In Stick News today, the United States is the top spam sending nation on earth. But they’re now close to loosing that number 1 spot – China is catching up.
The word SPAM was born in the 1930s, when an American meat company changed the name of one of its products: Spiced Ham. In 1970 the Monty Python sketch SPAM was first broadcast. The sketch is about the “Green Midget Café” where SPAM is included in almost every restaurant item, and a group of Vikings sit in the corner singing. Nowadays the word spam is widely used to mean “unsolicited commercial email” or “junk mail”. Spam is highly annoying. Thanks to efforts find and fine prolific spammers, spam is in decline in the US. But in other nations, it’s still on the rise. There are 13.2 billion spam messages sent every day. And more than seventy percent of them are from zombie computers.
A computer consultant has warned that computer users worldwide need to use better devices to stop their computers from becoming spam-spewing zombies. And that was Stick News for Tuesday 25th of April. Kia Ora.
Sarah is chatting to her neighbour Bob. Bob is worried because Sarah looks tired. Step 1: Repeat Bob’s lines. Step 2: Read Bob’s lines on the screen and talk to Sarah!
Bob Are you OK? You look tired.
Sarah Yeah, I’m just feeling a bit run down.
Bob Too many late nights?
Sarah Yeah, I’m pretty busy at work at the moment.
Bob Oh, it’s the end of the term isn’t it?
Sarah Yeah. So I have to mark all of the end of term tests.
Bob Well, good luck.
Sarah Thanks.
Bob And you should try and get an early night – sleep is important.
STICK NEWS Kia Ora. Today two Maori smokefree representatives are meeting a tobacco company in New York to talk about the way cigarettes are killing maori people. Stick News brings you this report about smoking.
This is a cigarette vending machine in Japan. You may be surprised at some of the names of the cigarettes. Lark, peace. You wouldn’t think smoking these things could be so dangerous.
In Japan smoking is on the decline, and some steps have been taken to discourage the habit. There are non-smoking areas in many restaurants and cafes. Smoking in the street is banned in the Chiyoda ward in Tokyo. And in other areas smoking while walking is also discouraged. Advertising smoking is still permitted although the advertisements on trains now come with health warnings.
In some other countries the warnings are much stronger. Such as on this vending machine in Melbourne, Australia.
In New Zealand on December 10th 2004 all bars and restaurants became smokefree. There’s been an aggressive anti-smoking campaign for many years. And smokefree warnings are bilingual. Last year it was discovered that in Isreal, cigarettes called Maori Mix being sold. Maori people were not impressed.
When Tobacco company Philip Morris was contacted about the issue last year, there was an immediate retraction and apology. But Maori still have more to say and are meeting Philip Morris’s parent company in New York today. And that was Stick News for Thursday the 27th of April. Kia Ora.
conversations with sarah # 19 Have you been to Hawaii before?
Sarah is on the plane from Tokyo to Hawaii. She starts talking to the woman next to her. Step 1: Repeat woman X’s lines. Step 2: Read woman X’s lines on the screen and talk to Sarah!
Sarah Have you been to Hawaii before?
Woman X Yes, about ten times.
Sarah Wow! You must really like it.
Woman X Yes, I do. It’s a beautiful place.
Sarah How long are you going for this time?
Woman X 10 days. How about you?
Sarah Ah, I’m staying for a week. I’ve never been to Hawaii before.
Woman X Really?
Sarah Yeah. Actually, I’ve never been to America before.
Woman X I hope you have a good time.
Sarah Thanks. I’m sure I will. I’m really excited.
Kia Ora. In Stick News today, respect for Ali G from one of the daughters of the president of Kazakhstan.
