Speed Reading — Climate Protests - Level 6 — 500 wpm

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


This is the text (if you need help).

Two climate activists have been jailed in the U.K. for dousing Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers painting with soup. The pair of protestors are from Just Stop Oil (JSO), an environmental group focused on highlighting the issue of climate change caused by fossil fuels. One of the activists received a sentence of two years in prison. The other will serve 20 months. In October 2022, the protestors threw two cans of tomato soup over Van Gogh's priceless 1888 painting at London's National Gallery. They then knelt beneath the iconic work of art and glued their hands to the wall. The soup did not harm the painting, but it did over $13,000 of damage to the picture frame.

Presiding judge Christopher Hehir called the Van Gogh painting a "cultural treasure" that could have been "seriously damaged or even destroyed" in the attack. The judge told the activists: "You couldn't have cared less if the painting was damaged or not. You had no right to do what you did to Sunflowers. You clearly think your beliefs give you the right to commit crimes when you feel like it. You do not." He added: "Soup might have seeped through the glass." In their defence, the protestors said that prior to throwing the soup, they checked to see if the painting was protected by the glass. Museum staff worried the soup could have dripped through the protective glass.

Comprehension questions
  1. What painting did the protestors attack?
  2. What group are the protestors from?
  3. What is the shortest prison sentence the activists gave?
  4. How many cans of soup did the protestors throw at the painting?
  5. What did the protestors damage?
  6. What did the judge call Sunflowers?
  7. What did the judge tell the activists they did not have the right to do?
  8. What did the judge say the soup might have seeped through?
  9. What did the activists check?
  10. Who worried the soup might drip through the glass?

Back to the Van Gogh lesson.

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