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MODERN ENGLISH DIGEST THE MAGAZINE HELPING STUDENTS LEARN ENGLISH

Plus: Emeralds The Last Great Troubadour A Century of Tea Bags Here Be Dragons! The Allotment Animal Mysteries

Vol 6 / Issue 1 £4.25 Vol JamesJames McAvoyMcAvoy MED5-6p01-23 22/8/08 12:43 Page 2

e have packed this latest issue of Modern English Digest with a wide range of features that make learning English interesting and fun! All the articles in this magazine are carefully written in graded English to cater for W elementary and intermediate level students of English. We have a partnership with Macmillan Education. Each issue of the magazine features an extract from Macmillan Education’s award-winning series of simpliﬁed readers. The magazine has a great mix of interesting articles that help improve vocabulary and understanding in cultural and work-speciﬁc context. Please write in with your comments and visit our website www.ModernEnglishDigest.net.

Your guide to the graded English used in Modern English Digest Elementary E • Simple passive forms • Comparative and superlative of adjectives • Infinitives of purpose: to, in order to • Reported commands in the past • Modals – could (ability), can (permission) • Adverbs of frequency and manner • Present perfect • Constructions with it and until • -ing verb form after like, enjoy • Indefinite pronouns: everyone, everybody, etc. • be interested in • had better, would rather • used to & wanted to + verb • Phrasal verbs • Defining relative clauses • Reported speech • Modal will with future reference • say and tell • Conditional sentences (1 & 2) • Verb -ing as subject or object • Present Progressive with future reference • Conjunctions: althoughE, so, but, because Intermediate I • Modal should + Passive Perfect • Reflexive pronouns • Past Passive • Be supposed to, be likely to + verb • Modal could, may, might + Perfect Progressive • Double object verbs • Present Perfect Progressive • As if + clause • Future Perfect • Participial phrases • Should have + Past Participle • Modal will, could, should + Passive infinitive • Needn’t have + Past Participle • Phrasal verbs with give, come + in the Passive • Relative clauses, defining and non-defining • Indirect commands • Which, whose • Indirect questions with if and wh- questions • Adjective as noun • Modal could + Perfect Conditional with Past • Subordinators: wherever, whenever • Perfect (Third Conditional)I Key to glossary abb – abbreviation, adj – adjective, adv – adverb, coll – colloquial, i – idiom, n – noun, np – noun phrase, ph.v – phrasal verb, prep – preposition, pron – pronoun, q – question word, v – verb

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FEATURES LIFESTYLE

4 ●I ●I 20 A Century of Tea Bags Here Be Dragons! ●E 24 The Last Great Troubadour ●E 28 Everyday Mysteries Solved 8 ●I ●E 36 From Hand to Mouth The Allotment ●I 39 Emeralds ●I 42 What Long Fingers Say About You 12 ●I BUSINESS

Animal Mysteries ●I 50 No Need for Speed ●I 54 Moving Your Career Forward by 16 ●I Managing Upwards The Incredible ACTIVITIES

Chessmen of Lewis ●E 56 Fruity Flower Pot ●I 58 Just for Fun 32 ●E ●E 60 Find a Word – Mysteries and James McAvoy Puzzles ●E 61 Know the Issue 44 ●E 63 Just for Fun – answers The Promise By R. L. Scott-Buccleuch published by Macmillan Education

Photo © Richard Young/ Rex Features

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FEATURE Here Be Dragons! BY RORY GEAR

aps are wonderful things. Recording features of this kind is typical Today, we simply take maps for to most early maps which show where Mgranted and expect them to be people lived, hunting grounds, water easily available in our local shops. If we sources, land boundaries and significant are going on holiday, for example, we landscape features. Some maps even are quite likely to buy a local map of the showed the location and appearance of area we will go to. If we are going on a the important individual buildings. journey, we may simply log on to a free Not surprisingly, maps of this kind map site on the internet to check out the enjoyed a very high value. People looked route before we set off. It was not after maps with great care. Maps hold always so simple. The history of enormous value to different kinds of mapmaking is long and full of surprises. people. Anyone owning a map took very The earliest maps survive today as good care to stop the map from falling in cultural treasures that tell us about how to the wrong hands. At the same time, various civilizations saw their world and others did all they could to make copies mankind’s place in the universe! of maps that existed or to draw up We know for a fact that the science reliable maps of their own. This has and art of making maps dates back at always been particularly true for soldiers least to Babylonia in 2300BC. The and military commanders. A good map Babylonians created maps on clay tells the reader exactly what they can tablets that marked out settlements, crop expect to find in the country the map fields and irrigation sources. These describes. This kind of knowledge is maps provided the authorities with a critical to military success. clear picture of the places that mattered Understanding the kind of terrain you to them. These maps also provided may need to fight in can make all the traders, soldiers and administrators with difference between victory or defeat on the information they needed to move the battlefield. A good map is an from one place to another without fear of invaluable aid to any conquest or getting lost. Similarly, the maps of invasion. For this reason, the makers of Mesopotamia that survive from around the earliest maps went to great lengths 1600BC depict cities and the tracks to stop undesirable people from seeing connecting fields to the built up areas. or using them. In some cultures only , 4 MED5-6p01-23 22/8/08 12:43 Page 5

priests and the highest nobility enjoyed Islanders made stick charts for the right to look at maps. navigation, pre-Columbian maps in Prehistoric ﬁnds from different parts of Mexico used footprints to represent the world include bones carved with the roads and early Eskimos carved ivory images of coastlines and important coastal maps. The Incas in Peru built landmarks. The archaeological evidence relief maps of stone and clay. Chinese suggests that these kinds of maps played literature contains references to painted an important role in ensuring the maps of one kind or another dating back successful migration of various peoples to as early as the 7th century BC! over vast distances – both by land and Certainly the Chinese invented what we sea. The sea-going peoples of Polynesia now recognise as cartography (the wove intricate palm leaf mats using twigs science of making maps that faithfully to show currents and prevailing winds represent all the features of a and shells to depict islands. Canoes landscape). For centuries, maps from carried small maps of this kind on trips China were more accurate and detailed between islands. Navigators learned than maps produced by any other their craft from very large maps of this civilization anywhere else in the world. kind based on shore., The Marshall Some historians suggest that Chinese © Openko Dmytro | Dreamstime.com 5 MED5-6p01-23 22/8/08 12:43 Page 6 ,

actually created the ﬁrst maps showing is likely that copies of these original the correct relationship between all the world maps inspired the great European different continents of the world. If so, it voyages of discovery of the 15th century.

earth as being only 3/4 of its actual size, Ptolemy was far ahead of his time on in Another Greek map terms of the scientific rigour of his map- from the 6th Century making techniques. Ptolemy proposed a system of grid references to locate BC shows the world as coordinates on the surface of the earth an island with Greece that mapmakers still use to this day. So while many of the earliest maps fill at its centre. in the blank spaces of uncharted lands with the immortal phrase “here be dragons!”, the basic principles for For there is no doubt whatsoever that charting the earth’s surface have not seafarers like Magellan and Columbus changed since ancient times. Drawing had a pretty good idea that the lands they on satellite-based equipment that views intended to discover did in fact exist. the surface of the Earth with infinite However, the Chinese were not alone precision from space, modern maps are in advancing cartographic techniques. truly astounding in terms of their The ancient Greeks first understood that accuracy, detail and up-to-date the earth was a sphere when the information. There is no place on these mathematician Eratosthenes accurately maps that we cannot scrutinise down to calculated the circumference of the the merest millimetre if we so wish. How earth. Another Greek map from the 6th different from the vast spaces full of Century BC shows the world as an island unknown territory on those more ancient with Greece at its centre. By the time of maps that so inspired our forefathers to Aristotle, around 350BC, no one of any set out and explore their world in search note argued the case for the Flat Earth of new lands full of opportunity, romance concept any more. Ptolemy was the first and adventure. It is for this reason that to illustrate the earth as spherical on his we still refer to the continents of world map. Ptolemy was also the first Australia and the Americas as being our cartographer to project the proportions “New World” in contrast to the “Old of the spherical earth in two dimensions World” of Europe, Africa and Asia! You onto a square sheet of paper. Although only have to look at one of the world’s he maintained that the sun revolved more ancient maps to truly believe that ,around the earth, and calculated the here be dragons indeed! ✪ Irrigation (n) bringing water to the land by means of pipes or channels. Reliable (adj) dependable and trustworthy. Terrain (n) an area of land. Navigator (n) someone who plans the direction and route of a journey. Cartographer (n) someone who makes maps.

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LIFESTYLE The Allotment \BY SARA HALL love gardening. I suppose I inherited times when peasants were able to use the interest from both my parents. My common land for grazing and cultivation. Imother always smuggled exotic seeds The first records that mention allotments and plants back from holidays abroad. by name occur in the 1500s. This marked My father grew far more vegetables in the start of a long process by which the the family garden than we ever managed poor lost the right to use common land. to eat. Love of gardening is perhaps The General Enclosure Act of 1845 peculiarly British and it comes to most of required landowners to set aside “field us eventually... gardens” up to quarter of an acre in size Just over a year ago, I moved from a for use by “the landless poor”. Despite cottage in a small village in the this legislation, allotments accounted for Cotswolds to a house in the local market only about 2200 acres of land use by the town. My garden in town was much turn of the 20th century. It took two world smaller than the one in the country. I wars to really get allotments up and chose my new house because it was working on a large scale across Britain. only 50 yards from a large area of thriving Blockades and food shortages in the allotments. I planned to get my own first world war led to increased demand allotment so I could continue to grow the for home-grown food. The government vegetables I love along with plants like opened up land along the railway lines sweetcorn, pumpkins and potatoes that for individuals to grow their own food. take up a lot of space. Within a week of Most of these railway-based allotments moving in I was pestering the man in continue in operation to this day. In the charge of the allotments to put my name second world war the government on the waiting list. Five years ago the encouraged households to “dig for demand for allotments was low and victory” and turned many public parks waiting lists were rare. But now over to the purpose of growing food. allotment gardening is popular again and During the war the British public in some places it can take years to get a produced about a tonne of food per plot. allotment plot. The number of allotments Allotments have been around in some peaked at around 1.4 million in 1943. The form or anotherV in Britain since Saxon Allotment Act of 1950 recommended 1 8 TN MED5-6p01-23 22/8/08 12:43 Page 9

acre of allotments for every 250 people in allotments in use declined steeply, falling the population, but the demand for this to 500,000 plots in 1970 - and to an all- kind of allocation never materialized. As time low of 297,000 plots in 1996. memories of war shortages and rationing Since then demand for allotments has faded, the number of productive increased slowly but steadily. However,

