Boomerang, curved throwing stick used chiefly by the Aboriginals of Australia for hunting and warfare. Boomerangs are also works of art, and Aboriginals often paint or carve designs on them related to legends and traditions.
Returning boomerangs were used only in eastern and western Australia as playthings, in tournament competition, and by hunters to imitate hawks for driving flocks of game birds into nets strung from trees.
The nonreturning boomerang is longer, straighter, and heavier than the returning variety. With it animals were maimed and killed, while in warfare it caused serious injuries and death. Boomerang-shaped, nonreturning weapons were used by the ancient Egyptians, by Native Americans of California and Arizona, and in southern India for killing birds, rabbits, and other animals.

chiefly - главным образом
Aboriginals - аборигены
warfare - война
hawk - ястреб
flock - стая, стадо
strung - натянутый
maimed - искалеченный


#advanced

In America pizza usually falls into two categories: thick and cheesy Chicago style or thin and more traditional New York pizza. In Italy pizza also falls into two distinct categories: Italian pizza and the rest of the world. It might seem silly considering the basic ingredients, but one taste of a true Italian pizza and that’s it.
Pizza in its most basic form as a seasoned flatbread has a long history in the Mediterranean. Several cultures including the Greeks and Phoenicians ate flatbread made from flour and water. The dough would be cooked by placing it on a hot stone and then seasoned with herbs. The Greeks called this early pizza plankuntos and it was basically used as an edible plate when eating stews or thick broth. It was not yet what we would call pizza today but it was very much like modern focaccia.

distinct - отдельный
considering - учитывая
seasoned flatbread - приправленная лепешка
Phoenicians - финикийцы
dough - тесто
herbs - травы
edible - съедобный
broth - бульон


#elementary

Autumn is one of the four Earth’s seasons, that goes after summer and foreshadows winter. This season also can be called as Fall and it is about big changes in nature and environment.
Autumn means a lot of fun and outdoors activities. It brings different colors to the people’s life – yellow, red, orange, brown and more. The temperature becomes colder, days shorter. Animals starting preparation for cold months and plants stop making food, everything in the nature slowly starting to fall asleep.
Temperatures become cooler, in some regions you should be ready even for hurricanes and Autumn season is mostly about rainfalls. But, of course, the main sign of Fall is when leaves start to change their color and everything automatically becomes more magnificent and beautiful.

foreshadow - предвещать
environment - окружающая среда
preparation - подготовка
hurricane - ураган
rainfalls - ливень
magnificent - великолепный


#elementary

Police detectives, also called criminal investigators, investigate crimes such as arson, homicide, robbery, vandalism, fraud, burglary, and assault. They interview witnesses and victims, gather evidence, prepare search and arrest warrants, question suspects, make arrests, and when necessary, testify in court.
There are specialized police detectives for every type of crime. For example, police detectives can specialize in fraud, white-collar crime, burglary, homicide, sex crimes, narcotics, vice, etc. Detective positions are either promotions or lateral transfers from within the police department, therefore a police detective is required to first work as a police officer for at least two to three years, usually in the patrol division, before applying to be a detective in a special unit.

criminal investigator - следователь по уголовным
делам
arson - поджог
homicide - убийство
fraud - мошенничество
assault - нападение
warrant - ордер
suspects - подозреваемые
testify - свидетельствовать


#advanced

While it may seem like dust materialises out of thin air, that’s not actually the case.
In most homes, household dust levels will naturally be high because of four main sources.
Those are: tracked-in dirt, human skin cells, pet dander, and fabric fibres.
Tracked-in dirt: Every time you step outside, you bring in a few particles of dirt on your shoes.
Over time, all of that tracked-in dirt can add up to a significant amount of dust in your homes air.
Human skin cells: We shed millions of skin cells every day-enough to fill an entire pillowcase over the course of a year!
Pet Dander: Pet dander is what causes additional dust in homes with animals. It’s made up of small bits of skin shed by pets with fur or feathers such as cats, dogs, rodents and birds.
Fabric fibres: Clothes, carpets, drapes, and other fabrics are made of tiny fibres that can easily become airborne.

