SMALL NATION, GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS

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EXAMPLE

Slovenian people frequently make outstanding achievements.
Dry Toilet was one of Ms. Potrč’s many projects in her career.
Ms. Potrč believes art has a practical function.
Greatest Sporting Nation records results in all sports.
In 2013 and 2014 Slovenes topped the Per Capita Cup.

AUDIO SCRIPT

Slovenian people frequently make outstanding achievements, even from a global perspective. What do these people have in common? What is the secret of their success? Read these two amazing stories and you’ll come up with the answers.

In 2011, the American weekly Newsweek ranked Slovene artist and architect Marjetica Potrč (1953) third on the list of the ‘Ten Most Important Artists of Today.’ Among others, she developed a project "Dry Toilet" in collaboration with an Israeli architect, and together they have built dry toilets for Latin America slums. These are ecologically safe, waterless toilets that have been installed in a district in Caracas, Venezuela. In Newsweek, they noted that Ms. Potrč believes art can change the world and proves it so through her work. Her art talks about how the world could be a better place to live in. The work of Marjetica Potrč has been exhibited at international shows throughout Europe, North and South America, and she has had solo exhibitions in New York and London. In 2000, she won the prestigious Hugo Boss Prize, an award administered by the Guggenheim Museum and sponsored by the famous clothing company.

Greatest Sporting Nation (GSN) is a website that makes statistical measurements of how nations of the world do in all sports. Two years in a row Slovenia topped one of the main rankings, the Per Capita Cup, that measures the sporty spirit of the people or to put it differently, GSN counts how many inhabitants it takes to get one GSN point. Slovenes are plucky, hard-working, and disciplined, and all these characteristics combined led to great results in 18 different sports that earned GSN points in 2014.

WORDS TO REMEMBER

collaboration = (n.) working with someone
exhibit = (v.) publicly display
administer = (v.) to manage and be responsible for running of company or business
per capita = (adv., adj.) per each person
plucky = (adj.) showing courage even when there are difficulties