Tag: The Guardian

Learn English with the News – Wombats’ Deadly Bums

Wombats, a fascinating species that outside of Australia is not very well-known. Recent research has shown some very peculiar uses for parts of the wombat’s body, because you can never stop learning, even if it’s about a wombat’s butt! 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:

Wombats' Deadly Bums | Fill in the blank

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

Wombats' Deadly Bums | Definition Match

Match the words to the correct definitions.

Wombat's Deadly Bums | 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:

“Australia is known for its strange and deadly wildlife, with plenty of attention given to venomous snakes and bird-eating spiders. But it seems one terrifying aspect of outback fauna has been thoroughly ignored: the wombat’s deadly bum. The rump of the wombat is hard as rock, used for defence, burrowing, bonding, mating and possibly violently crushing the skulls of its enemies against the roof of its burrow. Although the jury is still out on that one. The marsupials’ bums are made up of four plates fused together and surrounded by cartilage, fat, skin and fur. Alyce Swinbourne, an expert in wombat bottoms from the University of Adelaide, says wombats will use their backside to plug up their burrows, stopping predators entering and protecting softer areas of their anatomy. But Swinbourne is a little skeptical when it comes to the wombat’s most infamous bottom-based talent, crushing the skulls of foxes and dingos against the compacted dirt of their burrows. Fox skulls and bodies have been found outside the entrance to wombat burrows, often with the bones crushed, but Swinbourne says it’s unclear if the wombat deals the deadly blow. Swinbourne notes that adult wombats are not necessarily on the menu for foxes, their powerful defence mechanisms making them’ more effort than it’s worth. But bony bums aren’t just for self-defence. Especially for the more social varieties, such as the southern hairy-nosed wombat, bottoms are an integral part of friendship and love. Biting each other on the bottom is a vital flirtation technique. Swinbourne’s research into southern hairy-nosed wombat mating techniques – bum biting included – is now being used by the University of Queensland to develop artificial insemination technologies.”

 

Learn English with the News: Trump 14 points behind Biden a month before election, new poll shows

As the United States presidential election edges nearer, sitting president Donald Trump suffered a bit of a scare after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in October. How will this effect the outcome of the election, if at all! Only time will tell! 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:

Trump 14 points behind Biden a month before election, new poll shows | Definition Match

Match the words to the correct definitions.

Trump 14 points behind Biden a month before election, new poll shows | Fill in the Blank

Put the following words to the correct definitions.

Trump 14 points behind Biden a month before election, new poll shows | 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:

” Donald Trump’s beleaguered campaign team woke up to another setback on Sunday as the
president began his second full day in hospital: a new national poll showing their candidate 14
points behind his challenger Joe Biden with less than a month until the election day.
The NBC/Wall Street Journal survey indicating a 53-39% advantage for the Democratic party’s
nominee injected urgency for Trump’s advisers already scrambling to find a strategy for the final
weeks of the campaign until 3 November.
It was becoming clear that Vice-President Mike Pence, who has tested negative for coronavirus,
and members of Trump’s family, once they emerge from quarantine, will assume leading roles at
virtual, then in-person rallies until or unless Trump himself recovers in time to resume
campaigning.
Pence has public campaign events planned in Arizona, Nevada and Washington DC, and will
travel to Salt Lake City for Wednesday’s vice-presidential debate with Kamala Harris, Biden’s
running mate, at which the Trump team is looking for a strong performance.
The NBC poll showing Biden widening his lead over Trump was taken immediately after last
Tuesday’s tumultuous first presidential debate in Cleveland, at which an argumentative president
constantly interrupted both his rival and the moderator Chris Wallace.
Jason Miller, another senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said he had “no concerns” about
Pence travelling and campaigning.
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaigning since Trump’s hospitalisation on Friday night has been low
key.
The Biden campaign announced on Friday that it was suspending negative messages attacking
the president while he was in hospital.
Despite Sunday’s early cessation of campaign activity, Biden’s team has said it has no plans to
scale back events as long as the candidate and those around him continue to test negative for
Covid-19. “

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.”