Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Alvin Wong is the happiest person in the United States. Literally.
Every day for the last three years, a polling company called Gallup has been doing a survey of a thousand Americans, asking them about their lives. They wanted to know what qualities make up the best lifestyle. They put all of the information together into something they call the “Well-Being Index.”
From the information, Gallup was able to figure out what makes Americans happy.
The Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto recently added a pair of Justin Bieber’s shoes to its collection. The shoes, which he wore in a concert, are on exhibit in a glass case. Dozens of Bieber fans visited the museum last week to look at the famous singer’s shoes.
Bieber’s shoes are in good company. Other shoes in the museum belong to John Lennon, Marilyn Monroe, Queen Victoria and Terry Fox.
Bieber had donated the shoes to a California children’s charity, which put them up for auction to raise money. The Bata Shoe Museum had the winning bid.
It isn’t the first time Bieber’s shoes have been in the news. He recently donated a signed shoe to his old high school, Northwestern Secondary in Stratford, Ont. They sold the bright purple Nike running shoe to raise money for a new broadcast studio.
Last Saturday night you may have seen something in the sky that only happens every 18 years. It was a super moon.
A super moon looks a lot bigger and about 30 times brighter than the moon normally is. That’s because it’s closer to the Earth than normal. Its official name is a super “perigee moon,” but people just call it “super moon.”
The moon moves around the Earth in an oval shape, not a perfect circle, so there are times when the moon is closer to the Earth or farther away from it. On Saturday, the moon was really close to the Earth.
People all over the world could see the super moon on Saturday, including Australia, Russia, Canada and the United States. According to NASA, the last time a super moon like this was visible was 1993.
Rango is a new animated film about a chameleon who gets lost in the Nevada desert. He discovers a town filled with desert animals. Johnny Depp plays the voice of Rango the chameleon.
In the movie, Rango finds out that the water supply for the desert animals in the town is dangerously low. If they run out of water, they won’t survive. Rango has to figure out who is behind the problem and fix it. At the same time, everyone in the town thinks that Rango is a hero. He has to make sure no one finds out that he is really just a family pet.
You may know that every year around Christmas many cable TV providers, like Rogers, offer their subscribers a “Fireplace Channel.” When you turn to the channel your screen fills with a burning firelog. It makes your TV look like a fireplace.
Now they’ve gone even further. Rogers is offering the “Rotisserie Channel.” A rotisserie is a barbeque pole that turns, to cook meat over a flame.
Every year, Rogers Cable offers a TV channel called the “Fireplace Channel.” It looks like a fire. It makes your TV look like a fireplace.
Now, Rogers has the “Rotisserie Channel.” It is some chickens cooking over a flame. It also has the sounds of chickens cooking.
Thousands of people in Vietnam are worried about a giant turtle they consider sacred. A sacred object is something that you worship because you believe it is very important.
The turtle is endangered. There are thought to be only four of them left. It is a giant turtle, weighing about 200 kilograms. Its Latin (scientific) name is Rafetus swinhoei.
The Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team haven’t been doing very well this year. They started off looking pretty good, but before long they began playing poorly. Soon, they were near the bottom of the NHL’s Eastern Conference standings. At one point, the Leafs were 14 points away from earning a spot in the playoffs, which meant they probably wouldn’t get to play in the playoffs.
But the Leafs have come back. They won seven of their last nine games and they now have a good shot at making the playoffs.
Last Friday there was a massive earthquake in Japan. It measured 9 on the Richter Scale, which is the scale that is used to measure how bad an earthquake is. This is the worst earthquake Japan had in 140 years, and they’ve had a lot of them. It was the fifth most powerful earthquake ever in in the world.
The earthquake caused buildings to “shake like palm trees,” according to one witness. Fortunately, because Japan does have a lot of earthquakes most of their buildings are built to be able to withstand them.
In grade four, students in Ontario, PEI and Nova Scotia start to learn French in school. To show our son Anton just how wonderful French culture is, I suggested our family visit Quebec City over March Break.
Then I put Anton in charge of planning the trip.
Anton started his research sites like www.TripAdvisor.com and www.bonjourquebec.com, Quebec’s tourism site. He also talked with Micheline Lachance from Tourisme Quebec.
Anton: I’m dying to see the Ice Hotel. It seems impossible. What’s it like?
Micheline: The tour shows you what each type of room is like and how you can sleep on an ice bed and drink in ice glasses. Each room has ice sculptures with different scenes of nature.
Anton: I read Quebec produces about 80 per cent of the world’s maple syrup. Is March a good time to visit a sugar shack?
