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The alarm that will get ANYONE out of bed: £35 clock features a screaming noise, flashing lights and a vibrating pillow pad
It might look like a normal innocuous alarm clock. But this device can wake up the heaviest of sleepers as it has an alarm that is as loud as someone shouting in your ear. The alarm clock also features flashing lights and a vibrating pillow pad – just in case a person is locked into a particularly captivating dream.
Wake up call: The Amplicomms TCL300 alarm clock (pictured) emits sound up to 80 Decibels - which is as loud as a train or someone shouting and also has a vibrating pillow pad to make sure people get to work in time
.The Amplicomms TCL300 alarm clock emits sound up to 80 Decibels – which is as loud as a train or someone shouting – although there is a volume button if you want to tone it down a little.
Hearing Direct, which is based in Hampshire and sells the clock, said: ‘Once you've decided what time to you want to wake up, simply set the alarm, place one of the most powerful vibrating pillow pads under your pillow and drift off, knowing you will not be sleeping through this alarm clock!’
There are three different alarm modes so that a person isn’t woken up early for work when they want to lie in at the weekend. The practical design features a large eight inch digital display and measures 20cm by 11cm by 7.5cm, weighing in at 325g.
The vibrating pillow pad, which measures nine centimetres in diameter, can be set so that it either buzzes repeatedly or continuously. It was originally designed as an extra loud product for people with significant hearing loss to stop them from worrying about sleeping through an alarm for work.
The alarm clock costs £34.99 from Hearing Direct and is expected to be distributed for the first time in two weeks, while it can be ordered now. It will be able to be shipped to the U.S.
1.List 4 things you learn about the alarm clock.
2.What impressions does the writer give you about this product? (3 PEE)
Staying within the Walt Disney World Resort area is more affordable than it's ever been.
It’s the most magical holiday destination in the world. The Walt Disney World Resort is the place where worries and cares disappear, fantasy and fun reign supreme and dreams coming true are the everyday.
Four Disney Theme Parks, two Disney Water Parks, over 20 themed Resort Hotels, two entertainment districts, and a state of-the-art sports complex immerse you in a world filled with exhilarating excitement, fantastic thrills and wonder. Add in countless opportunities for dining, shopping, relaxation and refreshing recreation, plus a huge range of activities from golf to relaxing spas, and it’s easy to see how this holiday of a lifetime has something for everyone.
You can also include the imaginative range of great value Disney Resort Hotels and you really will enjoy a holiday that’s unique. The choices are amazing; the fun enormous and the memories will last a lifetime. You can now access all that Walt Disney World Resort has to offer exactly how and when you please, with the fantastic Disney’s Ultimate Tickets. Do Disney your way with complete customised freedom for 14 or 21 days.
Whatever your holiday dreams, you can be sure they’ll come true at Walt Disney World Resort. There’s no other place on the planet that provides such a magical escape from everyday life. Here, everyone in the family can live the magic of Disney and share unbelievable experiences that only Disney could invent.
Staying at the Heart of the Magic
A Walt Disney World Resort Hotel offers the ultimate in rest and relaxation. You’ll just love the luxury of being able to pop back to the Hotel to enjoy a midday dip in the pool. Whatever you desire, there’s a Disney Resort Hotel to suit – all offering the legendary service, quality and attention to detail for which Disney is so famous.
Extra benefits
You can charge almost everything in the Disney Resort Hotels and Parks to your room so there’s no need to carry much cash. When you shop in the Disney Parks, as a Disney Resort Hotel guest don’t worry about having to carry it around - it can be delivered back to your hotel at no extra charge.
1.List four impressions the writer gives you of the resort.
2.How does the writer make the holiday sound appealing? (3 PEEs)
Food bank Brits are not scroungers
Carole Malone finds that people regard the shame of using a food bank as worse than going hungry
I spoke to people this week who’ve been forced to use food banks and asked them what was worse – the hunger or the shame.
They all said the shame. Because while hunger eats at your belly, shame eats at your soul and your self worth until there’s nothing left of the person you once were.
And that’s exactly what’s happening to the 500,000 Brits now reliant on food banks. For these people life is no longer about happiness or job satisfaction. It’s simply about surviving.
Which is why we have to get rid of the perception that the people using food banks are scroungers. They aren’t. Most are actually in work but don’t have enough money to pay their bills AND feed their families.
The rest are desperate men and women whose lives and circumstances changed in an instant leaving them destitute.
There will be 60,000 people – 20,000 of them children – who won’t have enough food this Christmas. And while I know many of you won’t have a spare penny, please give what you can to the Trussell Trust which runs 400 of these centres.
