Question refer to the text below.

Notre Dame

People have donated over one billion dollars to help rebuild the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. The 850- year-old cathedral was badly damaged in a fire on Monday. The UNESCO World Heritage site is one of the most important cultural buildings in France. Wealthy people from all over France and around the world have given hundreds of millions of dollars to help restore the cathedral to its former glory. French president Emmanuel Macron told the nation in a televised address that he would make sure the reconstruction would be finished within five years. This would be in time for the opening of the Paris Olympics in 2024. However, architects say it could take decades to rebuild the world famous landmark. 

Some of the donors that are handing over cash are French billionaires. They include the owners of the luxury brand Louis Vuitton and the cosmetics company L’Oréal. The French oil company Total is also pledging 100 million euros. Apple CEO Tim Cook tweeted that his company would donate an unspecified amount. However, many people are asking whether the money would be better spent on helping the world’s poor.

www.breakingnews.com

INSTRUCTIONS: Read the following text carefully and then choose the correct answer.

Leonardo da Vinci

Known as the greatest artist in the history of mankind, Leonardo da Vinci was also a great philosopher and scientist. Leonardo is the most influential figure in the Italian Renaissance and he is considered to be an inventive multi-genius.

Leonardo was born in 1452 in Vinci, Italy, as the child of Piero da Vinci, a notary, and Caterina, a country girl. He stayed with his father’s family and they moved to Florence when he was just 12. At the age of 14, Leonardo started out his artist’s apprenticeship at the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio (1435-1488), an Italian sculptor, goldsmith and painter.

The art of painting made Leonardo knowledgeable about anatomy and perspective. In addition to painting, Verrocchio’s studio also offered technical and mechanical arts and sculpture. Leonardo had developed an interest in architecture so he went on to study engineering.

After a decade of highly original work as an artist, Leonardo wrote to several wealthy men to help finance his projects. The Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza (1452-1508), accepted his offer as Leonardo told him that he could design war weapons like guns and mines, and also structures like collapsible bridges. He lived in Milan with the Duke from 1482 to 1508, reportedly creating very innovational war machines. He also did painting and sculpture, as well as urban planning for large-scale water projects. There, he also wrote about making a telescope to view the moon.

Available at: http://www.famousscientists.org/leonardo-da-vinci (Edited).

Favela Chic: gentrifying the slums of brazil

A walk through Rio de Janeiro’s Vidigal favela is a full sensory experience on any given day. The smell
of grilled meat mixes with that of exhaust from motorcycle taxis traversing the slum’s corridors.
And then there are the sounds. Normally it’s Rio’s trademark funk music blaring from various
cars or trucks, but lately it has been the sound of German, English or French being spoken by its
[5] new inhabitants.
Favela Chic, as it’s come to be known, has quickly taken Vidigal by storm, as well as its favela
neighbor Rocinha. A combination of new security forces, low prices and curiosity by outsiders have
brought a wave of new renters to neighborhoods that were once considered unsafe to even visit.
American Kristine Witko moved into Vidigal during the World Cup and says she loves it. “It has more
[10] life because there’s always something going on”, says the 27-year-old New Jersey native. “Bars with
people spilling out of them at 6 a.m., music blaring constantly, always people in the street”.
But in addition to a spate of World Cup visitors, Rio’s favelas have also become popular among
venture capitalists looking to rent or sell to higher-income buyers. Less than 10 years ago, a modest
home here would cost only $2,500. Today it can fetch $75,000 or more.
[15] While some former favela residents are being priced out of their homes by land prospectors from
the U.S. and Europe, others have been forcibly removed. In Rio, as many as 250,000 have been
relocated, many to the outskirts of the city, far from their former homes. Many complain that the
compensation packages, when offered, are inadequate.
Besides, favelas have often acted as the shelter for those unable to afford other housing options.
[20] “From the beginning, favelas have been not only housing for the poor, but also the poor’s preferred
housing, given the alternatives available and consistent actions of the state to not provide for the
poor, but to hide them from sight”, writes Jason Cummings in his dissertation for Harvard Graduate
School of Design, “Confronting the Favela Chic”.
With the 2016 Rio Olympics looming on the horizon, what will the gentrification in Rio and
[25] throughout Brazil mean for the 12 million people who inhabit the slums out of necessity? Priced
out or forced out, this creates a continuing clash of class for which there are no easy solutions. 

