Materijali za prepričavanje

Internet is changing the way of our memories function.

People should be realistic rather than romantic in order to live a better life.

Family is the most important influence on young adults. 

Listening to classical music enhances our senses and enriches our soul.

Dogs are the most variable mammal on earth with around 450 globally recognized dog breeds. 

Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. 

Most experiences in our lives that seemed difficult at the time become valuable lessons for the future. 

Overall relationship between teachers and students has extremely changed in modern life and this relationship is quite different than it was in the past. 

An airplane or aero plane (informally plane) is a fixed-wing aircraft that is propelled forward by thrust from a jet engine, propeller, or rocket engine. 

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made us wonder what led to its occurrence and what can be done to avoid such events in the future.

 In the late Stone Age, the median life  expectancy of humans was only around 33  years; today, the median for people in wealthy  nations is around 80 years, and the global  average is around 67 years. 

The concept of biotechnology encompasses a wide range of procedures for modifying living organisms according to human purposes, going back to domestication of animals, cultivation of the plants, and "improvements" to these through breeding programs that employ artificial selection and hybridization 

Psycholinguistics is the field of study in which researchers investigate the psychological processes involved in the use of language, including language comprehension, language production, and first and second language acquisition.

A quantity is said to vary directly with or to be directly proportional to another quantity if they both change in an equal direction. In other words, two quantities vary directly if an increase in one causes an increase in the other or if a decrease in one causes a decrease in the other. The ratio of increase or decrease, however, must be the same.

A quantity is said to vary inversely with or to be inversely proportional to another quantity if they change in opposite directions. In other words, two quantities vary inversely if an increase in one causes a decrease in the other or if a decrease in one causes an increase in the other.

Without elevators, there would be no New York City skyline. More than any other technological advance, it was the invention of the elevator that made skyscrapers possible. People have been able to build huge structures for a long time, but without an easy way to reach the top, such structures could not be used for very much. Could you imagine living on the thirty-first floor of a building if you had to walk up the stairs every day to get home?

Do-it-yourselfers is not good only for the environment, but also for saving money. One example is plastic bottles that can be converted to first-rate containers for nails, screws, or small parts. The second example is plastic bags make good drop cloths to catch paint drips or spills. The thicker plastic, the better, because it is less possible to blow around in a breeze when used outdoors 

The theater is a venue for the most realistic and direct fiction ever imagined. So many of the contemporary plays make us realize how we are living our lives and perhaps how we should change them. From these “reality shows” we can feel all the poverty, despair and unfairness in our world which then affords us the opportunity for change for the better. 

Vitamins are certain substances found in food. Most of them are found accidental. They have an important role in regulating some processes in our body. Most of them cannot be produced in the body and because of that is important to enter by diet. The vitamins can be divided into two groups: those soluble in fat, and those soluble in water

The United States is the only industrialized nation in the world that does not provide healthcare to all of its citizens. Instead, healthcare for those under 65 is managed by a complex web of insurance companies, representing mostly for-profit business. This results in exorbitant healthcare premiums, leaving approximately 45 million citizens uninsured and unable to receive regular healthcare. And this is not limited to those who are unemployed.

PHI, the Divine Proportion of 1.618, is the ratio of any two sequential numbers in the Fibonacci sequence. If you take the numbers 0 and 1, then create each subsequent number in the sequence by adding the previous two numbers, you get the Fibonacci sequence. For example, 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144. If you sum the squares of any series of Fibonacci numbers, they will equal the last Fibonacci number used in the series times the next Fibonacci number.

Home schooling is becoming more and more desirable because children do not have the burden of traveling to school and becoming exposed to other children’s sickness and everything else that goes with being in a crowded room. There is also the individual attention that the parent or tutor can give the student creating a better and more efficient learning environment. As standards become more and more flexible, home schooling may in fact be the norm of the future.

Despite the many categories of the historian, there are only two ages of man. The first age, the age from the beginnings of recorded time to the present, is the age of the cave man. It is the age of war. It is today. The second age, still only a prospect, is the age of civilized man. The test of civilized man will be represented by his ability to use his inventiveness for his own good by substituting world law for world anarchy. That second age is still within the reach of the individual in our time. It is not a part- time job, however. It calls for total awareness, total commitment.

