Sunday, June 30, 2013

THREE new and free practice scrambled paragraphs

I now have about 90 free scrambled paragraphs on this blog for you to practice on.  You can also broaden your general knowledge by reading the accompanying links and watching the videos.  Please feel free to give me feedback using the email address I listed above. I really hope this resource is useful to you.  ^^



"The gods condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly roll a rock to the top of a mountain," wrote Albert Camus, "then the stone would fall back of its own weight; they thought that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor."  

______ (Q) Over and over it happens that a theory or explanation believed to be well established has to be abandoned or rethought of by researchers in the light of new findings.

______ (R) Half a century ago Stanley L. Miller demonstrated that amino acids and other biochemically significant compounds could be easily synthesized under conditions simulating those of the primitive atmosphere.

______ (S) Like Sisyphus, these researchers trying to discover the origins of life and study the earliest stages of biological evolution have an uphill quest because theories must be abandoned and rethought.

______ (T) Nowadays geoscientists tend to doubt that the conditions of the prebiotic environment were as reducing as Miller and others had assumed.

______ (U) Of all the examples, maybe one is the most famous.



When he was two years old, Joseph Merrick’s mother noticed that some areas of his skin began to change.  

______ (Q) The right side of his head began to grow, as did his right arm and hand so that by the time he was 12 years old, Joseph's hand was so deformed as to be useless; furthermore, the growths on his skin were now large and repulsive to look at. 

______ (R) Over the next years, Joseph left home, tried working in a factory but was abused by the workers there, and finally ended up in a freak show. 

______ (S) Some darkened, discolored skin growths were appearing, and they began to look bumpy and rough.  

______ (T) Furthermore, the other boys in early grade school were starting to make fun of him and as Joseph grew older, he began to look even more strange.

______ (U) Lumps began to grow under the boy's skin, on his neck, his chest, and the back of his head and Mary Jane Merrick began to worry about her son, Joseph.




The world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, has a snake-like venom in its bite which sends victims into shock and stops their blood from clotting, according to Australian research.

 _____ (Q) Fry also surgically removed a venom gland from a terminally ill Komodo at Singapore Zoo for the study, and said it contained a highly toxic poison which would induce potent stomach cramps, hypothermia and a drop in blood pressure. 

_____ (R) But magnetic resonance imagery has for the first time uncovered venom glands containing a shock-inducing poison which increases blood flow and decreases blood pressure, scientists say. 

_____ (S) Bryan Fry, a leading researcher, said this three-dimensional computer imaging comparing the Komodo's bite with that of Australia's saltwater crocodile showed it used a "grip and rip" pulling manoeuvre to tear deep wounds, similar to a shark or sabre cat.

_____ (T) "Such a fall in blood pressure would be debilitating in conjunction with blood loss and would render the envenomed prey unable to escape," he said. 

_____ (U) It had previously been widely believed that deadly bacteria in the carnivorous lizard's mouth helped kill its prey.


Answers:



life: 14253

merrick: 45132

komodo 42351

Friday, June 28, 2013

5 Free Practice Scrambled Paragraphs

The answers are below the exercises. 

After each exercise there is also a link to read further about the paragraph and I always try to find a good documentary video from youtube based on the topic of the paragraph.  Sometimes it's hard to find good videos.  I am hoping you will not just learn how to unscramble paragraphs (which is not a skill you'll ever need in life :P) but you'll also learn more about the world.

Someone e-mailed me and asked me why I didn't explain how to solve each paragraph. To be honest with you, I think you will learn more about solving these exercises if *you* analyze your mistakes and understand how the sentences logically connect to each other. 





The relationship between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr was charged with political rivalry and personal animosity.  

______ (Q) His greatest accomplishment was achieved in 1800 when he was elected Vice President to Thomas Jefferson, although Hamilton considered him an unprincipled rogue. 

______ (R) Burr, on the other hand, represented the old Republican Party and the interests of strong individual states and wealthy landowners.  

______ (S) Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first Secretary of the Treasury, was the chief author of The Federalist Papers, which advocated a strong central government.  

