News feed：A tragedy for whales
【明報專訊】ON A COAST in Tasmania, Australia, 470 long-finned pilot whales (長肢領航鯨) were found stranded in mid-Sep. Of them, 380 were dead when discovered by rescuers. Only 50 were saved. The incident had to do with their enormous size and heavy weight.
Inner Mongolia's bilingual policy
MAINLAND CHINA has demanded Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region (自治區), gradually change its schools' medium of instruction from Mongolian to Putonghua, arousing much criticism and protest in the region and also Mongolia, an independent country. A deputy Education minister said the policy was to help ethnic minorities find jobs and reach out.
COVID-19 discounts
PARKNSHOP and Wellcome announced that they would hand out cash coupons to low-income households and discounts to the public. ParknShop said it would hold a lucky draw for cash vouchers in place of discounts. The Consumer Council pointed out that the two chains' measures were not enough as they had received the most salary subsidies.
■Gear up
According to the passages on this page, circle the correct answers.
(1) Tasmania is part of Australia.
( True / False / Not given )
(2) Hong Kongers have welcomed the cash coupons offered by the two supermarket chains.
( True / False / Not given )
(3) All mongols are satisfied with China's new language policy in Inner Mongolia.
( True / False / Not given )
(Answers on next text)
■Glossary
stranded (adj) 擱淺
rescuer (n) 救援人員
demand (v) 要求
household (n) 住戶
[Smarties' Power English 第287期]
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