A range of genres

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LOOKING AT GENRES
In which learning area would you expect to find
each text? What is the purpose of each
text? What stages can you identify? What name
would you give each text?
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Text A One day a tiny mouse accidentally ran
between a lion's paws. Fearing for his life, he
begged the mighty lion to release him and said,
"If you let me go, one day I shall repay you for
your kindness." The lion was amused by this and
laughed. "How can such a tiny creature help me,
the King of the Jungle?" he thought. But he let
the mouse go free and off it ran. Some days
later, however, when the lion was out hunting, he
became entangled in a net which had been set by
hunters. He roared in fury and struggled to get
free, but the more he struggled the tighter the
net became. All the animals of the jungle heard
the lion and came rushing to find him. The lion
asked each of them in turn for help, but they
said, "How can weak creatures such as us help
you, King of the Jungle?" And off they went,
leaving him in the trap. Just then, the tiny
mouse came running by and he saw the lion in
trouble. Ordering the lion to lie still, he began
to gnaw through the ropes of the net. He chewed
and chewed until at last the lion was freed. So
the tiny mouse, by patience and hard work, was
able to do what the lion, in all his strength and
rage, could not.
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Text B Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here to
convince you that Marijuana should not be
decriminalised throughout Australia. Look at the
word decriminalise. Is it not a crime to make
drugs freely available to our vulnerable young
people? Is it not a crime to drive a car whilst
under the influence of this mind bending drug? Is
it not a crime to turn our children on to the
idea that drugs are OK? I say to you that we can
not decriminalise the use of marijuana, because
such use is a crime, not by name but by
nature. Marijuana is a mind bending drug which
influences the way users perceive the world
around them. Supporters of the drug say that it
heightens awareness. Heightens awareness?
This is just a way of saying that it makes the
user see the world from an unreal perspective.
The user, with this so-called heightened
awareness, drives on the road thinking that
nothing can harm him, thinking that he is
super-driver, that he is invincible. He sees
speed in a different light not as dangerous but
as exhilarating, putting himself and every other
road user at risk. And what about in the
workplace? If marijuana becomes so accepted by
society, what effects will its use have in the
office? The factory? Weve all heard song lyrics
written under the influence of drugs and while it
may seem entertaining on the CD player, do we
really want those effects at work? Imagine the
secretary who devises her new filling system
whilst under the influence. Or the worker on a
car assembly line creatively putting together
the cars braking or steering system! I think
not! My opponents will say that decriminalising
marijuana will break the link between this
so-called soft drug and other hard-line drugs.
Dont believe them! It is a well known fact that
people who experiment with marijuana get a taste
for drugs and are tempted to try other drugs no
matter what they have to do to get them. If
marijuana is casually used throughout our
society, more people will try more different
drugs. It is a natural and logical progression.
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Text C At Bolivar, the primary effluent passes
through two more stages. After the secondary
settling tanks, it passes into stabilisation
lagoons for approximately 30 days to further
improve the effluent quality. It is then filtered
and chlorinated at the Dissolved Air Flotation
and Filtration (DAFF) Plant. The raw sludge is
pumped to large digestion tanks, where it is
heated and mixed, accelerating the natural
breakdown of the organic matter. After digestion,
the sludge is pumped to drying lagoons, where it
is air dried and can be reused in agriculture.
The gas produced during digestion is converted
into power for use within the treatment process.
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Text D A third alien plant, the eucalypt, has
now joined these two in the typical Mediterranean
landscape. It came from an even more distant
continent, Australia. There, five hundred
different species of them grow in all conditions
from humid rain forest to arid desert. One of
them, the blue gum, is found in southern
Australia in a climate that is not unlike that of
the Mediterranean. It is a tall tree, growing up
to one hundred and eighty feet, with bark that
peels off in strips, giving the trunk a streaked
appearance. Like nearly all eucalypts, it grows
continuously throughout the year and never drops
all its leaves simultaneously.
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• Text E
• Make sure you wear a hat whenever you are out in
  the sun.
• Always wear SPF 15 sunscreen while outside, even
  if you are in the shade because the UV rays from
  the sun can reflect off things like water and
  burn you.
