Africa is the second largest continent, covering about a fifth of the world’s landmass. It stretches equally to the north and south of the equator and is made up of many different kinds of landscapes and ecosystems.

Africa consists of over 50 states, many of which became independent in the 20th century. The whole continent was ruled by European powers until the world wars. Today, many nations still suffer from the lack of democratic elements. Dictators and military leaders rule politically unstable countries, in which there are no free elections.

The continent has great deposits of the world’s most valuable minerals and raw materials, including diamonds, coal, copper and gold. However, Africa is the least developed of all continents. Food is often scarce and droughts hit many regions on a regular basis. Diseases spread throughout Africa, life expectancy is low and poverty is widespread.

Image : Martin23230, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Landscapes of Africa

Atlas Mountains

Sahara Desert

Atlas mountains in Marocco
Image: Kobersky (talk · contribs), CC BY-SA 2.5,
via Wikimedia Commons

Sahara desert in Algeria
Image: Fiontain, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Nile River

In the eastern part of the Sahara desert the Nile River winds its way to the Mediterranean Sea. The longest river system in the world begins near the equator in the highlands of Eastern Africa and flows through many different landscapes.

East African Highlands

East Africa is dominated by highlands and plateaus, as well as lakes and deep mountain valleys. They stretch from Ethiopia in the north to Mozambique in the south. Most of the highlands reach heights of over 1,500 metres. The highest mountains are old volcanoes that are not active any more. Mount Kilimanjaro, situated near the equator, is almost 6,000 metres high.

The Great Rift Valley is a series of cracks in the Earth’s surface that extends from The Red Sea to Mozambique. It was created when the African continent broke apart millions of years ago. The area once was dominated by active volcanoes and earthquakes. Today, the Great Rift Valley is made up of deep and narrow lakes. Lake Tanganyika, which is over 400 miles long and 1500 metres deep, is the longest freshwater lake in the world. The largest African lake, Lake Victoria, lies is a shallow basin between two deep valleys.

Great Rift Valley
Image: Sémhur, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Congo River Basin

The Congo River with its gigantic basin takes up much of central Africa. It stretches from the Atlantic to the highlands of East Africa and makes up about 20% of the world’s rainforests. Except for the Amazon, it carries more water than any other river in the world. The rainforest is habitat of half of the Africa’s plants and wildlife.

Deserts in Southern Africa

Southern Africa is covered by large deserts. The Namib Desert is the oldest in the world. It stretches along the Southern Atlantic coast of the continent and reaches up to 200 km inland. Its sand dunes near the coast reach a height of 300 metres and are up to 30 km long.

The Kalahari Desert is a dry sand basin that covers much of Botswana and western Namibia. It is not a real desert because the area gets at least some rainfall which makes it possible for animals to graze during the wet season.

South Africa

Most of South Africa is a series of old plateaus called velds. They reach a height of about 2,500 metres. To the south a ridge called the Great Escarpment drops down to the small coastal strip. Within this escarpment, the Drakensberg rises to an altitude of almost 3,500 metres.

Namib Desert and the Atlantic coast
Image: Robur.q, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Great Escarpment
Image: NJR ZA, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Islands

Africa is a continent with straight coastlines and therefore very few islands. The largest island, Madagascar, lies almost 400 km east of the mainland. Millions of years ago it was a part of India. It split from the Asian subcontinent and developed its own plant and animal life. Other important island groups are the Canaries in the Atlantic Ocean and the Seychelles and Mauritius in the Indian Ocean.

Climate and Vegetation

Most parts of Africa are warm or hot, but rainfall varies from region to region. It decreases the farther you move away from the equator. Most of Africa lies in the tropical or subtropical region. The highest temperatures of the continent are measured in the desert regions of the Sahara, where daytime temperatures reach up to 50°C. Nights can be cool and frosty, even during the summer. The coldest regions of Africa lie in the eastern highlands and southern Africa.

Most of Africa is divided into wet and dry seasons. Near the equator there are two very wet seasons, as the sun passes overhead in spring and fall. During this time heavy rain falls every day in the afternoon. Precipitation up to 4000 mm a year is no exception. Humidity is always high, making life in this region very unpleasant.

Other parts of Africa usually have one wet season which gets shorter the farther away you get from the equator. North of the equator most rain falls from April to September, south of the equator the rainy season is from October to March. The Mediterranean coast as well as the southern part of Africa get rainfall during the winter months.

Rainfall in Africa
Image: Delphi234, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Plant life is influenced by the amount of rainfall. Tropical rainforests extend to the north and south of the equator. They are home to thousands of plants and animal species. The rainforests consist of various layers of vegetation, from shrubs and ferns on the ground to trees that grow up to a height of 50 metres.

In the savannahs and grasslands longer grass is replaced by shorter grass as you move away from the equator, with trees scattered in-between. In some areas, like the Sahel zone, there are large differences in rainfall every year. In the last decades droughts have caused hunger and starvation in many part of the Sahel and Ethiopia.

Rainfall influences Africa’s agriculture. Nutrients in the top layers of the soil are washed away after torrential rain, on the other hand nothing can grow if it rains too little.

In the desert regions of the Sahara, Namib and Kalahari rainfall often drops to under a hundred cm a year. Differences in temperature between day and night are often larger than between summer and winter.

Climate regions in Africa are changing constantly, maybe due to global warming. Droughts are becoming more widespread across the Sahel and eastern Africa. The Sahara is moving southward and more and more areas are threatened by deforestation.

Rainy season in the Sahel zone
Image: NOAA, US Gov, Unidentified, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Population

Africa is often referred to as the cradle of mankind. Scientists agree that the first humans probably appeared in Africa 4 million years ago and from there spread to other continents.

About 1.2 billion people live in Africa today. By 2050 the population of the continent is expected to double. Africa is the continent with the highest birth-rates and strongest population growth. This is because medical aid is getting better, there are more hospitals and doctors who take care of the population. Compared with other continents the average life expectancy in Africa is still low. In some countries of central Africa people barely reach 60.

Life expectancy in Africa
Image (modified) :Lady3mlnm, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Africa’s population is unevenly distributed over the continent. Many parts of the Sahara desert and the tropical rainforest are sparsely inhabited. On the other hand the Nile Delta, the Mediterranean coast, Nigeria, the highlands of eastern Africa are densely populated. On average about 65 people live on 1 square mile.

Many people in Africa suffer from a shortage of food, droughts, poor sanitation and a series of tropical diseases. In addition, AIDS is widespread and the biggest single killer of the continent.

Tribal groups

The people in Africa belong to various cultures and have different social backgrounds. Arabs live in the Mediterranean countries of northern Africa. They came to the region at around 600 A.D. and blended in with the Berbers, the people who had already been living there.

Black Africans are in the majority south of the Sahara desert. These people are made up of thousands of different tribes, who speak over a thousand languages and have different traditions and cultures. Among the largest groups are the Yoruba of Nigeria and the Zulu of South Africa.

In the 17th and 18th centuries Europeans started to settle in the southern part of Africa. Especially the Dutch and the British found their way to the coast of the southern Cape and spread inwards. There they met native tribes and fought wars against them. During the colonial period of the 19th century millions of Europeans made their way to Africa, many of them stayed there. Asians, above all Indians, settled on the eastern coast and Madagascar.

Nomads in northeastern Africa
Image: Nikswieweg, CC BY-SA 2.0 DE, via Wikimedia Commons

Yoruba drummers in Nigeria
Image: Melvin “Buddy” Baker from St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Religions

There are hundreds of local religions spread across the African continent. Many native tribes pray to gods and other spirits, mostly to get a good harvest and stay in good health. Some religious ceremonies prepare young people for adulthood and marriage.

About 500 million Muslims live in Africa, especially in the Arab countries of the north. But also Nigeria, Somalia and Tanzania have strong Islamic groups. Christianity spread to Africa through the work of missionaries from Europe and North America. Today Christianity is dominant in the non-Arab countries south of the Sahara desert. Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa also has the largest number of Christians (about 80 million) on the continent. Copts are the native Christians in Egypt. They represent about 10% of the population there.

Religions in Africa
Image: derivative work: T L Miles (talk) / uploader of original revision of Religion_distribution.png was Moshin,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Life in Traditional African Societies

Today’s Society

Although most Africans still live in rural areas, cities are growing fast, mostly because many people do not have jobs in the countryside and move to the urban areas to find more opportunities and a better life. Today about 50% of the population lives in cities. Lagos, Nigeria, Kinshasa (Democratic Republic of Congo) and Cairo, Egypt are among the fastest growing cities in the world.

Africa’s Economy

Although Africa is a continent that is rich in resources and raw materials, a large part of its population lives in poverty. In the last few decades, the standard of living has improved but income is still very low. In addition, Africa relies heavily on farming products and minerals as a source of income.

Farming

Farming is the most important economic activity and way of earning money for the people of Africa. Almost 70% of its population work in agriculture.

Most of the continent’s population depends on staple crops, food that people need themselves and base their diet on. These include corn, sorghum, rice and wheat as well as potatoes, fruits and vegetables. Cash crops are grown on large plantations and exported to other countries. They include cocoa, bananas and coffee.

In many African countries, food production cannot keep up with the increasing population. This leads to chronic food shortages. Some African countries have turned from food exporters in the last century to food importers today. However, most of them do not have the money and capital to import food from abroad. In addition, climate change and widespread droughts lead to hunger and starvation in many parts of Africa.

Livestock is raised in all parts of Africa. Sheep, goats, camels, pigs and other animals are kept for food, skin and as working and transportation animals.

Farmers in Burkina Faso
Image: Public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=289842

Cocoa harvest in Cameroon
Image: CHRISTONALDO, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mining

Africa is rich with minerals and raw materials. The continent has large deposits of copper, gold, phosphates, platinum and minerals. The mining industry focuses on the countries south of the equator. Diamonds, gold and coal are produced in South Africa, which has the most advanced mining industry. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil-producing country. Bauxite and phosphates are mined in Morocco.

While Africa does have many resources, they do not control the world markets. Most countries do not process raw materials but export them to developed countries. The fight over raw materials has also led to conflicts and wars in Africa. Selling diamonds illegally, for example, helped to finance a civil war in Sierra Leone in the 1990s.

Minerals in Africa

Manufacturing

Industry is a young sector of the African economy. Most industries were set up after the countries got their independence from Europe. During the colonial period they got their finished products from Europe, often at a high price. Many nations still have developing industrial sectors. While foreigners own many companies, the number of young African businessmen opening up firms has increased steadily.

Tourism and Transportation

Tourism is a leading source of income in at least some African countries. Millions of people from around the globe visit the historic sites of ancient Egypt. Others travel to the mountains of eastern Africa or go on a safari in one of the game reserves in Kenya or Tanzania. Conflicts, wars and uprisings during the Arab Spring kept tourists away from Egypt and northern Africa.

Transportation is poorly developed in many African countries. Only the middle and upper classes own cars. Many Africans go on foot or use buses and bikes as a method of transportation. Air transport is well developed in places that attract tourists, like Egypt and Kenya

Game reserve in South Africa
Image:flowcomm, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

History of Africa

Africa is often called the cradle of civilization. The first human beings roamed the continent about 2 million years ago. Old civilizations grew along the banks of the Nile River. Thousands of years ago ancient Egypt became a powerful empire, to the south Nubia emerged in today’s Sudan.

