TASK DEFINITION: Your task is to extract the thesis of an opinionated news article by selecting some of its text segments. The thesis is a summarization of what the author wants to persuade the reader of. Your answer should consist of segments of the given text. Note that you are not allowed to combine different sentences.
PROBLEM: It used to be rude not to answer the phone. Now you're rude if you do. Michael Gove is a difficult man to feel sorry for . It seems even his friends can't always manage it . David Cameron, for example - I think he's his friend . He'd definitely say he was Michael Gove's friend but then , politicians being what they are, the fact that he'd say it doesn't enormously increase the statistical chances of its being true . Anyway , they're certainly political allies - or at least were, before Gove made his ill-judged remark about the "preposterous" number of the prime minister's coterie who went to Eton , which ironically led Cameron to lose faith in about the only one who didn't, Gove himself . "That's what you get," the PM must have muttered to himself,"for trusting oiks." Since then Gove's slide down the greasy pole could hardly have been less dignified if he'd been wearing nipple tassels . Which, for all we know, he was . Like a former deputy headmaster who's been busted down to head prefect , Gove not only has to remain loyal to a government that has scorned him but, as chief whip, he must also enforce loyalty in others . But I didn't feel sorry for him until last week when I read that his mobile phone had gone off during a cabinet meeting . This is obviously bad form : for security reasons, you're not even supposed to bring phones into those gatherings . To make matters worse his ringtone is, according to someone who was there:"Jazz FM-style comedown music after a heavy night out" . I'm not entirely sure what that means , but it's clearly some sort of tune . I'm going to imagine it as the theme from Bod . So in the middle of some serious conversation about the Charlie Hebdo shootings or the economy or the NHS, while Vince Cable is expressing some "serious concerns" and everyone else is trying to make drooping eyelids look like they're concentrating hard , suddenly it's "Diddle-it-deduh-dede-duh-duh!" and Gove is jumping and wriggling like George Osborne's Tasered him again . Gove's seated twist having gone on "for quite a while", the PM intervened with what one witness described as "a public bollocking" . Even if Cameron could summon no compassion for his friend , I can . I sympathise with Michael Gove here, as a point of principle . I also sympathise with those people in West End theatres who are hit by a volley of rage and sarcasm from some knight of the stage when Nokia Tune has crashed in on his soliloquy . I sympathise whenever it happens at meetings, weddings, carol services or when someone's tearfully coming out . I sympathise because one day it will happen to me . However careful I am with my phone- and, as a slightly obsessive person, I'm pretty careful- there are times when I take it out, utterly convinced that it's been switched off for hours, and find five bars beaming back from my hand, as incriminating as a gory dagger . Most of the time, I check it every 30 seconds . But sometimes I just don't . My fastidious self-image deceives me into carelessness . At some point, I'm going to come a cropper . And when that shaming moment comes , as I fumble in my trousers by the heat of a hundred stares , I want to be surrounded by people who accept that this could happen to anyone, and might believe that this is an issue about which I'm at least averagely diligent . That's not how it'll be, though . Our attitudes to accidental phone rings are stuck in the 80s . Even though the mobile has long since ceased to be a cutting-edge gadget possessed only by the high-earning early-adopting few , when one goes off inappropriately, we still visualise a shameless yuppie in red braces, Aston Martin double-parked outside, closing deals - an offensive symbol of profligate and faddish modernity . This is hopelessly out of step with what these machines now mean to us . Research just published by a team at the University of Missouri shows that, when a sample of 40 people were temporarily deprived of their iPhones, their heart rate and blood pressure rose, and their ability to perform tasks suffered . Our mobiles, the paper suggests, are now "an extension of our physical selves, an umbilical cord, anchoring the information society's digital infrastructure to our very bodies" . We hate to be parted from them and we don't much like turning them off . Many will lament this , but it's not altogether bad . Our phones reassure us because they make us feel connected  - because if your mobile is turned on, in range and not ringing , it probably means that no work crisis has developed and no disaster has befallen a close friend or loved one . It's a constant everyone-in-your-life-is-more-or-less-OK monitor . Maybe we should learn to live without such reassurance , but it doesn't reflect entirely badly on us that we're comforted by it . People often criticise one another for talking or texting on their phones in preference to live interaction . "We met for a coffee but she spent the whole time on the phone!" "We were having lunch and his mobile rang- and he actually answered it!" Such critics forget that, in the heyday of the landline, a ringing telephone - the phone in the hall - was always answered . The notion of call screening is entirely modern . It never used to be rude to answer - it was rude not to . The onus of politeness, in those days, was on the caller . Except in an emergency, you didn't telephone someone at a mealtime, during their favourite television programme or after 10 o'clock . When you thought someone might not want to be disturbed, you didn't disturb them unless you had to . It's the passing of that etiquette, rather than the prevalence of mobile phones, that I think is a shame . Of course ,  in the age of the mobile, it's impossible to know whether the person you're calling will find it convenient to chat . You can't know if they're eating or in the cinema or reading the traffic news . So how about this : only call a mobile if you really need to . If you just want a chat, call a landline , and not during meals . So that , if "I Will Survive" starts blaring from your Android during an aunt's funeral , it's not you who's been rude . And the person who has isn't there . David Mitchell's new book, Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse, is published by Guardian Faber (? 18.99) . To order a copy for ? 11.99 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846 .

