Summary 1

Child car seats

It’s in your hands

The article says that child seats in cars save lives. In the UAE, traffic injuries cause most childhood fatalities but they are preventable. The shocking statistics, from Health Authority - Abu Dhabi (HAAD), are that 98% of children here do not travel in child safety seats. 23% of children travel frequently and illegally in the front seat, 96% of them unrestrained. In 46% of all countries the use of child safety restraints is mandatory by national law but, among GCC countries, only in Saudi Arabia.

83% of belted and restrained children remain uninjured in accidents. So Chevrolet, a division of General Motors, is launching in initiative to raise awareness of infant car safety across the UAE. Chevrolet is working with HAAD, Dubai Health Authority, Sharjah Medical District and the child injury prevention agency Safe Kids Worldwide, to train maternity nurses in car safety across three hospitals in the UAE. It will also donate 1,500 premium Maxi-Cosi child car seats to parents of new-born babies. The basic idea is that if parents take home their babies strapped in a child seat they are more likely to continue to strap them in throughout childhood. The article concludes with advice on which car seat best suits the size and age of your child.

Thekkepat, Shiva Kumar. "It’s in Your Hands." Gulf News Friday Magazine 25 Feb. 2011: 14-19

205 words.

Narrative essay

A Journey from Brunei to Sarawak

Thirty years ago, Hedley, with his wife Mary and daughter Katie,
visited the Niah Caves in Sarawak, East Malaysia. They travelled
by car , large ferry , and small boat .

They set off from Bandar Seri Begawan, the capital of Brunei and
drove to the border with Sarawak. They crossed two large rivers by
ferry, stopped in Miri for lunch and then continued to Niah,
a small rivertownship. Then they hired a small boat and sailed
upriver to agovernment rest house, where they stayed the night.
They ate dinner with the small group of scientists who lived in the
rest house and shared the cold drinks they had brought with them
in a cool box. It was a remotespot, deep in the jungle. They slept in
bunk beds with no airconditioning. It was a novel experience.

The next morning, they walked along a jungle path for half an hour
until they reached the Niah caves. Inside the caves, which were very
high, they saw men who climbed up tall bamboo poles. The men had
lights on their hats because it was so dark. At the top of the poles they
scraped off birds’ nests from the roof of the caves. The nests were
collected by their mates on the cave floor and put into sacks. These
nests were later sold and made into bird’s nest soup, a Chinese delicacy.

That afternoon, they said goodbye to their new-found friends
in the rest house and departed on the long drive home.
It was quite an adventure and one they would never forget.


266 words