Reading 1: Taiwan s Tea Culture For a long time, tea has been an important part of Taiwan s culture. From oolong tea to bubble tea, there are varieties for every age, taste, and schedule. Taiwan is also the home of the Pinglin Tea Industry Museum, said to be the world s largest. In the fact of coffee shops opening everywhere, tea still holds a key place in the hearts and lives of Taiwanese people. Taiwan s climate and geography make it an excellent place to grow tea. The crop has been commercially grown on the island for more than 125 years. For decades, Taiwan was a major tea exporter. However, since the 1970s, the domestic market has become more important for local growers. Also, there s a greater focus on expensive varieties like Taiwan Tea No. 18. It s a black tea grown in Yuchih Township. People in Taiwan can enjoy tea at many different places. At traditional tea houses, customers can relax while sipping oolong, paochong, and other varieties. These places also serve snacks like dried fruit and peanuts. Maokong, in the southern hills of Taipei, has many such tea houses, in a beautiful setting. It s hard to imagine a more perfect place to take a guest. For people on the go, tea stalls offer dozens of drinks that can be prepared in just a few minutes. These shops have helped make black tea very popular in Taiwan. Tea is mixed with milk power and other ingredients to make delicious Taiwanese inventions like pearl milk tea. In the 21 st century, cities and countries are starting to look more and more alike. International stores and restaurants are opening in many places. And, international brands are seen on store shelves everywhere. It s nice. have something special, like Taiwan s tea culture, to help a country stand out in the crowd. Article extracted from Reading Pass 2, 2 nd Edition.
Reading 2: Hansel and Gretel Once upon a time there was a boy and girl named Hansel and Gretel. They lived with their father, a poor woodcutter, in a little house beside a forest. Often the family went to bed hungry because there was not enough food to eat. One day the woodcutter took his children into the forest to gather wood. Hansel and Gretel laughed and played so hard and were soon lost. They did not heed their father s warning and wandered far from home, leaving a trail of bread crumbs behind them to follow back home. But the bread crumbs were eaten by the birds in the forest. The children became tired and hungry as they roamed through the forest. Suddenly, there through the trees, they saw a strange house made of cake and candy! They ran to the house and began eating from it furiously. There were cake shingles and candy shutters. The windows were made of sugar. The Flowers were lollipops. As they started to take a bite from the chocolate door, it opened. Out stepped an old woman with a wart on her nose. Who s eating my house? she said. The children were startled at first, but the old lady seemed very kind. Hansel and Gretel apologized for eating from her house. We haven t eaten in such a long time, they said. The old lady took them in and fed them some good food. It wasn t long before the old lady s kindly spirit wore off. She snarled and ordered the children to work. She had Gretel scrubbing floors and cleaning the oven. Hansel had to gather heavy wood for the stove. Only a witch would act this way, Gretel told Hansel. Still, the witch fed them well. Hansel and Gretel even gain a little weight. One night, as the witch stoked the coals in her oven, Gretel heard her cackle, Tonight I ll have them for dinner! At that, Gretel sneaked up behind the witch and pushed her into the oven. The witch was destroyed by the flames. As Hansel and Gretel ran to the door, they came across chests full of gems and coins of gold. Hansel and Gretel ran until they could run no further. Story extracted from Dalmatian Press: Hansel and Gretel.
