Tag: grade 6

News

Some Prominent Canadians Vying For Changes To “O Canada!” Lyrics

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When you sing your country’s national anthem, you may think the words never change.

But for O Canada!, Canada’s national anthem, they have been translated and changed and changed again.

Now, some people are saying O Canada! should be changed yet again, to be more inclusive.

Canadian writer Margaret Atwood and other prominent Canadians, including former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, want the line “True patriot love in all thy sons command” to be gender-neutral.

They say the word “sons” excludes women and the line should be changed to “in all of us command.”

O Canada! was first written in 1880, in French. The words were from a French Canadian poem.

O Canada! was translated into English in the early 1900s. The English words were changed in 1908, to a less exact translation of the French words.

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News Politics

U.S. Government Partially Shut Down

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The U.S. government was partially shut down on Monday.

More than 800,000 government workers were forced to stop working.

They won’t get paid during the shutdown.

More than 400 public sites that are run by the federal government were closed.

They include national parks, monuments such as the Statue of Liberty in New York, historic sites, lakeshores and walking trails.

About 97 per cent of NASA employees will be sent home during the shutdown, according to The Washington Post newspaper.

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News Science

Students Win Prize For Making ‘Power Flour’ from Insects

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A team of business students from McGill University in Montreal have won $1-million for developing a nutritious, low-cost food made from insects.

Their new “power flour” will help feed poor people around the world.

Every year, the Hult Prize Foundation holds a contest for college and university students. They challenge the students to find ways to help solve social or environmental problems by developing new products or new businesses.

The prize was awarded on September 23 in New York City by former U.S. president Bill Clinton. Clinton chose the theme of world hunger for this year’s contest.

Ahmad Ashkar, the founder of the Hult Prize, said almost a billion people go hungry every day.

The winning team, which calls itself Aspire Food Group, developed a plan for adding dried and ground-up insects to flour to make it more nutritious.

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News

Canadian Government Urging Release Of Loubani And Greyson

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Two Canadians—a doctor and a filmmaker—are being held in a jail in Egypt.

They have been there since Aug. 16.

Tarek Loubani and John Greyson have been told that they, along with about 600 others arrested in August, will be held for 45 more days.

On August 16, Loubani and Greyson witnessed a violent clash between Egyptian security forces and supporters of the country’s former president, Mohammed Morsi.

Dr. Loubani had travelled to Egypt to volunteer at a hospital. Greyson was there to make a short film about Loubani and his work.

When they saw the clash happen, they did what they do best: Dr. Loubani started treating the wounded and Greyson filmed the incident.

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News

Ray Charles To Be Honoured With US Postage Stamp

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Ray Charles was a famous American music composer, singer and piano player.

Charles is known as a music genius, partly because of the way in which his songs crossed genres.

He blazed a trail in the early days of blues, gospel, country, jazz, soul and rock and roll.

His music was—and still is—inspirational to millions of people around the world.

Charles had many mega-hits. Some of best-known are “Georgia On My Mind,” “Hit the Road Jack,” and “What’d I Say.”

On Monday, the U.S. Postal Service honoured Ray Charles by putting his image on a postage stamp.

The stamp is part of the “Music Icons Forever” series.

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News Science Sports

Some Sochi Gold Medals Will Contain Space Rock

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Last Feb. 15, a meteorite landed in Russia.

A meteorite is a rock that comes to Earth from space.

Every year, thousands of asteroids and meteoroids streak past our planet.

Most of the ones headed for Earth simply burn up in our atmosphere.

In this case, the meteorite exploded into thousands of pieces in the air, making a tremendous noise known as a sonic boom.

Some of the rocks fell to Earth in the city of Chelyabinsk, Russia.

Russian scientists have been studying the rocks to know more about them—where they came from and how they were formed.

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Chris Hadfield at Freedom Day
News

Chris Hadfield Inspires Thousands Of Students At Freedom Day Celebration

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Thousands of middle-school students converged on Yonge-Dundas Square in downtown Toronto on Wednesday to celebrate Freedom Day.

The annual event was hosted by the Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

Speakers ranged from holocaust survivor Max Eisen to dance troupe SolePower, and culminated in an inspirational speech from former Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Max Eisen talked about surviving a concentration camp.

“When I was in Auschwitz, trying to survive on 300 calories a day,” he said, “I thought of two things: food and freedom.”

The downtown square was packed with students, who sat cross-legged under a blazing sun, shoulder to shoulder, to listen to the speakers.

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Animals News

Toronto Zoo Elephants Prepare For Trip To California

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For two years, the Toronto Zoo and Toronto City Council have been trying to agree on the best way to move three senior elephants to California.

The elephants are quite old and must be treated very carefully.

Now, if all goes well, Toka, Thika and Iringa will begin their trip next month.

At first, they were to make the move by plane, but that idea was turned down in favour of driving.

Now they will go in containers on a 50-hour journey with several stops along the way for feeding and cleaning of the crates.

Veterinarians and handlers will go with them on the trip to make sure the animals are safe and not stressed.

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Sports

The National Football League… Expect the Unexpected

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The NFL (National Football League) is in full swing and many exciting stories have already begun to unfold.

Although the league opened just three weeks ago, teams have already surprised their fans, for better and for worse.

Seven of the 32 teams in the league are now 3-0 (3 wins – no losses).

But it may not be the teams you would expect.

Favourites such as The Seattle Seahawks, The Denver Broncos and The New England Patriots are 3-0, but so are The Kansas City Chiefs, The Miami Dolphins, The Chicago Bears, and The New Orleans Saints—four teams that didn’t even make the playoffs last year.

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News

The Brydges Fail To Sell Their “Essay House”

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In October, you’ll get another chance to win a house by writing a persuasive essay.

Calvin and Diana Brydges had been going to sell their $300,000 house for $100, but it hasn’t worked out.

They’re going to try again in October.

The Brydges had been unable to sell their house the “usual way” for two years.

Then they had a bright idea.

They decided they would give their house away in a lottery.

The Brydges would only sell the house if they managed to sell 3,000 lottery tickets.

They got 2,192 essays.

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