Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i The Primary Planet/News Flash Combo edition

Matt & Kelvin Nine-year-old Kelvin Ellis spotted a shabbily dressed man standing in a corner outside a coffee shop in Louisiana, US, with his eyes closed. Thinking it was a homeless man, Kelvin gave him a dollar – all the money he had. He’d earned it for getting good grades in school. However, the man wasn’t homeless. He was Matt Busbice, who owns a sporting-goods company worth millions of dollars! On hearing a fire alarm that morning, Matt had thrown on some old unwashed clothes and rushed out of his apartment. It was a false alarm but he then went into the coffee shop for breakfast. When he came out, he stood in the corner and said a prayer of thanks that all was well. And that’s when Kelvin saw…

Artist: Henri Rousseau(1844—1910) Nationality: French Date: 1907 Dimensions: 113.7 cm x 160 cm Style: Naïve, Primitivism Medium: Oil on canvas On display at: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (known as “The Met”) At first glance this is a gorgeous, bright painting – with those vivid colours, the lush plants so fresh and green, and the different patterns of leaves that please the eye. Only then do we notice what could be just another golden flower: the lion devouring his bloody repast (meal) – some kind of scaly creature. Rousseau was fascinated by jungles, where beauty and cruelty live side by side – despite the fact he never saw a jungle in his life! Instead, he visited the botanical gardens and the zoo in Paris. With no training as…

Official Name: Argentine RepublicPopulation: ≈46 million (2023)Capital: Buenos AiresArea: 2.78 million km 2 Mountains: The AndesMajor Rivers: Parana, Paraguay, Uruguay, Desuaguadero, IguazuOfficial Money: Argentine peso Argentina is on the South American continent. It is bordered by Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. The Andes mountain range forms the border with Chile in the west, and the east coast is on the Atlantic Ocean. The climate Argentina’s climate is hot in the north, humid in the centre and cold in the south. As it is in the southern hemisphere, when it is summer here in China, it is winter in Argentina. They have four seasons like we do, and the hottest month is January. The people The native people of Argentina were the Aonikenk, the Kolla, the Qom, the Wichí,…

Lyrics getting simpler Researchers have been busy analysing the words from 12,000 English songs released between 1980 and 2020, all in the name of science. The team have discovered that song lyrics are becoming simpler and more repetitive. They also found that lyrics are more self-obsessed, with words like “me” or “mine” being used more than ever before. Lyrics have also become angrier in tone and content, which may be a result of rap music becoming more popular in recent years. The study also points out that lyrics can be a great way to show how our culture has changed over time. They also noted that simple lyrics are easier to remember and, as a result, more likely to go viral. New Species Alert In February of this year, a…

Secrets of the Pyramids Revealed For centuries, archaeologists have wondered how the Egyptian Pyramids were built, especially when it comes to the moving and gathering of huge blocks of solid stone (granite) that are stacked on top of each other and rise high into the air. Using special radar images, ancient maps and soil samples, scientists from the University of North Carolina, in the US, believe they have found the remains of an extinct river that once ran alongside the Pyramids. They think it may have once been a branch (tributary) of the Nile – the longest river in the world – but, as a result of prolonged drought (no rain) and sandstorms, it dried up over time. Dr Suzanne Onstine from the research team included in her report that…

The 2024 Olympics will take place between July 26 and August 11. The scale of the Paris Games is immense: nearly 40 sports and more than 300 events hosted in at least 35 venues in Paris and other cities across metropolitan France. The iconic landmarks will be immediately recognizable to worldwide TV viewers. Beach volleyball players will show off their jump serves at a temporary outdoor arena at the Champ de Mars, a large public park at the foot of the Eiffel Tower. Equestrian and modern pentathlon competitions will take place at the Palace of Versailles, one of the emblems of French royal history. The over 100-year-old Grand Palais will host fencing and taekwondo. Breaking, which is better known as breakdancing, is the only sport to debut in Paris. Many…

