1. die Ferien, pl is synonymous with der Urlaub, both mean 'vacation','holidays'

2. die Abwechslung, -en, (compare with Geld wechseln – to exchange money) means 'variety', 'something new'

3. der Alltag – everyday life

4. das Ferne, das Fremde, das Neue are all examples of adjectival nouns. They have the same endings as adjectives.

5. ganz zu schweigen von is an idiomatic expression and means 'not to mention'. The verb schweigen means 'to not say anything','to remain silent'

6. der Strand, -"e – even if this is a new word you should be able to work it out from the context: das Meer, der Sand...... der Strand is 'the beach'.

7. künstlich means 'artificial', 'man made'. Don’t confuse it with künstlerisch –'artistic'

8. dürfte is the subjunctive of dürfen. The subjunctive with modal verbs often expresses probability. Good ways of translating this are: 'may well', 'ought to', 'really should'. In the context here, the sentence is negative (dürfte..kaum), kaum means 'hardly', 'scarcely'.

9. stören - 'to disturb', 'to hinder'

10. man muss nicht – remember, muss nicht does not mean 'must not' but 'not have to', 'not need to'.

11. der Hai, -e means 'shark' – here you would have had to guess: something unpleasant or dangerous when swimming in a coral reef.

12. erhalten –here: 'to preserve', 'to keep'. erhalten also means 'to receive'.

13. das All means 'space', 'outer space'. Also: der Weltraum, das Weltall. Connected words die Raumfahrt – space travel, das Raumschiff – space ship