pg.55 Cambridge IGCSE English revised edition

Dear Mr. Field,

I came across your article on a newspaper yesterday and I am writing to you about my concerns and plans regarding the decline in elephant population.

I was tremendously shocked to find the number of poor, innocent, baby elephants dying every year. We certainly can't leave them die like that. There has to be some changes and help given by humans since we are the ones who destroyed their natural habitat. 

While thinking about this matter, I read the article about the work you have done and I was very pleased to meet a person with the same mind set as mine. I think what you are doing right now is a great start and more people should be aware of this. 

I am planning on holding some events to raise the awareness of endangered elephants and I have been trying to get some sponsors from big companies. I was thinking if we can make a project team together to save the dying elephants. It would be a great pleasure and an honour if I can work with your team. Thank you for your time reading my letter and I will be waiting for your  reply.

Yours Sincerely,

J.H Williams

click to read the original article

Researchers Find Fish That Walks the Way Land Vertebrates Do

It’s one of the most famous chapters in evolution, so familiar that it regularly inspires New Yorker cartoons: Some 375 million years ago, our ancestors emerged from the sea, evolving from swimming fish to vertebrates that walked on land.

Scientists still puzzle over exactly how the transition from sea to land took place. For the most part, they’ve had to rely on information gleaned from fossils of some of the intermediate species.

• information that fossils of some of the intermediate species gleaned

But now a team of researchers has found a remarkable parallel to one of evolution’s signature events. In a cave in Thailand, they’ve discovered that a blind fish walks the way land vertebrates do.

The waterfall-climbing cave fish, Cryptotora thamicola, has even evolved many of the skeletal features that our ancestors did for walking, including a full-blown pelvis.

• cave fish that can climb waterfalls
• pelvis which was fully blown

“It’s really weird,” said John R. Hutchinson, a biologist at the Royal Veterinary College at the University of London who was not involved in the new study. “It’s a good example of how much fish diversity there’s left to be discovered.”

Drop an ordinary fish on the ground, and it will flop around helplessly: Its fins are adapted for pushing against water, not fighting gravity.

The early land vertebrates, known as tetrapods, evolved adaptations that enabled them to move efficiently over solid ground. A pelvis joined their hind limbs to their spines, for example. Their vertebrae grew flanges so that they interlocked, helping the spine hold itself stiff and straight even when being pulled down by gravity.

• gravity pulled them down

These adaptations led tetrapods to walk in a distinctive fashion, moving their forelegs and hind legs together in a cycle. Early tetrapods probably walked much the way salamanders do today, bending their trunk from side to side as they traveled.

All tetrapods descend from a single ancestor — a single lineage of fish that managed to spread on land. Some other fishes evolved vaguely similar ways of moving around. 

On coral reefs, for example, frogfish can push off surfaces with their fins. They have a gait that looks something like a slow-motion walk. But they can manage this movement only underwater.

Other fish can move on land, although none of them use a tetrapod gait to do so. Some simply squirm, while others, like mudskippers, rely on their front fins as crutches. In Hawaii, the Nopili rock-climbing goby climbs up rock faces by using its mouth as a suction cup.

• goby that climbs rocks

The waterfall-climbing cave fish is leaps ahead of them, it turns out. Pale and blind, the two-inch-long fish feeds on microbes and organic matter growing on the cave walls. It was discovered in 1985, deep inside a system of caves in northern Thailand, and has been found nowhere else.

• Scientists discovered it in 1985

While other fish in the caves enjoy a life in quiet pools, the waterfall-climbing cave fish clambers up slick rocks as water crashes over it.

On a recent expedition to the caves, Apinun Suvarnaraksha, a biologist at Maejo University in Thailand, and Daphne Soares, of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, came across the climber and took some grainy videos of it.

Back in New Jersey, Dr. Soares showed the videos to her colleague, Brooke E. Flammang, an expert on biomechanics.

“I was completely blown away,” Dr. Flammang said. Instead of flopping or crutching, the cave fish were using what looked like a full-blown tetrapod gait.

“These guys seemed to be very leisurely walking up the rock face,” Dr. Flammang said.

