Listening to BBC. Учебное пособие по аудированию для студентов неязыковых факультетов

Appendix. Part II. Talks on politics and law

Catherine: So why are cryptocurrencies so volatile?

Sam: Most currencies are reasonably stable. This is the opposite of volatile. They don’t change a lot over a short period of time. There can be big changes but usually governments and banks control currencies to prevent it. Cryptocurrencies don’t have those controls. What Jemima Kelly said was that they are subject to the whims of the crypto markets. A whim is an unpredictable or irrational decision or trend and if you are subject to the whims of something, or someone, it means that metaphorically you are a passenger in a self-driving car which may decide just to drive off the edge of a cliff. So it might be an exciting ride, but it could end in disaster.

Catherine: Right, it’s time now to get the answer to the question I asked at the beginning of the programme. Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency, but when was it created? Was it:

a)2008

b)2009

c)2010?

Sam: I said 2010, but I’m not really sure.

Catherine: And you’re absolutely wrong! The correct answer is 2009, so no luck for you this time, but congratulations to everyone who did get that right. Well, anyway, let’s round off today with a review of today’s vocabulary.

Sam: First off there is cryptography which is the use of special codes to keep computer systems and content safe.

Catherine: A currency is the money of a particular country, for example in the UK we have the pound, in the US there’s the dollar and in many countries in Europe the currency is the euro.

Sam: Cryptocurrency is a combination of cryptography and currency and it’s used for a finance system that is based on secure digital coins that are not connected to banks or governments.

Catherine: We then had the expression subject to the whims of. Whims are unpredictable decisions and if you are subject to them it means you can’t control them, you have no choice but to go in the direction those whims lead.

Sam: This means that the value of cryptocurrencies are notoriously volatile. They have a history of going up or down in value by large amounts and very quickly. And that’s not good.

Catherine: Well, it might be good if it goes up! Sam: True.

Catherine: But if you want less risk, if you want your currency to be the opposite of volatile, if you want it, in other words, to be stable, then maybe cryptocurrencies are not for you.

Sam: Well, we are subject to the whims of the schedule which means our 6 minutes are up. We look forward to your company again soon. Bye for now.

Catherine: Bye

(URL: BBC Learning English — 6 Minute English / Cryptocurrencies)

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Transcript 2.10

6 Minute English

Women in politics

EPISODE 200 123 / 23 JAN 2020

Introduction

Thousands of women have signed up with 50:50 Parliament to register their interest in standing as an MP (Member of Parliament) in the UK. What’s inspiring them to get involved? Sam and Georgina discuss the engagement of women in politics and teach you related vocabulary.

This week’s question

Which country has the highest percentage of women in its parliament? Is it:

a)Rwanda

b)Sweden

c)New Zealand

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

to stand — to be a candidate in an election

to see yourself (doing something) — to imagine that it is possible for you to do something

the prospect of — the possibility of

jargon — vocabulary and expressions related to a particular job

a disadvantaged background — growing up in a family situation without much money

to tailor (what you say) — to change (how you speak) to make it suitable for a particular group

Transcript

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript

Sam: Hello. This is 6 Minute English, I’m Sam. Georgina: And I’m Georgina.

Sam: How do you do feel about politics, Georgina? Georgina: Well, there’s a lot around at the moment! Sam: Yes, indeed!

Georgina: One thing I would like to see in politics, particularly British politics, is more women in parliament. About 34 % of our MPs are women, which is the highest it’s ever been, but it’s still not close to 50 %.

Sam: In order to be elected though, you first have to stand, don’t you? Georgina: Yes, we use the verb stand when you are a candidate someone can vote for.

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Sam: Women in politics is our topic today. Before we get into it, today’s question. Which country has the highest percentage of women in its parliament? Is it:

a)Rwanda

b)Sweden

c)New Zealand

What do you think, Georgina?

Georgina: I’m not sure. I know New Zealand was one of the first countries to allow women to vote and they currently have a female prime minister — but I think it’s actually an African country. So I’m going to say Rwanda.

Sam: OK. We’ll see if you’re correct at the end of the programme. There are a number of projects in the UK at the moment trying to get more women interested in standing for parliament. One of these is the campaign “sign-up-to-stand” from an organisation called 50:50 Parliament. Lucrece Grehoua is someone who has taken up that challenge and is hoping to stand in upcoming elections. She was a guest on the BBC Radio programme Woman’s Hour. She wasn’t always interested in politics, though. How does she describe it?

