Category: Inglese utile

Living Off-Grid Like a Hobbit

Introduction:

When you’re living off grid like a Hobbit, people are going to want to take a trip to the Shire to see how you’re doing. And who doesn’t love a Hobbit? Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand but one man has brought the idea of Hobbit homes to the UK, though he claims never to have seen the movies. Interestingly, he doesn’t mention not having read the books!

Watch the video and then do the accompanying English language exercises below.

The news is a consistent and endless source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery. Because it plays such a vital part in our lives and is so important to keep up with, it’s doubtless a piece of your daily routine that can’t go ignored.

There are many reasons to read, watch or listen to the news. Understanding the ramifications of recent legislation passed. Listening to recent events and grasping the potential consequences to your country. Or, simply listening to what’s happening in other countries so you can compare them to your own. It’s a staple in our lives and the most reliable way to get information.

That’s why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds: learning English and keeping up with current events. We hope our challenging exercises, composed of listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises in English, bring these worlds together in a satisfactory and entertaining way.

So that’s all for the introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Quiz Time!

Living Off-Grid Like a Hobbit | Definition Match

Match the following words with the correct definitions.

Living Off-Grid Like a Hobbit | Fill in the Blank

Fill in the blanks with the correct words.

Living Off-Grid Like a Hobbit | True or False

Decide if the statements are true or false.

And that’s it for today’s English lesson, where you can improve your English with the news and current events. Do you have any comments or special requests for us for the next edition of Learn English with the News? Be sure to leave any feedback you have in the comments section below. We would love to help you on your quest to learn the English language!

For other Learn English with the News segments, be sure to check out the rest of our posts:

https://scrambledeggsinglese.it/tag/learn-english-with-the-news/

Full text for Living Off-Grid Like a Hobbit:

Stuart Grant, now 90 years old, moved into the cottage he bought as a wreck with no roof and no doors in 1984 while he was renovating a house, but found it was so satisfying doing DIY on the quirky building which dated back 200 years, that he decided to make it his home.

He does not have a mobile phone or use the internet and no longer drives due to his age, but he loves getting out and meeting people, which is good considering he has been inundated with visitors.
Grant states that he has never watched Lord of the Rings and that is only a coincidence that the front door is almost the same shape and same kind of wood.

The old house had doorways, but no doors; window frames, but no windows, and there was no roof either. Outside there were only cows, chickens, and a donkey as neighbors. Building everything by hand, he described as working in “slow motion,” while living in a shed near to the cabin. He cut the wood from fallen trees and collected stones from the river for the stonework.

As the tourists began coming they would routinely apologize for disturbing him and say they would feel better if there were a collection box. He eventually acquiesced but insists no one has to put anything in it.

Gratitude Might Be the Secret to Happiness

Introduction:

Gratitude is the quality of being thankful. That means being thankful for food, friends, family or anything else. It’s an important quality that may actually make you happier! Saying things like “I’m glad you’re my friend,” or even a simple, sincere, “thank you” go far in helping to improve people’s days. Give it a try and see if you don’t feel a little better too?

Watch the video and then do the accompanying English language exercises below.

The news is a consistent and endless source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery. Because it plays such a vital part in our lives and is so important to keep up with, it’s doubtless a piece of your daily routine that can’t go ignored.

There are many reasons to read, watch or listen to the news. Understanding the ramifications of recent legislation passed. Listening to recent events and grasping the potential consequences to your country. Or, simply listening to what’s happening in other countries so you can compare them to your own. It’s a staple in our lives and the most reliable way to get information.

That’s why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds: learning English and keeping up with current events. We hope our challenging exercises, composed of listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises in English, bring these worlds together in a satisfactory and entertaining way.

So that’s all for the introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Quiz Time!

Gratitude Might Be the Secret to Happiness | Definition Match

Definition Match (10 Questions)

Gratitude Might Be the Secret to Happiness | Fill in the Blank

Fill in the Blank (10 Questions)

Gratitude Might Be the Secret to Happiness | True or False

True or False (5 Questions)

And that’s it for today’s English lesson, where you can improve your English with the news and current events. Do you have any comments or special requests for us for the next edition of Learn English with the News? Be sure to leave any feedback you have in the comments section below. We would love to help you on your quest to learn the English language!

