PRACTICE READINGS

READING #1
Niagara Falls Was Once Just a Trickle
Posted September 15, 2009

By Sid Perkins, Science News
The thundering roar at the base of Niagara Falls is awesome indeed. On an average summer day, about 40 million gallons of water spill over the half-mile–wide Canadian portion of the cataract each minute. After falling over a cliff taller than a 16-story building, water pummels the rocks below, incessantly eroding the base of the cliff and triggering rockfalls. Before the 20th century, when engineers weakened the Niagara River by diverting some of its flow to produce hydroelectric power, the falls marched upstream an average of more than a meter per year.
Niagara Falls is one of the last links in an impressive chain: Water flows from Lake Superior and Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, onward to Lake Erie, then down the Niagara River and over the falls to Lake Ontario and thence to the sea. Today the falls seem unstoppable, but scientists have learned that there was a time after the most recent ice age when Niagara Falls was a mere trickle and the Great Lakes were a little less great.

DESCRIBE THE TONE OF THIS PASSAGE.

READING #2

Controversial plan for solar thermal power facility in Mojave Desert dropped
September 17, 2009 1:46 pm Latimes.com
BrightSource Energy Inc. today said it has scrapped a controversial plan to build a major solar thermal power facility in eastern Mojave Desert wilderness that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.) wants to transform into a national monument.
The announcement ended a long-running dispute between backers of renewable energy and environmentalists strongly opposed to the idea of creating an industrial zone within 600,000 acres of former railroad lands that had been donated to the Department of Interior for conservation.
The acrimony even triggered a nasty public squabble between Robert Kennedy Jr., a senior advisor at VantagePoint Venture Partners, which raised $160 million for BrightSource, and David Myers, executive director of the Wildlands Conservancy, which raised $40 million to buy the railroad lands and protect them from development.

LOOK UP THE WORD ACRIMONY.



READING #3

Polish PM wouldn't take U.S. calls
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed today that he declined last night to take a call from the U.S. informing him of the decision to scrap planned missile-defense bases in his country.
Two U.S.-based sources close to the Polish government said Thursday that Tusk also rejected a call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton — on the grounds that, as the head of the government, he should speak to the president.
"Hillary called — and the reason he turned it down was because of protocol," said a source.
Questions about the exchanges surfaced in the Polish press after Obama reached the Czech prime minister late last night to warn of the policy change, but did not speak to the Pole until this morning. And the static offers a glimpse at the distress beneath the diplomatic facade being offered by Eastern European leaders.
Polish Radio reports today that Tusk confirmed an earlier press report that he hadn't taken Obama's call but denied it was due to "technical difficulties."

Tusk said he declined to speak with President Obama during the night because he wanted to “properly prepare for the discussion."

A Polish Embassy spokesman noted that Tusk ultimately spoke to Obama, while Clinton spoke to the country's foreign minister.
A State Department spokesman didn't respond to an email seeking comment on the episode.
The Polish preparation may have paid off however: They are reportedly angling for an American commitment of Patriot missile systems based in Poland, which Poles see, like the larger missile-defense bases, as a partial guarantee against Russian agression (despite American denials that the defenses are aimed at Russia).
"I would not describe what is going on today as a defeat for Poland," Tusk told reporters in Warsaw, according to the AP, saying Obama had signaled that "Poland has a chance to win an exclusive position" in the new system.


WHAT IS THE MAIN IDEA OF THIS PASSAGE?


READING #4
Economic Recovery: Are We Already On Our Way?

By Heather Horn on April 09, 2010
Is everyone being unduly pessimistic about the economy?The New York Times' Floyd Norris thinks so. Examining the indicators, he says the U.S. economy is showing the same signs it did when on the rebound from the past two recessions. So why do politicians still sound so downcast about the economy? The only explanations he can think of are that economists "embarrassed by missing impending disaster," are "[hesitant] to appear foolishly optimistic again," while at the same time, both political parties stand to profit from negativity:

Republicans are loath to give President Obama credit for anything, and no doubt grate when he points to his administration's stimulus program as a cause of the good economic news, as he did in North Carolina.

Democrats would love to give the president credit. But much of the Democratic Party wants another stimulus bill to be passed, notwithstanding worries about budget deficits. Chances for that are not enhanced by the perception the economy is getting better.


So is Norris right about the economy? A few agree that politics does play a role in lingering pessimism, but there are many who disagree as well.

•Partly Right, But Proceed with Caution "He's right that the American economy has almost certainly exited recession," says Ryan Avent at The Economist. But he's "silly in chiding Barack Obama for being cautious about declaring as much, given the state of the labour market." Furthermore, "now is no time to declare victory and take a vacation." He graphs employment with population growth in mind to point out just how miniscule Norris's 0.8% increase in employment actually is.
•Seconded: What About Jobs? The New Republic's Jonathan Chait also objects to Norris's arguments when it comes to employment. Norris, writes Chait, assumes that "the recovery will bring a relatively quick resurgence in jobs." But that's not what actually happened in the last two recoveries.
•Jobs Indeed The Atlantic's Dan Indiviglio argues that, between "the structural changes in the economy and depths of underemployment," the "steep recovery" in employment Norris is counting on seems unlikely.
•Fair Enough Finance blogger and quantitative research expert Barry Ritholtz ultimately shares Norris's optimism, although he expects a downswing--"a 20-30% correction"--from current highs. "The danger for both bulls and bears is bringing their bias to the table, and missing the risk or the opportunity of the moment."
•Darn Right I'm Pessimistic On Yahoo! Finance's Tech Ticker, Howard Davidowitz delivers a memorable Cassandra monologue, whose "bottom line,"after going through the indicators, is this:

We're headed to financial instability; our credit rating will be under siege; the dollar will be headed not to be the world's reserve currency in five to six years. We're weaker than we've ever been. We look more and more like Zimbabwe than we did before, and I see nothing on the horizon to fix it.

READING #5
China reports first trade deficit in six years
(CNN) -- China recorded a $7.24 billion trade deficit in March, the General Administration of Customs announced Saturday, according to state media Xinhua News Agency.

It was the country's first monthly trade deficit since April 2004, Xinhua reported.

China exported $112.11 billion worth of goods and services in the month of March -- an increase of 24.3 percent year on year, and imports rose 66 percent year on year to $119.35 billion, Xinhua reported.

In March, imports and exports increased by 42.8 percent year on year to $231.46 billion, according to the customs statistics.

Combining the first three months, China still recorded a trade surplus of $14.49 billion in the first quarter, a fall of 76.7 percent from the same period of last year, Xinhua reported.

In the first quarter, China's imports and exports totaled $617.85 billion -- a rise of 44.1 percent year on year, Xinhua reported.

READING #5
Medical dart missing after attempt to euthanize whale
By Meg Miller, CNN
(CNN) -- Police were searching for a wildlife medical dart off the coast of New York on Friday after an unsuccessful attempt to euthanize a beached baby humpback whale Thursday night, according to East Hampton Village Police Chief Jerry Larsen.
The dart bounced off the whale and ricocheted into the Atlantic Ocean.
Larsen said Friday afternoon that the dart is encased in stainless steel but that it could pose a serious danger to swimmers in the months ahead.
"We're sending divers ... to retrieve the needle as soon as the surf dies down," Larsen said. Police also closed the area of beach, saying the dart might wash ashore.
The whale was found on Main Beach in East Hampton on Tuesday and was deemed too sick to save, according to Charles Bowman, president of the Long Island-based Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.
"The whale was debilitated," Bowman said. "It was a thin and a young juvenile still dependent on its mother and couldn't survive on its own."
By Friday, the whale was unable to free itself from the beach, and Bowman's foundation advised the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that it was appropriate to euthanize the whale.
"It's heartbreaking for us. We're used to saving animals, getting them back in the ocean," Bowman said. "It's just one of these situations that there's just no chance for it, [and we are] trying to get people to recognize that."
A NOAA official shot and killed the whale Friday morning.