• Stay out of the sun between 10.00 and 2.00
  because this is the time of day when UV rays are
  at their strongest.
• Always wear sunglasses to protect your eyes.
• When swimming, wear a sun shirt over your togs so
  you wont get burnt.
• Buy a fold-up shadehouse for when you go to the
  beach but make sure it is approved by scientists.

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Text F Helen Keller was a famous American who
lived from 1880 - Although she was blind, deaf
and mute, she overcame her handicaps, went to
university and became a famous author and
lecturer. Helen Keller was born in the state of
Alabama in 1880. She became ill at the age of
nineteen months and as a result she became blind,
deaf and mute. From the age of seven Helen was
taught by Annie Sullivan. Under Annie's
instruction Helen learned sign language by touch
and to use the Braille system to read. She
learned to write using a special typewriter. In
1890 Helen learned how to speak. 1900 was a
special year for her because she passed the exams
and was allowed to enter university with honours
in 1904. After university, Helen needed to find
a way to make a living, so she wrote her
autobiography "The Story of My Life", which
became a best seller. For a while life was good
for Helen Keller. She became involved in the
suffragette movement and also worked on her
voice. As a result her ability to speak and to be
understood improved greatly. Annie Sullivan had
stayed with Helen Keller throughout her life, but
when Annie died in 1936, Helen showed that she
could lead a life of her own. With her secretary,
Polly Thompson, she travelled to Japan before
World War II and during the war she toured
military hospitals in America to help cheer up
the injured. After the war Helen and Polly toured
the world to raise money for the blind people.
Helen Keller died in 1968. During her life she
showed great courage in overcoming huge
difficulties to live a full and famous life.
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Text G Blood transfusions are often given to
accident victims who have lost a lot of blood.
There are arguments for and against this often
life-saving process. The first argument against
blood transfusions deals with the spreading of
disease. If contaminated blood is received by a
patient, s/he may develop the disease that the
donor had. Another argument against blood
transfusions is that the mixing of unsuitable
blood could result in blood clotting. When
certain blood groups are mixed, the receiver will
reject the new blood which leads to blood
clotting. These clots block blood vessels and
this could lead to strokes and heart
attacks. However, only carefully screened blood
is used for transfusions. Donated blood is tested
for several diseases and contaminated blood is
not used. Therefore, the risk of receiving
contaminated blood is minimal. In that screening
process, the type of the blood group is also
determined. Before a patient receives blood, his
or her blood group is ascertained. The strongest
argument is that patients are helped by receiving
blood and many lives are saved by this process.
Having considered both sides of the argument, it
is clear that blood transfusions should be given
to patients. By this process many lives can be
saved or prolonged.
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Text H Kiesha pulled at her bonds. She was
sitting in a black room. The only spot of light
was a funny looking object in the corner. It was
full of glass balls. What Keisha didnt know was
that they held her lifes memory. Kiesha had been
kidnapped from kelliton Grove tied up, had her
memory stolen and been thrown into a dark corner.
She had had her memory stolen because she was the
only person in Shindria that knew how to destroy
the Evil queen, Karshi. Karshi knew that so she
stole Kieshas memory and was preparing to
sacrafice her to the dark gods. Stardi the
Unicorn was pacing up and down the forest floor.
He had heard that Kiesha had been kidnapped and
was trying to think up a way to rescue her.
Suddenly a thought struck him. He charged through
the forest and up Grizzly Mountain straight
towards Karshis castle. Using his horn, Stardi
cut a hole in the wall, threw Kiesha on to his
back and galloped away. As they neared Stardis
home, Garsorm, Kiesha slid off his back. With one
cut Stardis horn sliced off Kieshas bonds and
they fell limply to the ground. We must find the
memory crystals and destroy Karshi, said Stardi.
