Topic Reading-Vol.452-7/7/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

5 Things You Didn't Know About Competitive Eating.

The 98th Nathan's Famous Fourth of July International Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island, New York, is won by a man who swallowed 68 hotdogs in just ten minutes, which is a total of nearly 20,000 calories, 1,173 grams of fat, 210 mg of cholesterol and 48,990 mg of sodium, enough calories for 10 days for a healthy adult man.

Is competitive eating just a game or some sort? It seems to require not only a healthy body but also constant physical training, not to mention the power to chew and swallow such massive amount of food in a short period of time as well as supersized and inflatable stomach. Then how do those contestants develop such demanding ability and capacity to compete?

Enjoy reading and learning about this extreme contest and its contestants’ efforts. 

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/eating-win-things-competitive-eating/story?id=19571743#

Topic Reading-Vol.451-7/6/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Seattle Man Catches 200-Year-Old Fish

Is it Coelacanth or some sort? Not quite. It’s actually just rockfish caught from the deep sea off the coast of Alaska by a real estate developer from Seattle who is much younger than the fish.

But a question arises: how do you measure the age of fish? First, this rare fish unlike most other fish species grows bigger as it ages. That is why the fish caught by the pleasure fisherman weighed a record-breaking 39.8 pounds, or just about 18 kilograms. Also, this fish’s ear bone grows one ring for every year it lives just like a tree would.

Enjoy reading and learning about this rare, supersized and centuries-old fish.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/seattle-man-catches-200-old-fish-150606918.html

Topic Reading-Vol.450-7/5/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

New filial law sparks debate.

It may be hardly believable for a grandparent to sue his or her children for not visiting often or caring enough in a country where filial duty has (or now had) long been a family practice.

As now economic development, one-child policy, migrate workers and hyper-competition in education and job market seem to have affecting the tradition in China, which is becoming one of the fastest aging societies in the world, those lonely or left-out grandparents are in need of more visits and care by their offspring and the court ruled that they should be taken care by law.

Enjoy reading and learning about the latest move to support and even enforce the traditional family value.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-07/02/content_16701393.htm

Topic Reading-Vol.449-7/4/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

Emergency fire shelters last chance for survival.

The wildfire in Arizona took lives of 19, mostly in their 20s, elite firefighters called “hotshot crew”, or an interagency hotshot crew (IHC). It is a crew of 20 firefighters specially trained to cope with wildfires. Hotshot crews are considered an elite group among wild land firefighters, because of their extensive training, high physical fitness standards, and ability to undertake difficult, dangerous, and stressful assignments.

The last effort for survival when those wildfire fighting crews is to put themselves into their emergency fire shelters, which is designed to reflect heat and trap cool breathable air inside for a few minutes while a wildfire burns over a person. Unfortunately, this shelter wasn’t resistant enough to protect their lives from the blaze.

Read and learn about what the emergency fire shelter is like. 

http://news.yahoo.com/emergency-fire-shelters-last-chance-survival-212757632.html

Topic Reading-Vol.448-7/3/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,
Southwest bakes in 115 to 120-degree heat!

How many of you are able to convert Fahrenheit to Celsius or vice versa?

Don’t worry; the Fahrenheit scale isn’t officially or practically used in the U.S. and a few other small countries. But when you hear or read temperatures like 115 to 120 degrees, you’ll be quite surprised or confused. Is the U.S. such a hot place?

In order to convert the Fahrenheit to Celsius, you need to subtract 18 first and then divide the figure by 1.8, or multiply it by five and divided the result by nine. Here are some comparative figures;

- the boiling point of water is 212 degrees Fahrenheit=> 100 degrees Celsius

- 125 degrees Fahrenheit=> 52 degrees Celsius

- 100 degrees Fahrenheit=> 38 degrees Celsius

-   75 degrees Fahrenheit=> 24 degrees Celsius

-   25 degrees Fahrenheit=> 10 degrees Celsius

- the freezing point of water is 32 degrees Fahrenheit=> 0 degrees Celsius

Enjoy reading and learning how hot the South-western part of the U.S. is.

http://news.yahoo.com/southwest-bakes-115-120-degree-heat-044613451.html

 

Topic Reading-Vol.447-7/2/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

In China, activists fight for gay marriage.

Is China, which is governed by one ruling party, more liberal than its neighboring democratic countries in terms of equal rights? At least the demonstration walk with arms around each other's shoulders by students in a small village in Northern China on June 28 wasn’t cracked down by the authority like the one in Beijing 14 years ago.

Are those who are openly gay or supportive of them find themselves equally treated or not discriminated in today’s society especially in rural regions or will they in the near future?

Enjoy reading and learning about what and how they feel about their current situations and foresee their future society. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/27/world/asia/china-gay-rights-jiang/index.html?hpt=ias_c1

Topic Reading-Vol.446-7/1/2013

Dear MEL School’s Topic Readers,

NASA telescope to study mysterious part of the sun.

You may know that the sun’s surface is very hot, no lower than 6,000 degrees Celsius, but some region of its outer atmosphere, the temperature goes as high as two million Celsius.

Why so? That is something astronomers have been trying to find clues and therefore, an observational spacecraft was launched and in orbit.

Enjoy reading the brief article and seeing the photos of NASA’s latest mission to observe the hottest region of the sun. 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/28/us/nasa-sun-telescope/index.html?hpt=hp_c5