Q: Shelly Nielsen sees students fall asleep in class at least twice a week. "When I see

teens asleep in my class, I wonder if I am really that boring", said Nielsen, a teacher. "I also wonder why they are so tired." Neilson first tried to wake up sleeping students quietly. If the snoozing continues, she may call a student's parents to find out how much sleep the students is getting at night and why.

According to a research, teens need at least nine hours of sleep to function

properly during the day. And more than 90 percent of teens say they are sleeping less than that each night.

"The big problem is the social demand for homework, video games and friends. Teens don't understand how important sleep is." said Dr. Carl Lawyer, a specialist.

Rebecca Lucas, another teacher agrees. "Teens are busy," she said, " many

activities force them to get home pretty late. When I see teens sleeping in my class, I feel sad. I also feel frustrated because I have so much to teach in such a short amount of time and teens sleeping in the class slows me down."

Al Taylor, a teacher says sleeping is not allowed in his class. "When I see a teen

sleeping in my class, I feel bad that they didn't get enough sleep but they need to correct it at home," Taylor said. "I've raised teenage boys myself. Teenagers like to wait to the last minute to do their homework so that they often stay up late trying to finish it."

Answer the following questions:
1. What is the teacher's name/
2. How much sleep do teens need?
3. Do most teens get that much?
4. What is one thing that prevents them from getting enough sleep?
5. What's another?
6. What is Dr. Lawyer's job?
7. What is Rebecca Lucas' profession?
8. How does she feel when kids sleep in class?
9. What is Al Taylor's profession?
10. Does he have his own children?
11. Are they girls?
12. What does he say about homework?
13. What does shelly Nielsen see in her class?
14. What does she wonder about?
15. What does Shelly Nielsen do sometimes if kids are sleeping in class?
16. does she do anything else?
17. What does she want to know from the parents?
18. What percentage of teens don't get 9 hours of sleep?
A: 1. Shelly Nielsen
2. nine hours
3. No
4. video games
5. friends
6. Sleep specialist
7. teacher
8. bad
9. teacher
10. Yes
11. No
12. Teenagers like to wait to the last minute to do their homework
13. teen sleeping
14. if it needs to be corrected at home
15. wake up sleeping students quietly
16. she may call a student's parents
17. to find out how much sleep the students is getting at night and why
18. 90 percent
Q: Our brains work in complex and strange ways. There are some people who can calculate the day of the week for any given date in 40,000 years, but who cannot add two plus two. Others can perform complex classical piano pieces after hearing them once, but they cannot read or write.

Dr. J. Langdon Down first described this condition in 1887. He called these people idiot savants. An idiot savant is a person who has significant mental injury, such as in autism or retardation. At the same time, the person also exhibits some extraordinary skills, which are unusual for most people. The skills of the savant may vary from being exceptionally gifted in music or in mathematics, or having a photographic memory.

One of the first descriptions of a human who could calculate quickly was written in 1789 by Dr. Benjamin Rush, an American doctor. His patient, Thomas Fuller, was brought to Virginia as a slave in 1724. It took Thomas only 90 seconds to work out that a man who has lived 70 years, 17 days, and 12 hours has lived 2,210,500,800 seconds. Despite this ability, he died in 1790 without ever learning to read or write.

Another idiot savant slave became famous as a pianist in the 1860s. Blind Tom had a vocabulary of only 100 words, but he played 5,000 musical pieces beautifully.

In the excellent movie Rain Man, made in 1988 and available on video cassette, Dustin Hoffman plays an idiot savant who amazes his brother played by Tom Cruise, with his ability to perform complex calculations very rapidly.

Today we more clearly recognize that the idiot savant is special because of brain impairment. Yet not all brain injury leads to savant skills. Some studies have shown that people who have purposeful interruption of the left side of the brain can develop idiot savant skills. However few people wish to participate in such experiments. There are many excellent reasons for not undergoing unnecessary experimentation on one's brain. The term idiot savant is outdated and inappropriate. Virtually all savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots.

Answer the following questions:
1. What are idiot savants?
2. What type of skills?
3. Anything else?
4. And?
5. Who wrote about a human that could calculate fast?
6. What was his profession?
7. Where was he from?
8. What year did he write about this person?
9. What was his patient's name?
10. Was he a free man?
11. Was he literate?
12. Who became famous as a pianist?
13. How many words did he know?
14. How many music pieces could he play?
15. What actor played Rain Man?
16. What was his amazing skill?
17. Does all brain injury leads to savant skills?
18. Do many people wish to participate in experiments to determine idiot savant?
19. Does the author like the term idiot savant?
20. Why not?
A: 1. a person who has significant mental injury but has extraordinary skills
2. gifted in music
3. mathematics
4. having a photographic memory
5. Dr. Benjamin Rush
6. doctor
7. America
8. 1789
9. Thomas Fuller
10. no
11. no
12. Blind Tom
13. 100
14. 5,000
15. Dustin Hoffman
16. he performed complex calculations very rapidly
17. no
18. No
19. no
20. savants have a high degree of intelligence and are thus not idiots
Q: AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) -- Lady Bird Johnson, who was first lady during the 1960s and in her later years became an advocate for beautifying public landscapes, died Wednesday, family spokesman Tom Johnson said. She was 94.

Lady Bird Johnson's real name was Claudia.

She was the widow of Lyndon Baines Johnson, sworn in as the nation's 36th president on November 22, 1963, just hours after President John F. Kennedy's assassination.

Lady Bird Johnson was briefly hospitalized last month with a low-grade fever. She was released and returned to her Austin home on June 28. After suffering a stroke in 2002 that limited her ability to speak, she communicated chiefly by writing.

Upon news of her death, Texas Gov. Rick Perry ordered flags in the state to be flown at half-staff.

"Lady Bird Johnson embodied all that is beautiful and good about the great state of Texas," Perry said. "She inspired generations of Americans with her graceful strength, unwavering commitment to family and keen sense of social justice."

The former first lady was born Claudia Alta Taylor in 1912 in Karnack, Texas, a small town near the Louisiana line. She got her unusual nickname while still a toddler from her nurse, who proclaimed the child was as "purty as a lady bird."

Lady Bird attended St. Mary's Episcopal School for Girls, a junior college near Dallas and then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin. She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1933, then stayed an extra year to earn a journalism degree.

Answer the following questions:
1. What was Lady Bird's last name?
2. Where was the first lady born?
3. Who gave Lady Bird her nickname as a kid?
4. Did Lady Bird attend a Christian school?
5. What was Lady Bird's degree in?
6. Was Lady Bird 67 when she died?
7. What was the year her husband was made president of the usa?
8. Was Lady Bird ever hospitalized?
9. What was Lady Bird's real first name?
10. Did Claudia have any trouble speaking after her stroke in 2002?
11. What was Lady Bird's husbands full name?
12. Did Texas Gov. Rick Perry do anything to commemorate Lady Bird's death?
13. Did the article mention that Claudia believed in UFO's?
14. Did she die on a Thursday?
A:
1. Johnson
2. Karnack, Texas
3. her nurse
4. Episcopal
5. history and journalism
6. no
7. 1963
8. yes
9. Claudia
10. yes
11. Lyndon Baines Johnson
12. he ordered flags in the state to be flown at half-staff
13. no
14. no