The autumn celebrity fruit 8. Pumpkin in the learning process

A. The pumpkin is a large round fruit with a thick orange skin and large seeds. Pumpkins are 90% water but they contain potassium and vitamin A. Six of seven continents can grow pumpkins. Pumpkins symbolize the colours and the spirit of the autumn. Lots of movies were made with pumpkin and Halloween themes.

B. It's believed that pumpkins come from North America. Native American Indians ate pumpkins for centuries before the Europeans discovered the fruit. In European languages the word ''pumpkin'' originated from the Greek word for "large melon" which is "pepon." "Pepon" was changed by the French into "pompon." The English changed "pompon" to "pumpion."

C. In the United States, pumpkins go hand in hand with the autumn holidays of Thanksgiving and Halloween. On almost every Thanksgiving table there is the customary Pumpkin Pie. Pumpkins are carved into decorated lanterns for Halloween. The pumpkin is also one of the important symbols of the harvest festivals and has been an American favourite for over 400 years now.

D. In the USA, the pumpkin is a very popular Thanksgiving dish. We don't know for sure whether the pumpkin was at the very first Thanksgiving dinner but it was used in all traditional meals long before the arrival of the Europeans. Most parts of the pumpkin are suitable for eating, including the shell, the seeds, the leaves, and even the flowers. When ripe, the pumpkin can be boiled, baked, steamed or roasted.

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E. The pumpkin is a warm-season fruit. If you want to have a nice pumpkin for Halloween, plant the seeds from late May in northern regions to early July in southern regions. Pumpkins can be harvested whenever they are a deep, solid colour (orange for most varieties) and the coat is hard. Cut off pumpkins carefully and leave 3 to 4 inches of stem attached.

F. The pumpkin is a real October icon – the fruit of the month. It's also popular as an available, inexpensive material for some wonderful classroom activities! Its size, colour, smell and taste make it perfect for observation and exploration. Working in groups students can search, suggest, predict and estimate the number of seeds in a set of pumpkins.

G. For centuries the pumpkin has been popular with wizards, witches and fairies. Maybe that’s why it is celebrated in so many festivals, folklore and fiction. People make jack-o'-lanterns at Halloween in the USA. In European and American fairy-tales witches often turn people into pumpkins. Even in modern the Harry Potter novels pumpkin juice is the favourite drink of the students of Hogwart’s school.

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The koala is a small bear-like animal that looks like a soft toy. The animal is cute and non-aggressive, but it’s difficult to see a koala in the Zoo and no one ever keeps them as pets. Why is it so?

The main reason why people shouldn’t try to take koalas out from their natural home is their diet. It’s a strict diet of eucalyptus leaves as koalas practically never eat anything else. In Australia there are over 600 types of eucalyptus, but koalas eat only 40–50 varieties with only about 10 being preferred. And even if you find the koala’s most favourite tree and plant it in your backyard, you won’t be able to supply your koala-pet with food anyway. The thing is that koalas eat only fresh young leaves, and the tree has few of them. So, to keep a koala happy and healthy, you would have to plant about 100 eucalyptus trees!

It’s difficult to explain why koalas love eucalyptus leaves so much. The leaves are tough and feel like rubber. They have very few calories and they are poisonous to most animals. Koalas, however, cope with such a diet easily. Nature

Английский язык. 9 класс Используется с бланками ответов - 8

has equipped them with specialised adaptations. Each koala eats approximately 200 to 500 grams of leaves per day. They are very slow eaters and they manage to get the maximum amount of energy from such a small amount of food. They also sleep for up to 18 hours per day in order to conserve energy.

Koalas spend all their lives on eucalyptus trees and they don’t have any need to leave them. Normally the animals don’t drink water as they receive it from the leaves. For this reason the koala got its name from an ancient Aboriginal word meaning "no drink".

Koalas live in societies, just like humans, so they need to be able to come into contact with other koalas. They live in suitable eucalyptus forests which are large enough to support a healthy koala population and to allow for expansion by maturing young koalas. In spite of their peaceful and sleepy look, koalas are highly territorial animals and don’t allow strangers to approach their “home trees” and “food trees”.

A female koala gives birth to only one baby in one or two years. It's hairless, blind and very little – about 2 cms long! It gets into the mother's pouch – a special pocket of skin on the stomach – and stays there for six or seven months. Then it gets out of the pouch but stays with the mother until it's about one year old. Koalas are slow-breeding animals and their population can't grow fast. The animals were in danger of extinction at the beginning of the 20th century when the koala was hunted for its fur. Fortunately, the population has been restored and today the Australian government doesn't consider the koala as endangered.

To keep koalas as pets is very difficult.