Saturday, August 31, 2013

5 More New Scrambled Paragraphs

Answers are beneath the exercise:


Useful vocabulary:

seminal - this word comes from the Latin word for seed.  A seminal work is a work that is a type of seed for other authors or books.  It is an original work from which other people take ideas.

profound - deep

deprivation - if you lack something, you are deprived of that thing. Economic deprivation means poverty.

hardship - difficulties

to alleviate - to make something better


The book that had made such an immediate and profound impact on Gandhi was John Ruskin’s seminal work Unto This Last.

_____ (Q) The focus of Ruskin’s work was on the nature of economic inequality in society, which was seen to be morally wrong because it generated, in large sections of the population, deprivation and hardship.

_____ (R) Originally a collection of four articles published in the Cornhill Magazine (London) and Harper’s (New York) in 1860, they were later published in book form. 

_____ (S) "There is no wealth but life.” Ruskin wrote, and life incorporated everybody, there were no exceptions.

_____ (T) A copy of the work was given to Gandhi, as a gift, whilst he was practicing law as a young man in South Africa and it led to a deep reassessment of his life.

_____ (U) The solution, he thought, was a fairer distribution of wealth to alleviate this suffering. 

http://www.michaellewin.org/articles/gandhi/writers-that-shaped-gandhi/




to subsume - to take over and destroy something and replace it with something else


Celtic culture survived longer in Ireland than in continental Europe, and in many ways it still survives today. 

_____ (Q) The Romans never occupied Ireland, nor did the Anglo-Saxons who invaded Britain after the Romans withdrew in the 5th century, so Celtic culture survived more strongly in Ireland than elsewhere (partly because of hill forts). 

_____ (R) Julius Caesar conducted a successful campaign against the Gauls in 52-58 B.C., and as part of that campaign invaded Britain in 54 B.C. but was unsuccessful in conquering the island. 

_____ (S) Christianity came to Ireland in the 4th century, St. Patrick coming in 432, so that many of the Celtic cultural elements integrated with Christianity. 
_____ (T) Ninety-seven years later, in 43 A.D., the Romans invaded Britain again, pushing the Britons to the west (Wales and Cornwall) and north (Scotland). 
_____ (U) On the continent, the expanding Romans defeated various Celtic groups and subsumed their culture. 

http://ww2.shoreline.edu/seanrody/celts/outline2.htm




collaboration - when people work together instead of competing with each other

to enhance something - to make it better

to transcend something - to move beyond something that seems common or normal

to shrug something off - to indicate or feel that something is not important

a bias - a prejudice

When diversity is embraced and collaboration sought, productivity and creativity can be enhanced, as Harvard education professor Todd Pittinsky has argued in Us Plus Them.

_____ (Q) There are recent examples of such transcendence. 

_____ (R) Support for gay marriage has increased rapidly, and differences are now shrugged off in many countries as not that important, when everyone wants the same thing -- a committed relationship and possibly children.

_____ (S) Interdependence is an even a better tribalism-buster - although mere contact doesn't erase fear and mistrust, a shared task that all parties care about replaces tribal instincts with other motivations.

_____ (T) Research on how groups of mostly one social type treat people who are different confirmed that it takes structural change -- vastly increasing numbers and points of contact -- to overcome casual biases.

_____ (U) One key to getting the benefits is to normalize those who are different by stressing similarities, making them not-so-different after all.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rosabeth-moss-kanter/is-tribalism-inevitable_b_3661436.html



an entrepreneur - a business person

the heyday of something - the most popular time of something

Since the early 1800s, Coney Island, “playground of the world,” has played many roles in the lives and imaginations of New Yorkers and the world.
_____ (Q) From its beginnings as a quiet seaside town, Coney Island went on to boom years in the 1880s, as entrepreneurs rushed to stake their claims and make their fortunes. 
_____ (R) Nevertheless, Coney Island continued to provide an accessible and affordable opportunity for a diverse population, always looming large in the history of New York. 
_____ (S) The amusement parks struggled to stay afloat and Coney Island began to experience hard economic times. 
_____ (T) The area enjoyed brief stability in the late 1890's and early 1900's, the heyday of Luna Park (1903-1946), Dreamland (1904-1911) and Steeplechase Park (1897-1907, 1908-1964), Coney Island’s famed amusement parks, but with the Great Depression, Coney Island transformed once again. 
_____ (U) The area became a “Nickel Empire” of cheap amusements; a nickel paid the fare on the new subway line, and visitors were greeted by the original Nathan’s Famous, home of the five-cent hot dog.
  
to wreak havoc - to cause chaos, cause severe problems  


Although consuming a little salt is essential for our physiological well-being (and for the fries to taste good), too little or too much wreaks havoc in our bodies.

