PAU 2015 Cantabria. Train to take you from Los Angeles to San Francisco in three hours

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Everyone’s talking about California's high-speed rail project – a $68 billion network that could zip passengers from San Francisco to Los Angeles in less than three hours. Construction of the first phase of the line will begin next year in the Central Valley, a 28-mile stretch from Madera to Fresno. In future years, the rail line will stretch north to San Jose and south to Palmdale and the San Fernando Valley north of Los Angeles. The whole network might not be completed until 2028.

The project has been surrounded by controversy. Some have said even though the nation’s first bullet train will take a quarter of the time it currently takes, it will still not be fast enough to attract sufficient customers.

Others have said the price tag is too high. Yet officials at California’s High-Speed Rail Authority say it is still cheaper than building dozens of new airport runways and highways to accommodate a state population that is estimated to reach 46 million by 2035.

At a special ceremony in Fresno on Tuesday, California Governor Jerry Brown compared the rail line to the construction of the great cathedrals of Europe, which took generations. “The high-speed rail links us from the past to the future, from the south to the north,” he said. “It's not that expensive. We cannot really afford not to build it.

All these projects are a little controversial. You’ll always have some critics say why spend all this money?”

Last year, two government transport officials from the state, Brian Kelly and Mary Nichols, wrote in a newspaper article that the only genuine alternative to the high-speed train was to invest up to $150 billion to build 4,300 new lanes of highway, more freeways and hundreds of new airport gates and runways. They added: “This would cover large parts of the state with concrete and asphalt.”

By car, the journey takes at least six-and-a-half hours in optimum traffic conditions, and can cost about as much depending on the type of car, fuel and highway tolls. The high-speed train tickets will be similar to the cost of air travel, promoters say, and deliver people to central stations, saving more time and money.

The Independent, 7 January 2015 (Adapted)

PAU 2015 inglés. E-Cigarettes increase the risk of flu and pneumonia

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Using electronic cigarettes may harm the body’s defences against pneumonia and flu, according to a recent study. The research, which reopens the debate on the dangers and benefits of e-cigarettes, suggests the vapour produced by the devices can compromise the immune system in the lungs, leaving them more vulnerable to infection by harmful bacteria and viruses.

Scientists from John Hopkins University exposed mice to e-cigarette vapour twice a day for two weeks.

They then administered some of the mice with an influenza virus and others with the bacteria which is responsible for pneumonia. The mice that had been exposed to the vapour were less able to fight off illness, and some died. Professor Shyam Biswal, senior author of the study, said the findings suggested that e-cigarettes are not neutral in terms of the effects on the lungs and that studies should now be carried out on people, particularly those with common lung problems which often affect smokers and ex-smokers – the main users of e-cigarettes.

It is true that e-cigarettes have been shown to be highly effective in helping smokers to quit, and there is a broad consensus that despite some uncertainty over their health impact, they are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes but Professor Biswal remains concerned e-cigarettes could pose risks to future generations, particularly given evidence from some countries that they are becoming more popular among young people who have never smoked.

He has recommended to the World Health Organisation that they be banned in indoor public spaces – a measure the Department of Health in England has ruled out, but which is being considered by the Welsh government.

However, Professor John Britton from the UK said the most important point was that harm to the lungs was less from e-cigarettes than from tobacco. “The lung is an exquisitely delicate organ and therefore nobody with any common sense would believe that inhaling heated vapour many times a day would be harmless,” he said. “What matters here is not a comparison of the effects of e-cigarette vapour compared with nothing, but the effects compared with those of tobacco smoke. Harm to the lungs will be less with electronic cigarettes than tobacco cigarettes, and any smoker who cannot quit using nicotine, and doesn’t find medicinal products effective, would be well advised to try an electronic cigarette.”

The Guardian, 4 February 2015 (Adapted).

