Let's Get 7 in IELTS

PAUL LOCKYER, REPORTER: These days Grant Hackett, captain of the swimming team, handles the fans and the media with great aplomb.

The amount of rubbish cleared from the Brisbane River every week will be highlighted in a new exhibition for the 2008 Riverfestival program. 

The display includes 350 kites made from plastic bags and 700 plastic bottles made into costumes and artwork.

Artistic director Lyndon Terracini says the exhibition shows how much work Healthy Waterways does to keep the Brisbane River clean.  

"It's really to say, well imagine what would happen if all those bread tags ended up in the river, imagine what would happen if those 350 plastic bags weren't collected out of the river every week and imagine what the river would be like if those 700 plastic bottles weren't collected out of the river every week," he said.

      ·    Mihir Bose - BBC sports editor

      ·     1 Jul 08, 03:00 PM

London 2012 overestimated the number of security personnel that would be available for the Olympic Games by over six times, a top private sector security expert told a conference on 2012 security in London on Tuesday morning. 

看完這篇文章的人呀 會知道好多喝醉酒的英文用法 好好笑喔
紅色的不知道是啥

• Mark Easton
• 22 Jul 08, 12:58 PM GMT

At a meeting inside No 10 last November, the prime minister told the drinks industry it was on the naughty step. Unless behaviour improved, relations would become distinctly frosty.

For years, ministers have tried to stay best buddies with the big brewers, bar owners and distillers, promising to maintain a light touch on their businesses in return for a bit of self-regulation and corporate responsibility.

The latest global assessment of cetaceans shows that the marine mammals throughout the world's oceans have experienced mixed fortunes.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species reveals that some large species, like humpbacks, have seen numbers increase.

However, it warns that smaller species, including river dolphins, have declined as a result of human actions.

The IUCN added that it was unable to assess more than half of the world's cetaceans because of a lack of data. 

"It shows that if you protect these animals then they can recover," said Randall Reeves, chairman of Cetacean Specialist Group for the IUCN, the global conservation body.

• Mark Easton
• 17 Jul 08, 12:17 PM GMT

Earlier this week I posted some thoughts on the government's new Youth Crime Action Plan which highlighted a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder as a way of spotting those youngsters at greatest risk of becoming criminals.

I reproduce the chart here with our labelling corrected. (The original can be found in the report [pdf] however there is little or nothing in the way of explanation in the accompanying text.)

 

A CONSERVATION catastrophe has become a human tragedy. The mass poisoning that has killed millions of India's vultures may have indirectly claimed the lives of almost 50,000 people, according to an analysis of the wider impacts of the bird die-off.

Since the 1990s, numbers of long-billed, slender-billed and oriental white-backed vultures have declined at an unprecedented rate. All three species could be driven toward extinction within a decade. The cause is a veterinary drug called diclofenac, which was routinely given to cattle. When the cattle died, vultures that fed on their carcasses were poisoned by the drug. Although now banned in India, diclofenac is still used to some extent.

It seems the drug has also had an unforeseen knock-on impact. As vulture numbers crashed, the population of feral dogs across India surged, feasting upon cattle carcasses that would otherwise have been stripped bare by birds.

The catastrophic decline of griffon vultures in south Asia is being caused not by a mysterious disease, as had been thought, but a common painkiller given to sick cattle.

Chinese officials have admitted that they are concerned about the lack of spectators at some Olympic events.

They have hired volunteers, dressed in yellow shirts, to fill up empty venues and improve the atmosphere inside.

But Wang Wei, a senior official with the Beijing organising committee (Bocog), said other Olympics had experienced similar problems.

The comments came after spectators and journalists noticed that certain venues were far from full, even though all events are sold out.