_____ (Q) When we consume too much salt, we usually excrete the excess in our urine to keep our bodily fluids isotonic.

_____ (R) This means that every 1,000 grams of fluid contains 9 grams of salt and 991 grams of water. 

_____ (S) For humans, that magic number is 9. 

_____ (T) In medicine, fluids that have the same salinity as blood are referred to as isotonic. 

_____ (U) That's the salinity, or the weight in grams of salt dissolved in 1,000 grams of water, of human blood.

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/what-if/what-if-you-drink-saltwater.htm




Answers are below:








Answers:





Gandhi ------------> 3,1,5,2,4       3=Q, 1=R, 5=S, 2=T, 4=U
Celts ------------>  4,2,5,3,1
Diversity ---------> 3,4,5,2,1
Coney Island ---------> 1,5,4,2,3
Salt water ------> 5,3,1,4,2
-----------------------
Yes, I'm the guy who created the scandal in Asia awhile ago. I felt that the Korean performers I was teaching in New York City 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://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/

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

Sunday, August 25, 2013

2 new scrambled paragraphs

With these two new scrambled paragraphs, you now have 150 scrambled paragraphs on which to practice.  Wishing you good luck!


Answers are below the exercise:


Su Wu (140 B.C.E. - 60 B.C.E.) was a diplomat and statesman during China's Han Dynasty, and a famous figure in Chinese history remembered for his faithfulness to his mission and his empire.

_____ (Q) When they arrived at the headquarters of Chanyu Qiedihou, Su’s deputies, Zhang Sheng, and Chang Hui, hatched a plot to assassinate Chanyu Qiedihou's half-Chinese adviser Wei Lü and kidnap the Chanyu's mother.   

_____ (R) He remained there for nineteen years under the most difficult circumstances, steadfastly refusing to yield to the Xiongnu, until the Han and Xiongnu were again at peace and the Han Emperor negotiated his release.

_____ (S) In 100 B.C.E., during a brief truce with the Xiongnu, Emperor Wu gave Su, then a Han scholar and the deputy commander of the Imperial Guards, credentials (often depicted as a staff with a banner on it) and sent him as an emissary to Xiongnu. 

_____ (T) His main responsibility was to return some Xiongnu emissaries to their home, and bring back some Han emissaries then being held captive by the Xiongnu. 

_____ (U) The Chanyu learned about the plot, killed Yu and captured Zhang, but Su, who was innocent, refused to surrender and cooperate with the Xiongnu, and was sent into exile as a shepherd in the wilderness. 


http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Su_Wu





Our species is an African one: Africa is where we first evolved, and where we have spent the majority of our time on Earth.

_____ (Q) What set this in motion is uncertain, but we think it has something to do with major climatic shifts that were happening around that time—a sudden cooling in the Earth’s climate driven by the onset of one of the worst parts of the last Ice Age. 

_____ (R) According to the genetic and paleontological record, we only started to leave Africa between 60,000 and 70,000 years ago. 

_____ (S) Although earlier fossils may be found over the coming years, this is our best understanding of when and approximately where we originated.

_____ (T) This cold snap would have made life difficult for our African ancestors, and the genetic evidence points to a sharp reduction in population size around this time, in fact, to fewer than 10,000. 

_____ (U) The earliest fossils of recognizably modern Homo sapiens appear in the fossil record at Omo Kibish in Ethiopia, around 200,000 years ago. 


https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/human-journey/



Answers are below:






Answers:

Su wu ------>   3,5,1,2,4     Q=3, R=5, S=1, T=2, U=4

Genetic migration ---->  4,3,2,5,1

Saturday, August 24, 2013

5 NEW scrambled paragraphs

Answers are below the exercises:


Against overwhelming odds, Alexander led his army to victories across the Persian territories of Asia Minor, Syria and Egypt without suffering a single defeat.

