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30/03/2023

29/03/2023

28/03/2023

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27/03/2023

Dany in Khmer New Year

Cambodian people celebrate Khmer New Year in April every year. It is coming soon. Dany is thinking about activities that she will do. First, she will go to the pagoda in the village with her parents.
She will offer food to the monks. She will take the lotus, candles and incense to the Buddha statues. She will pray to the Buddha and angel for good health, happiness and good luck. Second,she will visit her grandparents' house . Finally, she might play Angkunh and other Khmer traditional games with her friends, but she might not sing and dance.

Answer the question
1. When is Khmer New Year?
2. What will she do first on Khmer New Year’s days?
3. What will she do next?
4. What might she do last?
5. Do you think she will have a happy time?

27/03/2023

Learning From The Past

Dara: Would you like to attend Pchum Ben in my village, Susan?
Susan: Thank you, Dara. Is that when you go to the pagoda to pay your respects to your ancestors?
Dara: Yes, that's right. I want to pay my respects to my ancestors and especially to those who died during the Khmer Rouge regime. I believe you worked in the border camps during that time?
Susan: Yes, that's right..
Dara: So you must have known what was happening?
Susan: Yes. Many people told me about their experiences. I remember trying to calm their feelings. It was difficult, but if I were them, how would I have felt? Sometimes I found their stories really hard to bear.

Dara: When I look back, it's like remembering a nightmare.
Susan: If I were you, I think I'd try to forget about it.
Dara : Yes, but if we forget, it's like closing our eyes while a dangerous animal creeps up on us. We must know about the past in order to learn from it, otherwise more people will be killed and our society, culture and traditions will be turned upside down again. So I would rather remember that past than forget or ignore it.

Vocabulary

1. Bear (V) អត់ធន់
2. Calm (v) ធ្វើឱ្យចិត្តស្ងប់
3. Camp ជំរុំ
4. Creep(V) ដើរថ្នមៗមិនឲ្យលឺ
5. Nightmareសុបិន្តអាក្រក់
6. Regime (n) សម័យ/ របប
7. Upside-down ( Phrase) ប្រែក្រឡាប់

27/03/2023

At a funeral

A Khmer funeral is both a regular ceremony that we may experience any day and part of our ancient culture and tradition. We ought to be able to learn something from it.
Some one we knew and loved is now nothing but bone and ash. How is it possible? How can someone we knew, who was active, who we loved become just bone and ash? But this is the body, which is actually made up of earth, fire, water and air. When it is cremated, it returns again to these four elements. Examine the ash and bones, which are displayed after the cremation. The bones now look like coal dug out of the earth. They are hot, but after the heat they may be poured gently into the cool river, or blown into the air by the wind, or thrown onto the field like seeds for planting. But are these scenes the whole story?
When we attend a funeral, we may start to think about our own. We may say, “If we both come into the world with nothing and leave with nothing, what does our life mean? Does it mean anything? This is the same question that the Buddha asked many years ago. He also answered it.
What is born, dies. That is the story of both the body and all material things. If we think we are our body, the story ends there. But if we examine who we are and understand that we are not our body, then we may begin to recognize something else. “There is that which is not born, which does not die”

Questions
1. Why should we be able to learn something from Khmer funerals?
2. How does our body return to the four elements?
3. We come into the world and leave the world with nothing. What does “nothing "mean here?
4. How can we examine who we are, do you think?
5. Who said, “There is that which is not born, which does not die ” do you think?

26/03/2023

A fire in Battambang

Last night there was a terrible fire in Battambang. It started at about seven thirty in the evening and lasted until early morning. More than one hundred houses were completely destroyed and many people were badly hurt, though, fortunately, nobody has died.

People said that the fire engines didn't arrive until many houses had already been destroyed. The senior officer in charge of the operation explained that it was difficult for the fire engines with their crews and equipment to reach the location. The way to the fire was blocked and was so narrow that they could hardly reach the fire without causing a collision. Eventually they did reach the houses, however, and were able to start pumping up the water and spraying it on the fire. Soon afterwards it began to rain, which also helped. The rain was continuous through the night, but it still took many hours to put the fire out completely.

Until now it is not known who was responsible for the fire, but the police are continuing their investigation. The senior officer suggested that it might be better if people blamed themselves for not being more careful in their homes rather than blaming his crew members for not being punctual, because, as he said, protection is better than cure.

26/03/2023

Going to the moon

Before scientists could think of sending a person to the moon, they needed to find out about the environment on its surface. In particular, they were concerned about the surface. In particular, they were concerned that the surface was covered with dust and that it would damage a spaceship’s complex equipment. So, in order to gather sufficient information about the moon’s surface, scientists developed metal explorers called satellites.
The space Age began on the fourth of October 1957. On that day, Russia launched the world’s first satellite into space. It was followed in January 1958 by an American satellite. In September 1959, another Russian satellite crashed on to the moon’s surface. Then only a few weeks later, one more Russian satellite flew right round the moon, taking photographs as it went.
Through information sent back to earth by these satellites, scientists discovered that nobody could live on the moon for more than a few seconds with protection. Since there is no air and the pressure is very low, in full sunlight the temperature rises to over 100C. As a result, our blood would quickly boil.
In order to make a journey to the moon, therefore, astronauts need special clothes, food and medicine. In addition, in order to escape from earth’s gravity, a spaceship must reach a tremendous speed very quickly. So to make this possible, spaceships must have very powerful engines that use a lot of fuel. In fact, when it takes off, more than ninety percent of a spaceship's load is fuel.

Questions
1. What did scientists have to do before sending an astronaut to the moon?
2. What were they particularly concerned about?
3. The space race in the 1950s was between which two countries? Which country won it?
4. What is the environment on the moon’s surface like?
5. Why do astronauts need special clothes, food and medicine?
6. Why do spaceships need so much fuel?