239. Australia has one of the world's most important mining industries. It is a major exporter of coal, iron ore, gold and copper and is self-sufficient in all minerals but petroleum. Since the first discoveries, the coal in 1798, mineral production has risen every year in the decade to 1992 it doubled. (50 words)

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240. A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of stars forms an imaginary outline or pattern, typically representing an animal, mythological person or creature, or an inanimate object. The origins of the earliest constellations likely go back to prehistory. (44 words)

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241. Investigators also compared those microbes with those living in 52 other soil samples taken from all around the planet. The park had organisms that also exist in deserts, frozen tundra, forests, rainforests, and prairies. Antarctica was the only area that had microbes that did not overlap with those found in Central Park. Only a small percentage of the park’s microbes were found to be already listed in databases. (68 words)

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242. Tourism is a challenging sector on which divides statistics since businesses serving tourists, also service local people. Therefore, it is not straightforward to estimate how much business sectors' revenues and how many jobs are due to tourist expenditures. (38 words)

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243. Every morning, no matter how late he had been up, my father rose at 5:30, went to his study, wrote for a couple of hours, made us all breakfast, read the paper with my mother, and then went back to work for the rest of the morning. Many years passed before I realized that he did this by choice, for a living, and that he was not unemployed or mentally ill. (70 words)

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244. The emergence of information technology has created new products, processes and distribution systems. New products include the computer, the Internet and digital TV; new processes include Internet banking, automated inventory control and automated teller machines; and new distribution systems include cable and satellite TV. (44 words)

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245. To work effectively with the heterogeneous student populations found in our schools, educators have the responsibility of acknowledging the cultural backgrounds of their students and the cultural setting in which the school is located in order to develop effective instructional strategies. (41 words)

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246. The purpose of the informative speech is to provide interesting, useful, and unique information to your audience. By dedicating yourself to the goals of providing information and appealing to your audience, you can take a positive step toward succeeding in your efforts as an informative speaker. (46 words)

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247. Thus, a country might possess a sizeable rural population, but have an economic system in which the interests of the voters were predominantly related to their incomes, not to their occupations or location; and in such a country the political system would be unlikely to include an important agrarian party.

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248. Before the discovery of Australia, people in the old world were convinced that all swans were white, an unassailable belief as it seemed completely confirmed by empirical evidence. The sighting of the first black swan might have been an interesting surprise for a few scientists, but that is not where the significance of the story lies. (56 words)

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249. You used to think that being green was a luxury for your company, but climate change has made you realize that you can no longer ignore it. The buzz is about becoming carbon-neutral, but where do you start? Consider your drivers. Do you want to become carbon-neutral for marketing reasons, for financial reasons or to help save the planet? (59 words)

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250. In multi-lingual countries, code-mixing, the use of more than one variety in the same utterance or sentence and code-switching, the use of different languages or varieties between sentences is common and natural. Despite its frequency, or perhaps because of it, some scholars and self-appointed guardians of linguistic morality, view both code-mixing and code-switching as a sign of linguistic deficiency. (59 words)

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251. The maximum yield of plants, determined by their genetic potential, is seldom achieved because factors such as insufficient water or nutrients, adverse climate conditions, plant diseases, and insect damage will limit growth at some stage. Plants subjected to these biotic and abiotic constraints are said to be stressed. (48 words)

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252. Australian speak English of course. But for many tourists and even some locals, Australian English has only tenuous links with mother tone. Our speech is prepared with words and phrases whose arcane meanings are understood only by the initiate. It is these colorful colloquialisms that Australian slang set to truly explain. (51 words)

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253. Teenage girls are continuing to outperform boys in English while the gender gap in achievements in math and science has almost disappeared. The figures show that last year 80% of 14-year-old girls reached at least the expected level 5 in English, compared with 65% of boys. But in math, the girls are just 1% ahead of boys, while in science the difference is 2%. (64 words)

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