______ (T) Burr responded by challenging his antagonist to a duel, an invitation Hamilton felt compelled to accept; the duel led to Hamilton’s death. 

______ (U) The antagonism between the two came to a head in 1804 when Hamilton thwarted Burr's attempt to gain re-nomination for Vice President as well as his bid to win the governorship of New York.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/duel.htm

(Interestingly, historians have re-examined Hamilton and Burr and are now more sympathetic to Burr.  Burr was actually a very progressive thinker who opposed slavery and favored women's rights.  Many historians have also pointed out that Hamilton continually provoked Burr in the press by writing false information about him.  Both men contributed to the early USA - indeed, Burr was an amazing war hero during the Revolution who saved the life of his commanding officer at the risk of his own life. Burr received a bad reputation in US history because of his duel with Hamilton and because Thomas Jefferson later turned against Burr and attempted to have him jailed on false 'treason' charges.)


Until 1932, the atom was known to consist of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by enough negatively charged electrons to make the atom electrically neutral.

______ (Q) This postulation stimulated a search for the particle that culminated in the discovery of the neutron by James Chadwick in the aforementioned year of 1932. 

______ (R) In addition to the beta particles, certain radioactive nuclei emitted positively charged alpha particles and neutral gamma radiation.

______ (S) Most of the atom was thought to be empty space, with its mass concentrated in a tiny nucleus.

______ (T) The nucleus was thought to contain both protons and electrons because the proton (otherwise known as the hydrogen ion, H+) was the lightest known nucleus and because electrons were emitted by the nucleus in beta particles.  

______ (U) Despite this belief, twelve years earlier, Lord Ernest Rutherford, a pioneer in atomic structure, had postulated the existence of a neutral particle, with the approximate mass of a proton, that could result from the capture of an electron by a proton.

http://www.chemcases.com/nuclear/nc-01.html




Richard the Lionhearted was determined to arrive at Jerusalem to take on Saladin.

______ (Q) It was also slightly cooler with a coastal breeze. 

______ (R) The march south to Jerusalem was very difficult.  

______ (S) The Crusaders kept as near to the coast as possible to allow ships to supply them.

______ (T) At night when the Crusaders tried to rest, they were also plagued by tarantulas; their bites were poisonous and very painful.  

______ (U) Regardless of this, the Christians suffered from the heat and lack of water.



Two types of polynucleotides are present in all cells. 

_____(Q) Both DNA and RNA also contain phosphate and four nucleotide BASES. 

_____(R) There are two chemical differences between them.

_____(S) Three of the bases are the same, GUANINE, ADENINE, CYTOSINE, however DNA contains THYMINE, while RNA contains URACIL.  

_____(T) First, both have a PENTOSE sugar (5-carbon atoms), but DNA contains the pentose sugar DEOXYRIBOSE and RNA contains the pentose sugar RIBOSE. 

_____(U) These are DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID (DNA) and RIBONUCLEIC ACID (RNA).



A proper golf swing obviously has an enormous impact on your game of golf.  

______(Q) The golf swing is a great example of the physics of angular motion.  

______(R) Most club heads weigh about the same, so the key to being able to hit the long ball lies in the club head velocity.

______(S) The faster your club head is going at the bottom of your swing, the greater the amount of kinetic energy that will be transferred from club head to the ball because the kinetic energy is proportional to the mass of the club head and the square of its velocity. 

______(T) This torque force changes the angular velocity of the club, causing rotation.  

______(U) The twisting swing produces torque on the club.

http://ffden-2.phys.uaf.edu/211_fall2002.web.dir/josh_fritts/swing.html


Answers:
Hamilton: 32154

neutron: 53124

Richard 31254

dna: 42531

golf: 14532
--------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I'm the guy who created the scandal in Asia awhile ago. I felt that the Korean performers I was teaching were not being treated up to acceptable standards, and I reported this to a Korean newspaper to help ensure that, in the future, performers would be treated better.

