6. Schools in Britain

There are primary and secondary school in a British typical school. At the age of five children go to primary school. At the age of eleven pupils in Britain leave primary school and go to a secondary school. In Year 11, they will take national exams called GCSEs (General Certificate in Secondary Education). Pupils will take exams in at least six subjects although they might take more perhaps as many as nine or ten. Then they might stay at school for two more years and study for two or more A level exams. However, they might leave school after their GCSEs. British schools break up for the summer in the middle of July and the new school year starts in September. Secondary schools often have 'speech days ' at the end of term. Celebrities usually make speeches and some pupils are awarded prizes.

7. London’s transport museum

The first buses appeared on the streets of London in 1829. They didn’t have engines – horses used to pull them – and they were only for rich people. The ordinary people used to walk everywhere. The fares slowly got cheaper and more and more people started to use them. The buses were double – deckers, just like we have today, but they used to be open at the top. They had a driver, of course, and a conductor. These men used to look after the horses as well as the passengers.

Before they had trains, most Londoners didn’t use to go out of the city very often. When the first trains appeared, they could afford to go by train to the countryside for day trips. Some people went to live in the suburbs - they used to travel by train to their jobs in the city centre every day.

The first underground line opened in 1863. It went through tunnels about 25 metres below the ground. The trains were wooden, not metal like today’s trains – and they were steam trains with very tall funnels. They were very different from our electric trains. The stations were very different too. There weren’t any escalators and the stairs were wooden – so there was always the danger of fire.

8. The work of an animator

An animator works in an animation studio. Actually he does the drawings. In fact, twenty – four drawings are needed for every second of film. It takes a very, very long time to make a complete cartoon film. First of all, the storyboards are made. A storyboard is drawings of the story. They’re pinned up on a big board. Then, the script is written. After that the dialogue is recorded. The storyboard and the dialogue are matched – the words match the pictures. Then the animations are made – hundreds and thousands of pictures for each scene. Models are needed to make animations. Small changes are made to them each time. For example, the arms or legs are moved, or parts of the face are changed. The models are made of plasticine, or something similar, so they are flexible.

8. The Nasca lines

The Nasca lines are huge drawings of birds, animals and insects. They were cut into the ground. They are called so because they were made by the Nascan people. They used to live in Peru thousands of years ago. The drawings were made over a period of a thousand years, from about 500 BC to AD 500. The Nascans buried the drawings in sand and they weren’t found for thousands of years. You can’t see them very well from the ground because they are so big – you have to go up to a height of several hundred metres. They were first discovered by pilots in the 1920s. They saw them from their planes. The Nasca lines weren’t drawn for humans. They were made for the sky gods. The Nascans wanted to please them. So the sky gods could see them but the Nascans couldn’t!