English Listening exercise

Submarine mystery solved

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Researchers say they may have the final clues needed to solve the mystery of the Confederate submarine H.L. Hunley, which never resurfaced after it became the first sub in history to sink an enemy warship, taking its eight-man crew to a watery grave.

Scientists said Monday that the Hunley apparently was less than 20 feet away from the Housatonic when the crew ignited a torpedo that sank the Union blockade ship off South Carolina in 1864. That means it may have been close enough for the crew to be knocked unconscious by the explosion, long enough that they may have died before awakening.

For years, historians thought the Hunley was much farther away and had speculated the crew ran out of air before they were able to return to shore.

The discovery was based on a recent examination of the spar — the iron pole in front of the hand-cranked sub that held the torpedo.

The Hunley, built in Mobile, Ala., and deployed off Charleston in an attempt to break the Union blockade during the Civil War, was finally found in 1995. It was raised five years later and brought to a lab in North Charleston, where it is being conserved.

Conservator Paul Mardikian had to remove material crusted onto one end of the spar after 150 years at the bottom of the ocean. Beneath the muck he found evidence of a cooper sleeve. The sleeve is in keeping with a diagram of the purported design of a Hunley torpedo that a Union general acquired after the war and is in the National Archives in Washington.

"The sleeve is an indication the torpedo was attached to the end of the spar," Mardikian said. He said the rest of the 16-foot spar shows deformities in keeping with it being bent during an explosion.

Now it may be that the crew, found at their seats when the sub was raised with no evidence of an attempt to abandon ship, may have been knocked out by the concussion of an explosion so close by, said Lt. Gov. Glenn McConnell, a member of the South Carolina Hunley Commission.

"I think the focus now goes down to the seconds and minutes around the attack on the Housatonic," he said. "Did the crew get knocked out? Did some of them get knocked out? Did it cause rivets to come loose and the water rush into the hull?"

The final answers will come when scientists begin to remove encrustations from the outer hull, a process that will begin later this year. McConnell said scientists will also arrange to have a computer simulation of the attack created based on the new information. The simulation might be able to tell what effect the explosion would have on the nearby sub.

Maria Jacobsen, the senior archaeologist on the project, said small models might also be used to recreate the attack.

Ironically, the crucial information was literally at the feet of scientists for years.

The spar has long been on display to the public in a case at Clemson University's Warren Lasch Conservation Lab where the Hunley is being conserved. With other priorities on the sub itself, it wasn't until last fall that Mardikian began the slow work of removing encrustations from the spar.

Scientists X-rayed the spar early on and found the denser material that proved to be the cooper sleeve. But Jacobsen said it had long been thought it was some sort of device to release the torpedo itself.

Finding evidence of the attached torpedo is "not only extremely unexpected, it's extremely critical," she said. "What we know now is the weapons system exploded at the end of the spar. That is very, very significant."

1. Please write a summary of the article

2. Essay (4-5 paragraphs). Write about some unsolved mysteries you know about and what you think the explanation for some of those mysteries could be.

Senators reach agreement on immigration reform

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of leading senators has reached agreement on the principles for a sweeping overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, including a path to citizenship for the 11 million illegal immigrants already in this country. The deal, to be announced at a news conference Monday, also covers border security, non-citizen or "guest" workers and employer verification of immigration status.

Although thorny details remain to be negotiated and success is far from certain, the development heralds the start of what could be the most significant effort in years toward overhauling the nation's inefficient patchwork ofimmigration laws. President Barack Obama also is committed to enacting comprehensive immigration legislation and will travel to Nevada on Tuesday to lay out his vision, which is expected to overlap in important ways with the Senate effort.

"We welcome this. We think this is positive," said White House spokesman Jay Carney. He said the Senate plan mirrors the principles Obama believes must be included in immigration reform, but wouldn't say whether Obama would sign any legislation that ultimately emerges. Passage of legislation by the full Democratic-controlled Senate is far from assured, but the tallest hurdle could come in the House, which is dominated by conservative Republicans who've shown little interest in immigration reform.

Still, with some Republicans chastened by the November elections which demonstrated the importance of Latino voters and their increasing commitment to Democrats, some in the GOP say this time will be different. "What's changed, honestly, is that there is a new, I think, appreciation on both sides of the aisle — including maybe more importantly on the Republican side of the aisle — that we have to enact a comprehensive immigration reform bill," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said Sunday on ABC's "This Week." "I think the time is right," McCain said.

Besides McCain, the senators expected to endorse the new principles Monday are Democrats Charles Schumer of New York, Dick Durbin of Illinois, Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado; and Republicans Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Marco Rubio of Florida and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Several of these lawmakers have worked for years on the issue. McCain collaborated with the late Democratic Sen. Edward M. Kennedy on comprehensive immigration legislation pushed by then-President George W. Bush in 2007, only to see it collapse in the Senate when it couldn't get enough GOP support.

The group claims a notable newcomer in Rubio, a potential 2016 presidential candidate whose conservative bona fides may help smooth the way for support among conservatives wary of anything that smacks of amnesty. In an opinion piece published Sunday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Rubio wrote that the existing system amounts to "de facto amnesty," and he called for "commonsense reform."

According to documents obtained by The Associated Press, the senators will call for accomplishing four goals:

—Creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants already here, contingent upon securing the border and better tracking of people here on visas.

—Reforming the legal immigration system, including awarding green cards to immigrants who obtain advanced degrees in science, math, technology or engineering from an American university.

—Creating an effective employment verification system to ensure that employers do not hire illegal immigrants in the future, including requiring prospective workers to verify legal status and identity through a non-forgeable electronic system.

