Tag: English Quiz

Learn English With The News – Growers and producers against each other in France’s “champagne wars”

Covid-19 has created many problems, but who ever thought it would cause havoc on the champagne industry? Today’s English News Segment is all about the consequences and repercussions this global crisis has had on the bubbly drink we love to celebrate with. 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:

Growers and producers against each other in France's "champagne wars" | Definition Match

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

Growers and producers against each other in France's "champagne wars" | Fill In The Blank

Fill the empty spaces with the proper words.

Growers and producers against each other in France's "champagne wars" | 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:

“In the champagne vineyards of France, the season of ripening, plumping and sweetening of the
grapes ready for harvesting at the end of August, known as the veraison, has begun.
Maxime Toubart, a relatively small vigneron who produces 25,000 bottles of bubbly from the
12-acre maison founded by his great-grandparents in 1900, has been cultivating his clients as
well as his vines during the coronavirus crisis and is confident his business will survive.
The same cannot be said for many other small vineyards, who say they will face ruin if they are
forced to let their grapes wither on the vine.
Last year, just under 300m bottles of French champagne were sold worldwide, half of them
exported to the UK, the US and Japan. This year, French producers expect to sell 100m fewer
bottles, amounting to a loss of €1.7bn (£1.5bn).
The sales slump has led to a bitter dispute between the vineyard owners and the champagne
houses who buy their grapes and turn them into bubbly.
Every July, the two sides meet to agree how many grapes should be harvested. Last year, the
maximum allowed was 10,200kg per hectare (2.47 acres).
This year, the champagne maisons, who are holding a surplus stock of about 400m bottles – out
of a total stock of more than 1bn – in their cellars, want the vineyards to harvest fewer grapes
to avoid saturating the market and causing the price of champagne to plummet.
They have demanded growers pick no more than 6,000-7,000kg per hectare. The growers say
they will not go below 8,500kg per hectare.
As a result, this July’s meeting ended without agreement with just a month to go to the start of
the harvest, the busiest time of the year for vineyards.
Despite the dispute, the vineyards and champagne houses have joined forces to demand the
agriculture ministry write off some of their “social charges” taxes, particularly for the 100,000
seasonal workers employed to harvest the grapes later this month.
If no agreement can be reached, the decision to fix a maximum yield will be made by French
government officials, which could leave both sides dissatisfied.”

How to Play Scrabble | English Reading Comprehension

Hey guys, it’s time to play! Oggi il nostro blog si occuperà del gioco di parole più famoso al mondo: Scrabble! È molto simile al nostro Scarabeo, ma con delle varianti. L’obiettivo è però sempre quello di formare delle parole di senso compiuto.
Ve lo consigliamo perché pensiamo sia un ottimo modo per fare pratica con parole in lingua inglese, aumentando la qualità del vostro vocabolario.

Abbiamo preparato poi sotto un esercizio per voi, sempre con questo proposito. E se ne avete voglia, provate a controllare qui 5 giochi in scatola intramontabili che possono dare un tocco diverso alla tua giornata!

Lo Scrabble venne inventato negli anni della Grande Depressione da Alfred Mosher Butts, al tempo un architetto disoccupato. Da quei giorni, lo Scrabble ha fatto la storia dei giochi da tavola, divenendo proprietà della Hasbro negli Stati Uniti e in Canada. Ma quali sono esattamente le regole di questo famosissimo gioco? E come si fa a vincere? Scoprilo nell’esercizio sottostante! ?

How to Play Scrabble - Gap Fill

Fill the empty spaces with the proper words.

 

Full Text:

“If you want to play Scrabble, you will need from 2 to 4 players. You play the game on a board, and in the beginning all players take 7 letters from a bag full of letters. Every letter has a different point value, and the less popular letters will give you more points. The goal of the game is to create big words in the spaces that give you more points. Players take turns playing, and sometimes your opponents can take a long time to play each turn. After you play a word, you have to collect more letters from the bag. During the game, if you don’t like the letters you have, you can trade them for new ones from the bag. If you do this, your turn will be finished. If there are no more pieces in the bag later in the game, you will have to finish the letters you have in your hand. You reach the end of the game when there are no more letters in the bag and players can’t form any new words.”

Reading Comprehension: The History of Guinness

Guiness is an Irish beer which is enjoyed by millions of people around the world every year, and is probably the most recognizable name in the beer industry. So why is it so popular? Today’s English blog post will go into the history of the beer and how it has become a giant in the sector.
In 1759, at the age of 34, Arthur Guinness signed a lease for the St. James’s Gate Brewery, Dublin. He leased the brewery for 9000 years at an annual rent of £45. The brewery was only 4 acres in size, disused, and had little brewing equipment. In any case, Arthur quickly built up a successful business and by 1769 he had begun to export his beer to England.
In the 1770s, Guiness began brewing ‘porter’, a new type of English beer, invented in London in 1722 by a brewer named Ralph Harwood. Porter was different from ale because it was brewed using roasted barley, giving the beer a dark ruby colour and rich aroma. Arthur’s porter was successful and in 1799 he decided to stop brewing ale altogether, and concentrate on porter alone.
Arthur Guinness brewed different types of porter for different tastes, including a special export beer called ‘West India Porter’. This beer is still brewed today and is now known as GUINNESS Foreign Extra Stout. It accounts for 45% of all GUINNESS sales globally and is popular in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
By the time Arthur died in 1803, he had built a successful brewing business, with a promising export trade.
At the end of the 20th century, GUINNESS had become an international brand and the largest brewery in the world. In 1901 a laboratory was established; using science to enhance generations of brewing craft.
The brewery at Park Royal in London proved successful and overseas breweries for Guiness were built in Nigeria (1962), Malaysia (1965), Cameroun (1970), and Ghana (1971). New licences were also issued to brewers in other countries so that Guiness could be brewed locally. At the end of the 20th century, Guiness was being brewed in 49 countries, and sold in over 150.
A new research and development facility was built in 1964 and made for more innovations. Guiness Draught in Can was launched in 1988 with new packaging innovation. This process brought Guiness Draught into the home for the first time.
GUINNESS Stout today is sold in over 150 countries around the world and 10 million glasses are enjoyed daily around the world.

The History of Guinness | Definition Match

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

The History of Guinness | True or False

Indicate which sentences are true and which ones are false.

 

Adapted from this article.