RLA Mixed Practice Test 6

From: Tomas Reyna, Volunteer Coordinator
To: Maple Street Community Garden volunteers
Subject: Spring update and volunteer schedule

Dear Volunteers,

(1) I hope you enjoyed the winter break. The garden committee has finalized it's budget for the coming season, and I am happy to share some good news with all of you.

(2) First, the city has approved our request for a second water line. Last year, volunteers carried buckets from the single spigot near the gate, which slowed down every watering shift. The new line will run along the back fence and will serve the twelve raised beds in that area.

(3) Second, we will start a composting program in May. At this point in time, due to the fact that we have more volunteers than ever before, we can finally staff a weekly compost shift. Volunteers on this shift will turn the piles, record the temperature, and add dry leaves when the mix becomes too wet.

(4) Third, our partnership with Lincoln Elementary School will continue. When Ms. Okafor met with Ms. Reyes, she agreed to donate 200 tomato and pepper seedlings from the school greenhouse. Students will visit the garden on three Saturdays to help plant them.

(5) Finally, a reminder about our shared tools. Several shovels and two wheelbarrows were left outside last fall, and the rain ruined the handles. Please return every tool to the shed at the end of your shift. The committee is gonna be super strict about this rule from now on, so please take it seriously.

(6) The volunteer sign-up sheet for April and May is now available on our website. Each shift lasts two hours, and no experience is needed. If you have never gardened before, an experienced volunteer will work alongside you until you feel comfortable.

(7) Thank you for everything you do. Our garden grew more than 1,500 pounds of produce for the Westside Food Pantry last year, and with your help, we can grow even more this season.

Sincerely,
Tomas Reyna

From: Tomas Reyna, Volunteer Coordinator
To: Maple Street Community Garden volunteers
Subject: Spring update and volunteer schedule

Dear Volunteers,

(1) I hope you enjoyed the winter break. The garden committee has finalized it's budget for the coming season, and I am happy to share some good news with all of you.

(2) First, the city has approved our request for a second water line. Last year, volunteers carried buckets from the single spigot near the gate, which slowed down every watering shift. The new line will run along the back fence and will serve the twelve raised beds in that area.

(3) Second, we will start a composting program in May. At this point in time, due to the fact that we have more volunteers than ever before, we can finally staff a weekly compost shift. Volunteers on this shift will turn the piles, record the temperature, and add dry leaves when the mix becomes too wet.

(4) Third, our partnership with Lincoln Elementary School will continue. When Ms. Okafor met with Ms. Reyes, she agreed to donate 200 tomato and pepper seedlings from the school greenhouse. Students will visit the garden on three Saturdays to help plant them.

(5) Finally, a reminder about our shared tools. Several shovels and two wheelbarrows were left outside last fall, and the rain ruined the handles. Please return every tool to the shed at the end of your shift. The committee is gonna be super strict about this rule from now on, so please take it seriously.

(6) The volunteer sign-up sheet for April and May is now available on our website. Each shift lasts two hours, and no experience is needed. If you have never gardened before, an experienced volunteer will work alongside you until you feel comfortable.

(7) Thank you for everything you do. Our garden grew more than 1,500 pounds of produce for the Westside Food Pantry last year, and with your help, we can grow even more this season.

Sincerely,
Tomas Reyna

(1) To: All field staff, Brightwater Home Health
From: Denise Okafor, Finance Manager
Date: April 8
Subject: New process for mileage reimbursement starting May 1

Beginning May 1, Brightwater will use a new process for reimbursing the miles you drive between patient visits. This memo explains what is changing, what is staying the same and how to get help.

(2) Over the past year, the paper mileage log has caused real headaches. Logs were lost between offices, handwriting was sometimes hard to read, and each form had to be checked by hand. On average, staff waited about three weeks to be paid back. Several of you told us that this delay made it hard to cover gas costs, especially at the end of the month.

(3) Under the new process, you will record trips in the RouteLog app on your phone. The app uses your location to measure the distance between visits, so there is nothing to add up. Submit your trips by noon each Monday. Trips submitted on time will be paid in your next paycheck instead of weeks later.

(4) Some things are not changing. The reimbursement rate per mile stays the same. As before, the drive from your home to your first visit of the day and from your last visit back home is treated as a normal commute and is not reimbursed. Personal stops during the day should still be left off your record.