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working an allotment is a real labour of was not too hard for me to dig up and love. Most average allotments are a fork over for planting. It also meant I quaint “ten poles” in size. This inherited the last of a crop of hearty measurement means nothing to most brassicas that supplied me with greens British people who long ago lost the art for my ﬁrst two months’ start up on the of measuring land in units of rods, poles allotment. Like most of the gardeners on and perches! Speaking for myself, I can the allotments around me, I was say that my allotment is about six metres determined to cultivate the ground in the wide and 25 metres long. I think this is old fashioned way. Mainly this means somewhat larger than ten poles, but by digging and weeding by hand. My how much I truly cannot say. I do know allotment was covered in bindweed, a that this size allotment takes a lot of plant I have come to hate. Leave even a careful planning, hard work and regular little inch of bindweed root in the ground effort to keep going. And I was lucky to and it will quickly spread and grow. get a strip of land that was previously I am fortunate to work in a school well looked after. This meant that the soil which means I have low pay but long V Photo © Georgia Davey 10 TN MED5-6p01-23 22/8/08 12:43 Page 11

holidays. I first set to work in my something I’ve always wanted) and a allotment in the Easter holidays. I started strawberry bed. In late spring I planted by turning the soil with a fork. The soil carrots, turnips, parsnips, cauliflowers, was lovely - light, deep and easy to work. squash and sweetcorn. Because I have However, four two-hour sessions of the space, I will also put in some flowers digging later and I was physically as well to encourage the bees and birds. exhausted. Despite all my labour, I had So far I plan on growing sweet peas, turned less than ten square metres of soil sunflowers and marigolds. in total! Another allotment owner came The allotment has had other, social, to my rescue with a rotivator – a small benefits for me. Since moving in to my mechanical digger that turns soil up to new home, I have barely spoken to my two spade heads’ deep! My rotivator- neighbours. This is a quiet owning friend advised me to rotivate the neighbourhood and it is hard to get to plot twice in the first year. This helps kill know people. But in the few months that I off the bindwind without too much have had my allotment, I have met many problem. In four hours I managed to new people from all walks of life. People rotivate about two thirds of my total plot, generally are helpful and only too glad to ready for a good spring planting. The pass on surplus plants (and advice!) to remaining area I plan to set up as get you started. Some individuals are permanent beds for soft fruit - raspberry only too happy to tell you their life story if canes, blackberries, gooseberries and you are willing to stop and listen. My currant bushes which I will plant in the children tell me I have become a bit of an autumn. allotment bore myself. I plan my holidays Allotments are places where people around the work I need to do at each discover the importance of sharing season of the year. I anxiously scan the knowledge, advice and resources. I have weather forecasts to know which days I bought a share in my neighbour’s can best spend working outdoors on my rotivator and, thanks to this, I am about to plot. I happily show off my progress to enjoy a good crop of potatoes, broad anyone willing to come and have a look! beans, runner beans, french beans, And I now work contentedly on my own brussel sprouts, red kale, celery, in silence for hours at a time – full of broccoli, courgettes, onions, garlic and quiet enjoyment at my connection with shallots. I have a permanent bed of the land, the food I eat and the place I asparagus (a long term investment, but live. It’s grand! ✪

Inherit (v) to receive a gift from someone who has died. Smuggle (v) to take something secretly or illegally. Allotment (n) a small area of land in a town that is rented out to people so that they can grow fruit and vegetables. Pester (v) to keep annoying someone especially by asking them for something. Blockade (n) an ofﬁcial action that prevents people or goods from moving from one place to another. Surplus (n) more of something than is actually needed or necessary

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FEATURE Animal Mysteries BY MARY HUBER

n June 2008 more than 70 common extreme cases, can lead to the death of dolphins got into difficulties in shallow marine animals within earshot. In 2005 Iwaters off the Cornish coast in the NATO published a report on marine south of England. The plight of the mammals and active sonar which dolphins captured the British public’s suggested a correlation between sonar imagination and was widely reported in use and mass whale deaths in North newspapers, radio and television. Sadly, Carolina and to dolphin deaths in Florida. despite all the media attention, 26 However, in the 2008 UK case history, the dolphins suffocated. However, despite a Royal Navy denied any possible link great deal of investigation, no one really between the use of sonar or live knew why the dolphins died. Mass ammunition and the dolphins’ deaths in strandings of dolphins are unusual. Cornwall. Typically, post mortems of individual Sadly the death of so many dolphins animals show that the dolphins involved off the English coast is not an isolated were essentially healthy and capable of tragedy. All over the world a wide variety living many years longer. The untimely of animals die in seemingly inexplicable death of such popular mammals causes circumstances. Others seem to behave a public uproar in most countries of the in unexplained and unfathomable ways. world. So why do large numbers of These unexplained deaths and strange dolphins die each year in this way? behaviours haunt animal lovers, conser- Some scientists suggest that dolphins vationists and environmentalists alike. die en masse when a predator causes Here are a just few of the unsolved them to panic or when they take a wrong mysteries of the animal world. turn while hunting for fish. Another alternative theory is that dolphins are Like a lemming sensitive to the sonar frequencies used The myth of lemmings’ mass suicides by warships or by naval exercises first started as a way of explaining the involving the firing of live ammunition. sudden severe falls in lemming Several conservationists believe that populations during times of migration. naval exercises using active sonar Most naturalists now discredit the idea causes acoustic exposure which, in of lemming mass suicides. However,

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there is no doubt that lemmings do die as this four yearly migration mystery, there a result of jumping over cliffs during is no doubt that lemmings as a whole mass migration activity. Naturalists prosper because of it. Naturalists are observe that lemmings migrate in now focusing on the complex set of massive numbers on a four year cycle. relationships between changes in food At the height of this migration, the sheer supply, habitat and the rise in the numbers involved mean that lemmings at numbers of predators to explain why the rear of the column force those at the lemmings self-destructive behaviour in front to run headlong into a risk that they one year seems to predict their long- avoid at other times. Every four years or term survival in the years that follow. so, lemming numbers build up to a point where the front runners of a migration Going batty plunge over a cliff and fall into the sea Nature lovers the world over mourn the for a crossing that kills all but the death of thousands of bats that appear strongest few. Although scientists still to lose the will to live at the foot of wind puzzle over the conditions that create turbines every year. No one has a clear

idea about why these otherwise impact. However, sceptics dispute this seemingly healthy bats seem to die at all! explanation. The lack of any evidence of The dead bats are usually unmarked and physical damage to the bats’ bodies says unblemished. Clearly, they are not the that some other cause of death is at victims of some kind of strike from the work, they claim. Until now, the death of blades of the wind turbines near which some many bats in the vicinity of wind they died. In an attempting to explain turbines remains a mystery. these deaths some scientists suggest that migrant bats turn off their echo-location Bee ware to conserve their energy. Despite the lack Hive Collapse Disorder (HCD) is a new of damage to the dead bodies, these phenomenon among bees. Apiarists, or naturalists suggest the bats literally bump bee keepers, warn that this unusual into the turbines and die as a result of the behaviour is threatening bee populations

from the US through Europe and into counterparts. Naturalists are Asia. This matters because bees investigating the specific characteristics pollinate many of the major crops that of mass whale strandings to try to draw feed human populations. Without bees, conclusions about why these events crop yields collapse and people happen and what they indicate in terms eventually go hungry. While no one is of the long term impacts on whale sure why bees are abandoning their populations as a whole. hives, one theory suggests that mobile phone technology disrupts the ways in Elephant graveyards which bees work together to find food Scientists still do not understand the and sustain a hive. This is an area the inner compasses that aid animal naturalists and scientists will focus a migration. While some researchers great deal of attention in the future consider that many animals have a sixth because the potentially catastrophic sense, a number of experts now attribute costs to the economy if bees fail to seasonal migration to a unique pollinate crops in the future. sensitivity to the Earth’s magnetic field. Many naturalists now believe that A whale of a tale elephants have an especially high The reason why so many whales are degree of sensitivity to magnetic fields in found stranded on beaches or in shallow the Earth’s core. Before the 2003 Asian water near coasts also continues to Tsunami dozens of elephants trumpeted baffle conservationists. Some experts and fled for higher ground. However, the think that sometimes a leader of a school local mythology of many areas subject to of whales can panic in shallow water earthquakes and other similar disasters and lead the others into ultimately fatal suggest that birds always know when danger. Another theory is that since only trouble is coming. While the ways in elderly whales become stranded it may which animals can predict such natural be that old whales do not take into disasters remain a mystery, there is no account changes in land mass in their doubt that understanding the behaviour navigational systems and become of animals holds important lessons that stranded more easily than their younger can affect the wellbeing of us all. ✪

Shallow (adj) with a short distance from top to bottom. Suffocate (v) to die because of lack of air. Predator (n) an animal that hunts, kills and eats other animals. Sonar (n) equipment on a ship that measures the depth of the water. Inexplicable (adj) impossible to explain. Suicide (n) the act of intentionally killing oneself. Migration (n) the process of moving from one part of the world to another. Unblemished (adj) without fault. Sceptics (n) people who have doubts about things that others believe to be true. Compass (n) equipment used to help ﬁnd the way.