Cats recognise their owners' voices but never evolved to care- PAU 2015

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Any cat owner will tell you that although they are sometimes kept as pets, felines are friends to no one. A new study from the University of Tokyo has confirmed this, showing that although pet cats are more than capable of recognising their owner’s voice they choose to ignore them - for reasons that are perhaps rooted in the evolutionary history of the animal.

The study tested twenty housecats in their own homes, waiting until the owner was out of sight and then playing them recordings of three strangers calling their names, followed by their owner, followed by another stranger. The researchers then analysed the cats’ responses to each call by measuring a number of factors including ear, tail and head movement, vocalization, eye dilation and finally whether or not the cats moved towards the voice. When hearing their names being called the cats generally moved their heads and ears about to locate where the sound was coming from. Although they showed a greater response to their owner’s voice than to strangers’, they declined to move when called by any of the people.

“These results indicate that cats do not actively respond with communicative behaviour to owners who are calling them from out of sight, even though they can distinguish their owners’ voices,” wrote the researcher. “This cat–owner relationship is in contrast to that with dogs. Historically speaking, cats, unlike dogs, have not been domesticated to obey humans’ orders. Rather, they seem to take the initiative in human–cat interaction.” This is in contrast to the history of dogs and humans, where the former has been bred over thousands of years to respond to commands. Cats, it seems, never needed to learn.

However, it's unlikely that this will dismay cat owners (or indeed, be of any surprise) and the paper notes that although “dogs are perceived by their owners as being more affectionate than cats, dog owners and cat owners do not differ significantly in their reported attachment level to their pets”.

(27.11.2013 The Independent)

Spain's economic problems change traditional holiday habits. PAU 2013

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

There is a sign behind the counter of Trinxant Butcher's and Delicatessen beside a row of whole legs of cured Iberian ham which reads: "This year we're not closing for holidays." It is a trend that has been noticed in towns and cities around Spain. Stores, bars, market stalls and newspaper kiosks that used to close for August have decided to stay open. Cities continue to bustle with busy workers and traffic jams that traditionally disappeared in August.

Seville's city government announced last week it would be "open and fully active" all month. The annual August exodus is said to be vanishing like that other great Spanish cultural tradition, the siesta, as companies cut lunch breaks down from two or three hours to one.

The changing attitude to summer holidays is partly due to the crisis in the Spanish economy. The country has the highest level of unemployment in the EU at 21% and even higher at 46% among those under 24 years of age. In Catalunia, the region of north east Spain that includes Barcelona, 18% of the 7.5 million population are living below the poverty line, earning less than 640 euros a month. Many small businesses are struggling in these circumstances and few can afford the luxury of a month without earnings.

Adapted from The Guardian August 2011

Spanish school is good for your kids - PAU Cantabria 2013

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Cantabria resueltos

Studies have shown there are significant long term benefits to moving a child abroad and the younger the children are, the easier it will be for them to adapt to school in Spain.

Researchers from University College London conducted a study in 2004 which revealed that children who had moved abroad and learned a second language were more intelligent. A further study showed that children who had lived abroad had higher levels of resilience, a better understanding of the world and were more compassionate to people of different ethnicities. In simple terms, living abroad can increase both the intelligence and social capacity of a child.

Psychologists have found that the best age to move a child is either before the age of two or between the ages of six and eight. Between three and six, children seem to suffer a great deal of homesickness and after the age of eight they tend to struggle far more with the language barrier.

The number of foreigners in Spain is continually rising. Kids are surprisingly resilient and adapt quickly to their new lives. Those who have made the move often say that the quality of life for their children is far better in Spain than at home, due to more leisure time, an outdoors lifestyle and less crime.

Adapted from an Article by Jennifer Sheen from Spanish Living.com June 2011.

How to overcome "air anxiety" - PAU inglés 2008 Galicia

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

Most of us who have flown in an aeroplane have experienced the odd moment or two of disquiet. But for some people the prospect of flying is so terrifying that they cannot set foot in a plane. Yet, according to Maurice Yaffé, senior clinical psychologist at Guy’s hospital, it is possible to control a fear of flying so that air travel becomes not merely possible but, in some cases, positively enjoyable.