In the early centuries after the birth of Christ Christianity started to spread to northern Africa. In the Middle Ages Islam became the major religion. It spread across northern Africa very quickly and later on expanded to regions south of the Sahara desert. Christianity experienced a comeback in the 19th century when missionaries from Europe began to spread it to western and central Africa.

After 1000 A.D., great empires emerged in Ghana and other areas in western African. City-states, including Mogadishu and Zanzibar, grew into powerful trading centres in East Africa.

Towards the end of the Middle Ages the first Europeans came to Africa. From the early 1500s on, they made money by bringing slaves to North America. The British, Dutch and Portuguese set up trading posts along the western African coast where they searched for gold and ivory. In the 17th century, the Dutch set up a trading post at the Cape of Good Hope. It grew into a Dutch colony until the 19th century, when the British took over.

At the end of the 19th century, Europeans ruled most of Africa. They saw the continent as a major source of raw materials that they could bring back to Europe for their emerging industries. As a result, the Industrial Revolution did not take place in Africa. Throughout the colonial period, European countries fought for influence and control in Africa. In the “Scramble for Africa”, they divided the continent into spheres of interest. Native Africans often resisted colonial governments and in many areas, they were killed in uprisings.

The main colonial powers were:

• Great Britain (Egypt, Sudan, Eastern Africa, Rhodesia and South Africa)
• France (Algeria, French West Africa, Equatorial Africa)
• Belgium (Congo)
• Portugal(Angola, Mozambique)
• Germany (Southwest Africa – Namibia)
• Spain (Spanish Sahara)
• Italy (Ethiopia, Libya, Somaliland)

In the early 1900s, nationalism grew in many areas of Africa. People wanted colonialism to end and be free. After World War II most European countries ended their involvement in Africa, either out of their own free will or because they were forced out.

African colonies
Image: Eric Gaba – Wikimedia Commons user: Sting, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

In the 1950s, Algerians started to revolt against France. In a bloody colonial war that cost a million lives the Algerians became independent in 1962. In Angola and Mozambique, the Portuguese fought wars before they gave up their territories.

One of the last countries to gain independence was Rhodesia, today’s Zimbabwe, where blacks fought for over a decade against the British. In South Africa, white Europeans gave up control of the country after Apartheid ended in the 1990s.

Many African countries did not know how to cope with their newly gained independence, largely because they had no experience in administrating and governing a nation. As a result, civil wars, tribal conflicts and power struggles broke out. They resulted in dozens of wars in Africa since the 1960s. In the most gruesome conflict of the 1990s, a civil war in Ruanda led to the massacre of hundreds of thousands of people. However, Africa has had to cope with other problems as well. Virus outbreaks, for example Ebola, and other tropical diseases have killed thousands in the past years.

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Put the pieces of the puzzle into the correct position to create a map of Africa.

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Tropical rainforests are woodlands around the equator with a lot of vegetation that is evergreen. It is very warm and rain falls throughout the year.

Although only 7 % of the land surface are covered with rainforests, more than half of the world’s plants and animal species live there.

Rainforests are very important for human beings. Plants produce food and medicine, and we get industrial products out of some of them. Trees produce timber, help control the earth’s climate and supply us with fresh air.

Despite these advantages, people cut down thousands of square kilometres of rainforest every year.

Half of the world’s rainforests can be found in the Amazon River basin in South America. Smaller rainforests lie in Central America and southern Mexico. The western part of Africa has about 2 million square kilometres of rainforest in and around the Congo River basin. Rainforests in Asia are found in southern India, Malaysia and on many Indonesian islands.

The world’s tropical rainforests

Climate

Temperatures stay the same the whole year round—about 20 to 30 degrees Celsius.

Around the equator there are two rainy seasons with heavy rainfall — up to 10 metres. When you move away from the equator, it gets a bit drier in some months , but there are still more than 2 metres of rain a year.

The weather hardly changes from one day to the next. In the morning it is clear . The sun starts heating up the ground and warm, humid air starts to rise. In the afternoon, clouds get darker and there are thunderstorms for an hour or two before it starts to clear up again .

Most of the rain stays in the rainforest . It evaporates , creates clouds and comes down again.

Rainforest soils are not very fertile because the rain washes out most of the nutrients.

Structure of the Rainforest

Rainforests have four layers.

• The top layer is the canopy. It consists of the tallest trees of the rainforest. They may get over 50 metres tall. But only very few reach this height. This is the part that gets most of the sunlight.
• The subcanopy is a layer of trees that is below the canopy. More than 70 % of rainforest animals and plant species live in the canopy and subcanopy. Lianas often climb around trees.
• The understory is the shadowy lower area. It has young trees and plants like ferns or palms that do not need much light. Only 1 or 2 per cent of the sunlight reaches the understory.
• The floor has a thin layer of leaves, seeds or fruits and branches that fall from the trees. It decomposes fast, and new material takes its place.

When large , tall trees die and fall to the ground, they leave a gap in the rainforest. Very quickly, smaller trees take this place and their crowns grow larger. That’s why the layers of the rain forest always change.

Rainforest canopy on the Andaman Islands in the Indian Ocean
Image :  © Vyacheslav Argenberg / http://www.vascoplanet.com/, CC BY 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Plants of the Rainforest

About half of the world’s plant species can be found in the rainforest. Because it is warm and rains the whole year, forests stay green. Trees lose their leaves and immediately grow new ones. The rain forest is the home of many plants : lianas, ferns, orchids and many kinds of tropical trees.

Palm tree

Palm trees grow in the hot and wet climate of the tropics. They give us food, drink and sometimes building material. Most palm trees are found in Southeast Asia, South America and on islands in the Pacific.

There are over 2,000 kinds of palms. They grow straight and tall and most of them carry fruits, like the coconut.

Rubber tree

Rubber is one of our most important raw materials. Natural rubber comes from the juice of the rubber tree. It grows best in hot climates. The tree can be about 20 metres tall. It has smooth, shiny leaves. A white, milky fluid comes out of the bark if you cut into it. This is called latex.

Today, most rubber comes from plantations in Southeast Asia.

Orchid

Wild orchids grow in places with a lot of rainfall. Most species grow on trunks or branches of trees. In cooler regions, orchids are grown in greenhouses. Most of them grow in a mixture of fascinating colours.

Ferns at Melbourne Botanical Gardens
Image : fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, GFDL 1.2,
via Wikimedia Commons

White orchid
Image : Niall Kearney, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Latex collected from a rubber tree
Image:  Irvin calicut, Public domain,
via Wikimedia Commons

Animals of the Rainforest

Fish, reptiles, birds and insects also live in the rainforest and its rivers. Plants and animals need each other to survive. Insects pollinate the flowers of the rainforest. Animals get food from the flowers’ nectar. Seeds from trees are often taken away by other animals and birds and dropped in faraway areas.

Piranha

The piranha is a fish with sharp teeth that lives in the lakes and rivers of the Amazon . It attacks and eats other fish and water animals. In some cases, it even attacks humans. Piranhas have flat bodies and can grow up to 30 cm long.

Red piranha
Image: Cliff, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Toucan

Toucans are typical birds of the tropical rainforests. They have big and long bills that are brightly coloured , so that they can attract other birds. The largest toucans can get up to 65 cm long. Most of them live in hollow trees.

Toucan
Image : Basa Roland, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Gorilla

Gorillas are the largest members of the ape family. They have huge shoulders, long arms and short legs. They may weigh up to 200 kg.

Gorillas live in Africa near the equator. Although most of them live in the lowlands, there are some highland types.

People have hunted gorillas for a long time . As a result, they have become very rare and only about 1,000 gorillas live in the wild today.

Gorilla at Detroit Zoo
Image : RedGazelle15, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Value of the Rainforest

People benefit from the rainforest in many ways :

• Economic value – Wood is the most important product of the rainforest. About 80 % of it is used for energy and 20 % is sold to make furniture. The forests produce other valuable goods like fruits, nuts, different kinds of oils and rubber.
• Scientific value – Scientists study the rainforest as an ecosystem. They learn a lot about how plants and animals live together. Tropical plants are used to cure diseases like malaria.
• Environmental value – Rainforests help to regulate our environment. Trees control the water that reaches the ground. They also take up a lot of rain. Much of this water evaporates and gets into the atmosphere again as vapour. Then it turns into rain and comes down to earth. Without rainforests, floods and droughts would be very extreme. Rainforests also help our atmosphere from becoming too warm.

Fog produces water vapour, which returns into the atmosphere
Image: Vyacheslav Argenberg (http://www.vascoplanet.com/), CC BY 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

People of the Rainforest

Most of the world’s rainforests are populated by indigenous people. These are people who have been living there for thousands of years . They depend on the rainforests for survival. Some people live in places that you can get to only by boat.

Many people collect fruits, nuts and firewood. They hunt and fish for food to stay alive. They burn down small areas of rainforest and grow crops there. When the soil gets too bad , they go to other places and plant new crops. This method of farming is called shifting cultivation.

Today, the living areas of these indigenous tribes are in danger, because other people have come here to chop down trees, raise cattle or mine gold and silver.

Woman collecting firewood in the rainforest
Image: Micleone88, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Deforestation

People are destroying the world’s rainforests at a very fast rate. One of the reasons is deforestation. More and more trees are cut down every year because

• the world’s population needs more and more wood
• people in the tropical rainforest need energy. They can’t buy oil or gas because it’s too expensive.
• governments find valuable raw materials in these areas — like iron ore, gold or silver.
• dams are built along tropical rivers.
• big companies get land to grow meat and produce food.

Deforestation in the tropical rainforest
Image : Dikshajhingan / CC BY-SA 4.0

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Writing Tasks

As a junior citizen, you are very worried about the destruction of the world’s rainforests. Write an email to your local representative and tell him your view of this problem.

In your email you should

• ask if your government is doing anything to cope with the problem
• make suggestions on how rainforests can be saved
• suggest ways of helping people who live in the rainforests

Write about 200 words.

Deforestation in Borneo
IndoMet in the Heart of Borneo, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

You are a member of an expedition team travelling through the Amazon rainforest. You have decided to keep a diary and write down what you have seen in the two weeks you have travelled. Write at least 2 diary entries.

In your entries, you should write about

• the plants and animals you have seen
• the weather you have experienced
• the native people you have met and how they live

World Population From the Beginnings to the Present

Human beings have been living on Earth for over a million years, but for a long time there were not very many of them. The world’s population was never higher than 10 million. People died quickly because they didn’t have enough food to eat. Early inhabitants were mostly hunters and fishers. Some of them gathered berries from wild plants. After people started growing crops and raising animals they had more food and lived longer.

When Jesus Christ was born about 2,000 years ago about 300 million people inhabited the Earth. During the next 1500 years the population of the world grew very slowly. Many people died of illnesses and plagues . The Black Death , which sailors brought to Europe from Asia, killed about a third of the European population in the Middle Ages.

