Amazing Discoveries from Readers Bank Level 7 Unit 06

PPT Reader s Bank Level 7 Unit 06

16 _1 / p. 56 Reader s Bank Level 7 Miracle fruit is a kind of berry from West Africa. It s called miracle because it makes anything sour taste sweet. When eaten together with miracle fruit, lemon can taste sweet like candy. The berry s bush is an evergreen plant that grows up to six meters high. It produces white flowers and small red berries with a sweet flavor. A bush yields two crops every year after the rainy season. The fruit s seeds are about the size of coffee beans.

16 _2 / p. 56 Reader s Bank Level 7 Surprisingly, miracle fruit does not contain much sugar. Instead, the fruit contains a special protein called miraculin. When you eat miracle fruit, this protein sticks to your tongue s taste buds. , your brain mistakes acid for sugar for a moment. So you can eat lemon slices like candy. This sweetening effect only lasts from 15 to 60 minutes.

17 , _1 / p. 58 Reader s Bank Level 7 Every year, millions of birds die because of city lights. Normally, migrating or hunting birds at night find their way by moonlight and starlight. However, when they reach big cities, they crash into office buildings because they are confused by the bright lights. On beaches near cities, baby sea turtles often crawl toward streetlights and get killed by passing cars. The turtles believe the bright lights are the moon shining on the water, so they naturally go toward them. Some animals even have difficulty having babies when they are exposed to bright lights.

17 , _2 / p. 58 Reader s Bank Level 7 Doctors think that humans are also being affected by too much light. Both humans and diurnal animals produce melatonin during normal sleep hours. Melatonin is a hormone mainly produced in the dark. It improves immunity and blocks the growth of cancer cells. Many researchers are studying how much melatonin is produced each day. However, when people are exposed to nighttime light, their production of melatonin drops.

18 ? _1 / p.60 Reader s Bank Level 7 Goethe wrote The Sorrows of Young Werther in the 18th century. In this novel, the hero, Werther, is in love with a young woman. When she marries another man, Werther feels so hopeless. One day, he decides to end his life. He dresses up in a blue coat and yellow vest, sits down at his desk with an open book and shoots himself. ( ) The novel quickly became a bestseller, but its side effects were shocking. In the following years, many men throughout Europe did the same thing as Werther. They dressed up like him and shot themselves. Some people claimed that Werther s suicide led to more than 2,000 suicides by readers of the novel. ( ) Later, the phenomenon of such imitation suicides started to be called the Werther Effect.

18 ?_2 / p.60 Reader s Bank Level 7 ( ) In August 1962, famous American actress Marilyn Monroe killed herself by taking sleeping pills. Following her suicide, there were 197 similar suicides by women across America. The most recent case happened in 2009, when American pop superstar Michael Jackson died. ( ) Though he didn t commit suicide, more than ten fans killed themselves after his death in order to be with him. ( ) Some people blame the media for creating this phenomenon. By glorifying celebrities deaths, they encourage people to believe that it s okay to commit suicide after them. The Werther Effect was not limited to the 18th century.