Read the text and answer the question.

From space, astronaut sounds the alarm about climate crisis

The Associated Press

    A French astronaut has used a video call from space to sound the alarm about worsening repercussions from climate change that he can see ______ the International Space Station.

       Entire regions of Earth in flames. Storms trailing destruction in their wake. And the haunting fragility of humanity’s only home floating like a blue — but also tarnished — pearl in the vastness of space.

      Through the portholes ______ the International Space Station, French astronaut Thomas Pesquet has an arresting view of global warming’s repercussions. He used a video call from space to sound the alarm Thursday, as negotiators, government officials and activists continued meeting at a U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, Scotland.

        “We see the pollution of rivers, atmospheric pollution, things like that.”

        “We saw entire regions burning from the space station, ______ Canada, in California,” he said. “We saw all of California covered ______ a cloud of smoke and flames with the naked eye from 400 kilometers (250 miles) up.”

Adapted from https://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory/spaceastronaut-sounds-alarm-climate-crisis-80972311. Access on October 25th.

Why Easter is bad for ducks

      On Christmas Eve, two Pekin ducks were found frozen to a pond in Smithville, Ohio. They flapped their wings and squawked, fruitlessly struggling to free themselves until two locals, Maiara and Helder Bertolucci, spotted them. The pair slid on their stomachs over razor-thin ice and chiseled the animals free.

       The rescued ducks—later named Olaf and Elsa, after characters from Disney’s Frozen—were two of 109 domestic ducks abandoned in a pond outside of a restaurant. A local group ________ Good Sprout Rescue and Sanctuary rescued the animals; two died, but the rest were rehomed to sanctuaries or adopted. Every spring, the Barn Restaurant would buy a hundred new babies for its patrons to enjoy— but since this incident they’ve __________ not to do so again.

         Every year in springtime, particularly at Easter, many people “impulse buy” ducklings as gifts, often for their kids. But after the holiday, sometimes months later, animal rescuers routinely see an uptick in abandoned adult ducks in local parks and ponds, Di Leonardo says. There’s no ________ data on how often this happens, but he estimates tens of thousands of domestic ducks are dumped each year throughout the U.S. His organization rescues as many as 500 ducks per year in the New York City area alone.

Fonte: (National Geographic – adaptado.)

Text: The importance of the PowerPoint as a classroom resource

(Text adapted from Teachers: 5 Tips for Creating Great PowerPoint Presentations, retrieved

   PowerPoint is a resource developed by Microsoft and released initially in 1990. It is mainly used in professional meeting presentations all over the world.

    One of these professions is in educational area: teacher.

    PowerPoint presentation is spread among teachers because it is different from lecturing or teaching with a textbook; it is also a way of sharing content with students.

    To produce a PowerPoint correctly, teachers need to know how to put the slides together, it can be an effective way of reinforcing content to students so that they are better able to retain it. Otherwise, teachers can print and distribute the PowerPoint presentation or post it online, so students can go back and access it as reference material. However, if it is not put together correctly, a PowerPoint presentation can disengage and make students bored.

   To develop PowerPoint presentation is simple and it can also provide a fun time noticed by its characteristics: basic, simple, and not distracting, it can be focused on keywords; for instance, always be sure to include a summary slide of what the presentation is intending to accomplish as well as a table of contents on the different topics that will be covered in the program. The summary slide serves as the main topic and what students should learn after viewing the presentation. Then, at the end of the PowerPoint presentation, teachers should include another summary slide, going over everything that was just covered and, again, highlighting the main point.

Bottom line

    PowerPoint presentations need to have a purpose and the teacher must make sure that the purpose is understood.

Add pictures

    Teachers can reinforce the content with pictures, charts, symbols, and other images. In fact, sometimes it’s better to have more pictures than text in a PowerPoint presentation, because images work to reinforce a content main point.

     Teachers typically will just share it with their classes, so they can pull images straight from the Internet. However, for teachers who are making more public and widespread presentations, copyright law needs to be considered (Brazil Information Access Law nº 12.527; Art. 31; paragraph 3; item II). 

Add video

      Pictures can help to reinforce a main point or support content, as well as videos. Some research affirm that students enjoy watching videos and retain information from them well, especially if the video is engaging, interesting and informative. Teachers can embed videos right from YouTube or from their desktops to complement a PowerPoint presentation.

Practice

      Nothing turns off a class like a poorly put together PowerPoint presentation, so teachers should always be sure to do a quick rehearsal before they present it to the class. While testing it, make sure all the images load up on the slides, videos load up properly and audio works, too. Also, it’s important for teachers to make sure that there’s a way to connect their computer, or upload anything that’s storing the PowerPoint presentation, to a larger TV monitor or projector screen so the whole class does not have to huddle around a computer screen to view it. Teachers should also make sure that any text can be read and understood. Be sure that the color scheme is good.

Make it fun

    A PowerPoint presentation can be an innovative way of teaching. It’s a more interesting and engaging way for students to learn than the typical lecture. Teachers should embrace this teaching resource and have fun with it. Throw in some jokes, possibly some funny pictures and be sure to get creative with presentations.

      As we previously noted, the more students enjoy a lecture, presentation, or activity, the more likely they are to retain information.