Readable, teachable news.
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Neil Young is a Canadian singer-songwriter who is internationally famous.
He has been called “one of the most important figures in rock music.”
In 2009, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Young is an activist and many of his songs are political.
Now, Young is doing a four-city tour of Canada to protest what he feels is massive damage to the environment being done in the oil sands in Alberta.
A student doctor recently saved the life of an unusual patient, in a very unusual way.
Ryan Jones, a medical student at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, was practicing diagnosing illnesses.
As part of his training, he and other student doctors had to diagnose an actor who was playing the part of an ill patient.
The actor would act out symptoms of an illness he pretended to have, and the medical student had to figure out what the illness was.
Of course, the actors didn’t really have any illness—they were just pretending.
Except, in the case of Jim Malloy, he really did have the illness and didn’t know it.
The governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie, has had a rough start to the new year.
He’s a man the Republican Party in the U.S. is hoping will become a candidate for President of the United States one day.
But what happened recently may have put an end to that hope.
It goes back to an incident that happened last September.
That month, there was a huge traffic jam on the George Washington Bridge, a bridge that links New York and New Jersey.
This wasn’t just any traffic jam.
Since 1972, the Governor-General of Canada has given out special awards to people for risking their lives to help someone else.
One of them is the Medal of Bravery, which is awarded to someone who has done something very brave in a dangerous situation.
In December, Governor-General David Johnston handed out 39 Medals of Bravery.
One bravery medal was awarded to a woman who helped rescue nine people from an Orillia, Ontario retirement home that was on fire.
Another medal was given to a teenager in British Columbia who saved his friend’s life by tackling a dangerous person.
Three people received a Star of Courage during the ceremony.
The Star of Courage is given to people who have been extremely brave even when it meant possibly putting themselves in danger.
The act of bravery doesn’t have to happen in Canada and the brave person doesn’t have to be Canadian, for them to be eligible for a medal.
Seven Canadian species that were once considered endangered or nearly extinct are beginning to flourish again, thanks to efforts by conservationists.
Canadian Geographic magazine reported in its December 2013 issue that populations of endangered whooping cranes, North Pacific humpback whales, eastern wild turkeys, swift foxes, sea otters, wood bison and peregrine falcons have increased in recent years.
Most of them are no longer considered endangered.
Several factors contributed to the disappearance of these species, including loss of habitat, pesticides, disease and over-hunting.
Many cities in North America experienced extreme weather during the 2013 holiday season.
On Dec. 22, Toronto was struck by an ice storm which caused trees to become covered with large amounts of ice.
Although it was often beautiful, it was also destructive.
Many of the trees couldn’t support the weight of the ice and branches came crashing down.
Some of the branches took out power lines, so hundreds of thousands of people in the city were without power for hours or days.
How much do you know about the news that happened in 2013?
Take our quiz and see how much you remember about these stories from the past year. The link beside each question will take you to the TKN article that will give you the answer.
1) First Nations, Inuit and Metis people came together to form a movement for peaceful protest. What did the group call itself?
2) Chris Hadfield is famous for _____________. (Note: There are many possible correct answers for this one — fill the blank with what you know about Hadfield.)
If you hit the jackpot in a lottery, what would you do?
Last May Tom Crist, from Calgary, Alberta, was on the golf course with some friends when he got a phone call from the Western Canada Lottery organization.
They told him he had the winning ticket, and he’d won a lot of money.
He’d won $40 million.
Crist ended the call and he went right back to playing golf.
He didn’t tell anyone what had happened. He put it out of his mind.
A café in France has found a way to encourage politeness.
The more polite you are, the less you have to pay for your coffee.
A cup of coffee at La Petite Syrah cafe costs a whopping €7 (seven Euros, or more than $10).
However, you can bring the price down if you’re nice to the server.
If you say please when you order (or s’il vous plait in French) the price comes down to €4,25 (about $6.18).
And if you say hello as well (“bonjour, un café, s’il vous plait”) the price comes down to a much more reasonable €1,40 (just over $2).
There has been a lot of interest lately into the way countries obtain information about each other.
CBC News recently reported that it has a document showing that Canada has spied on its trading partners.
“Spied” (spying) in this case means obtained information about another country which that country may not otherwise have been willing to openly share.
The CBC said Canada was conducting “espionage” (spying) because it was asked to by a department of the United States.
The document the CBC is referring to is a four-page document that outlines the spying activities.
The CBC said someone “leaked” it to them, meaning that someone sent it out when it was supposed to be secret.
The document was marked “Top Secret.”
