Tag: vocabulary

Pesticides Are Dangerous # Practice Reading

Pesticides Are Dangerous

Source – http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/29/pesticide-exposure.aspx

More than one billion pounds ( the basic monetary unit of the United Kingdom )of pesticides (a chemical preparation for destroying plant, fungal, or animal pests) are used in the US each year, an amount that has quintupled (being five times as as much or as many)since 1945. This includes 20,000 products made from varying formulations (to create or prepare something carefully, giving particular attention to the details)of more than 1,000 chemicals, sprayed everywhere from farm fields and gardens to playgrounds and schools.

It should be revealing (giving your interesting information that you did not know before)that one commonly used type of pesticide, organophosphates (chemical containing carbon and phosphates), were first developed as nerve gas during World War II. They work by inhibiting (to prevent something from happening or make it happen more slowly or less frequently than normal)cholinesterase (an enzyme, found especially in the heart, brain, and blood, thathydrolyzes acetylcholine to acetic acid and choline), an enzyme that regulates a key messenger in your brain called acetylcholine.

In effect, these poisons disrupt the signals between neurons (a cell that carries information within the brain and between the brain and other parts of the body), an action that has been linked to neuro degenerative diseases (Neurodegenerative disease is an umbrella term for a range of conditions which primarily affect the neurons in the human brain)like Alzheimer’s disease (a serious disease, especially affecting older people, that prevents the brain from functioning normally and cause loss of memory, loss of ability to speak clearly etc)and Parkinson’s (a disease of the nervous system that gets worse over a period of time and causes the muscles to become weak and the arms and legs to shake)in humans. In children, there is increasing evidence (the facts, signs, or objects that make you believe that something is true)that these pesticides are especially damaging, not only at high exposure levels but also at low, chronic (lasting for a long time)levels to which millions are exposed (to show something that is usually hidden).

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University English # Improve Vocabulary

Every place has its own vocabulary, for instance, there are certain words that are associated with university and are commonly used there. So, if you are planning to go out and study in a University, you must know the following phrases –

  1. Enroll/sign up – When you take admission in University, you enroll or sign up for some classes. Example- Avinash enrolled for a math class. This means Avinash is going to take math class in the university.
  2. Hit the books – If you study hard, it means you hit the books. Example – After Avinash enrolled in the class, he hit the books. This means he studied hard after enrolling in the class.
  3. Hand out assignment – To give assignments. Example – The professor hands out the algebra assignment to Avinash.
  4. Pull an all-nighter- Pull an all-nighter means you stay all night to complete something. Example- Avinash pulled an all-nighter to complete his assignment.
  5. Hands in assignment/paper – This means to submit it. Example- As soon as Avinash reaches the class, he hands in the assignment.
  6. Cut class/skip class – Cut class/skip class means to miss classes. Example – When Avinash got an A+ in the assignment he starts cutting classes.
  7. Fall behind in – When you fall behind in something, it means you are lacking behind. Example- Because of cutting classes, after two weeks, Avinash fell behind in classes.
  8. Get Caught Up – Get caught up means you reach to the position you should be, if you did not missed the classes. Example – Avinash is very worried about the classes and he starts hitting the books again and gets caught up.
  9. Withdraw from the course/drop a course – This means to leave the course. Example- Avinash was not interested in withdrawing from the course.
  10. Plagiarize –  Plagiarize means when you don’t do the work but give it to someone else or copy someone’s else work. Example- Avinash goes out to pub, but plagiarize his assignment.
  11. Expel/kick out- This means, you are thrown out of the university. Example- The professor finds out about Avinash plagiarizing and expels him.

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Pest And Pollinators # Practice Reading

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) have recently published a report on using insects as a protein source for animal feed and human consumption. It found that edible  (fit to be eaten as food) insects could contain biological (of or relating to the products and operations ofapplied biology) and chemical contaminants (something that contaminates (to make impure or unsuitable by contact or mixture with something unclean, bad, etc)), depending on how the large scale insect farms were managed.

With an estimated (to form an approximate judgment or opinion regarding the worth, amount, size, weight, etc.,of; calculate approximately) global population of 9 billion by 2050, using insects as a high quality source of protein as feed (for chickens, for example) could give a much needed food conversion rate (lower levels of initial energy and water required). Insect meat is also a quality source of fat, fibre, minerals and vitamins.

It is estimated that insects such as flies , moths, meal worms and crickets/locust

Insects

Insects

already form the diet of at least 2 billion people. There is still clearly a way to go until western cultures can adopt new foodstuffs (a substance used or capable of being used as nutriment) and a better understanding of the hazards  (an unavoidable danger or risk, even though often foreseeable)of eating insects is required for the next step.

Source : http://pestsandpollinators.com/

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Decline Of Pollinators # Practice Reading

Pollinators ( an insect that carries pollen from one flower to another) contribute (to give to a common supply)to about 10% of the economic (involving or pertaining to one’s personal resources of money) value of crop production, but the contribution to human nutrition (the process by which organisms take in and utilize food material)by these pollinators is potentially much higher. This is because pollinators support the sexual reproduction (the state of being reproduced)(by transfer of gametes aka pollen) of crops high in essential nutrients that malnourished (poorly or improperly nourished)regions of the world rely on. This suggests that regions already facing food shortages and nutritional (providing nutrition) deficiencies (the quality or condition of being deficient; incompleteness or inadequacy)will suffer particularly hard from the global decline of bees and other pollinators.

Many of the crops dependent on animal vectors (In epidemiology, a vector is any agent (person,animal, or microorganism) that carries and transmits an infectious pathogen into another living organism)to pollinate (convey pollen to or deposit pollen on (a stigma, ovule, flower, or plant) and so allow fertilization)(instead of wind) are the ones most rich in micro nutrients essential for human health. The recent decline of important pollinators, such as the domesticated (tame and kept as a pet or on a farm.)Western honey bee, Apis mellifera, has lead to concerns on the economic and now nutritional situation of crop production.  Dr Chaplin-Kramer and colleagues (a person with whom one works in a profession or business)set out to assess (the ​act of ​judging or ​deciding the ​amount, ​value, ​quality, or ​importance of something, or the ​judgment or ​decision that is made)the importance of pollinators to global health by determining which regions these crops are most critical for and what their micro-nutrient content is.

Source :http://pestsandpollinators.com/

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