_____ (Q) His greatest victory was at the Battle of Gaugamela, in what is now northern Iraq, in 331 BC.

_____ (R) This was united by a common Greek language and culture, while the king himself adopted foreign customs in order to rule his millions of ethnically diverse subjects.

_____ (S) The young king of Macedonia, leader of the Greeks, overlord of Asia Minor and pharaoh of Egypt thus became 'great king' of Persia at the age of 25.

_____ (T) The entire area from Greece in the west, north to the Danube, south into Egypt and as far to the east as the Indian Punjab, was linked together in a vast international network of trade and commerce. 

_____ (U) Over the next eight years, in his capacity as king, commander, politician, scholar and explorer, Alexander led his army a further 11,000 miles, founding over 70 cities and creating an empire that stretched across three continents and covered around two million square miles. 


http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/alexander_the_great.shtml



The Sun Dance ceremony is the most important religious ceremony of the Plains Nations and it is the ceremony that is most misunderstood by Non Native Americans.

_____ (Q) Among the reasons people choose to participate in the Sun Dance ritual is to thank the Creator / Great Mystery / Wakan Tanka for the blessings received, fulfilling a vow made in a crisis for help, asking for protection of loved ones in harms way, asking for physical healing of a sick family member or friend, and asking for the protection of the whole tribe or nation.

_____ (R) While each tribe may do the ceremony in different ways, each tribe includes the smoking of the pipe, dancing, singing, drumming, experiencing of visions, and fasting.

_____ (S) All of the reasons are non-selfish in as much the reason does not include benefits for oneself, but asks for benefits for others or is to give thanks but when the request is personal it is for help and understanding to be a better person so the individual can live a life to benefit his family and the people.

_____ (T) Some tribes, like the Sioux, practice self-torture by the piercing of the skin on the chest or back as a personal sacrifice the individual makes for the good of all of the people of the tribe.

_____ (U) This deeply spiritual and grueling ceremony is held at the time of the Summer Solstice and lasts from four to eight days. 


(no video for this one...)


Scorpions are often misunderstood.

_____ (Q) The venom in a scorpion's stinger is the same all through a scorpion's life.

_____ (R) Many people say that scorpions are so aggressive they will sting themselves to death, but this is not a natural behavior of scorpions in the wild. 

_____ (S) Perhaps the biggest myth is that all scorpions are deadly, and this is totally wrong.

_____ (T) Other people say the sting of a baby scorpion is more dangerous than the sting of an adult, but again, this is false. 

_____ (U) Only a very few scorpions are potentially dangerous to people, indeed, of the 1,500 known scorpion species, only 25 have a sting potent enough to be considered potentially dangerous to humans.






Pressure and temperature within the earth increase gradually with distance below the surface.

_____ (Q) This molten material is MAGMA, and is normally less dense than the overlying solid rock. 

_____ (R) At depths of several tens of miles the material which makes up the earth's crust (depending upon its composition) may become partially molten.

_____ (S) The intrusive magma which has cooled and solidified is known as IGNEOUS ROCK (granite, granodiorite, diorite, gabbro).

_____ (T) As the magma is subjected to tectonic forces, it may be squeezed upward along weak zones in the crust.

_____ (U) This process by which magma penetrates the crustal rock is called INTRUSION.


http://www.rmmlf.org/scitech/lacy/lacy.htm



Chopin may have been the most innovative and patriotic of composers, but he was no revolutionary.

_____ (Q) It was not that he was particularly conservative by inclination, but he loved refinement, luxury, good manners and all the other attributes of the aristocratic society in which he thrived.

_____ (R) Unlike most of his compatriots, however, he quickly accommodated himself to the hedonistic regime of King Louis-Philippe (r. 1830-48). 

_____ (S) He carried on to Paris, where he was to have gone anyway, and there manifested his solidarity with his fellow Poles by choosing a life of exile.

_____ (T) In November 1830, when revolution broke out on the streets of Warsaw and the Kingdom of Poland created by the Congress of Vienna attempted to throw off the Russian yoke, the 20-year-old composer was in Vienna on the first leg of a tour of Europe. 

