For a change from politics that is at once comic and depressing, let me turn to academics today. Here are seven of the reading comprehension passages I prepared for my students recently. Hope some teachers and students will find them useful (especially the former). Passage 1 1. Plastic is extremely durable, highly flexible and inexpensive to produce. Unfortunately, it is terribly detrimental to the environment. In fact, we use so much plastic that we send a shocking 12 million metric tons of plastic in the ocean each year. Once there, the plastic pollution breaks down into microplastics that find their way into fish stomachs and bird nests, accumulating in the marine food chain. 2. How can we prevent plastic pollution from destroying vulnerable marine ecosystems? This is a pressing problem for Norway, whose inhabitants have earned their livelihood from the sea since prehistoric times. That is why Norwegian companies and research institutions – which have been lead