She wanted to study the fish more closely, but the species is rare and protected, and she could not bring any of them into her lab.

• needs protections

Dr. Suvarnaraksha did the next best thing. In a Thai museum collection, he found one of the few preserved specimens of the fish. He took it to a dental school and used a high-resolution CT scanner to make images of the fish.

• specimens of the fish that is preserved

After Dr. Suvarnaraksha emailed the images to Dr. Flammang, she was able to line up the images together to reconstruct the fish’s three-dimensional anatomy.

In many ways, the skeleton of the fish looked like what you’d see on a walking tetrapod. “I literally thought someone was playing a trick on me,” she said.

In typical fish, the pelvis is just a pair of small bones floating in the body wall. Fish use the bones only to stabilize their pelvic fins, so that they can stop themselves from rolling over.

In the waterfall-climbing cave fish, on the other hand, the pelvis is a complex of bones that is fused to the spine by elongated ribs. It’s the same arrangement that tetrapods evolved, allowing them to hold themselves up with their hind legs.

• ribs that are elongated

Typical fish also have small vertebrae that don’t overlap, allowing them to bend their bodies as they swim. But the waterfall-climbing cave fish has the same overlapping growths on their vertebrae that stiffen the spine in tetrapods.

“Functionally, it makes perfect sense, but to see it in a fish is incredibly wild,” Dr. Flammang said.

In Thailand, Dr. Suvarnaraksha then went back to the caves with a video camera. He scooped two of the fish into an aquarium and made videos of them walking at different angles.

When Dr. Flammang and her colleagues analyzed the images, they confirmed their initial hunch: The fish were using their tetrapod-like bodies to walk with a tetrapod-like gait. It most closely resembles that of a salamander.

The researchers published their study on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

Dr. Flammang said that the waterfall-climbing cave fish eventually might give scientists hints about how fish originally arrived on land. “The physics are the same,” she said.

Scientists have found trackways in Poland dating back almost 400 million years that look as if they were made by a walking tetrapod. But the oldest tetrapod fossils found so far date only to 375 million years. 

• walking tetrapod made them

It’s possible that a fish, rather than a primitive tetrapod, made those tracks by moving as the waterfall-climbing cave fish does today.

“We see these footprints in a fish today, doing something very unfishlike,” Dr. Flammang said.

Ph

Dear Johnny,

I'm sorry I haven't written you for ages. I was too busy with my school exams. I just finished my exams and I wanted to tell you that I want to invite you for my school party next month! It's on the 18th of April which is the second Tuesday next week.

I promise you it's going to be fun. All of my classmates are attending this prom and it's one of my last events in high school, so it would be really thankful if you can come! You know most of my friends and I'm sure even those people who you don't know will be your friend by the end of this party. There's going to be loud music which you can dance too, good food, good people and you'll be surprised to hear the main aim of this event! We're holding this to raise awareness of the endangered animals and we'll be having games related to this problem.

All the money received from tickets to this party will be donated to the animal sanctuary in Sabah where they sponsor orang-utans, tigers, turtles and birds which are in danger of being extinct. Isn't this great? Having fun, at the same time, helping those animals in need of help! I'm sure you have always wanted to help but you didn't know how and where to go, so this is the perfect chance for you!

You will never regret coming for this party and this is going to be one of the best parties you've ever been to. I'll be waiting for your positive reply! Once again, I guarantee that it's going to be a splash of fun!

With lots of love,
Ye Un

Kung Fu Panda 3

The main character which is the panda is very enthusiastic and active and this is shown by the way he acts and how he is very interested in Kung fu, although he is forced to train by his master. He is eager to improve his kung fu skills as he tries hard to please his master. He is really desperate to find his father as he calls everyone he sees that looks like him. I could spot the disappointment in him when he found out that the other panda who really looks like his father wasn’t his father.

London has fallen

I can see the suspense in the movie by looking at the scenes changing quickly. It’s really thrilling as there are lots of gunshots and the filming effect of focusing on the character and blurring the rest makes the tension even more intense. The body guard is really trying his best to save the president of USA from the terrorists by risking his life. I think the president will be safe and there won’t be any harm done to him as most of the movies are happy ending.