_____ (U) And, although he spent half of his life as a political exile, this was largely the result of circumstance.

http://www.historytoday.com/adam-zamoyski/chopin-public-face-Poland




Answers are below:







Answers:

Alexander --------> 1,5,2,4,3      1=Q, 5=R, 2=S, 4=T, 3=U
Sun Dance -------> 4,2,5,3,1
Scorpions ---------> 3,1,4,2,5
Igneous Rock -------> 2,1,5,3,4
Chopin ---------> 5,4,3,2,1

--------------------------------
Yes, I'm the guy who created the scandal in Asia awhile ago. I felt that the Korean performers I was teaching in New York City 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://www.shoutcastblog.com/2010/05/11/wondergirls-were-mistreated-by-jyp-entertainment/

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

Thursday, August 22, 2013

3 more free practice scrambled paragraphs: Flushing Remonstrance, Naismith, Glaciers



Answers are under the exercises.


In 1645, the settlement of Vlissengen (known today as Flushing, Queens) became part of New Netherland.

_____ (Q) Today, the Flushing Remonstrance is regarded as the precursor to the U.S. Constitution’s provision on freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights.

_____ (R) A Flushing colonist held a Quaker meeting in his home, and he was fined and banished.

_____ (S) Consequently, Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Netherland, forbade colonists from allowing Quaker meetings to be held in any home.

_____ (T) Largely settled by English families, Vlissengen proved to be fertile ground for Quakers who were persecuted at home in England and Quaker religious teachings spread throughout Vlissengen and Long Island, threatening the dominance of the Dutch Reformed Church in New Netherland.

_____ (U) Flushing citizens protested, and in 1657 they wrote a demand for religious freedom that is today known as the Flushing Remonstrance. 


http://www.thirteen.org/dutchny/interactives/document-the-flushing-remonstrance/


Who are Quakers?  I think they are best known for being 'pacifists.' A pacifist is a person who does not believe in war.




Dr. James Naismith is known world-wide as the inventor of basketball.  

_____ (Q) Naismith wanted to create a game of skill for the students instead of one that relied solely on strength and he needed a game that could be played indoors in a relatively small space.  

_____ (R) The concept of basketball was born from Naismith's school days in the area where he played a simple child's game known as duck-on-a-rock outside his one-room schoolhouse, which involved attempting to knock a "duck" off the top of a large rock by tossing another rock at it.  

_____ (S) The first game was played with a soccer ball and two peach baskets used as goals.  

_____ (T) In Springfield, Naismith was faced with the problem of finding a sport that was suitable for play inside during the Massachusetts winter for the students at the School for Christian Workers.

 _____ (U) After studying at McGill University and serving as McGill's Athletic Director, James Naismith moved on to the YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA in 1891, where the sport of basketball was born.  

 
  http://www.kansasheritage.org/people/naismith.html




A glacier is essentially a huge mass of ice resting on land or floating in the sea next to land.

_____ (Q) Moving extremely slowly, a glacier acts similarly to an immense river of ice, often merging with other glaciers in a stream-like manner.

_____ (R) It is so cold in these regions that when a snowflake hits the ground it does not melt, but instead combines with other snowflakes to form larger grains of ice. 

 _____ (S) A glacier cannot, however, form unless is it above the snowline, the lowest elevation at which snow can survive year round.

_____ (T) As more and more snow accumulates, mounting weight and pressure squeeze these grains of ice together to form a glacier.  

_____ (U) Regions with continuous snowfall and constant freezing temperatures foster the development of these frozen rivers.

http://geography.about.com/od/geographyintern/a/glaciers.htm




Answers are below:






Answers:

Flushing Remonstrance ------> 5,3,2,1,4     Q=5, R=3, S=2, T=1, U=4
Naismith -------> 4,1,5,3,2
Glaciers -------> 1,3,5,4,2
-----------------------

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

3 more free practice scrambled paragraphs: sundews, torpor, FAPs

Answers are below the exercises:


Sundews are sticky flypaper plants.

_____ (Q) Insects that land on the leaves stick fast and are digested. 

_____ (R) The glands exude attractive nectar, adhesive compounds, and digestive enzymes. 

_____ (S) Often nearby glandular tentacles are stimulated and also adhere to the insect, and on many species the entire leaf coils around the prey. 

_____ (T) They bear long tentacles on their leaves, and these stalks are tipped with glands which are often brightly colored.

