Quantum Reading
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the process quantum reading __________________ Yourself Your Environment __________________ Q-Up! Pull Up & Picture Breathe & Release __________________ Quickly expose your eyes and brain to every page. Move fast! __________________ Use the power of your eyes. Let your hands guide the way down the page! __________________ Mind Map Tell Back © 2019 Quantum Learning Network 37 math as entertainment quantum reading Cool Jobs: Math as Entertainment By Dana Mackenzie. December 19, 2012 Sciencenewsforkids.com “I seem to specialize in the area of mayhem,” says How to realistically destroy a fake building Nafees Bin Zafar with a smile. This visual effects To compute how a virtual building should collapse expert helps bring some of the most memorable on-screen in a convincingly real way, Bin Zafar uses smashes, crashes and dashes to the movie screen. engineering, computer skills and a toy familiar to The one in Madagascar 3 where the fearless heroes most kids. Yes, he starts by pretending the building flee a casino, leaving all sorts of rubble in their is made of Lego bricks connected by springs. (He wake? Check. The scene in 2012 where Los Angeles actually keeps a box of Legos — the regular kind slides into the Pacific Ocean? Check. The light cycle without springs — in his office for inspiration.) The chase scenes in Tron: Legacy? Check. virtual Legos form the large chunks into which the building crumbles, while the virtual springs At DreamWorks Animation (and previously at simulate the forces that would act on the building. another company called Digital Domain) Bin Zafar Once the building starts to collapse, Bin Zafar then creates software used to make the special effects ensures that the thousands of computer-drawn in motion pictures — and sometimes cartoons — pieces fall in a realistic way, without their passing look as realistic as possible. Often he works with through each other — something that would the skimpiest of instructions. “For 2012,” he recalls, immediately spoil the illusion of reality. “all we really had was one line in the script: ‘And then California sinks into the ocean.’” Bin Zafar and Although Bin Zafar instructs his computer program a team of nine other programmers and animators to apply the laws of physics in most instances, he took that one line and turned it into a five-minute also knows when to bend them. This was especially montage of falling buildings, collapsing freeways true in Madagascar 3. “We do things like change and enormous cracks splitting Earth. gravity’s direction all the time,” Bin Zafar says. “In a cartoon,” he explains, “it’s quite reasonable for a To make all this fakery look real, it has to act real. character to start walking up a wall — and yet have “We have to make this stuff behave correctly,” Bin everything look natural.” Zafar explains. Take the tumbling skyscrapers in 2012: Bin Zafar asked himself, “What would the As a kid, Bin Zafar was a big fan of cartoons and materials have been made from?” That question movies. “Looney Tunes were my favorites,” he generated a list that included glass, cement, steel recalls. He also loved the original Tron, a movie that girders and rebar. It also sparked more questions. came out in 1982. Watching it “was the first time “Do we know the math of how this stuff bends I realized, as a child, that the things you see in a and flexes and shakes around?” Bin Zafar asks. “It movie didn’t have to be real.” Imagine his thrill at turned out that we didn’t.” being asked to work on the film’s sequel, 28 years later. Bin Zafar eventually solved that math problem along the way to helping create some cutting- Bin Zafar points to two important skills he edge visual effects. He’s just one expert profiled in has needed to work in a digital movie studio: this article who relies on math to entertain — and communicating effectively and solving word amaze. puzzles. 38 © 2019 Quantum Learning Network math as entertainment quantum reading Communication is critical because creating visual effects is a team job. When Bin Zafar writes a computer program, he also has to explain the program to the animators who use it. “My work makes things look believable, but it really takes an artist to make things look spectacular,” he says. Solving word problems is almost as important, Bin Zafar notes, because requests are never described in numerical terms. Instead he gets: “And then Los Angeles sinks into the ocean.” It’s his job to translate that request into the language of mathematics, so that a computer can render it into believable images. In the exciting environment in which Bin Zafar works, the distinctions between artist and mathematician often blur: Artists need to understand math and the mathematicians need to understand art. Says Bin Zafar: “We’re all exploring our imaginations together.” 