Mr. Yaffé organizes special “air anxiety” seminars. When people sign for the course, they are sent a book about flying and two cassette tapes about relaxation and flight stress control. The first morning of the course is spent on group discussion and a lecture about the principles of flight. Then they are shown different ways of coping with anxiety. In the afternoon, small groups take it in turns to go on the flight simulator. A TV screen shows a video of a Boeing 757 flight to Paris. The effect is quite realistic, complete with turbulence, engine noise and air-hostess announcements.

The next day the group go to Heathrow airport where the group can watch take-offs and landings and then they go to the air traffic control tower where they can see planes approaching on the radar. Mr Yaffé says that it is very important for the group to see how everything works and how “in control” the staff look. Seeing planes trundling in and out with monotonous regularity and with as much drama as buses going into a bus garage is very important for the success of the seminar.

The Bactrian Gold exhibition PAU 2007

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

This exhibition is not only about gold - there is also Indian and Egyptian glass. But gold is gold. This is the treasure of the Hill of Gold, from northern Afghanistan. Called the Bactrian Gold, it was discovered in 1978 by a Russian team. They found more than 20,000 individual gold items, including the golden crown of a queen. Even golden sandals.

Soon after, Afghanistan suffered a period of chaos and civil war. For a quarter of a century, Afghanistan’s cultural treasures were stolen by vandals. But finally, in 2004, the gold was found, under piles of old Afghan money. And then international museums began to take the treasure on tour. And so it is now at the Musee Guimet, in Paris. The French have a long history of archaeological work in Afghanistan.

The exhibition will alter perceptions of Afghanistan - it’s not just camels and Kalashnikovs, it’s a fabulous mixture of cultures. There are sculptures of dancing girls. One coin shows Roman dolphins, another shows a Chinese devil. When it returns from its tour, Afghanistan’s golden treasure cannot be shown to Afghans.

They will not see it, for security reasons. What is desperately needed in Afghanistan is money to pay for education, which could be helped by the tour of the treasures. The Guimet Museum is giving one euro for each ticket sold. They expect to sell 50-100,000 tickets. It is not enough but it’s something. So, for many reasons - if you can - go to Paris. Pay your extra euro and remember you’ve had the privilege of seeing what the Afghans cannot see.

The invention of Trivial Pursuit - 2008

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

It’s over twenty years since I started composing Trivial Pursuit questions. I have nightmares about them, but someone has to do it. Sometimes I’m inspired and write dozens a day, but most of the time it’s very laborious work, and sometimes I wish I hadn’t invented it.

There were four of us at the start, all Canadian journalists from Montreal. We were playing Scrabble one evening in 1979, and I asked: “Why don’t we invent something as good as this game?” It took us only 45 minutes to invent the rules and the circular board, then each of us invested money in the promotion of the idea. Two of us went to Spain to drink beer and write hundreds of questions. The difficult thing is to invent questions that are unusual enough to make people both laugh and think hard. At first hardly anybody bought the game, until a Toronto bank manager played it with his children, who loved it. He offered to invest a lot of money so that we could mass-produce it and promote it. Obviously, he hoped to get rich from his investment. The game was so good that millions of people bought it. Trivial Pursuit has so far sold more than 60 million copies in 33 countries.

I constantly check the questions for interest and difficulty, and make corrections based on comments received via e-mail, given by colleagues, or found in encyclopaedias. For example, I made up this question: “What is the main ingredient of the chocolate you buy in the shops?”, but afterwards found that the correct answer is not cocoa or even chocolate, but … sugar!