Reading 3: The Titanic Found! When the Titanic was lost in 1912, no one thought that she would ever be found. But during the summer of 1985s, my team from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution found the Titanic sitting right-side up on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The world was amazed to hear The Titanic Found! When the Titanic struck an iceberg on April 14, 1912, it opened a wound in the starboard side of the ship. Water rushed into the forward compartments, causing her to sink at the bow. Slowly her giant stern began to rise into the air, creating stress on the weaker midsection of the ship. Ship of her design had large dining areas and salons in the central part of the ship, rooms that could not support the full weight of the stern. So as her stern rose even higher there was a sudden, tremendous noise and rush of air as the ship split in half. As the hull began to tear, all sorts of objects poured into the sea. As these objects fell, the ocean current that brought the icebergs from the north swept the objects away. Some items fell through the surface currents in a few minutes. But many objects, like the deck furniture, lingered in the current longer. By the time all the objects had finally come to rest on the bottom, they created a trail of debris more than one mile long. We began in the area where the Carpathia, the first rescue ship to arrive, had picked up Titanic s lifeboats. Once there, we lowered our towed camera system, Argo, more than two miles to just above the bottom of the ocean and began a series of long search lines running east to west, perpendicular to the trail of debris we were looking for. Then, on September 1, 1985, Argo s sensitive cameras passed over the trail of debris we were looking for. At first, we saw small, light objects, but as we continued, the objects that we saw were heavier and heavier, until one of the Titanic s massive boilers pass under Argo. Then we saw the ship s stern. The Titanic was finally found! Article extracted from Reading Matters: An Interactive Approach to Reading.
Reading 4: We need to Nap! Researchers into sleep have found some interesting facts about our body s natural sleep rhythms. There are two points during a 24-hour period when people most feel the need to sleep. These times are the hours between 1 and 4 P.M. during the day and between 1 and 4 A.M. in the morning. One study of 276 young adults showed that people have the most difficulty staying awake between two and five o clock in the afternoon and in the morning. These are also the hours when there are increases in traffic accidents causing death. Being tired affects yours ability to think and makes decisions. North Americans seem to be cutting down on the number of hours they sleep. In many countries, people stop their work in the afternoon and have a nap. But, in countries like Canada and United States, business continues all day long. In North America, the number of people who work for 10-12 hours a day is increasing. More people are working overtimes. More people are working night shifts, from 11P.M until 7 A.M. But most adults need about 7-10 hours of sleep a day. On average, North Americans are only getting about 6-8 hours of sleep. In fact, over the past century, North Americans have reduced the number of nightly sleeping hours by about 20 percent. Some experts are worried that tired workers are becoming danger in the workplace. A tired worker is likely to forget important information and make mistakes. Mistakes can lead to serious work accidents. Tiredness has been linked either directly or indirectly to some of the worst accidents in history like the nuclear accidents at Three Miles Island, as well as the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. Research into allowing people in the airline industry to take shorts naps is producing some interesting results. Researchers at NASA have studied the effects of taking 40-minute naps for pilots on overseas international fights. They found that when pilots napped, they were more alert afterward. Article extracted from Reading matter: An Interactive Approach to Reading.
Reading 5: Amusing Stories Three wishes According to an old joke, three men were marooned on a deserted island. One day, after a storm, one of the men was strolling along the beach and found an old brass bottle. He took it back to camp and showed it to the others. As one of them rubbed the bottle in an attempt to polish it, a puff of smoke burst from the bottle and assumed the form of a genie. The genie had been incarcerated in the bottle for over a thousand years, and he was grateful to the men for rescuing him. As genies have supernatural powers, this genie told the men he would grant each one of them one wish. The first man said that he wanted to be a wealthy man living in his own villa in the French Alps. The genie waved his arms, and the man disappeared in a puff of smoke. The second man wished that he lived in the White House as President of the United States. The second man vanished in a puff of smoke and found himself in the Oval Office of the White House. The third man thought as intently as he could and finally said, I really can t make up my mind. I wish my friends were here to help me decide. The Chandelier Some years ago, a proposal was placed before a church congregation: Should the church buy a chandelier? The members of the church would vote on this matter. One man, who was fond of giving his opinion, stood up to speak. My friends, he said, A chandelier would be too extravagant an expense for our church s small budget. A lot of people in our church probably don t even know what a chandelier is. My strongest objection, though, is that we shouldn t be wasting church funds on a chandelier when the church has more desperate needs. What the church really needs is lights. Article extracted from Quantum Leap in Conversation, Reading, and Grammar.