Read the text and answer question.

Dear Matthew,
I was really upset to hear about your accident. It sounds terrible! You're lucky to have only one broken leg! Hope you're back on your feet soon!

Love, Rachel

Alzheimer’s breakthrough: ultrasound successfully treats disease in mice

Rodents found to have improved memories after ultrasound treatment, without any apparent damage to brain tissue

Scientists believe they may have found a new weapon in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease
– not in the form of a drug, but in focused beams of ultrasound.
While the approach has only been tested in mice, researchers said on Wednesday it proved
surprisingly good at clearing tangles of plaques linked to Alzheimer’s in the animals’ brains and
[5] improving their memory, as measured by tests such as navigating a maze.
In the past, high-energy ultrasound has been combined with injected microbubbles, which
vibrate in response to sound waves, to get drugs across the so-called blood brain barrier.
But the new research, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, is the first
demonstration that ultrasound alone might have a beneficial effect on the memory-robbing
[10] condition. “Our research was very exploratory and we really didn’t expect to see such a massive
effect”, Juergen Goetz of the University of Queensland in Brisbane, one of the study authors,
said. “I’m really excited by this.”
After several weeks of treating mice that had been genetically altered to produce amyloid
plaques, the scientists found the ultrasound almost completely cleared the plaques in 75% of
[15] the animals, without apparent damage to brain tissue.
While there is still some debate as to whether plaques are a cause or a symptom of Alzheimer’s,
the experiment did find that the treated mice had improved memory, as measured by three
different tests, compared with untreated ones.
Goetz stressed that his research was at a very early stage and it would be several years before it
[20] could be tested in people. Several hurdles must be overcome first, including long-term checks
for side effects in animals and much more research into whether the approach will work with
thicker skulls and larger brains. While mice studies can give us an indication of how a treatment
may affect humans, they are only indications, as there are inherent differences between the
species, and between the model and the actual human disease.
[25] Dementia, of which Alzheimer’s is the most common form, affects close to 50 milion people
worldwide and that number is set to reach 135 milion by 2050, according to Alzheimer’s Disease
International, a non-profit campaign group.

Five stranded snorkellers rescued from tiny island off Australia after their huge SOS message was spotted by helicopter.

(Adam Withnall / Wednesday 23 April 2014)

Five snorkellers stranded on a tiny island off
the east coast of Australia have been rescued after
scrawling a giant SOS message into a nearby
sandbank.

[05] The group had been stuck out at sea for more
than nine hours after their boat’s anchor failed and
it drifted away.

They had been swimming around a remote
sandbar near Wigton Island, Queensland, when the
[10] vessel started shifting - with their mobile phones,
clothes, water and sunscreen all still on board – and
it had moved beyond reach before they had time to
react.

Speaking to the Courier-Mail about the ordeal
[15] yesterday, Lyn Forbes-Smith described how she, a
female friend and three male friends were facing
the prospect of a long, cold night surrounded by
ocean when they finally spotted an approaching
rescue helicopter.

[20] “We had sort of made plans about what we’d
do on the rock for the evening,” she said.

“We had reef walkers on thankfully, but we
had no food, water, cream, no hats, not much at all.
We just looked for the highest ground, we looked
for rocks where five of us could huddle together
[25] because we didn’t really want to separate, and we
wanted to be out of the wind as best as possible.”

Ms Forbes-Smith explained that they were
concerned the sandbar – and their message – would
[30] go under with the tide, but that they were
“reasonably confident” someone would come
looking when friends realised they had not
returned.

The group had set off from Keswick Island
[35] towards Wigton Island at around 8am for the
snorkelling trip, and it was around 5pm when they
first saw signs of help approaching.

Another member of the group, Craig Gilbert,
told ABC News of their joy at spotting an RACQ
[40] rescue helicopter.

“We saw the helicopter and we thought, 'Oh,
you beauty' - and then it disappeared and we
thought, 'Oh no - we better look out for our beds
for the night' - then it came back probably 20
minutes later,” he said.

Rescue helicopter crew member Damien
[45] Kross said the five were treated for sunburn and
dehydration, but were otherwise “fine”.

“They were a little bit dehydrated but we
winched them to safety and brought them back here
to Mackay on the mainland] for just to have a
[50] quick medical attention and they were all fine.”

Read the following passage to answer question.

SYDNEY - Nearly a year has passed since Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 vanished on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, sparking one of the most perplexing mysteries of modern times. Since then, search crews have taken to air, land and sea in a thus-far fruitless hunt for the plane and the 239 people who disappeared with it.

The current phase of the search in the deep, dark and desolate waters of the Indian Ocean has failed to yield a single clue about the plane's fate. Still, despite the lack of fresh leads, the official heading up the search is no less optimistic than wheniit began.

Leia o cartum a seguir

Read the following passage to answer question.

One of the most important features of our closed material system is its degree of organization. Whereas the biosphere is an open system in terms of energy, constantly receiving solar rays, no new physical identity has been created since the birth of the planet. Thus, the recycling of everything is an absolute necessity to the nature of all ecological processes. The waste products of one process must become the materials of the next. Some of the more highly organized materials, such as fossil fuels, have taken millions of years to develop. These are nonrenewable resources — that is, once used, they cannot be replaced, at least in this geological age. In order to avoid entropy, materials cannot be used up faster than they are produced. In its simplest terms, then, pollution can be seen as our creation of more wastes than ecosystem can handle. We have interfered with nature's system of recycling and purification. The excess wastes we have produced are not being recycled and purified.

Politicians face investigation in Brazil's biggest ever corruption scandal

Saturday 7 March 2015 04.00 GMT

The Guardian

Brazil’s supreme court has approved the investigation of dozens of senior politicians, including a former president and leaders of congress, for alleged connections to what prosecutors call the country’s biggest ever corruption scandal.

In total, 54 people are to be investigated by the attorney general, including 21 federal deputies and 12 senators — though that figure is expected to grow as evidence is gathered on corruption involving the state energy company Petrobras.

The investigations and any possible trials will take years to play out, but the action announced on Friday throws the second term of president Dilma Rousseff into further disarray as she faces dueling political and economic crises. She is not being investigated despite serving as chair of the Petrobras board for several years as the kickback scheme played out.

Experts say the investigations could create further gridlock in congress just as Brazil and its sputtering economy desperately need fiscal and political reform measures passed.

But the investigation is widely viewed as necessary for the nation’s democracy to advance and shake off deep-rooted impunity for the rich and powerful.

“You can’t put this genie back in the bottle. People are going to have to face the consequences,” said Paulo Sotero, director of the Brazil Institute at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. “There used to be the idea that people in positions of power in Brazil were untouchable. They’re no longer untouchable.”

Federal investigators revealed a year ago that they had started an investigation into the scheme, and efforts until now focused efforts on big construction and engineering firms that allegedly paid over $800m in bribes and other funds. The money purportedly won them inflated contracts with Petrobras, and prosecutors say some of that cash flowed into the campaign coffers of the president’s Workers’ Party and its allies. (…)