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

6 Minute English. English women in politics

4. Answer the following questions.

1.Which country has the highest percentage of women in its parliament?

2.What is the goal of the campaign “sign-up-to-stand” from an organization called 50:50 Parliament?

3.Why did Lucrece Grehoua decide to sign up to stand?

4.What stops a working class person to get into politics?

5.Two women Prime Ministers in the UK history.

Work in two groups.

Group A. Read about Margaret Thatcher

Group B. Read about Theresa May

Discuss the following questions.

1.What is Margaret Thatcher known for?

2.What is Theresa May known for?

3.Why is Margaret Thatcher important?

4.Why is Theresa May important?

5.Why did Margaret Thatcher resign?

6.Why did Theresa May resign?

7.What is Margaret Thatcher’s legacy?

8.What is Theresa May’s legacy?

9.What do they have in common in their biographies?

10.Who appeals to you more?

Baroness Margaret Thatcher

Conservative 1979 to 1990

Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the “Iron Lady”, was the first female British Prime Minister and the longest serving PM for over 150 years.

Margaret Thatcher (nee Margaret Roberts) was born in 1925 in England. Her father owned two local grocery stores, which is where she first developed her business sense. The young Margaret had a strict religious upbringing. She studied chemistry and then law at university. She was Britain’s Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. Her tough style earned her the nickname “The Iron Lady”.

Margaret Thatcher (nee Margaret Roberts) was born in 1925 in England. Her father owned two local grocery stores, which is where she first developed her business sense. The young Margaret had a strict religious upbringing. She studied chemistry and then law at university. She was Britain’s Prime Minister from 1979 to 1990. Her tough style earned her the nickname “The Iron Lady”.

Thatcher became a politician after winning an election in London in 1959. She served as Britain’s Education Secretary from 1970 to 1974. Thatcher

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Part II. Talks on politics and law

became Britain’s first female Prime Minister in 1979. She privatised many of Britain’s state-owned companies and had long battles with labour unions. She lowered taxes and inflation and greatly cut government spending.

She was very busy with her foreign policy. Britain fought and won the Falklands War against Argentina in 1982. She forged close ties with the USA and had a warm relationship with President Ronald Reagan. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, she became friends with ex-Soviet leader Mikael Gorbachev. She escaped assassination in 1984 when a bomb exploded at a hotel she was staying in.

In 1987, Thatcher won a third term in office. However, she was becoming unpopular. Unemployment was high and there were street riots after she announced a Community Tax. Her opposition to closer integration with Europe led to a leadership challenge and in 1990, she resigned. She retired from public speaking in 2002, aged 77. She died on April 8th 2013, aged 87. “Thatcherism” is still a word commonly used in Britain.

Unlike Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May leaves without legacy

As she steps down as leader of the Conservative Party and sets in motion the process to select a new prime minister, it is timely to look at Theresa May’s legacy. Does she really have one? Sadly, the answer must be no. Her most ardent supporters insist that she has many fine qualities, among them the ability to get things done.

The facts do not bear this out. Shortly after she became prime minister, she insisted that “Brexit means Brexit”, a slogan that became a mantra to dispel doubts that she could deliver on the 2016referendum result. It was within her gift to deliver Brexit but not within her ability. She failed. Her friends regard her as a principled and upstanding democrat.

Maybe so on a personal level but in politics, not so much. In order to keep her party in power following the disastrous general election of 2017 when the Conservatives lost their majority in the House of Commons, she showed herself willing to buy the support of the DUP while ignoring the wishes of the majority of the people of Northern Ireland.

She is said to be resolute and steadfast. Yet in her Brexit negotiations what she showed was that she could be obstinate and stubborn. “No deal is better than a bad deal” became another mantra of Mrs May’s but when even her closest supporters showed their opposition to what they saw as a bad deal, she carried on regardless.

Mrs May won praise for her courage, determination, and ability to survive a three-year political crisis since the UK’s vote to leave the EU. Fair enough, if surviving means drinking from the poisoned chalice bequeathed to her by

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6 Minute English. Coronavirus: Dealing with mass unemployment

David Cameron and then limping along while suffering blow after blow from friends and foe alike.

Her clumsy negotiating tactics showed from early on, whether it was dealing with Brussels or attempting to persuade her fellow MPs to accept an agreement she had signed up to. Her handling of the Brexit endgame, refusing to accept MPs’ opposition before belatedly opening ultimately futile negotiations with Jeremy Corbyn, left her politically adrift.

Mrs May’s domestic political nous is also suspect. During the 2017 General Election campaign the Conservative lead over Labour halved over the so-called “dementia tax” proposal in the Tory manifesto. Older votes left in their droves.

Likewise, her failure to meet survivors and locals in the immediate aftermath of the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy in London made her appear disinterested and uncaring and robbed her and her party of a lot of popular support. She has also shown herself to be delusional. During the 2016 leadership race, Kenneth Clarke, the former chancellor, referred to her as a “bloody difficult woman”. Mrs May took ownership of the phrase, mimicking Margaret Thatcher’s delight at her moniker, the Iron Lady.