Readers in the past seem to have been more patient than the readers of today. There were few diversions, and they had more time to read novels of a length that seems to us now inordinate. It may be that they were not irritated by the digressions and irrelevances that interrupted the narration. But some of the novels that suffer from these defects are among the greatest that have ever been written. It is deplorable that on this account they should be less and less read.

Certain qualities common to the sonnet should be noted. Its definite restrictions make it a challenge to the artistry of the poet and call for all the technical skill at the poet’s command. The more or less set rhyme patterns occurring regularly within the short space of fourteen lines afford a pleasant effect on the ear of the reader, and can create truly musical effects. The rigidity of the form precludes a too great economy or too great prodigality of words. Emphasis is placed on exactness and perfection of expression. The brevity of the form favors concentrated expression of ideas or passion. 

There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind—the humorous. The humorous story is American; the comic story, English; the witty story, French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter. The humorous story may be spun out to great length, and may wander around as much as it pleases, and arrive nowhere in particular; but the comic and witty stories must be brief and end with a point. The humorous story bubbles gently along; the others burst.

In pre-Victorian times, despite the widespread belief that a woman’s place was in the home, some strong-minded women found opportunities to participate actively in scientific work. In Before Victoria, Elizabeth Denlinger points out that, at that time, the sciences were, to some extent, still in their infancy: they had not yet become official parts of the university curriculum, and therefore were open to women. Thus, Caroline Herschel, acting as assistant to her brother William, in the late eighteenth century performed basic astronomical research. The first woman to discover a comet, in later years Herschel catalogued every discovery she and her brother had made, creating research tools still in use today.  

Every work of art is the child of its age and, in many cases, the mother of our emotions. It follows that each period of culture produces an art of its own which can never be repeated. Efforts to revive the art principles of the past will at best produce an art that is still-born. It is impossible for us to live and feel, as did the ancient Greeks. In the same way those who strive to follow the Greek methods in sculpture achieve only a similarity of form, the work remaining soulless for all time. Such imitation is mere aping. Externally the monkey completely resembles a human being; he will sit holding a book in front of his nose and turn over the pages with a thoughtful aspect, but his actions have for him no real meaning.

Asbestos is generally made up of fiber bundles that can be broken up into long, thin fibers. We now know from various studies that when this friable substance is released into the air and inhaled into the lungs over a period of time, it can lead to a higher risk of lung cancer and a condition known as asbestosis. Asbestosis, a thickening and scarring of the lung tissue, usually occurs when a person is exposed to high asbestos levels over an extended period of time. Unfortunately, the symptoms do not usually appear until about twenty years after initial exposure, making it difficult to reverse or prevent. In addition, smoking while exposed to asbestos fibers could further increase the risk of developing lung cancer.

All the arts contain some preposterous fiction, but the theatre is the most pre posterous of all. Imagine asking us to believe that we are in Venice in the sixteenth century, and that Mr. Billington is a Moor, and that he is about to stifle the much admired Miss Huckaby with a pillow; and imagine trying to make us believe that people ever talked in blank verse—more than that: that people were ever so marvelously articulate. The theatre is a lily that inexplicably arises from a jungle of weedy falsities. Yet it is precisely from the tension produced by all this absurdity that it is able to create such poetry, power, enchantment and truth. In the ordinary course of nature, the great beneficent changes come slowly and silently. The noisy changes, for the most part, mean violence and disruption. The roar of storms and tornadoes, the explosions of volcanoes, the crash of thunder, are the result of a sudden break in the equipoise of the elements; from a condition of comparative repose and silence they become fearfully swift and audible. The still small voice is the voice of life and growth and perpetuity. . . . In the history of a nation it is the same.