Links:

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100511000742

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100512000682

http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/
--------------------------

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

6 More Free Practice Scrambled Paragraphs

By the way, be sure to click on the link under the scrambled paragraph to read more about the topic. This will help you really broaden your knowledge of the world!!!

I have also tried to upload some videos from youtube after each paragraph (some topics do not have good youtube videos, however).

For some topics, however, I have been able to find excellent videos...so, basically, I tried my best to make a site for you that will not just help you unscramble paragraphs but also help you learn interesting stuff.


Answers are below the exercises:


Just before the Nazi occupation of Paris in 1940, the lift cables for the elevators of the Eiffel Tower were cut by the French so that Adolf Hitler would have to climb the steps if he wanted to reach the summit.  

______ (Q) When he visited Paris, Hitler chose not to make the long climb to the top and so it was said that Hitler conquered France, but did not conquer the Eiffel Tower.

______ (R) Von Choltitz disobeyed the order and the elevators of the Tower were working normally within hours of the Liberation of Paris.

______ (S) Consequently, the first German soldiers had to climb to the top to hoist the swastika, but the flag was so large it blew away just a few hours later, and it was replaced by a smaller one.

______ (T) In August 1944, when the Allies were nearing Paris, Hitler did, however, order General Dietrich von Choltitz, the military governor of Paris, to demolish the tower along with the rest of the city.

______ (U) Workers knew that parts to repair the cables would be impossible for the Germans to obtain because of the war.

http://www.historybyzim.com/2012/10/hitler-and-the-eiffel-tower/





The earliest written mention of Sumo is found in the Kojiki (Record of Ancient Matters), a book from the year 712, which is the oldest example of Japanese writing.

______ (Q) However, since the Japanese didn't keep any written records until the 8th century, it is impossible to know, aside from this legend, exactly when Sumo did start in Japan.

______ (R) The Kojiki relates a legend about how possession of the Japanese islands was determined by a Sumo match 2,500 years ago between the gods Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata.

______ (S)Thus Sumo from the start was different from most other sporting matches; each match was a religious and historical recreation.

______ (T)The two grappled on the shores of Izumo along the Japan Sea coast until the latter finally lost.

______ (U) Thus control of the islands was ceded to the Japanese people led by Takemikazuchi, who is said to have established the imperial family from which the present emperor traces his ancestry.

www.essortment.com/all/wrestlingsumoh_rvqp.htm





The Loch Ness "monster" - affectionately known as "Nessie" - is an alleged plesiosaur-like creature living in Loch Ness, a long, deep lake near Inverness, Scotland.

______ (Q) Many sightings of the "monster" have been recorded, going back at least as far as St. Columba, the Irish monk who converted most of Scotland to Christianity in the 6th century.

______ (R) The locals had known the ancient history of the sea serpent. But after the photo, the scientific experts were called in, and to this day they have found nothing to support the image.

______ (S) Columba apparently converted Nessie, too; for it is said that until he went out on the waters and soothed the beast, she had been a murderess.

______ (T) That photo created quite a fuss because before the photo, Nessie was only the stuff of legend and myth.

______ (U) The modern legend of Nessie begins in 1934 with Dr. Robert Kenneth Wilson, a London physician, who allegedly photographed a plesiosaur-like beast with a long neck emerging out of the murky waters.

http://skepdic.com/nessie.html





Uranus is distinguished by the fact that it is tipped on its side.

______ (Q) Voyager 2 found that one of the most striking influences of this sideways position is its effect on the tail of the magnetic field, which is itself tilted 60 degrees from the planet's axis of rotation.

______ (R) The magnetic field source responsible for this magnetotail and its shape is unknown.

______ (S) Its unusual position is thought to be the result of a collision with a planet-sized body early in the solar system's history.

______ (T) We do know that the magnetic fields of Earth and other planets are believed to arise from electrical currents produced in their molten cores.

______ (U) The magnetotail was shown to be twisted by the planet's rotation into a long corkscrew shape behind the planet.

http://www.solarviews.com/eng/uranus.htm





A songwriter, itinerant laborer, and union organizer, Joe Hill became famous around the world after a Utah court convicted him of murder in 1915.

