Gawai Dayak

Gawai Day or Gawai Dayak, is a festival celebrated in Sarawak. It is both a religious and social occasion. Gawai Dayak literally means “Dayak Festival”. Dayak visit their friends and relatives on this day. Those far away receive greeting cards. The mode of celebrations varies from place to place.

The festival is celebrated on the 1st of June every year. However, it actually starts on the evening of 31st of May. Gawai Dayak celebration may last for several days.

On the evening of 31st of May, the ceremony to cast the greediness spirit away (Muai Antu Rua) is held. Then, offering ceremony (miring) is conducted. Thanking gods for the good harvest, guidance, blessings and long life is done through sacrifi cing a cockerel. At midnight spirit welcoming procession (Ngaluh Petara) is held. Then, the celebration gets merrier as people start singing and reading poems.

On the 1st of June, the homes of the Dayaks are opened to visitors. Cock-fi ghting, blowpipe skill demonstration, and ngajat competitions are held. It is also during this time of the year that many Dayak weddings take place. Today, it is an integral part of Dayak social life. It is a thanksgiving day marking good harvest and a time to plan for the new farming season or activities ahead.

Adapted from: Interlanguage: English for Senior High School Students XI             

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Elephants, Dog and Mice

 

I have never known a dog and an elephant make friends. Elephants will eventually become accus tomed to certain dogs in camps, and dogs learn not to bark at them and always to keep out of reach of the slash of a trunk or the kick of a leg. The hatred of elephants for dogs cannot easily be explained. It is possible that they are afraid of dogs biting their trunks, though I do not think such a thing ever happened. It has occurred to me that it might be an instinctive dread of hydrophobia, which is the dread of everyone who keeps a dog in camp, Burman and European Assistant alike.

Nevertheless practically every European Assistant keeps a dog and I have almost always had one myself. The elephants hate them and one is always losing one's dog, owing to leopard, tiger, bear and snakes. The tragedies of lost dogs are often an Assistant's first experience of real grief.

 It is easy to ask, why, under such conditions, do you keep a dog? But I know of no other existence where a dog is so necessary as a com panion to share every moment of one's life and to drive away loneliness.

 So far as I know, elephants don't worry about snakes, though the 'oozies' (drivers) believe that a number of elephants calves die of snake-bite. I have had this reported to me many times but in no instance could I find any proof. The Burmans believe that the hairs of an elephant's tail pull out very easily after it has been bitten by a snake. But, as this has also to be proved, I was never able to accept it as conclusive evidence that an elephant had been killed by snake-bite.

There is a widespread belief that an elephant is really terrified of a mouse. The idea makes an obvious appeal to the human love of paradox. But, if it is true, I can see no reason Elephants, Dog and Mice for it. It certainly cannot be because the elephant is afraid of the mouse getting inside his trunk, since, with one snort, he could eject it like a cork from a popgun. However, most fears are imaginary and there is no reason why elephants should be immune from such terrors.

Taken from Practice and Progress, 1994

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Octopus

          The Octopus is a sea animal with eight powerful feet which it uses as hands. These are called tentacles. The word “Octopus” comes from two greet words that mean “eight feet”. The octopus, the squid and the cuttlefish belong to the same family that has no outside shells. Their bodies are covered entirely with skin. Therefore the body of an octopus is soft. It looks like a big balloon. A fully-grown octopus can be as large as 8,5 meters from the tip of one tentacles to the tip of another. It can weigh as much as 45 kilograms.

 Besides using its tentacles to catch small fish, sea plants, crab and lobsters, the octopus also uses them against its enemies. The octopus wraps its tentacles around the victim and squeezes it before eating it.

The octopus escapes from its enemies by giving out a thick dark fluid to darken the water. It can also change the colour of its body to match its surroundings. It hides from its enemies by doing this.

Adapted From: Target UPSR Citra Pintar Bahasa Inggris

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Nusa Tenggara

Nusa Tenggara is the name for the chain of islands which lies to the east of Bali. Including the islands of Komodo, Lombok, Flores and Timor, Nusa Tenggara spans a variety of landscapes, from tropical forests, high volcanic lakes and dry savannahs. The largest islands are Lombok and Sumbawa, with hundreds of smaller islands between. East Nusa Tenggara has 566 islands. The long northern arch of the island chain is the result of volcanic activity, whilst the southern islands are formed from coral deposits. Most of the eastern islands are arid, due to hot winds blowing from the continent of Australia and sparsely vegetated. The Western half of Nusa Tenggara is moister and has denser vegetation. The Northern part of the chain is known for deep lakes contained in the craters of extinct volcanoes, the most famous of which are the coloured mineral lakes on Gunung Keli Mutu in Flores

Taken from: English in Focus Grade VIII

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Elephant

The Sumatran Elephant’s habitat in Sumatra, Indonesia. The male elephant reaches eight feet high and weighs uo to six tons. A baby elephant can weigh up to one tons. The males are always biger than the females.

An elephant has a trunk, two tusks, two eyes, two ears and two lumps on its head. It is known to be cleaver animals. When an  elephant is hot, it fans itself by flapping its ears back and forth.

Sumatran elephants have enough strength to knock down a tree. They can also pick up a log using their trunk and their tusks. Their trunk is their nose. They also use it like a hand. Just bellow their trunk, they have their tusks. Only male sumatran elephants have tusks.

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