I know where to find them. That night they
slunk along the grimy wall of the cliff and
crawled into Leprechaun Cave. They crept along in
the darkness until they found the secret opening
to the crystal chamber. Stardi knew there were
green memory crystals and multi-coloured ones for
other things. He cut off a green one and told
Kiesha to touch it. She did and instantly her
memory returned. Now tell me what we have to do
to destroy Karshi, said Stardi. The only thing
that can destroy her is a blue memory crystal. To
work properly it must be thrown into the Pool of
death at exactly midnight, replied Kiesha. They
set out to find a blue crystal. There was only
one left. They hurried away from the cliff and
reached the Pool of Death at 11.58 at 12.00
Kiesha threw the blue crystal into the water. As
it plunged downwards, the evil queens cry echoed
through the forest. She was dead. To celebrate
the death of the queen a grand festival was
organized. It ran for the next six days and a
statue was erected in honour of Kiesha and
Stardi.
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Text I The feathertail glider is a tiny marsupial
member of the possum family. At night, in areas
of southern Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria
and South Australia this tiny animal can be seen,
gliding between trees and looking like a small
bat. The feathertail glider is a nocturnal
animal it sleeps during the day and searches for
its food after dark. Its main foods are insects
and nectar from plants. it hangs from a tree
branch by its tail, just like a possum, as it
feeds. When it is first born its little hairless
body is smaller than a 2 cent piece. it stays in
its mother's pouch until it is too large and
heavy for her to carry. At about 4 months of age
it is ready to leave the pouch. Each female
glider can produce three or four young in a year.
An adult feathertail glider is about 16
centimeters long. Half of this length is body and
the rest is tail. Flaps of skin join the front
and back legs of the glider. When it jumps from
tree to tree it spreads its legs and this
stretches the flaps of skin between its legs and
makes it look like a small kite gliding through
the air. It uses its long feathery tail as a
rudder to guide the direction of its glide. The
feathertail builds a ball-shaped nest of twigs
and leaves in hollows in the limbs of trees.
Feathertail gliders have many predators
(enemies) including cats, foxes, goannas and
people. people are perhaps the glider's main
enemy because they often destroy the trees and
bushland which are necessary to this tiny
creature's survival.
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Text J Introduction This is a report on some
of the various aspects of work involved in
constructing our wine rack. Size I think the
size of the design that was given to us was
suitable but just to make it more practical I
decided to increase the size so it would hold six
bottles and glasses. Considering the size and
value of the project, the cost was very good.
There was a reasonable amount of preparation for
the project. I had to calculate the new length of
the back, shelves and supports because of my
change in the design. I changed the plan of the
back to accomodate the fact that the thicknesser
could only take a width of 400mm. We had to make
up templates for the shaping of the sides and the
top part of the back. We had to work out the most
economical and efficient way of getting our
pieces out of the two sizes of timber which were
140 x 19 and 190 x 19 and also cost the project
and prepare a cutting list. We then had to get
our timber and work out the layout of our pieces
to avoid dead knots. Timber The timber for the
project was Radiata Pine. Description and
characteristics Radiata Pine is a non-pored
timber that is white to pale straw in colour. It
is soft and also light in weight. It is generally
straight grained with clearly marked annual
growth rings. It tends to be knotty and often
resinous. Most of the knots are good and can be
used as feature knots, but some are dead knots
which have to be avoided while working out the
layout of pieces which will affect the strength
and look of the project. It has a medium texture.
It is easily worked with both hand and power
tools and it also nails and screws without
splitting. Machining The rebating for the
glasses supports are done on two machines. The
rebates on the outside could be cut with the
planer-jointer (Buzzer) and the ones on the
inside could be cut with a series of grooving
cuts using the circular saw. The basic dressing
of the timber was done using the Radial arm saw,
Circular saw, planer-jointer and thickenesser.
The curves were cut using either a bench jigsaw
or the bandsaw. These curves were cleaned up
using the spokeshave, drum sander and the final
clean up was done by hand using sandpaper and a
cork block. To finish off the edge of the curves
I used a routered pattern. Conclusion I think
the design is excellent because I ve seen others
which have been completed and they look very good
and they work. The only thing I changed was
increasing the length so it would hold six
bottles and glasses to make it more practical.
Through this exercise Ive learnt how to use new
tools such as the planer-jointer (Buzzer),
Circular saw, dowel jig and spokeshave. I learnt
new machining processes such as rebating and
planing on the buzzer and also rebating and
ripping the circular saw. I think this was a
valuable exercise because we made something
useful and practical and also we learnt a lot of
new things involved in Furniture Construction.
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Implications?