Christchurch, The Garden City, New Zealand: TRIBUTE !

 

Christchurch (Māori: Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of Christchurch.
The city was named by the Canterbury Association, which settled the surrounding province of Canterbury. The name of Christchurch was agreed on at the first meeting of the association on 27 March 1848. It was suggested by John Robert Godley, who had attended Christ Church, Oxford. Some early writers called the town Christ Church, but it was recorded as Christchurch in the minutes of the management committee of the association. Christchurch became a city by Royal Charter on 31 July 1856, making it officially the oldest established city in New Zealand.
The river that flows through the centre of the city (its banks now largely forming an urban park) was named Avon at the request of the pioneering Deans brothers to commemorate the Scottish Avon, which rises in the Ayrshire hills near what was their grandfathers' farm and flows into the Clyde.

The usual Māori name for Christchurch is Ōtautahi ("the place of Tautahi"). This was originally the name of a specific site by the Avon River near present-day Kilmore Street and the Christchurch Central Fire Station. The site was a seasonal dwelling of Ngāi Tahu chief Te Potiki Tautahi, whose main home was Port Levy on Banks Peninsula. The Ōtautahi name was adopted in the 1930s. Prior to that the Ngāi Tahu generally referred to the Christchurch area as Karaitiana, a transliteration of the English name.

Australian Animals

Australia is rich in animal species. There is around 240 species of mammals, 800 species of birds, 380 species of reptiles, 122 species of frogs, and 180 species of freshwater fish. Some 83% of mammals, 89% of reptiles, 90% of fish and insects and 93% of amphibians that inhabit the continent are endemic to Australia.

The most famous group of animals are marsupials which are a class of mammal. Notable marsupials include Kangaroos, Wallabies, Koalas, Wombats, Tasmanian Devils, and Possums. A more unusual class of mammals are Monotremes which include the Echidna and Platypus. The latter is an egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal which baffled European naturalists when they first encountered it, with some considering it an elaborate hoax.

Other animals of note are the Dingo which is Australia's native dog and has features in common with both wolves and modern dogs, and are regarded as more or less unchanged descendants of an early ancestor of modern dogs.
Australia is also one of the worlds hotspots for birds. From the second tallest bird in the world, the emu, and the third tallest, the rare cassowary down to Cockatoos, Kookaburras, and a huge group of parrots.
Fauna to be wary of include spiders such as the Redback and Funnel Web. Australia has the most poisonous snakes on earth, including the Venomous Brown, Tiger, Death Adder, Copperhead and red bellied black varieties. Both salt and freshwater crocodiles are found in the tropics, which comprises an area of the top third of Australia. Sea creatures to be avoided include some sea snakes, sharks and the Box Jelly Fish, which are many times more venomous than snakes. The Box Jelly Fish or Stingers as they are also known are only a threat during the summer season in tropical Australia.

The Australian Dingo is an ancient, wild, primitive dog unique to the continent of Australia. Its original ancestors are thought to have arrived with humans from southeast Asia thousands of years ago, when dogs were still relatively undomesticated and closer to their parent, the wild Asian Gray Wolf. Since that time, due to isolation, from people and other dogs, together with adapting to the unique Australian ecology, has caused them to develop features and instincts that distinguish them from all other dogs.

Dingoes hunt kangaroos by having lead dingoes chase them toward a pack, they are also skilled at cutting corners in chases. On Fraser Island, dingoes supposedly hunted and killed horses in coordinated attacks. Additionally, they have been known to fish on Fraser Island.

Farmers consider Dingoes as a pest as they they can attack sheep. The worlds longest fence the Dingo fence was erected in Australia during the 1880s and finished in 1885, to keep dingoes out of the relatively fertile south-east part of the continent and protect the sheep flocks of southern Queensland. It is the world's longest fence at 5,614 km (3,488 mi).

Two reports of dingo attacks on humans caused special attention. On 17 August 1980 a nine-week-old girl named Azaria Chamberlain was captured by a dingo near Uluru (Ayers Rock) and killed. Her mother was suspected and convicted of murder. Four years later she was released from prison when the jacket of the baby was found in a dingo den and the mother was consequently found innocent. On 30 April 2001, nine-year-old Clinton Cage was attacked and killed by two dingoes near Waddy Point on Fraser Island.

A kangaroo is any of several large macropods (the marsupial family that also includes the wallabies, tree kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons and the quokka: 45 species in all). The term kangaroo is sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to all members of the macropod family. Kangaroos are native to the continent of Australia, while a number of tree kangaroos are found in New Guinea.

The word kangaroo is said to derive from the Guugu Yimidhirr (an Australian Aboriginal language) word gangurru, referring to the Grey Kangaroo. The name was first recorded as kangaru by Joseph Banks on James Cook's first voyage of exploration, when they were beached at the mouth of the Endeavour River in the harbour of modern Cooktown for almost 7 weeks repairing their ship which had been damaged on the Great Barrier Reef.