_____ (U) These motions are usually slow, taking minutes or hours to occur.


http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cp/Genera/Drosera.php

(Even though this video's title contains a glaring grammar error, it's a good video.  Obviously it should say: A carnivorous plant eats bugs.)



The general term for the period of inactivity experienced by some mammals in winter is “dormancy,” which includes more specific terms such as “hibernation” and “torpor.” 

_____ (Q) True hibernation means that an animal’s metabolism turns off to the point that its body temperature nearly matches that of the environment around it. 

_____ (R) During this time, an animal's heart rate, breathing rate and metabolism slow down considerably. 

_____ (S) And in winter, this means that body temperatures can drop to nearly freezing.  

_____ (T) Contrary to popular belief, however, most of the mammals that hole up for the winter do not actually hibernate. 

_____ (U) The term hibernation applies to only a very small portion of mammals – for instance, a few species of bats and some rodents like the marmot. 


http://wildaboututah.org/wildaboututah/110120dormancy.htm


(As you read above, bears do not really hibernate - what they experience is more closely described as 'torpor.' So the following video shouldn't really say that bears are hibernating, but everything else in the video is ok. :P)




All animals function - to some degree - on instinct: from the tiniest slug, to the largest elephant, to the brainiest human, we all are inherently inclined to perform certain behaviors. 

_____ (Q) This is an innate behavior that is triggered by some sort of sign stimulus and - once initiated - will run to completion. 

_____ (R) However, Konrad Lorenz discovered that it will complete this action even if the egg is removed during the behavior: the goose will simply continue with the behavior as if the egg was still there.

_____ (S) If an egg is displaced from the nest, the bird will reflexively roll the egg back to the nest with its beak. 

_____ (T) One of the best known examples is the behavior of the nesting Graylag Goose. 

_____ (U) The simplest form of instinct is a fixed-action-pattern.



http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2011/11/fixedactionpatterns.html





Answers are below:






Answers:

sundews ----> 3,2,4,1,5      Q=3, R=2, S=4, T=1, U=5

bear torpor ------> 4,1,5,2,3

fixed action patterns -----> 2,5,4,3,1
--------------------------------------------------

Friday, August 16, 2013

FIVE new scrambled paragraphs

Answers are below the exercises.




Monarchs must reach their destination before it gets too cold or else they risk death.

_____ (Q) Furthermore, Monarch larvae's only food source—milkweed—has been destroyed by people who consider it a harmful weed. 

_____ (R) Much of their spring and summer habitat in the U.S. has been ruined by new roads, housing developments, and expanding agriculture. 

_____ (S) But cold weather is far from their greatest threat. 

_____ (T) Pesticides and herbicides also threaten milkweed, nectaring plants on which the adults feed, and the monarchs themselves.

_____ (U) Habitat destruction and harm to their food sources imperil this phenomenal migration.

http://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/invertebrates/news/monarchmigration.cfm





The human body regulates temperature by keeping a tight balance between heat gain and heat loss.

_____ (Q) Normal core temperature at rest varies between 36.5 and 37.5 °Celsius (°C), which is 97.7 to 99.5 °Fahrenheit (°F). 

_____ (R) The hypothalamus responds to various temperature receptors located throughout the body and makes physiological adjustments to maintain a constant core temperature.

_____ (S) This normal core temperature is regulated by the hypothalamus (in the brain), which is often called the body’s thermostat. 

_____ (T) Humans regulate heat generation and preservation to maintain internal body temperature or core temperature. 

_____ (U) Your temperature regulation system is more analogous, however, to the operation of a home furnace, as opposed to the function of an air conditioner. 

http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/thermoregulation.html





In the 10 years following the unveiling of The Night Watch, Rembrandt's overall artistic output diminished drastically and he produced no painted portraits; either he received no portrait commissions or he stopped accepting such commissions.

_____ (Q) It has, therefore, been put forth that Rembrandt's crisis may have been purely an artistic one: that he had seen his methods stretched to their practical limits.

_____ (R) Speculation about what happened after The Night Watch has contributed to the "Rembrandt myth," according to which the artist became largely misunderstood and was ignored.

_____ (S) There is also no evidence that he was ever "ignored," although he was often the target of his contemporary critics' barbs.

_____ (T) Often also blamed for Rembrandt's supposed downfall are the death of his wife and the supposed rejection of The Night Watch by those who commissioned it. 

