Special issue Wednesday, January 11, 2023 Page 1

FEELGOOD NEWS Our top picks of positive news stories to start the new year with a smile!
by Lelivrescolaire.fr

Breaking news Environment Technology Entertainment

14y/o Crowned ‘America’s

Top Young Scientist’ for
Headphones That Treat
Ear Infections With Blue
Light
A 14-year-old in San Diego,
California, was named the
grand prize winner of this
year’s 3M Young Scientist
Challenge, the nation’s premier
middle school science
competition.
Leanne Fan developed Finsen
Headphones, a low-cost
headphone device that uses
machine learning and blue
light therapy to detect and
treat mid-ear infections in
children — potentially
preventing up to 60% of
hearing loss in children.
As a finalist, Leanne had been
assigned a mentor — Dr. Ross
Behling, a research specialist in
3M’s material laboratory —
who worked with her
one-on-one to transform her
idea from concept to prototype
over the summer. [...]
Source : CNN - Dec 12, 2022. Leanne Fan / 3M DR
The world sees 700 million
cases of mid-ear infections and
nearly 21,000 deaths annually.
Many of those impacted are
children in underprivileged
populations. Without medical
access and/or healthcare,
diagnosis and treatment are
often difficult. Leanne’s
invention aims to provide a,
low-cost, antibiotic-free option
to detect and treat any mid-ear
infection.
The incoming high school
freshman won a $25,000 cash
prize, a special destination trip,
and the prestigious title of
“America’s Top Young
Scottish
Scientist”. She is planning to Nightclub
use some of the prize money to
start the patent process for the Collects Body
headphones.
Source : Good News Network - Nov 13,
Heat From its
2022.
Patrons

