Newsademic 5 September 2014

September 4, 2014
American English edition
Issue Number 231
In this issue
Healthy city spiders
Neanderthal extinction date
New memorial in Berlin
Human rights team to Iraq
Hong Kong election
Discovery of Phoenician ship
Coin hoard recovery
France’s cabinet reshuffle
Food fingerprinting plan
White dwarf supernova
By-the-wind sailors
Lesotho coup
Rediscovered Maya city
Fish evolving experiment
Famous footprint
photographs for sale
White House burning
anniversary
Sliding stones mystery
solved
New EU appointments
Baltic Way anniversary
Glossary Crossword and
Wordsearch Puzzle
Soldiers from the Ukrainian army in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine
RUSSIA, UKRAINE AND NATO
Barack Obama, the president of the U.S.,
visited Estonia on September 3. He made
a speech in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city.
Mr. Obama accused Russia of “making
an assault on Ukraine”. He repeated that
the U.S. would support Ukraine. He also
promised that NATO would protect its
member countries in Eastern Europe in-cluding
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Just before Mr. Obama spoke, the
office of the Ukrainian president, Pet-ro
Poroshenko, released a statement.
It said that after recent talks with Rus-sian
officials, there was a possibility of
a ceasefire in eastern Ukraine. There,
separatist, or rebel, groups from two re-gions,
called Donetsk and Luhansk, are
fighting against the Ukrainian army. The
conflict in eastern Ukraine began five
months ago. So far about 2,600 people
have died. The rebel groups are backed,
or supported, by Russia.
On the same day Vladimir Putin, the
Russian president, arrived in Mongolia
for an official visit. On his way to Ulaan-baatar,
Mongolia’s capital city, Mr. Putin
said that he had come up with a possible
plan for ending the fighting in Ukraine. It
includes a withdrawal by Ukrainian sol-diers,
a ceasefire and prisoner exchange.
One of Mr. Putin’s assistants said
that Russia could not arrange the cease-fire.
This, he explained, was because it
was not involved in the fighting. How-ever,
the rebels seem to be using Rus-sian-
made weapons. The leaders of the
U.S., the European Union (EU), and
Ukraine, all claim that Russia is helping
the rebels. They say that Russian troops
have crossed into eastern Ukraine and
are now fighting alongside the separat-ists.
Mr. Putin insists that this is not true.
The day before Mr. Obama arrived
in Estonia, the Ukrainian army had
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withdrawn from several towns in
eastern Ukraine. This was a surprise:
for the last few weeks the Ukrainian
army seemed to be winning the con-flict.
A Ukrainian official insisted that
the rebel forces had been strength-ened
by large numbers of Russian
troops. He said that Russia was send-ing
more soldiers to Ukraine and that
this was the start of “a great war”.
Kiev
UKRAINE
RUSSIA
BELARUS
ROMANIA
MOLDOVA
POLAND
Luhansk
Donetsk
Black Sea
On the same day, NATO an-nounced
its plans to set up a new
force of several thousand soldiers.
This force, it declared, would be
used to protect Eastern Europe-an
NATO members from Russian
threats or aggression. In response a
senior Russian official said that his
country would now change its mil-itary
doctrine. This, he explained,
was because NATO forces were
moving closer to Russia’s borders.
Many now fear that the conflict
in eastern Ukraine could lead to a
return to the Cold War. This was not
a real war. The name is often used
to describe the period between 1947
and 1991. Then, the Russian-led
Soviet Union and the U.S. (together
with its allies in Western Europe)
were enemies. Many feared a nucle-ar
war could break out between the
Soviet Union and the U.S. During
the Cold War, Europe was divided.
Most European countries were ei-ther
NATO members or part of the
Soviet Union.
NATO (or the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization) is a military
alliance. It was set up by America
soon after the Cold War started. At
first it had seven member nations.
Now 28 countries are members of
NATO. Albania and Croatia were
the latest to join. They became mem-bers
in 2009. NATO countries agree
to send military forces to help if oth-er
NATO members are attacked, or
threatened with attack.
The Soviet Union began to break
up in 1991. Nearly all the countries
within it became independent na-tions.
Many of the former Soviet
Union countries in Eastern Europe
have now joined NATO. These in-clude:
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Hungary, and Poland.
So, as Russia lost its military allies,
NATO continued to expand.
Mr. Putin first became Russia’s
president 14 years ago. In Russia
he is a very popular leader. The
country had many problems after
the Soviet Union broke up. Most
Russians believe that Mr. Putin
has made their country strong and
powerful again. Even though few
people live in its north and east,
Russia is the biggest country in
the world. It has huge supplies of
oil, natural gas, and other valuable
natural resources. As president, Mr.
Putin reorganized the Russian oil
and gas companies. The country
now makes large amounts of mon-ey
from selling these resources to
other countries.
Ukraine used to be part of the So-viet
Union. Like most other former
Soviet Union members, it became
an independent nation in 1991.
However, many ethnic Russians
live in the east of the country. Most
of these people use Russian as their
first language.
At the end of last year large
demonstrations took place in the
center of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital
city. The demonstrators demanded
that the country’s president, Viktor
Yanukovych, step down. They ac-cused
him and his government of
being corrupt and dishonest. Those
who demonstrated want Ukraine to
work more closely with the EU. Mr.
Yanukovych, who is from eastern
Ukraine, did not want to do this.
Most demonstrators were from
the west of Ukraine. Traditionally,
unlike those in the east, these people
distrust Russia. When the demon-strations
grew Mr. Yanukovych fled
from the country. The protesters then
set up a new government. The EU
and the U.S. immediately offered
their support. Some people say that
this was wrong. Mr. Yanukovych,
they argue, may have been a bad
president, but he was an elected lead-er.
Russia insisted that Ukraine’s new
government was unlawful. So the EU
and the U.S. giving their support to it
was likely to cause problems.
Most Russian speakers in eastern
Ukraine dislike the new govern-ment.
They also think that it is ille-gal.
Many have joined the separatist
groups. Soon after the new gov-ernment
took over, Mr. Putin made
an announcement. He said that he
had a right to intervene if ethnic
Russians living in other countries
are threatened, or attacked. There
are many Russian-speaking people
in some Eastern European coun-tries.
These include Estonia, Latvia
and Lithuania.
Ukraine is not a NATO member.
NATO is therefore unlikely to send
troops or military equipment to the
country. Yet Russia will probably
make sure that the rebel groups
in east Ukraine are not defeated.
Many people therefore think that
the only way to end the conflict is
for Donetsk and Luhansk to become
self-governing regions. 

