Literature, Literacy and Current Events

Jan. 23, 2020 - Emerging infectious diseases keep epidemiologists on their toes. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is currently responding quickly to an outbreak of respiratory illnesses caused by a novel (new) coronavirus that is occurring in Wuhan City, China. The first case has been diagnosed in the United States in a traveler who just returned from Wuhan City. Major airports are now screening passengers for respiratory illness. (UPDATE: Jan. 24 - 11:00 a.m. EDT)

Word of the Day

proactive: adjective;aggressive, early, in advance of; Find it in blue in today's top story!

Writing Practice

Practice your writing skills with the story above!

Complete this Writing Practice. Then print or email your document, or if available, save it to Google Drive.

Writing Progress

Track your progress all year. For your Student Summary Report Form:
Click Here (pdf)

Weekly VOCAB

Week of January 20

alignments: noun; ways in which parts align or work together;
Starliner returns to Earth early

survival: noun; the process or state of being able to stay alive (survive), usually when faced with extreme danger or illness
Trapeze artist invented modern parachute

vaccine: noun; infectious particles that have been rendered inactive or killed in order to stimulate an immune response to offer protection against the microorganism;
Still time to get a flu vaccine

Today In History

January 24

1985: Space shuttle Discovery launched from and returned to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

1968: Mary Lou Retton, Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, was born in Fairmont, West Virginia.

1965: Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of England, died at the age of 90. Churchill guided England through World War II preventing Nazi Germany from taking control of England.

1941: Aaron Neville, singer, songwriter, was born in New Orleans.

Featured Unit

Chemical Elements "Off the Wall"

Studio glass art is a recent development but creating functional glass from silica sand is thousands of years old. Through this Student News Net video, tour the Chihuly Garden and Glass in Seattle, Washington to marvel at the beauty of glass and the chemical elements! Student News Net was there in 2017.

Read More: Seattle sights are simply stupendous

Pink diamonds are rare

Over 90 percent of the world's pink diamonds come from The Argyle Diamond Mine in Western Australia. Pink Diamonds are very rare and very expensive, but all diamonds are tetrahedrons of carbon atoms.

A rush for gold ended quickly

The story of the short-lived Klondike Gold Rush (1896-1899) is told at the Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in downtown Seattle.

Glass: a hot and cool combo of art and science

Glassblowing is a red hot, totally cool combination of art and science.

Independent Practice and Activities for Printing

IP: Pink diamonds are rare
IP: Rush for gold ended quickly
Quiz: Rush for gold ended quickly
IP: Glass a hot and cool combo of art and science

In The News

View Student News Net articles with less than 800 words.

View Student News Net articles with less than 1000 words.


	Practice your writing skills by summarizing the information contained in the story at the left. What is the main point of the story? What are the key findings? Why is the story an important one? What are its implications? When finished, you can either print or email your document.