Watson’s World News no. 1/2012
January 25, 2012 Leave a Comment
Brad and Angelina’s Kids Want Them to Marry
September 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
One Big Happy Family
America’s most famous celebrity couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, are not married.
Five years ago, Pitt said that he would not marry Jolie until gay marriage was legalized throughout the United States.
The two fell in love when they worked together on “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and he was still married to Jennifer Aniston.
Gay marriage is still only legal in 7 states and Brad and Angelina are still unmarried.
They have 6 children, 3 of whom are biologically theirs and 3, from different countries around the world, they have adopted.
The oldest is Maddox, a Cambodian
boy Jolie adopted in 2002, when she was still married to actor Billy Bob Thornton. Then she adopted Zahara, an Ethiopian girl, in 2005. By that time, her and Pitt had begun dating, and he agreed with the adoption.
In 2006, she gave birth to a girl they named Shiloh. In 2007, they adopted a 3 year old Vietnamese boy who they renamed Pax. Then, in 2008, Jolie gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl named Knox and Vivienne.
They are still unmarried but Pitt, the star of “Fight Club” and “Seven”, said recently that their children are pressuring* them to change that.
“I’ve said that we would not be getting married until everyone in this country has the right to get married. We live in this great country that is about freedom. It is defined by our freedom and equality* and yet we allow* this discrimination to go on every day and that’s not what we’re about. That’s not what makes us great… but the kids are putting on the heat.* They really are. They are putting on the heat,” he said on a TV show recently.
Vocabulary:
pressure – tlačit na
equality – rovnost
allow – dovolit
put on the heat – tlačit
Question for discussion:
Should they marry?
Faster Than the Speed of Light
September 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
Since Albert Einstein published his theory of relativity (E=Mc2)in 1905, scientists have accepted the speed of light ( almost 300,000 kilometers per second) as the fastest speed possible.
Now, scientists at the CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) laboratory in Switzerland believe they may have timed* a neutrino (a subatomic, electrically neutral particle*) going faster than that.
If true, it would be an amazing development,* bringing humanity a giant step closer to interstellar* travel. Unfortunately, even the scientists at CERN are skeptical. “The feeling that most people have is this can’t be right, this can’t be real,” said James Gillies, a CERN spokesman.
However, they have been checking* the results for months and not found any errors. So, they have asked other scientists to try and either confirm or refute* their results. Unfortunately, there are only two other laboratories in the world which have the equipment to do such experiments.
Vocabulary:
time – změřit (trvání, čas)
particle – částice
development – vývoj
interstellar – mezihvězdný
check – ověřovat
refute – vyvrátit
Question for discussion:
How would this change the world?
Man Dies of Overeating*
September 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
Ivan Mendel, a 77 year old man from Ukraine, liked vareniki,a type of Ukrainian dumplings. Sometimes they are savory,* filled with meat or mushrooms. Sometimes they are sweet, filled with various kinds of fruit.
Mendel liked them so much that, on September 18th, he entered* a vareniki eating contest* in the southeastern town of Tokmak. He won the contest, eating 10 of the delicious stuffed dumplings in only 30 seconds. He won a jar of sour cream.
However,* his victory was short lived. He got sick immediately after the contest and died.
He Loved Them to Death
Vocabulary:
overeat – přejíst se
savory – nesladký
enter – zúčastnit se
contest – soutěž
however – nicméně
Question for discussion:
Could you eat 10 of anything in 30 seconds?
Artist Makes Necklaces* From Hair
September 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
Fashion, Art or just Weird?
There is an expression in English, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.*”
Certainly, the works of creative art student Kerry Howley, 23, are original. Also, they required* a great deal of* skill and effort to make. Some people may find them beautiful, but some people may find them repulsive.*
That’s because Howley makes necklaces from human hair. She says she was inspired by people’s aversion to hair once it has left the body. She got the hair from a friend of her mother’s, a Japanese woman who has hair down to her waist.*
“My mother’s friend volunteered* to have 30 centimeters of her hair cut off* for me, which was extremely generous,*” Howley said.
Each necklace took approximately 60 hours to make.
Vocabulary:
necklace – náhrdelník
beholder – pozorovatel
require – vyžadovat
a great deal of – hodně
repulsive – odporný
waist – pas
volunteer – dobrovolně se přihlásit
cut off – odstřihnout
generous – štědrý
Question for discussion:
Would you wear one?
Village Wives vs. Sexy Barmaid*
September 28, 2011 Leave a Comment
Women in the Italian village of Cadelbosco Sopra are so angry at the local barmaid that they have started a petition to get her fired,* because their husbands are giving her too much of their money.
Loredana Popesciue, 27, is not afraid. “These women are just jealous,*” she said. “I have Brazilian roots* and I love to dance. What’s wrong with that?” She added “I have nothing against these women, but if their husbands wanted to spend time with them, they’d be at home and not in my bar.”
One of Loredana’s biggest supporters* is the pub’s owner. Because of Loredana, he has renamed the pub the Lory Pink Bar.
Homewrecker
Vocabulary:
barmaid – barmanka
get (somebody) fired – vyhodit (z práce)
jealous – žárlivý
root – kořen
supporter – zastánce
homewrecker – husband stealer
Question for discussion:
What can the wives do about this situation?
