UNIT 4:
CHALLENGES
Embedded Files
4a Adventures of the year
I. Vocabulary
I. Vocabulary
II. Practice
II. Practice
THE MOUNTAINEER
As a child, Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita lived with her younger sister in Lukla, a town in northeastern Nepal. Her parents died when she was young. As a teenager she trained as a mountaineer. She worked as a mountain guide and she climbed Mount Everest when she was only 22. In 2015, there was a terrible earthquake in Nepal and many people didn't have homes or food, so Pasang helped them. Nowadays she also works to improve education in Nepal and is famous for her voluntary work as well as her mountaineering.
THE CYCLIST
Marjan Sadequi was born in Afghanistan and grew up in the capital city of Kabul. Her father was the national cycling coach for the men's team and, from very early on in life, Marjan had an ambition to become a cyclist. Her father gave Marjan her first bicycle when she was a teenager, and he soon saw how much Marjan loved cycling. As a result, he built a new women's cycling team with his daughter and ten other women. It wasn't easy to practise around the roads of Kabul but, in 2013, the team went to New Delhi and they had their first international competition against other female cycling teams. They didn't win, but they entered more races in Pakistan, Kazakhstan and South Korea and because of Marjan and her team's achievements, more women are now cycling in Afghanistan.
A. Read the articals. Are these sentences true (T) or false (F).
1. Pasang Lhamu Sherpa Akita lived with her mother in Lukla
2. Pasang climbed Mount Everest when she was only 20
3. Pasang helped people when they didn’t have home or food
4. Marjan had an ambition to become a mountaineer
5. When she was a teenager her father gave Marjan her first bicycle
B. Answer the questions.
1. What did Pasang trained when she was a teenager ?
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2. Why is Pasang famous ?
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3. Where did Marjan grow up ?
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4c Challenge yourself
I. Vocabulary
I. Vocabulary
II- Practice
In 1974, Professor Erno Rubik was looking for an interesting way to teach his architecture students about 3D geometry. To do this, he made a cube with nine other cubes on each of its sides. The smaller cubes were different colours and you could turn them in different directions. The challenge was to make each side all one colour. The problem was that there were 43 quintillion (43,000,000,000,000,000,000) ways to move the cubes. As a result, it took Professor Rubik over a month to solve his own problem.
In the end, the Rubik's cube became one of the most popular toys in history. Over 400 million Rubik's cubes have been sold around the world and one in seven people have played with one. In 2008, a Dutch teenager called Mats Valk solved the Rubik's cube in 5.55 seconds. It's still the world record for a human; a robot beat him with a time of 1.019 seconds.
So why do humans love challenging themselves with puzzles like the Rubik's cube? It's the same reason we like crosswords and puzzles in newspapers, or why we play video games on our phones and tablets. Our brain naturally loves solving problems.
Some scientists also think puzzles and games can improve memory in the elderly. In one study at Illinois University, the researchers studied how video games help older people's mental health. In their study, twenty adults over the age of sixty played a video game for a long period, while another twenty adults over sixty did not. Afterwards, they gave all forty adults a test of memory and mental skill.
Overall, the video game players scored higher on the test, which means a challenging video game could be good for our brains.
C. Answer the questions
1. Why did Erno Rubik invent the rubik's cube ?
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2. How many Rubik's cubes are sold in the world?
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3. Who solved the rubiks cube in 5.55 seconds ?
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Quiz for unit !
Here is a quick quit. Click on picture to play!
Keys
Keys
A
1. F 2. F 3. T 4. F 5. T
B
1. She trained as a mountaineer
2. famous for her voluntary work as well as her mountaineering
3. Marjan grew up in the capital city of Kabul.
C
1. He wanted to teach his architecture students about 3D geometry
2. Over 400 million Rubik's cubes have been sold around the world
3. Mats Valk solved the Rubik's cube in 5.55 seconds
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