Plugging into School

“Virtual” (or “cyber”) high schools present an alternative for non-traditional learners (25) hope to earn a high school diploma. These online high school students take some or all of their classes while sitting in front (26) a computer at home or at any other location. Most US states offer online options to students, (27) participants with the equipment and books they will need. Students “attend” live or pre-recorded classes by clicking on an icon, communicate (28) teachers via webcam and email, and “chat” with classmates. They turn in (29) homework online and receive feedback from their teachers in the same way. A great number of public cyber school programs currently have waiting lists, as the interest of teenagers, many of whom feel ill at ease in mainstream high schools, outweighs the current capacity of school districts to accommodate them.

The South American Amazon Rainforest is often called the botanical lungs of the planet. Covering more than five-and-a-half million square kilometers, it additionally provides a natural habitat for over half of the Earth’s most significant species of plants and animals in an area that is a little larger than half of the world’s remaining rainforest.
Unfortunately, over the last four decades, this huge lush expanse has been ever more endangered by deforestation. During the 1960s and up to the 1990s, thousands of trees were felled, but what farmers did not realise is that the topsoil, when denuded of trees, is only considered cultivable for a short period of time.
This means the farmers have to clear more and more land to continue running a profitable and productive business. Despite the reduction in the number of trees being felled, the forest is still slowly disappearing, diminishing the biodiversity of the area and having a terrible global impact because fewer trees means it has less capacity to clean the air we breathe.