The dinosaurs may have risen to power in as little as 10,000 years
Everybody knows that the dinosaurs became extinct as a result of a large asteroid; something big hit the Earth 65 million years ago and, when the dust had fallen, so had the great reptiles. There is thus a nice, if ironic, symmetry in the idea that a similar impact brought about the dinosaurs’ rise. That is the thesis proposed by Paul Olsen of Columbia University.
Dinosaurs first appear in the fossil record 230 million years ago, during the Triassic period. But they were mostly small, and they shared the Earth with lots of other sorts of reptile. It was in the subsequent Jurassic period, which began 202 million years ago, that they overran the planet and turned into the monsters realistically depicted in modern books and movies. Dr Olsen and his colleagues are not the first to suggest that the dinosaurs inherited the Earth as the result of an asteroid strike. But they are the first to show that the takeover did, indeed, happen in a geological eye blink.
Dinosaur skeletons are rare. Dinosaur footprints are, however, surprisingly abundant. And the size of the prints is as good an indication of the size of the beasts as are the skeletons themselves. Dr Olsen and his colleagues therefore concentrated on prints, not bones. The prints in question were made in Eastern North America, a part of the world then full of rift valleys similar to those in East Africa today. Like the modern African rift valleys, the Triassic/Jurassic American ones contained lakes, and these lakes grew and shrank at regular intervals because of climatic changes. Rocks from this place and period can be dated to within a few thousand years. As a bonus, squishy lake-edge sediments are just the things for recording the tracks of passing animals.
By dividing the labour between them, the research team were able to study such tracks at 80 sites and look at 18 so-called ‘ichnotaxa’. These are recognisable types of footprint that cannot be matched precisely within the species of animal that left them. But they can be matched with a general sort of animal, and thus act as an indicator of the fate of that group, even when there are no bones to tell the story.
Their findings show that five of the ichnotaxa disappear before the end of the Triassic, and four march confidently across the boundary into the Jurassic. Six, however, vanish at the boundary, or only just splutter across it; and three appear from nowhere, almost as soon as the Jurassic begins. That boundary itself is suggestive. The first geological indication of the impact that killed the dinosaurs was an unusually high level of iridium in rocks at the end of the Cretaceous period. Iridium is normally rare at the Earth’s surface, but it is more abundant in meteorites. A fern spike in the rocks is thus a good indication that something terrible has happened.
The surprises are how rapidly the new ichnotaxa appeared and how quickly they increased in size. Dr Olsen and his colleagues suggest that the explanation for this may be a phenomenon called ecological release. This is seen today when reptiles reach islands where they face no competitors. The most spectacular example is on the Indonesian island of Komodo, where local lizards have grown so large that they are often referred to as dragons. The dinosaurs, in other words, could flourish only when the competition had been knocked out.
That leaves the question of where the impact happened. No large hole in the Earth’s crust seems to be 202 million years old. It may, of course, have been overlooked. Old craters are eroded and buried, and not always easy to find. Alternatively, it may have vanished. Although continental crust is more or less permanent, the ocean floor is constantly recycled by the tectonic processes that bring about continental drift. There is no ocean floor left that is more than 200 million years old, so a crater that formed in the ocean would have been swallowed up by now.
There is a third possibility, however. This is that the crater is known, but has been misdated. The Manicouagan ‘structure’, a crater in Quebec, is thought to be 214 million years old. It is huge — some 100 kilometres across — and seems to be the largest of between three and five craters that formed within a few hours of each other. It is possible, therefore, that Manicouagan has been misdated. That will be the next thing to check.
Street soccer vs. organized youth leagues in the USA
AStreet soccer is an informal variation of the sport, often played on the street in urban areas. There are many reasons for the widespread popularity of street soccer. Unlike youth soccer, no large space is needed, and goal posts and marked lines are absent, as are referees. It does not necessarily require standard 11-a-side teams or fixed playing positions. Inexperienced street soccer players rarely learn from repetitive drills. Instead, they learn from poor performance in competition, and soon attain an almost natural feeling for the sport.
BHowever, there are lots of cities where street soccer is no longer possible. Congested traffic now dominates where games were once played. Parks are used by older teenagers with other interests. Add the requirement for official permits to use public spaces and the managed schedules many young people have today, and spontaneous play is hard to imagine.
CIn spite of these obstacles, there is another sociological explanation of why street soccer doesn’t enjoy the same popularity. Franklin Foer observes: the 1960s parenting style had a far less relaxed side. Like the 1960s consumer movement which brought seat belts and airbags to cars, the youth soccer movement felt it could create regulations to protect the child’s body and mind. Soccer leagues handed out ‘participation’ prizes to every player, no matter how few games their team won. Some parents worried about injury from heading the ball. An entire industry grew up to manufacture protective headgear. Even though very little medical evidence supports this fear, some youth leagues prohibited heading the ball altogether.
DA growing body of people don’t believe street soccer involves a legitimate educational method. They argue that children need to be taught by experts. Youth soccer instruction now begins with four-year-olds. This need to get ahead brings with it a fear of falling behind that only expert instruction can prevent. This leaves no room for the trial and error approach of street soccer.
EOne of the basic ideas of street soccer is that young players are assigned a particular role by a better player and are expected to play for the good of the team. This runs counter to the idea of youth soccer that every child needs to learn every position. In street soccer, you fill the role you are best suited to at a particular time. The purpose is always to get the best out of each individual at any given moment.