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FEATURE The Incredible Chessmen of Lewis BY JOE ST CLAIR

here is an old saying that “fact is boy swam to the shore. On his back the stranger than ﬁction”. Every now boy carried a sack loaded with a hundred T and then a story comes along that or so ivory chess pieces stolen from the shows life can be more surprising than Captain’s cabin. the most exciting of thrillers. This is Despite the weight of the stolen goods nowhere more evident than in the story of in his sack, the cabin boy managed to some old chess pieces found on the Isle swim safely to the shore. However, a local of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides and now cowherd spotted the boy as he made his on display in the Royal Museum in way on to the shore. The cowherd Edinburgh and the British Museum in guessed that the boy’s sack probably London. Although the passing of time contained valuable treasure of some kind. means we cannot be sure of all the The cowherd demanded that the boy hand details, there is no doubting the basic the sack over to him. The boy refused. A evidence for the following incredible violent argument followed. The cowherd story… overpowered and killed the cabin boy. He About three hundred years ago a ﬁerce buried the boy’s body and made off with Atlantic gale threatened to sink a ship off the sack of treasure. the west coast of Lewis in the Outer However, when the cowherd opened up Hebrides in Scotland. The ship escaped the sack and saw the chessmen inside, he the worst of the storm by anchoring in a grew afraid. He knew that he could never sheltered inlet called Loch Resort where sell or show the chessmen to anyone the crew decided to stay until the storm without risking discovery of the cabin subsided. One of the crew was a cabin boy’s murder. So he carried the sack full of boy. Possibly the victim of bullying from chessmen ten miles away from the the Captain and the crew, this cabin boy anchored ship to a place called Uig decided to escape from the ship while it Machair, or the Mains of Uig. There the was so close to land. During the night cowherd buried the sack beneath a while the crew were sleeping the cabin sandbank. We know about this sequence

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of events because many years later the up the search. And the brutal story of the authorities on the island sentenced the stolen chess pieces passed into the folk cowherd to hang in the town of memory as just one more local legend. Stornoway as punishment for another Some hundred years later in 1830 the crime. Just before he was hung however story came back when a grazing cow the cowherd confessed to killing the cabin belonging to Calumnan Sprot (who went boy. He also described the location where to his grave under the more respectable the sack of chessmen lay buried. name of Malcolm Macleod) hooked a The authorities searched Uig Machair creamy white object out of a sandbank to find the stolen goods but to no avail. with her horns. Puzzled, Macleod rescued Local people also tried their luck. the object from the cow’s trampling However, no one succeeded in finding any hooves. As he brushed away the sand, trace of the sack or the chessmen. Macleod realised he held one of the Gradually people lost hope of ever finding fabled stolen chessmen in his hands. anything. Over the decades people gave Macleod immediately started to scrabble

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for a profitable 80 Guineas to Frederick Madden, the assistant keeper of The entire collection manuscripts at the British museum with a passion for chess. Madden realised that seems to include the chessmen were important cultural pieces from at least artefacts and negotiated hard to acquire them for the national collection. What he four and possibly five did not know, however, was that Forrest different chess sets. secretly held back a total of ten pieces which he intended for later sale. Forrest eventually sold these ten remaining chessmen to a Scottish around in the sand trampled by his cow. genealogist called Charles Kirkpatrick Digging frantically with his bare hands, Sharpe. Mysteriously, Sharpe later Macleod quickly uncovered what he took managed to add another chessman in the to be the entire hoard of amazing shape of a bishop to his collection. There chessmen. is no record of how Sharpe came by this Macleod took all the chessmen that he final chess piece. But it is clear that found home. However, he found the someone found this last item of the presence of the chessmen very treasure trove in the same sandbank that disturbing. A man of strong religious Malcolm Macleod’s cows once disturbed. conviction, Macleod found it hard to look To this day you may find people scouring at the chessmen as being anything other the sands at the Uig Machair in the hope than “pagan idols”. Macleod found it that a few further figures may yet come to particularly unnerving to look at the light! chessmen carved to resemble Christian The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland priests or bishops. For this reason bought Sharpe’s collection of 11 Lewis Macleod decided to hand over the whole chessmen at auction at Christie’s in 1888 collection to a friend of his called Captain and donated them to the National Ryrie, who also conducted business under Museum of Scotland. This explains why the name of Roderick Pirie. Pirie realised some of the chess pieces are on display that the chess pieces were potentially in London and some in Edinburgh. valuable. Pirie travelled all the way to However, the story of the 93 amazing Edinburgh to sell the chess pieces at the chessmen of Lewis does not end here. highest price possible. In Edinburgh he The entire collection seems to include found a buyer in the person of an antiques pieces from at least four and possibly five dealer called TA Forrest. Forrest paid Pirie different chess sets. In total there are the handsome price of £30 for the pieces. eight Kings, eight Queens, 16 Bishops, 15 While we do not know how Pirie split Knights, 12 Rooks and 19 Pawns. Each this £30 with Macleod, it is a matter of piece is carved as a distinct individual. record that Forrest sold 82 chessmen on Some pieces show traces of dye,

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indicating that the pieces represent both influence in a great many places. It may the White and the Black sides of a chess be that chess sets represented an set. The Kings, Queens, Knights and Rooks especially important kind of gift between display a distinct warrior style that high ranking people. Certainly, only the researchers at the British Museum most elite people in Europe played chess concluded did not belong to the Isle of at this time. Having a chess set was an Lewis or any part of the Scottish important way for the ruling class to tell mainland. After much investigation, the others that they were rich, important and experts now suggest that the chessmen informed about the use of power. Some started life in 12th Century Norway. Carved scholars speculate that the chess pieces from what seems to be ivory from the on Lewis were possibly part of a cargo teeth of walruses and whales, the chess intended for Ireland and the most pieces probably come from the important nobles at the court in Dublin. Norwegian fishing port of Trondheim. The No matter how the chess pieces came Archbishop of Trondheim received taxes to find their way to Lewis, it is clear that in the form of walrus and whale ivory from they are connected with the fate of the church’s holdings in Greenland and nations. England, Scotland, Ireland, the Arctic islands off northern Norway. Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Isle of So what, you may ask? Man all share traditions dating back over For scholars, this is an interesting a thousand years and more. If the chess question. If the chessmen arrived in Lewis pieces from Lewis do indeed come from a in the 12th century, this may indicate that total of four or five different sets, then the the islanders were strongly allied to possibility exists that a further 35 to 67 Norway rather than Scotland. There is a pieces lie somewhere waiting to be found. great deal of evidence that the Scottish Medieval scholars everywhere hope that Islanders are more closely related to the this may be the case. For there is no doubt peoples of Scandinavia than to the Scots that every time a chess piece comes to of the mainland. More intriguingly, other light its discovery helps us discover a little chess pieces have come to light in bit more about the trade, culture and lives Norway and Sweden suggesting that the of people living in northern Europe eight authorities in Trondheim held power and or nine hundred years ago. ✪

Gale (n) a very strong wind. Anchor (v) to drop a heavy object into the water to stop a boat from moving. Ivory (n) the creamy white bone of an elephant’s tusk. Confess (v) to admit to a crime. Brutal (adj) extremely violent. Hoard (n) a large quantity of hidden objects. Pagan (adj) relating to an ancient religion. Artefacts (n) an object that was made a very long time ago. Genealogist (n) someone who studies the history of families. Treasure Trove (n) a collection of valuable, interesting or original things. Elite (n) a small group of inﬂuential and rich people. Medieval (adj) relating to a period of European history between 1000 AD and 1500 AD.

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LIFESTYLE A Century of Tea Bags BY MARY HUBER

ook in any kitchen cupboard in the tea. Without the convenience of a tea UK and you will ﬁnd a supply of bag, you have to measure out, then L tea bags. Indeed, many British brew, strain and clear away the tea people are unable to imagine life leaves before you can settle down to without this basic food staple. Tea bags enjoy your cuppa. Nowadays that is all take all the fuss out of making a cup of just too much like hard work to be

worthwhile! Tea drinkers everywhere While tea merchants responded very agree that tea bags are an essential positively to Sullivan’s sample sachets, it invention that we now all take too much took a great deal longer for ordinary tea for granted. This has not always been drinkers to lose their loyalty to brewing so. This year tea drinkers have a real up with loose tea. A major reason for reason to celebrate. Tea bags are 100 this was cost and taste. Tea in a sachet years old. costs more than loose tea. And most While the British like to think that they sachets impaired the pure flavour of the set the world standard in terms of all tea. As a result, serious tea lovers in things to do with tea, they cannot claim America dismissed tea bags as an credit for the tea bag. This claim expensive and inferior product when belongs to an American tea merchant compared to traditional loose tea. But a called Thomas Sullivan who made his major breakthrough came in 1930 when name in New York City. In June 1908 William Hermanson, one of the founders Sullivan began to send samples of tea of the Boston-based Technical Papers leaves to potential customers in small Corporation, patented the heat-sealed silk pouches. His reason for this was paper fibre tea bag. simple – he wanted to cut costs by However, despite the growing demand reducing the amount of tea he sent out for tea bags in America, the British for individuals to sample. However, continued to resist any changes to their Sullivan failed to explain this to his traditional brew. Finally, in 1953 the customers. Most received the silk British packager Tetley spotted the sachets with a great deal of puzzlement. potential for the convenience of the Some cut the sachets open to inspect American invention to take off in the UK. the tea inside. The majority, however, However, Tetley knew that persuading simply dropped the sachets into hot the British public to change their tea water to discover if they liked the taste drinking habits was not going to be of the tea inside. Some then wrote to easy. In an attempt to win over their Sullivan to complain that the silk customers, the company began by material of the sachets was too fine to launching a set of nationwide and high let the tea taste out. Spotting his chance profile adverts suggesting that tea bags to build on this show of interest, Sullivan were the new, quick and easy way to experimented with different types of make a good cup of tea. Aimed at the material. He soon hit on a gauze-like UK’s emerging national TV audience, the sachet that delighted his most Tetley adverts captured the popular demanding customers. Sullivan’s sales imagination with their wit and humour. boomed. More importantly, Sullivan set Tetley’s successful tea bag campaign the foundations for a market in helped define a whole new way of convenience tea preparation and advertising convenience foods that invented what we now call the tea bag inspires major supermarket ad along the way! campaigns to this day.

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While Tetley enjoyed a lot of success and pyramidal formats. Tea bags even in persuading consumers to experiment come in different sizes to appeal to with tea bags, many tea drinkers individual tea drinkers and those who complained that Tetley’s tea bags like to share a pot with their friends! tainted the taste of the tea that they There are even differences between the loved. Convinced that tea bags provided British tea bag and those sold in Europe a quality-assured way to guarantee the and elsewhere. The average British tea taste of a cup of tea, Tetley persisted bag contains 3.125 grams of tea while a with perfecting a tea bag that allowed European tea bag typically contains a maximum infusion with minimum paltry 2.5 grams! contamination to the final taste. After And for tea lovers the charm and years of testing, Tetley finally developed usefulness of the common tea bag is not a highly perforated bag in 1964 that confined to the tea pot. Since 2000 the introduced no foreign flavours to the hobby of tea bag folding has spread from taste of the tea. In 1989 Tetley switched The Netherlands to Britain and the US. from the standard square bag to a round Tea bag folding is a form of origami in one. Soon after the company introduced which small squares of paper, cut from a pyramid-shaped tea bag that helped the front of a tea bag, are folded and infuse the tea even faster. arranged in decorative rosettes. Who The company’s efforts paid off. said that tea bags exist only because Nowadays Tetley can expect to sell 200 they save you time? With tea, ritual and million tea bags in the UK every week. style will always be important. Tea bags Many tea experts are convinced that will continue to evolve as the way in Tetley’s mass marketing of the tea bag which we drink tea changes to express effectively saved the global tea industry. the way in which we experience a As the Chairman of the UK’s Tea Council moment of shared togetherness! explains, people are simply too busy And finally if you think that a tea bag is nowadays to “make tea in the old way”. only useful in the way in which it helps Today, tea bags are big business. you make and enjoy a cup of tea, then Researchers and scientists continue to think again! It is a little known beauty strive to improve and enhance the basic fact that a used tea bag can help design. Amazingly, hundreds of patents increase facial attractiveness for men now exist to protect tea bag designs, and women alike. To see this for materials and manufacturing processes. yourself, simply place a used tea bag in An average tea bag has over 2,000 the fridge and allow to cool fully. Place perforations. Tea experts argue over the the cold, damp tea bag on your eyes. relative merits of various different Relax for at least five minutes. Remove shapes. Different manufacturers argue the tea bag. The skin around your eyes passionately about the effectiveness of will be less puffy and more relaxed. Your their own patented designs which come eyes will appear more piercing as a in round, square, rectangular, cylindrical result. Tea-riffic! ✪

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Invention (n) a new machine or system that a person has made or designed for the ﬁrst time. Pouch (n) a small bag. Boom (v) to have a big economic increase. Patent (v) to make an ofﬁcial and legal document that allows a person to be the only one to make or sell an invention for a set period of time. Infusion (n) a drink made from putting leaves or herbs into hot water. Origami (n) the Japanese art of folding paper to make models.