(5) We know that not everyone has a smartphone or wants to use one for work. Staff in that situation may borrow a company tablet from their branch office. We will also hold two paid training sessions, on April 22 at 8:00 a.m. and April 24 at 4:00 p.m., in the main conference room. Each session lasts about forty-five minutes.

(6) Paper logs will be accepted for trips through April 30 only. If you have questions, contact the finance office at extension 214. Thank you for your patience while we make this process faster and easier for everyone.

(1) Today, visitors to the small river town of Millbrook notice something odd about the houses on Water Street: most of them sit on tall concrete foundations, with five or six steps up to the front door. The steps are a reminder of the night in 1998 when the Pine River rose eleven feet in less than a day.

(2) Millbrook had flooded before, but never like that. For weeks, heavy spring rain had fallen on ground that was still frozen in the hills upstream. Because frozen soil cannot soak up water, nearly all of the rain ran straight into the river. On the night of April 14, the water topped the old earthen levee and poured into the lower part of town. More than two hundred homes were damaged, and the town's only grocery store was ruined.

(3) In the months that followed, the town faced a hard question: should people rebuild exactly as before? Many residents wanted to. Their families had lived on Water Street for generations, and rebuilding the same houses seemed like the fastest way to get life back to normal. But the town's insurance costs had soared, and engineers warned that a flood of similar size could happen again.

(4) The turning point came at a crowded town meeting that November. Ana Ruiz, a nurse whose house had filled with four feet of water, stood up and described carrying her elderly neighbor through the flood in the dark. "I don't want to do that again," she said. "And I don't want my kids to." Several people later said her story changed the mood in the room. By the end of the night, the council voted to study new building rules instead of simply rebuilding.

(5) The rules passed the following spring. Any new or rebuilt home in the flood zone had to sit at least three feet above the 1998 water line. Electrical boxes and furnaces had to be placed on upper floors. The town also used state and federal grants to buy out about forty of the lowest-lying properties. Those lots were turned into a riverside park designed to hold water during floods.

(6) The changes were not cheap or popular with everyone. Raising a house added thousands of dollars to the cost of rebuilding, and some families moved away rather than pay it. Yet the rules were tested in 2011, when the Pine River rose nearly as high as it had in 1998. This time, only a handful of homes reported serious damage, and the park filled with water exactly as planned. Within a few years, the town's flood insurance costs had begun to fall.

(1) A proposal to build a large distribution warehouse on the edge of Millbrook has drawn strong reactions from residents, with some welcoming the promise of new jobs and others warning of heavy truck traffic.

(2) Brightpath Logistics, a shipping company based in Ohio, wants to build a 600,000-square-foot warehouse on 80 acres of farmland along Route 9. According to the company's application, the warehouse would employ about 450 full-time workers and operate twenty-four hours a day. The site is about one mile from Millbrook Elementary School.

(3) Company spokesperson Alan Reyes said the project would bring "steady jobs with benefits" to a town where the largest employer, a paper mill, closed in 2019. Brightpath says starting pay would be $19 an hour. "We want to be a good neighbor," Reyes said. "We will plant trees along Route 9 and pay for a new traffic light."

(4) Not everyone is convinced. Linda Marsh, who has lived on Route 9 for thirty years, said she worries about safety. A traffic study submitted with the application estimates that the warehouse would bring about 300 truck trips per day. "My grandkids wait for the school bus right there," Marsh said. "I can't imagine three hundred trucks going by them."

(5) Others see the warehouse as a lifeline. Darnell Fisher, who lost his job when the paper mill closed, now drives forty minutes each way to work at a factory in another county. "If I could work ten minutes from home, I'd get an hour of my life back every day," he said.

(6) Some residents raised other questions at a public meeting last week, including whether the town's water system could handle the building and what would happen to nearby property values. Town engineer Kim Osei said those questions are being studied and that a report is expected by early December.

(7) The town Planning Board will vote on the proposal at its December 16 meeting at Town Hall. Residents may submit written comments to the board until December 9.

Northgate Regional Hospital: Employee Handbook, Section 7.4 Tuition Assistance Policy

(1) Purpose. Northgate Regional Hospital supports employees who want to build their skills and advance their careers. Under this policy, the hospital will reimburse eligible employees for part of the cost of approved courses.

