NEWS: Sharks can be 'social or solitary'

BBC News - source

A study by british scientists made at the Marine Biological Association of the UK, in Plymoith, says that catsharks have personalities. According to different situations, some of them tend to be more antisocial and some more social.

catshark

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The scientists made ten groups of ten sharks. Each group was in a tank and their behaviour was observed. The tanks were divided so they formed different situations: from a very simple enviroment to a very complex one. The scientist realized that, no matter in what situations they found themselves in, some sharks always joined other sharks in a group, while other individuals camouflaged with the environment or stayed with very small groups. They also analyzed the relationships between the sharks. The conclusion of the scientists, like Prof. Hughes and Dr. Jacoby, is that sharks have a personality.

This is not the first study on animal behaviour. Other species have also shown personality traits. Mr. Finger is a student that is doing the same experiment with lemon sharks in the wild, and scientists are looking forward to compare results.

Dr. David Jacoby, behavioural ecologist working in the

Institute of Zoology in London.

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For me, this is a very interesting piece of news. I do think that animals have personality because, after all, we're animals as well. I always thought that sharks were solitary animals by nature, so it surprised me to know that some of them like to have social relationships with others. I think that there should be more animal behaviour studies because they help us to understand our own world. Maybe we could even understand what animals think or want to do by knowing their personality.

lemon shark

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Here's a video related with the study:

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VOCABULARY

behaviour: manner of behaving or conducting oneself.

gravel: small stones and pebbles or a mixture of these with sand.

environment: the external factors and forces surrounding and affecting an organism, person or population.

NEWS: Birmingham mother left children home alone to fly to Australia

The news is about a woman of Birmingham (her name isn't said for legal reasons) who flew to Australia leaving her six children at home without telling them nor anyone.

The mother left to Australia to meet her boyfriend, a man that he had met online. She told her fourteen-year-old son that she was going to the supermarket and, after four hours, the boy called his grandparents to alert of his mother's sudden disappearance. The police and the local services were alerted and later they found out about the woman's location. She didn't want to come back so the authorities arrested her six weeks later when she returned. Her lawyer said that it was a unique circumstance and that the children weren't affected. Judge Creed has given her a suspended jail sentence because, besides what she's done, she's been a good mother, being a single parent. The children are living now with their grandparents.

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I think that this is a crazy story. The mother should have thought about her kids first, instead of running away to meet her boyfriend. As a mother, she has responsabilities and she shouldn't have left them all alone at home without telling them were she was really going. She could've got someone to look after them while she was away, but the thing is that, by not telling anyone, she worried her grandparents and her children. I understand that being a single mother must be really stressing, specially having six kids, but what she did was wrong. If the woman's wish was to meet her boyfriend and spend six weeks with him in Australia, she just had to buy a ticket and take her children to her grandparents or a friends' house. It's common sense.



VOCABULARY

"mother-of-six": expression used to say that the mother has six children.

sentence: judgement or punishment determined by a judge for someone who has commited a crime.

court: place where legal justice is administered or group of people, such as judges, lawyers, and a jury, authorized to hear and decide legal cases.

REVIEW Little Miss Sunshine

A hilarious and wonderful film about a family that keeps chasing their dreams even when they seem imposible or they're taken back from reaching them. A film that will lead us through family relationships and life goals.

The film is about the Hoovers, a family of the United States that crosses the country to get Olive, the daughter, to reach her dream of winning a beauty pageant called Little Miss Sunshine. To arrive at the show in time, they'll have to face many setbacks and also repair their difficult relationships. It's the story of an unforgettable trip on the road that will change everything for this lovely family of Albuquerque and will put them in extreme situations.

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I loved everything about this movie and I never get tired of watching it. I like the fact that the characters are not stereotyped. You can relate to them because each one has its ups and downs and its flaws. The deepening in the characters is quite interesting. They have a background story and you can see that each one of them has or had a dream, just like everyone else. The sense of humour is probably the film's best feature, and keeps you thinking: "What else could happen to this silly people?". I think that the plot is quite simple, but that doesn't make it a boring film. I'm really fond of the music as well, because I think it suits everything perfectly and gives the film that special point.

I don't really dislike anything in this movie. It's actually one of my favourite movies. Anyways I think that some harsh topics are mentioned in a light way.

To sum up I think this is a brilliant film that is totally worth watching. If you haven't seen it yet you should give it a go. I'm sure that you'll enjoy it as much as I do, because it's a really funny film. Here's the trailer!

YOUR SAY: Money, money, money...

Nowadays, a sad reality of our society is that, with the economic crisis, poor people become poorer and rich people become richer, instead. The difference between this two stages is getting bigger everyday. The people who used to have a normal economic status are now more likely to decrease their gains. We live in tough times but still there are some people who have now, with the crisis, become richer. Most of them were already rich before, so that leads us to the conclusions that the "medium class" is slowly disappearing. A part of the society is the polar opposite of the other, and the difference is getting more noticeable.

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Personally, this extreme differences make me angry. I understand that there's always going to be rich people and poor people, but I think that some rich people have increased their current accounts by using or taking advantage of poor people who are desperate to work for any income. 

USA, for example, being one of the wealthiest countries in the world, has high rates of poverty. And what about some of the emerging Asian countries? There are plenty of Asian "new billionaires and millionaires" coming out of nowhere while lots of people in cities like Tokyo have to live in a mere space of 50 square meters or less because they can't afford a better place to stay. And people in Africa are suffering from hunger and, with the constant wars, poverty is something widely extended among those countries.

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I think that there should be solutions to this problem. We should help the poor and make sure that anyone who gets richer does it legally and because of their own merits.