The Industrial Revolution , which began in the middle of the 18th century, started a period of rapid population growth , especially in Europe. Farmers were able to grow more and more food because they had machines to work with. New kinds of medicine helped to fight off many diseases that had killed millions of people in the centuries before. Humans also lived longer because they had cleaner drinking water.

Birth rates started to go up because families had many children. More babies than ever before survived the first few years of childhood . The one billion mark was reached in the early 1800s. In the next one hundred years the population doubled to 2 billion, and in 1960 there were 3 billion people living on Earth.

The second half of the 20th century brought along some change :

• In Europe , North America, Japan and Australia the birth rate dropped because families wanted to have fewer children. Population growth in these areas slowed down .
• In the developing countries of Asia and Africa birth rates stayed high and better medical help in these regions lowered the death rates. That is why these countries are growing very rapidly .

In the last 30 years the world’s population has doubled. The fastest growing regions are Africa with a growth rate of 2.5 %, and Latin America with a growth rate of 0.7% per year. In Europe the population is decreasing by about 0.3 %. On average, the world’s population is growing at a rate of 1.1 % per year.



World population growth in percent
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Population_growth_rate_world.png ,
CC BY-SA 3.0 DEED

The 10 Most Populous Countries (2024)

Rank	Country	Population in millions
1	India	1 428
2	China	1 425
3	USA	339
4	Indonesia	277
5	Pakistan	240
6	Nigeria	223
7	Brazil	216
8	Bangladesh	172
9	Russia	144
10	Mexico	128



Continents’ share of world population – own work

Population Density

Population density tells us how many people live on one square kilometre of land. The world’s population is not spread evenly over the continents. Asia and Europe are the most densely populated continents. Many other areas of the world , like deserts, polar regions or high mountains are very sparsely ,or not at all populated .

About 90% of the Earth’s people live on only 10% of the land. Most of them live north of the equator because two thirds of the Earth’s landmasses are there.

Many people also live near coastal regions . In China, for example, 80% of the country’s inhabitants live in the eastern part of the country near the coast. In South America, most people live in the big cities, which all lie in coastal areas.

There are many reasons why people live in certain places. Areas with moderate temperatures and enough rainfall are densely populated, because people find good farming conditions there. Raw materials also attract groups of people. North-western Germany and parts of England are densely populated because coal is mined there. Economic reasons also play an important role in choosing where to live. People go to places where they can find jobs and where the economy is strong.



World Population Density
Image: English English is Correct, CC0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Population Pyramids

Population pyramids tell us how many people there are in a certain age group as well as the number of men and women in these groups.

There are three different types of pyramids:

• Countries with a fast growing population
  These pyramids show a strong base and a very narrow top. Birth rates are high and there many children and young people. People also die earlier than in Europe or North America.
• Countries with zero growth
  The number of births reached its peak during the baby boom of the 1950s and 60s. Since then the birth rate has been constant.
• Counties with declining population
  Many European countries have such a population structure. Families are having fewer children and the death rate is sometimes higher than the birth rate. The baby boomers of the past century are getting older and older, which leads to many pensioners. These countries can only grow if they have enough immigrants who come to live and work there.




Such pyramids also can tell governments which problems they will be facing in the future. Countries , in which more than half of the population is under 18, will need more and more schools and later on enough jobs to give all citizens work.

Countries with a declining population have a high number of older people. They don’t have enough young workers to pay the pension for these people when they retire. Such countries need more hospitals and old people’s homes to care for their elderly citizens.

Almost all pyramids show that, although more boys are born than girls, there are more older women than men. This is, partly, because women live longer than men—3 to 5 years on average.



Angola – Fast growing population



Jordan – Zero growth



Italy – Declining population

Source : PopulationPyramid.net Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO

City Population

Up to the Industrial Revolution people all over the world lived mainly in the countryside. In 1800, only 3 % of the world’s population lived in cities. In 1900 only 12 cities had more than 1 million people.

Today, about half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. There are over 500 cities with more than a million people. In developed countries, up to 70 % or more live in larger cities, whereas in poorer countries this rate is below 40 %.

During the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century cities grew fast, especially in Europe and North America, because new industries were created there and people found many jobs . Later on cities grew more slowly because they became overcrowded and diseases could spread faster. Today death rates in cites are low because they have better doctors and more hospitals.

In industrialized countries the growth of cities has stopped. New York and London grew very quickly during the 1800s and early 1900s, but since then their growth has slowed down.

African and Asian cities like Lagos, Bombay or Calcutta are growing rapidly and this will probably continue during the next years. About 40 cities around the world have a population of over 5 million . They are called megacities . 80% of them are in poorer countries.

People go to the cities for many reasons. The table shows you what pulls them to the cities and what pushes them away from the countryside.

Pull Factors

• more and better jobs
• better hospitals and health care
• better living standards
• cities are social and financial centres
• better education—schools and universities

Push Factors

• too many people in the countryside
• low income
• not enough raw materials (water, wood etc..)
• the quality of farming land is getting worse



The largest cities in the world (2023) – own work

China’s One Child Policy

In 1979 the Chinese government started its “one child” policy because the population of the country was growing too fast. A married couple was only allowed to have one child. If families followed this government plan they would get free education, health care and money for their only child. However, families that had two or more children were punished. They had to pay for everything themselves and got no help from the government. They even had to pay more tax.

To help control population growth, China allowed women to have free abortions and gave them birth control pills for free.

The government’s plan also caused many problems for China. Parents often wanted to have a boy instead of a girl in order to carry on the family name. As a result female babies were often left on the streets by their mothers and some were even killed. 90% of unborn babies that are aborted are female.

In the last 40 years China’s population growth has slowed down. Without the one-child policy there would probably be about 300 million more people living in China today. The law worked mostly in cities, where the government had more control over the people. In the countryside where a lot of poor farmers and minorities lived , the laws were not so strict. People were not punished for having two or more children

China ended its one-child policy in 2016. The government started allowing families to have two children. In 2021 they allowed familes three children.



Migration

Migration means leaving your home country and living or working somewhere else. Some countries, like the USA, have a population that is made up mainly of immigrants or their descendants who have arrived there in the past 200 years.

Today, about 150 million people live outside their native countries. The biggest movements of people are from

• Central and South America to North America
• Eastern Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union to Western Europe
• Africa and Asia to Europe
• the Middle East to Europe




People leave their home countries for many reasons. Sometimes they think they can get better jobs and more money in richer countries. Sometimes they leave their own country for political reasons or because of their religion.

During the course of history people have left their homes because of unemployment, wars in their country or because of a famine. Thousands of Irish men and women left the island in the middle of the 19th century because there was a potato crisis and many of them didn’t have enough to eat.

The Balkan wars in the 1990s left millions of people homeless. They became refugees and went to neighboring countries to the north and west. Conflicts in the Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan brought over 1.5 million people to Western Europe in 2015 alone.

Some countries depend on immigrants to keep their economy running or because they have low birth rates and need foreigners to work. Today, governments in many countries face illegal immigration. Especially the USA and countries in Western Europe are sending back more and more people to their home countries.



Refugees at the Slovenian – Austrian border in 2015
Image:Borut Podgoršek, MORS, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Status of Women

The situation of women in our world today is very important. There are many differences between richer and poorer countries.

In industrialized countries birth rates have fallen since the 1960s. One reason is that more and more women have jobs and go to work. They do not want to stay at home any longer and have fewer babies.

In developing countries the situation of women is different. Many of them are at home, do the household chores and care for their children.

Helping women in the Third World is very important and can slow down the population explosion. One of the key factors is education. Women who go to school and maybe later on study at a university have higher chances of getting a job. They don’t marry so early and start having children at a later age.

Such women also know more about birth control and can plan the number of children they want to have.

Educated women also know more about health care. Young girls who have sex at an early age risk getting AIDS and passing it on to their babies when they are pregnant. More than half of the 40 million people living with AIDS today are women. In Africa, more than 75 % of all AIDS victims are young women between 15 and 24.



Number of births per 1,000 people
Image: Korakys, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Old Age

Developed countries all over the world have the same problem. Their birth rates are falling and people are getting older. Medical and health care is getting better all the time. We call this an ageing society.

In industrialized countries life expectancy is getting higher and higher. In most European countries women reach an average of over 80 years and men live up to about 78.

We need more and more people who care for the elderly. This means building more old people’s homes and other care units.

The government must spend more money on pensions. This won’t work if we don’t have enough young people who have jobs and pay taxes. More and more people have to work up to 65 and longer. They take away jobs that young adults need.

An older labor force means that we are not as flexible and productive as countries that have young workers.

Dangers of Overpopulation

The world’s population is growing by almost 80 million people every year. We will be facing many problems in the future:

Environmental Problems

• More and more people need room to live. They are taking away the living areas of animals and plants.
• Cities have problems making enough drinking water for thousands of people who want to start a new life there every year.
• Population in rural areas is growing too. People need more food and have to grow more crops on the same land. This means that the quality of the soil is getting worse and worse.
• More and more trees are being destroyed, especially in tropical regions. More carbon dioxide, which is usually taken up by trees, is now set free into the atmosphere. This leads to global warming.

Poverty

Population growth is highest in developing countries. Young people have to care for their parents and grandparents, so they have less money to buy the things that they need. They stay poor.

Africa is the fastest-growing continent on earth. But its people are getting poorer and poorer. Every third person in Africa doesn’t have enough to eat. The average African family has about 5 children.



Houses in a slum in Nairobi, Kenya
Image:Colin Crowley, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Food and Water

The “ Green Revolution” of the 1960s and 70s has given farmers better methods and tools to grow crops and food. But ,still, they cannot produce enough to feed the growing population. Food will get expensive for these countries because some of them have to buy it from industrial countries. Many people die of starvation and millions more will die in the future. In addition , about 400 million people all over the world live in places where there is not enough drinking water.

Unemployment

Many Third World countries have a high number of children or young people. Unemployment will be going up over the next decades, because the governments cannot create enough jobs to give work to its younger generation. Young people who can’t find any work sometimes try to get money by stealing, dealing with drugs or doing other illegal things. This might lead to social unrest in such countries.



Demonstration against unemployment in southern India
Image:No machine-readable author provided. Soman assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

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]]> https://topics.english-online.at/the-great-lakes/ Fri, 16 Feb 2024 06:37:57 +0000 https://topics.english-online.at/?p=1410 Introduction

The Great Lakes consist of five lakes in North America, on the border between the United States and Canada. Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior make up the greatest area of freshwater in the world. The five lakes have an area of about 100,000 square miles (250 000 square kilometres). Only one of them, Lake Michigan lies completely in the United States, the others form a natural border between the United States and Canada.

The St. Lawrence Seaway, opened in 1959, connects the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean, making it possible for cargo vessels to travel all the way to Chicago, more than a thousand miles from the coast. The lakes are also connected through a series of rivers and canals with the Mississippi River and the Gulf of Mexico.