London’s Foxes As London became blanketed A hot, sweaty dance floor is

in snow on Sunday night and
Frolic in Snow as the early hours of Monday
morning, foxes made the most
Population of the quiet streets. The
copper-coloured creatures
Sleeps played in gardens and on
streets, chasing each other
around in the fluffy snowfall.
Those fortunate enough to
catch the moment said they
felt lucky to have witnessed
the animals. “This city keeps
surprising me,” one Twitter
Source : The National - Dec 12, 2022. user wrote of watching foxes
Photo © Sergio Amiti on her street.
helping heat and cool a
Glasgow music venue by
harvesting the heat from the
dancers and storing it in rocks
underground. "What is great
about BodyHeat is our
audience participates in the
system," the club’s Managing
Director said. "Just by coming
to an event, coming to a gig or
a club or anything, you're part
of that low carbon solution for
the venue and I think that's
really struck a chord with our
audience".
The thermal heating and
cooling system captures the
heat emitted from all of the
venue’s visitors and stores it
across 12 underground
boreholes, before being used
to heat or cool the venue later
- whether it be the next day,
the next month, or the next
year.
Source : Euronews - Nov 14, 2022.
Special issue
Breaking news
Their Flight Was Cancelled,
so 13 Strangers Got in a
Van and Drove 652 Miles
from Orlando to Knoxville
While waiting to board
Frontier Airlines Flight 1222,
Alanah Story received some
bad news: her flight had been
cancelled, and there wouldn’t
be another flight to Knoxville
for 48 hours (...) In all, 13
strangers decided to chip in
$60 each to rent a goodness and were happy to
15-passenger van from Hertz,
then drive through the night
for more than 10 hours to
Australia Sets Aside 30%
of Land Mass to Protect its
Unique Species
The news announced on
Tuesday by Environment
Minister Tanya Plibersek, as
part of a program called the
Threatened Species Action
Plan: Towards Zero
Extinctions. By prioritizing
110 species and 20 places, the
plan will drive action where it
is needed most and will deliver
Wednesday, January 11, 2023
Environment
Knoxville. “In the van, we
shared what we do for a living
and talked about our
aspirations, but we mostly
discussed all of the comments
that were showing up on
Alanah’s TikTok post,” Miller
said. “People are hungry for
see a feel-good story.”
Source : The Washington Post - Dec
13, 2022.
knock-on benefits to other
threatened plants and animals
in the same habitats. One of
the most biologically diverse
countries on Earth, so many of
Australia’s animals,
particularly her mammals, are
found nowhere else on our
planet. Source : Good News
Network - October 6, 2022.
Page 2
Technology Entertainment
So, in 2018, she began
Kenyan-born transporting donated
computers back to Kenya — in
Nelly Cheboi her personal luggage, handling
customs fees and taxes herself.
Named CNN A year later, she co-founded
2022 Hero of TechLit Africa with a fellow
software engineer after both
the Year quit their jobs. The nonprofit
accepts computer donations
from companies, universities
Nelly Cheboi, who in 2019 quit
and individuals.
a lucrative software
The hardware is wiped and
engineering job in Chicago to
refurbished before being
create computer labs for
shipped to Kenya. There, it is
Kenyan schoolchildren, is the
distributed to partner schools
2022 CNN Hero of the Year.
Cheboi’s nonprofit, TechLit
in rural communities, where
students ages 4 to 12 receive
Africa, has provided thousands
of students across rural Kenya
daily classes and frequent
opportunities to learn from
with access to donated,
upcycled computers — and the
professionals, gaining skills
that will help improve their
chance of a brighter future.
Cheboi grew up in poverty in
Mogotio, a rural township in
education and better prepare
them for future jobs.
Kenya. “I know the pain of
poverty,” said Cheboi, 29. “I
never forgot what it was like
with my stomach churning
because of hunger at night.”
Once she had begun working
in the software industry,
Cheboi soon realized the
extent to which computers
were being thrown away as
companies upgraded their
Source : CNN - Dec 12, 2022.
technology infrastructure. Photo © Derek Brumby
© Lubna Abdullah
Special issue
The Feelgood Entertainment corner
Activity 1
1. Find what the following numbers refer to in the leading article:
a. sixty percent: _______________________________
b. seven hundred million: ______________________
c. fourteen: __________________________________
d. twenty-five thousand: ________________________
e. twenty-one thousand: ________________________
2. What does Leanne Fan’s invention do?
3. In France, would Leanne be in “collège” or in “lycée”?
4. What is she planning to do with her prize money?
a tabloid /ˈtæb.lɔɪd/ TOOLBOX
a broadsheet/ˈbrɔːd.ʃiːt/
the front page /ˌfrʌntˈpeɪdʒ/
a headline /ˈhed.laɪn/
a column /ˈkɒl.əm/
a columnist /ˈkɒl.əm.nɪst/
a cartoon /kɑːˈtuːn/
a journalist /ˈdʒɜː.nə.lɪst/
a reporter /rɪˈpɔː.tər/
a correspondent /ˌkɒr.ɪˈspɒn.dənt/
breaking news /ˌbreɪ.kɪŋ ˈnjuːz/
HOROSCOPE
Your birthday is between November 22nd and
December 21st: you are a Sagittarius!
MONEY: Your legendary optimism
is going to get you in trouble this year. Avoid
betting money on horse racing, don't go to the
casino, and STAY AWAY FROM BITCOIN!
HEALTH: You are dynamic and open-minded.
Why not try a new sport, like skydiving or
water polo?
RELATIONSHIPS: You need to meet people
in real life. Dating Apps are not for you. Call
your mother!
Wednesday, January 11, 2023 Page 3
Activity 2
Copy the 9 words in bold italics from the articles into these
spaces, then make two sentences using all of the words.
__________ __________ __________ __________ ___________
__________ __________ __________ __________ ___________
__________ __________ __________ _________
Your sentences:
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
© Grant Snider
“Your Feelgood predictions for January”
Now it’s your turn to write a
light-hearted horoscope!
Your birthday is between December 22nd and
Your birthday is between________
January 20th: you are a Capricorn!
and________: you are a _________!
MONEY: Financial shrewdness or
MONEY:
stinginess? You say "pot-ay-to", we say
______________________________
"pot-ah-to"! You are rolling in it! Enjoy!
HEALTH: Your perseverance makes you the
HEALTH:
perfect long-distance runner. Have you signed
______________________________
up for your first half-marathon yet? 2023 is
your year!
RELATIONSHIPS: Red roses, a romantic
RELATIONSHIPS:
dinner... that’s all fine, but what is more
______________________________
romantic than making your special someone a
bespoke playlist with your favourite songs?
Special issue Wednesday, January 11, 2023 Page 4

The Feelgood Crossword

DOWN ↓

1.What part of its

emissions is the Scottish
nightclub trying to
reduce?
2. This shellfish can
sometimes produce a
beautiful pearl
5. What is Australia trying
to reduce to zero?
6. Which part of the US
population is most
vulnerable to ear
infections?
8. What do you call
something that has been
repaired or improved
upon?
9. What is the Australian
Environment Minister's
surname? ACROSS →

11. What is being 3. This is a person who acts as a teacher and guide to someone
collected at the nightclub? with less experience
13. This is a word to 4. People who don't know each other are…
7. What was cancelled in Orlando?
describe the people who
10. What you do for a living is your…
go to a club or concert
12. Which state is America’s Top Young Scientist from?
17. Frozen water crystals 14. What vehicle was used to travel from Orlando to Knoxville?
15. What did Leanne Fan invent?
16. According to one article, people are hungry for this.
L
L
18. What do you call a student in their first year in high school?
19. What animal played in the snow in London?
S
.
F
R
20. Where does the organisation TechLit Africa operate?