Every year, hundreds of people swim in the icy waters of Vltava River in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a part of their tradition to remember Alfred Nikodém, the athlete who made winter swimming popular.
Listen to this audio and read the transcript about ice swimming tradition in the Czech Republic.
Undoubtedly, one of McDonald’s most important products is their french fries. But nowadays, they are having problems getting enough supply of potatoes in Japan.
Listen to this audio and read the transcript about McDonald’s Japan’s potato shortage and how they managed.
What is your opinion on McDonald’s solution to their problem?
What do you think would happen if you had the same potato shortage problem in your country?
Have you ever gone to a restaurant and they unfortunately do not have the dish you wanted? How was your experience then?
Has there ever been a shortage of any produce or product in your city/country? What product was it and how long did it last? What did you do at the moment?
How much do you like potatoes? How important are potatoes in your country’s cuisine?
Evergrande Group is a big Chinese real estate company. They have built many buildings in Danzhou City, China including properties in a man-made resort island.
However, there is a big problem. The government says the company does not have building permits so these buildings are illegal and they need to be demolished.
Listen to this audio and read the transcript about the Evergrande Group’s building permit problems.
Even the biggest and most successful brands make mistakes. They do things or create products that offend people. The Spanish clothing retailer Zara has been in the middle of such controversy recently. They have produced kids’ shirts with design that looks a lot like the uniform Jewish prisoners wore in Nazi concentration camps.
Listen to this audio and read the transcript about Zara’s and some other fashion brands’ faux pas.
The passive form is used to change the focus of an action. In this sentence, we are more concerned with or interested in the object that receives the action and not the one who did it. Therefore, the object becomes the subject.
We use to be and the past participle to form questions in passive.
Typically, we use wh and how question words in interrogative sentences. However, with the passive voice, some sentences need not a question word.
Examples:
Passive questions without question words in simple present:
Form of be
subject
past participle
rest of the sentence
Is
the food
cooked
in the oven?
Are
euros
accepted
in Switzerland?
Passive questions with question words in simple present:
Question word
Form of be
subject
past participle
rest of the sentence
Where
is
the food
cooked?
Why
are
euros
accepted
in Switzerland?
Passive questions without question words in simple past:
Form of be
subject
past participle
rest of the sentence
Was
the house
built
in the 70’s?
Were
the students
required
to study from home?
Passive questions with question words in simple past:
Tonga is known as the “Friendly Island” because of the welcoming attitude and hospitality locals show their tourists. Most of the islands are classified as high islands because they have been raised above sea level by repeated volcanic activity. Other islands were formed by more explosive volcanoes.
Let’s read the article below to know more about Tonga’s efforts in cleaning up after the undersea volcano eruption.
What brings about sadism? A study made by a team of researchers at Aarhus University has found evidence that people who are bored behave more sadistically to reduce the effects of being indifferent.
Read the article below about how boredom leads to setting off sadistic behavior and be ready to answer the questions that follow.
The use of face masks is the most important weapon that we have against the COVID-19 virus. Even before the pandemic, wearing of face masks was already customary in some parts of Asia such as China, Japan, and Korea. People wear it to protect themselves from illness, allergies, pollution, and more.
While beneficial, it generates millions tons of plastic wastes and it is causing a lot of environmental problems. So people came up with some recycling initiatives to reduce COVID plastic wastes.
Let’s read the article below to find out more about these recycling initiatives.