The Great Lakes are not all at the same sea level. Lake Superior lies at an elevation of 183 meters, while Lake Ontario lies lowest, at 74 meters above sea level. Niagara Falls, between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, causes a drop of a hundred meters. A system of locks and canals makes it possible for ships to travel between the Lakes. During the winter months, large parts of the Great Lakes freeze but icebreakers keep shipping lanes open most of the time.



The Great Lakes
Image : Phizzy at the English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/,
via Wikimedia Commons



St. Lawrence Seaway
Image: 20px|link=User:Kcida10|Kcida10 Kcida10 (talk) (Uploads)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons



Niagara Falls
Image:Saffron Blaze, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

How the Great Lakes Were Formed

The basin of today’s lakes was formed about 2 billion years ago through volcanic activity. Recently the glaciers of the Ice Age repeatedly advanced and retreated throughout the region. They pushed rocks and other material with them and dug out a huge depression which filled itself with melting water after the last withdrawal of the glaciers, about 20,000 years ago. Together with the five Great Lakes thousands of other, smaller lakes were formed.

The Great Lakes gets most of their water from rain and snow throughout the year. Groundwater makes up most of the rest because there are only few large rivers flowing into the lakes. Due to global warming water levels have been going down in recent years.



The Great Lakes during the Ice Age
Image: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b0/Glacial_lakes.jpg,
Public Domain

Economic Importance of the Great Lakes

The Great Lakes have contributed very much to the economic development of the United States and Canada. Millions of tons of raw material, including ore and coal, as well as industrial goods are transported along the Great Lakes every year. About 70% of all the iron ore of the United States is mined near Lake Superior. Large freighters bring it to all parts of the world.

Much of the coal produced in the Appalachian coal fields are brought to the Great Lakes by train where they are loaded onto cargo ships and exported to other areas.

Farming crops of the American Midwest, including corn and wheat are brought to the harbours along the Great Lakes where they are exported to other countries.

Because water transport is very cheap, farmers in the American Midwest and Canada can compete with their rivals in other continents.



Cargo ship on St. Lawrence Seaway
Image:Own work, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Recreation and Tourism

Millions of Americans spend much of their free time on and around the Great Lakes. Residents of Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, Milwaukee and other big cities flock to the beaches to escape the stressful life of the inner cities. Sailing and other water sports are widespread due to strong winds that prevail in the Great Lakes region. Fishing is a main source of income for many people in the area.



Beach in Chicago
Image: Chris6d, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Sailing on Lake Ontario
Image: Larry Koester, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

History of the Great Lakes

The first settlers sailed down the Great Lakes about 300 years ago. In those days they were mainly fur traders who made business with Indians. The first canals in the 19th century made it possible to travel from lake to lake.

During the course of the 20th century the water quality of the Great Lakes deteriorated, largely because of pollution by cargo vessels and industries along its shores. Recently the United States and Canady have been spending millions every year to raise the quality of the world’s largest freshwater region.

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]]> https://topics.english-online.at/earthquakes/ Mon, 12 Feb 2024 16:39:30 +0000 https://topics.english-online.at/?p=1362 Introduction

An earthquake is one of the worst natural disasters on our earth. We think that the ground we stand on is very stable, but it isn’t. It moves quite a lot. In the last few decades scientists have been able to find out why earthquakes happen.

Earthquakes happen when there is a sudden vibration in the earth’s crust. It’s like a large lorry that travels down your street. When it passes by, you feel your house shake.

Earthquakes can be caused by a lot of things :

• Volcanoes that suddenly erupt
• Meteorites that hit the earth
• Underground explosions
• Buildings that fall apart

But most earthquakes happen because the Earth’s plates move.

In the middle of the 20th century scientists found out that continents do not always stay in the same place. They have been moving on plates for millions of years. The earth’s surface is made up of many such plates. Where two plates meet magma comes out of the inner part of the Earth . These areas are called faults—breaks in the Earth’s crust.



Map of earthquakes 1900 – 2017 and their magnitudes
Image: Phoenix7777Own workOpenStreetMap contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

How Plates Move

When two plates move away from each other lava or magma comes out of the earth. Most of this happens at the bottom of oceans, where the earth’s crust is very thin. Lava cools down when it reaches the water and underwater mountains are formed.

When plates push towards each other—one of them slides under the other. Rocks are pushed up and new mountains are formed.

Some plates slide past each other— for example, one moves north and the other moves south . When these plates move along faults a lot of energy is released and the biggest earthquakes happen.

We only hear about earthquakes once in a while , but they really happen every day. There are more than 3 million earthquakes every year—about 8,000 every day or one every 11 seconds.

But most of them are very weak or they happen in places where nobody lives. Some of them take place on the sea floor.



Two plates moving away from each other
Image: domdomegg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Two plates sliding past each other
Image: domdomegg, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Where Earthquakes Happen

Earthquakes occur all over the world but there are places where they happen more often. Big earthquakes can be found where plates meet.

80% of the world’s earthquakes happen around the Pacific Ocean—near the east coast of Asia and the west coast of America. Japan has over 2,000 earthquakes every year and California and South America are also very active earthquake zones. The edge of the Pacific Ocean is also called the “Ring of Fire” because there are also many active volcanoes in this region.



The Pacific Ring of Fire
Image: Gringer (talk) 23:52, 10 February 2009 (UTC),
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Earthquake Waves

When there is a sudden movement in the earth’s crust, energy moves in the form of waves . It’s like dropping something into water.

Body waves move through the inner part of the Earth and surface waves travel over the earth’s surface. Body waves can travel very fast—up to 8 km a second. They travel through rock , water and gas . When they reach other places on the Earth’s surface they can be registered there. They are usually the first waves to get to the surface. Surface waves cause the most damage, but they move very slowly. These waves come at the end of an earthquake.

Man-made Earthquakes

Sometimes people can make earthquakes happen. They can fill man-made lakes with water after building a dam—or they test atomic bombs underground. Some of these tests can help scientists find out how quakes happen.

How Earthquakes Are Measured

With a machine called a seismograph scientists can tell where an earthquake happened and how strong it was.

The place in the Earth where the movement takes place is called the focus or hypocentre. From here, waves start to spread out in all directions. This focus can be very near to the surface or it can be hundreds of km below it. The area on the surface exactly above the focus is called the epicentre. This is the place where the waves hit first and where the most damage is done.



Seismograph
Image: MicheleLovesArt, CC BY-SA 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Epicenter and Hypocenter
Image: AnsateSam Hocevar (original author; this is a derivative work)User:TFerenczy create SVG version; cs translationUser:NikNaks es translationUser:Lies Van Rompaey nl translationUser:Rostik252004 ru translationUser:Ата uk translation, CC BY-SA 1.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Whenever an earthquake hits us you hear how powerful it is. The Richter Scale is used to rate the magnitude of earthquakes. Small quakes have a rating of under 4. You won’t see a lot of damage here. Medium-sized earthquakes reach between 5 and 7 on the scale, and the really big ones are above 7. The largest earthquake that has ever been registered was at 9.5 on the Richter scale.

There are more than 100 seismograph stations all over the world. When the Earth shakes seismologists compare the information they get and then they can tell where the earthquake really happened.

Effects of Earthquakes

Earthquakes make the ground move. Buildings shake and many of them collapse. Landslides also happen when rocks get loose.

Another danger is fire. In 1906 San Francisco was hit by a big earthquake and many houses burned down because they were made of wood.

When an earthquake occurs on the sea floor, big waves – called tsunamis—hit the coast. They often come without any warning and they kill many people and destroy buildings and streets near the coast.

Earthquakes also can lead to diseases, especially in developing countries. When water supplies are destroyed people don’t have safe water to drink. Sometimes earthquakes also hit hospitals where injured people are treated.



San Francisco earthquake in 1906
Image: Chadwick, H. D , Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons



Destroyed buildings after the Turkey – Syria earthquake in 2023
Image: Əziz Kərimov (VOA), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Greatest Earthquakes in History

• 856

  200,000 people are killed in one of the deadliest earthquakes in history in Damghan, Iran.

• 1138

  An earthquake in Aleppo, Syria kills 230,000

• 1556

  The deadliest earthquake in history hits Shensi province in China. Almost 1 million people are killed.

• 1755

  The most serious earthquake in Europe hits Lisbon, Portugal. The whole city is destroyed. About 70,000 people get killed.

• 1906

  The city of San Francisco is hit by a large earthquake. A big fire destroys most of the city. About 500 people die.

• 1908

  Messina, Sicily is totally destroyed by a large earthquake . About 70,000 people are killed.

• 1923

  Tokyo, Japan is destroyed by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.3 . 150,000 people are killed.

• 1960

  The strongest earthquake ever recorded hits Chile. It reaches 9.5 on the Richter scale. 20,000 people die.

• 1964

  The strongest earthquake in North America hits Anchorage Alaska. Ocean waves reach a height of 20 metres. 200 people are killed.

• 1976

  The biggest earthquake ever recorded in China leaves 242,000 people dead.

• 2004

  Indian Ocean earthquake followed by a tsunami that kills 250 000 people.

• 2010

  160 000 people die in an earthquake on Haiti.

• 2011

  A 9.1 earthquake – the strongest ever recorded in Japan – hits the country’s east coast and causes the Fukushima nuclear disaster

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]]> https://topics.english-online.at/new-york-a-city-that-never-sleeps/ Tue, 06 Feb 2024 16:51:51 +0000 https://topics.english-online.at/?p=1316 Introduction

New York is the biggest city in the United States with a population of over 8 million . It lies along the Hudson River in the southeast corner of the state that has the same name. New York is always alive – a “city that never sleeps”.

Boroughs of New York

New York is made up of five districts, called boroughs.

• Manhattan is the central part of New York. It is the smallest district with an area of only 60 square kilometres. All of the city’s major banks and the stock exchanges can be found here. It is the seat of the city’s government and the home of cultural institutions.
• Brooklyn is a major seaport and the centre of industry. It has the most residents of all boroughs and is known as the district of churches and homes.
• Queens is the largest of New York’s boroughs. It consists of rows of single-family houses and is often referred to as the city’s biggest suburb. Whites, Hispanics and Blacks live together in Queens.
• The Bronx , a residential district with many apartment buildings, is the only borough situated on the mainland.
• For many years Staten Island could only be reached by ferry. Today, the borough is connected with Brooklyn through the Verrazano – Narrows Bridge. The opening of this bridge in 1964 led many New Yorkers to move to Staten Island.



(1) Manhattan – (2) Brooklyn – (3) Queens – (4) The Bronx – (5) Staten Island
Image: Julius Schorzman , CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

Population

New York is a melting pot of different nationalities with people who have their origins all over the world. Hispanics, African Americans and people of European origin make up most of the city’s population. Ellis Island, not far from the Statue of Liberty, was once the main entry point for the millions of immigrants who have come to America in the past two centuries.

The first immigrants came from England, Germany and Scandinavia at the beginning of the 19th century. Between 1880 and 1930 Eastern Europeans, Italians and the Irish came to America. After World War II Asians, Cubans and Hispanics came to New York in large numbers. The city also has the largest Jewish community in the world.