Teachers, society and moral standards - PAU inglés Galicia 2006

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

Like it or not, teachers are still expected to be suitable role models for their students. This presents something of a problem, because although some teachers try hard to disguise the fact, they are obviously no less wicked than the rest of humanity.
Teachers already do society a great service in stressful jobs that have less status and pay than many other graduate professions. Asking them to be also more morally pure than the rest of us would be going too far.
However, there are practical reasons why teachers should not display their imperfections. Kids have a supernatural ability to spot the weaknesses in their teachers and exploit them ruthlessly. Rumours spread and mutate in the playground at great speed. If, during the first lesson, Miss Davis seems to have had a bit of a heavy night, by the final bell she is a certified alcoholic. Authority is easily undermined if you are exposed as a wrongdoer.
Also, we want schools to encourage children to aspire to high standards of conduct. We know that humans constantly fail to be as good as they should. But it is better to set the bar high and fail from time to time, than it is to set it low and sanction everyday wrongdoing.
For these reasons, it is important that teachers appear to be upholders of the values we aspire to, standing for high standards of ethics and not allowing their message to be undermined by revealing how they themselves fail to meet them.
Toleration of hypocrisy? Pure and simple, the old “Do as I say, not as I do”. People who don’t want to be hypocrites should try to live by the standards they teach. But the concern of employers, students and parents should be only with how teachers behave in public.

Une émission anglaise de télé-réalité provoque une polémique raciste

L’affaire concerne l’émission de télé-réalité «Celebrity Big Brother», diffusée sur la chaîne anglaise Channel 4. Le principe du programme est relativement classique: neuf participants considérés comme célèbres sont filmés, vingt-quatre heures sur vingt-quatre, dans un appartement. Les téléspectateurs votent régulièrement afin d’éliminer les candidats un par un, jusqu’à désignation d’un gagnant.

Parmi les célébrités participantes figure l’actrice indienne Shilpa Shetty, 31 ans et une quarantaine de films à son actif. Quelques jours après son arrivée, Shilpa s’est attiré les foudres de plusieurs autres participants, qui ne cachent pas leur agacement devant son accent et son allure très Bollywood.

Ces animosités ont tourné au vinaigre quand des participants ont commencé à lancer plusieurs réflexions aux relents racistes. Certains lui ont reproché sa façon de cuisiner, lui demandant si elle habite «dans une cabane», ou encore ont affirmé que si les Indiens sont minces, c’est parce qu’ils sont souvent malades faute de cuire suffisamment leurs aliments.

La communauté indienne, très présente en Angleterre, a aussitôt réagi. Mercredi 17 janvier, près de 20000 plaintes ont été envoyées, par Internet, à l’Ofcom, autorité indépendante régulatrice des médias, qui a ouvert une enquête. Channel 4, de son côté, a reçu environ 2000 messages. Enfin, la police fait état de menaces adressées à certains candidats de l’émission.

Devant l’ampleur prise par cette affaire, le premier ministre britannique, Tony Blair, est intervenu à la Chambre des communes. Après avoir admis n’avoir jamais vu l’émission, il a rappelé son opposition au racisme «sous toutes ses formes».

En Inde, les réactions ont été encore plus radicales. Des manifestations ont eu lieu dans plusieurs villes, dont Bombay, pour dénoncer le sort de l’actrice, qui, selon certains, reflète un malaise des Indiens dans la société anglaise. L’affaire à même pris une dimension diplomatique. Suite à ces remous, abondamment relayés par les médias britanniques, l’émission a gagné un million de téléspectateurs ces derniers jours.

Le Monde (18.01.07)

Sous la pression de l’Australie et des écologistes, le Japon ne tuera pas la baleine à bosse

Le Japon a annoncé vendredi qu’il renonçait à reprendre la chasse aux baleines à bosse, abandonnée depuis quatre décennies, à la suite d’une campagne de protestations internationales dirigée par l’Australie. Cette décision exceptionnelle de la part du Japon qui n’avait jusqu’ici jamais fait de concession en matière de chasse à la baleine, constitue une victoire pour le nouveau gouvernement de gauche australien du premier ministre Kevin Rudd. Pour la première fois depuis les années soixante, le Japon avait annoncé le mois dernier qu’il allait tuer 50 spécimens de baleines à bosse, une espèce considérée comme menacée par les défenseurs de la nature. Toutefois, la campagne baleinière lancée le mois dernier dans l’Antarctique va se poursuivre avec l’objectif de tuer un millier de baleines, pour la plupart de l’espèce minke, plus petites.