Conjuring2 

I can feel the fear even before actually watching the movie because of the narration behind the scenes. The ticking sound of the ticker tape makes the viewers scared. The darkness makes a gloomy atmosphere and camera zooming in causes tension to be more intense. Caption written at the end of the trailer saying it’s based on a real story terrifies the viewers.

Captain America: Civil War 

First scene starts with someone being trapped which makes the viewers curious. Heavy actions and bombing makes the movie more intense and a scene of one character jumping from a high building is breathtaking. When the fighting starts, I can’t wait for the movie to be released as I don’t want any of my favourite characters to die. The fact that Iron Man and Captain America are going against each other makes me wonder why because they’re in the same team for Avengers.

Zootopia

The characters are so cute and it’s interesting how they all have their own doors which are in different sizes. They are so adorable and it’s funny as well as it uses the stereotypical idea of most people that sloth are really slow and lazy. The film is very bright and lively. One part where the animals don’t let go of each other even when they’re all in danger is very touching and it makes me want to go and watch this film.

Finding Dory

The trailer starts with calming sea with peaceful music and Dory starts 'sleep swimming' this helps the viewers predict something dangerous will happen because Dory won't know where she's going or what she's doing while sleeping. In the next scene, Dory doesn't remember anything she has done and she keeps on forgetting stuff. This makes me wonder how she's going to overcome that problem.

Now You See Me 2

It's a short trailer but it shows most of the characters appearing in the film. Since it's a sequel to the previous film, it keeps mentioning that they are back meaning they have been recognised before. It gives a tone that the film will be as good as the previous one. It shows the tension and makes the viewers get more curious.

Allegiant 

 I had high expectations as the previous movie was excellent. I was worried it wouldn't reach up to my expectations, but as I entered the cinema and watched the first 10 mins of this movie, I realised that was a useless worry. It is the best Divergent series so far and the chemistry between characters have improved and this makes the quality of this movie higher. I can't wait to watch the next one which is going to be released next year.

Have you ever experienced a bad holiday? I'm pretty sure everyone has and I'd like to tell you some of my holiday experiences and my dream holiday which I hope I can get in my life.

I've had so many terrible holidays in the past. They were terrible in various reasons, starting from spending a month just at home, to not being able to go out from a resort due to a horrible weather. I don't really like it when I stay at home, doing nothing although some people like doing that. I like going out with my friends, so I get really depressed when I don't go out for a week. Not being able to go out for a month was a disaster for me even though it doesn't sound that serious. Raining makes me lazy and tired, so it wasn't a good experience to stay in the resort, not being able to enjoy in the water park just because of the rain.

But the worst of all was when I went for a school camp. It took me very long to go through the immigration centre because something was wrong with my passport, and what's more, I lost my luggage in the airport, as soon as I reached Kuching. My seat on the bus was broken, there was no water supply in the room, and I even had to share the room with someone I considered as an enemy. I don't want anything like this to happen again but I want a perfect holiday I've always dreamt of.

I want to go for a relaxing holiday where I can enjoy leisure activities, look at beautiful scenery, and enjoy amazing food there. I also want to go for go carting and ATV because I tried them last year and it was a new, exciting activity. It would be better if it's a country that's safe and clean so that I can go out at night without having to worry. It would be great if I can get some photos that I will remember for the whole life. Bringing a friend that I can trust and rely on would be even better. We can talk about it for a long time and share same memory which I'm pretty sure not everyone has gone through.

It doesn't matter when this happens, but I want to have it one day, and I think it would be great for everyone to plan for a dream holiday and carry it out if you can, and try to make it a life goal to achieve it because it would be an unforgettable memory.

Just like any other forests, birds were chirping as the sun rose, animals in the forest were having a relaxed morning. The refreshing smell of morning dew on the plants gave them positive energy. Just then, a disturbing noise chased even the crocodile away. A group of workers started cutting down the trees and destroyed the animals' habitat. According to their chat, they were going to build a developed city after clearing out the forest.

