A private school in the western Indian state of Gujarat made pupils walk over burning coals and broken glass in a hair-raising test designed to boost their confidence.
Officials at the Riverdale school in the city of Surat described the challenges set at a summer camp as “important exercises that will make a child strong and determined.”
“We asked the students to walk with naked feet on fire and on broken glass pieces as it teaches them to deal with their fear and find new ways to overcome it,” Kalpesh Patel, a school administrator, told AFP.
Patel said 80 children aged nine to 14 walked on the hot coals, while 110 students walked over glass pieces. He said no one suffered any injuries.
Television footage of the event was picked up by Indian news channels.
“The children were reluctant in the beginning but afterwards they exuded confidence,” Patel said, adding that the school had been running the activities for more than a decade.
Fire-walking has existed as a religious ritual in many cultures for thousands of years. It has also gained some popularity in the US as a team-building exercise and alternative health remedy.
(AFP)
為了增加學童信心,印度西部古加拉特省一所私立小學,舉行了一場令人毛骨悚然的測驗,要學童赤腳走過火紅木炭與碎玻璃。
蘇拉特市里弗代爾小學人員表示,這項夏令營活動「是讓孩童變強壯,培養堅忍毅力的挑戰」。
校方行政人員卡爾貝希•巴戴爾跟法新社表示:「我們要求學生赤腳走在火苗與碎玻璃上,因為這讓他們學習面對恐懼,並找出克服它的方法。」
巴戴爾說,八十名九到十四歲的孩童走上火紅木炭,而走過碎玻璃的有一百一十位,但沒有任何人受傷。
印度多家電視新聞台紛紛報導這個活動。
巴戴爾說:「孩子們一開始很排斥,但後來卻表現的很有信心。」他還說,學校舉辦這個活動已經超過十年。
這種過火宗教儀式在在許多文化中已流傳數千年。在美國則因做為團隊合作訓練與另類健康療法而小有名氣。
(法新社╱翻譯:吳岱璟)
The strongest earthquake to hit Taiwan in 25 years killed at least 16 people and damaged dozens of buildings, but the destruction was largely contained thanks to decades of preparedness work. Taiwan sits on the “Ring of Fire,” an arc of intense seismic activity along the Pacific Rim, and — much like neighboring Japan — has a long history of catastrophic quakes. How does April 3 compare with other recent quakes? The April 3 earthquake, which measured 7.4 on the moment magnitude scale, was felt across Taiwan. It was the most severe since a 7.6 magnitude quake in 1999 killed
Around the time of the Dragon Boat Festival in June, the streets of Taiwan are filled with the delightful aroma of zongzi, a traditional snack made of sticky rice wrapped in leaves. The leaves are folded into a cone and then filled with sticky rice and other ingredients such as braised pork belly, peanuts and salted duck egg yolks. The filled leaves are then tightly tied with kitchen twine and ready for cooking. 每到六月端午時節,街頭巷尾就會飄出粽子的香氣。粽子是將糯米包進粽葉的傳統美食,先將粽葉折成圓錐狀塞入糯米,以及紅燒肉、花生、鹹鴨蛋黃等配料,用棉線綁緊後即可烹煮。 Dragon Boat Festival (n. phr.) 端午節 aroma
Everyone has seen a piece of fruit turn brown after being cut. Have you ever wondered why that happens? It is a common phenomenon that occurs due to a chemical reaction called enzymatic browning. The appearance, flavor and nutritional value of the fruit are all affected by this reaction. Some fruits, such as apples, pears, bananas, avocados and peaches, are more prone to enzymatic browning than others. These fruits contain high levels of an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase, or PPO for short. __1__ This causes a chain of chemical reactions that ultimately transforms the phenolic compounds into
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