BIGGER URBAN SPIDERS
Researchers in Australia have been
studying a type of spider. They de-cided
to compare golden orb weaver
spiders found in cities, or built up
areas, with those that live in parks
and open spaces. Many people were
surprised by their study’s results.
Spiders are arachnids. This name
comes from the Ancient Greek word
for “spider”. People who are scared
of spiders have arachnophobia. This
word is a combination of the Greek
for “spider” and “fear”.
Golden orb weaver spider
There are thought to be around
43,600 different types of spider.
They can be found everywhere in
the world except Antarctica. All spi-ders
have eight legs, yet they differ
in size. The smallest have a body
length of only 0.015 inches (0.37
millimeters). The largest, called the
Goliath birdeater, has a leg span of
9.8 inches (25 centimeters). All spi-ders
are able to produce silk. It is
from this that they make their webs.
Golden orb web spiders are
common in Australia and tropical
countries. Their name comes from
the spiders’ large round webs. These
look yellowish, or golden, in the
sunlight. Golden orb web spiders’
webs are up to 3.3 feet (one me-ter)
across. They trap the insects on
which the spiders feed.
Golden orb web spiders rarely
move to different places. They usual-ly
keep the same web. If the web gets
damaged, the female spiders careful-ly
repair it. Female golden orb web
spiders are much bigger than males.
As many as four or five males can
often be found around the edge of a
female’s web. There, they wait for a
chance to mate with the female.
The researchers caught 222 fe-male
spiders in Sydney. This is the
largest city in Australia. The spiders
were collected from two separate
areas. About half were picked up
in parks. Here, there are many trees
and bushes. The others were found
in urban areas. In these places there
is a lot of concrete and few plants
and trees.
The researchers measured each
spider’s size. To work out the spi-der’s
health and fitness the research-ers
cut them open. The length of
parts of the spiders’ legs was then
measured against their body weight.
The researchers also recorded how
much fat each spider had as well as
the size of its ovary.
Measurements of the “park” spi-ders
were then compared with those
of the “urban” spiders. The results
showed that the urban spiders were
both bigger and healthier. Urban
spiders also seem to be multiplying
faster, or having more babies.
The study was not set up to work
out why the urban spiders were big-ger.
However, the researchers have
several ideas. One possibility is
because concrete areas are warmer.
Another is city lights. The lights
attract insects, so more of them are
caught in the spiders’ webs.
In the countryside different spe-cies
of spider steal food from gold-en
orb web spiders. Where there is
no vegetation there are far fewer
“thieving” spiders. So “city” golden
orb web spiders may have anoth-er
advantage: less of their food is
stolen. 
HOMO NEANDERTHALENSIS
Researchers from a university in
Britain have completed a new Nean-derthal
study. The purpose of their
study was to work out a precise, or
more accurate, date when Neander-thals
died out in Europe.
Homo neanderthalensis (usually
called Neanderthals) were an early
type of human. From the discov-ery
of ancient bones and teeth, it’s
known that Neanderthals were liv-ing
in Europe 400,000 years ago.
Their name comes from a place in
Germany. This was where the first
Neanderthal bones were found 150
years ago.
Neanderthals were what’s known
as hunter-gatherers. They moved
from place to place, hunting wild
animals and collecting fruit, nuts
and berries. Most Neanderthal bones
have been found in caves. For many
years, they were thought to have
been a primitive race. Yet more re-cent
studies suggest that this is not
true. Neanderthals seemed to have
some form of society or culture. For
example, it’s now known that they
decorated their bodies, looked after
the sick and buried the dead. What’s
more Neanderthals cooked plants for
food and used some as medicines.
Artist’s impression of a group of Neanderthals
The ancestors of modern-day hu-mans
(Homo sapiens) are believed
to have originated in Africa. Be-tween
60,000 and 70,000 years ago
these ancient humans began to move

to other parts of the world. Homo
sapiens first arrived in Europe about
44,000 years ago.
For many years scientists won-dered
if Neanderthals and ancient hu-mans
mated, or bred, with each other.
Neanderthals were slightly shorter
than ancient humans, but their bodies
were stronger, or more powerful. The
brains of Neanderthals and Homo
sapiens were similar in size. Yet the
shape of their skulls was different.
Recent genetic studies show that
between one and four percent of the
DNA of today’s Europeans is Nean-derthal.
This means that there must
have been some interbreeding.
The university researchers tested
nearly 200 items, or artifacts. These
were previously discovered at 40
separate Neanderthal sites. The arti-facts
included pieces of bone, char-coal
and shells. The sites range from
Spain to Russia. The researchers
used new technology to accurately
date all the artifacts.
After studying all the informa-tion,
the scientists believe that Ne-anderthals
disappeared in Europe
about 39,000 years ago. This means,
in Europe, Neanderthals and Homo
sapiens lived close to each other for
roughly 5,000 years. During this
time Neanderthal numbers probably
declined while the population of an-cient
humans increased.
It was thought that ancient humans
attacked the Neanderthals or forced
them to move to the farthest parts
of Europe. The researchers are now
sure that this did not happen. Howev-er,
the reason why the Neanderthals
died out is unknown. Some scientists
think that they were probably unable
to compete with ancient humans.
Another possibility is that there
was a sudden change in the climate.
If the Neanderthals did disappear
around 39,000 years ago then cli-mate
change might be the reason.
Around this time there was what’s
known as a “Heinrich event”.
Between 12,000 and 65,000
years ago there were six Heinrich
events. For much of this period huge
ice sheets covered northern parts of
the world. A Heinrich event hap-pened
when large areas of ice melt-ed
quickly. The melting ice added
enormous amounts of fresh water
to the salty seas and oceans. This
caused some ocean currents to stop
or change direction. Ocean currents
affect the world’s climate. Therefore
the extra fresh water led to sudden
temperature changes in many plac-es.
In Europe the climate quickly be-came
much colder and drier. Within
ten years the temperature dropped
by about 18ºF (10ºC). This colder
period probably lasted for several
hundred years. Many animals and
plants would not have been able
to survive. This change of climate
might explain why Neanderthals
disappeared in Europe. The much
colder temperatures would have
also affected the ancient humans.
Yet, somehow, they must have
survived. 
BERLIN T4 MEMORIAL
On September 2, Klaus Wowere-it
officially opened, or unveiled, a
new memorial. Mr. Wowereit is the
mayor of Berlin, the German capi-tal
city. The memorial is dedicated
to the thousands of handicapped,
or disabled, people who were de-liberately
killed during the Second
World War (1939 – 1945).
During the war the Nazis mur-dered
millions of people. At least six
million Jews and two million Sinti
and Roma (also known as gypsies)
were killed. Thousands of homosex-uals
and people who had disabilities
were also murdered.
The Nazis set up a special or-ganization
to kill disabled people.
They called it a euthanasia program.
It was code-named T4. This name
came from Tiergartenstrasse 4,
an address of a mansion house, or
building, in Berlin. The people who
ran T4 worked in the large house.
T4 memorial in Berlin, in Germany
Under T4 disabled people who
were not thought to be “useful” were
murdered. They included people
with physical handicaps and mental
illnesses. Disabled people were tak-en
to several hospitals in Germany.
There they were gassed or given a
fatal injection.
The program was supposed to
last from 1939 to 1941. During
this period about 70,000 disabled
people were murdered. However,
after 1941, the T4 program con-tinued
unofficially until the end of
the war. It’s thought that in these
four years another 200,000 people
were killed.
After the war many of those who
ran the T4 program were arrested.
Like other Nazi leaders, they were
put on trial. The people who set
up the program were found guilty.
They were sentenced to many years
in prison or death by hanging.
The memorial is Berlin’s fourth
monument to the victims of the Na-zis.
The first was unveiled in 2005
and is dedicated to the millions of

Jews who were killed during the war.
Another smaller memorial was
opened in 2008. It is dedicated to the
homosexuals who were persecuted
by the Nazi regime. A monument to
the Sinti and Roma was officially
opened in 2012.
The new memorial is 80 feet (24
meters) long. It is close to Berlin’s
Philharmonie building. This is a
world famous concert hall. The
memorial is made of a large plain
blue sheet of glass. There is a long,
low wall nearby. Information about
the murder of the disabled people
and the T4 program is displayed on
this wall.
Several people spoke during the
unveiling ceremony. They included
relatives of those who were killed
under the T4 program. The T4 man-sion
house no longer exists. It was
destroyed at the end of the war.
However, the memorial was delib-erately
erected next to where the
building used to be. 
HUMAN RIGHTS TEAM TO IRAQ
The United Nations Human Rights
Council (UNHRC) held an emer-gency
meeting on September 1.
Its members decided that a special
human rights team would be sent
to Iraq. This team will investigate
atrocities, or war crimes, carried out
by the Islamic State (IS).
The UNHRC was set up in 2006.
Its job is to make quick decisions
about humanitarian problems. The
Council has 47 seats. Yet there are
192 United Nations (U.N.) mem-bers.
They therefore take turns to
have one of the UNHRC’s seats.
Each U.N. member country gets a
seat on the Council for three years.
It is then replaced by another nation.
No country is allowed to keep its
Council seat for two successive
three-year periods.
The UNHRC is based at the
Palais des Nations (the Palace of
Nations), in Geneva. This is one of
the largest diplomatic conference
centers in the world. It is also the
U.N.’s headquarters in Switzerland.
UNHRC meetings take place in the
Palace’s Human Rights and Alliance
of Civilizations Room.
TURKEY
SYRIA
JORDAN
IRAQ
IRAN
SAUDI
ARABIA
Baghdad
Mosul
Iraqi
Kurdistan
O Area controlled by the Islamic State (IS)
The IS is an Islamic militant or-ganization.
(It is also known as ISIS
and ISIL.) The IS was set up about
three years ago in northern Syria.
More recently its numbers of follow-ers,
or fighters, has greatly increased.
These men dress in black. The IS has
also acquired large amounts of mon-ey
and weapons. People who follow
the Islamic faith are either Sunni or
Shia Muslims. Most IS fighters are
Sunni Muslims. The organization’s
leader and his followers believe that
everyone should follow very strict
Islamic laws.
The IS occupies a large part of
northern Syria. Last January, IS
fighters took control of western
Iraq. Then, in June, they suddenly
seized Mosul and a large area in the
country’s northwest. Mosul is Iraq’s
second biggest city.
The IS treats Shia Muslims and
ethnic minorities very harshly.
Ethnic minorities are small groups
within a country who have a dif-ferent
culture. Ethnic minorities in
northern Iraq include: Christians,
Yazidis, Turkmen, and Kurds. The
ancestors of the Iraqi Turkmen came
from what is now modern-day Tur-key.
The Yazidis are an ancient peo-ple.
The religion they follow is more
than 4,000 years old.
Since it took control of northwest
Iraq, the IS has carried out frequent
executions. Many reports say that
younger women are being taken
away. Hundreds of Iraqi soldiers
captured by the IS have been shot.
Its followers have destroyed many
Shia mosques and shrines and other
religious buildings. IS fighters have
recorded some executions and post-ed
the videos on the internet.
The U.N. believes that over one
million people in Iraq have been
forced to flee from the IS since the be-ginning
of the year. Most of these peo-ple
are now living in refugee camps.
Many Kurds live in northeast
Iraq. Today this area is known as
Iraqi Kurdistan. It is part of Iraq, but
the Kurds can make many of their
own decisions. Iraqi Kurdistan also
has its own military force or army.
Called the Peshmerga, it has been
fighting against the IS.
The Human Rights and Alliance of Civilizations
Room in the Palais des Nations, in Geneva
Many countries have now decid-ed
to help the Iraqi government and
the Peshmerga in the fight against
the IS. American warplanes have
attacked IS fighters and military ve-hicles.
Soldiers from Iran are help-ing
the Iraqi army. Other countries,

