terrible" weather conditions are making it hard to find the Air France plane lost over the Atlantic on Monday.

Ships and planes from many nations are continuing to search the sea. 

The Air France plane was heading from Brazil to Paris when it disappeared.

The cause of the crash is still a mystery. So far there is still no clue to of the cause of the incident. The French say that terrorism might be a possibility but they don't know yet.

France believes there is little or no hope of finding survivors from among the 228 passengers and crew aboard the flight.

Questions:

1) Why is it hard to find the plane?

2) Where was the plane heading when it crashed?

3) How many people were on the plane?

4) When did the plane go missing?