How did the term “spam” come to mean unsolicited commercial e-mail? Flash back to 1937, when Hormel Foods creates a new canned spiced ham, SPAM. Then, in World War II, SPAM luncheon meat becomes a staple of soldiers’ diets (often GIs ate SPAM two or three times a day). Next, SPAM’s wartime omnipresence perhaps inspired the 1987 Monty Python skit in which a breakfast seeking couple unsuccessfully tries to order a SPAM-free meal while a chorus of Vikings drowns them out, singing “Spam, spam, spam, spam . . . .” To computer users drowning in junk e-mail, the analogy was obvious. “Spam,” they said, “it’s spam.” How does an artist train his eye? “First,” said Leonardo da Vinci, “learn perspective; then draw from nature.” The self-taught eighteenth century painter George Stubbs followed Leonardo’s advice. Like Leonardo, he studied anatomy, but, unlike Leonardo, instead of studying human anatomy, he studied the anatomy of the horse. He dissected carcass after carcass, peeling away the five separate layers of muscles, removing the organs, baring the veins and arteries and nerves. For 18 long months he recorded his observations, and when he was done he could paint horses muscle by muscle, as they had never been painted before. Pretty decent work, for someone self taught. 

The microscopic vegetables of the sea, of which the diatoms are most important, make the mineral wealth of the water available to the animals. Feeding directly on the diatoms and other groups of minute unicellular algae are the marine protozoa, many crustaceans, the young of crabs, barnacles, sea worms, and fishes. Hordes of small carnivores, the first link in the chain of flesh eaters, move among these peaceful grazers. There are fierce little dragons half an inch long, the sharp-jawed arrowworms. There are gooseberry like comb jellies, armed with grasping tentacles, and there are the shrimplike euphausiids that strain food from the water with their bristly appendages. Since they drift where the currents carry them, with no power or will to oppose that of the sea, this strange community of creatures and the marine plants that sustain them are called plankton, a word derived from the Greek, meaning wandering. 

The modern biographer’s task becomes one of discovering the “dynamics” of the personality he is studying rather than allowing the reader to deduce that personality from documents. If he achieves a reasonable likeness, he need not fear too much that the unearthing of still more material will alter the picture he has drawn; it should add dimension to it, but not change its lineaments appreciably. After all, he has had more than enough material to permit him to reach conclusions and to paint his portrait. With this abundance of material he can select moments of high drama and find episodes to illustrate character and make for vividness. In any event, biographers, I think, must recognize that the writing of a life may not be as “scientific” or as “definitive” as we have pretended. Biography partakes of a large part of the subjective side of man; and we must remember that those who walked abroad in our time may have one appearance for us—but will seem quite different to posterity. 

Although patience is the most important quality a treasure hunter can have, the trade demands a certain amount of courage too. I have my share of guts, but make no boast about ignoring the hazards of diving. As all good divers know, the business of plunging into an alien world with an artificial air supply as your only link to the world above can be as dangerous as stepping into a den of lions. Most of the danger rests within the diver himself. The devil-may-care diver who shows great bravado underwater is the worst risk of all. He may lose his bearings in the glimmering dim light which penetrates the sea and become separated from his diving companions. He may dive too deep, too long and suffer painful, sometimes fatal, bends. 

Acting, like much writing, is probably a compensation for and release from the strain of some profound maladjustment of the psyche. The actor lives most intensely by proxy. He has to be somebody else to be himself. But it is all done openly and for our delight. The dangerous man, the enemy of nonattachment or any other wise way of life, is the born actor who has never found his way into the Theater, who never uses a stage door, who does not take a call and then wipe the paint off his face. It is the intrusion of this temperament into political life, in which at this day it most emphatically does not belong, that works half the mischief in the world. In every country you may see them rise, the actors who will not use the Theater, and always they bring down disaster from the angry gods who like to see mountebanks in their proper place.

 In New York, as much as in most communities in America, basketball is more religious rite than sport. Kids are at the playground as long as ten hours a day, actually playing as many as six. Seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds already have rheumatoid knees from the constant pounding of their feet on the asphalt. They play in the heat of the afternoon with not much more to fuel them than a can of soda and a store-bought pastry, and they play at night in the dim illumination of nearby street lights and flashing neon. In a single summer, typical city ballplayers will wear out four or five pairs of sneakers. They play even in the dead of winter, bundled in jackets and sweaters and belching up little puffs of steam as they bang away at the netless rims. 