______ (Q) Nevertheless, Hill’s integrity, honor and dedication to the welfare of workers became stronger after his trial and death; his well-known ironic humor lasted until the end as well.

______ (R) The conviction, we now know, was an injustice; yet a campaign to exonerate Hill  that began two months before the murder trial was futile.

______ (S) And he did die like a rebel; a member of the firing squad at his execution claimed that the command to "Fire!" had come from Hill himself.

______ (T) Shortly before his execution he wrote to the former president of the Western Federation of Miners: "Goodbye Bill: I die like a true rebel. Don't waste any time mourning, organize workers to protect their rights! It is a hundred miles from here to Wyoming. Could you arrange to have my body hauled to the state line to be buried? I wouldn't want to be found dead in Utah."

______ (U) After a brief service in Salt Lake City, Hill's body was sent to Chicago, where thousands of mourners heard Hill's "Rebel Girl" sung for the first time, listened to hours of speeches and then walked behind his casket to Graceland Cemetery.



Many American literary  figures of the late 1800's began to look at the corruption involving large US companies.

______ (Q) These new and socially reforming journalists saw themselves as scientists objectively reporting the conditions and ills of modern industrial society.

______ (R) The writers of this fiction and nonfiction became known as "Muckrakers," a term created by Theodore Roosevelt in reference to their ability to uncover "dirt."

______ (S) They put their talents to work, most often writing investigative fiction based on fact, but sometimes writing stark nonfiction.

______ (T) Most of their articles focused on business and political corruption, such as Ida Tarbell's series on Standard Oil, Lincoln Steffens's investigations of scandals in city and state politics, and Upton Sinclair's exposé of the meat-packing industry.

______ (U) This muckraking grew out of two related developments of the era—a new people-oriented journalism and the impulse to reform social wrongs.










Answers


Eiffel: 35241

Sumo: 51423

Nessie: 15243

Uranus: 24153

Hill: 21435

Muckraking: 42153



----------------------------------------------------------
Yes, I'm the guy who created the scandal in Asia awhile ago. I felt that the Korean performers I was teaching were not being treated up to acceptable standards, and I reported this to a Korean newspaper to help ensure that, in the future, performers would be treated better.

Links:

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100511000742

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100512000682

http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, June 21, 2013

5 new and amazing practice scrambled paragraphs.

By the way, be sure to click on the link under the scrambled paragraph to read more about the topic.  This will help you really broaden your knowledge of the world!!!

I have also tried to upload some videos from youtube after each paragraph (some topics do not have good youtube videos, however - for instance, there is nothing meaningful about the Indian leader Pontiac on youtube). 

Some topics have videos, but they are not that good - other topics have excellent videos...so, basically, I tried my best to make a site for you that will not just help you unscramble paragraphs but also help you learn stuff..

Answers are below the exercises:

Pontiac subscribed to the religious beliefs of Neolin, a prophet among the Delaware Indians during the 1760s.  

______ (Q) Neolin encouraged his fellow Indians to forsake all English goods and customs because he felt that the natives' dependence on these items had infuriated their gods. 

______ (R) Pontiac concurred with Neolin's views about autonomy from the English, but also felt the Native Americans had to remain militarily strong to drive the Europeans out of the Ohio Country. 

______ (S) The irony is that although Neolin urged the natives to reject all European customs, missionaries from the Moravian Church heavily influenced his views of the Great Spirit who could save the natives from eternal suffering. 

______ (T) To continue their dependence on European ways would condemn the Indians to eternal suffering.  

______ (U) Therefore, the reason why the Native Americans in the Ohio Country currently suffered at the hands of the English was because they had forgotten the true ways of their people.  



Flu has been a regular scourge of humanity for thousands of years.  

