IELTS READING 4.

5- LESSON 5
Book: Complete IELTS 4-5.
The life of the European bee-eater

A brilliant movement of colour as it catches its food in the air, the European bee-eater
moves between three continents.

True to their name, bee-eaters eat bees (though their diet includes just about any flying
insect). When the bird catches a bee, it returns to its tree to get rid of the bees poison,
which it does very efficiently. It hits the insect's head on one side of the branch, then
rubs its body on the other. The rubbing makes its prey harmless.

European bee-eaters (Merops apiaster) form families that breed in the spring and
summer across an area that extends from Spain to Kazakhstan. Farmland and river
valleys provide huge numbers of insects. Flocks of bee-eaters follow tractors as they
work fields. When the birds come upon a beehive, they eat well - a researcher once
found a hundred bees in the stomach of a bee-eater near a hive.

European bees pass the winter by sleeping in their hives, which cuts off the bee-eater's
mainsource of food. So, in late summer, bee-eaters begin a long, dangerous journey.
Massive flocks from Spain, France and northern Italy cross the Sahara desert to their
wintering grounds in West Africa. Bee-eaters from Hungary and other parts of Central
and Eastern Europe cross the Mediterranean Sea and Arabian Desert to winter in
southern Africa. 'It's an extremely risky stratagem, this migration,' says C. Hilary Fry, a
British ornithologist who has studied European bee-eaters for more than 45 years.

'At least 30 percent of the birds will be killed by predators before they make it back to
Europe the following spring.

'In April, they return to Europe. Birds build nests by digging tunnels in riverbanks.
They work for up to 20 days. By the end of the job, they've moved 15 to 26 pounds of
soil - more than 80 times their weight.

The nesting season is a time when families help each other, and sons or uncles help
feed their father's or brother's chicks as soon as they come out of their eggs. The
helpers benefit, too: parents with helpers can provide more food for chicks to continue
the family line.

It's a short, spectacular life. European bee-eaters live for five to six years. The
difficulties of migration and avoiding predators along the way affect every bird. Bee-
eaters today also find it harder to find food, as there are fewer insects around as a
result of pesticides. Breeding sites are also disappearing, as rivers are turned into
concrete-walled canals.
Notes:
brilliant (adj) : sáng chói
movement (n) : sự di chuyển
catches (v) : bắt
European (n) : Châu âu
Continents (n) : lục địa
diet (n): chế độ ăn uống
includes (v) : bao gồm
flying insect (n) : côn trùng biết bay
get rid of (v) : thoát khỏi
poison (n) : chất độc
efficiently (adv) : hiệu quả
head on (v) : hướng vào
branch (n) : cành cây
rubs (v) : chà xát
prey (n) : con mồi
harmless (adj) : vô hại
breed (v) : sinh sản
extends (v) : mở rọng
valleys (n) : những thung lũng
huge numbers of : số lượng lớn
insects (n) : những con côn trùng
Flocks (n) : đàn, bầy
tractors (n) : những cái máy kéo
fields (n) : cánh đồng
researcher (n): nhà nghiên cứu
stomach (n) : dạ dày
hive (n) : tổ
cuts off (v) : cắt bỏ
main source of food (n) : nguồn thức ăn chính
dangerous (adj) : nguy hiểm
journey (n) : chuyến đi
northern (adj) : phía bắc
desert (n) : sa mạc
wintering grounds (n) : vùng đất mùa đông
southern (adj) : phía tây
risky (adj) : rủi ro
stratagem (n) : mưu mẹo
migration (n) : di cư
ornithologist (n) : nhà nghiên cứu về chim
At least (adv) : ít nhất
predators (n) : những kẻ săn mồi
nests (n) : những cái tổ
dig (v) : đào
tunnels (n) : những cái hầm
riverbanks (n) : những bờ sông
soil (n) : đất
weight (n) : cân nặng
The nesting season (n) : mùa làm tổ
uncles (n) : những ông chú
feed (v) : cho ăn
come out of something : ra khỏi cái gì đó
benefit (n) : lợi ích
provide (v) : cung cấp
family line (n) : cuộc sống gia đình

Buy Nothing Day

“Buy Nothing Day” began in the 1990s in Vancouver, Canada. It was the idea of a man
named Kalle Lasn and his organization Adbusters. Before starting Adbusters, Lasn
worked for many years in advertising. He helped companies research what influenced
people to buy things. But Lasn began to question the ways advertisers influenced
people to buy things. He also questioned the culture of buying. Was it good to make
people feel like they should always want more and more? “Buy Nothing Day”
criticizes this culture of consumerism.