Because who knows when any of us might need them?
1.What is Carole Malone’s opinion on food banks?
2.What does she think needs to change?
3.How does Carole Malone make her argument persuasive? (3 PEE)
Ricky Gervais (comedian) talks to The Independent newspaper about his relationship with co-star Karl Pilkington.
Being friends with Karl has been a nice experiment; he's a cross between my best mate, a lab chimp and a pupil. Steve [Merchant] and I had left XFM to do The Office and returned in 2002 to this tiny little radio station –where Karl worked – as conqueringheroes.
I liked him instantly, as he wasn't impressed by who I was. I think the first words I said to him were, "Why have you got a round head?" and he replied, "What shape's a head meant to be?"I laughed straight away, as he didn't go, "How insulting!" So I asked if I could hit it with my phone and he said, "OK," and afterwards he asked, "Did it make a normal noise?" As humans, we use humour to see if someone's on our wavelength and I felt Karl was the funniest man I'd ever met.
Karl will do anything for you. When I got stressed with moving out, he helped me move offices – though he moaned all the way. Now I call him every day; he's the first person I call in the morning.
I like the way he sees the world differently. We might be listening to the radio about the Nativity and the Three Wise Men bringing presents for the baby Jesus, and all Karl could say would be, "Were those presents for Christmas or his birthday?" He's not trying to be funny, he just thinks stuff and says it out loud. When I write, I'm consciously trying to be funny, constructing a punchline, but Karl does it in conversation.
1.How did Gervais and Pilkington meet?
2.What are Ricky Gervais’thoughts and feelings on Karl Pilkington? (3 PEEs)
The idiot philosopher
Some people think Karl Pilkington is a genius - others think he's an idiot. his friend Ricky Gervais, whose new book records their ludicrous conversations, says he's the funniest man in Britain. Nigel Farndale tries to get inside his head
What do we know of Karl Pilkington? I mean, what do we really know? He is 33. He grew up on a council estate in Manchester. For two-and-a-half years he produced The Ricky Gervais Show on Xfm, gradually becoming a part of it - the star, some might say - as he joined in with his eccentric, deadpan and often idiotic musings.
Gervais, indeed, regularly dismissed him as 'an idiot'. But there was also, sometimes, something oddly philosophical and wise about his observations. A cult following grew. When the show was released as a podcast last year it entered the Guinness Book of Records for the most downloads: five million in a month. Karl Pilkington fan sites began appearing on the web; Karl Pilkington T-shirts and badges became fashionable.
There is now even a book: Ricky Gervais Presents:The World of Karl Pilkington (published September 18). When it was announced six months ago it went straight to number one in the Amazon pre-orders, and has stayed there ever since. He has illustrated it himself - he is a gifted cartoonist. The cover shows him sitting guru-like, in the lotus position.
He is, then, a phenomenon - an unlikely one, but a phenomenon all the same. Beyond that? Well, there is a theory that Karl Pilkington is not a real person at all, but an actor portraying the role of a scripted comic character created by Ricky Gervais and his co-writer Stephen Merchant. He is, in other words, too good - too funny - to be true.
1.What is the writer’s opinion on Pilkington?
2.Compare how Karl Pilkington is presented in this article and the one on page 4. You should look at:
•What he has been successful in.
•How he is described by others.
About US
Comic Relief is a major charity based in the UK, with a vision of a just world, free from poverty. We work tirelessly all year round to help make our vision a reality. And in the years since we started out in 1985, with the support of some remarkable people, we’ve achieved amazing things and raised over £900 million.
Comic Relief has been able to create real, lasting change to the lives of individuals, communities and the issues we strive to tackle.
None of this would have been possible without the amazing support of the public, our partners and so many of our celebrity friends who’ve helped us along the way.
There is, of course, still so much more to be done, but for an idea of just what we’ve managed to achieve together, watch this video and take in a few of the statistics that we’re particularly proud of.
EDUCATION
We will have helped over 1 million children in Africa and the world’s poorest countries to get an education. Between 1999-2008, the number of children attending school in sub-Saharan Africa increased by 46.5 million. Literacy for adults in Uganda increased to 73% by 2010.
HIV
We will have helped 3 million people affected by HIV in Africa.The number of new infections of HIV in Africa dropped by 21% between 1997 and 2010.
MALARIA
We will have helped to protect over 6 million people from Malaria in Africa. Since 2000, the number of people dying from malaria across Africa has fallen by a third. In 2009 we distributed 600,000 mosquito nets to 234,591 households in mid-western regions of Uganda
1.How does the writer create a sense of community? (1 PEE)
2.How does the writer make the charity sound successful? (3PEEs)
About the Poppy Appeal
Each year the nation expresses its unequivocal support for The Royal British Legion's work through the Poppy Appeal.