Windstorms have recently established a record which meteorologists hope will not be equaled for many years to come. Disastrous tornadoes along with devastating typhoons and hurricanes have cost thousands of lives and left property damage totaling far into the millions. The prominence these storms have held in the news has led many people to ask about the difference between the three. Is a typhoon the same as a hurricane? Is a tornado the same as a typhoon? Basically, there is no difference. All three consist of wind rotating counterclockwise (in the Northern Hemisphere) at a tremendous velocity around a low-pressure center. However, each type does have its own definite characteristics. Of the three the tornado is certainly the most treacherous. The Weather Bureau can, with some degree of accuracy, forecast the typhoon and the hurricane; however, it is impossible to determine where or when the tornado will strike. And out of the three, if one had a choice, perhaps it would be safer to choose to withstand the hurricane. 

The man who reads well is the man who thinks well, who has a background for opinions and a touchstone for judgment. He may be a Lincoln who derives wisdom from a few books or a Roosevelt who ranges from Icelandic sagas to Penrod. But reading makes him a full man, and out of his fullness he draws that example and precept which stand him in good stead when confronted with problems which beset a chaotic universe. Mere reading, of course, is nothing. It is but the veneer of education. But wise reading is a help to action. American versatility is too frequently dilettantism, but reinforced by knowledge it becomes motive power. “Learning,” as James L. Mursell says, “cashes the blank check of native versatility.” And learning is a process not to be concluded with the formal teaching of schooldays or to be enriched only by the active experience of later years, but to be broadened and deepened by persistent and judicious reading. “The true University of these days is a Collection of Books,” said Carlyle. If that is not the whole of the truth it is enough of it for every young person to hug to this bosom

 The best way to stay on task is to focus on taking mental snapshots as you read, or taking brief, purposeful notes if you find it hard to keep track of your mental notes. But that doesn’t mean trying to commit everything you read to memory or mindlessly copying down details in the margin. You should be focusing on what the function of each paragraph is as you read through the passage. With the exception of fiction, SAT reading passages will pretty often follow a predictable pattern of introducing a topic, explaining some context or history, giving some specific details on the topic, and wrapping up with some more general thoughts on the main point. The truth is, that’s most non-fiction writing in a nutshell, including the essay that you may be writing yourself a little later on. What is the theme of the text What could be possible title of the article in which this paragraph is integral part Who would be interested to read this What sentence could be inserted at the end of the text Why the author wrote this text

Japanese denim Japanese denim has a reputation among enthusiasts as being the best in the world. It has a cult following in Europe and America because of its amazing look and feel. The cloth is stiffer, denser but far more comfortable than the mass-produced denim used in other countries. Japanese denim is different because they use traditional production techniques that have been abandoned elsewhere. Most denim today is produced using chemical dye, but Japanese denim uses natural dye, and the material is dipped up to thirty times to produce a deep, intense, and rich color that fades with time. These traditional methods are more labor-intense, which makes the product more expensive, but Tokyo's trendsetters are willing to splash out on the perfect pair of jeans. 

We are not robots At school, almost all have to study the subjects they do not like alongside the ones they find interesting. Although some university courses sound very interesting, young people often avoid them because in many cases they don't lead to an obvious career. Examples include film studies, popular music, and psychology because to get a job graduates have to be very lucky or be the very best. Understandably, many students decide that a more practical degree like accountancy or engineering. The outcome of such a choice could be low grades and a very unhappy time at university. 

 Sharing economy Everyone was at least one buy something that he/she didn't really need. With the advent of the internet, online communities have figured out a way to generate profit from the sharing of those underused assets. Using websites and social media groups that facilitate the buying and selling of second-hand goods, it is now easier than ever for peer-to-peer sharing activities to take place. And this is known as the sharing economy. Businesses have also caught on to the profitability of the sharing economy and start providing an online platform that puts customers in contact with those who can provide a particular product or service.  