Ellis Island – aerial view
Image :David.Clay.Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Culture

New York is often said to be the cultural centre of the United States. Many famous museums are at home in the city. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has a huge collection of over 2,000 European and 4,000 American paintings, sculptures and drawings. Other famous museums are the Guggenheim and the Museum of Modern Art.

New York City is especially popular among theatre-goers. The greatest theatre district in the world is around Times Square and Broadway. About 40 theatres offer a wide range of dramas, musicals and comedy shows.

Music lovers can attend performances of New York’s Metropolitan Opera or concerts of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.



The Guggenheim Museum
Image: Jean-Christophe BENOIST, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Broadway
Image: Alex Proimos from Sydney, Australia; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 00:05, 29 August 2014 (UTC), CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Transportation

Like many modern megacities New York also has great traffic problems. Most foreign travellers get to New York through John F. Kennedy International Airport, one of the world’s busiest, situated in the south-eastern part of the city.

Public transport centres on a subway system which is the largest in the world. It is over 300 km long, has over 400 stations and is used by almost 4 million people every day. Because New York is such a large city many people tend to walk or, when in a hurry, go by one of the thousands of Yellow Cabs that cruise around



Yellow cabs in Manhattan
Image: Ad Meskens, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Subway station in New York
Image:  Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



JFK International Airport
Image : User:KenzieAbraham, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

History

The first Europeans were explorers who were impressed by the area’s natural harbour. In 1609 the English navigator Henry Hudson sailed up the river that is today named after him. In 1626 the Dutch set up a trading post at the southern tip of Manhattan and called it New Amsterdam. In the same year they bought Manhattan from the Indians who lived there.



New Amsterdam in 1664
Image: Johannes Vingboons, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The British took over the colony in 1664 and named it after the Duke of York. After the American Revolution New York became America’s first capital , but only for a short time. Back then about 33,000 people lived there.

In the early part of the 19th century waves of European immigrants started to come to the city. They usually worked for little money, helped boost the economy and made New York the largest city in the country. The rapid growth of the city also created problems: crime, poverty, overpopulation and pollution. In the 1970s the city went through a big economic crisis. It didn’t have enough money to pay its bills and almost went bankrupt , but recovered again some years later.



Immigrants arriving at Ellis Island in 1902
Image:  See page for author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In recent years the city has become the target of terrorist activities. In 1993 a car bomb exploded in the basement of the World Trade Centre, killing six people. The city’s darkest hour came on September 11th , 2001 when terrorists hijacked two planes and flew them into the World Trade Centre. Both buildings collapsed— the attack killed almost three thousand people. In April 2006 developers began constructing a skyscraper called Freedom Tower at the place where the World Trade Centre once stood.



United Airlines Flight 175 crashes into the south tower of the World Trade Center complex in New York City during the September 11 attacks
Image : UA_Flight_175_hits_WTC_south_tower_9-11.jpeg: Flickr user TheMachineStops (Robert J. Fisch)derivative work: upstateNYer, CC BY-SA 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Sights of New York

For over a hundred years the Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of the United States. It stands on Liberty Island and was a gift that France gave to the USA in 1886 as a symbol of friendship between the two countries . With its pedestal made of concrete the statue has a height of 93 metres. It represents a woman looking out over the harbour. On her head is a crown and in her hand a torch. Although tourists can go up to the observation deck in the crown, the torch itself is closed to all visitors.



Statue of Liberty
Image:  “Liberty Island photo D Ramey Logan.jpg 
from Wikimedia Commons byD Ramey Logan, CC-BY 4.0“

Times Square, where 42nd Street and Broadway meet, is often called Crossroads of the World. Millions of people see it on television every New Year’s Eve. It got its name because the New York Times building was originally located there. Today it is home to theatres and cinemas with many electronic billboards surrounding the square.



Times Square
Image:  Terabass, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Empire State Building is one of the best known buildings in the world. Located in the middle of Manhattan, the steel framed structure has 102 storeys and a height of 381 metres. Built in 1931, it was the first building of such a tremendous height. For over twenty years it was the tallest building in the world and the tallest building of New York until the construction of the World Trade Centre in the 1970s. The building has appeared in famous films like King Kong and Superman. About 2 million tourists visit the Empire State Building every year.



Empire State Building
Image :  Sam Valadi, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Central Park is the largest and most important public park in Manhattan. It extends for about 4km and has an area of 340 hectares. The park includes lakes, ice rinks, fountains, playgrounds, bicycle paths and other facilities. When it was built in the 1840s the park was far away from the city’s centre. Some of it was farming area another part was swampy, wet land that had to be laid dry. It took 20,000 workers more than 15 years to remove thousands of trees and complete the park.



Central Park
Image:  Ingfbruno, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Brooklyn Bridge, built between 1869 and 1883 connects Manhattan with New York’s most populous borough, Brooklyn. The 1.5 km long bridge, which spans the East River, is one of the greatest engineering achievements of the 19th century.



Brooklyn Bridge
Image: Suiseiseki, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Grand Central Station is one of the most beautiful buildings of the city. It is the busiest train station in the world with about 800 000 people passing through it every day. It’s well-known for its wonderful ceiling with a mural of golden leaves.



Grand Central Station
Image:  Metropolitan Transportation Authority from United States of America, 
CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The 9/11 memorial is a place that commemorates the tragic events that happened on September 11, 2001.



9/11 memorial
Image : Dave Za>, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Staten Island ferry is a passenger boat that brings people from Manhattan to Staten Island. It operates 25 hours a day, 7 days a week.



Staten Island Ferry
Image :  InSapphoWeTrust, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Neighbourhoods of Manhattan



Neighbourhoods of Manhattan


Image: No machine-readable author provided. Roke~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims).,
 CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

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]]> https://topics.english-online.at/discover-australia/ Sun, 04 Feb 2024 05:25:40 +0000 https://topics.english-online.at/?p=1244 Introduction

Australia is the sixth biggest country in the world and the smallest continent. It lies between the Pacific and Indian Ocean, about 3,000 km from the mainland of Asia.

It is very far away from Europe and by plane it takes you over 20 hours to get there. Australia is often called Down Under because the whole continent lies south of the equator .

All of the world’s climates are found on the continent – from the tropical rainforest in the north to the cool and temperate climates in the south and southeast.

Australia was once a British colony and after its discovery in 1788 people from Great Britain settled there. In the past decades people from all over the world have come to Australia. Today it is a multicultural society .

The continent is also one of the richest countries in the world. It produces wool and meat on one side, as well as gold, bauxite and other minerals on the other. Australians have a high standard of living .



Image : TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Facts

Size:	7.7 square kilometres
Population :	25 million
Capital:	Canberra
Biggest Cities:	Sydney (5.2m), Melbourne (4.9m)
Currency:	Australian Dollar
Flag:	A British flag with five small stars that show the Southern Cross . One large star represents the country’s six territories.



Regions of Australia

Most of Australia is flat. The highest part of the country lies in the east. Australia can be divided into three big regions:

• The Great Dividing Range or Eastern Highlands
• The Central Lowlands
• The Western Plateau



Regions of Australia
Source : https://freevectormaps.com/australia/AU-EPS-01-0001?ref=atr

The Eastern Highlands are the highest parts of the continent. This region is also called the Great Dividing Range because the rivers that flow down the eastern slopes end in the ocean and the rivers that run down the western slopes flow into the Central Lowlands and dry up there.

The highest peaks can be found in the Australian Alps – in the southern part of the Great Dividing Range. They are covered with snow in winter and many Europeans go there to ski during the northern hemisphere‘s summer months.




The Central Lowlands consist of very flat plains . Rivers flow through this area after it rains a lot but during the rest of the year the river beds are mostly dry. In the southern part of the lowlands the grass gets high enough for farmers to raise cattle and sheep. Wheat is often grown here. In the northern part of the lowlands it gets drier and it is usually too hot and dry to grow crops . The region is not very populated and only has a few small towns.




The Western Plateau covers about two thirds of Australia. It is higher than the Central Lowlands. Most of it is made up of large deserts. Rain only falls in the north-eastern and south-western parts. Along the southern coast the Nullarbor Plain is about 700 km long. The name comes from the Latin words “nulla” and “arbor” which mean “no tree”.



The Great Dividing Range
Image :fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, GFDL 1.2, via Wikimedia Commons



Farming in the Central Lowlands
Image:Cgoodwin, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Western Australia
Image:Yewenyi at the English-language Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Australia’s Climate

Australia lies south of the equator , so its seasons are different from those of the northern hemisphere.

The southern part of Australia has four seasons. Winters are cool and rainy and last from June to August. Summers are hot and dry and last from December to January.

The northern part of the continent has a tropical climate with only two seasons. The wet season from November to April brings a lot of rain , storms and floods . The dry season lasts from May to October.

One third of Australia is desert and gets less than 25 cm of rainfall a year. The wettest part of the continent lies in the south and southeast. It gets rain the whole year, sometimes up to 3 metres . Snow only falls in the higher places of the Australian Alps.

Droughts are a big problem in many parts of Australia. In some places it doesn’t rain for many months. This leads to bush fires and a shortage of water.



Australia – Climate Zones
Source : https://freevectormaps.com/australia/AU-EPS-01-0001?ref=atr



Bush fire near Sydney
Image :Helitak430, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Floods in Queensland (2010-2011)
Image: Kingbob86 (Timothy), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Plants and Animals

Plants

The eucalyptus or gum tree is a classic Australian tree. It has narrow , oily leaves that look like leather and smell good, but also cause the tree to burn easily. It is one of the tallest trees in the world and can grow up to a height of 100 metres.

Tourists who wander around in Australia can find thousands of wildflowers in the country. The seeds lie in the desert during the dry season and when it rains they blossom in all kinds of different colours.



Eucalyptus forest in Victoria
Image : fir0002 flagstaffotos [at] gmail.com Canon 20D + Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, GFDL 1.2,
via Wikimedia Commons



Senna odorata – flowers with a sweet smell are native to Australia
Qumarchi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Animals

When the earth was formed there was only one continent . About 200 million years ago Australia was separated from this big continent and animals developed differently from those that live in other places. That is why Australia has animals which you can’t find anywhere else.

Australia’s most famous animals are marsupials. They are mammals that have their babies in pouches. Kangaroos, koalas or wallabies are the best-known marsupials in Australia. The platypus is a mammal that lays eggs, from which babies hatch.

Australia has about 700 different types of birds. Among the most famous is the kookaburra. Emus are large birds that cannot fly.

There are many species of reptiles and snakes in Australia, some of which are poisonous.



Koala
Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0



Kookaburra
Arpingstone, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Australia’s Population

Australia is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. 9 out of 10 people live on only 3% of the land.

Most of Australia’s 25 million people live near the coast, because the inner parts are made up of deserts. 80% of the country’s population live in the south-eastern part of the country. Here you can also find the big cities like Sydney and Melbourne, or the capital Canberra.

Most people in Australia come from families who emigrated to the country from Europe. Until the beginning of the 20th century most of the immigrants came from Great Britain and Ireland. After World War II, Australia’s government allowed people from other countries to enter. Since the 1970s more and more people from Asian countries have been coming to Australia.

However, not everybody is allowed to come and live in Australia. You must pass a special test and show special skills that the Australians need.