En Australie, l’organisation Greenpeace s’est engagée à maintenir les pressions sur le Japon, en rappelant que la flotte de l’Antarctique a toujours l’intention de tuer une cinquantaine de rorquals, le deuxième plus grand animal sur terre après la baleine bleue, que les défenseurs de l’environnement considèrent comme une espèce menacée.

«Le Japon doit rappeler sa flotte immédiatement, stopper la chasse et renoncer à tout projet de construction d’un nouveau bateau-usine baleinier», a déclaré le représentant de Greenpeace pour l´Australie et le Pacifique, Steve Shallhorn.

Le gouvernement australien a dépêché un navire de guerre désarmé et un avion de reconnaissance pour surveiller la flotte baleinière, qui sera également suivie par deux navires des associations écologistes Greenpeace et Sea Shepherd.

Le Japon contourne chaque année le moratoire international en vigueur depuis 1986 en pêchant un millier de baleines à des fins soi-disant «scientifiques».

Les baleines à bosse, protégées depuis un moratoire décrété en 1966 après des années de chasse extensive, sont réputées pour leurs chants et leurs sauts acrobatiques. Leur migration le long des côtes australiennes à la saison de la reproduction est devenue une attraction suivie chaque année par 1,5 million de touristes.

Tv5.fr 24/12/07

Tempête en France et en Europe

L'Alsace, la Lorraine, le Nord-Pas-de-Calais, la Picardie, les Ardennes, la Marne et la Seine-Maritime ont été placés en alerte orange par Météo France, jeudi 18 janvier. Le vent a soufflé en rafales entre 120 km/h et 130 km/h le long des côtes de la Manche. En Angleterre, un automobiliste a été tué à l’aube après un accident causé par la chute d’une branche contre le pare-brise de sa voiture. Un porte-conteneurs britannique était en perdition à 100 km au nord de l’île d’Ouessant, et l’équipage qui a abandonné le navire se trouvait sur des canots de sauvetage.

En France, l’inspection académique des Ardennes a annoncé jeudi matin que les écoles, collèges et lycées du département seraient fermés dans l’après-midi. La liaison maritime entre Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) et Newhaven (Grande-Bretagne) est interrompue depuis mercredi soir.

A l’intérieur des terres, les rafales atteindront 100 km/h à 110 km/h sur la Seine-Maritime et le Nord, et jusqu’à 120 km/h sur le Pas-de-Calais. Les plus fortes rafales faibliront ensuite mais resteront proches de 100 km/h jusqu’en milieu de la nuit de jeudi à vendredi. Météo France recommande aux automobilistes de réduire leur vitesse, et invite les piétons à prendre garde à la chute éventuelle d’objets pouvant être causée par des rafales de vent.

La Mairie de Paris a décidé jeudi «par précaution» de fermer les parcs, jardins et cimetières de la capitale jusqu’à la fin de l’alerte tempête sur la capitale. Lors d’une précédente tempête sur la région parisienne le 8 décembre 2006, un passant avait été tué et deux blessés par la chute d’un enseigne.

Plusieurs pays du nord et du centre de l’Europe ont émis mercredi des avis de tempête pour jeudi. Le nord-ouest de l’Allemagne a commencé jeudi matin à être touché par de violentes rafales de vent qui ont provoqué de nombreux dégâts mineurs, premières manifestations de la tempête baptisée Kyrill, d’une rare violence.

Le Monde (18.01.07)

An interview for a job - PAU 2004

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

Some employers recruit graduates after a half hour personal interview. This is done in a formal setting, between two people, one of whom controls the conversation. There are always parts of interviews which are different from what is expected. The interviewer may not start at the beginning, and this can be difficult. You will have to order and clarify your thoughts quickly as the interviewer jumps from one point to the other. “Situational questions” are where the interviewer describes a work situation and asks for your solution. Generally you are recommended to think aloud - identify the key points and clarify the information, adding a dash of common sense.