_____ (U) But modern research has found no evidence that the painting was rejected or that Rembrandt experienced deep devastation upon his wife's death. 

http://www.biography.com/people/rembrandt-9455125?page=2




Prior to 1760 the manufacture of textiles occurred in the home, by people who gave part of their time to it.

_____ (Q) It was a tedious process from raw material to finished product. 

_____ (R) Next, it was spun into thread which was woven into cloth.

_____ (S) In the case of woolen cloth, the wool had to be sorted, cleaned and dyed. 

_____ (T) Subsequent processes were performed upon the cloth to change the texture or the color of the woolen cloth. 

_____ (U) Then the wool was carded and combed.

http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1981/2/81.02.06.x.html




An eye-level angle is the one in which the camera is placed at the subject’s height, so if the actor is looking at the lens, he won’t have to look up or down.

_____ (Q) They often have no dramatic power whatsoever, thus they are ideal for romantic comedies and news casting.

_____ (R) Low angles are captured from a camera placed below the actor’s eyes, looking up at him.

_____ (S) In a high angle, conversely, the camera is above the subject, looking down, so this position makes characters look weak, submissive, or frightened. 

_____ (T) Eyelevel shots are incredibly common because they are neutral.

_____ (U) Low angles make characters look dominant, aggressive, or ominous. 


http://www.elementsofcinema.com/cinematography/camera-angles.html


Answers are below:











Answers:



Monarchs ----------> 4,3,1,5,2     Q=4, R=3, S=1, T=5, U=2

Thermoregulation -------> 3,5,4,2,1

Rembrandt -------> 5,1,4,2,3

Textiles -----> 1,4,2,5,3

Camera angles -----> 2,3,5,1,4

-------------------------------------

Saturday, August 10, 2013

5 new, free scrambled paragraphs

Answers are below the exercise:


Octopuses have the largest brains of any invertebrate.

_____ (Q) Another measure of intelligence the fact that you can count neurons: the common octopus has about 130 million of them in its brain, whereas a human has 100 billion.

_____ (R) The average is the size of a walnut—as big as the brain of the famous African gray parrot, Alex, who learned to use more than one hundred spoken words meaningfully, which means it's proportionally bigger than the brains of most of the largest dinosaurs.

_____ (S) For example, researchers who cut off an octopus’s arm (which the octopus can regrow) discovered that not only does the arm crawl away on its own, but if the arm meets a food item, it seizes it—and tries to pass it to where the mouth would be if the arm were still connected to its body. 

_____ (T) But this is where things get weird, because three-fifths of an octopus’s neurons are not in the brain; they’re in its arms.

_____ (U) “It is as if each arm has a mind of its own,” says Peter Godfrey-Smith, a diver, professor of philosophy at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, and an admirer of octopuses.

http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6474/





In Keynes' theory, one person's spending goes towards another person's earnings, and when that person spends his or her earnings, he or she is, in effect, supporting another person's earnings.

_____ (Q) Keynes' solution to this poor economic state was to "prime the pump," meaning he argued that the government should step in to increase spending, either by increasing the money supply or by actually buying things itself.     

_____ (R) This cycle continues on and helps support a normal, functioning economy.   

_____ (S) During the Great Depression, however, this was not a popular solution and it is said that the massive defense spending that United States president Franklin Delano Roosevelt initiated during World War II helped revive the U.S. economy. 

_____ (T) Under Keynes' theory, this stopped the circular flow of money, keeping the economy at a standstill.

_____ (U) When the Great Depression hit, people's natural reaction was to hoard their money.  



The president has the power to 'pardon' people.  To pardon a person means, basically, to eliminate a guilty verdict against a person.  Jack Johnson was an amazing boxer but he boxed during a period of time in America when there was extreme racism.  He was especially hated by some people because he was African American but married a white woman.  Indeed, believe it or not, the Congress of the US (at that time) passed a law just to have Johnson arrested.  The law stated that a black man could not travel with a white woman across a state line.  Johnson was arrested after he took a train trip with his wife.  As you can see from the scrambled paragraph, the Congress wants to eliminate the guilty verdict against Johnson posthumously (even though Johnson is dead - if something happens posthumously, it happens after a person's death).

On March 5, 2013 lawmakers reintroduced a resolution (2013 CONG US SCON 5) seeking a posthumous pardon from President Obama on behalf of former boxing champion Jack Johnson.