—Allowing more low-skill workers into the country and allowing employers to hire immigrants if they can demonstrate they couldn't recruit a U.S. citizen; and establishing an agricultural worker program.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., applauded the framework and said, "I will do everything in my power to get a bill across the finish line."

The principles being released Monday are outlined on just over four pages, leaving plenty of details left to fill in. What the senators do call for is similar to Obama's goals and some past efforts by Democrats and Republicans, since there's wide agreement in identifying problems with the currentimmigration system. The most difficult disagreement is likely to arise over how to accomplish the path to citizenship.

In order to satisfy the concerns of Rubio and other Republicans, the senators are calling for the completion of steps on border security and oversight of those here on visas before taking major steps forward on the path to citizenship.

Even then, those here illegally would have to pass background checks and pay fines and taxes in order to qualify for a "probationary legal status" that would allow them to live and work here — but not qualify for federal benefits — before being able to apply for permanent residency, a critical step toward citizenship. Once they are allowed to apply they would do so behind everyone else already in line for a green card within the current immigration system.

1.       What is this article about?

2.       What are some laws in your country that you think need reforming?

Original Batmobile from TV series auctioned for $4.2M

"Holy windfall, Batman!" The Batmobile just sold for $4.2 million.
The original 19-foot-long black, bubble-topped car used in the 1960s "Batman" TV show sold at auction Saturday.
The Barrett-Jackson Auction Co. in Scottsdale, Ariz., revealed the selling price but says the winning bidder has not been disclosed.
The car's owner -- auto customizer George Barris, of Los Angeles -- transformed a one-of-a-kind 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car into the sleek crime-fighting machine. It boasted lasers and a "Batphone" and could lay down smoke screens and oil slicks.

The iconic car was used by Adam West who starred as the Caped Crusader and by Burt Ward, his sidekick Robin known for exclamations beginning with --"Holy."

Barris' publicist says his client is pleased with the auction result.

'Horsemeat burger' tests prompt Irish food plant suspension

An Irish food factory's production has been suspended after new tests revealed horse DNA in its frozen burgers.

The ABP Food Group said it had halted work at its Silvercrest Foods plant, in Co Monaghan, until further notice.

The firm said it believed the contamination had come from one supplier - after further results from the Irish Department of Agriculture.

On Tuesday, Irish food inspectors said they had found horse DNA in burgers sold across UK and Irish supermarkets.

Officials from the Republic of Ireland's food safety authority (FSAI) confirmed the meat had come from Liffey Meats and Silvercrest Foods, in Ireland, and the Dalepak Hambleton processing plant in Yorkshire.

The contaminated food - some of which was also found to contain pig DNA - was on sale in Tesco, Iceland, Lidl, Aldi and Dunnes stores.

'Burgers destroyed'

The ABP Food Group - one of Europe's largest processors and suppliers - said that, as a result of new tests two days ago, "the responsible course of action is to suspend all production at the Silvercrest plant in County Monaghan with immediate effect".

The firm had already recalled from supermarkets some 10 million burgers thought to contain horsemeat, which are due to be destroyed.

Commenting on the latest results, Ireland's Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney said seven samples of raw ingredients had been tested, including one sourced from another European country that had tested positive.

But all ingredients in burgers sourced from Irish suppliers had tested negative for horse DNA, he said.

A statement released from his department added: "Thirteen samples of finished burgers were tested for the presence of equine DNA.

"Nine have tested positive for traces of equine DNA and another four have tested negative.

"The minister and the FSAI have repeated their clear statement that there is no concern from a food safety perspective."

'Matter of criminality'

Positive samples are set to be analysed further, in order to quantify the percentage of horsemeat present.

Meanwhile, the Food Minister in Westminster, David Heath, said on Thursday that the contamination of meat sold in the UK and Ireland was "almost certainly a matter of criminality" and it was possible prosecutions could take place.

The supermarkets involved in selling contaminated products have said they are looking into the matter and have withdrawn affected items.

On Thursday, Tesco took out adverts in British newspapers apologising and promising to investigate.

Subway Foot-Longs Coming Up Short

Subway customers are whipping out their measuring tapes after Internet postings that claim a short-shrifting of the worldwide chain's famous footlong sub, putting the Milford, Conn.-based company in the hot seat.

The controversy began Tuesday in Australia, when a very precise customer, identified as Matt Corby of Perth, ordered a footlong sub and then pulled out a tape measure. Corby found the sub measured only 11 inches long and took his outrage to Facebook, where he posted a photo of his sub alongside the tape measure on the company's page with the caption, "subway pls respond."

The page with Corby's photo appears to be no longer available on Facebook. Screengrabs taken of his image and reposted online show the photo quickly received more than 131,000 likes and thousands of comments.

The photo also sparked an abundance of photos on Facebook of subs being measured and countless comments on Subway's page, ranging from "I think they [Subway] owe us some," to "there are way more thing in life to worry about then 1 inch of sub."

The New York Post followed up on Corby's complaint with a New York City-based investigation of its own and found Corby's experience to be more the rule than the exception.

According to the Post, four out of seven "Five-dollar Footlongs" purchased at Subways in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, measured only 11 or 11.5 inches. A local franchise owner told the paper the chain has cut the portions of their cold-cut meats by 25 percent recently and raised the cost of food to individual store owners.

Subway attributes the discrepancy in sub length to the fact that the bread is baked fresh daily in each of their 38,000 restaurants. They do say, however, they are looking into the matter.

"We are committed to providing a consistent product delivering the same amount of bread to the customer with every order. The length however may vary slightly when not baked to our exact specifications. We are reinforcing our policies and procedures in an effort to ensure our offerings are always consistent no matter which Subway restaurant you visit," the company said in a statement provided to ABCNews.com today.

the Beatles- Let it be (with lyrics)