Lucrece Grehoua: I didn’t really see myself in the Houses of Parliament. When we see it on TV it looks extremely boring, politics looks boring, especially as a young person and so when I saw that 50:50 Parliament were including women and including young women, including a diverse range of young women, I thought “wow, this is really for me and it can be for me”. So I decided to #signuptostand. Ever since I’ve just been excited at the prospect of me standing for parliament.

Sam: What was her original feeling about politics?

Georgina: Boring! She thought it was boring, particularly as a young person. In fact she couldn’t see herself as a politician. She couldn’t imagine herself doing it.

Sam: She says that she is now excited at the prospect of standing. What does she mean by that?

Georgina: The prospect of something is the possibility of something. So before, she thought it was boring, now she’s excited at the possibility that she could be a member of parliament.

Sam: So, what was it that made her change her mind and think that politics wasn’t so boring after all? Here’s Lucrece Grehoua again.

Lucrece Grehoua: I think everybody has a politician within them because we all get anger about something but unfortunately when we see it, it’s all jargon, it’s not very… words that we can understand. Even just as a working class person who hasn’t, you know, been to a private school and who’s come from a disadvantaged background and so I realised politics is for absolutely everybody, it’s just the way that you speak about it has to be tailored to everyone.

Sam: One of the things she didn’t like about politics was the jargon.

Georgina: Well, no one likes jargon, do they? Jargon is the very specific language and vocabulary relating to a particular profession. Inside the profession people know what it means, but from outside it can seem very complicated and confusing.

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Sam: Lucrece said she came from a disadvantaged background. This means that when she was growing up her family didn’t have very much money and that made life and study very difficult.

Georgina: But even though, or maybe because, she came from a disadvantaged background she has become interested in politics and thinks that it can be something for everyone, but rather than use jargon you have to tailor the way you speak for everyone. To tailor something is to make it fit — in the same way that a tailor makes clothes fit, you can tailor your language to make it easy for everyone to understand. And one way to do that is to cut out the jargon!

Sam: That’s just about all we have time for today. But before we review the vocabulary, it’s time to get the answer to today’s quiz question. Which country has the highest percentage of women in its parliament? Is it:

a)Rwanda

b)Sweden

c)New Zealand

Georgina, what did you say?

Georgina: I made an educated guess of Rwanda.

Sam: An educated guess and a correct guess. Well done. And well done to everyone else who got that right too! According to 2019 figures, Rwanda’s parliament has over 60 % women MPs. Go Rwanda! OK, let’s remind ourselves of today’s vocabulary.

Georgina: Of course. To stand is the verb we use when someone is a candidate in an election — when someone stands for election you can vote for them.

Sam: If you can see yourself as something, it means that you can imagine yourself doing that thing.

Georgina: The prospect of something, is the possibility of something, so for example, the prospect of becoming an MP is something that excites Lucrece.

Sam: Something that we all hate, except when we use it ourselves, is jargon. Words and language that are very specific to a particular job and which are difficult for people outside that profession to understand.

Georgina: People who grow up without enough money and without access to education can be said to come from a disadvantaged background.

Sam: And finally, to tailor something is to change it to make it suitable for a particular purpose.

Georgina: So for example, if you want to make politics accessible for more people, you have to tailor your language and cut out the jargon.

Sam: Indeed! Well, it’s time for us to go now, but do join us again soon. Bye for now.

Georgina: Bye

(URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/ features/6 minute-english/ep-200 123)

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Transcript 2.11

6 Minute English

Coronavirus: Dealing with mass unemployment

EPISODE 200 924 / 24 SEP 2020

Introduction

The coronavirus pandemic has caused millions of people to lose their jobs and forced thousands more temporarily out of work, with no idea if they’ll still have a job to go back to. In this programme, we’ll be assessing the post-Covid job landscape and asking whether a radical new approach is needed to prevent global mass unemployment. Neil and Sam discuss Denmark’s approach to employment and teach you vocabulary along the way.

This week’s question

One man who knows a lot about jobs is Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, a company employing over 150 thousand workers. He’s made gloomy predictions about the number of people out of work — but how many people does he predict will be left unemployed this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic? Is it:

a)one quarter of a billion people?

b)one third of a billion people?

c)half a billion people?