In her resignation speech, Mrs May again raised the ghost of Mrs Thatcher when she described herself as “not the last” female PM. To paraphrase the remark made by US Democratic vice-presidential candidate senator Lloyd Bentsen to Republican vice-presidential candidate senator Dan Quayle, Theresa May is no Maggie Thatcher.

6 Minute English. Coronavirus: Dealing with mass unemployment1

The coronavirus pandemic has caused millions of people to lose their job and forced thousands more out of work temporarily with no idea if their job will still be there when they return. You are going to listen to a story where the post-Covid job landscape is assessed and Denmark’s approach to employment is discussed. Before you listen, check you understand the following words and word combinations.

Vocabulary you can use to talk about this topic

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

1 See Appendix Transcript 2.11 Coronavirus: Dealing with mass unemployment. P. 172. URL: https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6 minute-english/ep-190 815.

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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

1.Recall the situations in which this vocabulary is used in the story. Use them in sentences of your own.

2.Complete the following sentences using this vocabulary in proper forms.

1.… Elisabeth thinks it’s too early to talk about a jobs recovery.

2.We’ve been discussing predictions of mass unemployment … caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

3.Like throwing a stone into water, the consequences of the pandemic create a ….

4.It seems we will be experiencing the … — series of consequences, of the virus for a long time to come.

5.It’s very easy to … people in Denmark — it doesn’t cost you anything.

6.You don’t have sort of a guaranteed … once you get a permanent contract, which is the situation in many other continental European countries.

7.If people lose their job, they know that they can find another job even if that requires them to pick up new skills — because that … — or reskilling — is going to be made available to them, partly through very … government subsides.

8.The government will pay for worker …

9.Citizens have the security of … — generous and expensive — benefits.

10.One solution to mass unemployment may be the Danish model, where the power to … — employ someone or make them unemployed — means there are not many … — jobs you can do all your working life.

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

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

3. Listen to the story again and decide if the following statements are true or false.

1. A radical new approach is needed to prevent global mass unemployment.

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6 Minute English. Coronavirus: Dealing with mass unemployment

2.Neil and Sam discuss Norway’s approach to employment.

3.Brad Smith knows a lot about night clubs.

4.Brad Smith, president of Microsoft, a company employing over 100 thousand workers, has made optimistic predictions about the number of people out of work.

5.People are lucky when they can do their jobs remotely.

6.There are some merits of working from home — like not being able to meet up with friends or share ideas with colleagues, and going out for lunch.

7.The coronavirus pandemic has given millions of people a lot of new working places.

8.For those daily workers without savings to pay the rent and feed their families the coronavirus pandemic has been especially successful.

9.Mass unemployment has left the world facing an enormous jobs challenge.

10.Each job loss is a big potential personal success.

11.Elizabeth Reynolds, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology thinks it’s high time to talk about a jobs recovery.

12.We have experienced the impact or ramifications of the pandemic to the full.

4. Answer the following questions.

1.How many people will be left unemployed this year as a result of the coronavirus pandemic?

2.Why is a radical new approach needed to prevent global mass unemployment?

3.What is the Danish model?

4.What are Danish citizens expected to do in return for the world’s most generous unemployment payouts?

5.Why does Denmark enjoy labour flexibility?

6.How does Danish government prevent unemployment?

5. Work in small groups. Read the text and discuss this problem with your partners. Answer the following questions.

1.What unique human qualities will the job market of the future need?

2.What are some skills that will hardly be automated?

3.Will learning new, more specific, tech valuable skills solve the problem of unemployment after the coronavirus pandemic?

4.Is it important for people to get better informed about future market trends?

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6. Offer your own ideas how to solve the problem of unemployment.

From Coronavirus and Unemployment to the Skills of the Future

The job market of the future will need unique human qualities such as social intelligence, systems thinking, imagination, innovation, creativity, improvisation to solve unexpected problems or empathy. These skills aren’t (at least yet!) ready to get an algorithmic shape.

It will also be hard for robots to understand the complexity of human emotions as a result of one’s unique genetics and life experience and to provide personal and professional guidance. Jobs in which these skills are highly needed are unliked to like be threatened.

At the same time, there is already a human workforce working on creating and programming these very same robots. These are highly-specialized professionals with a deep understanding of areas such as mechanical engineering, code development, sensors implementation, data analysis, blockchain… Moreover, the tech industry is viewed by Americans as the most resilient in these times, a Reputation Institute Survey shows. And this industry involves much more than programming robots. It includes, for instance, developing websites with plenty of different functionalities, SaaS solutions or securing the bandwidth, storage, and safety of all the other tech-dependent sectors: from the financial sector to huge retailers like supermarkets, the healthcare sector or education.

Reflecting About the Skills for the Future and a Tech Career

If becomes clearer now that the coronavirus pandemic is leading to a global economic recession. Locally, countries are trying to minimize the damage organizations of all kinds are facing but the loss of jobs, especially low-skilled jobs and others providing non-essential services is unavoidable.