80% of all Australians live near the coast
Source : https://freevectormaps.com/australia/AU-EPS-01-0001?ref=atr



British migrants coming to Australia after World War II
Image: Norman HerfortNorman Herfort, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Aborigines

The Australian Aborigines have a history which is much like that of Native Americans. When British settlers landed on the continent at the beginning of the 19th century many Aborigines were killed or they had to leave their homes. The English took away their land. As they developed Australia they left the Aborigines locked out .

Today, some Aborigines live in cities and big towns, but they can’t always get jobs there. Many have stayed on their traditional land. There they live in small communities in the same way they did hundreds of years ago. They preserve their culture, draw paintings and sell handicrafts to tourists who pass by and visit them.

However, most of the country’s 700,000 Aborigines cannot live like the white population . They don’t have houses and medical care and most of them don’t earn as much money as white people.

Recently, the government’s feelings about their native people have changed. Over the last few decades the government has created many programmes to improve the life of Aborigines. They send them to better schools and help them get better jobs. The Australians are also starting to give them back the land that they took away from them 200 years ago.



Aboriginal farmers towards the end of the 19th century
Image: Antoine Fauchery, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Cities

Sydney

Sydney is Australia’s oldest and largest city, home to about 5.3 million people. It is Australia’s most important industrial city and the capital of New South Wales . Sydney’s harbour is one of the most beautiful in the world. Harbour Bridge and the Opera House are among the famous tourist attractions.

Sydney was , at first, a prison colony back in 1788. At that time, many nations sent criminals to faraway places. The first prisoners were farmers and started raising sheep. In 1848 Great Britain stopped sending prisoners to Australia and a few years later gold was discovered . Sydney started to grow very quickly. By 1890, the population was about 400,000. During the 20th century many European immigrants arrived and turned Sydney into a multi-cultural city.

The people of Sydney are called Sydneysiders. About 70 % were born in Australia but in the last few decades many Asians have come to Sydney.

Downtown Sydney has many skyscrapers and office buildings, but there are also many historic buildings and parks , in which Sydneysiders can spend their free time. Many people like outdoor activities because the city has a mild climate. Sydney offers its people long beaches that attract swimmers, surfers and sunbathers .



Sydney Skyline
Image:Beau Giles, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Melbourne

Melbourne is Australia’s second largest city with a population of 4.8 million. Situated around Port Phillip Bay the city is the capital and commercial centre of Victoria. Melbourne is a multicultural city . More than a third of its inhabitants arrived as immigrants from overseas. Melbourne is the home of famous art galleries, museums and festivals. Sport events take place on a regular basis. Among the most popular are the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Australian Open Tennis Championship and the Melbourne Cup, an annual horse race. In 1956 the city hosted the Olympic Summer Games.

Melbourne was founded as a permanent settlement in 1835 and was declared a city in 1847. When gold was discovered in the 1850s, Melbourne’s rise as the centre of southern Australia started. It soon became Australia’s largest city but was eventually overtaken by Sydney. When Australia became independent in 1901 , Melbourne became the temporary capital until Canberra was completed.



Skyline of Melbourne
Image: Gracchus250, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Canberra

Canberra , with a population of about 300,000 is Australia’s capital . The city is built around many hills. A dam on the Mongolo River forms Lake Burley Griffen in the middle of the city.

Australia’s parliament meets at Canberra. Many government buildings and other offices are situated here too. About half of the city’s people work for the government. Others work in smaller industries, trade and tourism.

When Australia became independent in 1901, the new government started looking for a place to build the capital city. In 1913 construction began and in 1927 Canberra became Australia’s capital.



Parliament House in Canberra
Image:John O’Neill , GNU Free Documentation License Version 1.2

Brisbane

Brisbane, on Australia’s eastern coast, is the capital of Queensland and with a population of 2.5 million, Australia’s third largest city. It got its name from the river that flows through it.In its early days some of the first prisoners were transferred there from Sydney.

Today the city profits from its moderate climate all year long and is an attraction for people seeking outdoor activities. Although it does not lie directly on the coast, wonderful beaches are only a few kilometres away.



Skyline of Brisbane
Image:Kgbo, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Perth

Perth is the largest city in western Australia, and , with a population of 2 million, Australia’s fourth largest city. Because it is thousands of km away from other major cities, Perth is one of the most isolated in the world.

The city became important during Australia’s gold rush towards the end of the 20th century. As time went on, western Australia turned out to be rich in minerals. Since World War II, Perth has become the headquarters for major mining companies.



Perth
Image:Dietmar Rabich / Wikimedia Commons /
 “Perth (AU), View from Kings Park — 2019 — 0435-42” / CC BY-SA 4.0

Adelaide

Adelaide is the capital of South Australia and with 1 million inhabitants, Australia’s fifth most populous city. Founded in 1936, Adelaide is the only city in Australia that was made for free settlers and not for British prisoners.

Today is a multicultural city, often regarded as the food, wine and festival capital of Australia. It also offers parks, beaches and nearby hills for various outdoor activities .



Adelaide
Image:Trentino Priori, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Australian Cities
Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Australia_location_map.svg

Economy

Australia is one of the world’s wealthiest countries. It exports valuable minerals and farm products to all parts of the world.

Various kinds of raw materials are produced. Many of them, however, are located in dry areas very far away from bigger cities or harbours. Workers must build railroad lines or roads to the mines, which is a reason why mining is a very expensive industry in Australia. Foreign companies come to Australia to invest money to mine raw materials .

Australia is a leading country in the production of diamonds, bauxite and lead. It also produces a big quantity of coal, iron ore and nickel. Almost all of the world’s valuable opals are mined in Australia. The country also has much of the world’s uranium under its surface.



Gold mine in Western Australia
Image : Brian Voon Yee Yap

About 60% of Australia is farmland, most of which is used to raise cattle and sheep. Farmers can grow wheat in many parts of the country because wheat doesn’t need very much rain . Other products include sugar cane and bananas in the tropical north and fruits like apples, oranges and pears in the south.

Australia is the world’s largest wool producer. Most of it is exported to countries all over the world. Wine making is a part of the economy that has been growing very quickly. Grapes grow in the southern and south-eastern part of the continent and produce wine of excellent quality.



Shearing sheep in western Australia
Image:Martin Pot (Martybugs at en.wikipedia), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Growing wine in Tasmania
Image: MDRX, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Not many people work on Australian farms because farmers have many machines to work with. Only about 5 % of the population are farmers, but they produce almost everything that the country needs.

Tourism has become very important for the economy of the country. Australia offers many sights like Ayers Rock, the Great Barrier Reef or Sydney Opera House. Because it is so far away from Europe and North America, it costs a lot to travel “down under“.

Australian Way of Life

More than 80 % of Australians live in cities or bigger towns. Most of them live in the suburbs and have their own schools, churches and shopping centres there. They live in bungalows with their own gardens. Older houses are made of wood and have verandas or porches. Some of them are built on poles . Most newer houses are made of brick or stone.

Country life in Australia is not like anywhere else in the world. The inner part of the continent is often called the outback (which means “ out in the back country ”). Farms in the outback are called stations. Farmers raise cattle and sheep and they grow wheat . These stations are very large, sometimes up to 2,000 or more square kilometres . The nearest town may be over one hundred km away.



Pub and hotel in the Australian outback
Image: www.gondwananet.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Life in the outback is very hard. There are not always paved roads , so travelling by car is difficult ,sometimes impossible. Many families have smaller airplanes which they use to get to the next town and back again. Because it is the driest region of Australia, the people in the outback must cope with natural disasters , like droughts or bush fires.

Many Australian children who live in the outback get their education at home. Students used to get their homework by two-way radio , today the internet has taken over as the main technology . Flying Doctors give medical treatment to people who live far away from doctors or hospitals.



School of the Air” studio in Alice Springs
Image : Sven Tombers, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Planes of the Flying Doctor Service
Image : Cabrils, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Australians like to eat meat , especially beef , poultry and mutton . When Europeans from other countries started to come to Australia they brought their eating habits with them. Today, you can find Italian, Greek and other restaurants all over the county.

Beer is the most popular alcoholic drink, but many Australians also like to drink wine that grows in the southern and south-eastern part of the continent. Older people still drink lots of tea – like in Great Britain – but younger ones drink more and more coffee.

Australians love sport because they spend a lot of their free time outdoors . Swimming, sailing and diving are some popular water sports. Many Australians also play golf and tennis.

The most popular team sports are cricket and rugby. Many world famous athletes come from Australia and the country has won many medals at Olympic Games and World Championships.



Sailing boats in Sydney harbour
Image: Vera & Jean-Christophe from Europe, CC BY-SA 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Melbourne Cricket Ground
Image: Tourism Victoria from Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Places to See

The Great Barrier Reef is the biggest group of coral reefs in the world. It is more than 2,000 km long and lies off the north-eastern coast of Australia.

The coral that forms the reef is made up of skeletons of dead water animals called polyps . They are small but often light up in many bright colours. These colourful reefs and the bright colours of fish and other water animals make the Great Barrier Reef a beautiful underwater garden.

Today, the reef is a national park which millions of tourists visit every year. But there are also many problems. Oil companies have found oil in this part of the ocean and want to start drilling , but the government is working hard to protect it.



Great Barrier Reef from space
Image: NASA, taken from en:ISS, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Sydney Opera House is the most famous building in the city. It has two roofs that look like sails. A masterpiece of architecture , it stands on a peninsula that reaches into Sydney Harbour. More than 6,000 people can visit concerts, operas, theatre performances and other events. The Opera House was opened in 1973.



Sydney Opera House
Image: Bernard Gagnon, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Ayers Rock is a big rock that rises over 300 metres high from the plains of the Northern Territory. It is about 2.4 km long and 1.6 km wide and it takes you almost 2 hours to walk around it. The rock is often called “Uluru”, an aboriginal name.

The rock is made out of sandstone and glows red during sunrise and sunset . The Aborigines worship the rock and decorated the caves in it with paintings. Today, the land around Ayers Rock is a national park but is owned by the Aborigines.



Uluru at sunset
Image: Thomas Schoch, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Kakadu National Park lies in Australia’s Northern Territory and covers about 20,000 square km . It is a wetland with over 200 kinds of birds and 1,000 plant species . It is also the home of Australian crocodiles.



Crocodile in Kakadu National Park
Image: Stuart Edwards., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Pinnacles, located in western Australia, are made up of thousands of limestone formations that rise out of the desert floor. They were probably formed 20,00 to 30,000 years ago from marine organisms. As the years went by, winds blew away the sand and left the structures standing.



The Pinnacles
Image: Brian W. Schaller, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline of Events

• 1770

  James Cook explores the eastern coast of Australia and names it New South Wales

• 1778

  Great Britain makes New South Wales a colony for prisoners.

• 1851

  Gold is discovered in New South Wales and Victoria

• 1901

  Australia becomes an independent country with Melbourne as its capital.

• 1927

  Canberra becomes Australia’s new capital.

• 1967

  The Australian government passes laws to help the Aborigines and starts giving them back their land.