Kangaroo soon became adopted into standard English where it has come to mean any member of the family of kangaroos and wallabies. The belief that it means "I don't understand" is a popular myth. Male kangaroos are called bucks, boomers or jacks; females are does, flyers, or jills and the young are joeys. The collective noun for kangaroos is a mob

 

Why ? Why ?

Muitas vezes pensamos em por que isso é chamado assim? de onde veio esse nome??? Vamos ver algumas curiosidades:
Por que as Batatas Fritas são chamadas de French Fries???Por que as batatas fritas foram criadas na França!
Não essa não é a resposta certa. O French não vem do pais mas sim da forma como a batata esta. Um alimento cortado em tirar é um alimento "frenched".
Assim, são tiras (French) de batata (potatoes) fritas (fried), conhecidas como "French Fries Potatos", ou simplesmente "French Fries".

Por que Hamburguer?A primeira vista parece uma mistura de Ham, com Burger, mas por que se ele não tem ham (Presunto)? Na verdade esse nome surgiu na cidade de Hamburgo na Alemanha, como "Hamburg steak" quando chegou nos Estados Unidos o nome foi encustado para Hamburguer.

E finalmente
Por que Hotdog?No inicio o hotodog era chamado de "Frankfurter" pois surgiu na cidade de Frankfurter na Alemanha.
Desde o começo o pessoal o chamava de "daschund sausage" (salsicha daschund),
daschund era um cachorrinho magro e comprido, e o Frankfurter parecia muito com ele. Nos Estados Unidos a salsicha alemã era muito famosa, e o pessoal comprava o novo lanche dos ambulantes que gritava Comprem seu "daschund sausage" enquanto eles estão "red hot" (Aquecidas ao rubro). Ted Dorgan, um cartunista famoso da época, achava isso tão engraçado que em seu cartum mostrou os ambulantes vendendo cães daschund em um pão e gritando compre seus cachorros quentes! Depois disso o nome pegou!

Why do People Have Accents?

      Variations occur in the way different individuals produce sounds because of the infinite variation of the shape and size of mouth, throat, tongue, teeth, and in the way each individual makes the sounds.  The term "accent" usually refers to the sound aspect of language.

As We Learn
Each individual is unique in the way they produce the complex combinations of sounds which make up words and word sequences.  Simply put, by the word "accent" we simply mean the way an individual or community speaks.  Everyone has an accent in their native form of speech.  Our brain and nervous system master the motor skills and cognitive patterns for the language we first hear and learn around us.
The pattern first mastered to become competent in the mother tongue then affects how and individual would learn and master the speech requirements of a foreign language.  Thus we bring an "accent" from our the patterns of our first language into the next language we learn.  Some individuals or whole communities have the advantage of learning two languages simultaneously as mother tongues.  These are referred to as native bilinguals

Models
No one is born with the ability to speak a language, but we are all with the ability to learn any language.  The only way we can learn a particular language is by hearing and imitating those around us.  Additionally the form of our speech is affected by the form of speech around us.  The reason people in one area sound more alike is that they learn their language from those around them.  This is one aspect of what we call dialects.
Thus a child growing up in one city or country hears and imitates the language around them.  Likewise in any other locale each child learns the language spoken there.  It depends on what model we hear when we first learn.  Primarily the model of speech would be our parents, but siblings are also influential especially in large families.
In our current ear of constant and ubiquitous media access, more in each new generation are affected by the variety or varieties of speech commonly heard universally on the general national or international media.  Thus influences external to one's family and initial ethnic or regional community have more affect now than in previous generations.

Regular Variations
These are regular and systematic, and are noticeable and definable characteristics of human speech.  These variations occur with every individual.  Slight variations within groups of closely related individuals can be likewise grouped in a range of characteristics distinct from other definable groups of speakers.  All speech forms can be thus analyzed across the whole of humanity.
Thus "accent" is simply one term we use to refer to some noticeable difference in production.  The greater the differences, the more difficult it is for certain speakers to hear others.  Those who can hear each other we group together and refer to their set of speech forms as a language or dialect of a larger set of speech forms.

Thus accents are not variations from some metaphysical standard handed down from some divine source, but simply a valid form of production of some set of speech sounds within a recognizable set.

Everyone Has an Accent
This means every one who speaks has an accent.  To speak is to have an accent.  Where do accents come from?  Well, accents don't really "come from" anywhere.

Let's ask rather:  What does the word "accent" refer to?  The word "accent" is the term we apply to the pronunciation of sounds in any certain speech form.
Thus a German sounds a certain way speaking his native speech form.  A Hollander sounds a certain way speaking his native speech form.  An American sounds a certain way speaking his native speech form.  All these speech forms are broadly related, as all can be traced back to a proto form which may be called proto-Germanic.
Some speech forms are more similar so we can call them by one name, such as English, Dutch or German.  Or as we zoom in closer, American, British and Australian.  Then closer, Cockney, Geordie and Glaswegian, etc.
The patterns learned and internalized when any person learns their first language (called "mother tongue" or "native language") are carried over into the pronunciation and production of a second language.  This applies not only to the pronunciation patterns and intonation, but to grammar formats and thought forms as well.