Cultural behavior in business Much of today's business is conducted across international borders, and while the majority of the global business community might share the use of English as a common language, the nuances and expectations of business communication vary widely from culture to culture. Unfair judgments, misunderstandings, and communication breakdowns might emerge from a lack of understanding of our business contacts' cultural norms and practices. Some of the key areas where business etiquette differs around the world may come in handy if you ever find yourself working with someone from a foreign culture, and that key facts are addressing someone, smiling, eye contact. 

Sustainable supermarkets Over the last decade, many of the big grocery companies have been accused of different unethical practices. They've thrown away a lot of food, underpaid their suppliers, and contributed to a lot of plastic waste in their packaging, all of which have had an impact on the environment. Supermarkets and grocers, on the other hand, are starting to take note. Some of the top UK supermarkets have signed up to an agreement vowing to alter packaging and reduce plastic waste in response to growing public anger over the vast volumes of plastic waste generated by plastic packaging. Without a doubt, we still have a long way to go in terms of decreasing food and plastic waste. However, perhaps the larger supermarkets will take inspiration from these little grocers and work towards a more sustainable future for all of us. 

Graffiti The first drawings on walls appeared in caves thousands of years ago. Modern graffiti seems to have appeared in Philadelphia in the early 1960s, and by the late sixties, it had reached New York. People who did graffiti work in groups named crews. The debate over whether graffiti is art or vandalism is still going on. For decades graffiti has been a springboard to international fame for a few. Some of the graffiti of the famous artists was sold for over 100,000 dollars.

New York 

Located at the mouth of Hudson River, there is no place like New York with its iconic skyline. The hip-hop was invented there. There is a huge number of theatres: more than 400 in total. In summer, this cosmopolitan city is full of free cultural activities like museum nights and live music. New York is renowned for its traffic jams, but unlike other cities where the subway closes at night, The NY subway runs twenty-four hours of a day. To summarize, New York isn’t the cheapest place to live, but this is offset by high salaries and good youth employment. 

Diners 

During the twenties, diners appeared and by the end of the decade, they were established as a good, inexpensive place to eat that could bring to the owner upwards of 12,000 dollars a year. The diners were changed during the years. At first, it grew larger, but in the end, that resulted in the buildings made of concrete and surrounded by huge parking lots. Those changes required an increase in the price of the meal. That problem was filled by the fast-food franchise chains which offer food for cheap prices. 

Bridges collapse 

Some of the biggest and most expensive transportation projects in the world have involved building bridges. Bridges are crucial links that carry cars, trucks, and trains across bodies of water, mountain gorges, or other roads. Bridge collapses can be tragic events, leading to loss of life and serious property damage. Some of the reasons that can lead to a tragic end can be: fire, earthquake, boat or train crash, during construction, by defect... The best way for them to prevent these accidents is to understand why bridges collapse in the first place because understanding bridge collapses can lead to major changes in the design, construction, and safety of future building projects.

SAT Reading

The trick to conquering the SAT Reading section is finding the perfect balance between reading time and question-answering time. This is going to vary based on the individual, but in an ideal world you want to have both enough time to carefully read and understand the passage (as described above) and enough time to answer each question thoughtfully. For most people, this is easier said than done. But you should definitely figure out whether you are wasting too much time trying to understand every morsel of what you read or whether you are reading too quickly and thus wasting too much time re-reading or simply getting questions wrong because you blew through the passage in a mad sprint. 

Westerns 

Romances, musicals, thrillers. Hollywood has made them all. However, the film that defines Hollywood is the western. The western is a nostalgic look back at the American frontier, a place where civilization ended and the wild west began. There are many sub genres of western; however, all westerns share the same main character: a man determined to be free at all costs. He might be an outlaw or sheriff, a rancher or a soldier. Whatever his external description, he is, on the inside, a rebel, a man who follows no laws but his own. In short, the western is about a search for freedom. And if good triumphs over evil, so much the better. The western has faded in popularity, but it’s theme of individual freedom lives on. You just have to look at any number of space movies. If you look beyond the space ships and the laser guns, you’ll see that they are all westerns at heart.