750 words Time: __________ © 2019 Quantum Learning Network 39 math as entertainment quantum reading Circle the best answer to each of the following questions based on the article “Cool Jobs: Math as Entertainment.” 1. For which movies has Nafees Bin Zafar built 6. Which cartoon was Bin Zafar’s favorite as a kid? “smashes, crashes, and dashes”? a. Mickey Mouse Club a. Madagascar 3 b. Looney Tunes b. 2012 c. Tom and Jerry c. Tron: Legacy d. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles d. All of the above 7. In what year was the original Tron movie 2. Bin Zafar works for what Animation Studio? released? a. Pixar Animation Studios a. 1980 b. Dreamworks Animation Studios b. 1982 c. Disney Animation Studios c. 1992 d. Nickelodeon Animation Studios d. 2012 3. In the script for 2012, what one line in the script 8. According the the article, two important skills did the animators have to work with? needed to work in a digital movie studio are... a. “And then California sinks into the ocean.” a. hard work and determination b. “And then South Carolina collapsed.” b. communicating effectively and solving word c. “And then California fell to pieces.” puzzles d. “And then South Carolina was swallowed by c. imagination and practice water.” d. solving math and physics problems 4. On the research list used to make a tumbling 9. Which of the following skills is the most critical skyscraper act true to life, all of the following according to Bin Zafar? building materials appeared except: a. solving word problems a. glass b. communication b. cement c. neither is important c. steel d. both are equally important d. iron 10. At the end of the article, Bin Zafar says, “Artists 5. To compute how a virtual building should need to understand math and mathematicians collapse in a “convincingly real way”, Bin Zafar need to understand art.” Why? uses all of the following except: a. to appreciate each other’s knowledge a. engineering b. to understand the difficulty of the other’s job b. video footage of a real building c. to explore their imaginations together c. Lego building blocks d. to stay out of each other’s way d. computer skills Comprehension Score: ___________ (number correct x 10) 40 © 2019 Quantum Learning Network reading word groups quantum reading (Excerpt from “Giant Jellyfish Invasion,” July 23, 2008, NationalGeographic.com) Are / aliens /attacking / the / Sea / of / Japan?/ Not / exactly. / But / these / gigantic / blobs / are / unwelcome / visitors / from / another / place. / Called / Nomura’s / jellyfish, / the / wiggly, / pinkish / giants / can / weigh / up / to / 450 / pounds / - as / heavy / as / a / male / lion / – and / they’re / swarming / by / the / millions. One hundred / times the / usual number / of jellyfish / are invading / Japanese waters. / And local / fishermen are feeling / as if they are / under siege. / The fishermen’s / nets are / getting weighted down, / or even / broken, by / hundreds of Nomura’s. / The jellies crush, / slime, and poison / valuable fish / in the nets, / such as / the tuna and / salmon that the / fishermen / rely on / to make a / living. No one knows for sure / what’s causing this jellyfish traffic jam. / It’s possible that oceans / heated by global warming / are creating the perfect / jellyfish breeding ground. Another / theory is that overfishing / has decreased the numbers of some fish, / which may allow / the jellies to chow down / without competition for food. / For now, all the fishermen can / do is design special nets / to try to keep the jellies out. / Some of them hope to turn the / catastrophe into cash / by selling jellyfish snacks. / Peanut butter and jellyfish, anyone? © 2019 Quantum Learning Network 41 complaint box quantum reading Complaint Box | Packaging By Dylan Quinn. January 8, 2010. Cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com 7 Still haven’t managed to open those blister- so much as glances off the freshly cut edge, 260 13 packed headphones you got for Christmas? it is immediately bloody. This is especially 267 21 Perhaps you’re waiting for the cuts on your bad for little kids on Christmas, who, in a 276 29 fingers to heal before giving it another try. combination of excitement and inexperience, 281 33 You are not alone. can seriously ruin their day. I still remember 289 one Christmas, about seven years ago: I’m not 297 40 The packaging of electronics and other small sure what I was opening, but I do recall the 307 48 items has reached the point of outrage. A nasty gash it left on my left index finger. I still 318 56 person practically needs the Jaws of Life to have the little scar. 322 62 open anything. Normal scissors aren’t sharp 69 enough to cut through the packaging, and Since when did putting items inside a box 330 77 attacking the plastic with a knife could have become so taboo? Boxes are easy to open 338 79 disastrous consequences.