such as Germany, are sending bet-ter
and more powerful weapons to
the Peshmerga.
The UNHRC team in Iraq will
record and collect details of IS
atrocities. This information can then
be used in possible future war crime
investigations and trials. 
HONG KONG ANNOUNCEMENT
Senior officials in China made an im-portant
decision about Hong Kong on
August 31. In 2017 there will be an
election in the city. It will be held to
choose Hong Kong’s new leader, or
chief executive. The Chinese officials
declared that only approved candi-dates
would be able to take part. Their
decision angered people in Hong
Kong who want more democracy.
Hong Kong became a colony
of Britain in 1843. In 1898, China
agreed to lease some extra land to
the British for 99 years. Under UK
rule, Hong Kong became a crowded,
but very successful, city. Hong Kong
has a very large natural harbor. For
many years most of the world’s car-go
ships, which took goods to China,
passed through the city.
The lease arrangement ended
on June 30, 1997. Before this date,
Britain and China held many dis-cussions.
Britain agreed to return
all of Hong Kong to China when
the lease ended. Many of the dis-cussions
were therefore about how
Hong Kong would be run after Chi-na
took over. China’s leaders sug-gested
what became known as “one
country, two systems”. Therefore,
even though it would be a part of
China, Hong Kong’s laws and how
it was governed would not alter for
50 years. The change from UK rule
to Chinese rule in Hong Kong is
usually called the “hand over”.
“One country, two systems”
means that people in Hong Kong
have more political freedoms than
those in other areas of China. One
difference is the right to hold peace-ful
demonstrations. Another is that
people are allowed to follow their
own religious beliefs. News report-ers
and journalists are also supposed
to be able to report the news in an
unbiased way.
Hong Kong and its harbour
Britain wanted local leaders to
be elected by everyone who lived in
Hong Kong. China was not in favor
of this. Eventually China agreed to
some elections. However, most of
those who run the city are chosen
by China. These people appoint the
chief executive, or the person in
charge of Hong Kong. The chief ex-ecutive
serves for five years. How-ever,
China did agree that everyone
in Hong Kong could vote for the
chief executive 20 years after the
hand over, or in 2017.
The current chief executive is
Leung Chun-ying. He was selected
to be Hong Kong’s leader in 2012. So
his five-year term will end in 2017.
In recent years there have been
several “democracy” protests in Hong
Kong. Those who take part want
Hong Kong’s leaders to be democrat-ically
elected. These people hoped
that this would happen in 2017. They
say that anyone who wants to stand
as a candidate for chief executive in
2017 should be allowed to do so.
The recent announcement by
China’s leaders confirms that ev-eryone
will be able to vote for the
chief executive in 2017. However,
only two or three candidates will
be allowed to stand. What’s more
China’s leaders will select the can-didates.
The democracy protesters
claim that this makes the forthcom-ing
election meaningless.
Not everyone in Hong Kong
agrees with the democracy protest-ers.
Several opposing groups have
held their own demonstrations. They
say that the protesters are damaging
the city’s reputation. Many of Hong
Kong’s business leaders have also
criticized the democracy protests. 
PHOENICIAN SHIP DISCOVERY
On August 25, the government of
Malta announced a new discovery.
It said that a group of undersea sci-entists,
or archaeologists, had found
an ancient shipwreck. The wooden
boat is believed to have sunk around
3,700 years ago. If so, it is one of the
oldest shipwrecks ever discovered
in the western part of the Mediter-ranean
Sea.
Amphorae on the seabed at wreck site
Malta is an archipelago of sev-en
islands. The wreck of the ship is
about one mile (1.6 kilometers) off
the coast of Gozo. This is Malta’s
second largest island. For 150 years
Malta was part of the British Empire.

It became an independent country in
1964. The island nation is now one of
the 28 member countries of the Euro-pean
Union (EU). It joined in 2004.
Phoenicia was an ancient civili-zation.
It prospered between 1550
BCE and 300 CE. The Phoenicians
lived along the coast of modern-day
Lebanon and parts of Syria. Their
three main coastal cities were Byblos,
Sidon and Tyre. They were expert
ship builders and seafarers. The Phoe-nician
civilization ended after their
cities were attacked and taken over by
the Persians and Ancient Greeks.
Demonstration of how amphorae were probably
transported on Phoenician ships
The Phoenicians were well-known
for their purple dye, glass-ware
and wine. Shells from a type
of sea snail were crushed to make
the dye. The Phoenicians’ wooden
sailing ships traded goods all along
the south coast of the Mediterranean
Sea and southern Spain.
The shipwreck was discovered
several months ago. It is about 395
feet (120 meters) below the surface
of the sea. The wreck’s location is
being kept a secret. The scientists,
who are from Malta, France and
the U.S., have recently completed
a five-day study of the sunken ship.
During this time they used a mini
submarine, or remotely-operated
vehicle (ROV), to take 8,000 photo-graphs.
These pictures will be used
to make a three-dimensional (3D)
model of the ancient ship.
At the wreck site many amphorae
can be seen lying on the seabed. The
scientists have also counted at least
20 circular millstones, or grinding
stones. They are made from lava,
or volcanic rock. These millstones
were used to grind wheat or corn to
make bread.
Amphorae are large jars, or jugs,
made out of clay. (The singular is
amphora.) The Phoenicians, Ancient
Greeks and Romans all made these
storage jars. They were used to trans-port
things such as olive oil, wine,
grain, and fish. Amphorae usually
had double handles, a long neck and a
pointed base. Their design meant that
they could be set upright in soft soil
or sand. They could also be placed
inside a ship’s hull and secured with
ropes tied through their handles.
The scientists say that the wooden
ship was about 50 feet (15 meters)
long. It was carrying at least seven
different types of amphorae. This
suggests that the ship had called,
or stopped, at several ports. It was
probably sailing from Sicily to Malta
when it sank. (Today Sicily is part of
Italy.) The scientists now plan to ex-cavate
the shipwreck and recover all
the items it was carrying. 
GROUVILLE HOARD
Researchers in Jersey have start-ed
work on a solid mass of ancient
coins. The coins, which were found
in 2012, were buried about 2,000
years ago. As they were underground
for so long, the coins are stuck to-gether
in one large mass, or “lump”.
Many ancient valuable items
have been found buried under-ground
in Europe. These were prob-ably
hidden for safekeeping in times
of war or fighting. The owners may
have been killed or unable to return
and dig them up. When these “trea-sures”
are found today they are usu-ally
called a “hoard”.
Jersey is one of the Channel Is-lands.
These are close to the coast of
France. Yet the islands are self-gov-erning
territories, which are loyal to
Britain’s king or queen. The coins
were discovered in an area called
Grouville. They are therefore known
as the Grouville Hoard.
In the early 1980s two men who
live on Jersey heard a story about an-cient
coins being found. A farmer had
pulled a tree out of a hedge. Under
it was an old clay pot. Several silver
coins were inside. The men wanted
to check the area with metal detec-tors
to see if there were more buried
coins. However, no one knew exactly
where the clay pot was found.
Part of the Grouville Hoard
In recent years the farm changed
ownership. The two men asked the
new farmer if they could check
the field with metal detectors. He
agreed. Yet they could only do it
at a certain time of year. This was
between the harvesting of one crop
and sowing seeds for the next. This
meant that the men had only about
15 hours a year to work in the field.
Each year the men returned with
their metal detectors. After 30 years
without success they found 60 Iron
Age silver coins and one made
from gold. Soon afterwards they

