Oral and Listening ( Term 4 )

Unit 042 – 054

042

Section 1 : Dep. Prime Minister sings “I’m sorry”

..It was a pledge made with the best of intentions, the best of intentions. But we shouldn’t have made a promise we weren’t absolutely sure we could deliver.”…

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Nick Clegg
Prime minister

Section 2 : A bird’s eye view of London.

….completed, it will be the European Union’s tallest skyscraper. But the work isn’t for the faint-hearted. The structure reaches 310 metres. ….

Section 3 : Hong Kong’s airport expansion

….The project is likely to cost more than 17 billions dollars, much more than the existing airport. It will be an enormous undertaking. Much….

043

Section 1 : Chicago teacher’s strike

….It’s the first of its kind in twenty five years, and is awkward for President Obama, who has close ties to the mayor and whose political career was forged in Chicago….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Rahm Emanuel
Chicago Teachers Union

Section 2 : Mexican movers

….Having cemented their place in history, organisers hope the participants will continue an active lifestyle……

Section 3 : The extinction of men

….Lucky you! Here’s Jennifer Hughes from the Whitehead Institute in Cambridge Massachusetts. She was in charge of the research….

044

Section 1 : Working could kill us

…The analysis looked at data from nearly two hundred thousand people in thirteen European countries. It found that those in high strain jobs…

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Lancet medical journal
Myocardial infarction
British Heart Foundation

Section 2 : Singing grannies

….There are no spring chickens in this band: most of the singers in the Buranovo Grannies are in their 70s, but they still have plenty of stamina…..

Section 3 : Antarctic Aliens

….Yes, I thought it was mostly covered in ice. So are you saying plants are flourishing there? Do you think there might be forests there….

045

Section 1 : Nursery offers time for making babies

….In terms of birth rate, Denmark languishes at number 185 out of 221 countries in the world. If the increasingly older population continues….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

One-child policy
Birth rate: 7.54 births/1,000 population (2012 est.)

Section 2 : Packing a punch

….The seventeen-year-old has no opponents she can fight at home, so has travelled to Wales to practise…..

Section 3 : Farewell Bush House

….I don’t know whether it’s just the physical building, the bricks and mortar of Bush House, or the fact that we have a sort of United Nations of broadcasting….

046

Section 1 : Californian stink!

….officials went searching for the sulphur smell, checking rubbish dumps, refineries and the usual suspects…..

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Air quality index
Hong Kong

Section 2 : Making a splash

….Huge sections of a massive ice wall have crashed into Lake Argentina in the Patagonia region of the country…..

Section 3 : US orbit anniversary

….It was, of course, the Soviet Union that put the first man into orbit. But when John Glenn circled the Earth three times in five….

047

Section 1 : “Draconian” drunk cycling law in Poland

….happened. My family is very sad. It’s my daughter’s wedding on Saturday and I don’t know if I can go, probably not. I think a different type of punishment would….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Alcohol laws of Hong Kong
Drunk driving

Section 2 : Bean through an animal

….It comes from beans taken from the droppings of these cat-like animals called civets. When they are eaten, the beans are fermented in the stomach by special enzymes. ….

Section 3 : Bangladesh cyber attack

….calls itself the Indian Cyber Army. A.R. Hazimul Haque, who works as consultant for the Bangladesh government, warns that there are dangers if the hackers continue….

048

Section 1 : Iran’s approaching medical crisis

….of courage to burgle somebody’s house. I wouldn’t have the nerve.” The Prime Minister, David Cameron, speaking on ITV, joined the outcry against the judge…..

Extended Topic for Discussion :

‘What my burglar son did was low… NOT courageous’: Mum tells of shame as ‘soft’ judge faces probe

Section 2 : The art of video games

….But for its latest exhibition, these rooms are full of treasures, which tell the story of the development of gaming since the 1970s…..

Section 3 : Sausage wars

….especially at 3am – but always consumed with a sense of guilt and gastric foreboding. For locals and visitors alike, consuming a foot-long klobasa is part of the Prague experience…..

049

Section 1 : High-flying president

….But now Vladimir Putin is to embark on arguably his most bizarre stunt: flying at the head of a flock of endangered Siberian cranes. According to reports, this should happen in the Yamal Peninsula, in north-western Siberia, en route to the APEC summit….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Vladimir Putin
Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation

Section 2 : Carnival climax

….The city’s best samba schools paraded amid Brazil’s carnival festivities. The venue for this event was the newly-renovated Sambadrome…..

Section 3 : Scott of the Antarctic

….Antarctica in pitch darkness. The temperatures that they endured were extraordinary. It’s very difficult, I think, for most people to understand that it’s your ability to function at those extraordinary low temperatures…..

050

Section 1 : Philippine senator’s plagiarism

….Pictures of his emotional address made the front pages of most newspapers. But soon after Mr Sotto gave his speech, a pro-birth control….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Cyberbullying
Catholicism

Section 2 : Cartoon capers

….The programmes explore various themes like animal welfare and the importance of personal hygiene…..

Section 3 : Captain’s etiquette

….on a ship. In the recent disaster involving the Costa Concordia, it was alleged the captain abandoned ship before all his passengers had escaped. Whether this is true or not, what should the captain do in such a situation?….

051

Section 1 : France’s drug wars

….alone, two this week. The police say nearly all the killings are carried out by rival drug dealers on the gritty housing estates in the north….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Anti – Drugs

Section 2 : On thin ice?

….Racing teams in Poland took advantage of the wintry weather to sail their iceboats on a frozenreservoir. ….

Section 3 : US National Film Registry

….historically important American films. The list’s been going since 1989 and around 25 titles are added annually. In part it’s to ensure….

052

Section 1 : Executions in The Gambia

….A grim lottery is being played out on death row in The Gambia. Human rights groups say at least 38 more convicts are threatened with imminent execution….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Execution by firing squad
Capital punishment

Section 2 : Canine cull

….They claim thousands have been electrocuted and poisoned in an attempt to clear the streets ahead of Euro 2012…..

Section 3 : Work emails

….they lazily use. Why don’t you walk across the office? Or, use Instant Messaging? Or, use a range of kind of social media? So….

053

Section 1 : Tracking crime on Twitter

….Scanning the airwaves for police radio conversations is something professional crime reporters have done for decades….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

Eavesdropping
Hacker (computer security)
Private investigator

Section 2 : London’s Leaning Tower?

….Cracks have been spotted in the walls of the Parliament building; recent construction work may have caused subsidence….

Section 3 : Hopes for 2012

….successfully and to getting a bit of rest. Three of my very good friends are getting married so I’m looking forward to going to a lot of weddings because I love weddings and I just think it’ll be a lovely….

054

Section 1 : Singing apes

….But how to find out if gibbons can do the same? Give them some helium. Helium raises the natural frequency just of the vocal tract but not the vocal folds. In helium-huffing gibbons, calls stayed just as piercing because….

Extended Topic for Discussion :

A Bathing Ape
Luciano Pavarotti

Section 2 : Sealed fate

….sanctuary in the Netherlands. The refuge has been overwhelmed by the arrival of hundreds washed up on the beaches…..

Section 3 : Reaching for the sky

….I’m just a bit blown away to be honest.It’s what we needed really, isn’t it, against other capitals.I’ve been on the London Eye and look how….