Lasn recognizes that people need to consume things. They have to buy things to eat,
live and even enjoy life. But Lasn believes that many companies encourage people to
consume far more than is necessary. Advertising this way helps companies make
money. But Lasn believes it hurts people and culture.

So Lasn decided to use advertising against companies. Adbusters tries to help people
understand some of the false values and ideas behind advertising. The main value
Adbusters fights is the idea, "You must consume more to be happy." And one way they
do this is by encouraging people to celebrate “Buy Nothing Day!”

“Buy Nothing Day” is celebrated on the fourth Friday of every November. Adbusters
chose this day for a very important reason. It is the biggest buying day of the year.
Advertisers call this day Black Friday.

Black Friday is particularly famous in the United States. It is the day after the
country’s Thanksgiving holiday. On Thanksgiving, people in the United States gather
with family and friends to eat a meal and give thanks. In recent years, stores began to
reduce their prices the day after Thanksgiving. They wanted to encourage people to
start buying gifts for the Christmas holiday in December. However, in recent years,
Black Friday has become famous for something else: greed and violence. On Black
Friday stores offer extremely reduced prices. But they only offer limited amounts of
product. So, people come early in the morning - or even the night before - to stand in
lines outside stores. Sometimes, people push or fight to be first into the store. Some
people have even died in Black Friday riots!
“Buy Nothing Day” hopes to end the greed and violence of Black Friday. But its
message is bigger than just Black Friday. “Buy Nothing Day” is for people in the
United States and around the world. Many other countries also have growing problems
with too much consumption. Sixty-two different countries, from Germany to Japan,
already celebrate “Buy Nothing Day”. And the message is the same everywhere -
buying too much hurts people, culture and the planet.

Buy Nothing Day is a simple idea. It fights consumer culture by asking us to stop
buying for a day. Anyone can do it if they spend a day without buying. For some
people, “Buy Nothing Day” is a protest. For other people, it is a party. Some groups go
to stores and encourage other people not to buy things. Other people gather together to
make Christmas gifts - instead of buying them. And some people use the day to create
works of art that protest against consumer messages. Often, people celebrate by
enjoying the free gift of nature. They go for walks, or watch the sun set together. The
only rule of “Buy Nothing Day” is not to buy anything!

Some people question if “Buy Nothing Day” can really change culture. It is only one
day. And telling people not to do something often does not work! Other people say that
consumers should not just buy less, but they should buy better. These people
encourage consumers to buy things that are made in ways that do not hurt people or
the environment.

But “Buy Nothing Day” does get people thinking about the negative effects of buying
too much. A lot of people have had deep learning experiences when they tried
celebrating “Buy Nothing Day”. It was like giving up an addiction to drugs.

Buying more and more things can be like an addiction. Often, the more people buy
things, the more things they want. People are happier and more satisfied when they
spend money on experiences instead of things. Satisfaction over purchases decreases
over time. A new car does not stay new for very long. But a satisfying experience often
becomes more positive over time as we remember it.

Notes:
organization (n) : tổ chức
influenced (v) : ảnh hưởng
advertising (n) : quảng cáo
companies (n) : các công ty
research (v) : nghiên cứu
advertisers (n) : người quảng cáo
criticizes (v) : phê phán
culture (n) : văn hóa
consumerism (n) : chủ nghĩa tiêu dùng
recognizes (v) : thừa nhận
consume (v) : tiêu thụ
necessary (adj) : cần thiết
encourage to (v) : khuyến khích
decided to (v) : quyết định
against (pp) : chống lại
values (n) : các giá trị
encouraging (adj) : khuyến khích
celebrated on (v) : khuyến khích
particularly (adv) : đặc biệt
famous (adj) : nổi tiếng
gather with (v) : tụ tập với
reduce (v) : giảm
offer (v) : cung cấp
extremely (adv) : vô cùng
greed (n) : tính tham lam
violence (n): bạo lực
limited (adj) : giới hạn
amounts (n) : số lượng
riots (n) : sự phá rối
grow (v): tăng
consumption (n) : sự tiêu thụ
protest (v) : chống đối
get somebody thinking : làm cho ai đó suy nghĩ
experiences (n): những trải nghiệm
giving up (v) : từ bỏ
addiction (n) : thói nghiện
satisfied (adj) : cảm thấy hài lòng
spend something on something/doing something : dành cái gì cho cái gì/ vào việc gì
purchases (n): việc mua
decreases (v) : giảm
positive (adj) : tích cực

Humpback whale breaks migration

record
A whale surprises researchers with her journey. A lone humpback whale travelled more
than 9,800 kilometres from breeding areas in Brazil to those in Madagascar, setting a
record for the longest mammal migration ever documented. Humpback whales
( Megaptera novaeangliae) are known to have some of the longest migration distances
of all mammals, and this huge journey is about 400 kilometres farther than the
previous humpback record. The finding was made by Peter Stevick, a biologist at the
College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine.The whale’s journey was unusual not
only for its length, but also because it travelled across almost 90 degrees of longitude
from west to east. Typically, humpbacks move in a north-south direction between cold
feeding areas and warm breeding grounds - and the longest journeys which have been
recorded until now have been between breeding and feeding sites.