This is Kazakhstan. It has a population of 15 million, and is the ninth largest country in the world by area. This man is not from Kazakhstan. His name is Borat. And according to Wikipedia most people in Kazakhastan have never heard of him. Borat is a character played by this British comedian, who is best known for another character he plays, Ali G. Borat presented the MTV Europe awards in November last year. He flew in in a plane, flown by a pilot holding a vodka bottle. The Kazakh Foreign Ministry weren’t impressed. They described his portrayal as “utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with ethics and civilized behaviour.” Authorities then closed down his Kazakhstan website the following month. But yesterday, it was reported, that one of the Presidents daughters thinks that wasn’t such a good idea. She says, “we should not be afraid of humour and we shouldn’t try to control everything”.
And that was Stick News for Wednesday 26th of April. Respect.
単語： population 人口 portrayal 肖像 concoction でっちあげ、調合物 incompatible 相容れない
conversations with sarah # 18 When did you lose it?
Sarah loses her glove at a ski resort. She asks the person at the information desk in the lobby by the restaurant. Step 1: Repeat Mr X’s lines. Step 2: Read Mr X’s lines on the screen and talk to Sarah!
Sarah Excuse me. I was wondering if anyone has handed in a glove.
Mr X A glove?
Sarah Yes. It looks like this.
Mr X When did you lose it?
Sarah Only in the last hour. I think I dropped it in this lobby on the way into the restaurant to have lunch.
Kia ora in Stick News today according to CNN the next Silicon Valley is in Siberia.
The next Silicon Valley: Siberia This headline is from CNN’s website. Wikipedia says: Silicon Valley is the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in Northern California in the United States. The term originally referred to the region's large number of silicon chip innovators and manufacturers, but eventually came to refer to all the high tech businesses in the area; it is now generally used as a metonym for the high-tech sector. According to CNN, the next Silicon Valley is in a place in Russia (Akademgorodok) which translates in English to Academy Town. This town used to be a thriving academic town. It had been neglected since the Soviet state collapsed in 1991. Now the town is experiencing an IT boom. CNN says Russia is the third-largest software outsourcing destination in the world, after China and India. Large multinationals are attracted to Academy Town partly because of the low cost of rent, services and salaries. Intel opened an office there in 2004 and IBM arrived in 2000. Most of the work for companies in Academy Town comes from outside of Russia. One customer is Harpo Productions, Oprah Winfrey’s media company. They’ve hired a company called called Axmor to build a web portal.
And that was Stick News for Wednesday the 28th of March. Kia Ora.
the snow report
There was a tiny bit of snow today. So now there’s a light dusting of new snow on top of the old melting snow.
conversations with sarah #203 Who sings that song?
Step 1: Repeat Keiko’s lines. Step 2: Read Keiko’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Keiko Who sings that song?
Sarah Addicted to YouTube?
Keiko Yeah.
Sarah GiR2007.
Keiko Did he do the animation too?
Sarah Yeah, he did everything – music, lyrics, animation.
Keiko Are all his videos music videos?
Sarah Yeah, most of them, I think. He has a couple of behind the scenes videos too.
Keiko What happened behind the scenes?
Sarah He was interviewed by some media, like the BBC.
Kia ora in Stick News today, the cover for the seventh and final Harry Potter book has been released.
Harry Potter is a fictional character created by J.K.Rowling. The first Harry Potter book was published in 1997. So far, six books have been published and more than 325 million copies sold. The seventh book is called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and will be available on July the 21st. Yesterday the publishers released the cover of the book. The publishers have also announced that 12 million copies will be printed for the first print run in the US alone.
And that was Stick News for Thursday the 29th of March. Kia Ora.
単語：fictional架空の
the snow report
At 6 o'clock this evening I decided to go for a walk in my neighbourhood.
conversations with sarah #204 Do you think Harry is going to die in the last book?
Step 1: Repeat Kate’s lines. Step 2: Read Kate’s lines and talk to Sarah.
Kate： Do you think Harry is going to die in the last book?
Sarah： I don’t know. I hope not. What do you think?
Kate： I think he’s going to die.
Sarah： Mmm. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to handle it.
I was so shocked when his godfather died.
Kate： Yeah, me too. What was his name?
Sarah： Um, Sirius, I think.
Kate： That’s right. Sirius Black.
Sarah： And I couldn’t believe it when Dumbledore died.
