Tag: BBC News

Learn English with the News – Two Fifths of Plants are Going to Go Extinct

Global warming is both vicious and uncertain. While we don’t know exactly how much it will affect our planet over the next few years, the question doesn’t seem to be “if” but rather “how much?” Scientists have recently speculated that many more species than previously anticipated will go extinct in the near future, inflating numbers to a much larger estimate than previously imagined.

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

The news is a consistent source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery that never ceases to exist and always comes out with more and more material each day. Because it plays such a vital part in our lives and is so important to keep up with, it is without a doubt a piece of your everyday routine that can’t go ignored.

Whether it is to understand the ramifications of recent legislation passed, to hear about recent events and grasp the potential consequences to your country, or simply hear about what is happening in other countries in order to compare them to what’s happening in yours, the news is certainly a staple in our lives and the most consistent way to get information.

This is why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds: learning English and keeping up with what is happening in the world. We hope our challenging daily exercises, composed of listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises in English, will satisfy both of those above worlds in a satisfactory and also entertaining way.

So enough about introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Now that you’ve had a listen, let’s put your knowledge to the test with some of our vocabulary and comprehension exercises:

Two Fifths of Plants are Going to Go Extinct | Definition Match

Match the words to the correct definition

Two Fifths of Plants are Going to Go Extinct | Fill in the Blank

Fill the empty spaces with the proper words.

Two Fifths of Plants are Going to Go Extinct | True or False

Decide if the statement is true or false.

 

Full Text:

“Scientists all over the world are trying to give names to new plants before they are made extinct.
According to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Kew (England), plants can be used in the future for medicine, fuel and food. Plants are extremely important for the future of humans on Earth.
Species of plants are beginning to disappear due partly to climate change and partly to humans destroying many natural habitats across the world.
New studies have shown that two-fifths of the Earth’s plants are at risk of extinction. This study was conducted by more than 200 scientists in 42 countries. This research was presented on the day of the United Nations summit, which asked world leaders to take action against the loss of biodiversity.
Only a very small number of plants are being used as food and biofuels at the present time, and yet more than 7000 of them are actually eligible. This is extremely important, as many people are starving due to poverty and the global pandemic.
Around 2500 plants could also provide energy for humans, but only six crops – maize, sugarcane, soybean, palm oil, rapeseed and wheat – are currently being used.
In terms of statistics, scientists have announced that the risk of extinction is now a lot higher than they previously thought. In 2016, it was estimated that 21% of plants would become extinct. Now, it is around 39.4% – which would equal to 140,000 species!
Future medicine would really suffer due to overharvesting, with an estimated 723 plants predicted to go extinct for this reason.
In 2019, 1942 plants and 1886 fungi were discovered by scientists. This includes many species that might be valuable as food, drink, medicine, or material.”

Learn English with the News – Apple Unveils new iPhone 12 Series

The new #iPhone is out and there are quite a few changes. Most important? Price decreases that will make it more accessible to all. Beyond this, they will also be launching the most intricate phone in Apple history, and therefore also more expensive.
Watch the video and then do the accompanying English language exercises.

The news is a consistent source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery that never ceases to exist and always comes out with more and more material each day. Because it plays such a vital part in our lives and is so important to keep up with, it is without a doubt a piece of your everyday routine that can’t go ignored.

Whether it is to understand the ramifications of recent legislation passed, to hear about recent events and grasp the potential consequences to your country, or simply hear about what is happening in other countries in order to compare them to what’s happening in yours, the news is certainly a staple in our lives and the most consistent way to get information.

This is why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds: learning English and keeping up with what is happening in the world. We hope our challenging daily exercises, composed of listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises in English, will satisfy both of those above worlds in a satisfactory and also entertaining way.

So enough about introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Now that you’ve had a listen, let’s put your knowledge to the test with some of our vocabulary and comprehension exercises:

Apple Unveils new iPhone 12 Series | Definition Match

Match the words to the correct definitions.

Apple Unveils new iPhone 12 Series | Fill in the Gap

Fill the empty spaces with the proper words.