FEATURE The Last Great Troubadour BY JOE ST CLAIR

here is something timeless and unmistakable about Irish music. The roots of traditional T Usually played on fiddles, guitars, tin whistles, concertinas and goat skin Irish music go way back hand drums called ‘bodhrans’, Irish into its Celtic past and music is full of energy and foot-tapping tempos. Irish music dances, interweaves have much in common and tumbles over itself like the gurgling mountain streams of its island of origin. with the folk music of The roots of traditional Irish music go Brittany and Scotland. way back into its Celtic past and have much in common with the folk music of Brittany and Scotland. Emigrants from all these places took their Celtic music with harpist called Turlough O’Carolan. them to the colonies of North America. O’Carolan’s life is a mixture of recorded The greatest number of emigrants fled fact and much loved folklore myth. the potato famines of Ireland in the 1840s O’Carolan’s music stands in a class of its to find a new life in the US. Celtic music own and comprises a vast body of jigs, is now enjoying a resurgence right reels and airs that people instantly across North America. In Canada the recognize as defining the heart and soul renaissance started in French-speaking of Irish music. Quebec. In the US the influence of Irish Turlough O’Carolan was born in County music has moved far beyond the Meath in 1670, the son of a blacksmith. traditionally “Irish” cities of New York, Little is known about his early life but we Boston and Chicago to take in every know that the family relocated to large metropolis in the north, south, east Ballyfarnon in County Sligo where his and west. father found work in a local ironworks. It is impossible to say with any Sadly, at the age of eighteen, Turlough certainty where and when Irish Music lost his sight when he contracted first found its unique voice. However, the smallpox. Turlough’s blindness meant he historical record shows that Irish could no longer follow his father’s singers, poets and composers travelled footsteps in the iron trade. Instead, across Ireland playing music to earn a Turlough took apprenticeship with a living hundreds of years ago. Known as local harp player called Mary “troubadours” or “wandering minstrels”, MacDermott. He quickly realised that he the names of most of these colourful had a natural aptitude for music and was characters are lost to us forever. soon writing his own compositions. He Fortunately the stories of a few select made swift progress. Within three years troubadours have survived the passage O’Carolan surpassed his teacher. At this of time. Perhaps the greatest of these point, despite his blindness, O’Carolan troubadours was the enigmatic blind set off on horseback to seek his fortune

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as a wandering minstrel, a vocation that chance to trick his friend into believing was to last for the rest of his life. At the him to be a total stranger. When turn of the eighteenth century we know O’Carolan asked for news of the world, that O’Carolan was travelling extensively, McCabe replied in a disguised voice that stopping anywhere that he could find “sadly the musician Charles McCabe has patronage for his music. With a deep just now died and is no more”! knowledge of ancient rhythms and Distraught at this news, O’Carolan asked poetry, O’Carolan found demand for his the man to lead him to McCabe’s services at many of the great Irish graveside. This he did. In grief, O’Carolan country estates where he stayed a while sat down beside what he believed to be to compose and play music for paying the grave of his dearest friend and clients. Over the years O’Carolan composed a lament full of sorrow. When composed countless pieces of music he had finished O’Carolan asked the which he called “planxties”, a term no- stranger what he thought of the tune. one ever uses today. The names of McCabe then answered him in his O’Carolan’s patrons do survive, however, normal voice to say that the tune was so in the various thanks and dedications good it had brought him back to life from recorded with the titles of each planxty. the grave! History does not record what Thanks to his immense talent, O’Carolan then said to his prankster O’Carolan’s fame as a composer and friend. But many stories of this type musician spread quickly. Before long the show that O'Carolan and McCabe blind harpist found himself in Dublin enjoyed playing these kinds of jokes on playing for the elite of Irish society. each other all the time! Although handicapped by his blindness, O’Carolan married a lady called Mary it seems that O’Carolan was quite able to Maguire and they set up home in Mohill stand up for himself. There is no doubt in County Leitrim. They had six daughters that O’Carolan enjoyed the company of a and a son. O’Carolan’s son later made it wide variety of friends, many of whom his life’s work to write down most of his liked to play practical jokes on him. father’s compositions. It is thanks to this There are many stories about work that most of O’Carolan’s music O’Carolan’s colourful escapades. survives to this day. While the National However, it is hard to say which are Library of Ireland attributes some two based on fact and which are total fiction. hundred compositions to O’Carolan, What is very clear is that O’Carolan used many Irish musicians say his legacy his music to get out of lots of difficult comprises many more. What is not in situations. O’Carolan also often doubt is that O’Carolan carried on composed pieces of music as payment creating music right up to the moment of when his purse was empty. O’Carolan’s his death. The records show that even best friend was the famous harpist, as he lay dying, O’Carolan played a final, Charles McCabe. One day McCabe met moving slow air that he called O’Carolan in the street and took the “O’Carolan’s farewell to music”. An

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account of his funeral tells of a huge troubadours. And O’Carolan’s voice gathering of friends and musicians who continues to haunt Irish music to this assembled for a ﬁnal “wake” or farewell day. Wherever you hear Irish music celebration that lasted ﬁve days. Such being played, one of O’Carolan’s unique was O’Carolan’s fame and popularity that compositions is likely to take pride of people also travelled from all over place. No one before or since has had Ireland to pay their last respects to the such impact on the musical heart of a talent of this most amazing of Ireland’s nation! ✪

Tempo (n) the speed at which music is played. Emigrant (n) someone who leaves their country to live in another one. Metropolis (n) a busy city. Enigmatic (adj) mysterious and difﬁcult to understand. Aptitude (n) natural talent and ability to do something. Patronage (n) help or money given to a person or an organisation. Elite (n) a small group of powerful people. Lament (n) a sad song or poem.

LIFESTYLE Everyday Mysteries Solved BY KESTA ALLEN

hy do we do some of the still insist on wearing painfully high things that we do without heels. Why? W thinking about them? Why do The answer has its roots in what men we continue to do some things even find attractive in women and what we though there are clearly better, more tend to define as being beautiful in a sensible alternatives to hand? Why do woman. Women who are above average we persist with these behaviours even height tend to receive more favourable when they perplex or annoy us? While notice from men who are more we cannot answer all of life’s successful than the average. As a result, conundrums, we can offer insight into a women who are taller than average tend few areas of interest to many! to marry more advantageously than others. This is not a new thing. Jane Why do women wear high heels? Austen’s classic 18th century novel, Ask most women who wear high heals Sense and Sensibility, describes and and they will tell you that wearing high contrasts the relative attraction of two heels is uncomfortable and makes young sisters, Marianne and Elinor. Jane walking difficult. Extremely high heels Austen describes the taller of the two as cause permanent injury to the feet while being the prettier, declaring that exerting extreme levels of stress to the “Marianne is, still handsomer. Her form, back. Many famous women are victims though not as correct as her sister’s, in to this kind of damage. Fashion icon, having the advantage of height is more Victoria Beckham, is a typical case. After striking”. years of wearing high heels, the former Whether we like it or not, Jane Spice Girl suffers from painful and Austen’s views about attractiveness and unsightly bunions on her feet. However, height still hold true for many people despite the damage and discomfort, today. Until these kinds of opinions Posh Spice and posh girls everywhere change fundamentally, each new

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generation of young women will seventeenth century. At this time, continue to want to wear alluring shoes buttons were expensive. Only the best with uncomfortably high heels. clothes worn by the rich and wealthy featured buttons. During this period, a Why do women’s clothes button from the rich man typically dressed himself. The left while men’s button from the right? same was not true for rich ladies. As a general rule, clothing Typically, a maidservant helped a manufacturers stick to a uniform wealthy woman to put on her best convention for the garments they sell to clothes. This process could take a very a particular group of people. When it long time as the fashionable lady stood comes to the way buttons fasten there is and waited for her maidservants to a clear difference in the conventional painstakingly carry out her toilette and approach for women as distinct from dressing. Most people are right handed. men. So exactly why is it that women’s A person dressing someone else ﬁnds it clothes button from the left while those easier to button from the left. for men button from the right? For the men, the etiquette was much Once again, the answer lies in the simpler. As the men dressed themselves history books. Buttons became an item it made sense for their buttons to do up of fashion in European clothing in the from the right. Despite the centuries and

the fact that most people dress cap is on, there are good reasons for car themselves these days, the button manufacturers to continue with this convention remains in strict force among seemingly random approach. This policy clothes designers and clothes makers of placing the fuel cap on different sides around the world! of the car means that at any given garage, about half the cars approach to Why do some cars have petrol caps on ﬁll up at a pump from the right while the the driver’s side while others have them rest approach from the left. This ensures on the passenger’s side? optimum use of the space to either side Most drivers experience a sense of of a pump. This reduces the likelihood of frustration when they arrive at a petrol drivers having to queue on the same side pump only to ﬁnd that their car’s petrol of a pump to get their fuel. cap is on the other side to the petrol pump! Often this means that the petrol Why do DVDs come in larger cases than hose is too short to reach around to the CDs, Even though the discs are exactly tank and the driver needs to reposition the same size? the car. At such moments, many drivers It is a little known fact that CDs come in have asked themselves why car cases that are 148mm wide and 125 mm manufacturers continue to locate the high while DVDs come in cases that are petrol cap on different sides of a car. 135mm wide and 191mm high. So exactly Despite the everyday irritation of why do manufacturers prefer to use forgetting which side of a car the petrol such different packaging for discs that