(2) Eligibility. To qualify, an employee must (a) be scheduled to work at least 24 hours per week, (b) have completed 6 months of continuous employment by the course start date, and (c) be in good standing, meaning the employee has received no written warning in the past 12 months.

(3) Approved courses. Courses must be taken at an accredited college, university, or technical school, and must relate to the employee's current job or to a position the employee could reasonably move into at Northgate. Examples include nursing, medical coding, health information technology, and supervisory management. GED preparation and English-language classes are approved for any eligible employee, whatever his or her job. Courses taken only for personal interest, such as photography or cooking, are not eligible.

(4) Amount. The hospital will reimburse 75 percent of tuition, up to $3,000 per calendar year. Books, parking, and lab fees are not covered.

(5) How to apply. Submit a Tuition Request Form to Human Resources at least 30 days before the course begins. Requests submitted late will not be approved. Human Resources will respond to each request within 10 business days. After you finish the course, submit your grade report and tuition receipt within 60 days. Reimbursement requires a grade of C or better, or a "pass" in a pass/fail course.

(6) Repayment. An employee who leaves Northgate voluntarily within 12 months after receiving a reimbursement must repay the full amount of that reimbursement. Employees who are laid off do not have to repay.

(7) Questions. Contact the Human Resources office at extension 4410.

(1) Every winter for more than a century, volunteers across North America have spent a day counting birds. They record every species they see and how many. At first, the counts were simply a holiday tradition. Today, the long record they have built is one of scientists' best tools for seeing how bird populations change over time.

(2) When researchers compared recent counts with those from the 1960s, they noticed a pattern. Many species were being seen farther north in winter than before. The purple finch, for example, now spends the winter much farther north than it did a few decades ago. Not every species moved, and some moved only a little, but the overall direction was clear.

(3) Over the same period, average winter temperatures across much of the continent have risen. Lakes freeze later in the fall and thaw earlier in the spring. Many scientists think the shift in bird ranges is linked to these changes. Birds that once had to fly far south to find unfrozen water or food can now survive the winter in places that used to be too cold.

(4) Some kinds of birds seem to handle change better than others. Birds that eat many different foods, such as seeds, berries, insects, and the offerings at backyard feeders, can often move into a new area and find something to eat. Birds that depend on a single kind of food or habitat have a harder time. A bird that nests only in one type of evergreen forest, for example, cannot move north faster than that forest can grow there, and forests spread very slowly.

(5) Timing is another problem. Many songbirds migrate thousands of miles each spring to raise their young where insects are plentiful. Their migration is triggered mostly by the changing length of the day, which a warming climate does not affect. But in many places, spring warmth now arrives earlier, and insects hatch earlier too. A bird that arrives on its usual date may find that the peak of the insect supply has already passed, leaving less food for its chicks.

(6) Scientists are now using the volunteers' counts, along with newer tools such as tiny tracking devices, to predict which species are most at risk. Some cities and states are also protecting "stepping-stone" habitats, such as patches of forest, wetland, and grassland, so that birds have places to stop and find food as their ranges change.

(7) The birds at your feeder this winter may look the same as always. But the map of where they live is quietly being redrawn.

Text 1 — Turf Will Keep Our Fields Open (report summary by Dana Whitfield, fictional director of the Linwood Parks Department)

(1) Linwood's three grass ball fields at Millstone Park cannot keep up with demand. I recommend replacing them with artificial turf next spring.

(2) Our department's field logs show that, over the past five years, rain and mud closed the grass fields an average of 61 days per year. During those closures, 38 youth and adult teams had games canceled or moved out of town. Turf fields drain within an hour of a storm, and the manufacturer we are considering rates its surface as playable about 340 days a year.

(3) Turf would also lower our yearly costs. Mowing, watering, fertilizing and reseeding the grass fields cost the department 48,000 dollars last year. The manufacturer estimates that turf maintenance (brushing, cleaning and adding rubber fill) would cost about 12,000 dollars a year.

(4) Installation will cost 1.4 million dollars. However, the state has already awarded Linwood a 900,000 dollar recreation grant that can be used only for field improvements. The remaining 500,000 dollars would come from the parks capital fund, which voters approved in 2022 for this kind of project.

(5) Some residents worry about heat. Turf surfaces do get hotter than grass on sunny days. To address this, the plan includes shade structures for the team benches and a policy, used by many school districts, of checking surface temperature before summer games.

