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The development of efficient and reliable online assessments has become increasingly important in the digital era. We developed a 10-min online word reading assessment of global English based on the existing paper-and-pencil version of our English silent word reading test. The test includes two parts, namely, random word recognition and contextual word reading. A total of 889 participants (437 children and 392 adults; 62.7% female) took part in the study. They were from various regions including mainland China, Hong Kong SAR, Macau SAR, Poland, the United States, and the Philippines. Reliability and validity analyses on various demographics samples (by age and country/region of origin) demonstrated that the WordSword Test is highly reliable and valid (e.g., the correlation of this test with other English reading measures were above.80). Education level was positively correlated with test performance, while the correlations between age and test performance were not consistent. Ninety-seven children participants also took the paper-and-pencil version of the WordSword Test. The correlation between performances on the online and paper-and-pencil versions of the test was.879, one year apart. With more children and adults taking the WordSword Test, we ultimately hope to establish norms by area, grade level, and age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents the first terrestrial record of millennial-scale palaeo-ice margin oscillations at the southern fringe of the last Fennoscandian Ice Sheet (FIS) during the last glacial cycle. The study area is located in northern Poland close to the last FIS maximum limit. The chronology and dynamics of palaeo-ice margin oscillations at the southern fringe of the FIS are based on combined luminescence and 10 Be surface exposure dating. Optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) was used to date sandy deposits (fluvioglacial sediments and aeolian deposits filling fossil periglacial wedges) intercalating basal till layers. The most likely age of the tills was constrained by Bayesian modelling of the sequence of OSL ages and lithostratigraphy. 10 Be surface exposure dating was used on erratic boulders left during the final retreat of the last FIS and resting on the surface of glacial landforms. Our results, which are mainly based on OSL chronology and Bayesian modelling, indicate millennial-scale oscillations of the last FIS in northern Poland between ∼19 and ∼17 ka. The last FIS retreated and re-advanced over a relatively short period of time (2–3 ka), leaving lithostratigraphic records (basal tills) of three ice re-advances over a millennial-scale cycle: 19.2±1.1 , 17.8±0.5 and 16.9±0.5 ka. Despite 10 Be surface exposure ages obtained for 14 erratic boulders being poorly clustered, the main mode of age distribution occurs at ∼18 ka and indicates a possible signal of the ice sheet retreat after one of the re-advances. We explore the dynamics of these oscillations and compare the proposed cycles of the southern FIS advances and retreats with existing patterns of the last deglaciation and millennial-scale fluctuations of the last FIS inferred from marine records. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]