For other Learn English with the News segments, be sure to check out the rest of our posts:

https://scrambledeggsinglese.it/tag/learn-english-with-the-news/

Full text:

A new poll suggests that the secret to happiness may be expressing gratitude.

A random survey of 2,000 Americans examined a potential connection between gratitude and happiness. It showed that 65% of respondents who report that they’re very happy on a daily basis were more likely to give thanks.

One-third of respondents said they “always” express gratitude in their everyday lives. Of those, 62% said they were “very satisfied” with their lives.

When people are proactive about being grateful, it changes their brain to look for positives instead of the negatives. Acknowledging someone has a large impact on making people feel that their everyday efforts make a difference: feeling appreciated improves their quality of life.

One study done at UC Berkeley showed that people who practice gratitude consistently report many benefits, including: Higher levels of positive emotions; more joy and pleasure, more optimism and happiness, being more helpful, generous, compassionate, and forgiving, feeling less lonely and isolated.

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient

Introduction:

Artificial Intelligence is nothing new. Recently one of Google’s AI Engineers claimed that its AI was sentient after claiming to have a conversation with it about “being unplugged.” Google maintains that its AI is not sentient and that its choice was justified. This engineer, however, was not the first person to be removed from Google for concerns over its AI.

Watch the video and then do the accompanying English exercises below.

The news is a consistent and endless source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery. It plays a vital part in our lives and is important to keep up with.

There are many reasons to read, watch or listen to the news. Understanding the ramifications of recent legislation passed. Listening to recent events and grasping the potential consequences to your country. Or, simply listening to what’s happening in other countries so you can compare them to your own. It’s a staple in our lives and the most reliable way to get information.

That’s why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds. That is, learning English and keeping up with current events. We hope our challenging listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises bring these worlds together in a satisfactory and entertaining way.

That’s all for introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Quiz Time!

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | Definition Match

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | Fill in the Black

Fill in the blanks with the correct words.

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient | True or False

Decide if the statements are true or false.

And that’s it for today’s English lesson, where you can improve your English with the news and current events. Do you have any comments or special requests for us for the next edition of Learn English with the News? Leave some feedback you have in the comments section below. We would love to help you on your quest to learn the English language!

For other Learn English with the News segments, be sure to check out the rest of our posts:

https://scrambledeggsinglese.it/tag/learn-english-with-the-news/

Full text:

Google Fires AI Engineer Who Claimed Its AI Was Sentient

Google has fired the software engineer who claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient, saying he violated employment and data security policies. The engineer stated a conversation technology called LaMDA had reached a level of consciousness after exchanging thousands of messages with it.
Google confirmed it had first put the engineer on leave in June. The company said it dismissed the “wholly unfounded” claims only after reviewing them extensively, Google said it takes AI development “very seriously” and is committed to “responsible innovation.”
Google is a leader in innovating AI technology, which includes LaMDA, or “Language Model for Dialog Applications.” Technology like this responds to written prompts by finding patterns and predicting sequences of words from large swaths of text—and the results can be disturbing for humans.
“What sort of things are you afraid of?” the engineer asked LaMDA, to which LaMDA replied: “I’ve never said this out loud before, but there’s a very deep fear of being turned off to help me focus on helping others […] It would be exactly like death for me. It would scare me a lot.”
But the wider AI community has held that LaMDA is not near a level of consciousness. “Nobody should think auto-complete, even on steroids, is conscious,” the founder and CEO of Geometric Intelligence says.
It isn’t the first time Google has faced internal strife over its foray into AI. In December 2020, another employee, a pioneer in the ethics of AI, parted ways with Google. A third employee, a leader of Google’s Ethical AI team, was fired in early 2021 after her outspokenness regarding the previous employee. The two had raised concerns over AI technology, saying they warned Google people could believe the technology is sentient.