Category: Homework

Arms Trade Growth Stunted by Supply Chain Issues

B2 – Upper Intermediate

The pandemic’s lingering consequences can now be felt even in the arms industries. Despite demonstrating growth in the past year, this boost was still greatly stunted by worldwide issues in supply difficulties.

Read the article to know more about how supply chain issues has severely limited the growth in arms trade.

https://www.voanews.com/a/growth-in-arms-trade-stunted-by-supply-issues-report/6862357.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “sourcing” mean? “Disruptions from both labor shortages and difficulties in sourcing raw materials were slowing down the companies’ ability to produce weapons systems and deliver them on time.” Use it in your own sentence.
  2. What does “gauge” mean? “By how much was at the same time harder to gauge, Tian said pointing to two factors that would impact demand.” Use it in your own sentence.
  3. What does “hamper” mean in this sentence, “With the supply crunch expected to worsen, it could hamper these efforts.”? Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on this news about the stunted growth of the arms trade due to supply chain issues?
  2. “The top 100 arms companies sold weapons and related services totaling $592 billion in 2021, 1.9% more than the year before.”. Share your reaction to this statement.
  3. “The worsening security environment means “countries are looking to procure more weapons.” What is your opinion on/reaction to this?
  4. What will be the result of the trend of private equity firms buying up arms companies?

India May Become World’s Third Largest Economy

B2 – Upper Intermediate

As most countries in the world struggle with slowing growth due to the economic turbulence caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, some economies are gaining momentum and might be able to overtake some of the world’s biggest economies.

For example, India’s economy has remained remarkably “navigating the storm”.

Read the article to know more about how India could possibly become the third largest economy in the world by the end of this decade.

https://www.voanews.com/a/forecasts-show-india-may-become-world-s-third-largest-economy-by-2030/6875735.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “to move to better pastures” mean? “There are good projections for the Indian economy. Plus, even in our friends’ circle, a lot of people are changing jobs, moving to better pastures.” Use it in your own sentence.
  2. What does “to put something on track” mean? “India’s economy is posting the fastest growth among major economies putting it on track to become the world’s third largest before the end of the decade.” Use it in your own sentence.
  3. What does “wave” mean in this sentence, “As companies record strong growth and hand out pay hikes, there is a wave of optimism among professionals.”? Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is contributing to the Indian economy’s growth?
  2. “A lot of changes are happening across the world, and we hope that some of them will be beneficial for the Indian economy.” Do you think it is possible for India to become the third largest economy? Explain.
  3. How is your country doing amidst this global economic turbulence?

Steve Jobs’ Motivational Speech 

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Steve Jobs gives the listeners a reason to care. He talks about his own experience and is not ashamed to share his failure with his audience. He uses intriguing and provocative questions about getting fired from a company he himself founded. The question sparks the audience’s strong feelings such as confusion, annoyance, or even anger.

Watch this Steve Job motivational speech.

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “devastating” mean? Use it in a sentence.
  2. What does this statement mean “Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with a brick.”?
  3. What does the expression “to dawn on (someone)” mean? Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. Does the speaker use intriguing, provocative questions? Why does he use them?
  2. What do you find interesting/useful/helpful or useless/boring about the speech? Why?
  3. What does failure teach you?
  4. Share your thoughts on this statement, “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.”.

Amazon Alexa’s Symptom Checker: The Pros and Cons

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Amazon’s digital voice assistant Alexa seems to have the answer for nearly every question one might have and that includes your health or medical queries.

Read the article to know more about the pros and cons of using Alexa’s symptom checker in monitoring one’s health.

https://edition.cnn.com/cnn-underscored/electronics/amazon-alexa-symptom-checker

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “nuance” mean? Use it in your own sentence.
  2. What does “narrow down” mean here, “From there, Alexa will ask a series of yes-or-no questions to help narrow down which underlying medical conditions might be related.”? Use it in your own sentence.
  3. What does “resounding” mean? Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the pros and cons of Alexa Symptom Checker?
  2. When it comes to your health, would you entrust it with a digital voice assistant? Explain.
  3. How often and for what do you use your AI assistant for? Do you think people would be more dependent on them in the near future? Why or why not?

Staying Calm When You Know You’ll Be Stressed

B2 – Upper Intermediate

To stay calm in a stressful situation is a hard thing to do. Sometimes, you cannot easily think of a solution since you are too focused on what’s stressing you out.

Let’s watch this video to know how to stay calm in a stressful situation.

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. How is pre-mortem explained in the video?
  2. What about post-mortem?
  3. How does the hippocampus work?

