Readable, teachable news.
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
Recently, a survey was done to find out what highschool students think is important.
The survey was done by the Ontario Student Trustees’ Association. more than 2,600 students, mostly in Grade 12, were asked their opinions on many issues. The survey was done through Facebook and e-mail.
Here is what students said:
* Cellphones should not be allowed in the classroom. Less than one-third of all of the students surveyed said cellphones should be used in class as an educational tool.
After the tragic earthquake in Japan last Friday, things there are in turmoil. The tsunami (a huge wave caused by the earthquake) has left some villages and towns completely under water. Homes and buildings were destroyed.
The estimated amount of money lost by people and business owners because of the disaster is more than $180 billion, not to mention the many lives that have been lost and the people who have been injured or lost their homes.
Many countries around the world believe that they need to help this suffering nation in its time of need, including Canada.
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.
There is a new musical playing in New York called Spider Man: Turn On the Dark, based on the popular comic book character Spiderman.
A musical is a type of play performed live onstage, but instead of telling the story by speaking, the actors sing. The music for Spiderman was written by Bono and The Edge from the band U2.
This musical hasn’t actually officially opened yet, but it has already received a lot of attention and not because it’s a really good musical. Spiderman has received so much attention because many actors have been hurt during the performances. There have been broken limbs, cracked bones and internal bleeding whenever an actor falls from the rafters.
The people of Libya want rid of their leader, Moammar Gadhafi. He has been a brutal dictator for many years and they want him to step down.
They have been taking to the streets in protest.
However, Gadhafi (pronounced Ga-daf-fee)* refuses to leave. He said that he is “loved” by the Libyan people and he will never go.
In Toronto, as in many large cities, there are lots of people who cannot afford to live in a house or an apartment.
To make it easier for people to afford housing, the city offers low-priced apartments.There are more than 100,000 people in Toronto who live in low-cost housing.
Those apartments are managed by a department of the city called the Toronto Community Housing Corporation (TCHC). The people at TCHC are supposed to use our tax money to buy houses and apartments that are then rented at a low cost by people who haven’t got a lot of money. It’s big responsibility.
Recently, there have been many “mass protests,” particularly in countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
A mass protest is when many people (often hundreds of thousands) gather in a city to show their government that they don’t like it, or that they don’t agree with something it is doing.
In Tunisia protests began last December, to force the country’s president to leave. The people were upset because they had no jobs, food was too expensive and many people in the government could not be trusted. The protest worked and President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and his family were forced to leave Tunisia. They are accused of having stolen money and property.
During the SuperBowl, advertisers always run some really interesting or funny ads. Recently, some ads ran during the SuperBowl that have been creating some controversy.
The ads were for a company called Groupon. Groupon sells discounted tickets for events and products.
In one ad, well-known actor Timothy Hutton talks about Tibet. In Tibet, the people have faced many challenges such as lack of freedom to be an independent country.
People in Toronto are celebrating the news that Hosni Mubarak has stepped down as president of Egypt. Hundreds of anti-Mubarak protesters gathered in Toronto’s Yonge-Dundas Square last Friday to celebrate.
When Egypt’s vice-president, Omar Suleiman, told the people on Friday that the president would step down and end his 30-year ruling, everyone got very excited. Many people in Egypt had been gathering in the streets of Cairo to ask Mubarak to quit as president.
There are 49 dog parks in Toronto where people can take off their dogs’ leashes and let them run freely.
However, not everyone is allowed to use the parks. Dog walkers walk people’s dogs when they are unable to because they are working. They often walk up to six dogs at a time. When they come to a dog park, up to six dogs may pile out of their car and run into the fenced dog park. One or two dog walkers can fill up a dog park, leaving single-dog owners feeling crowded out.