are basically the same size? anomaly in the case sizes between CDs Once again the answer lies in and DVDs really stands out. Each one historical fact. Before the invention of represents a kind of fossil from the old the CD, music came on a vinyl disc days of retail that no-one now has real called a record. Most records came in a need or interest to finally phase out. hard cardboard sleeve measuring 302mm square. Most record shops Why don’t more people wear shoes with displayed the records for sale on Velcro fasteners? custom-built shelving that exactly suited Swiss inventor George de Mistral first the dimensions of the record sleeves. obtained a patent for Velcro in 1955. But as CDs took over from records, Before his invention, learning how to shopkeepers faced a real dilemma. Was fasten a shoe lace was an important it more cost-effective for them to reuse lesson for any young child. But laces can and recycle their old shelves to display come undone and people can fall over the new CD products – or to totally refit and hurt themselves. Velcro offered a their shops to meet the new size specifi- safer, easier and quicker way to fasten cations? Not surprisingly CD shoes. manufacturers and music retailers came And for a time it seemed that Velcro up with a solution of benefit to all. Music offered a superior product to all other manufacturers designed the packaging kinds of fastenings – be they zips, hooks for the new CDs precisely to maximize or buttons. But from the beginning most the shelving space in place for records. designers aimed Velcro fastenings at an Two CDs fit neatly onto a shelf designed audience of the very young, the elderly to hold a record sleeve. or the infirm. For this reason, many Similar considerations applied when fashionistas and trend-setters refused to DVDs came in to replace the older VHS see Velcro as a hot new fashion item of videotape format for playing movies and interest to them. As a result, the most films at home. The old-style VHS style-conscious fashion houses refused videotapes came in boxes measuring to incorporate Velcro in their most 135mm wide by 191mm high. DVD prestigious designs. Unfortunately for manufacturers kept to this format to us, until that perception changes Velcro allow video stores to simply phase in the will not appear on the catwalks at new products on the shelves already in fashion shows and many of us will place to display the old. Now that stores continue to struggle with zips, hooks and sell music and films together, the buttons for years to come. ✪

Conundrum (n) a difﬁcult problem. Alluring (adj) attractive and exciting. Convention (n) a way of behaving that is generally considered to be acceptable. Etiquette (n) a set of rules for behaving correctly. Frustration (n) annoyance and impatience. Prestigious (adj) admired and respected.

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COVER FEATURE James McAvoy

BY SARA HALL

ames McAvoy was born on the 21st April 1979 in Glasgow, Scotland. But although still relatively Jyoung, James McAvoy is not a novice when it comes to his professional acting career. By starring in such critically acclaimed ﬁlms as The Last King of Scotland, Becoming Jane and Atonement, McAvoy has already shown fans and critics alike that he is a force to be reckoned with. As well as being one of Scotland’s best loved exports, McAvoy is much in demand in Hollywood. While not conventionally good looking, there is something about the young Scot that seems to appeal to a very wide range of different audiences. As one critic so aptly summed it up, “James has an everyman quality about him that movie goers can relate to on a very real level”. James McAvoy grew up in Glasgow, Scotland. As a child James showed no ambition to be an actor or any desire to enter the theatrical world. Instead, he and his friends dreamt of playing in a rock band or joining the Royal Navy. His mother, Elizabeth was a psychiatric nurse and his father, also called James, was a builder. His parents divorced when James was just seven years old and afterwards he went to live with his maternal grandparents. Elizabeth joined her son at her parents’ house from time to time in the years after. But James soon lost contact with his father who he rarely saw again during his childhood. While living with his grandparents, James attended St Thomas Aquinas Secondary School in Glasgow and brieﬂy toyed with the idea of becoming a priest. But

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James McAvoy in the ﬁlm Atonement yy

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James’ life plan changed forever when In addition to the increasing number of the actor and director David Hayman film offers, McAvoy also worked on stage came to the school and spoke to the and in television. In 2003, McAvoy students about his theatrical career. appeared in the award-winning television Ignoring the taunts of his schoolmates, series Shameless. While filming James approached David after the talk Shameless, McAvoy met fellow actor and begged him to give him a chance in Anne Marie Duffy whom he later married one of his next projects. Hayman relented in 2006. Subsequently, McAvoy played and gave James a small part in his Macbeth in the BBC television’s production of The Next Room. James Shakespeare Retold. He also appeared on never looked back. stage at London’s Royal Court Theatre in After leaving school, McAvoy attended a production of Breathing Corpses. the prestigious Royal Scottish Academy As a consistently hard working and of Music and Drama. He worked hard at committed young actor, McAvoy’s next college and graduated in 2000, supporting few roles showed his ability to play a himself by working in a bakery in a local wide range of characters. Playing Mr supermarket. McAvoy also worked on Tummus, the Faun, in The Chronicles of several other projects. One of his first Narnia, McAvoy successfully managed to roles was playing Anthony Balfour in the convey a compelling mixture of Mr Tummus’s anguish at helping Lucy and the prospect of terrible retribution for his In 2003, McAvoy appeared actions. In an entirely different role, McAvoy starred in The Last King of in the award-winning Scotland, an adaptation of Giles Foden’s television series Shameless. novel of the same name. The film portrays the difficult circumstances of life in While filming Shameless, Uganda during the brutal regime of Idi McAvoy met fellow actor Amin. McAvoy plays the role of Dr Garrigan, a fictional character based on Anne Marie Duffy whom he the real life experiences of several later married in 2006. Englishmen who actually advised Amin during his years as dictator. Following on from the success of The Last King of Scotland McAvoy starred in 1997 film adaptation of Pat Barker’s novel Starter for 10, based on the novel by Regeneration. Later on McAvoy’s first David Nicholls. The film followed the international appearance was in Steven exploits of McAvoy’s rather nerdy Spielberg’s Band of Brothers. He also character, Brian Jackson, as he played Paul Bettany’s irritating but lovable experiences his first term at Bristol brother in the hit British comedy University. McAvoy won the Orange Wimbledon. Rising Star Award for his role in the film

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in 2006. However, McAvoy’s next two many of his contemporaries, McAvoy films, Becoming Jane and Atonement refuses to benefit from his fame by finally won the rising actor the advertising products because he wants international media attention he truly his fans to focus solely on his acting. deserved. Critics and fans adored McAvoy relaxes by watching sports with McAvoy’s performances as Thomas his friends. He enjoys science fiction Lefory in Becoming Jane, an account of novels and is a committed fan of the Jane Austen’s early life, and as Robbie 1960s cult television show Star Trek. Turner in Atonement. Indeed, McAvoy’s McAvoy supports Celtic Football club. He role in Atonement won him two also likes cooking at home. He sums all of nominations for a BAFTA Best Actor this up simply by saying: “I’m probably a award and Golden Globe Best Actor bit like my grandparents. I like staying in”. award. Kiera Knightly, James co-star in But while McAvoy enjoys a peaceful Atonement, was full of praise for his home life, his future working life promises professionalism during filming, noting that to be ever more hectic and demanding. “he has the rare ability to morph into Many new challenges loom ahead and whatever character he is playing”. the young Scot continues to be flooded More recently, McAvoy appeared in by a wide variety of offers of film and the Hollywood blockbuster Wanted with stage work. However, McAvoy is under Angelina Jolie. McAvoy plays a twenty- no illusions about his own physical five year old office worker who turns attributes, saying: “I’m 5 foot 7 and I’ve assassin to revenge his father’s death. got pasty white skin. I don’t think I’m ugly, McAvoy freely admits that working with don’t get me wrong, but I’m not your Angelina Jolie, one of the most beautiful classic leading man….. I’m no Brad Pitt!” women in the world, was incredibly Whatever James McAvoy may say daunting. Laughingly, in interviews after about his looks, there is no doubt that he the film, he claimed that he enjoyed his has plenty of talent, intelligence and fight scenes with Angelina the most! enduring cinematic appeal. There is no When he is not working McAvoy doubt that he deserves his place in the prefers a quiet domestic life. McAvoy is Hollywood Hall of Fame as one of the famous for possessing a deeply moral, most appealing leading men on the 21st thoughtful and reflective side. Unlike century Silver Screen. ✪

Novice (n) someone who is beginning to learn a trade or skill. Everyman (n) an ordinary person. Ambition (n) something that you aim for and want to achieve. Psychiatric (adj) relating to the treatment of mental illness. Taunts (n) rude and cruel remarks. Prestigious (adj) admired and respected. Anguish (n) a feeling of great pain. Brutal (adj) extremely violent. Dictator (n) someone who uses force to stay in power and control. Morph (v) to gradually change. Assassin (n) someone who is paid to kill another person. Contemporaries (n) people who are alive at the same time.

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LIFESTYLE From Hand to Mouth BY ASTRID GOWER

hen you take a drink from a break easily when made into a cup, mug ceramic cup take a moment or jug. Stoneware clay comes from the W to consider the nature of the subsoil of the earth which means it is object you are holding in your hands. quite clean and hygienic in its raw form. Whether made by hand or by machine, For this reason, potters like to use the cup is the end product of a complex stoneware clay for cooking pots and set of processes that are thousands of tableware of every kind. years old. Most artisans use stoneware To make a cup, the potter must start by clay to make a pottery cup by hand. getting all of the air out of the clay. He Stoneware clay is fairly dense in texture, does this by “hitting” the clay in a way relatively free of impurities and totally which squeezes out any pockets of air non-porous. This means it is ideal for that may be trapped inside. This process making objects in which to hold or store requires strength and patience to water or liquids of any kind. Stoneware complete in full. An experienced potter clay is also smooth and easy to work by never tries to skimp on this stage. Clay hand. This kind of clay is also fairly with air trapped inside it simply cracks robust which means it does not crack or or explodes as it bakes in the high temperatures needed to turn it into china. A single cup exploding in a tightly packed kiln or oven can destroy every Stoneware clay comes other item baking alongside it. Having prepared his clay, the potter is then from the subsoil of the ready to mould it. This is the most satisfying and creative part of the whole earth which means it is process. Turning a lump of clay into a quite clean and mug, jug or other useful item of tableware is a true craft. The potter hygienic in its raw turns the clay on his “wheel”, a ﬂat form. circular surface that he can turn at varying speeds using a foot treadle or another source of power such as

