Tag: Reading

New Hazards At the Office

B2 – Upper Intermediate

These days, the average office worker sits for around 10 hours. This results to a sedentary lifestyle and a potential threat to one’s health.

Find out more about this new risk associated to office workers sitting for too long from the article below.

Do you spend a lot of time glued to your computer screen at the office? Is your daily exercise limited to an occasional bathroom break and a brief walk to refill your coffee? According to a new study from New Zealand, if your response was “yes” to these questions, then you may be at risk of forming deadly blood clots. In fact, the risk for office workers is higher than most long-distance air travelers.

It’s called deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. It’s also known as “economy class syndrome,” because it was first linked with long distance flights. The absence of legroom in economy class, as well as the more crowded conditions, means passengers are forced to sit for lengthy periods. DVT is a condition, then, in which a blood clot forms in one of the veins of the leg or pelvis. The clot can break off and block a blood vessel in one of the lungs. Death is the result.

Professor Richard Beasley headed the study. He discovered that a large number of patients coming to the hospital with blood clots had been seated at work for hours and hours. In fact, some people had sat for periods longer than many long-distance flights. He found that it wasn’t uncommon for people to sit for twelve to fourteen hours, nonstop except for a quick time out for the bathroom, coffee, and lunch.

1.4% of people who report blood clots have recently traveled on a plane. Compare this to 34% who have just spent the day at the office. The figures are alarming. They show the sedentary nature of the modern work environment.

The study covered sixty-two patients aged 65 and younger.

Source: headsupenglish.com

Discussion Questions:
1. Do you agree that employers should protect the health and safety of their employees?
2. What other hazards can you think of in association with the office?
3. What would be the perfect office environment? Is it likely you will ever work in such a place?
4. Describe your workplace. How conducive and safe is it for workers?

Corporal Punishment in Schools

C1 – Advanced

Corporal punishment is disciplining by way of physically harming the child at fault. This kind of correction has been used in schools and many have spoken against it. Yet, there are some who think that the old practice of corporal punishment is something that should remain in institutions to teach restraint and self-control in children.

Read the article below and express your thought afterwards.

Corporal Punishment in Schools

Discuss:

1. How prevalent is corporal punishment in schools?
2. In your own opinion, should corporal punishment have a place in education? Why/Why not?
3. Do you see an advantage to using corporal punishment?

Reasons Violent Video Games Contribute To Youth Violence

gamers-are-crabby

B2 – Upper intermediate

A number of studies have been conducted to see the relation of video games and having aggressive behavior, especially to younger children who are at the peak of developing their social lives.

Read the article below and be ready to express your thoughts.

10 Reasons Violent Video Games Contribute To Youth Violence

Discuss:

1. Studies on whether violent video games lead to aggression in children have been mixed. Some studies have found a strong connection, while others find no link. What is your stand?

2. Do you think children could lose their sense of reality and Fiction due to violent video games?

3. What can parents do to avoid this aggression in children ?

The Link Between Sleep and Job Performance

B2 – Upper Intermediate

What difference could an extra hour of sleep make in your life? Quite a lot, experts say. Studies show that the gap between getting just enough sleep and getting too little sleep may affect your health, your mood, and even your work performance.

https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-news/good-nights-sleep-helps-job-performance

Discussion Questions:

  1. Have you ever sacrificed sleep for work? Talk about this instance.
  2. What happens when you are sleep-deprived? How does it affect your performance at work?
  3. Do you manage to sleep as much as you need? Why or why not?
  4. Do you try to sleep in on weekends or during your days off? Why or why not?
  5. What can be done to avoid employees from being too exhausted?

Impacts of Brain Drain on Developing Countries

B2 – Upper intermediate

Every year, more and more people are looking for opportunities or greener pastures outside their country and many of these individuals are highly skilled and educated. So how does this affect the country they are leaving?

Click the link below to find out more.

http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/reading_brain_drain.php

Discussion Questions:

1. What is brain drain? What is another term for brain drain?

2. To address the problem of brain drain, what should we understand?
3. What are the consequences of brain drain?
4. What are some reasons why people choose to go abroad?