SOLUTION: It's the passing of that etiquette, rather than the prevalence of mobile phones, that I think is a shame Our attitudes to accidental phone rings are stuck in the 80s

PROBLEM: Connecticut Supreme Court saves teen's life. The Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court took over parenting duties of a cancer-stricken teenager Thursday . In so doing, they surely saved her life . At the conclusion of oral arguments, the high court took just minutes to determined that state officials were right to take custody of the girl known in court documents only as "Cassandra C " and force her to undergo life-saving treatment . No thanks to her mother . Jackie Fortin had encouraged her 17-year-old daughter's desire to refuse chemotherapy . She naively pronounced,"my daughter is not going to die." As if wishing it could make it come true . Sadly, both mother and daughter were wrong . They were in denial . If they got their way , Cassandra would die . It was the equivalent of suicide . I wonder how her mother would feel then? Cassandra has advanced Hodgkin's lymphoma which attacks and consumes the body's immune system . Her doctors say chemotherapy treatment will give her an 85 percent chance of survival . Excellent odds . Yet, the teenager refused, saying she did not want to "poison" her body with chemo . How does that make sense to a rational mind? Let's employ Cassandra's own tortured terminology and logic . Does she not realize that her body is already being poisoned by the rapidly multiplying cancer in her lymph system? Untreated , it will quickly spread until it kills her . That is what her doctors predict . Reliable statistics from the National Cancer Institute prove they are right . Chemotherapy can save her . Chemicals are introduced into the diseased body to attack the cancer cells . You can call it a "poison" if you want , but a more accurate term is curative . Yes, the chemicals also harm other normal cells . To that extent they are a poison, of sorts, producing painful and unpleasant side effects . But once the body recovers and is free of the cancer cells, the chemicals are gone . Thus , if chemo is a poison , it is not normally a lethal one . The cancer which is ravaging Cassandra's body surely is . If , by using the term "poison," Cassandra means she does not want to endure the side effects of nausea, vomiting, hair loss and exhaustion cond , she is being myopic . The final stages of untreated lymphoma are far more extreme and painful . Cassandra's disdain for the treatment that will likely save her young life is, perhaps, the best evidence that she was not mature enough to make a wise and informed decision on her own . But then again, neither was her mother . Which is why the state of Connecticut stepped in . As an adult, Fortin, is presumed to be competent under the law to make decisions for her daughter, a minor . However ,  Fortin's aberrant judgment in rejecting the treatment that could save Cassandra's life and her concomitant belief that her daughter would somehow, miraculously, not succumb to an insidious, fatal illness... called that legal presumption into serious doubt . There is also evidence that Fortin ignored obvious signs of her daughter's malignant disease at an early stage, failed to seek prompt and continuing medical attention, and has been unduly influencing Cassandra's negative reaction to treatment . The court records suggest a domineering mother with an abiding distrust of medicine, and a daughter fearful of running afoul of her mother's wishes . To deny a child beneficial, life-sustaining treatment constitutes child neglect . States have a duty to protect children from abuse and neglect . Courts rarely hesitate to step in where a child's life is in danger . Thus , the state was correct to intervene and the lower court was equally correct to remove the mother as unfit . Fortunately, the Connecticut Supreme Court agreed and did the right thing . Time is on Cassandra's side . The fact that she is 9 months away from turning 18 years old may, in the end, have saved her life . It gave the high court an excuse to adhere strictly to the law as it relates to protecting minors . Those 9 months will also give doctors valuable time to complete her therapy and give her a new chance at a full and happy life . As for her mother, Jackie Fortin? She will have ample time to wrestle with her conscience .

