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IT'S AS EASY AS APP

What are the basic skills that ___ child starting school should learn? For many centuries the obvious answer was: reading, writing and arithmetic. Quite recently computer classes (ICT) have been made an obligatory part of national curriculums to teach students how to use basic programmes.

These days, ___, more and more countries are starting to realise to succeed in the 21st century pupils should be able to create their own software.

In fact, some schools in the UK are planning to get rid of ICT lessons and replace them ___ programming classes that would involve building websites, designing games and mobile phone apps. They hope that today's generation of children, who are already familiar with using smartphones and practically living in the world of social media, will soon become the designers of the future.

Education athorities have no problem convincing students' parents that ____ skills are important.

A recent survey shows that 94% of them believe that computer skills are ___ for the job market. Examples of British teenagers who have managed to sell their apps to big corporations also help make the decisionn easy. After all, who wouldn't want their child to become a millionaire?

THE ZEBRA MYSTERY

For many years scientists have wondered _________ zebras have black and white stripes. Some believe that the stripes create an optical illusion which hides a zebra's movements and in this way protect it from being attacked. When lions see a group of zebras, the stripes make it difficult for them to assess the zebras' size and speed.

However, one study has found that lions are ractically good ___ catching zebras.

There have been other popular theories too. One claims that each zebra has a unique pattern of stripes so____ one individual can recognise another. There is also a theory that suggests that the stripes help zebras with thermoregulation and protect them from the strong African sun.

A team of US researchers has _____ found evidence that the zebra got its stripes for different reasons.

The zebra's short hair makes it easy for dangerous African flies to bite and infect it harder with different __________. It seems that flies find it harder to land on stripes and during the evolution zebras have developed a perfect way to keep the flies away.The stripes are narrow on the lower legs and on the head, the areas which attract flies the most.