Emergency Junk Food Flown to Earthquake Town

B2 – Upper Intermediate

A town in New Zealand badly hit by the recent earthquake was the joyful receiver of a not-so-typical food donation.

Read the article below to find out what the citizens of the town collected from a kind-hearted man.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1611/161121-junk-food.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. What can you say about the actions of Robert Coombes?
  2. How can we help people hit by earthquakes?
  3. Have you ever volunteered to help people affected by a natural disaster?
  4. Have you ever experienced a natural disaster?

Scientists Grow More Crops

B1 – Intermediate

Lack of food supply in the future is a constant fear and would possibly become real if we don’t do anything about it now. Find out what a group of scientists did to create the super crops of the future.

http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1611/161119-photosynthesis.html

Discussion Questions:

1. How did scientists make the crops bigger?
2. What do you think of genetically modifying plants and crops?
3. What are the dangers of genetically modified food?
4. What are the benefits of genetically modified food?
5. Why are so many people in the world without food?

Pfizer Forbids Sales of Drugs For Lethal Injection

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Certain states in the US that allow lethal injections are having a challenging time sourcing their substances for their execution.

Read the article below to know the reason behind Pfizer’s decision to stop selling specific narcotics used in lethal injections.

The American pharmaceutical conmpany Pfizer has said it will no longer sell drugs that can be used for lethal injections to the Amercian government.  A total of 7 substances on the list are mostly used for operations and certain illnesses but are also in liquids used for executions. According to a Pfizer representative, the company’s aim is to save lives and not help kill people.

Pfizer says it will closely monitor buyers who try to resell the drugs to state institutions, which may use  them for executions.

After Pfizer’s decision , there are no more companies in the USA and Europe that sell lethal injection drugs to the Amercian government . The European Union  has banned the export of such drugs to the US.

As a result, state authorities are trying to find new drugs and combinations of substances that can be used for executions. Normally, three mixtures of drugs are used to execute a prisoner. The first one makes you unconscious , the second liquid paralyses the muscles  and the third stops the heart from beating.

In the past few years, the number of executions has decreased, in part due to the availability of lethal drugs. Last year only 28 executions were carried out in the US. Among the 32 states that allow capital punishment, all of them use lethal injections as the main method of execution but some allow the electric chair,hanging, the firing squad and the gas chamber as alternatives.

Human rights organizations and other groups opposed to capital punishment have welcomed Pfizer’s decision as a bold move to ban the death penalty in the United States.

Discussion Questions:

  1. What do you think of Pfizer’s decision?
  2. Why did several drug companies refuse to sell these drugs to the US government?
  3. In your own opinion, is lethal injection humane? Explain your opinion.
  4. Is there death penalty in your country? If none, should there be one?

Effects of Daylight Saving Time

B2 – Upper Intermediate

Daylight saving time (DST) has been practiced by some countries as early as 1908. The tradition of adjusting time back during the fall has given joy to most people as it would mean extra time for sleep. But DST can also cause other “side effects”.

Click the link below to learn about the 5 weird effects of Daylight Saving Time.

http://www.livescience.com/40903-daylight-saving-time-affects-your-body.html

Discussion Questions:

  1. Which effect of Daylight Saving Time were you most surprised about?
  2. Where did the idea of Daylight Saving Time come from?
  3. What are the upside and downside of DST?
  4. Are you in favor of DST? Why or why not?

Euthanasia – Pros and Cons of Mercy Killing

B1 – Intermediate

Euthanasia has always been a controversial topic. It also has other names. It is sometimes called assisted suicide and mercy killing.

Click the link below to know more about euthanasia and its pros and cons.

http://www.english-online.at/society/euthanasia/pros-and-cons-of-euthanasia.htm

Discussion Questions:

  1. What are the pros and cons of euthanasia?
  2. Are you in favor of euthanasia? Why or why not?
  3. Could euthanasia be used to reduce health care cost? Explain.
  4. Is euthanasia allowed in your country? If yes, what is your opinion? If not, do you think it should be?