_____ (Q) The defeat of Jeffries led to race riots nationwide in which numerous blacks were murdered.

_____ (R) Johnson was convicted and sentenced to a year and a day in prison.

_____ (S) In 1912, while married to a white woman named Lucille Cameron, Johnson was arrested by federal marshals and charged with violating the Mann Act (18 U.S.C. 2421) for crossing state lines with Belle Schreiber for "immoral" purposes.

_____ (T) For those unfamiliar with Johnson, he became boxing’s first African-American heavyweight champion after defeating Tommy Burns in 1908.

_____ (U) However, it wasn’t until Johnson retained his title by defeating all-time great Jim Jeffries in 1910 that he truly drew the ire of white society.

http://westreferenceattorneys.com/2013/03/unforgivable-blackness-jack-johnson-and-the-mann-act/

I found a film based on Jack Johnson on youtube:




{{An almshouse was a place for poor people to live.}}

On February 22, 1876, Anne and her brother Jimmie were sent to the state almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts.

_____ (Q) Anne spent four years at Tewksbury, enduring the grief of her brother's death and the disappointment of two unsuccessful eye operations.

_____ (R) Jimmie, who was younger than Anne and had been born with a tubercular hip, died a short time later.
_____ (S) At Perkins, in October 1880, Anne finally began her academic education—quickly learning to read and write as well as learning how to use the manual alphabet in order to communicate with a friend who was deaf as well as blind.

_____ (T) Then, as a result of her direct plea to a state official who had come to inspect the Tewksbury almshouse, she was allowed to leave and enroll in the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, Massachusetts. 

_____ (U) That particular skill opened the door to her future and a life of remarkable achievements, notably her work tutoring the blind, deaf, and mute Helen Keller.

http://www.afb.org/asm/asmbiography.asp

A movie about Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller:



The Vietnam War (American military involvement: 1961 to 1973) was a disaster.  Over 50,000 American soldiers died and over 1,000,000 Vietnamese died.  Horrible things happened in that war.  After several years of fighting, in 1973 the US government, basically, gave up and brought all US soldiers home.  In 1975 (Socialist) North Vietnam finally defeated (Capitalist) South Vietnam (the US had been supporting South Vietnam).  Daniel Ellsberg used to work for the Pentagon but slowly but surely began to feel that the war was wrong and that politicians were lying to the American people about the war.  He photocopied many secret documents and gave them to the New York Times.  By doing this, he  helped show the American people what was really happening and he probably helped to bring the war to a faster end.


In 1967 Ellsberg became a member of the McNamara Study Group that in 1968 produced the classified  History of Decision Making in Vietnam, 1945 - 1968.

_____ (Q) Ellsberg, disillusioned with the progress of the war, believed this document should be made available to the public and gave a copy of what later became known as the Pentagon Papers to Senator William Fulbright. 

_____ (R) President Richard Nixon then made attempts to prevent anymore extracts from the Pentagon Papers from being published, yet the Supreme Court ruled against Nixon and Justice Hugo Black commented that the Times "should be commended for serving the purpose that the Founding Fathers saw so clearly".

_____ (S) However, he refused to do anything with the document, so Ellsberg gave a copy to Phil Geyelin of the Washington Post newspaper, yet the editors decided against publishing the contents of the document. 

_____ (T) This included information that President Eisenhower had made a secret commitment to help the French defeat the rebellion in Vietnam and that President John F. Kennedy had, essentially, turned this commitment into a war by using a secret "provocation strategy" that ultimately led to President Lyndon Johnson expanding the war after the Gulf of Tonkin incident. 

_____ (U) Ellsberg now went to the New York Times and they began publishing extracts from the document on 13th June, 1971. 

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKellsberg.htm



Answers are below:









Answers:


Octopus brain -----> 2,1,5,3,4       2=Q, 1=R, 5=S, 3=T, 4=U

Keynes ----------------> 4,1,5,3,2

Jack Johnson ----------------> 3,5,4,1,2

Anne Sullivan --------> 2,1,4,3,5

Daniel Ellsberg --------> 1,5,2,4,3

Thursday, August 8, 2013

3 more scrambled paragraphs: great white sharks, Kim Dae-jung, dendrites

Answers are below the exercise.  I'll try to post at least 5 new scrambled paragraphs every Sunday until the date of the test. I hope this helps you...


