10th Grade Reading Comprehension (2 passages, free)

Some critics argue that public libraries are outdated in an age when information is a search away. This view misunderstands what libraries do.

First, libraries close a real gap. Millions of households lack reliable high-speed internet, and libraries provide free computers, Wi-Fi and printing that people use to apply for jobs, complete schoolwork and access government services.

Second, libraries offer something algorithms cannot: trained librarians who help people evaluate sources, find credible information and avoid misinformation. In an era of information overload, that guidance is more valuable, not less.

Finally, libraries are among the few indoor public spaces where no purchase is required. They host story times, language classes and community meetings. Cutting library funding to save money would weaken one of the most democratic institutions a community has.

In September 1928, Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming returned from vacation to his London laboratory and noticed something odd. A mold had contaminated one of his dishes of Staphylococcus bacteria, and around the mold the bacteria had died.

Fleming identified the mold as a type of Penicillium and named the bacteria-killing substance it produced “penicillin.” However, he struggled to produce it in quantities large enough to treat patients.

More than a decade later, a team at the University of Oxford led by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain developed ways to purify and mass-produce penicillin. By the end of World War II, it was saving countless lives.

In 1945, Fleming, Florey and Chain shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. The story is often told as a lucky accident, but it also shows how discoveries depend on careful observation and on many people building on one another’s work.