FIn street soccer, children have to learn patience, to wait their turn, to realize they are not entitled to make decisions simply because they show up. Positions of responsibility are earned through competition within the team. In youth soccer, however, with its overly democratic values, youngsters are guaranteed their time in the spotlight. Youth soccer players come to believe that hard work and patience aren’t really necessary.
GNot only does every youth soccer player get a chance, it is assumed each individual has played well. ‘Everyone’s a winner; no one’s a loser’ is a guiding principle of youth soccer. But, if there really are no losers, then why try at all? Since giving less than your best receives the same reward as giving your best, why go to any extra effort? In street soccer, every game results in a winner and a loser. Losing a game is a common experience and players learn how to handle this — they acquire resilience. A further difference is that in street soccer a formal record is not kept. But in organized youth soccer, the position each person plays and the results are formally noted and maintained throughout a season.
The social significance of travel and holidaymaking
ATourism, holidaymaking and travel are these days more significant social phenomena than most commentators have considered. On the face of it there could not be a more trivial subject for a book. However, there are interesting parallels with the study of deviance. This involves the investigation of bizarre and idiosyncratic social practices which happen to be defined as deviant in some societies but not necessarily in others. The assumption is that the investigation of deviance can reveal interesting and significant aspects of normal societies. It could be said that a similar analysis can be applied to tourism.
BTourism is a leisure activity which presupposes its opposite, namely regulated and organised work. It is one manifestation of how work and leisure are organised as separate spheres of social practice in modern societies. Indeed acting as a tourist is one of the defining characteristics of being ‘modern’. Tourist relationships arise from a movement of people to, and their stay in, various destinations. ‘The journey and the stay’ are by definition outside the normal places of residence and work and are of a short term and temporary nature and there is a clear intention to return ‘home’ within a relatively short period of time.
CA substantial proportion of the population of modern societies engages in such tourist practices; new socialised forms of provision have developed in order to cope with the mass character of the gazes of tourists as opposed to the individual character of travel. Places are chosen to be visited and be gazed upon because there is an anticipation especially through daydreaming and fantasy of intense pleasures. Such anticipation is constructed and sustained through a variety of non-tourist practices such as films, TV, literature, magazines, records and videos which construct and reinforce this daydreaming.
DTourists tend to visit features of landscape and townscape which separate them off from everyday experience. Such aspects are viewed because they are taken to be out of the ordinary. The viewing of these tourist sights often involves different forms of social patterning with a much greater sensitivity to visual elements than is normally found in everyday life. People linger over these sights in a way that they would not normally do in their home environment and the vision is objectified or captured through photographs, postcards and films which enable the memory to be endlessly reproduced and recaptured.
EOne of the earliest dissertations on the subject of tourism is Boorstin’s analysis of the pseudo event (1964) where he argues that contemporary Americans cannot experience reality directly but thrive on pseudo events. Isolated from the host environment and the local people, the mass tourist travels in guided groups and finds pleasure in inauthentic contrived attractions, gullibly enjoying the pseudo events and disregarding the real world outside. Over time the images generated of different tourist sights come to constitute a closed self-perpetuating system of illusions which provide the tourist with the basis for selecting and evaluating potential places to visit.
FTo service the burgeoning tourist industry, an array of professionals has developed who attempt to reproduce ever-new objects for the tourist to look at. It has been said that to be a tourist is one of the characteristics of the modern experience. Not to go away is like not possessing a car or a nice house. Travel is a marker of status in modern societies and is also thought to be necessary for good health. The role of the professional, therefore, is to cater for the needs and tastes of the tourists in accordance with their class and overall expectations.
Do the following statements agree with the information given in the passage?
Write TRUE, FALSE or NOT GIVEN.
Complete the summary. Choose NO MORE THAN THREE WORDS from the passage.
Dr Olsen’s group believe the sudden increase in size of dinosaurs may have been due to something known as 7. A current example can be found on Komodo Island, where lizards are commonly called 8 because of their size. They have grown this big because they have no 9.
There are three possible reasons why no crater has been found. First, it may have been 10. Or, it could have 11; if it was in the ocean, it would no longer exist because of the 12 that produce continental drift. Thirdly, the hole could still exist but have been 13.
Which section (A–G) contains the following information? Write the correct letter.
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Choose TWO letters, A–E.
Complete the summary. Choose ONE WORD ONLY from the passage.
Winners and Losers
For youth soccer players, a key 24 is that they should always come away from the game with a positive attitude. Regardless of the effort the players make, they get some kind of 25 at the end of a game. In street soccer, players gain resilience because they have to learn to cope with failure. But the outcome of a match isn’t remembered for long — no-one ever keeps a 26 of the results.
Choose the most suitable heading for each paragraph from the list below.
Paragraph D has been done as an example (answer: ix).
i. The politics of tourism
ii. The cost of tourism
iii. Justifying the study of tourism
iv. Tourism contrasted with travel
v. The essence of modern tourism
vi. Tourism versus leisure
vii. The artificiality of modern tourism
viii. The role of modern tour guides
ix. Creating an alternative to the everyday experience
Do the following statements agree with the views of the writer?
Write YES, NO or NOT GIVEN.
Choose one phrase (A–H) to complete each key point.
A local people and their environment
B the expectations of tourists
C the phenomena of holiday making
D the distinction we make between work and leisure
E the individual character of travel
F places seen in everyday life
G photographs which recapture our holidays
H sights designed specially for tourists