discovered the huge mass of coins.
The men immediately told local of-ficials.
A team of archaeologists was
then sent to investigate.
The number of coins surprised
everyone. It is one of the world’s
largest coin hoards. The mass of
coins weighs 1,650 pounds (750
kilograms). Experts believe that it
contains around 70,000 Iron Age
and Roman coins. Several pieces
of gold jewelry can be seen stick-ing
out from the mass. The hoard
is estimated to be worth about $20
million.
The coins were probably buried
around 50 BCE. Then, Julius Cae-sar,
the famous Roman general, was
attacking Celtic tribes that lived in
what is now northern France. Histo-rians
think that a tribe trying to es-cape
from Caesar’s armies took the
coins to Jersey.
The mass of coins is in Jersey’s
museum. Researchers have start-ed
to remove and clean the coins
one-by-one. About 500 coins are
separated every week. The project
is therefore expected to take three
years. One wall of the researchers’
laboratory has been replaced with
glass. So visitors to the museum can
now watch as each coin is separated
and cleaned. 
CABINET RESHUFFLE IN FRANCE
On August 25, Manuel Valls,
France’s prime minister, announced
that all the members of the cabinet,
or government, had resigned. He
made the announcement after three
cabinet members criticized François
Hollande, the country’s president.
In many countries the cabinet is a
group of senior government minis-ters
who make important decisions.
In France the president runs the
country. The president also has to
choose a prime minster. Then, they
select the members of the cabinet.
The prime minister is the cabinet’s
leader. Cabinet members are usual-ly
from the same political party as
the president and prime minister.
However, they may be members of a
coalition party. Coalitions are made
up of two or more political parties,
which agree to work together.
France’s president, François Hollande
People in the cabinet have spe-cial
jobs. For instance, they could
be in charge of education, justice, fi-nance,
foreign affairs, defense, and
the economy. A reshuffle is when
several members of the cabinet are
changed at the same time. The prime
minister may decide to sack, or fire,
one or two cabinet members. Others
are then promoted to these positions.
In France, the prime minister would
not reshuffle his cabinet without the
agreement of the president.
Mr. Hollande was elected as
France’s president in 2012. In re-cent
years the country has had many
economic problems. France’s econ-omy
has not been growing and the
number of people without jobs is
now nearly 3.5 million. Many peo-ple
think that France’s government
is spending too much money. As the
economy has not been doing well,
much of the money the government
spends has to be borrowed.
Reducing, or cutting, the amount
of money a government spends is
often called austerity. Government
spending cuts are usually unpopu-lar.
Government workers might be
paid less. Some may lose their jobs.
In times of austerity the amount of
money spent on schools, hospitals,
the police, military forces, welfare,
transport, and law courts may be cut.
At the same time the amount of tax
people have to pay is often increased.
Before Mr. Hollande was elected,
he promised to reduce government
spending cuts and austerity. He also
said that tax laws would be changed.
Wealthier people would have to pay
much more and poorer people less.
Like 17 other members of the
European Union (EU), France uses
the euro as its currency. These coun-tries
are often called the eurozone.
In recent years, economic growth in
many eurozone countries has been
shrinking. The eurozone’s strongest
economy is Germany. Its leader,
Chancellor Angela Merkel, insists
that all eurozone countries must cut
government spending.
Manuel Valls, prime minister of France
Mr. Hollande and Mr. Valls now
say that they want to increase the
number of businesses, or companies,
in France. This, most experts say, is
the best way to reduce unemploy-ment,
or the number of people with-out
jobs. Mr. Hollande has announced
that the government will spend
more money on businesses. This is

supposed to encourage companies
to expand and employ more people.
However, to do this, Mr. Hollande
has decided to increase austerity and
not reduce taxes. This has angered
some members of his political party
and many people who voted for him.
On August 24, Arnaud Monte-bourg,
the minister for the economy,
spoke to one of the largest French
newspapers. He said what Mr. Hol-lande
was doing was wrong. He also
blamed Mrs. Merkel for forcing more
austerity on other eurozone countries.
Two other cabinet ministers said that
Mr. Montebourg was correct.
Cabinet members criticizing the
president is unusual. Mr. Valls spoke
with Mr. Hollande. They agreed that
Mr. Valls would announce the resig-nation
of the government, or every-one
in the cabinet. Soon afterwards,
Mr. Hollande told the prime minister
to form a new cabinet. Mr. Monte-bourg
and the two ministers who
agreed with him were replaced. Mr.
Valls only selected people who sup-port
the president’s economic plans
to be members of the new cabinet. 
FINGERPRINTING FOR FOOD
Nicolás Maduro, the president of
Venezuela, recently announced a
controversial plan. From November
30, grocery stores and supermarkets
will have to use special devices.
These will scan people’s fingerprints
when they buy certain foods.
Venezuela is an oil-rich country.
It has the largest proven, or known,
oil supplies in the world. The coun-try
is very dependent on this indus-try.
Around 95% of the money Ven-ezuela
makes comes from oil.
In recent years the government
has been printing extra banknotes.
This is because it has been spending
more money than it earns. Printing
extra money usually causes infla-tion.
This is when a currency loses
value and the cost of things increase.
The more banknotes there are in a
country the less they are worth. At
around 60%, Venezuela now has
one of the highest inflation rates in
the world.
Empty shelves in a store in Venezuela
Many of the things people in Ven-ezuela
need are imported from other
countries. Examples are: shampoo,
cooking oil, powdered milk, wash-ing
powder, toilet paper, and nap-pies,
or diapers. Government owned
companies control the import and
price of certain foodstuffs such as
flour, milk, butter, and sugar.
The Venezuelan government runs
a “price control” system. This means
that it sets prices for certain goods.
Stores are not allowed to increase
them. High inflation means that it
is expensive for store owners to buy
goods, or items, from other countries.
Even if they did, they would have to
sell them at the lower government
“controlled” price. Most store own-ers
have therefore stopped importing
goods. This is why many stores in
Venezuela now have empty shelves.
The foodstuffs that government
owned companies control are subsi-dized.
A subsidy is a payment made
by the government to keep the price
of something lower than its real cost.
When subsidized foodstuffs are de-livered
to stores in Venezuela, peo-ple
quickly buy them. Some make
money by illegally taking large
amounts of these goods across the
border into Colombia. This is called
smuggling. In Colombia the smug-glers
sell the goods for a far higher
price. Yet the prices Colombians pay
are still less than what the goods cost
in Colombian stores. Large amounts
of gasoline are smuggled across the
border for the same reason.
The government’s price controls
and subsidies have led to a big in-crease
in smuggling. Last month the
Venezuelan government announced
that its border with Colombia would
be closed at night. Around 17,000
soldiers have been sent to the border
area. Many help to search cars for
smuggled goods. The government
of Colombia agreed to the border
closure. It also wants to stop the
Venezuelan smugglers.
Many people have complained
about the fingerprinting plan. How-ever,
Mr. Maduro insists that it will
stop smuggling. Anyone who buys
certain goods will have their fin-gerprints
scanned. It will therefore
be difficult to buy large amounts of
these items without being detected.
If the smuggling is stopped, officials
say, the food shortages will end. Not
everyone agrees. Food shortages
and empty shelves, these people ar-gue,
are the result of high inflation
and government subsidies. 
DEAD STAR EXPLOSION
Astronomers, or scientists who
study the planets and stars, have
made a new discovery about dead
stars. They have proven that dead
stars, or white dwarfs, can reignite
and explode.
All stars have a life cycle that can
last for billions of years. Some are
many times hotter and brighter than