______ (Q) The virus is well adapted to their immune systems, and does not usually make them sick. 

______ (R) This leaves the animals free to move around and spread the virus - just what it needs to persist. 

______ (S) Flu viruses each possess a mere 10 genes encoded in RNA.  

______ (T) All of the 16 known genetic subgroups originate in water birds, and especially in ducks.  

______ (U) But sometimes a bird flu virus jumps to an animal whose immune system it is not adapted to.




One in three of us will get cancer at some point in our lives.  

______ (Q) Of those with the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphocytic leukemia, 85% are still alive five years later, compared with just 53% in the 1970s.

______ (R) But death rates are falling, thanks to earlier detection of tumors and improved use of existing treatments - mainly chemotherapy and radiotherapy.  

______ (S) The success has been biggest for children: since the mid-1970s, death rates from cancers of childhood have halved.  

______ (T) Cancer has, however, turned out to be tougher to crack than everyone hoped when US President Richard Nixon launched the War on Cancer in 1971.  

______ (U) Once so feared its name was whispered, the disease is no longer an inevitable death sentence.




Sickle cell anemia is a blood disorder that affects hemoglobin, the protein found in red blood cells (RBCs) that helps carry oxygen throughout the body. 

______ (Q) Instead of being flexible and disc-shaped, these cells are more stiff and curved in the shape of the old farm tool known as a sickle — that's where the disease gets its name.  

______ (R) They can easily "squeeze" through even very small blood vessels, unlike the sickle-shaped cells. 

______ (S) Red blood cells with normal hemoglobin (hemoglobin A, or HbA) move easily through the bloodstream, delivering oxygen to all of the cells of the body.  

______ (T) Sickle cell anemia occurs when a person inherits two abnormal genes (one from each parent) that cause their RBCs to change shape.  

______ (U) Normal RBCs are shaped like discs or doughnuts with the centers partially "scooped out" and are soft and flexible.




The first kayaks were fashioned out of driftwood and animal skins by the natives of the arctic regions of Asia, North America, and Greenland.  

______ (Q) Lashed together with animal sinews, these early boats evolved to use seal bladders filled with air to make the them buoyant and nearly unsinkable.  

______ (R) Native hunters would fill these advanced kayaks with enough supplies for extended hunting expeditions across the inhospitable arctic environment. 

______ (S) In fact, the name kayak means "hunter's boat." 

______ (T) These long, narrow, covered boats were ideally suited for hunting seals and walruses across the frigid arctic waters. 

______ (U) Over time, the Inuits, Aleuts, and other natives modified the kayaks for the area of the arctic that they lived in.





Answers:


pontiac: 15432

birdflu: 34125

cancer: 53421

sicklecell: 25314

kayak: 45213

 -----------------------------------------------
Yes, I'm the guy who created the scandal in Asia awhile ago. I felt that the Korean performers I was teaching were not being treated up to acceptable standards, and I reported this to a Korean newspaper to help ensure that, in the future, performers would be treated better.

Links:

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100511000742

http://nwww.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20100512000682

http://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/
  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  

Sunday, June 16, 2013

6 new, amazing practice scrambled paragraphs

Answers are below the exercises.


Bullfighting is certainly one of the best-known, although at the same time most controversial, Spanish popular customs. 

______ (Q) Formerly this bull's forebears, the primitive urus, were spread out over wide areas of the world. 
______ (R) These bulls also played an important role in the religious ceremonies of the Iberian tribes living in Spain in prehistoric times.

______ (S) Many civilizations revered them; the bull cults on the Greek island of Crete are very well known and the Bible tells of sacrifices of these bulls in honor of divine justice. 

______ (T) In fact, the origins of the plaza de toros (bullring) are probably not the Roman amphitheatres but rather the Celtic-Iberian temples where those ceremonies were held.  

______ (U) This Fiesta could not exist without the toro bravo, a species of bull of an ancient race that is only conserved in Spain.






Ted Kaczynski, the “Unabomber,” killed three people and wounded 22 with his mailbombs. 

 ______ (Q) From his cabin in the woods in Montana, the reclusive mathematician sent out bomb after bomb, and then letter after letter haranguing victims who had survived his attacks.