Two Accents
The patterns follow the speaker's mother tongue, enabling us to systematically identify the "accent."  Thus one set of native language patterns leads to a German accent in English, an English accent in Swahili, an Italian accent in Arabic.
In multilingual persons, an accent in their third language often reflects the pronunciation of the speaker's second language.  I have observed this when a West African from a French-sphere country is speaking English.  Though he sounds like an African, he has a French accent in English also.  Fascinating!
Likewise, a European in East Africa, who has become proficient in Swahili before learning Kikuyu, might reflect not only an English or Norwegian accent in Kikuyu, but a Swahili one also (if he learned Swahili well).

Overcoming Accents
Some speakers are more able than others to overcome the patterns of their native tongue and thus have less of a foreign accent in another language.  This depends on many factors, some of which seem to be related to genetics, others to early life experience.
Thus we can speak of a German accent in English, an American accent in French, etc.  This is all a manifestation of the same characteristics we observe in the various "accents" of one range of speech forms we call "English."
                                                                  21 Accents

                       24 English Accents

Jokes about the differences between Aussies, Brits, Americans and Candadians

Aussies: Believe you should look out for your mates.
Brits: Believe that you should look out for those people who belong to your club.
Americans: Believe that people should look out for and take care of themselves.
Canadians: Believe that that is the government's job.

Aussies: Dislike being mistaken for Pommies (Brits) when abroad.
Canadians: Are rather indignant about being mistaken for Americans when abroad.
Americans: Encourage being mistaken for Canadians when abroad.
Brits: Can't possibly be mistaken for anyone else when abroad.

Canadians: Endure bitterly cold winters and are proud of it.
Brits: Endure oppressively wet and dreary winters and are proud of it.
Americans: Don't have to do either, and couldn't care less.
Aussies: Don't understand what inclement weather means.


Americans: Drink weak, pissy-tasting beer.
Canadians: Drink strong, pissy-tasting beer.
Brits: Drink warm, beery-tasting piss.
Aussies: Drink anything with alcohol in it.


Americans: Seem to think that poverty and failure are morally suspect.
Canadians: Seem to believe that wealth and success are morally suspect.
Brits: Seem to believe that wealth, poverty, success, and failure are inherited.
Aussies: Seem to think that none of this matters after several beers.

Brits: Have produced many great comedians, celebrated by Canadians, ignored by Americans, and therefore not rich.
Aussies: Have produced comedians like Paul Hogan and Yahoo Serious.
Canadians: Have produced many great comedians such as John Candy, Martin Short, Jim Carrey, Dan Akroyd, and all the rest at SCTV.
Americans: Think that these people are American!

Americans: Spend most of their lives glued to the idiot box.
Canadians: Don't, but only because they can't get more American channels.
Brits: Pay a tax just so they can watch 4 channels.
Aussies: Export all their crappy programs, which no one there watches, to Britain, where everybody loves them.

Americans: Will jabber on incessantly about football, baseball and basketball.
Brits: Will jabber on incessantly about cricket, soccer and rugby.
Canadians: Will jabber on incessantly about hockey, hockey, hockey, and how they beat the Americans twice, playing baseball.Aussies: Will jabber on incessantly about how they beat the Poms in every sport they played them in. 
                                  

Aussies: Are extremely patriotic about their beer.
Americans: Are flag-waving, anthem-singing, and obsessively patriotic to the point of blindness.
Canadians: Can't agree on the words to their anthem, in either language, when they can be bothered to sing them.
Brits: Do not sing at all but prefer a large brass band to perform the anthem.

Brits: Are justifiably proud of the accomplishments of their past citizens.
Americans: Are justifiably proud of the accomplishments of their present citizens.
Canadians: Prattle on about how some of those great Americans were once Canadian.
Aussies: Waffle on about how some of their past citizens were once Outlaw Pommies, but none of that matters after several beers.

Scientists track polar bear’s nine-day swim

Polar bears are superb swimmers. But their hunting ground is the surface of the Arctic ice, where resting seals make easy and calorie-rich prey. In the summer though, a swim between ice floes to catch seals can turn into a marathon.

The researchers fitted the female bear with a radio collar, and tracked her as she swam continuously for nine days - the longest polar bear swim ever recorded. She covered almost 700 km in waters as cold as 2C. Then she hauled herself out of the water and travelled a further 1,800 km - intermittently swimming and walking on the surface of the ice.

When the team recaptured the bear, she had lost almost a quarter of her body weight and her year-old cub, which had been travelling alongside her, had disappeared.

The scientists say that the retreating Arctic ice could be forcing polar bears to take greater risks in search of food, embarking on ever more perilous long-distance journeys.

Vocabulary and definitions

Superb -  very good indeed

calorie-rich - full of calories, which provide energy

prey  - animal which is being hunted by people or another animal

ice floes - large areas of ice which float on the sea

hauled - pulled or carried with great effort

intermittently - sometimes or occasionally

cub - here, young polar bear

retreating -  here, melting ice

embarking  - starting, beginning, or setting off

perilous - very dangerous