Learning English - Words in the News - Culture shock for Amazon student

Last updated at 12:48 GMT, Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Culture shock for Amazon student

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Transcript:: From the rainforest to the concrete jungle...

New York is where the son of the traditional chief of an indigenous community in Brazil has come to study. His dream is to speak English well and become a documentary film-maker.

It is a far cry from the village in the Amazon where Nilson Tuwe Huni Kui's people live.

Tuwe carries the responsibility of making his people's culture and problems known to the world.
rainforest: a tropical area where it rains a lot and there are lots of trees
concrete jungle: city with many buildings
indigenous community: group of people who come from a particular area, and lived there before any other people
a far cry from: extremely different from
responsibility: obligation, duty

Exercise

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports.

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

rainforest / concrete jungle / indigenous community / a far cry from / responsibility

1.
Primary schoolteacher Antonio Clima was with his class of 11-year-olds when the building starting shaking, bricks came loose, and a piece of the roof ledge collapsed. "I was very calm as I felt it was my __________ to be strong for the children, but they were screaming and crying. It's all been too much for them."

2.
Peruvian President Ollanta Humala has approved a law giving __________ the right to be consulted about development on their lands.

3.
Once a mainly desert outpost, Mecca's Grand Mosque is now encircled by a __________ made up of high-rise apartment blocks and five-star hotels.

4.
The further you drive up winding roads, the worse your mobile phone signal gets. It's hard to spot a telephone tower anywhere, but for miles on end you can see emerald green paddy fields peppering the hills. It is peacefully quiet - __________ the hustle and bustle of Jakarta.

5.
More than 60% of Liberia's virgin __________ has been granted to logging companies since Nobel Prize winning President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, came to power in 2006, according to a Global Witness report. It says the majority of these have been unregulated private contracts.