5129/26/2023 (#18 this year)
The junior high school festival finished last week. Each class did a 50-minute play on thestage in the auditorium. They were amazing. The students did everything themselves.
They chose the script, they organized rehearsals, they made all of the props1 and sets2,
they did all of the lighting3, and they directed themselves. The quality was very high. I
hope that they are all very happy with the performances they did. And this week is theend of the first semester. Did you have a good time? It seems to have flown past4. Itfeels like only yesterday that we were all starting school in April and now, here we are,at the end of September!
7 differences

Last week’s answer

Something you didn’t know about ships:
1. The largest ship in the world was the Seawise Giant. It was 488 m long and it could
carry 560,000 tons of oil. It was destroyed5 for scrap6 in 2010.
2. There are approximately7 60,000 cargo ships in the world carrying all of the things
we buy and sell.
3. The largest cargo ships can carry 24,000 shipping containers8.
4. Companies want to build larger ships, but they won’t be able to sail through thePanama and Suez canals.
5. There are about 3 million shipwrecks9 around the world. Some of them you can divedown to see.

Wind-powered Shipping
A ship called Pyxis Ocean has been released by Mitsubishi. It is a windpowered ship. Up until about 1870, all ships were powered by wind. A ship
could either be powered by the wind using sails, or powered by people usingoars10. Then, in the 1800s, steam-powered11 ships were invented. They burned
coal to produce steam, but they still had sails in case they ran out of coal. In1871, a ship called Devastation was built and it was the first ship not to haveany sails. After that, oil-power engines were invented and the shipping
industry has never looked back. These days, almost all ships have diesel12engines. This makes them fast, but it releases an enormous amount of CO2 andother gasses. A large container ship releases about 400 million tons of CO2
every year. Pyxis Ocean have decided that they want to solve this problem andthey think that going back to wind-power is the answer. Obviously, you cannot
use sails to move a container ship across the ocean. Cloth sails would have tobe so big that it would be impractical. However, Mitsubishi have discoveredthat there is a different kind of sail. They use something called WindWings. An
airplane wing lifts the plane because the air moves faster over the top of thewing than under the bottom, creating lift. The WindWings use the same idea,
but the lift pushes the boat forwards. The WindWings can’t completely power
the boat, but they cut down the amount of fuel it needs by 30% and thetechnology will improve with time. The WindWings can be folded down forwhen the boat is in port or goes under a bridge. It is amazing technology.

1.prop 小道具 2.set 大道具 3.lighting 照明 4.fly past あっという間に 5.destroy 壊す
6.scrap 廃物 7.approximately 大体 8.shipping container 輸送コンテナ 9.shipwreck 難破
船 10.oar オール 11.steam-power 蒸気動力 12.diesel 経由

One thing we can do to help the environment

World record
When I ride my bicycle, I like to go as fast as I can, which is not very fast. I am pretty slowon my bike, when I run, and when I drive. So, here are some people that like to go very
fast. The fastest runner is obviously Usain Bolt. He ran 100 m in 9.58 seconds, whichmeans he was moving at 37.58 km/h. The fastest person on a bicycle is Denise MuellerKorenek, who managed to cycle at 296 km/h! That is a crazily1 fast speed for a bicycle.
The fastest car you can legally2 buy is the Koenigsegg Jesko Absolut, which will reach 531
km/h! I’m not sure I would want to ride in that. That is slow, though, when compared tothe land speed record, which is 1,220 km/h! Andy Green drove ThrustSSC at that speed
in 1997. It is not a car, it is a rocket withwheels. Planes are much faster. Thefastest plane can in the world is the X15. It can fly at 7,274 km/h. It could fly
from Sapporo to Vancouver in about 50minutes. But that is still slow because
the International Space Station is flying
above us at 28,807 km/h. And there issomething faster still. Voyager 1, thespace probe, is the fastest manmadeobject. It is flying at 61,500 km/h! Andit is not coming back.

Be kind, for everyone you meet isfighting a harder battle.
– Ian MacLaren#4 Fast fashion
I buy a lot of cheap clothes. I can’t tell you how cheap my suits are, but I
think you would be surprised. I have always tried to buy the cheapest
clothes I can find because I don’t like spending a lot on clothes. I have neverthought that fashion was very important. I thought buying cheap clothes
was a good thing. But, it isn’t. Most of my clothes are made of polyester3,
which is one of the largest sources of plastic waste and microplastics4 in theworld. And, because my clothes are so cheap, they don’t last very long andI have to buy new ones. My goal is to try to move away from fast fashion5and to buy more sustainable6 clothes. Cotton clothes are not good for theenvironment either, but they will last longer than polyester and they can berecycled. One cotton shirt might last me as long as 5 polyester shirts. The
best option is buying clothes that are made of 70% recycled cotton and 30%
organic cotton. One shirt will be more expensive, but it will last longer.
Another problem with fast fashion is that they use a lot of cheap, toxic7 dyes8that pollute9 rivers and harm the workers.

1.crazily 熱狂的に 2.legally 合法的に 3.polyester ポリエステル 4.microplastic マイ
クロプラスチック 5.fast fashion ファストファッション 6.sustainable 持続可能な7.toxic 有毒な 8.dye 染料 9.pollute 汚染する