Eindexamen engels vmbo gl/tl 2013, tijdvak 2

A Fox Did It (1) As a retired judge, Dudley Thomas takes security seriously. So when he awoke to find that an intruder had been in his house during the night, he knew that whoever did it had to be very smart. (2) There was no sign of a break-in; the only possible point of entry was a partially open window 30ft off the ground. Indeed, the only evidence that a raider had been in the house was a gnarled shoe, a chewed up leather sofa – and a telltale smell. “A rat or cat could not have done it and there were no dogs in the house. I also don’t think it was an angry person I had dealt with in court. I noticed a fox smell, which confirmed my suspicion,” said Mr Thomas. do.” The Daily Telegraph, 2010

Invasion of the Alien Ants Chris Ayres Los Angeles 1 IT SOUNDS like the plot of a far-fetched science fiction movie. Unfortunately for the residents of Texas, it is very much a reality: billions of tiny reddish-brown ants have arrived onshore from a cargo ship and are hell-bent on eating anything electronic. Computers, burglar alarm systems, gas and electricity meters, iPods, telephone exchanges – all are considered food by the flea-sized ants, for reasons that have left scientists baffled. 2 Having ruined pumps at a sewage facility, the ants are now marching towards NASA’s Johnson Space Centre and William P. Hobby airport, Houston, putting state officials in a panic. “They’re itty-bitty things, and they’re just running everywhere,” said Patsy Morphew, a resident of Pearland, on the Gulf Coast. 3 She spends hours sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. “There’s just thousands and thousands of them. If you’ve seen a car racing, that’s how they are. They’re going fast, fast, fast. They’re crazy.” Crazy is the right word. The ants are known as ‘crazy rasberry ants’: ‘crazy’ because they seem to move in a random scrum as opposed to marching in regimented lines, and ‘rasberry’ after a pioneering investigator, Tom Rasberry, who first identified them. 4 The ants have so far spread to five counties in the Houston area. Scientists are not sure from where they originate but they seem to be related to a type of ant from the Caribbean. “At this point it would be 8 to eradicate the ants because they are so widely dispersed,” said Roger Gold, a Texas A&M University entomologist. He added that the only upside to the invasion was that the crazy rasberry ants ate fire ants, which sting humans during the long, hot Texas summers. 5 But, 10 , the ants also like to suck the moisture from plants, feed on precious insects such as ladybirds and eat the hatchlings of a small, endangered type of grouse known as the Attwater prairie chicken. They also bite humans – although not with a sting like fire ants. 6 Perhaps their most remarkable characteristic, however, is that they are attracted to electrical equipment. Pest control specialists say that they are inundated with calls from homes and businesses now that the warm, humid season has begun, with literally billions of the ants wreaking havoc across the state. Worse, the ants refuse to die when sprayed with over-the-counter poison. Even killing the queen of a colony doesn’t do any good, because each colony has multiple queens. The Texas Department of Agriculture says that it is working with researchers from A&M University ants. and the Environmental Protection Agency to find new ways to 12 the The Times, 2008

The Art of Selling Sports to Teenagers When applied correctly, the motivation, discipline and structure in sporting activities are great for teenagers’ development Louise Tickle (1) It can be difficult to convince unwilling teenagers that running around a muddy field with a hockey stick in the middle of winter is good for them. But at Wexham School, Slough, staff try to do just that. “We believe that sport, together with healthy eating, has a real impact on students’ lives and learning. It helps them concentrate on their lessons,” says Adam Dale, the school’s director of sport. (2) Wexham School takes a consultative approach to integrating sport into teaching. For instance, teenage girls and PE do not normally mix because young women can be self-conscious and are wary of body image. Here, though, girls are asked about what kind of activity they’d enjoy taking part in and what puts them off. In addition, when girls said they’d like to try aerobics, a specialist teacher was hired to run the sessions. Asking students what they’d like to wear during sport lessons and designing a more flattering and comfortable PE kit is another example of the school’s canny approach. 17 , the hope is that adopting an active lifestyle now will encourage sports participation into adulthood. (3) On average, Wexham runs five different after-school activities each day that pupils can participate in fully, or dip in and out of, as the mood takes them. Pre-school activities are

Tourists and Malaria Pills Kate Humble, presenter of TV’s Sea Watch , appears the picture of health. Apart from the usual childhood illnesses, she had never been unwell – until she caught cerebral malaria, a potentially fatal form of the disease which claims more than a million lives a year worldwide. Here she explains to JILL PARSONS why she has only herself to blame… 1 As the specialist walked back into the consulting room, she had a slight smile on her face. Feverish, shivering and nauseous as I felt, I was relieved when she confirmed that it was good news. “So I haven’t got malaria?” I asked. She shot me a surprised look. “Oh yes, you have malaria. It’s just that we thought you had the Ebola virus.” 2 Perhaps I should have been relieved, but all I felt was shame. For not only had I ignored medical advice and taken no preventative measures on my travels abroad, it was the second time I had put myself in such danger. So here I was again, taking up a hospital bed with cerebral malaria because I thought I knew best. 3 I was pushed in a wheelchair through a side entrance from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine into University College Hospital next door, to a ward for blood disorders, full of patients with leukaemia, rare syndromes and diseases. It seemed surreal, for all around me people were seriously, properly ill, while I was here because I’d taken stupid risks. The staff talked about my low blood platelet count and potential liver failure, but I was so humiliated that I just lay there with the curtains closed around my bed. 4 The truth was that I’d paid more attention to my sun screen than I had to protecting myself against malaria. Part of the problem was that I had simply regarded myself as bombproof when it came to my health. Apart from the usual childhood illnesses, I have always been fighting fit and, after having my tonsils out at the age of 11, I can’t remember ever feeling really unwell. 5 What was also true was that since falling in love with Africa on my first visit at the age of 19, I had travelled the length of the continent without a single problem. I spent that gap year working my way from Cape Town to Cairo, swimming in lakes and spending most of my time outside, including sleeping outdoors whenever I could. I was bewitched by the place and, apart from the vaccinations for yellow fever, typhoid and the like, I didn’t take any of the other recommended safety measures. 6 While some people simply can’t be bothered sticking to the extended course of anti-malarials and others worry about side-effects, I just assumed I’d be OK – and I was, in fact, absolutely fine. But not this time… Daily Mail