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Photo left: ©Tomasz Wieja - Photo right: © Rafael Laguillo - Dreamstime.com 37 MED5-6p24-43 22/8/08 12:46 Page 38

electricity. The potter can shape the clay and evenly. Clay that dries too quickly evenly as it rotates around under his will spoil and crack. hands on the wheel. This makes it easy Once the clay dries to a consistent for the potter to create smooth, circular colour the potter can give it an initial shapes for whatever kind of cups, mugs baking or “bisque firing” in the kiln. This or plates he may be making. This is a first firing makes the clay very brittle. decisive and quick process. When the The potter needs to handle the cup or clay is the right shape, the potter mug very carefully at this stage. The removes it from the wheel and leaves surface of the clay is now ready to the object he has made to harden absorb a layer of glaze. Glazing is a thin overnight and become “leather dry”. glass-like coating of colour that fuses The potter can add the base and together with the surface of the clay in handle to the circular sides of the cup or the intense heat of a final firing in the mug only when the clay is hard enough kiln. The potter can make his own glazes to take firm handling. Even so, the potter from a wide variety of natural pigments. needs to work carefully to ensure he The colour combinations are endless. does not squash or spoil the smooth Creating the pattern for the surface of sides of the cup he has made. The potter the cup can be a moment of pure uses carving tools to cut the base of the inspiration in the potter’s day. Once he cup to size. He rolls a piece of clay has applied the glaze, the potter places between his fingers and thumb to form the cup or mug in the kiln for its final the stem for the handle. The potter firing. This firing subjects the cup or mug needs to be precise in the way he to extremely high temperatures. These applies the handle to the sides of the cup temperatures literally fuse the glaze into or mug. Making a mistake here can the surface of the clay which bakes into totally ruin the look of the finished item. hard china. This process takes at least The potter needs to smooth the ends of twenty-four hours to complete. The kiln the handle into the sides of the cup so needs to gradually heat up and then that the join is both invisible and slowly cool down again for china to pleasing to the eye. Once again the achieve the perfect finish. potter needs to leave the cup to dry and A good potter never rushes. The best harden. The best place for this is in a pottery lasts for ever. Drinking from a draft-free place out of direct sunlight. hand-made cup provides one of life’s This ensures that the clay dries slowly simplest but most satisfying pleasures. ✪

Artisan (n) a worker who has a special training or craft. Non-porous (adj) water or air cannot easily pass through. Patience (n) being able to do something for a long time without getting cross or irritated. Rotate (v) to move around in a circle around a ﬁxed point. Brittle (adj) not strong, can easily break. Pigment (n) a natural colour.

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LIFESTYLE Emeralds BY ANGIE BROTHWELL

he name emerald comes T from the Old French “esmeralde”’, which literally means a “green gemstone”. But the aristocrats of medieval France were not the ﬁrst many of the kingdoms of Indochina. The people to love and admire the rich green oldest known Emerald mines occur near colour of the emerald. The ancient the Red Sea in Egypt. Dubbed civilizations of Egypt, Greece and Rome “Cleopatra’s Mines” in tribute to the all highly prized the green gemstone, as fabled Queen of Egypt’s love of emeralds, did the Aztecs of Central America and these mines were long associated with

the wealth and power of the Pharaohs, most interesting of these stones draw the rulers of ancient Egypt. However, the the eye along the lines of their flaws, mines ceased producing emeralds over fractures or impurities in to what two hundred years ago. Emeralds today jewellers poetically describe as “the come primarily from South America and garden of the emerald”. The different Indochina. shades of green in such a complex stone The hue of an emerald can vary from a seem to refresh and clam the gaze, deep intensive green to a brighter, creating a sense of tranquillity and well- fresher shade. Imperfections in the stone being in the beholder. This is why so can add great lustre and mystery to the many people admire and are so drawn to colour. For this reason, flawed emeralds the emerald as a gemstone of choice. are often more prized than flawless Not surprisingly, many cultures stones. Many of the world’s best-loved provide a wealth of stories and legends emeralds are in fact flawed stones. The that praise and extol the beauty and

power of this green gem. The Vedas of This combination of straight lines and ancient India proclaim that emeralds curved edges helps reveal the beauty of have healing powers and restorative this most precious gem while protecting properties. In India today emeralds the innate value of stone at the same continue to symbolise good luck and time. Nowadays many jewellers treat well-being. Other cultures associate emeralds with oils and resins in an emeralds with the green of springtime, attempt to enhance the surface the renewal of life and immortality. The appearance of the stone. However, these Greeks and Romans associated oils and resins can reduce an emerald’s emeralds with the goddess of love and resilience to hard treatment, leading to a linked the giving of emeralds with the dull and matt look over time. Contact idea of romance. with soaps and detergents can damage Many of the world’s most famous the lustre of an emerald over time. To emeralds are housed in museums and avoid this it is best to remove emerald other collections open to the public. The rings when washing in soapy water. famous Mogul Emerald in India is one of As emeralds are such valuable gems the largest such gemstones in the world. the question of fake jewels can be a The Mogul Emerald is an astonishing problem. There are very good imitations, 217.80 carats in weight and ten and synthetic emeralds are widespread. centimetres in length. This venerable gem Top quality emeralds come with a report has prayer texts engraved on one side from a gemmological institute. A and elaborate decorations on the other. reputable institute will be able to confirm However, despite the great art that the emerald is genuine and to identify displayed in the cutting of the Mogul any process that may damage or affect Emerald, jewellers and gemstone cutters the long-term value of the stone. The truly often face significant problems in remarkable emeralds are always large in drawing out the beauty of an emerald. size. These stones have the reflective Cutters need to respect the flaws that inner lights to equal the brilliance of any give an emerald so much of its beauty. diamond. The best emerald jewellery is This requires great insight, sensitivity often very striking in appearance as it and precision on the part of the cutter. seeks to highlight and display the special For this reason cutters often use a qualities of a single large stone. It takes a technique known as “the emerald cut”. great deal of money and a certain The emerald cut involves a square or charisma to wear this kind of jewellery to rectangular shape with bevelled corners. best advantage! ✪

Aristocrat (n) a member of the highest class. Hue (n) a colour. Lustre (n) shiny appearance. Flaw (n) a mistake or fault. Immortality (n) living forever. Venerable (adj) very old, wise and respected. Charisma (n) a strong personal quality that is attractive to others.

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LIFESTYLE What Long Fingers Say About You BY ILKA BRADSHAW

rofessor John Manning, a university sporting prowess. While no tests yet exist lecturer in psychology, has to accurately measure levels of P developed a new and intriguing testosterone present in the womb, a theory about the length of a person’s correlation does appear to exist between fingers. The Professor claims that he can testosterone and the comparative length look at any stranger’s hands, in particular of a person’s ring and index fingers. A ring the index and ring fingers, and finger that is longer than the index finger immediately tell whether that person has indicates high levels of testosterone in the a natural aptitude for running or for sport. womb. He also claims that he can assess And it is these measurements and the whether that person has a higher than resulting “finger ratios” that so excite average risk of suffering early heart Manning. The Professor argues that a failure or disease. While many sceptics person’s finger ratio provides a literal dismiss Manning’s research is a kind of “living fossil” from that person’s time in palmistry that does not deserve serious the womb. Scientists calculate finger attention, the Professor remains ratios by measuring the index and ring undeterred. Manning points out that years fingers of the right hand and by then of rigorous research back up his claims. dividing the former by the latter. Those Professor Manning’s theories are fairly with a longer ring finger have a ratio less straightforward and easy to understand. than one. This provides what scientists He argues that in early stages of call the “Casanova pattern” – the high pregnancy various hormones, including impact indication of testosterone. testosterone and oestrogen, bombard a Individuals with a low impact indication of foetus in the womb. These hormones testosterone have a ratio greater than directly impact the way in which the one. The average finger ratio for a man is foetus develops. Manning believes that a 0.98. Manning claims that a finger ratio foetus exposed to high levels of below this average indicates an aptitude testosterone goes on to develop high for sporting potential. The Professor

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suggests that finger ratio of 0.9 correlates plans to measure a group of 12 year old to high sporting potential. boys and follow them through to the age While Manning is very clear about the of eighteen and record their sporting link between finger ratios and sporting achievements. aptitude, the Professor is quick to admit While the Professor’s studies are at an that his research into correlations with early stage, support for Manning’s aptitudes for heart disease and other theories come from some surprising conditions is very sketchy indeed. Many places. One person, Lynn Davis, the scientists believe that the levels of president of UK Athletics is quite prepared testosterone and oestrogen present in the to take Manning’s theories seriously, womb have a profound impact on the saying: “Why not? If it works it works. Of formation of key organs in the human course there are other factors involved, body. However, when speculating about notably a desire to train and how quickly a any link between finger ratios and person matures”. diseases, Manning is circumspect and For the moment though talent spotters reluctant to draw any firm conclusions. continue to rely on more traditional However, Professor Manning believes this methods that involve use of a stopwatch will prove an important area for research and lots of practise sessions! But it may in the future. not be long before calculating finger On the sporting front, the Professor is ratios becomes a regular part of the talent on firmer ground. Manning argues that for spotter’s routine in helping to predict the running, football and rugby masculine great sports performers of the future! finger ratios are an effective way of measuring and assessing someone’s Find Your Finger Ratio natural sporting talent. Indeed, Manning is Place your right hand palm upwards. confident that his finger measurements Measure the length of your index finger are the key to finding the sporting talent of from its tip to the joint with your palm the future. “I’m sure we can look at a Measure your ring finger in the same way. group of kids and see which ones have Divide the length of your index finger by potential to be middle-distance and long the length of your ring finger to calculate distance runners” he says, by simply your finger ratio observing “where the correlation is very The average ratio for women is 1, while strong”. To prove this thesis, Manning the average ratio for men is 0.98. ✪

Psychology (n) the study of the mind and behaviour. Aptitude (n) natural ability and talent that makes it easy to do something. Sceptic (n) someone who has doubts about things that other people believe to be true. Hormones (n) important natural substances that are produced by the body and directly affect the body’s development. Sketchy (adj) not complete or detailed. Thesis (n) an idea, opinion or theory.