The whale, a female, was first spotted off the coast of Brazil, where researchers
photographed its tail fluke and took skin samples for chromosome testing to determine
the animal's sex. Two years later, a tourist on a whale-watching boat snapped a photo
of the humpback near Madagascar.
To match the two sightings, Stevick’s team used an extensive international catalogue
of photographs of the undersides of tail flukes, which have distinctive markings.
Researchers routinely compare the markings in each new photograph to those in the
archive.

The scientists then estimated the animal’s shortest possible route: an arc skirting the
southern tip of South Africa and heading north-east towards Madagascar. The
minimum distance is 9,800 kilometres, says Stevick, but this is likely to be an
underestimate, because the whale probably took a detour to feed on krill in the
Southern Ocean near Antarctica before reaching its destination.

Most humpback-whale researchers focus their efforts on the Northern Hemisphere

because the South ern Ocean near the Antarctic is a hostile environment and it is hard
to get to, explains Rochelle Constantine, who studies the ecology of humpback whales
at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. But, for whales, oceans in the Southern
Hemisphere are wider and easier to travel across, says Constantine. Scientists will
probably observe more long-distance migrations in the Southern Hemisphere as
satellite tracking becomes increasingly common, she adds.

Daniel Palacios, an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, says that the
record-breaking journey could indicate that migration patterns are shifting as
populations begin to recover from near-extinction and the population increases. But
the reasons why the whale did not follow the usual migration routes remain a mystery.
She could have been exploring new habitats, or simply have lost her way. 'We
generally think of humpback whales as very well studied, but then they surprise us
with things like this,’ Palacios says. ‘Undoubtedly there are a lot of things we still
don’t know about whale migration.’

Notes:
whale (n) : cá heo
surprises (v) : làm kinh ngạc
researchers (n) : những nhà nghiên cứu
breeding (n) : sinh sản
mammal (n) : động vật có vú
migration (n) : di cư
be documented (v) : được ghi chép lại
distances (n) : những khoảng cách
biologist (n) : nhà sinh vật học
previous (adv) : trước khi
length (n) : độ dài
longitude (n) : kinh độ
travelled (v) : di chuyển
feeding areas (n) = feeding sites (n) : khu vực kiếm ăn
breeding grounds (n) : những vùng sinh sản
spotted off (v) : nhìn từ xa
coast (n) : bờ biển
photographed (v) : chụp lại
tail fluke (n) : đuôi cá
samples (n) : mẫu ví dụ
chromosome (n) : nhiễm thể
determine (v) : quyết tâm
snapped a photo : chụp ảnh
match (v) : nối
sightings (n) : sự trông thấy
extensive (adj) : rộng
international (adj) : quốc tế
catalogue (n) : bảng mục lục
undersides (n) : mặt dưới
distinctive (adj) : phân biệt
markings (n) : sự đánh dấu
routinely (adv) : thông thường
archive (n) : tài liệu lưu trữ
route (n) : tuyến đường
heading (n) : hướng về
the minimum (n) mức tối thiểu
is likely to : giống như
underestimate (v) : đánh giá thấp
detour (n) : đường vòng
krill (n) : loài nhuyễn thể mà cá voi ăn được
destination (n) : điểm đến
efforts on (v) : nỗ lực
hostile environment (n) : môi trường khắc nghiệt
ecology (n) : sinh thái học
get to (v) : nhận được
wider (adj) : rộng hơn
observe (v): quan sát
Southern Hemisphere (n) : bán cầu Nam
satellite (n) : vệ tinh nhân tạo
tracking (n) : dấu vết
increasingly (adj) : tăng
oceanographer (n) : nhà hải dương học
indicate (v) : biểu thị
patterns (n) : mẫu
shifting (n) : sự thay đổi
populations (n) : dân số
recover (v) : bao phủ lại
near-extinction (n) : gần bờ tuyệt chủng
remain (v) : vẫn còn
mystery (n) : điều bí ẩn
exploring (n) : sự khám phá
habitats (n) : môi trường sống
generally (adv) : nhìn chung
Undoubtedly (n) : Không còn hoài nghi