Marquesini's Podcast Mariella Marquesini

Ecuador is situated on the equator in the northwest of South America. It is made up of a coastal plain in the west and a tropical rain forest in the east. These two areas are separated by the Andes mountains in the center of the country.

The economy is based on oil and agricultural products.
More oil is produced in Ecuador than any other South American country except Venezuela. Bananas, coffee, and cocoa are grown there. Many of these products are exported. Hardwood is also produced and exported.

Many people in Ecuador are of Incan origin.
Several native languages are spoken there, such as Quechua.
Spanish is spoken in Ecuador, too?

Vocabulary

-Hardwood:
strong, heavy wood or the tree it comes from.

-Quechua:

1. a member of the South American people of Peru and parts of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador.
2. the language or group of languages of the Quechua.
3. adjective relating to the Quechua or their language.

Song Youzohou is a businessman.
He and his company designed the Straddling Bus to solve the traffic problems in China and in large cities around the world.
The Straddling Bus looks like a monorail and a very tall truck put together.
It is 6 meters (about 20 feet) wide and it stands over 4 meters (13 feet) high. The Straddling Bus rides
on rails that straddle (are outside of) the traffic lanes. It is high enough for cars and small trucks to pass underneath it.
These buses can carry more passengers than ordinary buses. They use a combination of electricity and solar power.
And they can travel above the regular road traffic from 40 to 80 kilometers per hour (25 to 50 miles per hour).
According to a company spokesperson, these buses are much less expensive to build than a subway line or a train line.
The construction time also two-thirds faster.
The Straddling Bus is an environmentally friendly and energy-efficient invention of the twenty-first century.
Wouldn't it be fun to ride one?

Interchange Assessment Material 2 Cambridge University Press 2017.

Body language is a form of non-verbal communication used between animals and humans and consists of postures, gestures, facial expressions, and eye movements. Body language can tell us about the attitude or state of mind of a person. For example, it may indicate anger, depression, pleasure, confidence or nervousness. Learning about body language is helpful in relationships, business, in family settings and parenting. Although it is non-verbal, it can reveal a lot about your feelings and meaning to others and also how others reveal their feelings toward you.

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