Extract 3 NASA is to launch an audacious deep-space mission to save the ailing Hubble telescope, the giant orbiting camera that has provided scientists with stunning images of far-off planets and the dawn of time. The space agency yesterday reversed a decision made after the 2003 Columbia shuttle disaster to abandon the $1.5 bn (about £768m) structure to a premature and fiery end on re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere within the next few years.( Guardian 1/11/06) 1. What kind of mission is NASA launching? U (1) 2. What advantages has the Hubble telescope given to Scientists? U (2) 3. What was the fate of the 2003 Columbia shuttle? U (1)
Extract 4 Four years ago, ministers gave the go-ahead to a scheme whose scope was breathtakingly ambitious. They wanted to transform the NHS into a high-tech, computerized service, connecting more than 30,000 Gps to nearly 300 hospitals. A key part of it was the plan to put the medical records of 50 million patients on a single database. 1. What was the aim of ministers four years prior to the current situation? U (2) 2. What was the most important aspect of this plan? U (1)
Extract 5 The public pronouncements of George Bush have long been the subject of bafflement on the part of his listeners. But yesterday the president scaled new heights of ambiguity when he made the cryptic observation that he does not read the Guardian “often”. Appearing at a press conference in Vietnam alongside the Australian prime minister, John Howard, Mr Bush was asked about a recent report suggesting that he wanted to send 20,000 additional troops to Iraq. “Where was that report?” Mr Bush asked. “In The Guardian newspaper,” the reporter said. “Guardian newspaper? Well, I don’t read that paper often,” the president replied. At first glance, the statement appears to confirm suspicions that the president has not looked for guidance during his time in office to the Guardian’s leader columns and opinion pages, which have occasionally suggested alternative approaches to foreign policy. But Washington insiders practiced at analysing the president’s rhetoric will seize
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