others. The coolest stars are a red-dish
color and the hottest ones are
blue-white.
Stars’ life cycles depend on their
mass, or the amount of matter they
contain. A star is born when a cloud
of gas and dust in a nebula is pulled
together by gravity. It begins to spin
faster and faster and heats up to
form a protostar.
A process called nuclear fusion
then begins. This turns hydrogen
atoms into helium atoms and pro-duces
light and heat. The protostar
starts to glow brightly. At this stage
it is called a main sequence star. The
star will stay like this for millions or
billions of years. Our Sun is current-ly
a main sequence star.
Type Ia supernova in the M82 galaxy (ESA)
Eventually, the hydrogen supply
in a star’s core runs out. It can no
longer produce heat and light. The
core shrinks, or contracts. Yet the
star’s outer part expands, cools and
glows red. At this stage stars are
called “red giants”. All stars will
become red giants one day but then,
depending on their mass, they de-velop
in one of two ways.
Low-mass stars (like our Sun)
will lose their outer shell. The
core collapses to become a “white
dwarf”, a small but very hot star.
Over several billion years, white
dwarfs cool and fade and turn into
what are known as “black dwarfs”.
High-mass stars are different.
Their core gets hotter and hotter.
Eventually, the core becomes so hot
that it explodes. This huge explo-sion
is called a supernova. After a
supernova explosion a neutron star
or black hole is formed. Both have
extremely strong forces of gravity. In
a black hole, gravity is so strong that
nothing, not even light, can escape.
For some time scientists have sus-pected
that white dwarfs could also
explode or become supernova. Yet
they were not sure how or why this
happened. Exploding white dwarfs
were thought to have another nearby,
or companion, star. This is known as
a binary system, or two stars orbiting,
or going around, each other. If a white
dwarf in a binary system explodes it
is called a Type Ia supernova.
Supernovas are the most pow-erful
explosions that occur in the
Universe. They create huge bursts
of gamma rays. Gamma rays are
invisible to the human eye. They
have a very short wavelength and
are very energetic. (If you were
exposed to a large dose of gamma
radiation on the Earth it would be
very dangerous.)
The scientists were using a Eu-ropean
Space Agency (ESA) space
telescope, or observatory. Called
INTEGRAL, it was launched 12
years ago. The telescope was de-signed
to study gamma rays. The
scientists detected a supernova at
the end of January. Later, this super-nova
was given the name SN2014J.
The explosion was in a galaxy called
M82. This galaxy is about 11.5
million light years from the Earth.
SN2014J was the nearest Type Ia
supernova ever recorded.
The scientists have spent sev-eral
months studying SN2014J’s
gamma rays. They can now con-firm
that an exploding white dwarf
created them. The white dwarf, the
scientists explain, was taking in or
pulling matter from its companion
star. The ever increasing weight of
this matter compressed the carbon
within the dead star’s core. Even-tually,
this caused a huge nuclear
explosion, which tore, or ripped, the
white dwarf apart. 
BY-THE-WIND SAILORS
Millions of small jellyfish-like or-ganisms
have been appearing on
beaches along the West Coast of the
U.S. Called velella, they are nor-mally
found floating far out at sea.
When many marine creatures are
washed up on coasts, it is called a
mass stranding.
Velella are also known by several
other names. These include “sea raft”
and “by-the-wind sailor”. They are
a deep blue color and less than four
inches (ten centimeters) long. On
their upper part is a stiff transparent,
or see-through, fin. It looks and acts
like a sail. (The name velella comes
from “velum”, or the Latin word
for “sail”.)
By-the-wind sailor (Jacopo Werther)
The floating velella are unable to
swim. Instead they are blown along
by the wind. If the currents and
winds change, thousands of them
can be washed up on coastlines.
Velella are hydroids. This means
that they are “colonial organisms”.
Therefore, unlike jellyfish, each by-the-
wind sailor is not a single crea-ture.
Instead it is made up of many
smaller organisms that live togeth-

er. These individual organisms are
called polyps. A polyp is similar to a
small sea anemone. It has its own jel-ly-
like body and a mouth surrounded
by tentacles. So velella are not single
creatures but colonies of polyps. Cor-als
are another type of hydroid. They
too are made up of many polyps.
By-the-wind sailor mass stranding (NOAA)
Velella feed on tiny marine crea-tures
called zooplankton and fish
eggs. The velella’s tentacles hang
down from their underside. They
sting or stun their prey. Velella
stings have little effect on humans.
Not much is known about velel-la.
They seem to have an unusual
life cycle. In the middle of the ocean
small parts of them, called medusae,
drop off. These then sink into the
sea. Around 7,000 feet (2,130 me-ters)
below the surface, the medusae
produce either sperm or eggs. Fertil-ization
then occurs at these depths.
The young velella, or larva, develop
a small gas filled float or sack. They
then slowly float up to the surface
of the sea.
By-the-wind sailors only have
a few predators. One is a type of
sea slug. If they get washed up on
a beach, velella do not live for very
long. After drying up, they look like
small pieces of plastic.
Some people think that mass
strandings only happen after velella
population explosions, or dramatic
increases in their numbers. Ocean
temperatures becoming warmer
than usual might cause this. In the
Pacific Ocean there is a warm water
event, which, on average, happens
every five years. These events are
called El Niños. During an El Niño
the seawater in the eastern Pacific
Ocean becomes much warmer. 
COUP IN LESOTHO
Tom Thabane is the prime minister
of Lesotho. On August 30, he sud-denly
left Maseru, the country’s
capital city. After arriving in South
Africa, Mr. Thabane claimed that
the army had taken over Lesotho
and his life was in danger. When a
military force takes control in this
way it is known as a coup d’état, or
coup (pronounced coo).
About two million people live in
Lesotho. The country is an enclave.
This means that it is a territory, or area
of land, that is enclosed within anoth-er.
Lesotho is surrounded by South
Africa. The country is about the same
size as Belgium or the American state
of Maryland. Lesotho used to be a
colony of Britain. It became an inde-pendent
country in 1966.
BOTSWANA
ZIMBABWE
Pretoria
Maseru
SOUTH
AFRICA
MOZAMBIQUE
LESOTHO
Lesotho is a mountain kingdom. It
is sometimes called the “Kingdom in
the Sky”. This is because the whole
country is more than 3,280 feet
(1,000 meters) above sea level. Tha-bana
Ntlenyana, one of the highest
mountains in Africa, is in Lesotho.
Lesotho is a constitutional monar-chy.
This means that a king or queen
is the head of the country, yet he or
she does not govern it. The country’s
elected prime minister and his or her
government make all the important
decisions. Letsie the Third is Leso-tho’s
king. Britain, Japan, Spain, and
the Netherlands are examples of oth-er
constitutional monarchies.
There are three main political par-ties
in Lesotho. Mr. Thabane, who
has been the country’s prime minister
since 2012, leads one. However, last
June he temporarily closed, or sus-pended,
Lesotho’s parliament. This
was because of arguments between
the three political leaders.
The Southern African Develop-ment
Community (SADC) is a group
of 15 African countries. All are in the
southern part of Africa. The organi-zation’s
members agree to work or
cooperate with each other. Lesotho is
one of the SADC’s members.
Soon after Mr. Thabane arrived
in South Africa he met with Jacob
Zuma, the country’s president. Mr.
Zuma then arranged a meeting of
officials from other SADC coun-tries.
This took place in Pretoria,
one of South Africa’s largest cities,
on September 1. The leaders of Le-sotho’s
other two political parties
also attended.
Reports say that there has been
fighting between the police and the
army in Lesotho. Many of the police
are said to have left the country. Mr.
Thabane is believed to have the sup-port
of the police. Yet senior army
commanders back one of the prime
minister’s rivals. In the past the army
has taken control of Lesotho several
times. The country’s parliament was
reopened, or restored, in 1993. This
was after the army ran the country
for seven years.
Mr. Thabane asked the SADC to
send a group of peacekeeping sol-diers
to his country. However, the

