VIP Class Notes (Vicki)

A rat has been given a distinguished award for bravery for his services to humanity. The valiant rodent is called Magawa. He was awarded a gold medal for his seven years of duty sniffing out dozens of landmines in Cambodia. He was bestowed the award by the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals charity. This is a veterinary charity based in the United Kingdom. The charity explained why Magawa was recognised for his courage. It wrote: “The PDSA…seeks to raise the status of animals in society and honour the incredible contribution they make to our lives. Magawa’s dedication, skill and bravery are an extraordinary example of this and deserve the highest possible recognition.”

Magawa is an African Giant Pouched Rat. He was used in the mine-clearing programme because rats are the creatures best suited to safely detect landmines. They are light and have a keen sense of smell. In his seven-year stint on the front line, Magawa helped to detect 39 landmines and 28 unexploded devices. He helped to clear more than 141,000 square meters of land – an area roughly the size of 20 soccer pitches. This makes him the most successful rodent in the history of landmine detection. The charity’s chairman said: “This is the very first time in our 77-year history of honouring animals that we have presented a medal to a rat.” Reporters tried to interview Magawa but he was unavailable for comment.

Vocabulary

adopt – ling yang

crawl – pa

mine-clearing – to detect and clear out landmines

creature – anything with life

detect – to find

detective (noun.) – zhen tan
i.e. Conan is a detective.

keen – good and close

stint – the act of duty 在职

roughly (adv.) – cu cao / cha bu duo – almost the same

rough (adj.) – cu cao

recognize – to discover

recognition (noun.) – 赏识 the act of discovering sth about someone

distinguished – being recognized by its excellence

brave (adj.) – yong gan

bravery (noun.) – yong qi

humanity (noun.) – human society and its rules

valiant – brave

rodent – small wild animal

sniff – to smell
sniff out sth. – to discover sth by the sense of smell

landmine – a bomb buried in the ground (di lei)

bestow – to give

dispensary – organization

charity – doing good things for no profit (ci shan)

donation – the act of giving sth to someone for free

vet (noun.) – doctor of animals

veterinary – related to animal medicine

contribution – gong xian

dedication (noun.) – works hard and focused
i.e. My boss really likes my dedication to my job.

dedicated (adj.) – hard working and devoting lots of time and effort
i.e. I am a very dedicated worker, I always work late at night to finish my job.

extraordinary – not normal but very very very good
i.e. Laura is an extraordinary person because she always cares for others.

ordinary – normal
i.e. Laura is an ordinary person because there is nothing special about her.

Review the vocab

Write about your experience of getting your wisdom teeth pulled.

Think back the experience that I got my wisdom teeth pulled, it was a scared scary and a painful experience. I was scared from the beginning. I lay on the bed with my head back. The dental surgeon put on the numb cream on my gum and then poked a sharp tools into my gum. My right face started to feel numb after 3minutes. The Nurse passed put a ball on in my hand let me to clench the ball during surgery. Although i couldn’t feel pain, i could hear the sound and feel that they are drilling my teeth. The most horrible situation was that i felt the blood was flowing down my throat, even though there was a tube sucking drawing the blood.
It took 15-30 minutes to pull the teeth . In my opinion male dentist is faster than female lady. The horrible moment would be shorter if you choose a man male dentist.