SHORT STORY The Promise BY R. L. SCOTT-BUCCLEUCH

ahia is a state in Brazil. Many of him. ‘Any news yet, Pedro?’ she asked. Brazil’s greatest poets and ‘Not yet, Teresa,’ replied Pedro. Bwriters were born in Bahia. ‘It will be a boy this time,’ said Teresa. Tourists come to Bahia from all over the ‘I’m sure of that.’ world. They play on the sandy beaches ‘It doesn’t make any difference,’ and they swim in the water of the replied Pedro. ‘What will he eat? I have Atlantic. no work and no money.’ More than a million people live in ‘Things will be better tomorrow,’ said Salvador, the capital of Bahia. Some of Teresa. ‘Don’t lose hope.’ them are very rich and live in large Pedro did not reply. He sat quietly for houses. They have motor cars and more than an hour. servants. Others are not so rich, but Finally, there was a noise inside the they have work and live in small houses. hut. An old woman came out. She was There are many more who are very carrying a new-born baby. It was small, poor. They live in little wooden huts. thin and ugly and it was crying loudly. Pedro Moreira lived in a hut on a ‘Here, Pedro,’ said the old woman. hillside. The hill was called Gloria. ‘You have a son.’ The old woman put the Pedro lived with his wife, Maria. Their baby in Pedro’s arms. Pedro looked at hut had only one small room which was his son for a long time. almost empty. There was only an old ‘Tell me something,’ he said at last to table, a broken chair and a mattress. the old woman. ‘Will the baby live!’ Maria brought water from a spring The old woman did not reply which was more than a kilometre away. immediately. She took the baby from One day, Pedro was sitting on the Pedro. She closed her eyes and held ground outside his hut. He was looking the baby in her arms. Then she spoke. very unhappy. His wife was going to ‘Yes,’ she said, ‘this boy will live.’ have a baby. They had had three other Pedro felt better. He believed this old children before, but they had all died. woman. The old woman was nearly a Pedro wanted a son. But how could he hundred years old. She had come with get food for a new baby? her parents from Africa many years A woman passed by and spoke to ago. She was able to cure sick people.

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Some people said that she was able to Pedro’s hut. They were watching and see into the future. She was always listening. The old woman held up the sent for when a baby was born. baby and showed it to the neighbours. ‘Listen, Pedro,’ she said. ‘I have more ‘This baby will become a great man,’ to tell you.’ she said. ‘One day, he will be rich. He Her face had a strange look and will give happiness to many people and Pedro listened in silence. he will help poor people like us.’ ‘This boy will grow up and become Pedro looked at the neighbours. None famous,’ she continued. ‘He will be of them laughed. They all believed the well-known all over the world. He will old woman and they were afraid of her. give happiness to many people.’ The old woman went back into the Some neighbours were standing near hut and gave the baby to Maria. The old

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woman came out again and spoke to Pedro. ‘I’m going to be a bus driver. Pedro. Now we shall have enough money for ‘Perhaps you do not believe me,’ she food.’ said, ‘but I never make a mistake. Your Pedro worked twelve hours a day as son will come near to death many times, a bus driver. The wages were not good, but do not lose hope. Remember my but he was happy. He was paid his words and take good care of him. Be a wages every month and every pay day good father to the boy. One day, he will he came home with a large parcel of be a good son to you. That is my food. His family were never hungry promise.’ again. One evening, Pedro came home late. The Family He had two young girls with him. Pedro and Maria often remembered the ‘Palito,’ he called. ‘Come and meet words of the old woman. The baby was your cousins.’ called Paulo. And after Paulo, they had Palito ran to his father and looked at no more children. the girls. Pedro was not able to find a job. ‘This is Fernanda,’ said Pedro. ‘And Sometimes he found work for a few this is Odete. They’re your cousins and days. He worked as a porter or washed they’re coming to live with us.’ dishes in a restaurant. Maria made a Palito was nine years old now. He little money. She washed and mended was pleased to meet the other children. clothes. The work was hard and people They all shook hands and walked up the did not pay her much money. hill to the hut. Food was expensive and Pedro and Fernanda was the same age as Palito, Maria were always hungry. Paulo was but she was much taller. She was a very hungry too. He cried all the time. He pretty girl and walked proudly. Odete, was small and thin and weak, but he did her sister, was two years younger. She not die. was pretty too, but she was shy. She For a long time, Paulo stayed inside cried all the time and covered her face the hut. After three years, he was able with her hands. to go outside and play with other The two girls had lived in another children. His arms and legs were very town with their parents. Their hut had thin. His legs were twisted. The other caught fire and their parents were children called him Palito – a thin stick. dead. Their mother was Pedro’s sister. And he was called Palito for the rest of Now they were coming to live with his life. Pedro and Maria and Palito. They were One day, Pedro came running home. soon like one family. ‘Maria, Maria,’ he shouted. ‘I’ve got a Pedro sent all the children to school. job.’ Palito was not a good student. He did ‘A job?’ asked Maria. ‘Where?’ not like to study, but Fernanda and ‘With the bus company,’ replied Odete helped him.

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He learnt to read and to write quite now. Why isn’t he working?’ well. Fernanda learnt very quickly, but Pedro smiled, but he did not reply. He she soon forgot her lessons. The best went to the beach every Sunday and student was Odete. She studied hard watched his son playing football. and remembered her lessons. ‘You know, Maria,’ he said to his wife Every day after school, Palito played one Sunday evening, ‘I’ve been football with the other boys. They watching Palito carefully. He’s really usually played football for an hour. After good. He’s going to be a footballer.’ ✪ that, they swam in the sea and rested in the sunshine. Then they played football again until dark. Palito’s legs were still twisted, but they grew thicker and stronger. Palito enjoyed these games. At first, the other boys knocked him over. But slowly he became more skilful. He learnt to turn quickly and carry the ball past the other boys. People often stopped and watched him playing. Sometimes Fernanda and Odete went to the beach with Palito. They watched him playing football. But usually the two girls had to stay with Maria. Pedro had bought an old sewing machine and Maria made clothes for rich ladies in the town. Odete helped her and became very good at sewing. But Fernanda did not like sewing and she was very careless. Fernanda took the clothes to the houses of rich people. Because she was very pretty, people gave her more work. She took the work back to Maria and Odete. They were always busy. Pedro was now a happy man. He was still poor, but he had work and his family From The Promise by R. L. Scott-Buccleuch. had enough to eat. Macmillan Readers ﬁrst published 1977. Palito grew bigger and the Text © R. L. Scott-Buccleuch and Macmillan Publishers Limited 1977 neighbours began to talk about him. Design and Illustration © Macmillan Publishers ‘Look at Palito,’ they said. ‘He’s a man Limited 1998

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BUSINESS No Need For Speed BY MARY HUBER

hat happens to a country space at peak times. So traffic is flowing when the cost of petrol, oil, a little more freely than usual and this W gas, coal and other energy seems to make drivers less impatient on sources doubles in a few months? If the city streets. recent experience of Britain is anything But it isn’t just Britain’s motorists that to go by, the country literally starts to are changing the speed at which they slow down. Before fuel prices rose, travel. Across the UK planes, trains, motorists in Britain rarely adhered to the busses, lorries, tractors, farm machinery, national speed limit of 70 mph (miles per ships and ferries are all running slightly hour) on the country’s motorways and more slowly than usual. Britain’s major intercity main roads. Traffic on the budget airlines have reacted to rising motorways typically travelled at aviation fuel costs by instructing their something between 75 and 80 mph with pilots to cut average speeds by a some cars going faster. But as fuel costs minimum of 2% and more wherever rise, the motorway traffic appreciably favourable wind conditions make this slows. With petrol and diesel prices at practically possible. It seems that these double the long-term average, traffic in small reductions in air speed lead to the fast lane averages 60-65 mph with more significant reductions in fuel only a very few cars going significantly consumption. And the major airlines are faster. Individual motorists are each following suit. The second largest carrier killing their speed in an effort to improve out of London’s Heathrow airport claims the fuel efficiency of their cars. Driving at to be flying 3 mph more slowly than usual 60 mph as opposed to 75 mph can across all of its domestic and improve performance by anything from international routes. This small drop in 10% to 20%. And that adds up to a saving speed, it claims, will contribute to of several pounds on a long journey or maintaining overall profitability. over a week’s commuting. And drivers The story is pretty much the same on are also cutting out any journey that they the railways. Britain’s various rail do not absolutely have to make. This franchise operators all confirm that new means that fewer cars compete for road policies on train running speeds are in

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force. One of the UK’s largest rail train drivers say that they appreciate the companies is retraining train drivers to art and thoughtfulness involved in this drive more smoothly on short distance new way of driving. They say they cannot journeys. The course helps drivers to imagine going back to the old way of focus on the overall nature of the journey doing things even if energy prices fall between two stations. This starts by back to what they used to be. building up speed more slowly than usual Other train operators are also to achieve the required top speed for the exploring new ways to cut their energy middle of the journey and then allowing costs. Trains running through hilly the train to decelerate gently over a country now routinely cut their engines longer distance without the need for any to coast down hill. Trains that typically sharp braking. The result is a much used three engines to power their smoother ride for passengers and a journey now use only two. Train doors signiﬁcant saving in the diesel or also open and shut more quickly than electricity bill for the train company. The before. This helps stop the air

temperature inside the train changing by ship’s captain can cut his engines to slow too much while the train waits at a down and cruise along under sail power station. Again, passengers say that this only. Logistics experts are now charting helps improve the quality of their journey. long-distance sea voyages with exactly So the train companies are likely to keep this kind of power management in mind. this policy in place even if the cost of The overall effect, they say, may be that their energy falls back over time. this kind of sailing only adds a few hours Road haulage companies are following to a voyage that conventionally takes the lead of the railway operators. Many several days. lorry companies now monitor their So while the rising cost of fuel creates drivers’ performance to ensure they a problem for each individual and complete long distance journeys at organisation, the overall effect seems to optimum speeds. The road transport benefit the movement of people and operators say that the improved flow of goods everywhere in the transport traffic on the motorways means they are system. The key to this is that each able to maintain the overall effectiveness individual and organisation takes time to of their usual delivery times while cutting re-think the logistics of a way of doing down on high speeds. things they normally take utterly for At sea, shipping companies say they granted. The result is that everyone finds are exploring ways to plan voyages so a way to make a small improvement that that the prevailing wind, current and tidal makes sense for them. All these small conditions help rather than hinder the actions build up to deliver an overall passage of a boat, ship or ferry through improvement that is significant enough the water. It seems that good logistical for everyone to sit up and notice. planning of this kind can cut a few So taking the time to plan out and percentage points off the fuel needed for change the way in which you make a a voyage. And ship operators are journey seems to mean that you can take increasingly interested in the idea of that journey at less speed with more adding computer-aided, high-tech sails to comfort. Once again we are learning their vessels to harness the wind’s power something that ancient wisdom tells us is more fully on every voyage. Equipping a true. As the old saying so neatly puts it, ship with a set of sails of this kind can “the less haste, the more speed”. So reduce fuel consumption by up to a third remember, there is no need to speed. without compromising on transit times. Plan well. Slow down. Relax a little. Fuel savings can rise much higher if a Everyone will notice the difference! ✪

Adhere (v) to stick to something. Peak (adj) a peak time is the period when the greatest number of people do something. Consumption (n) the amount of something (such as fuel) that is used or consumed. Optimum (adj) the best or most suitable.