Text 2 — Keep Millstone Park Green (letter to the editor from Rick Paulsen, a Linwood parent)

(6) My daughter played a soccer game on a turf field in another town last July. She came home with red marks on her legs and said the field felt like a frying pan. That tells me everything I need to know about artificial turf.

(7) Everyone knows plastic grass is full of chemicals. Why would we let our kids roll around on it? The parks department says turf is safe, but of course the people selling it would say that.

(8) The cost is also outrageous. Turf has to be replaced after about ten years, and nobody at city hall wants to talk about that bill.

(9) If we cover these fields in plastic today, what is next? Soon the city will pave over every tree in Millstone Park. Linwood has always been a green town, and real families want real grass. Let's keep it that way.

Text 1 — A Ban Would Hurt Working People (op-ed by Tom Brannigan, owner of a fictional Oak Hollow landscaping company)

(1) The town council wants to ban gas-powered leaf blowers starting next year. As someone who has run a landscaping business here for 22 years, I can tell you this ban would be a disaster.

(2) My crew of six depends on gas blowers. Battery blowers are weak toys. I tried one at a trade show, and it barely moved a pile of wet leaves. If the ban passes, we will have two choices: buy equipment that does not work or go back to rakes and triple our prices.

(3) A friend who runs a lawn service in another state told me that half the landscapers in his town went out of business after a similar ban. Is that what the council wants for Oak Hollow?

(4) The people pushing this ban are mostly retirees who have nothing better to do than complain about noise. Hardworking families should not lose their jobs so that a few people can enjoy a quiet morning.

Text 2 — Quieter, Cleaner Yards Are Within Reach (op-ed by Grace Okafor, a fictional public health nurse in Oak Hollow)

(5) Gas-powered leaf blowers create two serious problems: noise and air pollution. A phased ban, with help for local businesses, would solve both.

(6) Last fall, the town's environmental office measured blower noise at 50 feet. Gas models registered 70 to 75 decibels; battery models registered 58 to 65. Because the decibel scale is logarithmic, a 10-decibel drop sounds roughly half as loud to the human ear.

(7) Small gas engines also pollute heavily. The state air-quality board reports that running a commercial gas blower for one hour releases about as much smog-forming pollution as driving a typical car for several hundred miles. Workers who stand next to these engines all day breathe the most exhaust.

(8) Battery equipment has improved. Two Oak Hollow schools switched their grounds crews to battery blowers last year, and the crew supervisor reported that the work took about the same amount of time. Neighboring Ridgeway passed a similar ban in 2021; its business license records show that the number of landscaping companies there grew from 14 to 16 since then.

(9) The proposal gives businesses two years to switch and offers rebates of up to 40 percent on new battery equipment. That is a fair way to protect both workers' health and their livelihoods.

A student wrote this first draft in response to the two texts about ending overdue fines at the Millbrook Public Library. The draft needs revision.

(1) Should libraries charge fines for late books? This question has caused debate in Millbrook. The library director, Rosa Delgado, wants to end fines, but council member Gary Ott wants to keep them. In this essay I will talk about both texts.

(2) Delgado gives specific numbers to back up her claim. She reports that about 6,200 residents have blocked cards, mostly in the two lowest-income neighborhoods. She also points out that fines brought in about 38,000 dollars, less than 1 percent of the library's budget. My cousin once had her library card blocked, and she was really annoyed. These figures show that fines shut out thousands of people while raising very little money.

(3) After Lakeport dropped fines in 2019, 95 percent of items were still returned within a month of the due date. More than 2,000 residents with blocked cards came back to the library. This answers the worry that people will stop returning books. Delgado adds that the library would still bill patrons for books that are never returned.

(4) Lakeport's results suggest the opposite. Ott's argument is weaker. He says fines teach responsibility, but his only support is a memory of paying a quarter as a boy. For example, he claims that without fines "the library will become a free-for-all," yet he offers no evidence for this prediction.

(5) To be fair, Ott makes one reasonable point. The city budget is tight. Therefore, the fine money is small compared with the staff time that fines require, as Delgado explains. Ott's amnesty day would help a little, but it would leave thousands of cards blocked for the rest of the year.

(6) Libraries are important. Everyone should read more books.

Text 1 — A Curfew Will Keep Teens Safe (statement by Ray Donnelly, fictional police chief of Easton)

(1) I am asking the Easton town council to adopt a curfew that would require anyone under 17 to be off public streets between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., unless they are with a parent, working, or traveling to or from a school or religious event.