materialise - материализоваться
dander - перхоть
shed - терять
additional - дополнительный
rodents - грызуны
drapes - портьеры


#intermediate

There’s an ancient view what makes human beings special—what distinguishes us from the “beasts of the field”—is that we are rational. We manifest our rationality by engaging in activities that involve reasoning—making claims and backing them up with reasons, acting in accord with reasons and beliefs, drawing inferences from available evidence, and so on.
This reasoning activity can be done well and it can be done badly; it can be done correctly or incorrectly. Logic is the discipline that aims to distinguish good reasoning from bad.
Good reasoning is not necessarily effective reasoning. In fact, bad reasoning is pervasive and often extremely effective—in the sense that people are often persuaded by it. In logic, the standard of goodness is not effectiveness in the sense of persuasiveness, but rather correctness according to logical rules.

distinguish - выделить
rational - рациональный, разумный
inferences - выводы
pervasive - распространяющийся
persuasiveness - убедительность


#advanced

Leprechauns are a type of fairy, though it's important to note that the fairies of Irish folklore were not cute Disneyfied pixies; they could be lustful, nasty, capricious creatures whose magic might delight you one day and kill you the next if you displeased them.
Leprechauns are often described as wizened, bearded old men dressed in green (early versions were clad in red) and wearing buckled shoes, often with a leather apron. Sometimes they wear a pointed cap or hat and may be smoking a pipe.
According to Irish legends, people lucky enough to find a leprechaun and capture him (or, in some stories, steal his magical ring, coin or amulet) can barter his freedom for his treasure. Leprechauns are usually said to be able to grant the person three wishes. But dealing with leprechauns can be a tricky proposition.

leprechaun - лепрекон (гном, эльф)
folklore - фольклор
lustful - похотливый
delight - восхищать, услаждать
wizened - сморщенный
capture - захватывать
proposition - предложение


#intermediate

If you think Halloween is a uniquely American tradition, have we got a trick for you! Dressing up in a creative costume, gallivanting around in the gathering dusk to collect the best candy from the neighbors and getting together with friends for a monster ball are all beloved traditions. But the fall holiday didn't start stateside at all. In fact, the history of Halloween dates back thousands of years to the Celtic celebration of Samhain, a hallowed festival that marked the end of the harvest season and welcomed in the new year. Samhain was also a time when the veil between the worlds of the living and the dead grew thin, so those of us with blood still running through our veins could communicate with loved ones who had passed on to the other side.

uniquely - однозначно
gallivant - бродить
dusk - сумерки, сумрак
neighbors - соседи
stateside - Штаты
date back - восходить
harvest season - сезон жатвы
veil - завеса
veins - вены


#intermediate

There are many traditions in the world. But if you can follow any tradition to its source, you will see it is only an outer manifestation or expression of an inner experience of one person or a group of people. When people try to organize and deliver that experience to more people, it becomes a system, and then becomes a tradition, and tradition sometimes turns into a religion, and sometimes into many other things.
All these things start with an inner experience before the process of either disorganized flow or organized conduct. If it is a disorganized flow, generally it gets referred to as a tradition because it is a loose organization. If it is a more organized expression, it becomes an organized religion. But essentially, if you go back, you will see all these things originated in an inner experience of an individual human being or a group of human beings.

source - источник
manifestation - проявление
inner - внутренний
organized conduct - организованное поведение
originate - происходить


#intermediate

Free public transport can rightfully claim to be the dream of every city dweller. However, in order to implement this project in the right way, it is vital to carefully consider all the details and analyze major points: whether positive aspects for the population and workers of the transport industry would overwhelm losses for the economy of the country.
The zero-fare public transport idea was first introduced in 1962 in Commerce city. The city had some social problems, and the government believed that the cancellation of fares could increase the demand for different types of public transport. This would mean that the automobile industry could lose large amounts of funding. Thus, the population would rather choose surface and underground transport, most of which were electric.

rightfully - по праву
city dweller - горожанин
implement - осуществлять
overwhelm - покрывать
cancellation - отмена
demand - требование
funding - финансирование
surface transport - наземный транспорт


#intermediate