The truth is that many of these jobs have been providing workers with lowincomes. In times like these, these workers are the ones left in more fragile, vulnerable situations. We take the fact that some of these people will need to search for new jobs once the storm has passed to broader their views to the fact that some jobs are likely to be automated in the short-medium term.

In this way, we have discussed some skills that will hardly be automated. It will be highly valuable for the unemployed people who are safe in their homes to take this time as an opportunity to learn new, more specific, tech valuable skills. There are plenty of e-learning options available.

More than ever, it is important for people to get better informed about future market trends and understand if a more specialized, skills-intensive, tech career would be of interest. Keeping in mind that this would likely open doors to more stable, better-paid jobs.

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6 Minute English. Hacking help for US elections

6 Minute English. Hacking help for US elections1

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. You are going to listen to a story about this initiative. Before you listen, check you understand the following words and word combinations.

Vocabulary you can use to talk about this topic

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,

newspapers 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

1.Recall the situations in which this vocabulary is used in the story. Use them in sentences of your own.

2.Complete the following sentences using this vocabulary in proper forms.

1.… are carefully selected according to their experience and skills in cy-

bersecurity.

2.…. share their expert advice by talking with election officials.

3.Cyber-attacks from … are not the only threat to fair and democratic elections.

4.The Cyber Surge project aims to put officials in touch with … — people who work for free, who also happen to be expert … — people who break into computer systems without permission.

5.Anyone over the age of 18 is … to vote.

6.When are you…to vote in your country?

7.The project was set up because the November 2020 election has become so ….

1 See Appendix Transcript 2.12 Hacking help for US elections. P. 176. URL: https://www. bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6 minute-english/ep-201 015.

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8.Volunteers won’t be given access to sensitive information so they won’t have ….

9.The volunteers themselves are carefully chosen to be impartial experts who give advice without holding ….

10.Volunteers are carefully selected according to their experience and skills in ….

11.The expectation is not that the … will have … by any means, more that they will have an open dialogue with an election administrator who wants to know more to explore … enhancements in general or specifically.

3. Listen to the story again and decide if the following statements are true or false.

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

2.But few elections have been as perfectly calm as this November’s contest between current President Trump and his Democratic rival, Joe Biden.

3.In America, where many votes are cast digitally, there is a risk of cyberattacks on election day.

4.With so much depending on the result, US election officials are happy with cyber-attacks.

5.Cyber-attacks from hackers are the only threat to fair and democratic elections.

6.In 2000 the presidential race between Al Gore and George W. Bush ended in complete Bush’s victory.

7.George Bush became the first modern president to win the election despite gaining fewer popular votes than his opponent.

8.Any attempt to manipulate or interfere with election infrastructures strengthens the right to vote and public confidence.

9.It’s up to each of the eight thousand local jurisdictions around the United States to keep their area dependent on cyber-attacks and misinformation.

10.The coming election is attracting no attention and interest from the media and the public.

11.Volunteers will be given access to sensitive information about the coming election.

12.The idea of the Cyber Surge project is to commit election crime.

4. Answer the following questions.

1.How many fewer votes than Gore did Bush win by in the 2000 American presidential election?

2.What is the aim of the Cyber Surge project?

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Appendix

Part I

Different people. Different Places

Transcript 1.1

BBC Learning English 6 Minute English

Living abroad

Elena: Hello I’m Elena Newton and with me today for 6 Minute English is Callum Robertson — hello Callum.

Callum: Hello Elena.

Elena: Now, as you know Callum, today is a sad day — it’s my last day here at BBC Learning English. I’m leaving to go travelling and to experience living in other countries. So, today, in keeping with the theme, we’ll have a look at some language associated with this topic. Now the word ‘emigrate’ and the phrase ‘living abroad’ — what can you tell us about these Callum?

Callum: Well they’re very similar. They’re connected. The verb ‘to emigrate’ first. That means to move to another country and to make that country your home. Now that is a kind of a permanent position but some people just like to live abroad. Maybe they keep their house or their flat in this country and they go travelling. So ‘to emigrate’ and ‘to live abroad’.

Elena: Ok, well I’ve done a bit of research into the statistics or numbers of people who emigrate from the UK. The latest figures available are for the year July 2005 to July 2006. So, in this year, how many people emigrated from the UK?

Is it

A:385,000

B:485,000

C:580,000

Callum: I have to say that any answer I give is only going to be a guess. So I’m going to guess at 485,000.

Elena: Well I’ll tell you, the answer at the end of the programme. Now the Learning English department is a very interesting place to work and this is because many of the people here have spent years living abroad, mainly teaching English. Now Callum, you’re one of them. Can you tell us where you’ve lived?

Callum: Yes, well apart from Britain I’ve lived in Japan and I’ve also lived in Denmark.

Elena: Ok well now I’m going to play a short clip from a programme called Woman’s Hour, and it’s of a lady called Michelle who emigrated to Australia from the UK. She’s talking about fitting into Australian culture. She uses the words, ‘britpack’ and the expression, ‘likeminded people’. Callum, can you explain what they mean?

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