organization did not agree to this.
Instead it announced a plan to send
an observer team to Lesotho. 
MAYA CITY REDISCOVERED
A team led by an archaeologist
from Slovenia has rediscovered a
“lost” Maya city called Lagunita. It
was found in thick forest in Mexi-co’s
Yucatan peninsula. The ruined
city is close to the country’s border
with Guatemala.
Historians think that the Maya
civilization first began around 4,000
years ago. The Maya people lived
in Central America in what is now
Guatemala, the southern part of
Mexico, Belize, and parts of Hon-duras,
and El Salvador. The Maya
were at their most powerful between
250 CE and 1000 CE. During this
period they built many stone build-ings,
temples and pyramids.
Maya ruins in Lagunita (Ivan Sprajc)
Spanish invaders arrived in this
part of Central America in the early
1500s. By this time the Maya civili-zation
had declined. Many of its cit-ies
had already become “lost”. Their
buildings were overgrown by trees and
plants. Nobody knows what caused
the Maya’s decline. It may have been
wars, disease, a very long drought, or
even a combination of all three.
The Maya had an impressive
knowledge of the planets, the stars
and how the Sun appears to move
across the sky. They used a com-plicated
calendar. It marked time in
cycles, called baktuns. Each baktun
was roughly 394 years long. The
Mayan system of writing used sym-bols.
These are called glyphs. Yet
the knowledge of their writing died
out soon after the Spanish arrived.
The Maya never completely dis-appeared.
Today, many of the people
living in this part of Central America
are descendants of the Maya. Around
five million people still speak Mayan
languages. Today, many of the an-cient
glyphs have been deciphered,
or decoded. Experts are therefore
able to understand what most of the
symbols mean.
In the 1970s, Eric Von Euw, an
American archaeologist, explored
some forests in the Yucatan. He
claimed to have discovered a lost
Maya city. Von Euw called the city
Lagunita. He made drawings of some
of its ruined buildings. One had an
unusual door, or entrance. The sides
of the door looked like the open jaws
of a monster. However, Von Euw nev-er
published his drawings. Nor did he
record exactly where the city was. So
Lagunita became lost once more.
The team’s leader says that they
rediscovered Lagunita after looking
at aerial photographs. In one of the
pictures they noticed something in
the trees that could be stone build-ings.
The team then set off to search
for the ruins. After finding the site
the team’s members realized it was
Lagunita. This was because many of
the ruined buildings matched Von
Euw’s drawings.
The team spent two months in
the forest. They also found the ruins
of another city. It is about 3.7 miles
(six kilometers) from Lagunita. Both
cities have plazas, or what used to
be wide-open spaces, pyramids, and
palace-like buildings. Some stone
pyramids are 66 feet (20 meters)
high. In the second city there are at
least 30 deep underground chambers.
These were used to collect rainwater.
The team made maps of the cen-tral
areas of the two cities. Its leader
believes that the cities were inhab-ited
between 600 and 1000 CE. He
believes that there are many other
lost Maya cities in this part of Mex-ico
and Guatemala. 
EVOLVING FISH?
Researchers in Canada have com-pleted
an experiment with some
unusual freshwater fish. Called
polypterus, these fish live in African
rivers. The experiment shows how
some types of fish may have evolved
into land-dwelling creatures many
millions of years ago.
Polypterus
There are around 18 species
of polypterus (pronounced polly-ter-
us). These fish are also called
birchirs. Most polypterus are about
16 inches (41 centimeters) long. The
name polypterus comes from two
Greek words, which mean “many”
and “wings”. These words describe
the fishes’ long dorsal fin, or the one
on their backs. The dorsal fin is re-ally
made up of many smaller fins.
It looks like the teeth of a saw, or its
cutting edge. Polypterus are carni-vores,
or meat-eaters. They feed on
insects and smaller fish.

land from one pool of water to an-other.
either side of their bodies, just be-hind
fins to move over land. As the fish
wriggle from side to side, the two
fins pull their bodies along.
The Canadian researchers used
150 very young polypterus for their
experiment. Two large, specially
designed glass tanks, or aquariums,
were set up. Fifty of the fish were
put in one tank, which was filled
with water. Only the bottom of the
other tank was wet. However, the air
in this tank contained a lot of mois-ture.
in some fresh food store displays.
They keep the enclosed air moist, or
humid. The fish in both tanks were
fed in the normal way. The ones in
the “dry” tank did not seem unhap-py,
Bermuda
The first creatures to crawl on the
land evolved from ones that lived in
the sea. Scientists know this from
the study of ancient fossils. The
“move” from sea to land happened
around 400 million years ago. Be-fore
this there were only plants and
insects on the land. Then, over a
long time, these “new” fish-like
creatures slowly changed. They be-came
tetrapods, or the world’s first
vertebrates. A vertebrate is an ani-mal
with four limbs and a backbone.
Over many more millions of years,
tetrapods evolved into amphibians,
reptiles, birds, and mammals.
Some species of polypterus can
live in very shallow water. Unlike
most fish, they have a lung-like
breathing organ. Polypterus there-fore
get the oxygen they need from
the air. Most fish use gills to extract
oxygen from the water. Air-breath-ing
polypterus are able to move over
VENEZUELA
CANADA
USA
The fish have a large fin on
the head. Polypterus use these
The researchers used “mis-ters”
to do this. These can be found
or in any discomfort.
UK
ESTONIA
LITHUANIA
LATVIA
GERMANY
UKRAINE
SWITZERLAND
MALTA
IRAQ
LESOTHO
SOUTH AFRICA
After eight months, the research-ers
compared the fish in the two
tanks. When put in water, the “dry”
tank fish could swim just as well as
the “wet” tank ones. However, the
“dry” tank fish were much better at
moving over land than the others.
They kept their front fins closer
to their bodies, did not wriggle so
much, and took quicker “steps”. The
“dry” tank polypterus were also able
to lift their heads off the ground.
The researchers also checked the
fishes’ anatomy. The skeletons of the
“dry” and “wet” tank polypterus were
slightly different. Those that grew
up on land had stronger chests and
shoulders. They were also a little lon-ger.
This extra length was just behind
the fishes’ heads. The researchers
believe that this might be the “begin-nings
of a neck”. The “dry” tank fish
were able to move their heads from
side to side and up and down easily.
RUSSIA
MONGOLIA
MEXICO
FRANCE
COLOMBIA
CHINA
Hong Kong
AUSTRALIA
This map shows countries to which news stories refer in this issue. Visit www.newsademic.com for more detailed world maps.

The results of the experiment sur-prised
the researchers. The changes
in the polypterus seem to match
some ancient fossils. Therefore, the
researchers’ experiment may have
recreated what gradually happened,
over a far longer time, many mil-lions
of years ago. 
FAMOUS FOOTPRINT PHOTOGRAPHS
Christie’s has announced that some
old photographs are to be sold.
Christie’s is a well-known interna-tional
auction house company. The
photographs were taken 65 years
ago. Soon afterwards, they became
world famous. This was because
many believed that the pictures con-firmed
that yetis exist.
Shipton’s picture of an ice axe with footprint
Eric Shipton (1907 – 1977) took
the photographs. He was a British
mountain climber. In 1951, Shipton
led an expedition to the Himalayan
Mountains in Tibet, in China. His
team was trying to find the best
way, or route, to climb Mount Ev-erest.
Two years later another ex-pedition
followed Shipton’s route.
Two members of this team, Edmund
Hillary (1919 – 2008) and Tenzing
Norgay (1914 – 1986), were the first
people to get to the top of Mount Ev-erest.
Hillary was a New Zealander.
Tenzing (also known as Sherpa Ten-zing)
came from Nepal.
During his 1951 expedition,
Shipton took some photographs of
strange animal tracks in the snow.
Two pictures show another climb-er’s
ice axe and boot beside a sin-gle
footprint. This was to show how
big it was. Later, this climber wrote
about the footprints. He said that
they were high in the mountains,
or at around 16,500 feet (5,000 me-ters).
The climber described how he
and Shipton followed several sets
of tracks for about one mile (1.6
kilometers). Wherever the tracks
crossed small, deep cracks, or cre-vasses,
claw marks could be seen in
the snow. These marks were at the
end of each toe imprint.
Many people who live in the Hi-malayas
insist that yetis exist. The
creatures are said to be tall, hairy,
ape-like animals that walk on two
legs. Some claim to have seen them.
Sightings of yetis in this part of the
world go back thousands of years.
However, none of the creatures have
ever been found or killed.
Several mountain climbers from
other countries say that they have
seen a yeti. Photographs have been
taken, but none are clear. Most sci-entists
insist that the yeti is a myth.
They argue that it would be difficult
for a large animal to live in the moun-tains
where there is not much food.
Last year a professor completed
some DNA tests on hairs found in
two separate places in the Himala-yas.
The professor, who works at
Oxford University in Britain, claims
that the hairs belong to a type of
bear. This, he says, is a “new” bear,
or one that has never been recorded
before. The DNA results suggest the
unknown animal might be “part”
brown bear and “part” polar bear.
Some people think that Shipton
faked the photographs. He was a
“joker” and often played tricks on fel-low
climbers. These people suspect
that Shipton was surprised when his
pictures became so famous. After
this, he was too embarrassed to ad-mit
that they weren’t real.
Shipton’s picture of a boot with footprint
When he was older, Shipton
wrote two books about climbing in
the Himalayas. Neither book men-tions
the yeti footprints or pictures.
Shipton died aged 70. He never said
that the footprint photographs were
faked. Christie’s expects Shipton’s
pictures to sell for about $6,600. 
BURNING OF THE WHITE HOUSE
On August 24, 1814, a group of
British soldiers captured Washing-ton,
the capital city of the U.S. The
soldiers were then ordered to set
fire to many of the city’s buildings.
One was the American president’s
home. Therefore, August 24, 2014
was the 200th anniversary of what
is often called “the Burning of the
White House”.
Beginning in the early 1600s,
Britain set up settlements and col-onies
on the eastern coast of what
is now the U.S. By the 1770s there
were 13 separate colonies. All were
controlled by Britain. Yet, at that
time, many people in the 13 colonies
were unhappy about being governed
by Britain and its king. They wanted
to elect their own leaders. The rulers
of Britain disagreed.