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BUSINESS Moving Your Career Forward by Managing Upwards

BY HENRY WALLWORK

R professionals estimate that on are on track? Give your manager top-line average you will have more than information ﬁrst, but be ready to dig H20 managers during your career. down into the details when asked to. The more you can communicate with Having the right information to hand will whatever manager you report to at any always impress those around you. stage of your career, the more likely it is that you will get on and positively enjoy Do you know your own strengths and your working relationship. weaknesses? Everyone brings a different style to the So where do you start? way they work. You need to be clear Really get to understand what your about how your own individual style manager expects of you. The more you impacts on others – and especially on know what motivates, drives, frustrates, your manager. Are there any traits in you annoys, disheartens and pleases your that make it hard for you to work manager, the more you can remove the together? If so, what can you do to make negatives and play to the positives. Put those traits less obvious or obstructive? yourself in your manager’s shoes and see Most importantly, do you listen well and the world from their point of view. What really get the point of what your are the key priorities that must be manager asks you to do? If not, try delivered at all costs. What can you do to asking questions that clarify your help deliver these more effectively? What understanding and show that you really detailed information do you anticipate care about meeting or beating your your manager will need to check things manager’s expectations.

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back. This creates mistrust and bitterness. Always be constructive in your approach.

What are the most important skills you need to develop? Communication is always going to be the most important skill in upward management. This starts with really good listening. The more you understand your manager’s point of view, the more you can ask questions, present information and offer new ideas in ways that achieve results. Do not treat your manager differently from the way you treat the other people you work with. Always show appropriate consideration, How can you make your relationship sensitivity and empathy for others. Just more effective? as importantly, judge your timing so that If you want your manager to value your you make suggestions when your input, you need to think carefully about manager is likely to be most receptive. their needs. Do they like to communicate Always be ready to present a solution, by email, phone or face-to-face? What is not just a problem. Be willing to be driving their agenda at the moment? If assertive and to stand your ground when they are totally busy preparing for a key you have to. But also be willing to let go meeting, wait until after that meeting to when you need to. There is a fine line present new ideas. Use the times when between being a bright spark and a your manager is overloaded to ask if stubborn mule! there are any tasks or duties that you In summary, the following pointers will can take on for them. The more you can always serve to keep you on track: take away areas that your manager dislikes or finds hard to do, the more 1. Know your manager’s style and helpful and productive you will appear in everyday way of doing things their eyes. Always work to create an 2. Listen well and communicate atmosphere of mutual respect. This appropriately means you need to keep the 3. Offer solutions, not just problems communication between you as open 4. Be ready with detail, but only when and vibrant as possible. This will enable this is asked for or needed you to stay aligned while maintaining an 5. Use your understanding of the Big enjoyable working environment. Never Picture to “read between the lines” undermine your manager behind their and avoid falling in to office politics.

ACTIVITY Fruity Flower Pot From ‘Decorative Painting’ by Fresh Minds Publishing

rtists like to use fruit as decoration in their work to add wonderful shapes and colours to what they do. Think YOU NEED of the fruits you can use to decorate your projects – A • Terracotta pot oranges, apples, strawberries, lemons, grapes and many, • Coloured acrylic paint many more! This project uses masking, sponging and • Large paintbrush • Palette stencilling techniques to change a plain terracotta pot • Thin card • Tracing paper into a fruit-ﬁlled plant container. Tear pieces off a cheap • Transfer paper • Narrow sponge to make your special effects. masking tape • Pencil • Sponge • Scissors • Old cloth

Use a large paintbrush to paint the pot in a 1light colour. Let the paint dry. Fix strips of masking tape from the top to the bottom of the pot. Make the space between each strip of tape the same. Pour some darker coloured paint 2 into a palette. Use a sponge to colour in between the strips of tape. Remove the masking tape. Let the paint dry.

Sponge the top of the rim and the bottom 3 of the pot with a different colour.

Draw a strawberry pattern Lay the pot down on an old cloth (to 4 onto thin card. Cut out the 5 stop it rolling around). Fix the strawberry shape to make a stencil onto the pot with masking tape. stencil.

MORE IDEAS Choose other types of fruit and different angles for your stripes to make new and different designs for your pots. Sponge paint 6through the stencil onto the pot. Use two pieces of sponge to colour the top of the strawberry, then the fruit, with two good colours. Add strawberries at different angles all around the pot. E

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LANGUAGE QUIZ Just For Fun Try our questions and puzzles – no prizes, just for fun!

Write the answers to the questions in 4. The Japanese art of folding paper to A the grid. The letters in the shaded make models. squares will spell the name of a precious 5. Another name for a bee-keeper. stone. Reading the articles in the magazine 6. A strong wind. will help you ﬁnd the right answers. 7. A large collection of hidden objects. 8. Having more of something that is 1. A traditional British beverage. actually needed or necessary. 2. A sad song or poem. 3. An animal that hunts, kills and eats other animals.

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

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Unscramble these words that appear B in the magazine articles: 1. GERFIN 2. TARIO 3. SPROT 4. BUGRY 5. XEIND 6. TICLEATH 7. WATHCPOST

Find a letter that will complete the C ﬁrst word and the start of the second: a. DOLHI ( ) EARLY b. SHALLO ( ) HALE c. TURBIN ( ) LEPHANT d. LEMMIN ( ) IRAFFE e. MIGRATIO ( ) AVIGATE f. COAS ( ) IDE

JUST FOR FUN SOLUTIONS ON PAGE 63

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FIND A WORD Mysteries and Puzzles

QDASDFMHZ FL JUEGA Detective WEWYP I O I T TE LAX XL Unsolved ETKEIEEPSMUGRPCZ REXLRWCTKSQEHLVI Victim TCECZTTULTIWAABX Puzzle YTREVXYDLYJNSINS Missing OITQZBCUSAHJGNTE UV I CT IMVI ITRFKYC Clue IENOQWEMROEEGPSR Hidden ZHINSPECTPPZOCVE Secret KJNRINERSFPTFLZT POCLEUAASSUOEUEH Inspect JKPDIGEODDZHVERU Tragedy OXDWETHRKFZOIATL Speculate CIZDOCODEVLOSNUI HAYSLDFFHUE TFPUN Explain

1. Find and circle all words associated with things magical, mysterious and strange. The words lie along, up, down and diagonally across the columns. The words can run forwards or backwards. 2. Translate or explain the words for yourself.

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KNOW THE ISSUE The Modern English Digest Quiz Find the answers to our quiz

1. Why were allotments so important during the ﬁrst and second world wars? 2. What type of foods is grown on an allotment? 3. What is Hive Collapse Disorder? 4. Is there evidence to support the view that elephants are highly sensitive and can sense impending danger?

5. Name three instruments that are traditionally played in an Irish band. 6. What is a “planxty”? 7. What were the Chessmen of Lewis made from? 8. What is a genealogist? 9. Is it true that tea bags were ﬁrst used in Britain? 10. What is the difference between a British and European tea bag?

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14. Which of James McAvoy’s roles earned him nominations for a BAFTA Best Actor award and a Golden Globe Best Actor award? 15. Which football club does James McAvoy support? 16. Why is stoneware clay ideal for making a cup or jug? 17. When making a clay pot, what can happen if the clay dries too quickly? 18. Where are the oldest known Emerald mines? 11. In which country was the hobby of 19. What do Emeralds symbolise in tea bag folding ﬁrst invented? India today? 12. Where did James McAvoy grow up? 20. What is the “Finger Ratio”. 13. Name the character James McAvoy played in The Chronicles of Narnia.

Send your answers with your name and address to: The Editor Modern English Digest Keyways Publishing PO Box 100 Chichester West Sussex, PO18 8HD, UK.

Editor: SARA HALL PUZZLE SOLUTION Contributing Editor: STAN POWELL GEORGIA DAVEY, www.taurus-graphics.net FROM PAGE 60 Design: Editorial Director: PETER COLLIN, QD A S D F MH Z F L J U E GA [email protected] WE W Y P I O I T T E L A X X L Advertising Sales: SOPHIE MALONE ET KE I E EP SMUGRP CZ MAINLINE MEDIA RE X L RWCT K SQEHL V I TC E C Z T TU L T IWAA BX Tel: +44 (0)1536 747333 Fax: +44 (0)1536 746565, YT RE VX YD L Y JNS I NS OI TQ ZBCUSAHJGN TE Writers UV I C T I MV I I T R F K Y C KESTA ALLEN, ILKA BRADSHAW, IENOQWEMROEEGPSR ANGIE BROTHWELL, RORY GEAR, ASTRID GOWER, ZH I N SP EC T P P ZOC V E SARA HALL, MARY HUBER, JOE ST CLAIR, KJ NR I N ER S F PT F L Z T POCL EUAASSUOEU EH HENRY WALLWORK JK PD I G EO DD ZHVE RU OX DW E T HR K F Z O I A T L Photographers/Illustrators CI ZDOCODEVLOSNUI STAN POWELL, GEORGIA DAVEY HA Y S L D F F H U E T F P UN Publishers KEYWAYS PUBLISHING PO Box 100, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 8HD PUBLISHED six times each year Tel: +44 (0)1243 576444 Fax: +44 (0)1243 576456 ISSN 1478-9019 KEYWAYS PUBLISHING VISIT OUR WEBSITE: Title & arrangement © 2008, www.ModernEnglishDigest.net KEYWAYS PUBLISHING TO SUBSCRIBE: Text and layout © 2008, SARA HALL Use the form on the back cover Images and photographs © 2008, as noted above

Just for Fun Answers from page 58

A B C 1. GERFIN (FINGER) a. DOLHI (N) EARLY 1. TEA 2. TARIO (RATIO) b. SHALLO (W) HALE 2. LAMENT 3. SPROT (SPORT) c. TURBIN (E) LEPHANT 3. PREDATOR 4. BUGRY (RUGBY) d. LEMMIN (G) IRAFFE 4. OR I GAMI 5. XEIND (INDEX) e. MIGRATIO (N) AVIGATE 5. AP I A R I S T 6. TICLEATH (ATHLETIC) f. COAS (T) IDE 6. GALE 7. WATHCPOST 7. HOA RD (STOPWATCH) 8. SURPLUS

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