The rafflesia is the biggest flower in the world. Native to the forests of Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines – countries in South-East Asia – the flower can grow up to 1 metre in width and can weigh as much as 11 kg. Its five large, leathery petals come in shades of spotty reds, oranges and yellows, making it a truly magnificent flower to look at. But be careful not to get too close – this gigantic flower is also famous for its terrible smell! Beautiful but smelly The rafflesia has earned itself a pretty bad nickname – the corpse flower. In fact, many who have had the misfortune of smelling this flower say that it smells like rotten or dead (hence the word corpse) meat. Eugh! Unlike most other…

Time for the magnifying glass, everyone! To solve this puzzle, all you have to do is find the 11 objects in the water… in under 90 seconds. Time starts… NOW! Word Search For this month’s word search, we’ve packed the grid with summer-related words for you to find. As always, we’ve included a secret word not listed below. Here’s a clue: a metal-winged tube that jets you to far-flung places. ▢ Barbecue▢ Beach▢ Sunshine▢ Picnic▢ Holiday▢ Swimsuit▢ Ice cream▢ Deckchair▢ Hat▢ Sunscreen▢ Pool▢ Sunglasses▢ Flowers▢ Butterflies▢ Kite▢ Summer▢ Season▢ Relax▢ Tan▢ Camping Crack the Quote Each answer to the multiplication sums corresponds to a letter in the grid provided. But don’t forget, once you figure out the letters, you will then need to reorder them to make the words. Only…

Life at the bottom We know more about moon’s surface than we do about the bottom of the ocean. Does all life depend on the sun? In the dark, high-pressure depths of the ocean, this principle no longer applies. For a long time scientists believed there was no life at the dark bottom of the ocean. They assumed that the lack of light meant there would be no plant life, which in turn meant there could be no animal life. However, those opinions changed in 1960 when a deep-diving submersible descended 10,911 metres to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean. It reported plenty of life, from micro-organisms to fish and crustaceans. These creatures group around fissures on the ocean floor. Volcanic activity occurs underneath when those…

Pilots are people who fly aeroplanes and helicopters. A commercial pilot’s plane will carry passengers from place to place – like when you go on holiday. They can also carry cargo or mail. Different types of pilot Some pilots work with the police, medical professionals or firefighters, helping them respond to emergencies quickly by air. In some big countries like the USA, Canada and Australia, agricultural pilots work in special planes or helicopters that fly low to the ground and help spread seeds, fertilisers or pesticides for farmers. Becoming a pilot To become a pilot, you must first pass medical tests and have excellent vision and hearing. Students are specially selected and well trained, and must pass many tests before getting a licence to fly. Simulators are usually used to…

Finding black holes Before Hubble was launched in 1990, scientists only theorised about the existence of black holes. Black holes don’t emit or reflect light and this makes them invisible to telescopes. They can only be detected by observing how they affect their surroundings. Hubble proved that black holes exist at the core of almost every galaxy in our universe. A supermassive black hole can cause stars to orbit around it in a particular way. With the help of Hubble, scientists tracked the orbits of stars near the centre of the Milky Way to prove it has a supermassive black hole, a discovery that won the 2020 Nobel Prize. So what is a black hole? Well, it is NOT a hole! In the 1960s, physicist Robert H. Dicke compared black…

J is for ... Jabiru Hola! I am a jabiru – a large stork, and one of the tallest flying birds of Central and South America. I am 140 cm tall and weigh 8 kg. My feathers are mostly white, while my head and neck are bare and black. I have a wide red band around the base of my neck, and my nape is covered with down-like whitish feathers. I have a very large upturned black bill, big brown eyes, long legs and black feet. My wingspan is 2.5 metres but I cannot fly very far because of my weight. Once I become airborne, I use my large wings to soar through the sky. You will usually find me hunting for food in large freshwater marshes, rice fields, swampy…

The Palace of Versailles is one of the most splendid buildings in the world. It was originally built as a hunting lodge by King Louis XIII (13th) of France in 1623 and later extended into a small palace since 1631. Construction continued until 1634 and laid the basis of the palace we know today. Then, Louis XIV (14th) moved into the palace and began to turn it into the magnificent building it is today. Louis XIV was known as the Sun King and he spent a huge amount of money on the palace – more than 36,000 workers were brought in to extend it. He moved the government to Versailles, and it remained there until the French Revolution in 1789. It was decorated with valuable paintings and other works of…