SOLUTION: The Justices of the Connecticut Supreme Court took over parenting duties of a cancer-stricken teenager Thursday In so doing, they surely saved her life

PROBLEM: New Congress: My fellow Republicans, here's your chance to prove you can lead. This week marks a new era in American government . For the first time in the six years of the Obama administration, Republicans took the reins of power in both houses of Congress, bringing divided government to our nation's capital . With this new power comes not only responsibility, but also real challenges and opportunities . Yes, the newly empowered Republicans in the Senate have the ability to control the floor and try to break through some of the gridlock and dysfunction associated with the failed tenure of now Minority Leader Harry Reid . Instead of bottling up all the legislation that's been passed by the GOP House without ever letting it see the light of day, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can start moving things forward with up or down votes and a full, fair and thorough amendment process . He has pledged to get back to regular order and help re-establish trust between the American people and Congress . But even more importantly, the Senate can get to work on the issues of real importance to the people who elected them . Instead of pushing petty, politically motivated bills, or not voting just to protect one of the Democratic members from taking a tough vote, the Senate can focus on things that will have a direct impact on the American people . I am encouraged to see that the Keystone XL Pipeline is on the top of the docket . This common-sense, environmentally sound project will not only create good-paying jobs for both unions and non-union members, it will also increase our domestic supply of oil, helping to keep prices low and more money in people's pockets , and it will help to reduce the influence of foreign governments . It's unfortunate that President Obama continues to impede progress on Keystone and is standing with the radical fringe of his party rather than the overwhelming majority of the country . Likewise , now that the elections for leadership are over, House Speaker John Boehner needs to move immediately to unite his caucus and focus on the overwhelming areas of agreement within the GOP . Given that Republicans now boast their largest House majority since the late 1920s, it's not surprising that there have been, and will be, minor areas of difference within the caucus . But the things that unite us are so much more plentiful , and it's now the job of Speaker Boehner to focus on these issues . I was heartened to see the House Republicans roll out a series of bipartisan jobs bills this week, including legislation called the "Hire More Heroes Act." This bill would exempt veterans already enrolled in health care plans from the VA or Department of Defense from counting toward the employer mandate under ObamaCare . This is a win-win for both veterans and small businesses . Many businesses are not hiring because of ObamaCare's many mandates and new regulations , and this measure would be a good first step to help alleviate that problem . Above all ,  Republicans in Congress have to prove to the American people that they are responsible leaders who will put our country's interests first by being able to lead and get real results . They need to show that they have learned from the mistakes of the past and will stop lurching from cliff to cliff and forcing self-imposed government shutdowns that only tarnish the GOP brand and make it harder to win future elections . The new Republican Congress needs to make it impossible for the Democrats to falsely portray the Grand Old Party as a group of fire-breathing extremists focused on divisive social issues . History tells us that when we focus on the issues that really matter-- such as low taxes, getting our debt and deficit under control, limited government, returning power to the states and a strong and muscular national defense-- the American people are with us , and we win elections as a result . The simple reality is that even with a GOP Senate, there is only so much of President Obama's destructive agenda that we can work on repealing these next two years . Getting rid of ObamaCare and rolling back his overreaching executive orders and memos-- that's not going to happen if a Democratic president succeeds the current occupant in January 2017 . We Republicans have a slew of talented candidates who, over the next few months, will throw their hats into the ring and begin the process of running for the White House . The new GOP Congress needs to make sure it provides critical support and issue-oriented ammunition for our nominees -- not become unwelcome distractions that will hurt the brand and increase the Democrats' chances of retaining the White House . Let's make these next two years count, so that in January of 2017 a newly elected Republican president can take power with robust GOP majorities in Congress and really get this country back on the right path .

SOLUTION:
For the first time in the six years of the Obama administration, Republicans took the reins of power in both houses of Congress, bringing divided government to our nation's capital