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1/29/2024 (#29 this year)
We have had a lot of snow recently. And it has been unseasonably1 warm. The snow
has been big, wet, and heavy. I wear spikes on my shoes so I don’t slip on the ice, butthere hasn’t been much ice. The big, wet, heavy snow sticks to the spikes on the bottomof my shoes and I get taller and taller and taller. What about you? Do you have trouble
walking in the snow? One thing that this wet, sticky, heavy snow is good for is making
snowmen. I went to the park with my daughter last week and we made our firstsnowman of the year. We got very wet, but it was a lot of fun. Have you made any
snowmen this year? What did they look like?
10 differences

Last week’s answer

Something you didn’t know about Elton John
1. Elton John isn’t his real name. His real name is Reginald Dwight. He took the nameElton John because his two favorite musicians were a saxophone player called Elton
Dean and a singer called Long John Baldry.
2. He has the second best-selling single2 of all time. “Candle in the Wind 1997” waswritten after the death of Princess Diana. It has sold 33 million copies. The number
one single is Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”.
3. He has over 1,000 pairs of glasses, but he doesn’t actually need to wear glasses.
4. Elton John has written most of his songs with Bernie Taupin. Bernie write the lyrics3
for the songs and Elton writes the music.

Elton John is an EGOT
Do you know who Elton John is? Many of you are probably too young,but you definitely4 know some of his songs. They are very well known and if I
played some of them to you, you would say, “Oh! I know that!” He is 76 years
old now and he has been singing and performing since he was 20 years old. If
you google, “list of artists by sales,” you will find that Elton John is the 4th mostsold artist of all time. He is behind the Beetles, Elvis Presley, and MichaelJackson, but he is ahead of Queen, and Madonna. He has sold over 300 million
records, cds, and song downloads. He has received many awards throughout5
his life and last week, he received an Emmy award, which has made him anEGOT. Egot stands for Emmy, Grammie, Oscar, Tony. They are all awards. AnEmmy award is given for excellence6 in the television industry7. A Grammyaward is given for excellence in the music industry. An Oscar is given forexcellence in the movie industry. A Tony is given for excellence in the theater
industry. Elton John won his Emmy in 2023 for his farewell concert special. Heis retiring8 and this was his last concert. It was broadcast on TV. He has won 6Grammies in his career. He has won 2 Oscars. One for the song “Can you feelthe love tonight?” in the Lion King and one for “I’m gonna love me again” inRocketman. He won a Tony award for the music he wrote for the musical Aidain 2000. He has won many other awards as well. I wonder what is next. Do you
think he can win a Nobel Prize?

1.unseasonably 季節外れの 2.best-selling single１番売れてるシングル 3.lyrics 歌詞 4.defintely
絶対 5.throughout～を通じて 6.excellence 優れていること 7.industry 産業 8.retire 引退

One thing we can do to help the environment

World record
Here are some cycling world records this week. Do you like to cycle? I love getting out
on my bike, but there is too much snow to cycle at the moment. Ok. Here we go withsome cycling world records. The fastest person on a bicycle was Denise Mueller-Korenek.
She rode behind a car and managed to reach 296 km/h! The furthest anyone has cycled
in an hour is 56.7 km, by Filippo Ganno. Michael Secrest has the record for the greatest
distance cycled in 24 hours. He slipstreamed1 behind a truck and rode 1,956 km in 24hours! Christoph Strasser has the record for the time to cycle across the USA. It took him
7 days, 15 hours, and 56 minutes. He cycled 4,860 km. Amanda Coker has the record forthe furthest ridden in 1 month. She rode 12,894 km! She also has the record for thefastest time to ride 100,000 miles (160,000 km). It took her 423 days. This is her:

So many books, so little time.
– Frank Zappa (he was a songwriter, singer, and guitarist)#14 Use Less Palm Oil2
This one is surprisingly3 difficult because palm oil seems to be in absolutely
everything. I am trying to cut out palm oil for environmental reasons andbecause I am trying to eat less ultra-processed food4. Palm oil is made fromthe fruit of the palm oil tree. It is small fruit, about the size of a small kiwi.
It is picked off the tree, boiled, and then pressed to make oil. A palm oil fruit
contains about 65% oil. Natural oil is healthy, but the big companies that use
it, distill5 out all of the color and the nutrients6 so they can use it in moreways. It is very unhealthy. So, how is palm oil bad for the environment? Palmoil trees are cheaper to grow and cheaper to care for than many otherplants. The oil can be sold more easily and farmers can make more money
than if they made other vegetable oil. Palm oil trees grow in hot places likesouthern Asia, Africa, and Latin America7. Farmers there need money, sothey plant more palm oil trees. That means they need space and they makethe space by cutting down the forest. This destroys the habitats8 of many
animals. It also causes soil erosion9 which makes floods worse. And a lot ofchemicals and pollutants10 are released when the palm oil is made. I am
trying to avoid palm oil, but it is in so many things!

1.slipstreamed スリップストリームに入る 2.palm oil ヤシ油 3.surprisingly 驚くほどに
4.ultra-processed food 超加工食品 5.distill 滴らせる 6.nutrient 栄養物 7.Latin America 中南
米 8.habitat 生息地 9.soil erosion 土地浸食 10.pollutant 汚染物質