In 1775 a war broke out. It ended
in 1783. This war is known as the
American War of Independence, or
the American Revolutionary War.
George Washington (1732 – 1799)
commanded the army that fought
against the British. Washington’s
soldiers eventually defeated the
British forces. One year after the
war began the leaders of the 13 col-onies
had made an announcement.
Each colony, they declared, was an
independent state. Together, these
states were part of a new country
called the United States of America.
Painting of the White House after the burning
Six years after the end of the war,
George Washington was elected
as the U.S.’s first president. Wash-ington
DC, the country’s capital
city, was named after him. Work
on building a mansion, or large
house, for the president began in
1792. It was finally completed eight
years later.
John Adams (1735 – 1826),
America’s second president, was
the first person to live in the large
mansion. Then, it was known as the
“President’s House” or “President’s
Palace”. It was not called the White
House until sometime later.
Even though the U.S. became a
separate country, Canada remained
part of the British Empire. In 1812,
American soldiers crossed the bor-der
and tried to annex, or take over,
some parts of Canada. This led
to another war. Called the War of
1812, it lasted for three years. One
year after the war began, a group of
American soldiers captured York.
(This city is now called Toronto. It
is the largest city in Canada.) The
soldiers then set fire to the Canadian
parliament buildings. Nearby hous-es
were broken into.
In 1814, General Ross (1766 –
1814) was ordered to attack Wash-ington.
He commanded a force of
2,500 British soldiers. The attack, he
was told, would be in retaliation for
what had happened in York. General
Ross set out from the island of Ber-muda
in several ships. After landing
on the coast, his soldiers advanced
towards Washington. They easily
defeated a weak American force,
which was supposed to protect the
capital city.
After occupying Washington, the
British soldiers set fire to the Presi-dent’s
House and many other gov-ernment
buildings. They left the city
two days later. General Ross then
tried to capture the city of Balti-more.
This attack failed and he was
killed in the fighting.
The White House
After the fire, only the outside,
or exterior, walls of the President’s
House remained. Rebuilding work
started the following year. It had
been completed by 1817. The first
president to live in the reconstructed
building was James Monroe (1758 –
1831). He was the U.S.’s fifth pres-ident.
About 30 years ago some reno-vation
work was carried out in the
White House. Scorch marks, made
by the flames, were uncovered. A
decision was made not to paint over
all the black marks. Some were left
to remind people of what happened
in 1814. 
SLIDING STONES EXPLAINED
Two American researchers have fi-nally
solved a longstanding geolog-ical
enigma. For many years people
have wondered how large rocks
seem to mysteriously move across a
desert lakebed in California, in the
U.S. The researchers managed to
film the rocks moving. Their expla-nation
has recently been posted to a
special scientific website.
The dried up lakebed is not far
from Death Valley. Known as the
Racetrack Playa or the Racetrack, it
is about 2.8 miles (4.5 kilometers)
long and 1.3 miles (2.1 kilometers)
wide. It is very flat. As there is lit-tle
rain in this part of California,
no plants grow on the dry lakebed.
The Racetrack is 3,700 feet (1,130
meters) above sea level. The tem-peratures
are very hot during the
day. Yet, at night, in winter, they can
drop below freezing.
Just over 100 years ago miners
working near Death Valley noticed
something strange on the Racetrack.
Large rocks, or boulders, on the dried
up lakebed must have moved. The
miners did not see the rocks moving.
Yet there were long trails, or paths,
in the mud behind them. Some larger
“moving” stones weighed over 500
pounds (227 kilograms).
The paths in the mud are flat.
This means that the stones must
slide and not roll. Most trails go in
roughly the same direction. Some
are straight, but others bend, or
meander. Zigzag courses have also
been recorded.

The Racetrack is in a very remote
area. Few people go there. From the
nearest town it is a three-hour drive.
Over the last 60 years several geolo-gists,
or scientists who study rocks,
have visited the Racetrack. Each has
tried to work out what makes the
rocks move.
Sliding stone on Racetrack Playa
Many people thought that the
rocks must be blown along by strong
winds. As an experiment, a person
landed a propeller-driven aircraft
on the Racetrack in 1953. He then
tried to use the wash, or wind, from
the plane’s propellers to move the
rocks. Some rolled, but none slid.
The two researchers had an idea.
They drilled holes in some rocks
and put GPS trackers inside them.
The researchers then took the rocks
to the Racetrack and left them there.
They also set up some time-lapse
cameras. These cameras can be set
to take photographs at intervals. For
example, pictures can be taken ev-ery
hour, day or month. The track-ers
were set to start recording their
speed and position when the rocks
started to move.
Last December, the two research-ers
returned to the Racetrack. They
wanted to change the GPS track-ers’
batteries. They camped for the
night. Heavy rain had fallen the day
before, so part of the lakebed was
covered in a few centimeters of wa-ter.
During the hours of darkness,
the temperature dropped below
freezing. The surface of the water
froze. Soon after sunrise, the ice
started to crack and melt.
Large but very thin sheets of ice
were blown by the wind. They float-ed
on the thin layer of water under-neath
them. Some ice sheets were
about 50 feet (15 meters) across. As
they covered a large area, the mov-ing
ice sheets created enough force
to push the rocks. By the afternoon
all the water had dried up. The re-searchers
could then see the mud
paths trailing behind the stones.
Some rocks had moved over 330
feet (100 meters).
The researchers think that the
conditions must be exactly right
for the rocks to move. There must
be rain, and then freezing tempera-tures
followed by warm sunshine.
The lakebed’s mud also has to be
slippery enough. These conditions
probably don’t happen very often.
The researchers were therefore
lucky to have been at the Racetrack
on one of the few days that the rocks
moved. 
NEW EU APPOINTMENTS
The leaders of the 28 member coun-tries
of the European Union (EU)
attended a special meeting on Au-gust
30. The meeting was held at the
EU’s headquarters in Brussels, the
capital of Belgium.
At the meeting the leaders agreed
on who would be given two import-ant
positions, or jobs. These posi-tions
are the president of the Eu-ropean
Council (also known as the
president of the European Union)
and the high representative (HR).
Most countries have a foreign min-ister.
His or her job is to deal with
other countries. The role of the EU’s
HR is similar. He or she is responsi-ble
for the EU’s foreign policy.
The EU has several leaders.
The most important people are the
president, or head, of the European
Commission, the president of the
European Council, the HR, and the
European Parliament’s president.
The European Commission is
also known as the “Commission” or
the executive of the EU. It proposes
and writes all new EU laws. Rep-resentatives
of member countries’
governments discuss them. Then
the laws are passed to the European
Parliament. The parliament can ei-ther
change or approve them.
The European Parliament has
751 elected members. People living
in EU member countries elect these
MEPs (members of the European
Parliament). The parliament meets
in two buildings. These are in Stras-bourg,
a town in France, close to
the country’s border with Germany,
and in Brussels.
Mr. Tusk (l), Mr. Rompuy (c), Mrs. Mogherini (r)
José Manuel Barroso has been the
Commission’s president for the last
ten years. The former prime minis-ter
of Portugal is about to complete
his second five-year term. The lead-ers
of the EU’s 28 member countries
chose Mr. Barroso’s successor sev-eral
weeks ago. He is Jean-Claude
Juncker. Mr. Juncker, who used to
be prime minister of Luxembourg,
will officially take over from Mr.
Barroso on November 1.
The European Council is made
up of 30 people. They are the elect-ed
leaders of the 28 EU member

