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1. The sole survivor of the Sago Mine tragedy, Randy McCloy, released a letter detailing the last hours of the 12 miners who did not make it out. In the letter, McCloy talked about trying to signal their location to rescuers with a sledgehammer, sharing air tanks and finally drifting off to sleep.
2. A Senate committee says FEMA needs to be rebuilt from scratch. The report comes just a month before hurricane season begins, and says bad leadership and inadequate funding have left FEMA beyond repair.
3. The jurors in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial took a break Thursday after 16 hours of deliberations because one of them is sick. The jury is trying to decide if Moussaoui will be sentenced to death or receive life in prison for his role in the 9/11 attacks.
4. If you’ve got time, read the decision by the British judge who heard the Da Vinci Code copyright trial of author Dan Brown. He apparently inserted his own code into the judgement. Certain random letters are scattered in bold italics throughout the ruling. The judge is confirming that he left a code in the ruling.
WORDS IN THE NEWS
1. sledgehammer : n-count
A sledgehammer is a large, heavy hammer with a long handle, used for breaking up rocks and concrete.
2. drift off to : phrasal verb
If you drift off to sleep, you gradually fall asleep.
e.g. It was only when he finally drifted off to sleep that the headaches eased.
3. insert : verb
If you insert an object into something, you put the object inside it.
e.g. He took a small key from his pocket and slowly inserted it into the lock...
4. bold : n-uncount
Bold is print which is thicker and looks blacker than ordinary printed letters.
e.g. Use bold type for headings and bullet points for noteworthy achievements.
5. italic : adj
Italic letters slope to the right.
e.g. She addressed them by hand in her beautiful italic script.
italics : n-plural
Italics are letters which slope to the right. Italics are often used to emphasize a particular word or sentence |