(2) Juvenile arrests in Easton rose 30 percent last summer, from 20 to 26. Many of these incidents involved groups of teens gathered late at night in Riverside Park.

(3) A curfew gives officers a simple tool. Instead of waiting for trouble, officers could stop and send home young people who should not be out late. When the nearby town of Milford adopted a curfew, its mayor said the streets "felt calmer."

(4) Parents also want help. At a recent community meeting, several parents told me they worry when their teens stay out late.

(5) Nothing good happens on the streets after midnight. A curfew protects young people from becoming victims or getting into trouble.

Text 2 — Curfews Miss the Real Problem (op-ed by Monica Reyes, fictional director of the Easton Youth Center)

(6) Everyone wants Easton's young people to be safe. But a curfew would target the wrong hours and the wrong people.

(7) Our police department's own incident data for the past three years show that 57 percent of juvenile incidents happened between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on school days. Only 9 percent happened between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., the hours the curfew would cover.

(8) Research points the same way. A review that combined the results of a dozen studies of youth curfews in U.S. cities found no consistent drop in juvenile crime or in young people becoming victims of crime after curfews took effect.

(9) A rise from 20 to 26 arrests sounds alarming as a percentage, but six additional arrests in a town of 18,000 people could easily reflect normal ups and downs from year to year.

(10) Easton would do more good by keeping its youth center open until 8 p.m. on school days. Last spring, when we extended our hours for a pilot program, the center served an average of 65 teens each afternoon.

A student wrote this first draft in response to the two texts about a teen curfew in Easton. The draft has errors in style, grammar and sentence structure.

(1) Easton's police chief wants a curfew for teens under 17, but the director of the town's youth center thinks a curfew would target the wrong hours. Both writers want young people to be safe, yet they disagree about how to protect them. Reyes's argument is way more convincing than Donnelly's.

(2) Donnelly's main statistic is a 30 percent rise in juvenile arrests. Which sounds serious. However, the actual numbers were only 20 and 26. Reyes points out that six extra arrests in a town of 18,000 people could just be a normal change, this weakens Donnelly's whole case.

(3) The data on timing are even more important. According to police records, 57 percent of juvenile incidents happens between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on school days. Only 9 percent happened during curfew hours. When Reyes compared these numbers with Donnelly's plan, she showed that it would miss most of the problem. In other words, the curfew would cover the hours when the fewest problems occur.

(4) Donnelly also leans on stuff like a mayor's comment that the streets "felt calmer". Feelings are not evidence. Reyes, in contrast, relies on research. Looking at a dozen studies, no consistent drop in juvenile crime was found.

(5) Each of the parents at Donnelly's meeting have a real concern, and I get it. But a curfew isn't the answer. Reyes reports that a spring pilot program at her center drew an average of 65 teens each afternoon. Keeping the youth center open later are a more practical solution.

A student wrote this first draft in response to the two texts about a teen curfew in Easton. The draft has errors in style, grammar and sentence structure.

(1) Easton's police chief wants a curfew for teens under 17, but the director of the town's youth center thinks a curfew would target the wrong hours. Both writers want young people to be safe, yet they disagree about how to protect them. Reyes's argument is way more convincing than Donnelly's.

(2) Donnelly's main statistic is a 30 percent rise in juvenile arrests. Which sounds serious. However, the actual numbers were only 20 and 26. Reyes points out that six extra arrests in a town of 18,000 people could just be a normal change, this weakens Donnelly's whole case.

(3) The data on timing are even more important. According to police records, 57 percent of juvenile incidents happens between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. on school days. Only 9 percent happened during curfew hours. When Reyes compared these numbers with Donnelly's plan, she showed that it would miss most of the problem. In other words, the curfew would cover the hours when the fewest problems occur.

(4) Donnelly also leans on stuff like a mayor's comment that the streets "felt calmer". Feelings are not evidence. Reyes, in contrast, relies on research. Looking at a dozen studies, no consistent drop in juvenile crime was found.

(5) Each of the parents at Donnelly's meeting have a real concern, and I get it. But a curfew isn't the answer. Reyes reports that a spring pilot program at her center drew an average of 65 teens each afternoon. Keeping the youth center open later are a more practical solution.