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

in the short term — relating to a short period of time

ripple effect — situation in which one event produces a series of further effects to happen one after the other

hire and fire — authority to employ someone and release them from employment, sometimes in quick succession

job for life — job that you can stay in all your working life

upskilling — process of learning new skills or undergoing training to become better at your job

lavish — expensive, impressive and large in quantity

Transcript

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript

Neil: Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Neil. Sam: And I’m Sam.

Neil: You and I are lucky, Sam, because we can do our jobs remotely, working from home. There are some downsides, though — like not being able to meet up with friends or share ideas with colleagues.

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Sam: And going out for lunch!

Neil: But the coronavirus pandemic has caused millions of people to lose their job and forced thousand more out of work temporarily with no idea if their job will still be there when they return.

Sam: For those daily workers without savings to pay the rent and feed their families it has been especially stressful. Each job loss is a potential personal tragedy.

Neil: In this programme we’ll be assessing the post-Covid job landscape and asking whether a radical new approach is needed to prevent global mass unemployment.

Sam: We’ll be asking whether one of the world’s smallest — and richest — countries, Denmark, might hold the answer.

Neil: And of course, we’ll be learning some new vocabulary as well. But first it’s time for our quiz question. One man who knows a lot about jobs is Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, a company employing over 150 thousand workers. He’s made gloomy predictions about the number of people out of work — but how many people does he predict will be left unemployed this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic? Is it:

a)one quarter of a billion people?,

b)one third of a billion people?, or

c)half a billion people?

Sam: Wow, those numbers do really look gloomy! I’ll say b) one third of a billion people unemployed around the world.

Neil: OK, Sam, we’ll come back to that later. Now, mass unemployment — millions of people losing their jobs due to the Covid pandemic — has left the world facing an enormous jobs challenge. Elisabeth Reynolds, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is author of the report “Work of the Future”. Here she is talking to BBC World Service programme, Business Daily, about the current situation:

Elisabeth Reynolds: Well I think in the short term it does feel like we are not yet in a place where we can talk about recovery and rebuilding completely — we’re still gonna see the ramifications, the impact and the ripple effect of all this for months to come.

Sam: We use the expressions, “in the long term” and in the short term to talk about what will happen over a long or short period of time. In the short term, — over a short period of time — Elisabeth thinks it’s too early to talk about a jobs recovery.

Neil: She also warns that we haven’t yet experienced the full impact or ramifications of the pandemic. Like throwing a stone into water, these consequences create a ripple effect — a situation where one event causes a series of effects which spread and produce further effects.

Sam: According to Elisabeth, the problem is that many of the government measures put in place to support jobs are not sustainable in the long term. She says more radical change is needed.

Neil: Of course the big question is — how? One proposed solution is the Danish model. This balances citizens’ rights and duties.

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Sam: Denmark provides one of the world’s most generous unemployment payouts but in return citizens are expected to commit to any job or training the government thinks would be beneficial.

Neil: Jacob Kirkegaard, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute in Washington, is himself a Dane. Here he explains to BBC Business Daily how the model works:

Jacob Kirkegaard: It’s very easy to hire and fire people in Denmark — it doesn’t cost you anything and you don’t have sort of a guaranteed job for life once you get a permanent contract, which is the situation in many other continental European countries… so it combines labour market flexibility with employment security… namely the idea that people, if they lose their job, they know that they can find another job even if that requires them to pick up new skills — because that upskilling — or reskilling — is going to be made available to them, partly through very lavish government subsides.

Sam: Denmark enjoys labour flexibility because it’s easy for bosses to hire and fire — employ someone and release them from employment, meaning there’s no such thing as a job for life — one that you can stay in all your working life.

Neil: But citizens also have the security of lavish — generous and expensive — benefits, and the government will also pay for worker upskilling — training to learn new skills making them better at their jobs…

Sam:…and thereby preventing unemployment — which reminds me of your quiz question, Neil.

Neil: Yes, I asked you how many people were predicted to lose their jobs to the Covid pandemic.

Sam: And I said b) one third of a billion.

Neil: Well, fortunately it’s the slightly lower, but still worrying, figure of, one quarter of a billion people.