theroot.com

TRAVEL MORE, STRESS LESS
Pack these essential trip tips from Travel Channel host Don Wildman, touring violinist Joshua Bell, and tennis star Andy Roddick
Illustrations by Rami Niemi, Posted Date: April 10, 2012

[1]    Sleep Like a Local
    Andy Roddick needs quality rest when he lands
in a new city for a tournament. So he starts right in
with forcing his body to adapt to the time zone,
[5] even if he arrived exhausted. "If you fall asleep at
3 p.m., you're dead. You'll be up all night," he
says. "In a new place I normally try to make it to at
least 9 or 10 o'clock the first couple of nights."
    Stay Alert
[10]    You don't need a gym to have your fitness fix. "I
carry a jump rope because it gets my heart beating
in the morning," Wildman says. "And sometimes I'll
take it on shoots with me, and I just do a little rope
jumping for 5 minutes. It wakes me up better than
[15] a cup of coffee."
    Feel at Home in a Hotel
    Roddick's move: “Unpack immediately. That
helps a lot," he says. "If you're tapped out from
being on the road, the last thing you want is to
[20] come back to a couple of bags that look like they
exploded all over the hotel room." Wildman will
even put books on bookshelves. "The least I can
do for myself," he says, "is fool myself into
thinking I'm home."
[25] Find a Decent Meal
    If you return to a city regularly, you could do as
Roddick does and revisit a favorite restaurant each
time. That's a good way to create a feeling of
familiarity, which can be welcome when you're
[30] away from home. Globe-trotting violin virtuoso
Joshua Bell, on the other hand, likes to explore: "I
rarely ask the concierge for advice," Bell says,
"because he is apt to send me to his cousin's
pizzeria around the corner. But I do refer to some
[35] guides and research thoroughly online—Yelp,
Zagat, Open-Table—and I sometimes ask for
recommendations on social networking sites like
ASmallWorld, which is full of travelers like me.”

    Use Downtime Wisely
[40]    "I try to remind myself that 'killing time' is a sin,"
Bell says. "Life is too short as it is, and it's a
shame to wish for it to go by quicker. There's
always something worthwhile to do, even on an
airplane—read a good book, learn a new language
[45] with Rosetta Stone, write to my friends around the
world who haven't heard from me in too long."
When Bell does watch television, it's often on his
iPad: He'll catch episodes of Dexter, Breaking
Bad, Modern Family, and Desperate Housewives.
[50] Joshua Bell is touring to support his new album
French Impressions. Andy Roddick plays this month
at the French Open. Don Wildman's Off Limits airs on
the Travel Channel.
http://www.menshealth.com/travel-center/travel-stress

‘We are made invisible’: Brazil’s Indigenous on prejudice in the city

BY KARLA MENDES ON 12 APRIL 2021

During a presentation for Indigenous People’s Week, celebrated in April in Brazil, at his son’s elementary school in Rio de Janeiro, the first thing sociologist José Carlos Matos Pereira did was to show a photo of several individuals and ask the children, “What do you think, are they Indigenous?” The children immediately answered in unison: “No.” He asked why, and they responded, “They are not naked; they do not have a bow and arrow and they are not in the forest; so, they are not Indigenous.”

The episode, centering on a picture of Indigenous people from the city of Altamira in the Amazonian state of Pará, is just a snapshot of the reality faced by Indigenous people living in urban areas throughout Brazil. “This marks a perception since a child as one thinks of Indigenous people [as being] outside the city and in conditions of, shall we say, ‘natural,’” Pereira, a researcher at the Social Movements Memory Program, from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), told Mongabay.

“The Indigenous hunt, fish, live in the forest, have their way of life, their rituals. But he also comes to the city … And when he comes, he brings with him a way of life.”

In fact, contrary to popular belief, Indigenous people are scattered all over Brazil and not just in the Amazon Rainforest and remote rural areas. More than a third of Brazil’s Indigenous population, or about 315,000 individuals, live in urban areas, according to the country’s latest census.