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6/17/2024 (#7 this year)
We had a couple of hot days last week and we got to use the spot coolers for the firsttime. What did you think of them? I think they look like robots. They don’t cool theroom down as much as air conditioning would, but, if we put the fans in the right place,
I think we will be able to blow the cold air all around the classroom. You need to dosome experimenting to work out the best place to put the spot cooler and the bestplace to put the fans. Although, in my classes, it won’t matter1 because I am going tostand in front of the spot cooler so that I get all of the cold air!! Haha. What do youthink? Is that a good idea?
12 differences

Last week’s answer

Something you didn’t know about chess1. Chess comes from a game called chaturanga that was played in India for over 5,000years.
2. The name chess and the term checkmate both come from Persian. In Persia 2, thegame was called “shah” (king) and that became chess. “Shah mat” (the king is dead)became checkmate.
3. The shortest possible game in chess is called “Fool’s Mate” and a person can win injust two moves.
4. IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer was the first computer to beat a Grand Master. It
was a big milestone3, but these days a computer could easily win.

The Library of Things
Last month, researchers found a set of medieval4 game pieces beneatha castle in southern Germany. These pieces, estimated 5 to be around 1,000years old, show us the leisure activities of German nobles6 during the medieval
period. There is a beautifully carved 7 chess knight, a six-sided die, and four
small tokens8 shaped like flowers. The chess knight is about 3 cm tall and hasvery fine carving. It shows that people played chess over 1,000 years ago,andprobably even before that. The game pieces are made from carved antlers,
which was a common material. Some of the pieces show signs that they may
have been painted red. The discovery of the six-sided die also shows that dice
games were popular among the nobility 9. These findings offer a glimpse into
the daily life and culture of medieval German nobles. Playing games was not
only a way to pass the time but also a means of socializing and showing status
and skill. All of the pieces are very worn10, so they were used a lot. The designof the chess knight and the unique flower-shaped tokens show that thesegames were more than just games; they were symbols of prestige11 andrefinement. The game pieces are currently undergoing more analysis to learn
more about where they came from and how they were used. Researchers
hope that they’ll find more pieces.

1.does not matter 関係ない 2.Persia イランの旧称 3.milestone 節目 4.medieval 中世の5.estimated to be～～と推定 6.noble 貴族 7.carve 彫る 8.token 点棒 9.nobility 貴族たち
10.wear すり減る 11.a symbol of prestige 尊敬の表象

An Unusual Job

They return to the place they were born to lay their eggs

World record
I write about world records every week and I have found some pretty strange ones over
the years. I always ask you if you think we could break the record I am writing about. I
don’t think I’m going to ask you this week because we would be breaking too many healthand safety rules. Do you know what the longest distance someone has run while being onfire1 is? It is 272 m! Jonathan Vero is a firefighter in France. I don’t know what he wasthinking, but he decided to see how far he could run while he was on fire. He wore
protective clothes2 and stood on the start line of a race track. Someone set fire to him andhe started to run. 272 m later someone used a fire extinguisher3 to put him out. He iscrazy. He also
got the world
record for thefastest 100 m
sprint while on
fire. That was17seconds.
What do you
think? Do you
want to try? I
don’t think Ido.

"There are years that ask questions
and years that answer.”— Zora Neale Hurston

A Food Stylist
You have probably never thought about this job. I know I hadn’t. Do youknow what a stylist is? If you go for a photoshoot for a magazine, the stylist
will make sure your clothes, hair, and makeup look perfect. Well, a foodstylist does the same thing. Have you ever bought a burger from McDonald’sand thought that the burger you got doesn’t look anything like the burger
on the menu? Well, that is because a food stylist has worked on the burger
in the picture and made it look perfect. They have to prepare and position
the food so the photographer can take the best possible picture of it. They
need to have a good eye4 and be able to think of what makes the food lookdelicious. Professional food stylists can earn a lot of money. Because theirjob is to make the food look as good as possible, they sometimes cheat 5 alittle. They have a lot of techniques6 that they can use to make the food lookbetter than it actually does. They can space out the ingredients 7, or use aframe to make the food look bigger, and they can add coloring or specialeffects. If you are artistic and you like working with food, this might be thejob for you, but you don’t get to eat the food.

1.on fire 火がついている 2.protective clothes 保護服 3.fire extinguisher
消火器 4.have a good eye 色彩感覚が優れている 5.cheat だます
6.technique 技術 7.ingredients 材料