The animals panicked after hearing what they were talking about. They went to the nymph who lived in the lake, deep in the forest. The nymph said that she would find a way to stop the destruction and the animals were relieved.

Uri didn't know a slight difference to her could cause this trouble until the day she was told about force marriage. Living in a Syrian town, Salma, she was a kind, polite, happy-go-lucky 22 year old. The only difference was that she loved a girl and in the hope of her parents support and their permission, she told her parents about it. Unlike what she was expecting,  her mom fainted and Uri was locked up in her room.

Droplets of sweat started to fall and she tried to open the window but it wouldn't surrender. She kept on walking around her room, trying to settle everything in her mind. However, the more she thought about it, the more complicated it got. She found her pillow soaked up with her tears and noticed that she was crying. She was confused, hatred grew on her parents, but mostly to herself. With growling stomach and desert like throat, she spent 3 days in her unventilated room and right before she was going to faint, her parents came into her room and told her to shower and get ready to go out.

She was so happy, thinking they're going out to meet her girlfriend, but that happiness didn't last for long. She overheard her parents talking about arranged marriage with a 12 years older man and that it's going to take place in 3 days. She was so shocked and didn't want to believe the reality since she had no idea about this. The arrangement had been made even before she was born, in exchange with money to pay for her family's loans. She was frozen there for few seconds but quickly started thinking about her plans. The first part of the plan that had to happen as soon as possible was to get out of this house and she knew that the family of the groom will definitely look for her so she needed to go to a place where they can't find her in a short period of time.

She jumped out of her window with all her savings, not giving attention to the risk, but to save her life from being stuck with someone who she doesn't want. The first place that came across her mind was the UK, as she heard that it is a very opened country. Without hesitation, she left a text message to her girlfriend, saying she's going to find a way to solve this problem and booked the earliest flight ticket available.

At the same time, in Iraq, another girl called Mia was trying hard to save her life, too. She was from a Christian family, and she was very religious as she had been suffering from a disease called haemophilia. It didn't have any cure and she was devastated, but after she heard a miraculous news from her neighbour that her cancer was cured after going to the church everyday and after completing the lent, church was like everything to her. It was a stray of hope to her and she started thinking the only cure is the god.

Mia's family was spending sweet, relaxing, comfortable time together until a group of Muslim extremists came and kidnapped them in a split second. They were tied up and were locked in a room. When the guard went out, Mia found out that her rope wasn't tied tight enough. She untied it and untied other family members' as well. Luckily, the guard forgot to lock the gate, so they could get out. They were excited and happy that they could escape, but everything changed when the guards came back. They were shooting at them, and Mia's family was trying to climb up the wall. 'Bang', her mother fell, 'bang', her brother fell, and it was only her and her dad who managed to climb up the wall. The only thing they had left was to jump down the wall, and there was another gun shot, and she saw her dad falling down, in a slow motion. She felt her heart breaking down, but she had no choice, but to run away as far as she could.

She hid behind the trees in the forest near that place, and luckily, the kidnappers ran the other way to chase her. She ran to a bank, took out all her money and without any hesitation, she went straight to the airport. As she has seen a movie about a nun in UK and her dream was to be a nun, she booked for the nearest flight to the UK.

The airport was where Mia and Uri met. Coincidently, they sat next to each other. As it was a long trip, they had long conversations and when they found out that they were in a similar situation, they decided to stay together. They got really close in that short period of time since they shared similar concerns, and it was their first time talking to someone who actually understood them. Mia, especially appreciated meeting her and considered Mia as her family as she didn't have any family members left. Uri was the only person who Mia could depend on.

They reached the UK safely and they were sent to the homes made for refugees. They got on a bus to go to that place, and heard a woman screaming saying her purse disappeared. Mia and Uri could feel all eyes were on them, when they don't even know how it looks like. They insisted, but soon, the police came they were sent to the police station.          

They asked Mia and Uri about the incident, but they couldn't answer as they weren't the culprits. After few hours, they were sent back as there was no evidence that represented them as criminals. After these vicissitudes, they finally reached the refugee camp and they were briefed about how to claim asylum in the UK and they thought their lives would be smooth after it without knowing what's coming for them. They were happy even though there were rats running around and spider webs every corner, just because they weren't in their country.