Discussion Questions:

  1. Do you easily get stressed when things are not going well?
  2. When was the last time you got stressed about something?
  3. How do you usually manage things when you are in a stressful situation?
  4. How do you wish you reacted to things when you were stressed about it in the past?
  5. How would you calm yourself now when you are stressed?

Twitter Feature to Flag Shadow Banning

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Shadow banning or comment ghosting is a way of suspending an account on social media networks like Twitter. The user thinks their posts are going through when in fact, their contents are not visible nor accessible to others.

Twitter is working on a feature that will show whether an account is shadowbanned and the reason behind it. In addition, it will show the users how to appeal for their accounts not to be shadowbanned.

Read the article and watch the video to know more about Twitter’s new feature that will determine whether an account has been shadowbanned.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/09/tech/musk-twitter-shadowbanning

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What is “shadow banning”? “Twitter is rolling out a new feature that will flag ‘shadowbanning.” Use it in your own sentence.
  2. What does “outcry” mean? “With that announcement, Musk, who has said he now votes Republican, prompted an outcry from some conservatives, who accused him of continuing a practice they opposed.” Give 1-2 synonyms of this word. Use it in your own sentence.
  3. What does “thread” mean in this sentence, “Musk on Friday shared Weiss’ thread in a tweet and added, “The Twitter Files, Part Duex!!” along with two popcorn emojis.”? Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on shadow banning?
  2. What do you think about Twitter’s new feature that will flag shadow banning?
  3. Should negative/hate tweets be de-boosted and demonetized? Explain your stand.

Nuclear Fusion Breakthrough

B2 – Upper Intermediate

For years, scientists have been looking for alternative energy sources to end our dependence on fossil fuels.

American scientists have successfully produced a nuclear fusion reaction.

Read the article and watch the video to know more about the ‘holy grail’ of clean energy.

https://edition.cnn.com/2022/12/12/us/common-questions-nuclear-fusion-climate/index.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “breakthrough” mean? Give at least 3 synonyms of this word.
  2. What does “abatement” mean? Use it in your own sentence.
  3. What does the phrase, “a race against the clock” mean? Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What is nuclear fusion and why does it matter?
  2. What are the pros and the challenges in generating nuclear fusion?
  3. What are your thoughts on this milestone?

Hotel Reservations

B1 – Intermediate

It is always a good idea to have your travel needs arranged before your trip. A place to stay is one of the things you may need when you are going on a trip. Whatever type of accommodation you choose, it is better to book in advance to avoid the last minute hassles of finding an available room for you.

Let’s listen to the audio for an example hotel reservation scenario.

Hotel Reservations

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “suite” mean? Use it in a sentence.
  2. What does “all booked” mean in this sentence,” Are you all booked that night?” Use it in a sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What type of room did Max reserve?
  2. What other room types did the hotel clerk recommend?
  3. How much does he need to pay for the room reservation?
  4. Have you made a hotel reservation before? What information did you provide?
  5. What other ways of hotel reservation do you know? Which one is the most convenient?

Apple Workers Protest

B1 – Intermediate

Many, if not all, countries have relaxed their COVID restrictions over the past year. However, it is not the case in China. They continue to have strict rules to prevent new COVID infections in their country.

This means that some workers have to be quarantined in dormitories. Workers are not happy anymore with their conditions so they started protesting.

Listen to this audio and read the transcript about Apple workers’ protests in China.

https://www.newsinlevels.com/products/apple-workers-protest-level-2/

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “lead to” mean? “Many of them were very unhappy with the situation, which led to protests.” Use it in a sentence.
  2. What does “tough” mean in this sentence, “Tough restrictions are still in China as the country is trying to stop new COVID-19 infections.“? Use it in your own sentence.
  3. What does “shorten” mean? “The government promised to make some changes such as shorten quarantines, but not much changed so far.” Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are your thoughts on these protests?
  2. What is your opinion on the labor conditions of Apple’s factory workers in China?
  3. What is your opinion on China still having tough Covid restrictions until now?

Incorrect Battery Disposal Causes Needless Fires

B1 – Intermediate

One of the most common energy sources is batteries. Everyone uses them. However, if we are not careful in handling their disposal, they could cause fires that could have really serious consequences.

Read this lesson about how incorrectly disposing batteries can start needless fires.

https://breakingnewsenglish.com/2212/221205-batteries-4.html

Vocabulary Questions:

  1. What does “needless” mean? Use it in a sentence.
  2. What does “bit” mean in this sentence, “Everyone can do their bit…by disposing of batteries correctly.”? Use it in your own sentence.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the uses of batteries?
  2. What are the consequences of incorrectly disposing them?
  3. What are the best ways to dispose of batteries?