Reading comprehension exercises

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While most beers are vegan-friendly, a lot of wines aren’t. Young wines tend to be quite cloudy due to tiny molecules floating around. We like our wines bright and clear, so they go through a process called ‘fining’. Normally if they’re left long enough, wines self-fine but when you’re producing gallons and gallons of the stuff, time is of the essence and producers use ‘fining agents’ to move things along. Those act like magnets – attracting the molecules around them so that they’re more easily removed. And they’re traditionally made out of animal products like casein (a milk protein), albumin (egg whites), gelatin (animal protein) or isinglass (fish bladder protein).However, more and more winemakers are adopting vegan-friendly practices by using clay-based fining agents like bentonite and activated charcoal. But there is an easier way to spot a vegan wine. All you have to do is look out for the words ‘unfined’ or ‘unfiltered’ on the wine label and you’ll know that it doesn’t contain any animal products.

Which is mentioned in the text?

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Mallaig is on a picturesque promontory looking over the sea to Skye. The wild catch at Mallaig quayside is now langoustine, scallops and lobster. Many of the shellfish are bound for markets in Spain and France, trucked live and swiftly for premium prices. The biggest fish business in the west Highlands is the farming of Atlantic salmon. From the fishing boat they are vacuumed through a pipe into the ice house, slaughtered, packed and driven along the winding road through the Lochaber region to a processing plant at Fort William. They are gutted and despatched to markets around the world. It is 25 years since Scottish salmon became the first non-French food to win the Label Rouge designation. Based on taste and appearance, that has been a valuable asset in France, the biggest European market for salmon, and an important calling card in other countries.

Scottish salmon…

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In Britain after the so-called Brexit vote, the power of the tabloids is evident. Their circulations may be falling and their reputations tarnished by a series of phone-hacking scandals. But as the country prepares to cut ties with the European Union after a noisy and sometimes nasty campaign, top politicians court the tabloids and fear their wrath. Broadcasters follow where they lead, if not in tone then in topic. Their readers, many of them over 50, working class and outside London, look strikingly like the voters who were crucial to the outcome of last year’s referendum on membership in the European Union. It is these citizens of Brexitland the tabloids purport to represent from the heart of enemy territory: Housed in palatial dwellings in some of London’s most expensive neighborhoods, they see themselves as Middle England’s embassies in London.

What is true about British tabloids?

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Researchers looked at the displays in female fashion shops in two UK cities.They concluded that if people were the same size as the mannequins they would be «considered medically unhealthy». Some fashion retailers have announced in recent years that they are starting to use bigger mannequins but when this research was carried out in 2015, none were spotted.

According to the article:

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China’s war against air pollution is part of a broader reckoning with the health and environmental catastrophe wrought by rapid industrialization over the past few decades. The public outcry over pollution offers the central government political cover for painful decisions it needs to make, for reasons having nothing to do with the environment. Overcapacity in the steel, cement, glass, and power sectors, fueled by dangerously high levels of debt, is widely considered an economic time bomb that leaders know they must defuse.
National Geographic

China´s new approach to pollution…

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A UNESCO advisory body has notified the Japanese government of its intention to grant a World Heritage status to its sacred island for men-only despite monks’ opposition. The island of Okinoshima hosts the Munakata Taisha Okitsumiya shrine known for honouring the goddess of the sea. In ancient times the goddess was believed to be a guardian of fishermen and sailors. Historically the island was place for numerous rituals and more than 80,000 artifacts have been discovered in its ground, according to Japan Times.
However, the island is bound by strict ancestral rules that include a ban on women, a requirement to strip for a cleansing ritual, no disclosure of the trip’s details, and no right to take anything on the island off shore. If granted the UNESCO status, the island is likely to become a tourist attraction what will complicate its regulation. “Those are issues that will have to be dealt with if the listing goes ahead,” the Asahi Shimbun news agency told BBC.
National Post

Why do Japanese monks oppose the decision of UNESCO?

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Three-dimensional printing is becoming more prevalent in the defense industry, as engineers explore the process to make parts for the most sophisticated U.S. weapons, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles. But lesser-known projects have been in the works at a Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, shop that has been producing parts for Air Force aircraft for at least two years. The in-house 3-D process is much faster than going back and forth with outside suppliers for parts. “Once you get the geometry, you can print it overnight and have it the next day,” said REACT engineer Nathan Pitters. To identify the geometry of the part and print it takes at most two days, officials explained. “With diminishing sources of supply, the benefit for us is the flexibility and the ability to respond to a war fighter need,” added Rick Barlow, director of engineering for the CMXG. The benefit is speed.
Defense Tech

What is the purpose of this text?

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A disqualified driver who hit and killed an Adelaide father in front of his two young children has been jailed for three and a half years. Christopher Woods, 27, admitted killing James Bowrage,
45, while speeding as Mr Bowrage was crossing a northern suburbs road with his children in August 2015. Woods pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and also to leaving the scene of the accident, with the car he was driving found torched just hours after the crash.

Nine News Australia

What did the driver do after the accident?