Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Learn English While You Catch Up On The News Ep 392 Transcript 33d0a8
Learn English While You Catch Up On The News Ep 392 Transcript 33d0a8
Support
For support files and downloads related to this text, please visit https://adeptenglish.com/. At
adeptenglish.com, you can also read a collection of free articles https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/ ,
sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers from Adept English
https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/free-7-rules-of-adept-english/ .
Although we talk about a number of things happening around the world today, I just have to talk
about Brexit. For the longest time in the UK, all the news was about Brexit. Then **Brexit
happened**, and all the news was about what happens next? What we in the UK call the “Brexit
negotiations”, which are to end in 10 days.
Although the UK left the EU in January 2020, both the EU and the UK agreed to change nothing
while both sides spent a whole 12 months negotiating how both the EU and the UK would work
together in the future. So, as you might imagine, you put two teams of bureaucrats in a room and 12
months later; you have 600 pages of new rules and regulations setting out a deal **that nobody
agrees to**.
The expression ‘head start’ in English? If you have ‘a head start’, it really means that you have an
advantage over other people. In a race, a running race, if you started further forward that the other
racers, you’d have ‘a head start’. So how to learn English faster, more quickly? How to learn English
easily? Well, if you enjoy our podcasts, you can give yourself even more of a head start in the English
language, by buying one of our podcast bundles
https://adeptenglish.com/language-courses/adept-english-podcast-bundles/.
Each bundle contains 50 whole podcasts. Imagine what a lot of English words you can learn with 50
podcasts. That’s a lot of suitable English listening material for the cost and some useful tips to teach
yourself English. So visit our website at adeptenglish.com to have a look at our podcast downloads.
And what’s even better? The more podcasts you buy, the cheaper it is.
So they are still trying, still attempting to find a solution to the many issues that haven’t been
resolved, like fishing and the Irish border. Will a solution be found, or will they find a way of putting it
all off, delaying the decisions until the new year? But it’s supposed to be concluded by 1st January
2021, isn’t it? So that’s going to be interesting.
The Prime Minister Ambrose Dlamini of Eswatini, which used to be called ‘Swaziland’ – well, he died
a month after testing positive. And the President of Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza (Un-Krun-Zeeza), also
died, probably from the virus. President Jair (JI-EAR) Bolsonaro of Brazil had a positive test in the
summer and had to quarantine, but was fine afterwards.
And other leaders who’ve caught the virus and recovered - Russia's Prime Minster Mikhail Mishustin
(MISH-USTAN), back in spring, Polish President Andrzej Duda (ANDREE DOODA) in October,
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei (ALI-HANDRO YAN-MATT-EH) tested positive in
September and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune (ABDEL-MAJID TAB-BONE) is still
recovering. That’s a lot of world leaders. So best wishes to Emmanuel Macron for a speedy recovery
and apologies for my pronunciation of some of the names there.
Testing in schools
Also in the UK news this week, it’s been decided that the start of children returning to school in
January will be delayed. Part of the reason for this is that the UK government have decided to
introduce virus testing into schools, so the delay is so that the schools can get organised for testing.
Teachers are not very pleased with this – and understandably, as it’s not their normal role, it’s not
what they trained to do. The reason for this decision is that towards the end of last school term,
there’s been such disruption with children and staff having to quarantine. Whenever a child or a
teacher tests positive, whole classes have had to isolate for 10 days. And if it’s a teacher testing
positive, then all the classes they’ve taught have to isolate. So school attendance has been down –
attendance means ‘how many children attend’. And it’s really difficult to teach in those conditions.
So the aim of the plan is to test children or teachers believed to have been exposed, on a daily basis.
And the aim is to reduce the spread of the virus, by catching people who don’t have any symptoms
and yet still allow children to go to school. I agree very much that it’s important that children go to
school. Although my son is very good at doing his lessons online and doing the work which the
teachers set, he’s also missing out on so much. Learning is about socialising with other children.
Being with friends and social learning is a big part of what’s important when you’re 12 about going
to school. And teachers of subjects like PE or Physics, Drama or Art – they have a really difficult time
teaching successfully their subjects online. And with the need to lockdown perhaps lasting well into
So the army had to be brought in to distribute food and supplies. Some places in Japan had over 2
metres of snow in 72 hours. It’s difficult to deal with that much snow, however well prepared you
are. Snow has also been falling in the North East of the United States, where they had over a metre
of snow to deal with.
However, there seems to be some doubt that Boko Haram were responsible as the north west of
Nigeria is not their usual territory and there are lots of other groups operating. It sounds a very
dangerous situation, but good news at least that these boys were released.
So viruses change all the time – and we call this also a ‘mutation’. Sometimes you’ll hear the word
‘variant’ as well, meaning it’s a variation, the same, the same virus, but with small differences. Of
course, the concern, the worry here is that the virus will change, will mutate into something worse.
However, scientists are still saying that the vaccine should still be effective…...OK – I’ll not worry
then…! I guess though to put it in context, viruses do mutate all the time. And apparently this virus,
if you were to compare it with the original virus, where it all started in China, you would see around
25 mutations already, so the changing and mutating is normal. And usually the tendency is that
viruses mutate in a way which makes them less deadly, less likely to kill and in the end, that leads to
them dying out. Let’s hope so! Fingers crossed for 2021. Let’s hope it will be a better year.
Goodbye
So if you want to know how to learn the English for talking about the news, listen to this podcast
https://www.youtube.com/c/adeptenglish a number of times until you understand all of it. Then
listen again, just for practice!
Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
Links
* Learn English lesson https://adeptenglish.com/lessons/conversation-with-english-3/
* Apple https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/learn-english-through-listening/id1134891957
* Google
https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9hZGVwdGVuZ2xpc2guY29tL2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdC8
* Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/7ixeOS7ezPTZSaISIx2TTw
All rights reserved. No part of this text may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written
permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in
critical articles or reviews.
Every effort has been made in the preparation of this text to ensure the accuracy of the information
presented. However, the information contained in this text is offered or sold without warranty, either
express or implied. Neither the author nor Adept English will be held liable for any damages caused
or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this text.
Adept English has endeavoured to provide trademark information about all of the companies and
products mentioned in this text by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Adept English cannot
guarantee the accuracy of this information.
https://adeptenglish.com/