• 1999

  Australia’s population votes to stay a monarchy. Elisabeth II remains the Head of State.

• 2000

  Sydney is host to the 2000 Summer Olympics.

Videos

Exercises

Writing Tasks

You admire Australia and have heard so much about the opportunities that the country offers, so you have decided to emigrate “down under”. Besides filling out a form with your personal  data, you are required to email the immigration officials.




In this email (200 – 300 words) , you should

• tell the immigration authorities about yourself
• explain what kind of special skills  you have that the country needs
• write about why you want to live and work in Australia



Image:Lachlan Fearnley, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

You are on a three-week adventure trip to Australia. On this fascinating trip, you have decided to write a diary.  

Write three diary entries (about 100 words each).  You should

• describe a day that, in your opinion, was the most fascinating
• write about one of the not so pleasant experiences in your trip
• write about special people who you have met in Australia






Image:John Robert McPherson, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Word Search

Jigsaw Puzzle

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]]> https://topics.english-online.at/tsunami-killer-waves/ Thu, 01 Feb 2024 11:07:06 +0000 https://topics.english-online.at/?p=1163 The word tsunami comes from the Japanese : tsu means harbour and nami waves. A tsunami is a series of ocean waves that can travel over hundreds of kilometres at a very high speed. They are hardly seen in the open ocean, but when they reach the shallow water near the coast they get taller and taller—up to 30 metres. The waves are so powerful that they can destroy everything that gets in their way.

Tsunamis are created by earthquakes on the ocean floor. The earth’s crust is made up of many plates that always move. Where such plates meet, one of them may move on top of the other. When a plate moves upward it pushes the water above normal sea level. That is when a tsunami is born.

The energy of the earthquake creates waves that spread into all directions very quickly. In the open ocean tsunamis can reach a speed of up to 900 kilometres an hour. When a tsunami approaches the coastline it slows down to maybe 50 km an hour. The water has nowhere to go so it piles up—in some cases it gets taller than a ten-story building. It crashes onto the coast and destroys houses, beaches, roads without difficulty.



When the wave enters shallow water, it slows down and becomes taller
Image: Régis Lachaume , CC-BY-SA-3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Tsunamis cause most damage when an underwater earthquake occurs near a coastal region. The waves can reach the coast within minutes and the population there cannot be warned in time. There is almost no way of escaping. If quakes happen very far from land it may take the killer waves a few hours to reach the coast. People can be warned and get to a safe place .

On the beach people who witness a tsunami approaching will see a great rise and fall of water. Sometimes the water near the beach will completely disappear and a few minutes later the first of the great waves can reach the shore. In some cases tsunamis don’t arrive as one big wave but as a strong flood.

People, especially tourists, often make mistakes when they see a tsunami approaching. Curious crowds stay at the beach and watch the giant waves come in. When they realize how tall these waves are, it may be too late to run. The best thing to do is to try to run as far inland as possible and try to reach high ground.

Many regions around the Pacific Ocean have warning centres and special plans on how to evacuate people when a tsunami comes close. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre is located on the Hawaiian islands. It detects the rise of ocean water and underwater earthquakes and reports information to many other stations in other countries. Local governments must then decide what to do.

On December 26, 2004 the world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years occurred off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The tsunami that it set into motion hit the coastal areas very quickly—during the middle of the Christmas season. Thousands of Europeans were on the beaches of Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and other islands when the tsunami hit. It is thought that about 280,000 people died . Many coastal villages were wiped out completely



Location of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami
Image: Uwe Dedering, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Village near the coast of Sumatra lies in ruins after 2004 tsunami
Image: U.S. Navy photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Philip A. McDaniel,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Video

Exercises

]]> https://topics.english-online.at/at-the-airport/ Thu, 01 Feb 2024 08:04:03 +0000 https://topics.english-online.at/?p=1177 Introduction



Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London
Image : Citizen59, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

An airport is a place where airplanes take off and land. Passengers get on and off planes, cargo and other goods are loaded and unloaded at airports. Air travel has become the main type of transportation over long distances and modern airplanes belong to the safest means of travel. Every day millions of people fly on thousands of planes all over the world.

Currently , there are over 40,000 airports around the world. The largest of them are like small cities. They have hotels, restaurants, banks, post offices and other shops, as well as their own police force or fire department . Thousands of people work at an airport every day.

Types of Airports

• Commercial service airports serve the big national and international airlines. Planes from all over the world take off and land there.
• General aviation airports are smaller airports that handle private, business and charter planes as well as planes that carry people to and from bigger airports.
• Military airfields are operated by the army and sometimes share space with other airports.



Heathrow Airport, London, U.K.
Image :  Kenneth Iwelumo (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2), via Wikimedia Commons



American Military Airport on the Pacific island of Guam
Image: United States Air Force, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Terminal

The terminal is the largest building at an airport. All passengers must pass through it when they start or end their trip. At the ticket counter you receive your boarding card and your baggage is checked and weighed . Then the airline assistant will put a label with a three-letter code around your baggage .It shows the destination airport and makes sure the suitcases get on the correct airplane.

While you wait to board your plane you may spend your time at some of the many shops that are at the airport: newsstands , restaurants, gift shops or even banks. Many international airports have duty-free shops. If you are visiting a foreign country, you can buy things there without having to pay duty or import tax. Some airports have an observation lounge where you can look through large windows and watch planes take off and land.

Before you go to your gate you must pass a security area where your passport is checked and your bags are x-rayed and checked for weapons and other things that you are not allowed to take on board. The gate is the place where you leave the airport building to get on your plane. Gates may often be very far away from the centre of the terminal. Moving sidewalks take you to those that are far away. At larger airports you are taken there by bus or train. Big airports may have up to a hundred or more gates. Arriving passengers cannot leave the terminal at once. They first go to baggage claim , a place where you get your baggage after it is unloaded from the plane.



Terminal at Los Angeles International Airport
Image: TimBray at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Duty-free shop at Beijing international airport
Image: Zhanyanguange, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons



Self check-in at Dublin Airport
Image: Marek Slusarczyk, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

The Runway

Airplanes take off and land on runways. Big passenger planes need long runways that are up to 4 or 5 km in length . They may look like ordinary paved roads but are made of a special material so that they won’t crack when heavy planes land. Snow ploughs and machines that spread salt keep them snow- and ice-free in winter. Green, red and white lights mark runways so that pilots can see them at night and when visibility is bad. Airplanes use taxiways to move to the main runway or to hangars . Small trucks bring big planes out of the parking zone.



Runway at Ardabil Airport in northwestern Iran
Image: Shahram Sharifi (GFDL 1.2 or GFDL 1.2), via Wikimedia Commons



Gibraltar Airport’s runway crossed by a road between Gibraltar and Spain
Image: Dicklyon, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Airport Facilities

Control Tower

The control tower is the centre of airport traffic control. Air controllers use radar, radio, signal lights and other electronic equipment to guide planes when they take off and land. They give pilots permission to take off or tell them which runway to use. At busier airports controllers handle up to 200 aircraft per hour.



Air traffic control tower at Birmingham Airport, U.K.
Image: Myself (Adrian Pingstone)., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Hangars

Hangars are buildings in which airplanes are repaired or serviced . Most airlines have their own hangars, in which they can park many jets at the same time. Most hangars are far away from terminals and runways so that they do not interfere with airport traffic .



Lufthansa Airbus in a hangar
Image :  C Mercieca at English WikipediaW,
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Other Facilities

Airports have many other buildings. Food kitchens or catering companies prepare food that is brought onto planes. Large airlines often have their offices in their own buildings. All airports have big parking lots or houses and most airports are connected with the inner cities through trains or subways.

Originally , airports were built far away from city centers. They have not moved, but cities have grown a lot and today many suburbs lie near them. A lot is being done to make life more bearable for people who live in nosier airport areas. At some airports, traffic is forbidden during night hours. Airports today are getting bigger and bigger. As more and more people choose air travel as a convenient way of travelling, new terminals and other facilities must be built in order to cope with a growing number of passengers.

Airport Management

Commercial airports are mostly publicly owned but they must find their ways of making money. They rent space to airlines for check-in counters or baggage areas and charge them fees for landing.

 

Companies and firms must pay to open up shops and restaurants. In addition , the airports get lots of money from parking fees . The airport manager and his staff are in charge of running the entire airport. Various departments are responsible for finances, administration , safety , or engineering .



Parking lot at an airport
Image : Pixabay , CC0Public Domain

Problems of Airports

Originally , airports were built far away from city centers. They have not moved, but cities have grown a lot and today many suburbs lie near them. A lot is being done to make life more bearable for people who live in nosier airport areas. At some airports, traffic is forbidden during night hours. Airports today are getting bigger and bigger. As more and more people choose air travel as a convenient way of travelling, new terminals and other facilities must be built in order to cope with a growing number of passengers.



Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson was the world’s busiest airport in 2018 (before the pandemic)

Image :Craig Butz, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The World’s Largest Airports

List of the airports with the highest  number of passengers per year (2019 – before the pandemic)

https://topics.english-online.at/wp-content/uploads/airports/airport-terminal-cloze.htm

Rank	Name of Airport	City,Country	Yearly Passengers in Millions
1	Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport	Atlanta, USA	110
2	Beijing Capital International Airport	Beijing, China	100
3	Los Angeles International Airport	Los Angeles, USA	88
4	Dubai International Airport	Dubai, UAE	86
5	Tokyo Haneda Airport	Tokyo, Japan	85
6	O’Hare International Airport	Chicago, USA	84
7	Heathrow Airport	London, U.K.	80
8	Shanghai Pudong International Airport	Shanghai, China	76
9	Charles de Gaulle Airport	Paris, France	76
10	Dallas / Fort Worth International Airport	Dallas, USA	75

Videos

Exercises

Word search

Writing Task

Write about a recent trip to the airport and what you have seen there. (If you haven’t  been to an airport, you can use the information in this unito make up a report).

Write about 

• the shops and other facilities in the terminal
• a visit to the observation deck where you see planes take off and land
• the security measures at airports

Your report should be about 300 words long !



Image:Ralf Roletschek, GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons

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]]> https://topics.english-online.at/discover-india/ Fri, 26 Jan 2024 10:00:51 +0000 https://topics.english-online.at/?p=787 Introduction



Image : Addicted04, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

India is an Asian subcontinent that reaches into the Indian Ocean. With 1.3 billion people it is the second most populous country in the world. India is a land full of contrast, from the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayan Mountains in the north to the tropical forests of southern India.

Although most people speak English there are many dialects and languages next to Hindi, India’s national language. Over half a century after it had become independent from Great Britain, India has become one of Asia’s leading powers. However, the gap between rich and poor is still present and many millions of Indians live in extreme poverty.

Physical Geography and Landscapes

India is a peninsula that extends into the Indian Ocean. It is bordered in the west by the Arabian Sea and Pakistan and in the east by Myanmar, Bangladesh and the Bay of Bengal. In the north it has a common border with Bhutan, Nepal and China.

India got its present form millions of years ago when it started to drift away from the southern continent of Gondwana. After travelling northwards it collided with the Asia . During this period the world’s tallest mountains, the Himalayas, were formed. This process is still continuing as the Himalayas are getting higher and higher.