In some cases, you will encounter panel interviews, where you will meet two, three or more interviewers at the same time. It is usual in such cases for the question topics to be split up between the interviewers, so that for example one will cover your academic record, the second concentrating on your reasons for wanting the job, and so on. You will have to build up rapport with each interviewer, adapt to his/her style, and concentrate on the abrupt change of topic. You should try and remember who is who - not their names, but their job or position, so that your answers are given at an appropriate level.

Remember that an interview is a two way process, and you should use the opportunity to ask questions. At the end of the interview you should have enough information to make a decision, if the job is offered to you.

En France, le livre n’est pas mort

Alors que beaucoup prédisaient, il y a quelques années, la «mort du livre», avec l’irruption d’Internet, il demeure, malgré de réelles inquiétudes, le premier bien culturel en France: il représente la moitié des achats culturels des ménages, loin devant les DVD et films vidéo, les CD de musique et les jeux vidéo.

Si les Français lisent autant, alors que leurs rythmes de vie se sont diversifiés, c’est que l’édition a su s’adapter aux évolutions de leurs modes de vie. Ainsi, le livre «de poche», né dans les années 50 pour diffuser à petit prix classiques et rééditions, est devenu un secteur clé, qui représente 25 % des ventes. De nombreux éditeurs lancent des collections de poche permettant un accès au livre pour tous, à des prix démarrant à 2 euros, soit un peu plus que le coût d’un journal.

L’édition s’est aussi adaptée aux habitudes de consommation: aujourd’hui, un livre sur cinq est vendu en grande surface. Il est aussi présent dans les stations-service des autoroutes, les boutiques de jardinage ou autres, et dans les gares et les aéroports. L’allongement du temps de transport quotidien des Français ou la fréquence des voyages contribuent à maintenir un niveau élevé de la lecture.

Dans les médias, le livre continue à faire l’objet de rendez-vous réguliers. Les chaînes de télévision proposent des émissions hebdomadaires, voire quotidiennes consacrées aux écrivains.

Dans la presse généraliste, le livre fait, chaque automne, la une de l’actualité avec la «rentrée littéraire», événement médiatique intense. 2 000 prix littéraires distinguent tous les ans des talents nouveaux ou confirmés.

Enfin, le réseau des bibliothèques publiques permet de toucher dans toute la France plus de 5 millions de lecteurs, dont 35 % d’enfants, à travers des structures municipales ou départementales. Elles offrent un accès – illimité, souvent gratuit - à tous les savoirs.

Nadia Khouri-Dagher 

Label France, nº 69 (1er trimestre 2008)

The fear of computers - PAU 2006

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

This is not the world we once knew. The world is controlled by computers. Men and women can be seen, but they are following the orders given to them by machines.

Does this scenario sound familiar? You have probably read something like it in magazines or science – fiction books, or seen it in films. Why is the theme so popular? One of the reasons is undoubtedly that it reflects the fears of many people: fear of the unknown, fear of what is not understood, or, at least, fear of something that is partially comprehended. This fear is perhaps not very different from the way witches and black cats were feared in the Middle Ages.

The fact is that every day it seems that computers take control of another area of our lives. Some factory jobs are now done by robots and the robots in turn are controlled by computers. Our bank accounts are managed by computers. At the airport, our tickets are issued and our seats are assigned by a computer. Certainly, many of these operations are made more efficient by computers, but our admiration is sometimes combined with feelings of insecurity. And this insecurity is caused by the fact that we don’t know how computers do these things, and we really don’t know what they might do next.

But we can find out how computers work, and once we understand them we can use computers instead of worrying about being used by them.