Sam: We’ve been discussing predictions of mass unemployment in the short term — or over a short time period, caused by the coronavirus pandemic. It also seems we will be experiencing the ripple effects — series of consequences, of the virus for a long time to come.

Neil: One solution to mass unemployment may be the Danish model, were the power to hire or fire — employ someone or make them unemployed — means there are not many jobs for life — jobs you can do all your working life.

Sam: But lavish — expensive and generous — benefits from the government, who also pay for upskilling or training in new skills, means that Danish unemployment is rarely out of control.

Neil: That’s all we have time for, but come back soon for more trending topics and useful vocabulary here at 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. Bye for now!

Sam: Bye!

(URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/ english/features/6 minute-english/ep-190 815)

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Transcript 2.12

6 Minute English

Hacking help for US elections

EPISODE 201 015 / 15 OCT 2020

Introduction

The 2020 presidential elections in the US, in which President Donald Trump faces the Democrat candidate Joe Biden, are causing a lot of controversy. In the US many votes are cast digitally and there are plans to enlist the help of hackers to reduce the risk of cyber-attacks on election day. Rob and Sam discuss the initiative and teach you vocabulary along the way.

This week’s question

In 2000 the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush ended in recounts and disputes over missing votes. George Bush became the first modern president to win the election despite gaining fewer popular votes than his opponent. How many fewer votes than Gore did Bush win by in the 2000 American presidential election?

a)half a million votes

b)a million votes

c)two million votes

Listen to the programme to find out the answer.

Vocabulary

Volunteer — someone who works willingly without being paid, because they want to

Hacker — someone who breaks into computer systems without permission in order to find information or do something illegal

Eligible — qualified to do something by having the necessary requirements high-profile — attracting a lot of attention and interest from the public, newspa-

pers and the media

(have) the keys to the castle — (idiom) information or knowledge which gives the possessor access to power

Cybersecurity — measures that are taken to protect organisations and their computer information against crimes and attacks carried out through the internet

Transcript

Note: This is not a word-for-word transcript

Rob: Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I’m Rob. Sam: And I’m Sam.

Rob: When it comes to US presidential elections, some are more dramatic than others.

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Sam: But few elections have been as controversial as this November’s contest between current President Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

Rob: In America, where many votes are cast digitally, there is a risk of cyber-at- tacks on election day and with so much depending on the result, US election officials are worried.

Sam: In this programme we’ll be hearing about plans to prevent election cyberattacks which involve election officials working with a very unusual group of people: volunteer hackers. Volunteers are people who work willingly, without being paid… Rob: … and hackers are people who break into computer systems without permis-

sion in order to find information or do something illegal.

Sam: But cyber-attacks from hackers are not the only threat to fair and democratic elections.

Rob: In 2000 the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush ended in recounts and disputes over missing votes. George Bush became the first modern president to win the election despite gaining fewer popular votes than his opponent — but how many fewer? That’s our quiz question — how many fewer votes did Bush win than Gore in the 2000 American presidential election? Was it:

a)half a million votes?,

b)a million votes?, or

c)two million votes?

Sam: I’ll say b) a million votes.

Rob: OK, we’ll find out later. Now, the project Sam mentioned, where official administrators team up with expert volunteers to keep the election secure, is called The Election Cyber Surge.

Sam: BBC World Service programme Digital Planet met up with project organiser Maya Worman to discuss the importance of keeping the election free from interference.

Maya Worman Any attempt to manipulate or interfere with election infrastructures — the machines or the information sets that determine who is eligible to vote and where — undermines the right to vote. And it puts burdens on voters and it impacts public confidence; and high-profile elections, especially like the one coming up, heighten the types of risks that we’re talking about.

Rob: You can only vote in an election if you are eligible — qualified by having the necessary requirements, for example being a US citizen who’s aged 18 or over.

Sam: It’s up to each of the eight thousand local jurisdictions around the United States to keep their area free from cyber-attacks and misinformation — risks which have increased because the coming election is so high-profile — attracting a lot of attention and interest from newspapers and the public.

Rob: The Cyber Surge project to put expert volunteers in touch with local officials aims to prevent these risks. It covers everything from making sure administrators are using the latest anti-virus software to more serious threats from troublemakers.

Sam: Now that’s got me thinking actually, Rob. Suppose I’m a troublemaker who wants to influence the election result — so I sign up as a volunteer and gain access to

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