The legendary great white shark is far more fearsome in our imaginations than in reality.

_____ (Q) As scientific research on these elusive predators increases, their image as mindless killing machines is beginning to fade.

_____ (R) However, most of these are not fatal.  

_____ (S) It's not a terribly comforting distinction, but it does indicate that humans are not actually on the great white's menu.

_____ (T) It's true that of the 100-plus annual shark attacks worldwide, fully one-third to one-half are attributable to great whites. 

_____ (U) Indeed, new research finds that great whites, who are naturally curious, are "sample biting" then releasing their victims rather than preying on humans. 

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/fish/great-white-shark/





As President Park Chung Hee sought constitutional revisions in 1969 to allow himself to run for a third term, Kim Dae-jung gave an address against the scheme in an outdoor rally, and he was widely acclaimed for his vision and courage.

_____ (Q) A heavily-loaded truck rammed into his car, seriously injuring him and his two aides. 

_____ (R) Despite the obstructionist tactics and illegal electioneering practices of the ruling party, he garnered over 46 per cent of the votes cast.

_____ (S) He was chosen the presidential candidate of the New Democratic Party in 1971, running against the all-powerful incumbent, Park Chung Hee. 

_____ (T) During the Assembly election campaign that soon followed the presidential vote, opposition leader Kim experienced what was to be the first of at least five attempts on his life by his political foes.

_____ (U) President Kim  suffered from the leg injury incurred in this 'accident' until his death in 2009.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2000/dae-jung-bio.html

There were many heroes in South Korea who fought for democracy.  Kim Dae-Jung was one of them. When I started working with adult foreign students, many of my students were from Korea and told me about Kim Dae-Jung. He became a hero of mine.




OK, this one might be tough because of all the weird scientific terminology...but try it anyway.

Basically, a long time ago a scientist did an experiment in which he raised two groups of rats under different circumstances.  One group was raised in a super-enriched environment. That meant that there were many toys and things to play with or climb over in their environment.  The other group was raised in a very plain environment. 

When the researcher killed and decapitated the rats (cut their heads off so he could examine their brain tissue) from both groups, he was surprised.  He saw that the brains of the rats from the super-enriched environment looked more complex than the brains of the rats raised in the boring environment. He concluded that young rats (or any type of mammals) should be raised in complex environments to make sure that they had complex brain development.

The complexity was due to 'dendritic branching.'  There are little branchlike things that grow between neurons (brain cells).  These dendrites can connect to other neurons. The more complex a rat's environment, the more of these 'branches' will grow.



In this scrambled paragraph they wanted to see how the drug lithium might affect dendritic branching.  See whether you can get this one.  When they talk about synaptic plasticity, they mean how much the nerve cell can change.  If the drug has therapeutic efficacy, it can help people.


A large body of evidence from molecular, cellular and human studies suggests that lithium may enhance synaptic plasticity, which may be associated with its therapeutic efficacy.

_____ (Q) Following 4 week lithium or control chow feeding, animals were decapitated, the hippocampi were prepared and stained using a rapid Golgi staining technique and the amount and distribution of the dendritic branching was evaluated using Sholl analyses (method of concentric circles). 

_____ (R) In area CA1, the same treatment also increased the number of dendritic branches in the proximal half of apical dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal cells and reduced branching in the distal half of apical dendritic trees but had no effect on basilar dendritic trees.

_____ (S) In the DG, lithium treatment increased the amount and distribution of dendritic branches in the proximal half of dendritic trees of the granule cells and reduced branching in the distal half. 

_____ (T) To determine whether lithium treatment alters structural synaptic plasticity, this study examined the effect of 4 week lithium treatment on the amount and distribution of dendrites in the dentate gyrus (DG) and hippocampal area CA1 of young adult rats. 

_____ (U) However, only a small number of studies have directly assessed this. 

http://www.neurostructural.org/default.asp?page=72947

The student who made this video had COURAGE. :P :P :P Kudos to him.



Answers are below:






Answers:

Great white sharks - 1,3,5,2,4  ------------->  Q=1, R=3, S=5, T=2, U=4
Kim Dae-Jung ----------------> 4,2,1,3,5
Lithium and Dendrites -------> 3,5,4,2,1
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