Speed Reading — Missiles - Level 6 — 500 wpm 

Now do this put-the-text-back-together activity.

This is the text (if you need help).

Russia has responded to the USA withdrawing from an arms treaty by announcing it has plans to build more missiles. News that the USA will exit the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty (INFT) and Russia's response raised concerns about a new arms race. Moscow immediately said it would end its own involvement in the arms limitation treaty. In addition, Russian media stated that Russia's military would develop a "100 megaton nuclear doomsday device" in response to the USA pulling out of the treaty. The INFT was signed in 1987. It was an attempt to limit the number of missiles that were capable of hitting many European capitals. It banned both countries from using short- and medium-range missiles.

The media have written extensively about a new "super-missile". This is an unstoppable, undersea, 100-megaton nuclear warhead. Experts say it is so fast it can evade all current missile defense systems. They also say it is powerful enough to cause catastrophic devastation, such as creating 100-meter tsunami waves and enough radiation to wipe out life for a thousand kilometers. One Russian newspaper wrote: "One of the 100 megaton nuclear warheads will sit off the US coast. Any US attack on Russia would be a suicidal misadventure." However, the paper omitted to mention the concept of M.A.D. - Mutually Assured Destruction. This scary scenario sees both countries wiping each other out.

Comprehension questions
  1. What are Russia and the USA withdrawing from?
  2. What kind of race are people worried about?
  3. How powerful is the nuclear device newspapers say Russia has built?
  4. In what year was the INFT signed?
  5. What missiles were the USA and Russia banned from using?
  6. What can the new missile evade?
  7. How high might tsunami waves be if the missile exploded?
  8. Where will one of the nuclear devices be located?
  9. What kind of "misadventure" did Russia say an attack on it would be?
  10. What does M.A.D. mean?

Back to the missiles lesson.

More Activities