The Appeal is the Legion's biggest fundraising campaign and was launched nationally on Thursday 24 October with a concert for Service personnel and their families.
This year, the Legion is focusing on the range of work it does to support Armed Forces families, whether they are families of personnel on active service, of those currently in transition from military to civilian life, or of veterans.
Every poppy helps us to support the British Armed Forces past and present, and their families. Please give generously and wear your poppy with pride.
Lance Corporal Cassidy Little
Royal Marine Cassidy Little30-year old Royal Marine Cassidy was seriously injured by an IED while serving in Afghanistan in May 2011, losing his lower right limb in the incident.
Cassidy participated in the Bravo 22 Company theatre project run jointly by the Legion and The Theatre Royal Haymarket Masterclass Trust. Cassidy played the lead role in the 'Two Worlds of Charlie F', an original play created through the project. It was shown on the West End stage and a subsequent UK tour to wide acclaim.
During his time at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre (DMRC), Headley Court, Cassidy benefited from a cinema and entertainment centre built by MediCinema and funded by The Royal British Legion. Cassidy features in the Poppy Appeal 2013 poster campaign.
Kaitlin
Kaitlin Brandon Kaitin's Dad, L/Cpl Richard Brandon of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), was killed in an IED blast in Afghanistan in September 2009.
In the months following Richard's death, the Legion provided support and financial advice Kaitlin's mum Emma. She said the help she received was invaluable.
“My mind was all over the place after losing Richard and the Legion helped me to cover all the bases. I have been given a lot of guidance through the Legion's services and it has helped me access the support I am entitled to.”
1. List 3 facts about The British Legion.
2. Compare how this text and the text on page 6 persuade the reader to support the charity. You should look at:
The similarities in how they persuade.
The differences in how they persuade.
This is taken from the introduction of Michael Palin’s book on his travels around the world.
WELCOME TO AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
I’m still very fond of this trip. It started the ball rolling. I can’t quite believe that three people had already turned it down before me. When the BBC asked if I wanted to go round the world, all expenses paid, there seemed only one answer.
Not until dawn on the day of departure did a full-blown, gut-tightening panic set in. I had volunteered to deliver six fifty-minute documentaries, (having only done one in my life before), against the clock, with absolutely no script at all, on a route that might change without warning. Nothing like it had been attempted before.
The panic lasted well over six minutes, but once on the Orient Express, waving farewell to friends and family didn’t feel so bad, and from then on, it was an eye-opening experience. Highlights for me included the passage through the Corinth canal, the week on the dhow, my first visit to China and a stunningly beautiful rail crossing of America. And, of course making it home with only half a day to spare.
Perhaps the greatest satisfaction of all was that we brought home so much usable material that the BBC gave us seven shows instead of six, and the seventh pulled in an audience of over 12 million.
Michael Palin, 25th September 2002.
1. How do you know that this trip was the first of many?
2.What were Palin’s thoughts and feelings about the trip? (3 PEEs)
In an exclusive extract from her new autobiography Jessica Ennis describes how she beat the bullies – and ended up meeting David Beckham
She went into London 2012 under immense pressure as the face of the games – and emerged as its golden girl. Now Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis has revealed how a small Sheffield lass fought her way to become a sporting giant.
I am Jessica Ennis. I have been called many things, from tadpole to poster girl, but I have had to fight to make that progression. I smile and am polite and so people think it comes easily, but it doesn’t.
I am not one of those athletes who slap their thighs and snarl before a competition, but there is a competitive animal inside, waiting to get out and fight for survival and recognition.
Cover shoots and billboards are nice, but they are nothing without the work and I have left blood, sweat and tears on tracks all over the world. It is an age where young people are fed ideas of quick-fix fame and instant celebrity, but the tears mean more if the journey is hard.
So I don’t cry crocodile tears; I cry the real stuff.
In 1993 my parents sent me to Sharrow Junior School. In terms of academic results it was not the best, but Mum was keen for me to go somewhere that had a rich mix of races and cultures.
I was the smallest in the class and I became more self-conscious about it as the years went by.
Swimming was a particular ordeal, and in my mind now, I can still see this young, timid wisp standing by the side of a pool in her red swimming costume quaking with anxiety.
I was small and scraggy and that was when the bullying started. There were two girls who were really nasty to me. They did not hit me, but bullying can take on many forms and the abuse and name-calling hurt.