Snake venom

Snake venom is one of the most effective methods of self-preservation in the animal kingdom. It is, essentially, toxic saliva composed of different enzymes that immobilizes prey. One type of toxin, known as a hemotoxin, targets the victim’s circulatory system and muscle tissue. The other is called a neurotoxin, and it affects the nervous system by causing heart failure or breathing difficulties. Although deadly, some snake venoms have been found to have curative properties. In fact, toxinologists, herpetologists, and other scientists have used the venom of a Brazilian snake to develop a class of drugs that is used to treat hypertension.

White Collar Crime 

Most of us have never heard of Professor Edwin Sutherland yet we’ve all heard the phrase “white collar crime.” This phrase was first coined by Sutherland in 1939 when he gave a presentation to the American Sociological Society. Sutherland had been studying two areas: crime and high society, specifically rich men who wore suits with ties and white shirts, hence the white collar analogy. Sutherland came to define white collar crime as a "crime committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation." In other words, a white collar criminal could be a bank manager stealing money from his bank or a stockbroker giving false tips to inflate the price of a failing stock.

Space 

On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first satellite to orbit the earth. Thus began “the space race.” With Sputnik 1, the United States feared that the Soviet Union would eventually develop more powerful satellites that could spy or drop nuclear bombs on the United States. As a result, the United States made the control of space a top priority. However, on April 12, 1961 the Soviets once again beat America to the punch by putting the first man into earth orbit. Ten months later, America sent its first man into earth orbit. The space race ended when America landed men on the moon on July 16, 1969. Today, the exploration of space continues with the Space Shuttle making regular trips to the International Space Station where scientists from all around the world work together developingnew technologies that might one day take us to Mars.

Charles Darwin 

Charles Darwin is famous for his groundbreaking book On the Origin of Species published in 1851. In it, Darwin theorized that all organisms evolved through natural selection. Natural selection, as defined by Darwin, is the process in which an organism inherits traits that make it more likely to survive and successfully reproduce, and thus become more common. Darwin had witnessed this same process of selection in farmers breeding domestic livestock. By selective breeding, farmers could produce the results they were after, such as a cow that produced more milk or a sheep that produced more wool. Darwin analogized by observation that this same process of selection was naturally occurring in all organisms in the wild. However, it was the hand of nature, not the hand of man, that was doing the selecting. Darwin’s theory revolutionized scientific thought, for according to Darwin, natural selection proved that divine creation played no part in the creation and evolution of organisms.

Sharks 

Sharks are a type of fish found in every ocean of the world. Instead of scales, sharks have a rough, sandpaper-like skin which protects them from parasites and reduces water resistance thus allowing them to move more efficiently through the water. Another unique feature of sharks is their skeletons. Instead of bones, sharks have cartilage, a type of connective tissue that allows for greater flexibility. As apex predators, sharks have good eye sight and exceptionally sensitive smell. Their eyes can see both mononocularly and stereoscopically while chemical sensitive tissues in the nose, called olfactory epithelium, can detect the smallest traces of blood miles away. All sharks are carnivorous. Some sharks, like the tiger shark, will eat just about anything. However, most sharks are more selective, such as the whale shark which feeds only on plankton, microscopic organisms on the bottom of the ocean food chain.

A government scheme to keep people healthy 

Local governments have had to take on a new responsibility and ensure that people will stay fit and healthy. Birmingham council had been encouraging local residents to enrol in the Be active scheme, which allows them to use local leisure services completely free of charge. Each leisure centre must have fulfilled certain criteria to be considered. Be Active classes are also being provided in schools and community centres. Since it was launched in 2008, a third of the local population has signed up for the scheme. The majority were not previously members of a sports club of any kind, half were overweight or obese, and a fifth considered themselves to be in poor health, indicating that the scheme is reaching the people who need it most.

Animal behavior 

Animal behavior can be classified according to the time of day an animal is active. Animals, such as horses, elephants and most birds, are said to be diurnal because they are active during the day and rest at night. Those animals active at dawn and dusk are said to be crepuscular. Beetles, skunks and rabbits fall into this category. The third group are those animals that sleep during the day and are active at night. They are called nocturnal. A good example is the bat. Bats have highly developed eyesight, hearing and smell. This helps them avoid predators and locate food. Being nocturnal also helps them avoid high temperatures during the day, especially in deserts where temperatures can reach well over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit.