Tag: grade 8

News Politics

Canada’s Troops Coming Home From Afghanistan

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Since 2005, Canadian troops have been fighting in Afghanistan against terrorists.

Now, Canadian soldiers are ending their mission in Afghanistan.

Troops will start coming home in July, with some staying on for another three years or so—not to fight, but to train the army and police in Afghanistan so they can take care of their own people.

Canadian soldiers were first sent to Afghanistan in 2001. Their duties were not to fight.

They were to make sure Canada would be safe from terrorists, to show Canadian leadership around the world, and to help Afghanistan rebuild.

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Kids Lighter

If You’re Inviting People On Facebook… Click “Private”

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When Thessa’s birthday was coming up, she decided to throw a party. After all, it wasn’t every day a girl turned 16!

So, as many kids do these days, Thessa posted an invitation to her party on Facebook. She wanted all of her friends to come.

But she made a big mistake. She forgot to set her Facebook invitation to “Friends Only.”

More and more people saw the invitation and signed up to come to the party.

They sent it to their friends and told more people about it… and before long, more than 15,000 people had confirmed on Facebook that they were coming to the party.

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Health

E. Coli Outbreak In Europe; 2,200 People Ill

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There has been a serious outbreak of E. coli in Europe.

At least 2,200 people have gotten sick or shown symptoms and 22 people in Germany have died.

E. coli is short for Escherichia coli. It is a type of bacteria normally found in the body.

Most kinds (or “strains”) of E. coli are harmless and even help the body.

The strains included in the outbreak, however, are a harmful kind, causing food poisoning.

Food poisoning from E. coli usually happens when people eat unwashed vegetables or undercooked meat.

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News Politics Technology

Prime Minister Didn’t Choke On Hash Browns – Or Anything

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Prime Minister Stephen Harper was the victim of a practical joke, or “hoax,” on Tuesday.

Someone broke into the website of the Conservative party. (Harper is the leader of the Conservatives.) They posted a fake article about him.

The article said Harper had been rushed to hospital after he had choked on some hash browns at breakfast.

It said that his wife, Laureen, called 911 because the Prime Minister couldn’t breathe and that he was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Toronto.

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Kids

Nine-Year-Old Kids Pass University Math Exam

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If you took a university math exam, how do you think you’d do?

Paula and Peter Imafidon are nine-year-old twins. They live in England, and last year they became the youngest people to ever pass Cambridge University’s advanced mathematics exam.

A reporter asked them how hard they had to work in order to pass the exam. Paula said she treats math like a game, so it’s not really “work” to her.

Peter said the exam had some questions that “may seem difficult but are very easy once you get in the swing of it.” Of course, Peter is speaking as someone to whom math comes very easy—the questions are very tough, especially for kids their age.

The family’s other children, Anne-Marie, Christiana and Samantha are also exceptionally good at math.

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Arts

Jane Austen Manuscript Goes Up For Auction

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Jane Austen wrote some very famous novels in the early 1800s. Pride and Prejudice is perhaps her best-known book.

Although she published just six novels, she has millions of fans all over the world. They adore her novels about romance and society.

An extremely rare manuscript of an unfinished novel, written in Jane Austen’s own handwriting, is going to be sold in England.

There are 68 pages, part of a novel called The Watsons. Jane Austen never finished it, possibly because her father died. She wrote the pages in 1804, when she was 29 years old.

Austen’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility, was not published until 1811.

The Watsons pages are written in her neat and tiny handwriting with many edits in the margins. The manuscript was divided by Austen into 11 booklets.

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Science

The Vesta Asteroid… Er, Planet… Er, Object?

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When you want to know more about something, you check it out, right? That’s exactly what scientists at NASA are doing.

They want to know more about an object in space they call Vesta. Is it an asteroid? A planet? What exactly is it?

Two months ago, they launched the Dawn spacecraft. Its job is to orbit and observe Vesta.

Vesta is officially listed by NASA as a “minor planet,” which means that it is an object orbiting around the sun.

But Vesta isn’t really a planet at all. It’s simply an object in space.

It has also been called an asteroid, a dwarf planet (a tiny planet), and a protoplanet, which is an object that started the same way as other planets, like Venus and Mercury, but never fully developed.

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Sports

Winnipeg Celebrates As Hockey Team Comes Home Again

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Winnipeg will have an NHL hockey team again.

It hasn’t had its own team since 1996, when the Winnipeg Jets left town to become the Pheonix Coyotes. People in Winnipeg are celebrating.

This week, the NHL (National Hockey League) said they had reached a deal to move the Atlanta Thrashers to Winnipeg. The team will play next season.

The announcement was made at the MTS Centre in Winnipeg. (Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba.) As soon as it was made, thousands of people clapped and cheered. They also started singing “The Hockey Song,” a song made famous by Canadian singer Stompin’ Tom Connors. The song is a kind of “Canadian anthem” for hockey fans.

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News

Catholic School Board Could Turn Libraries Into “Tech Zones”

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Last month the Catholic School Board in Windsor, Ont., decided to eliminate all of its libraries and librarians.

Paul Picard, the director of the school board, recently changed this decision, saying the libraries just need to be “retooled.”

They wanted to get rid of the libraries to save money, since the school board in Windsor was hit hard by the recession.

The goal was to make libraries less book-centered, instead putting the books into classrooms throughout the school and making the library a tech-zone. The library would become a ‘learning commons area’ and would not need to be a quiet place for reading. The libraries would be a place for research and digital literacy.

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Health News

Bixi Comes To Toronto And Ottawa

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Big cities like Toronto and Ottawa have a lot of traffic.

All of those cars, taxis, trucks and buses create a lot of pollution. They also make getting around the city very difficult. There are a lot of traffic jams in big cities.

Some people ride bikes in the city. However, lots of bikes get stolen. Also, it can sometimes be difficult to find an empty spot in a bike rack when you want to store your bike downtown. Those things can discourage people from riding their bike around a big city.

But because biking is a much healthier way to travel than using a car, the City of Toronto and the City of Ottawa wanted to encourage people to ride a bike.

This summer, Toronto and Ottawa partnered with a company called Bixi to offer a new program which lets people rent a bike for short trips. People can ride to from one place to another downtown without having to own, use or lock up their own bicycle.

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