It has been more than a decade since car makers started focusing on producing diesel vehicles thinking that these cars are excellent for the environment. According to some recent scientific evidences, this is not exactly the case, and there are even pleads to decrease the number of diesel cars in several cities.
Diesel sales were already waning. Needless to say, this controversy came at a bad time. Find out more about this scandal from this BBC article.
Social media networks have helped people share pieces of their lives to the community. But what is the effect of social media networks to our relationship to other people?
Read the article below and be ready to express your thoughts.
1. What springs to mind when you hear the term ‘social networking’? 2. What are the pros and cons of social networking? 3. Are social networking sites for people who aren’t good at meeting people face to face? 4. Have you ever tried to find friends on a social networking site?
As we know, vitamins are essential to our health and vitamin D helps protect the body from diseases like diabetes and cancer. A study says it might also prevent brain diseases called dementia.
Read the article below and be ready to talk about health.
1. Do you have a strict diet? Why or why not? 2. The article mentions dementia. What do you know about dementia? 3. How do you think poor memory affects one’s life? 4. Do you think taking supplements is a good idea, or should you get your vitamins from just food? Explain.
Education is an enlightening experience we all deserve to have. Countries worldwide aim to have high literacy rate thus proper education should be catered to the citizens. However, in India, some textbooks were found with worrying information.
Read the article below to check some of the bizarre information in their textbooks.
1. What do you think about the article? Discuss the mentioned erroneous lessons. 2. What is the best way to rectify this issue? 3. Have you read history books that were erroneous?
Online shopping has gained popularity over the years. It is efficient, hassle-free and you don’t have to leave the comforts of your own home. Amazon is one of the most popular internet shopping sites in the world. It operates its own websites in Europe, Asia and South America.
Read the article below to know a little more about Amazon.
1. Do you shop online? 2. Which online shopping sites do you often visit? 3. What is the most popular online shopping site in Spain? 4. What do you think of Amazon.com?
Smoking pot. It’s been a controversial and long-running issue in the United States. But the city of Denver is trying to move forward albeit with some challenges.
Read the article about Denver becoming the first city to allow marijuana in bars and restaurants.
Used to be that bullying ended when one was off school premises. However, with the ubiquitous nature of social media and mobile technology, more and more students are subject to bullying even within the confines of their homes.
Read about one country’s educational system’s efforts to address the problem that is bullying.
1. In your opinion, which is worst: bullying in person, or bullying online? Why do you think so? 2. Do schools and universities in your country have a clear policy in regard to dealing with bullying among students? 3. Do schools or universities in your country educate or inform children about bullying?
Happiness, as defined by Wikipedia, is a mental or emotional state of well-being defined by positive or pleasant emotions ranging from contentment to intense joy. Many research groups are using the scientific method to research what happiness is, and how we can get it.
Read this lesson about how happiness affects our health.
Coffee, sodas or tea? Staying awake or getting enough energy to get through the day is something so necessary these days that energy drink manufacturers have become more creative.
Read the article to know what’s going on in the world of energy drinks.
More than 500 new energy drinks have been released this past year, and it has doctors worried. Nutritionists warn that the large amounts of caffeine and sugar in each drink can hook kids on an unhealthy up-and-down cycle. The drinks contain megadoses of vitamins, too. These can cause their own side effects if taken every day for a period of months. But maybe the most alarming news comes from reports that kids are drinking several in a row for the high it gives. More and more calls are coming in to poison-control centers from young people sick on too much caffeine.
Danger adds to the appeal. Most brands target in on the danger, particularly towards male teens and twenty-somethings. There is “Cocaine Energy Drink,” “Pimpjuice,” and “Bawls.” Hannah Kirby, the creator ofCocaine Energy Drink, said she first wanted to call it “Reboot”–“a pretty ho-hum name.” But the name was already taken, so she chose to be daring. The drink is getting the attention she desires, too. Kids quickly noticed it among a thousand other energy drinks. Their slogan: “The Legal Alternative.”
Some beer manufacturers now produce “energy beers,” or beer that contains caffeine. But mixing energy drinks with alcohol isn’t so new. Bartenders have been mixing the first energy drink in the West, called “Red Bull,” for more than a decade with vodka. Although the energy drink-alcohol combination doesn’t make you feel as drunk, you still are. Coordination and reaction times worsen. The potential for accidents and alcohol poisoning increases.
Just how much caffeine does an energy drink contain? A study at the University of Florida discovered that many of the drinks contain two to four times the amount of caffeine as Coke. The serving size, though, is usually one-third smaller than a standard can. Energy drinks aren’t regulated in the U.S., but the study strongly suggests warning labels.
Source: headsupenglish.com
Discussion Questions:
1. Have you ever (or do you often) drink energy drinks? 2. Do you think energy drinks are dangerous? 3. Why do you think energy drinks are becoming so popular? 4. Caffeine is an addictive drug. Why is it legal when other harmful drugs are illegal?
In Spain, tourists have been spending billions of Euros from January to July alone.
This is said to be helping the country recover from the economic crisis. However, some top Spanish vacation destinations have experienced drawbacks from the heavy influx of tourists in the recent years, forcing authorities to impose stern measures to control the situation.
Tourist spending in Spain sets new record, boosting economic recovery
Foreign tourists spent €37.129 billion between January and July alone – the highest in recorded history, according to a report released by the federal Tourist Expenditure Survey released on Thursday.
This was an increase of 7.7 percent over the same time period from last year.
Spain has received a record number of tourists so far this year at 37.9 million, who have in turn been spending record amounts of cash each day – dropping on average €113 per person daily.
And each tourist spent nearly a grand – €978 – over the course of their vacation under the Spanish sun.
Tourists from the UK lined the coffers of Spain’s tourism industry the most, spending a total of €7.58 billion. But although one in four tourists you may see poking around gift shops hail from the British Isles, the British only contributed a fifth of the total tourist spend.
It was the American tourists, though, who seemed to have the deepest pockets with each US native spending on average €161 per day.
Catalonia, the coastal region in northeastern Spain, earned the most from tourism racking up €8.588 billion a figure that represents amost a quarter (23.1 percent) of all of the money spent by tourists across Spain.
But despite the fact that tourists have been bringing in evermore money to the cash-strapped country, Spain has seen backlash against mass tourism in recent years at some of the top vacation spots.
Magaluf is among those resorts attempting to crack down on tourists behaving badly through a raft of new bylaws prohibiting exhibitionism and binge drinking.
And Benidorm on the Costa Blanca will now be employing the help of British bobbies to patrol the shores where more than one million Brits holiday each year.
Money may not grow on trees, but in Spain it sure seems to grow on tourists as holidaymakers bring in more cash than they ever have before.
Discussion Questions:
1. What do you think leads to more tourists coming to your country? 2. Do you think tourism helped a lot in improving Spain’s economic condition? 3. What are the benefits and drawbacks of tourism? 4. What other places in Spain should be developed for tourism?
