From cocoa nibs to chocolate liquor
Prepare these texts for retelling. But firstly you should read & translate ;) Print out for convenience. Please, don’t be lazy and just do it)) 1 goes to Svitlana:
Diwali
Diwali is a festival of light which originated in South Asia and is celebrated over five days. The dates change every year, but it is always celebrated in October or November and is now celebrated around the world.
Diwali comes from the word deepavali, which means ‘rows of lighted lamps’. During the festival, these lamps, called diyas, are used everywhere. They symbolise the victory of light over darkness, or good over evil.
Diwali is celebrated differently in different regions and by different religions and is a bank holiday in many countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Myanmar, Singapore, Malaysia, Mauritius, Fiji, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. It is often considered a Hindu festival, but in fact it is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains and Newari Buddhists.
Here are some of the things that happen during the five days of Diwali.
Day One – Dhanteras, or Day of Fortune
The first day has a focus on fortune, both good luck and money or valuables. People may wash money to show that they intend to use it to do good in the world. It is also a day for helping people who are not as well off.
It is a lucky day for buying gold and silver and other metals, so people often buy jewellery or cars, or anything made of metal. It is estimated that last year Indians spent about $3.9 billion during Diwali.
People also make sure that their houses are clean, ready to welcome in Lakshmi, the Goddess of Wealth and Prosperity, in the evening.
Day Two – Naraka Chaturdashi
According to Hindu stories, the demon Narakasura was killed on this day. The day is all about getting rid of anything bad. People get up early and wash and put on clean or new clothes.
Afterwards, they will celebrate by having a special breakfast with their friends and family. This day, also known as Chhoti Diwali, is a day for visiting friends, business associates and relatives, and for exchanging gifts.
Day Three – Diwali
In most regions, this is the most important day of the festival. It is the last day of the year in many regions of India. The story goes that on this day, Lord Rama rescued his wife, Sita, from the demon Ravana. Candles are lit to celebrate his victory, and to light his way home after the battle. In the evening, people may set off fireworks.
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Day Four – Annakut
Annakut means ‘mountain of food’. Hindus prepare a great deal of food and take it to the temple to celebrate the beginning of the new year.
Food is important throughout the period of Diwali, especially traditional sweet treats such as gulab jamun (a very sweet deep-fried doughnut), kheer (a creamy dessert made with rice) or barfi (a sweet made with condensed milk and sugar).
Day Five – Bhai Dhooj
This is the last day of Diwali, and it also sometimes celebrates the relationship between brother and sister. Brothers may visit their married sisters’ homes, and they will take gifts.
A universal symbol
Diwali is celebrated by millions of people in India and across the world. The festival marks different historical events and stories for each faith that celebrates it, but for all the faiths it symbolises the victory of good over evil, and darkness over light, which means something to all of us.
2 text goes to Zhenia:
The skies in ‘The Scream’ might be based on the strange weather pattern
"The Scream" — it's the one with the wavy-looking person holding both hands to its face, mouth agape in anguish. The shape of the person is just an artistic representation, of course, but the spooky skies driving the subject of the painting to despair might be based on a real meteorological event. It's more than possible; it's likely.
Some theories state that the blood-red imagery is merely a metaphor for Munch's feelings at the time. At the same time, the specific mention of the clouds lends something to the idea that Munch really did witness something that disturbed him (while he was already in a rather disturbed state of mind).
According to the team of meteorologists made up of Fred Prata from the University of Oxford, the background of Munch's resembles nothing so much as nacreous clouds, also known as mother-of-pearl clouds. These rare formations were once seen only at the uppermost latitudes. They're long, wavy, and fill the sky with light in many strange colors. In other words, they look very much like the bright-red and gunmetal-blue background in the painting. Although rare, the clouds form with some regularity in Oslo, where Munch lived at the time. Frankly, they're practically a dead-ringer for the clouds in Munch's painting. There's just one thing that's missing: Munch's clouds aren't at all iridescent: a key feature of the strange cloud formation.
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3 text goes to Vitalii:
Dinosaur world 'more colourful than we thought'
Why do some birds lay colourful eggs? From pale blue to speckled red, they come in every shade and hue.
The answer, say scientists, is that coloured eggs evolved millions of years ago in birds' ancestors, the dinosaurs. The patterns and colours may have served to camouflage eggs from predators as white eggs stand out more against darker backgrounds. Thus, the likes of Oviraptor may have sat on eggs of the darkest blue rather than plain white ones.
"The dinosaur nesting world was more colourful than we thought," Dr Jasmina Wiemann of Yale University told BBC News. "We think that camouflage is one of the main drivers."
The researchers detected the same two pigments that are present in colourful birds eggs in a group of dinosaurs called eumaniraptorans. Comparisons with the eggs of modern birds suggest the clawed predator Deinonychus laid a blue egg with brown blotches.
The birdlike feathered Oviraptor had eggs that were a dark blue-green, like an emu.
The research suggests that egg colour provided an evolutionary advantage to dinosaurs that had nests with exposed eggs, rather than burying them as alligators and turtles do.
Modern birds inherited this ability.
4 text goes to Oleksandr:
Chocolate
A brief history of chocolate
Chocolate was first used as a drink over 3,500 years ago in Central America. It was very popular with the Mayans and the Aztecs, who mixed cocoa beans with vanilla or chilli peppers. In fact, cocoa beans were so important to them that they were used as money. Cocoa was first grown in Ecuador, which was, for a long time, the world’s number-one producer of cocoa beans. It is still one of the top ten producers of the beans, but nowadays more than 70 per cent of cocoa beans come from West Africa.
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Cocoa beans
Cocoa beans come from cocoa trees. These trees grow in tropical forests around the world, from South America to Indonesia. The beans grow in colourful pods of red, yellow and purple. Inside the pods are the beans. Each tree grows around 50 pods a year, and each pod can contain between 20 and 60 beans. It takes around 100 beans to make 100 grams of chocolate. The pods are picked by hand to protect the trees.
Preparing the beans
Once the pods are picked from the tree, they are opened and the beans are taken out. The beans need to go through a number of different processes before they are ready to be turned into chocolate. First, the beans and the pulp are placed in special boxes, where they slowly ferment for up to five days. Here the beans turn brown and start to develop their special flavour. They are then put out in the sun to dry for approximately 14 days. After this, they are roasted for about 15 minutes in preparation for the final stage, when the beans are taken out of their shells. At the end of this process, we are left with the cocoa ‘nibs’ – chocolate in its purest form and the basic ingredient for all chocolate products.
From cocoa nibs to chocolate liquor
The first step is to grind the nibs by machine or between two large stones. This produces cocoa liquor, a semi-solid paste. This is then cooked and mixed continuously for hours or even days until it is just right. This is also the stage at which other ingredients are added: sugar, milk, various flavours. Interestingly, chocolate melts at 34ºC. This is just below body temperature, which explains why it can be so sticky and messy, but also why it melts as soon as you put it in your mouth.
From liquid to solid
At this point the cocoa nibs are ready for the last stage in the journey. For the cocoa liquor to turn into solid chocolate, it needs to be heated and cooled and heated again until it forms a solid mass. And so, at last, the journey from bean to bar is complete.
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So now you know all about how chocolate is made, you may want to celebrate the day by eating one of your favourite chocolate treats!
World Chocolate Day
Did you know that there’s a World Chocolate Day? It takes place each year on 7 July. To celebrate it, read about the history of chocolate and the interesting journey from cocoa bean to chocolate bar.
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