countries, plus the presidents of the
European Council and Commission.
The current Council president is
Herman Van Rompuy. He is a for-mer
prime minister of Belgium. Mr.
Van Rompuy will also stand down
on November 1. Donald Tusk, Po-land’s
prime minister, has been se-lected
to succeed him.
The new HR is Federica Mogher-ini.
She is an Italian politician.
Many people were surprised at her
selection. Mrs. Mogherini, who
speaks French and English, is 41
years old. She only became Italy’s
foreign minister seven months ago.
Mrs. Mogherini will replace Cath-erine
Ashton, a UK politician (who
is also a Baroness) on November 1.
Baroness Ashton has been the EU’s
HR for the last five years.
Currently the EU is supporting
the government of Ukraine in its
dispute with Russia. For several
months there has been fighting be-tween
government forces and sep-aratist,
or rebel, groups in eastern
Ukraine. The rebel groups want to
form a self-governing area. Russia
supports them. As the EU’s new
HR, Mrs. Mogherini will need to
work with Ukraine and Russia to
find a way to stop the fighting. 
BALTIC WAY ANNIVERSARY
The 25th anniversary of the Baltic
Way was on August 23. The Baltic
Way, which took place in 1989, sur-prised
people in many parts of the
world. As a protest, people from
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania stood
in a 373 mile (600-kilometer) line.
They then held hands for 15 minutes
to form a long human chain.
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania
are three small European countries.
Together they are often called the
Baltic States. Each became an inde-pendent
nation after the end of the
First World War (1914 – 1918).
Before the Second World War
(1939 – 1945) began, the leaders
of Germany and the Russian-led
Soviet Union made a secret pact,
or agreement. Then, Adolf Hitler
was Germany’s leader and Joseph
Stalin was in charge of the Soviet
Union. This agreement is known
as the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. It
was signed on August 23, 1939. The
pact was named after the Russian
and German foreign ministers who
signed it.
Tallinn
Riga
ESTONIA
LATVIA
Vilnius
LITHUANIA
RUSSIA
Baltic Sea
POLAND BELARUS
The secret pact meant that when
German soldiers invaded Poland
from the west, Russian troops would
attack the country from the east. It
was also agreed that Russia would
take over the Baltic States. About
ten months after the invasion of
Poland, the Russian army occupied
Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
In 1941, Hitler ordered an inva-sion
of Russia. The German army
quickly advanced towards Moscow,
the Russian capital city. During its
advance, the German army moved
into Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania.
At first many people welcomed the
German soldiers. They thought that
they would now be free. Howev-er,
the German leaders soon set up
their own occupation with similar
harsh rules.
By 1944 Germany was losing the
war. Russian forces recaptured the
Baltic States. They defeated the Ger-man
army in many Eastern European
countries. When the war ended these
countries, including Latvia, Esto-nia
and Lithuania, became part of a
much bigger Soviet Union.
In 1989 some people in the Bal-tic
States decided to organize a large
demonstration. They wanted to end
the Soviet occupation of their coun-tries.
Their unusual protest became
known as the Baltic Way. It was held
on the 50th anniversary of the sign-ing
of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.
Around two million people took
part. The human chain stretched
from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia,
in the north, to Vilnius, Lithuania’s
capital city, in the south. The line
of people passed through Riga, the
Latvian capital.
The Baltic Way was a peaceful
protest. It showed how three small
countries could overcome what a
much larger, more powerful nation
had imposed on them. By the end
of 1989, the Soviet Union was be-ginning
to break up. Mikhail Gor-bachev,
the Soviet leader at that time,
decided not to stop Eastern European
countries declaring independence.
Within two years of the Baltic Way
each of the Baltic States had become
a self-governing nation. 
Newsademic.com
Editor: Rebecca Watson
American Editor: Chris Tarn
Acknowledgements:
News story photographs by gettyimages
For further details about Newsademic
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www.newsademic.com
© Newsademic 2014

ISSUE 231
GLOSSARY PUZZLE
INSTRUCTIONS:  Complete the crossword. The answers are
highlighted in orange in the news stories. There are 25
words highlighted and you need 20 of them to complete the
crossword.  Once you have solved the crossword go to
the word search on the next page 
1 2
3
4 5 6
7 8 9 10
11 12 13
14
15 16
17
18
19
20
ACROSS
1 Verb To flare up or catch fire again
5 Noun Political or religious belief or set of beliefs
9 Noun Something that is puzzling or cannot be explained
11 Noun A female reproductive organ in which ova or eggs
are produced
14 Adjective Describes something basic or very simple, or
something from the time of very early civilisation
15 Noun An idea or plan of a political party or organisation
16 Noun The science of the structure of living things’
bodies
18 Adjective Likely to cause arguments
19 Noun The painless killing of someone in a permanent
coma or suffering from an incurable and painful illness
(illegal in most countries)
20 Verb Discovered, found or proved the existence of
something
DOWN
2 Verb To intentionally become involved in a difficult
situation to stop it from getting worse
3 Noun Describes actions taken to save money, especially
living more simply and strictly controlling spending
4 Verb Forced to accept
6 Noun Two or more things joining or mixing together, or
happening at the same time
7 Verb Gained wealth and success
8 Noun (Plural) Animals able to live both in water and on land
10 Verb Discovered the meaning of something, especially a
code
12 Noun The state of having been restored to a previous or
better condition
13 Noun An action taken in revenge or payback for something
17 Verb To be brought into contact with something, often
something harmful

ISSUE 231
GLOSSARY PUZZLE CONTINUED
INSTRUCTIONS:  Find 19 of the 20
crossword answers in the word search.
Words can go vertically, horizontally,
diagonally and back to front.  After
finding the 19 words write down the
20th (or missing) word under the puzzle.
C S E Y V N E A U F D M G D U F Q S
O O S Y V F N Y S L O F J E G Y A N
N V M Q Z A Z C Y B Q P D R T C C A
T A K B T I M P O S E D D E U I R I
R O M O I G N G E X A E H P E L E B
O V M G J N D T O I R K H S X O I I
V Y F O I O A X E E Y C E O P P G H
E O R Z X N I T H R U K E R O X N P
R F U X Z J E P I N V O H P S A I M
S L A U R G I H O O B E U D E I T A
I S W R D C X I D U N T N T D S E K
A D E T E C T E D I L W H E V A R O
L O E D M A K S R X M C O N F N Z W
L S N I V T P T O H B V T K L A L Z
Z L J O Y G C Y F K A T O G K H A A
P S N B N O A P R R Q M F R U T V N
M E M F D C A Y Y T I R E T S U A S
R E T A L I A T I O N I S K K E J O
MISSING WORD ANSWER =
ISSUE 230 ANSWERS
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E H P O R T S A T A C M G L U F Q H
L D S Y V F K Y S L O F J Z G S A I
B E E Q Z V Z D O M E S T I C A C B
A V K F G K D C O L E V V T U N A E
T L B L E G D G N X A S H T I I O R
C O G W D C D K O O O E H F U T N N
I S E O B E T X X J I I E B L A X A
D S N Z X V I O R J U T E X U T F T
E I O S Z J J F R D S I A X P I J I
R D C U R G J H I S B L U T A O N O
P S I R P E X M D S Y I K T U N D N
M A D F U A E V A G S C H A M P R O
L O E Q M N R T F X M A R R A Y E W
L S A I S T P A N H B F L K R R L R
Z L J I Y G W Y L U C T O C T R A A
P S O B N C A P R L L M F R Y A V N
M N M F J C A Y Y I E O J Q R U V S
S E I R A T U B I R T L V K S Q J O
R E S I L I E N T
P 1 A R A L L E L D 2
D 3 R I
V 4 O L U N T E E R S S
M D S
E I G 5 O
S F 6 A C I L I T I E S L
T T N V R 7
I C 8 A T A S T 9 R O P H E E
C B R C D S 10 P
D 11 C 12 L A S S I F I E D A U
P 13 L A Q U E E B D N T
F U E I A
Q 14 R 15 E S I L I E N T A 16 T T
U C A R A I
A T R R T O
R O H 17 I B E R N A T I O N
M 18 A R T Y R S E Y O
Y S D 19 I M E N S I O N S N

Newsademic 5 September 2014

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