The Himalayan Mountain Range from the International Space Station
Image : NASA, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

This gigantic mountain system stretches across Asia for almost 2,200 kilometers. Several parallel ranges of mountains are divided by river valleys. 14 peaks have a height of over 8,000 meters.

South of the Himalayan Mountains lie vast plains which were created by the Indus River in the west and the Ganges River in the east. They extend across northern India for about 2000 km and are up to 300 km wide. The region is not only the heart of India’s fertile farming land but also the most densely populated region of the country. The Ganges is India’s most important river. The sacred river of Hinduism starts out in the Himalayan Mountains and winds its way to Calcutta, where it flows into the Bay of Bengal.

 



Boats on the Ganges River at Varanasi
Image: Jeeheon Cho from Surat Thani, Thailand, CC BY 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

The southern part of India is formed mostly by the Deccan plateau. This geologically oldest part of India lies, on average, a thousand meters above sea level. The plateau is bordered by two mountain ranges: the Western Ghats rise along the Arabian Sea and the Eastern Ghats are parallel to the Bay of Bengal.



Landscapes of India

India’s Climate

India’s climate is dominated by the monsoon winds. They blow constantly from June to September. Winds coming from the Indian Ocean absorb wet air on their way to the Indian subcontinent. During this period much of India receives heavy rainfall. The heaviest rain falls in the northeastern part of India, on the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains. In some cases areas receive many meters of rainfall annually.

The monsoon is very important for India’s agriculture. It brings rain to normally dry areas so that crops like rice and corn can grow there. When the monsoon does not come or comes too late, much of India experiences a shortage of crops and food. During strong monsoon rains villages, roads and railway lines are often flooded.

In the winter time the monsoon changes its direction and blows as a dry, cool wind from the inner parts of Asia over the Himalayan Mountains to India. From October to February it can get very cold in the Himalayas.

From March to June it is dry but hot in India. Temperatures in the desert regions of northwestern India can rise up to 45°.



During the monsoon months, wet winds move towards India. They bring heavy rainfall to the Himalayan Mountains. The wet air moves up the mountains where it loses all of its moisture. On the other side of the Himalayas it is dry and warm.

Image (altered) : Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons


History

People have been living in India for thousands of years. The first civilization developed in the Indus Valley. In the 8th century Islam started spreading to India and in the 13th century a kingdom was set up around Delhi.

The Mughals, a powerful group of Muslims, took control of India in about 1500. Within a century, its kingdom spread to all of India.

When the age of exploration began towards the end of the 15th century European navigators came to India. The Portuguese Vasco da Gama was the first explorer to sail around the Cape of Good Hope in his quest to reach southern and southeastern Asia. As time went on, British influence in India grew stronger and stronger. By the middle of the 18th century the Mughals had lost their power and the British East India Company not only controlled trade but also governed most of India.



Vasco da Gama sails around the Cape of Good Hope
Image: User:PhiLiP, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

During the next hundred years Indians started rebelling against the British leaders. They were defeated in an open conflict and in the middle of the 19th century Great Britain decided to rule India directly.

At the beginning of the 20th century the nationalist movement in India became very strong. Most Indians thought the British did not treat them well, even though they built railway lines and factories. In 1920 Mahatma Gandhi became the leader of the Indian independence movement. He convinced his fellow Indians that the best way to fight the British was to protest in a peaceful way and not to use violence.

After World War II Great Britain agreed to grant India full independence. In 1947, the subcontinent was divided into two countries: India, with a Hindu majority and Pakistan, a land of Muslims. Shortly afterwards fighting broke out between these two religious factions. In 1971 East Pakistan became Bangladesh. Up to the present day the relations between India and Pakistan have been tense. One of the main conflicts is Kashmir, a province in the north, which is claimed by both countries.

Despite the fact that India has had problems with its many religious groups, the world’s second most populous country has been a stable democracy since it became independent.



Mahatma Gandhi

Image: http://philogalichet.fr/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Gandhi_Photo-Alamy.jpg

India’s Population Problems

People with different cultures and languages have been living together in India for thousands of years. While there are hundreds of different languages on the subcontinent the official language is Hindi, while most people speak English too. About 80% of the Indian population is Hindu. Muslims are the biggest minority.

Today India is the home to over 1 billion people. By 2050 it will surpass China as the most populous country in the world. Experts think that India will reach a total of 1.8 billion before population growth begins to decrease. In contrast to China’s one-child policy, family planning in India has not been consistent. In the 1970s and 80s the government tried to control population growth by forcing people to have sterilizations. Today, however, there are signs that population growth is slowing down. Contraception is becoming widely available in many areas and especially Indian women in rural areas are being more educated.

Every Indian woman gets almost 3 children, compared to a little over one child per family in the west. As in many Asian societies children are needed to do work and care for family members when they get older. Boys are more valuable than girls, who marry at an early age. About a third of India’s population is under 14, which makes it one of the youngest countries on earth. Apart from that India still has the largest proportion of people who cannot read and write.



Indian population compared to China

More than 70% of Indian people live in the countryside, in smaller villages and towns. As the rural population is becoming poorer more and more people are moving to the big cities where they live in overcrowded slums with no electricity or clean water. As a result, cities like Mumbai, Calcutta and New Delhi are exploding with people they have no jobs for.

Overpopulation in India is causing even more problems. An increasing population living on the same land will quickly use up the limited resources the country has. Medical conditions are getting worse and diseases are spreading faster. More and more Indians are living below the poverty line.



Flower Market in Calcutta
Image: Peter Andersen, CC BY-SA 3.0,
via Wikimedia Commons



Slums in Mumbai
Image : Sthitaprajna Jena, CC BY-SA 2.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

The Caste System

A large part of Indian society still lives in a system dominated by castes. A caste is a social class which every Indian is born into. There are a few thousand castes in India and each one of them has their own traditions and customs. Once a person is born into a caste they cannot get out, or marry someone from a different caste. Castes have existed throughout Indian history and although they are based on Hindu beliefs, other religions live in castes too. The caste system tells people which jobs they can have and with which people they can have contact.

The caste system is based on four major classes. At the top are the Brahmins or priests. Below them are rulers, kings, soldiers and other people who work in the government. Then come bankers, businessmen and traders. At the bottom of the caste system are normal workers and farmers.

Each caste has certain rights and privileges. Everyone, for example, can get food from a Brahmin, but a priest himself is thought to be polluted if he receives food from a person of a lower caste.

A large group of people, called untouchables, live outside the caste system. Untouchables are often homeless people who live on the streets and under bridges. They do work that nobody else does and are often excluded in Hindu ceremonies. They are not allowed to drink water from a public fountain for fear of polluting the water for others.

Although the caste system is no longer officially allowed, it still exists, especially in the rural areas of India.



India’s caste system

Cities in India



Mumbai

Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is India’s most populous city. Millions of people live on an island which is connected to the mainland. Mumbai is the center of banking and business, as well as India’s film industry, Bollywood. Originally a Portuguese trading post, Mumbai was given to the British in the 17th century.

Delhi

Today the city is divided. Old Delhi, with many historic buildings and mosques was built in the 1600s. New Delhi, which became India’s capital, was built in the early part of the 20th century. It is a designed city with many broad roads and government buildings.

Kolkata

Kolkata is the largest city in the eastern part of India. Also known as Calcutta, the city lies in the Ganges River delta, about 150 km from the coast. Today, it struggles with overpopulation and poverty .

Bangalore

Bangalore is regarded as India’s Silicon Valley. The city has many universities and research institutes.

Chennai

Chennai is the biggest industrial and commercial center of Southern India.

Hyderabad

The city developed into a major center of Islamic culture in India. In former times it was the center of pearl trading.



Lotus temple in New Delhi
Image: A.Savin, FAL, via Wikimedia Commons



Hyderabad
Image:Ravikan Rao (Ravikiranr), CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

India’s Economy

As one of the largest countries in the world India has a thriving economy. But because of the many people that live in the country, their average income is still very low. In the first decades after becoming independent, India’s government controlled much of the economy, making it very difficult for foreign companies to invest freely. In the few decades this has changed. India has chosen a more capitalist way to go.



Farming

Over half of India’s people get their income from farming. The most important products are corn, rice, sorghum and wheat. Other products include tea, cotton, sugar cane and jute.

The Green Revolution in the 1960s made it possible for India to provide enough food for its population. New technology in farming, hybrid crops, the use of fertilizers, irrigation programs and more automation improved the quantity and quality of crops that farmers got from their land. India’s farms are small, mainly because they are split up among the children of a family when their father dies.

Cows are sacred animals in India and people respect them. As Hindus are not allowed to eat beef the south Asian country has almost a third of the world’s cattle. Cows can be seen roaming the streets almost everywhere. In many rural areas they are still used to plow the fields.



Rice farming in India
Image: Diganta Talukdar, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Industry and Mining

India is one of the world’s biggest producers of iron ore and coal. As a result, the iron and steel industry is a basis for producing cars and other vehicles, ships and electrical goods. Although the textile industry is a traditional sector of the economy that the British built up, many clothes are still produced at home. Handicraft and hand-made jewellery are sources of income for millions of people.

The chemical industry is one of the fastest growing in India. Almost 13% of the country’s GDP comes from this part of the economy. It also caused the worst industrial accident in history. In 1984 a poisonous gas escaped from an American chemical plant in Bhopal, killing 20,000 people. A few years later the American company paid almost 500 million dollars to the victims and their families.

The Service Sector

In the last decades India has experienced a boom in the service sector. Today about half of the country’s money comes from it. India has a great reputation in the computer sector, producing millions of IT experts, who are welcomed all over the world because of their great skills. Software and computer technology from India have become very popular. Western companies hire these experts because they are cheaper than laborers at home.

In addition, India has become the world capital of call centers. This service is very popular in the west, especially among British and American firms. Other expanding areas of the service sector include telecommunications and banking.

Transportation

India’s state-owned railway system goes back to the British colonial government of the 19th century. The British exploited India’s raw materials and built a big network of railway lines to get them to the coast. Today, millions of people travel by train, one of the cheapest ways of travelling, and the only means of transport that poor people can afford.

Although the Indian government has built many new roads in the past, a large number of Indians are still are without cars. Especially in rural India people often walk long distances and use carts for transport. Rickshaws are widespread in many Indian cities.



Railway Station in India
Image: Sridhar Rao, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

Energy

About 70% of India’s energy comes from burning fossil fuels. The country must import oil and gas to meet its energy demands. India also plans to increase the number of nuclear power stations, even though the Fukushima disaster has raised questions of the safety of nuclear energy. As the economy increases at a fast pace it is doubtful whether India’s electricity production can keep up.

Economic Problems

Even though India has made large steps in economic growth, many problems remain unsolved. Growing bureaucracy, unemployment and corruption are only a few. In contrast to the days when many Indians left their country to work in the developed world, more and more are coming back to settle down hoping to achieve a better standard of living in their home country.



Nuclear power plant in India
Image : Reetesh Chaurasia, CC BY-SA 4.0,
via Wikimedia Commons

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