When the sun rose again in that filthy room, they went to the embassy to sign for the asylum. There was an immense line starting from the entrance reaching the next building. They spent the whole day waiting, and when it was their turn, they were told to go back since the embassy was closing. They were disappointed, but stayed positive as it was their first time there.

Their way back felt different to what they saw in the morning. The trees were swaying leaving huge gloomy shadows, the sound of bird chirping also sounded dismal, and they could hear some footsteps chasing after them. They tried to run to a place with more people and started running. However, just when they started running, a hand pulled them. They started screaming and tried to run away from him, but was taken away to a quiet road where no one passed by.

As there was a ray of light, they could check the person's face, and Uri couldn't close her mouth in shock because the person was the fiance of Uri, who she ran away from. She never thought she would meet him again and was hoping not to. Mia was confused since she didn't know him, but was able to find out easily by looking at Uri's expressions and went closer to Uri.

Sami, the name of Uri's unwanted fiance left Salma to get Uri back 1 week after Uri left. People were talking about how incompetence he was, losing his own fiance. He couldn't stand his pride getting hurt and promised himself and his parents that he was going to get Uri back, hoping that would restore people's respect towards him. He was irritated when it was not easy to find Uri and was ready to do anything if she wouldn't listen to his commands. He predicted that Uri would go to the embassy and waited there for few days and luckily found her on the second day of his stake out. He was full equipped with weapons to threaten her incase she didn't  want to go back with him.

Only a weird loud laugh of Sami resonated and two girls were shaking in fear, Mia just rubbing her rosary. Sami was so happy that he finally found her and he will be respected again. He tried to drag Uri away from Mia and reported that she had to go back with him, but Uri resisted, and Mia pulled Uri back. That caused Sami's anger. He began to shout that she had to go back to Salma, and she doesn't have any choice, no matter how hard she tried. Uri would have just followed him if she was like how she was in the past, but it wasn't the old Uri anymore. She screamed saying that she's never going to go back and this triggered the disaster. Sami was so annoyed and he took out a small blade and threatened Uri to come with him. He swung the blade and heard Uri scream, but saw Mia lying on the ground. Unstoppable blood started to flow from Mia's neck and it was worse since she had hemophilia. Sami was flustered and immediately ran away.

Uri didn't know what to do and it was Mia who tried to calm her down. Mia thanked Uri for being the first ever friend to accept her as she is, not caring about her religion. She also added that she doesn't regret what she did because she wouldn't mind sacrificing herself for her best friend. Her last words were ' I hope you can achieve what you want to do and be without any turbulence, have a great life so that when we meet again, I can thank you for achieving my dream. Your dream is my dream, so make sure you achieve it. Thank you so much and love you..'

Uri couldn't stop crying until a photographer called Josh came and asked her what was wrong. He was a photographer who took photos of the sky at night. He was taking beautiful view of the night sky like any other day, and heard some people quarrelling and crying. He was curious and approached to a young girl who was crying. He was shocked to find a girl lying down bleeding, and immediately called an ambulance.

Unfortunately, it was too late to save Mia. She couldn't even have a proper funeral since she didn't have any money nor she had friends that could come and sorrow. Mia was buried silently with her rosary that she always carried with her and her luggage which was mostly books and bibles. Josh came to her burial and was willing to help Uri. It was a quiet, sad burial with Uri's cries echoing.

With Josh's help, Uri managed to report this case to the police, giving the photo that Josh took as the evidence. Since she wasn't the citizen, they could only           and said that the case is going to be sent back to her hometown if she can't redeem her asylum in a month. Uri was devastated, but Josh had an idea. Since Uri always kept her diary and wrote everything down, he thought posting it on a portal site will raise awareness for claiming asylum and the situation these days.

Luckily, Josh had a lot of followers and the news was spread quickly and people sorrowed Mia's death and soon, Mia's grave was full with flowers that were given by the visitors. This story went into the Catholic Diocesan of London and Mia and her family were given the title of martyr.