Apple Unveils new iPhone 12 Series | True or False

Decide if the statement is 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, as 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:

“Recently, Apple unveiled its new series of iPhones, the 12, 12 pro, 12 pro max and 12 mini.
In order to appeal to all economic ranges of its consumers, Apple will be charging slightly less for
the 12 and the mini, whereas the pro and pro max are the most advanced phones Apple has ever
made, and therefore come with a hefty price tag.
The pro and pro max are mostly similar but differ in screen size and camera quality. They also
come with a special sensor to help with low-light photography. The screens are now using OLED
technology rather than LED like their predecessors. This means that the devices are also around
11% thinner than before.
This new range of iPhones will be the first to function on the speedy 5G network, which CEO Tim
Cook said “will bring a new level of performance for downloads and uploads, higher quality video
streaming, more responsive gaming, real-time interactivity and so much more”.
Aesthetically, the devices have also had a re-vamp. The edges are more squared and sharper, with
flat sides instead of curved.
In an unpopular move, Apple has also announced that the phones will no longer come with a
charger or headphones in order to reduce the environmental impact. Apple are expected to suffer
a small loss in profits with the introduction of its new mini device, but it will also be a welcome
saving for the general public who want a smaller, cheaper phone.
The iPhone is the bestselling smartphone brand in the UK and the second-most popular in the
world in terms of market share.
Apple has also launched a new smart speaker, named the home pod mini. It supports a wider
range of voice commands than before, and also syncs with your home intercom system. This
speaker will be sold for £99.”

Learn English with the News – Vaccine sceptics might make trials a headache

The fight for or against vaccines has been raging in the UK, and scientists are worried that skepticism could affect the results of specific trials. Watch the video and then do the accompanying English language exercises.

The news is a consistent source of entertainment, knowledge and discovery that never ceases to exist and always comes out with more and more material each day. Because it plays such a vital part in our lives and is so important to keep up with, it is without a doubt a piece of your everyday routine that can’t go ignored. 

Whether it is to understand the ramifications of recent legislation passed, to hear about recent events and grasp the potential consequences to your country, or simply hear about what is happening in other countries in order to compare them to what’s happening in yours, the news is certainly a staple in our lives and the most consistent way to get information.

This is why Scrambled Eggs has decided to unite two of your biggest worlds: learning English and keeping up with what is happening in the world. We hope our challenging daily exercises, composed of listening, vocabulary and comprehension exercises in English, will satisfy both of those above worlds in a satisfactory and also entertaining way.

So enough about introductions, let’s get to today’s Learn English with the News topic:

Adapted from this article.

Now that you’ve had a listen, let’s put your knowledge to the test with some of our vocabulary and comprehension exercises:

Vaccine sceptics might make trials a headache | Definition Match

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

Vaccine sceptics might make trials a headache | Fill In The Blank

Fill the empty spaces with the proper words.

Vaccine sceptics might make trials a headache | True or False

Indicate which sentences are true and which ones are 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, as 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

“It will soon be critical for the NHS to start vaccinating people against flu, to prevent hospitals
being swamped with flu and Covid-19 patients this winter. Large-scale trials of Covid-19
vaccines, already under way in some places, are likely to start in Bradford in the autumn. It's
therefore worrying, says Dr John Wright of the city's Royal Infirmary, that anti-vax conspiracy
theories seem to have flourished in this pandemic.
The numbers of hospital patients continue to slowly decline in the UK, almost down to single
figures this week. There is great relief in Bradford hospital, tempered by the inevitability of a
further spike of infection. You may know of the warning from Game of Thrones – winter is
coming – and never before has that phrase been so ominous. The prediction of a second wave
of Covid-19 in January, with the added layer of an influenza epidemic, is John Wright’s worst
fear. He and his team will be working hard to make sure they vaccinate as many people for flu
as they can in the autumn.
The race for an effective Covid-19 vaccine continues at pace. Over 130 candidate vaccines have
now been developed and more than 30 are in clinical trials, with some showing promising early
signs.
The Bradford Institute of Health Research is one of just five national centres for patient
recruitment to clinical trials, and the staff have lots of expertise with testing new drugs.
However, vaccine trials are a completely different ball game. Rather than trialling new drugs on
a small number of patients with specific diseases they will be testing new vaccines on hundreds
and thousands of healthy volunteers. They have been exploring how they could use sports
centres or community halls to recruit these volunteers, and how they can scale up their
research teams to cope with the numbers.
They had been preparing for two different vaccine trials, only for the companies to pull them
from the UK at the last minute and move them to the Americas. The pandemic fires have been
dampened in Europe, but in the US and Latin America they continue to rage, and if you are
going to test a new vaccine you need countries where the virus is still accelerating.
But despite these two false starts, there will be further trials of other candidate vaccines.
It’s therefore important to win the support of the public so that they sign up to these new trials,
and to do that there is a need to counter some of the growing false news stories that the public
are hearing on community grapevines, which are leading people to believe that the vaccines are
harmful.”