How to help young people to stop smoking - PAU Galicia inglés 2004

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

What seems to have surprised the health authorities most about the current anti-smoking campaign is the fact that it appears to be having very little effect on the younger sectors of society. However, this is hardly surprising. You can certainly frighten older people with cancer, imminent slow death and other such dangers, but most under twenty-year-olds can’t even conceive what this means. They can’t see far enough ahead to fear death: if they imagine their own funeral, it is a self-indulgent vision, with all their favourite friends sobbing and saying how unfortunate and gorgeous they were.
Young people live in the right now, and what they are really afraid of, right now, is smelling bad and looking ugly. You can frighten 16-year-olds with an exaggerated threat of smoker’s halitosis, that sickly smell that no amount of chewing gum can get rid of. You know – the smell that other people detect even when you can’t; the kind that makes members of the opposite sex turn away when you try to kiss them for the first time.
In the 1980s, public health advertisements in Britain tried to extract the attraction from heroin with the slogan “Heroin screws you up” and a picture of a teenager with a really dreadful skin. The slogan may not have been very effective, but the acne worked well. I suggest that different anti-smoking campaigns should be designed for different age-groups, and that those for young people should show what it does to the living, and forget about threats of death.

Le prince Harry provoque la polémique encore une fois

Quatre ans après l’épisode du costume nazi, le jeune Harry met une nouvelle fois la famille royale d’Angleterre dans l’embarras. Le quotidien News of the World a publié samedi sur son site internet, une vidéo réalisée par le jeune prince, lors de son service militaire. Sur cet enregistrement datant de 2006, on entend le prince Harry faire usage de termes péjoratifs et racistes, notamment à l’encontre d’un camarade d’origine pakistanaise.

Dans la première partie de la vidéo, Harry, derrière la caméra, passe en revue les élèves officiers de l’académie militaire de Sandhurst dormant sur le sol, en attendant un vol de la Royal Air Force. Un jeune homme relève la tête et le prince s’exclame: «Ah, notre petit ami Paki, Ahmed». En Angleterre, Paki, pour Pakistanais, désigne de façon condescendante les Indiens et Pakistanais. Au cours d’un exercice militaire à Chypre, dans la seconde partie de l’enregistrement toujours tourné par Harry, il s’adresse à un de ses camarades portant un filet de camouflage autour de la tête : «Voici Dan... Putain, on dirait un enturbanné». En version originale, il utilise le terme ‘raghead’, terme raciste qui désigne les Arabes.

La révélation de cette vidéo a aussitôt provoqué un tollé1 outre-manche. Le Premier ministre Gordon Brown a tancé2 le jeune Harry tout comme le chef de l’opposition, David Cameron, qui a souligné que cette attitude nuisait aux efforts visant à combattre le racisme au sein des forces armées. Gordon Brown a ajouté que le Prince devrait faire face à une enquête interne qui pourrait déboucher sur des sanctions. Les propos ont également choqué les associations musulmanes, notamment la Fondation Ramadan. Mohammed Shafiq, le directeur de ce mouvement de jeunesse musulmane britannique, a estimé que le prince Harry «devrait avoir honte». De son côté, l’organisme de surveillance des discriminations en Grande-Bretagne a qualifié ces propos de «dérangeants».

Après la publication de cette vidéo, la famille royale a publié des excuses. «Le prince Harry comprend parfaitement combien ce terme peut être insultant, et il est tout à fait désolé s’il a blessé quelqu’un».

Par Clément Mathieu / Paris Match

La SNCF met une amende aux escargots

Quiconque aurait cru à une blague, une très bonne blague! Mais le 4 mai dernier, une contrôleuse de la SNCF n’avait pas du tout l’intention de rire. Les escargots n’avaient pas pris leur billet. Ce jour-là, il est 19h40 quand Nicolas Bouchet embarque dans le train Avignon-Marne-la-Vallée. Il s’assoit sur la banquette d’un interwagon et dépose à ses pieds une boîte de «20 cm sur 30 cm» comme il nous l’explique. «A l’intérieur, il y avait simplement une vingtaine d’escargots! Le but était de les faire découvrir aux enfants de la classe de maternelle dont je suis l’instituteur», détaille-t-il. Le voyage était, pour les mollusques et leur propriétaire, bien paisible jusqu’à la venue d’une contrôleuse.

