Problem: Last month we reported about a study that showed eating even a little less salt could greatly help the heart. The study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The scientists used a computer model to predict how just three grams less salt a day would affect heart disease in the United States.

The scientists said the results would be thirteen percent fewer heart attacks, eight percent fewer strokes , four percent fewer deaths and eleven percent fewer new cases of heart disease And two hundred forty billion dollars in health care savings. Researchers said it could prevent one hundred thousand heart attacks and ninety-two thousand deaths every year.

They and public health professionals in the United States are interested in a national campaign to persuade people to eat less salt. Such campaigns are already in place in Britain, Japan and Finland.

Michael Alderman is among the critics. He is a high blood pressure expert and professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Doctor Alderman says that eating less salt results in lower blood pressure. But he says studies have not clearly shown that lowering salt means fewer heart attacks or strokes. And he says salt has other biological effects. He says calling for reduction in the national diet could have good effects, but it could also have harmful results. He says there is not enough evidence _ .

Another critic is David McCarron, a nutrition and kidney disease expert at the University of California, Davis. He and his team looked at large studies of diets in thirty-three countries. They found that most people around the world eat about the same amount of salt. Most of them eat more salt than American health officials advise. Doctor McCarron says the worldwide similarity suggests that a person's brain might decide how much salt to eat.

Both Doctor McCarron and Doctor Alderman have connections to the Salt Institute, a trade group for the salt industry. Doctor Alderman is a member of an advisory committee. But he says he receives no money from the group. Doctor McCarron is paid for offering advice to the Salt Institute.
1. What is the name of the salt trade's group?
2. Who is on the advisory committee?
3. Who gets money for the advice he gives them?
4. Where was a study printed?
5. What food was it about?
6. Should we eat less according to the study?
7. How much less?
8. What do they claim this will help with?
9. Does everyone agree?
10. Who is one of the critics?
11. What does he specialize in?
12. What does he claim is the benefit of less salt?
13. What does he think may not be a benefit?
14. What does David specialize in?
15. Where does he work?
16. Did he do his own research?
17. Did he review other people's research?
18. How many countries had their diets studied?
19. How did their salt intake compare?
20. Was it more than Americans are advised to eat?
Answer: 1. Salt Institute
2. Doctor Alderman
3. Doctor McCarron i
4. The sthe New England Journal of Medicine
5. salt
6. yes
7. a little less
8. less heart attacks, strokes, deaths and heart disease
9. no
10. Michael Alderman
11. high blood pressure
12. lower blood pressure
13. fewer heart attacks or strokes.
14. nutrition and kidney disease
15. University of California, Davis
16. no
17. yes
18. thirty-three
19. about the same
20. yes

Problem: Carol and Susan are very good friends. They are in the same class at school and they often go to each other's home on Sunday. Now they are both eight yeas old. Carol's mother has got a new baby. Carol is very glad to have a little sister, so she is always talking about her to Susan. At first Susan is very interested in the new baby because she does not have any brothers or sisters. But after some time she begins to get tired of Carol's keeping on talking about it. She also feels a little jealous of her friend. One morning when the two girls meet at the school gate, Carol says to Susan cheerfully , "Do you know, Susan, my baby sister has put on about half a pound in weight this week?" "That is not very much," answers Carol. "I know a baby that puts on ten pounds a day." "Oh, that can't be true!" answers Carol. "Whose baby is it?" "An elephant's," says Susan.
1. Who has a new baby?
2. Is Carol jealous?
3. Who is?
4. Why?
5. Does Susan have any siblings?
6. Are the girls good friend?
7. Where do they meet?
8. Do they go to the others home on Fridays?
9. How much weight did the baby gain?
10. Over how long?
11. What did Susan say about that?
12. What put on more weight?
13. How much weight did it put on in a day?
Answer: 1. Carol's mother
2. no
3. Susan
4. Carol keeps talking about the baby
5. no
6. yes
7. at school and home
8. unknown
9. about half a pound i
10. a week
11. that it's not that much
12. an elephant's
13. ten pounds

Problem: Gwendolyn Brooks wrote hundreds of poems during her lifetime. She was known around the world for using poetry to increase understanding of black culture in America.

During the 1940's and the 1950's, Gwendolyn Brooks used her poems to describe conditions among the poor,racial inequality and drug use in the black community. She also wrote poems about the struggles of black women.

But her skill was more than her ability to write about struggling black people. She combined traditional European poetry styles with the African American experience.

Gwendolyn Brooks once said that she wrote about what she saw and heard in the street. She said she found most of her materials through looking out of the window of her second-floor apartment in Chicago, Illinois.

In her early poetry, Gwendolyn Brooks wrote about the South Side of Chicago, where many black people live. In her poems, the South Side is called Bronzeville. It was "A Street in Bronzeville" that gained the attention of literary experts in 1945. Critics praised her poetic skills and her powerful descriptions about the black experience during the time. The Bronzeville poems were her first published collection.

In 1950, Gwendolyn Brooks became the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. She won the prize for her second book of poems called "Annie Allen". "Annie Allen" is a collection of poetry about a Bronzeville girl as a daughter, a wife and a mother. She experiences loneliness, loss, death andpoverty .

Gwendolyn Brooks said that winning the prize changed her life.

Her next work was a novel written in 1953 called "Maud Martha". "Maud Martha" attracted little attention when it was first published. But now it is considered an important work by some critics. Its main ideas about the difficult lives of many women are popular among female writers today.
1. What was Brooks known as?
2. What kind of works did she usually write?
3. Did she ever write anything else?
4. What?
5. When?
6. What was the name of it?
7. Was it a bestseller in 1953?
8. What part of society did she write about?
9. Women and men?
10. What kind of house did she have?
11. Where?
12. What floor was it on?
13. Did it help her get ideas?
14. What did she win in 1950?
15. For which book?
16. Was it a novel?
17. Who is it about?
18. What does she experience?
19. What part of the city does she write about?
20. What does she call it?
Answer:
1. the first African American to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature.
2. poems
3. yes
4. a novel
5. in 1953
6. "Maud Martha".
7. no
8. African Americans
9. mostly women.
10. an apartment
11. in Chicago, Illinois.
12. on the second-floor
13. yes
14. Pulitzer Prize for Literature
15. "Annie Allen"
16. no
17. a Bronzeville girl
18. loneliness, loss, death and poverty
19. the South Side
20. Bronzeville