Monday, October 27, 2008

THE BLUE WHALE



The Blue Whale is a mammal. It can be to 33.59 metres long and weigh 181 tonnes or even more . It is believed to be the largest animal on earth . Its diet consists mainly of small crustaceans called krill , as well as small fish and sometimes squid.
Blue Whales were common in nearly all oceans until the beginning of the twentieth century. For over 40 years they were hunted nearly to extinction until they were protected by the international community in 1966.
Blue whale populations have declined dramatically due to commercial whaling.
Blue Whales are not easy to catch or kill. They are very fast and strong so early whale hunters rarely pursued them. In 1864 the Norwegians were equipped a steamboat with
harpoons designed for catching large whales.Soon after blue whales were hunted practically everywhere . By between 1930 and 1931, these ships killed 29,400 Blue Whales in the Antarctic alone. By the end of World War II populations had been significantly reduced .In spite f the measures taken it was difficult to make them out and many rare species could be hunted on an equal terms with those found in relative abundance. Blue Whale hunting was banned in the 1960s and illegal whaling by the USSR finally stopped in the 1970s . The largest original population, in the Antarctic, had been reduced to 0.15% of their initial numbers.
Due to longer rates of reproduction (gestation of more than a year) whale populations recover much more slowly than the populations of smaller animals, which tend to invest less time and resources in individual young.
Due to their enormous size, power and speed, adult Blue Whales have virtually no natural predators. Orcas hunting in groups may seriously hurt them. Blue Whales may be wounded, sometimes fatally, after colliding with ocean vessels as well as becoming trapped in fishing gear .The increasing amount of ocean noise drowns out the vocalizations produced by whales, which may make it harder for whales to communicate.Human threats to the potential recovery of Blue Whale populations also include accumulation of chemicals within the whale's body.
With global warming causing glaciers and permafrost to rapidly melt and allowing a large amount of fresh water to flow into the oceans. Considering the Blue Whale's migratory patterns are based on ocean temperature, a change in this circulation which moves warm and cold water around the world would be likely to have an effect on their migration.The change in ocean temperature would also affect the Blue Whale’s food supply. The warming trend and decreased salinity levels would cause a significant shift in krill location and abundance .
The photo of the skeleton is impressive and look at the size of the diver !!
Listen to the way these creatures communicate.




NB2A/C
--Homework :Student´s book, pages 14 and 15 as a warm up for the test carried out soon after checking he answers.
--Test: Unit 1 ,grammar and vocabulary. Quite easy as it took les than 20 minutes to do it.
-- Speaking: a review of the mistakes in composition, focussing mainly on : like +-ing hate + -ing structures .
--Unit 2 . Section 2A. Say and write 5 activities you like doing when you´re on holiday and discuss them with your classmate. More vocabulary on page 147: expressions with go,such as go sailing, go sigtseeing,go abroad..., some verbs related to holidays: take photos, sunbathe on the beach,spend money...and finally vocabulary related to the weather : cloudy, foggy,boiling, freezing...
--Reading: Back to page 16 ,three passages were read about holidays that went wrong because the place was the right one but the time wasn´t . On page 15 the reading exercises: a matching photo - passage activity was done another exercise about who did some of the activities mentioned in the reading and finally one whereyou had to find 4 synonyms for "good" and 2 synonyms for "bad".
--Homework. Grammar .Units 9 and 10.
Tomorrow you are going to do a Reading Comprehension Test.
NI2E
--Homework: Grammar, unit 100 and 101 about adverbs, their differences with adjectives and some confusing ones such as in the end- at the end,near-nearly...Workbook page 10 with more exercises on adverbs. We devoted quite a long time to this topic.
--Grammar: a pair work activity dealing with the place of adverbs in the sentence. Please , don´t get discouraged , it´s only through practice you reach the knowledge.
--Speaking: A game with a board, dice and counters to practise frequency adverbs. It took you time to do it but you were having fun and speaking in English . Claudia and Neyla were the first to finish.
--Homework : a photocopy about the position of adverbs .
A Reading Comprehension Test is going to be held on Wednesday.
A Grammar and Vocabulary Test is going to be held next Monday.