«Elle m’a logiquement dressé un PV1 parce que j’avais dû prendre le train précédent au mien pour des questions d’organisation, sur cela je n’ai rien à dire. Sauf qu’ensuite, elle m’a demandé ce qu’il y avait dans ma boîte. Je pensais qu’elle s’intéressait, comme beaucoup de passagers depuis le début de mon trajet, à ce que j’allais bien pouvoir en faire. Mais pas du tout. Elle m’a demandé si j’avais un billet pour les escargots! J’ai bien sûr cru à une vanne, mais elle m’a ajouté un PV de 5,10 euros», se rappelle Nicolas, encore abasourdi. C’est la règle!

Le week-end suivant, Nicolas redescend à Avignon avec la même boîte. Remplie des mêmes escargots, mais cette fois… pas de PV. Alors, quid de cette situation plus qu’insolite? Du côté de la SNCF, point de surprise à l’énoncé des faits. «Cette dame n’a pas fait de zèle. Tout animal vivant doit avoir un billet de transport, c’est la règle», assurait, sans sourciller, Mickaël Diradourian, attaché de presse de la SNCF. «De plus, notre entreprise considère que le billet constitue une assurance au cas où le train aurait un accident et que les animaux viendraient à trouver la mort.»

France Soir 04.06.08

How do two bodies get close enough together to procreate?

>Exámenes selectividad inglés Galicia resueltos

David Givens, an anthropologist and head of the Center for Non-verbal Studies in Washington, has been in and out of bars and pubs to watch people flirting for over two decades now, trying to answer one basic question about the survival of our species: “How do two bodies get close enough together to procreate?”

It seems that beneath love’s mysteries, there are some basic principles of biology and genetics. Flirting, for example, has rules that cross cultures and countries, based on gestures that seem instinctive, but that follow codes of attraction and beauty that may be millions of years old. Those codes have developed because they lead us to the healthiest men and women. Why? Because attraction to a healthy person gives us our best chance to have babies and pass our genes to the next generation.

Men, for instance, have been attracted to certain sizes of hips and waists for more than 20,000 years. A certain waist and hip size is linked to having babies. Studies indicated that women seem to be attracted to tall men, who become fathers to more babies than shorter men. Another clue to the genes is symmetry: a good match between both sides of the face as well as arms and hands. Several studies have found that both sexes think symmetry is stimulating. Researchers say that symmetry is a sign of a strong physical condition.

So, although true love is so complex that we cannot explain it, that first feeling of desire, it seems, depends on the need to reproduce.

Coca-Cola's secret formula - 2009

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In the SunTrust Bank in Atlanta lies one of the most sacred secrets in the business world: the 120-year old formula for Coca-Cola. That is the only certainty about the mysterious formula. Everything else may be a myth. Myth or not, at least three people recently risked going to prison for revealing the company’s mystery. They tried to sell Coca-Cola’s secrets to Pepsi for $1.5 million. This incident makes us wonder whether the formula is a real secret or just mystical marketing.
History suggests it’s a mixture of both. In 1886, a pharmacist called John Pemberton created the formula in his laboratory. Years later he sold it to a businessman, Asa Candler, who made the drink a success, which made everyone curious about what exactly went into it. Some said the main ingredient was cocaine, which Coca-Cola denies. Others were fascinated by the rumours about “7X”, the code name for the mixture of flavours. By 1919, when the Candlers sold Coca-Cola to a group of investors, the secret had become a marketing tool. The new owners gave it a place in American pop culture when they placed the formula in the Atlanta bank.
Experts say it’s not impossible to decipher the formula for Coca-Cola, but not 100 percent. And, anyway, copying it would be useless because it is not the secret formula that matters … it is the marketing that has made Coke such a success.