______ (R) The mad genius, whom investigators tagged as the University and Airline Bomber, terrorized the country for nearly two decades.  

______ (S) At this time, someone recognized his ideas in the manifesto: his brother, David, who had not seen Ted for many years, but who had many deep and thoughtful conversations with him in the past. 

______ (T) No one was able to figure out who he was until 1995 when he sent out a 35,000-word manifesto against technology and industrialization, which the Washington Post and the New York Times published in order to prevent the Unabomber from carrying out his threat to blow up a plane over Los Angeles.  

______ (U) And so, the brutal chess game between bomber and government came to an end as a family drama between two brothers who were very much alike and yet different enough for one to give the other up to the FBI for the public good.







Emotion and memory are very closely related. 

 ______ (Q) So perhaps you would not be surprised to learn that the portion of the emotion system of the brain (the "limbic system") is in charge of transferring information into memory.

______ (R) From years of experiments and surgical experience, we now know that the main location for this transfer is a portion of the temporal lobe called the hippocampus. 

______ (S) You know this from your experience.  

______ (T) The woman who made you laugh, the man who made you feel embarrassed, and your new boss - the ones who had an emotional impact. 

______ (U) If you go to a party, meet a bunch of new people, which faces are you going to remember? 





www.psycheducation.org/emotion/hippocampus.htm


Millions of zoo visitors enjoy watching giant pandas eat.

 ______ (Q) The panda also uses its powerful jaws and strong teeth to crush the tough, fibrous bamboo into bits for its digestive system to process.

______ (R) To make up for the inefficient digestion, a panda needs to consume a comparatively large amount of food—from 20 to 40 pounds of bamboo each day meaning that a panda must spend 10 to 16 hours a day foraging and eating. 

______ (S) This posture leaves the front paws free to grasp bamboo stems with the help of a "pseudo thumb," formed by an elongated and enlarged wrist bone covered with a fleshy pad of skin.  

______ (T) A giant panda’s digestive system is more similar to that of a carnivore than an herbivore, and so much of what is eaten is passed as waste.

______ (U) A panda usually eats while sitting upright, in a pose that resembles how humans sit on the floor.


http://nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/GiantPandas/PandaFacts/default.cfm


Paul MacLean, the former director of the Laboratory of the Brain and Behavior at the United States National Institute of Mental Health, developed a model of the brain based on its evolutionary development.

______ (Q) We still carry that reptilian part in our brain (R-complex) but it has been supplemented by an early mammalian brain containing emotion (limbic system) and a more advanced mammalian brain for higher-order thinking (neo-cortex). 

______ (R) It is referred to as the "triune brain theory" because MacLean suggests that the human brain is actually three brains in one.  

______ (S) At one point in the evolution of life, reptiles were the highest life form, but had basic brains that lacked emotional centers – this is why reptiles often do not care for their young. 

______ (T) Each of the layers or "brains" were established successively in response to evolutionary need.  

______ (U) The three layers are the reptilian system, or R-complex, the limbic system, and the neocortex.



http://www.buffalostate.edu/orgs/bcp/brainbasics/triune.html


With the outbreak of World War I, Mata Hari's cross-border liaisons with German political and military figures came to the attention of the French secret police and she was placed under surveillance.

______ (Q) Her trial in July revealed some damning evidence that the dancer was unable to adequately explain. 

______ (R) In the murky world of the spy, however, the French suspected her of being a double agent.

______ (S) Brought in for questioning, the French reportedly induced her to travel to neutral Spain in order to develop relationships with the German naval and army attaches in Madrid and report any intelligence back to Paris.  

______ (T) She was convicted and sentenced to death, and in the early-morning hours of October 15, Mata Hari was awakened and taken by car from her Paris prison cell to an army barracks on the city's outskirts where she was to meet her fate. 

______ (U) In February 1917 Mata Hari returned to Paris and was immediately arrested; charged with being a German spy.




http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/matahari.htm




Answers:




Bull: 24351

una: 21435

hippocampus: 45132

panda: 35241

brain: 51423

mata: 42153