Justices hear Walmart case (video)

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Electronic waste (video)

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First global listening comprehension focus: problem, solution, alternatives.
Then, and after getting all the details, try to identify the following words

1. than ever
2. not unexpected
3. far more
4. throughout
5. life spans
6. last
7. estimates
8. a push
9. as quickly as
10. sorted
11. further
12. valuable
13. as opposed to
14. nationwide
15. as more
16. in an effort to
17. while
18. or both
19. much better than
20. awareness

The United States' worst nuclear accident, 32 years Later (video)

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The world's biggest weapons suppliers

THREE-QUARTERS of global arms exports were supplied by just five countries between 2006 and 2010, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), a think-tank. The volume of such exports rose by almost 25% compared with 2001-05. SIPRI counts the deliveries of large conventional weapons, each of which is assigned a value according to cost, strategic importance and other criteria. The two biggest importers of arms over the past five years, India and China, both bought over 80% of their weapons from Russia. The third- and fourth-biggest importers, South Korea and Pakistan, favoured American-made items.

London's massive anti-government cuts demonstrations (video)

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Elizabeth Taylor died at the age of 79

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After watching the video and getting as many details as possible, could you please fill in the blanks?


Film legend Dame Elizabeth Taylor ……………………… (die) ……………. (in) (on) (at) Wednesday March 23 of congestive heart failure at the age of 79.

Taylor's striking beauty …………………………. (demand) the attention of audiences from the moment she……………….. (appear) on the screen.

She …………………. (rise) to fame as a child star. Her role in "National Velvet" …………………… (make) Taylor a star at the age of 12, and the parts and the fame ……………………… (keep) on coming.

Twice she ……………………… (win) the Academy Award for Best Actress, for her role in Butterfield Eight, about a call girl involved with a married man, and ............................... (in) (on) (at) 1966 as a constantly bickering wife opposite actor Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

She ……………………(be born) …………. February 27, 1932 ………… (in) (on) (at) London. Her American parents ………………….. (be) originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Francis Taylor ……………………… (be) an art dealer, and Sara …………………. (be) a former actress

At the age of three, Taylor …………………… (begin) taking ballet lessons. Shortly before the beginning of World War II, her parents ………………………………. (decide) to return to the United States to avoid hostilities. Her mother …………………………. (take) the children first, arriving ……………… (in) (on) (at) New York ……………… (in) (on) (at) April 1939 while her father ………………………. (remain) ……………….(in) (on) (at) London to wrap up matters in his art business, arriving ……………. (in) (on) (at) November.

They ……………………… (settle) ………… (in) (on) (at) Los Angeles, California, where her father ………………………………..(establish) a new art gallery. It soon …………………………(attract) numerous Hollywood celebrities who ………………………..(appreciate) its modern European paintings. The gallery also ………………………… (open) many doors that …………………………. (lead) the Taylors directly into the society of money and prestige within Hollywood's movie colony.

Taylor …………………………… (go) from child star to Hollywood starlet and ………………….. (become) known for her acting talent, beauty and striking violet eyes.

Her stormy personal life and eight marriages - two to Richard Burton - as well as her friendship with the late pop-icon Michael Jackson, ………………………. (make) her a constant source of stories for the press.

She also ………………………….. (introduce) her own perfume and ………………………………………..(raise) money for several causes, including money for medical research on AIDS.

………………………. (in) (on) (at) May 16, 2000, in a ceremony ………………….. (hold) ……………………..(in) (on) (at) Buckingham Palace, Taylor ………………. (be) named a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II.

Taylor ………………………………. (be) hospitalized for congestive heart failure six weeks ago in Los Angeles.

At the time of her death she …………………. (have) four children, ten grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

She ………………………….. (be buried) in a private ceremony the day after she ……………………… (die) at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

At her request, the funeral ……………………… (begin) 15 minutes after it ……………………. (be) scheduled to start. As her representative …………………(tell) the media "She …………….. (be) so notorious for her unpunctuality that she even ………….. (want) to be late for her own funeral."

How about writing a summary, blending the info provided by the video and the bio?

Coalition fires more missiles at Libyan targets (video)

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Personal Finance for Dictators: Where to Stash the Cash?

As his country burns around him, the Libyan leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, has stashed away tens of billions of dollars in cash in United States dollars, Libyan dinars and possibly other currencies in banks and in Bab Al Azizia, his Tripoli compound.

A rainy day fund of such dimensions helps Colonel Qaddafi withstand economic sanctions and a freeze on Libyan government assets abroad. And, of course, if he runs away, the hard cash is easier to carry than other assets like cars or houses.

In fact, history offers a long list of dictators and kings stockpiling cash in times of trouble.

In Haiti, President Jean-Claude Duvalier and his wife, Michele, withdrew at least $33 million from the country’s central bank, transferring it to foreign accounts, and stored money and jewelry in a safe-deposit box at a Citibank branch on Madison Avenue in Manhattan, according to court papers filed by the Haitian government after he was forced from power in 1986.

The Panamanian dictator, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, stashed $5.8 million in denominations of 10s, 20s, 50s and 100s in a file cabinet behind a desk at his home. United States authorities seized the money during the invasion of Panama in 1989.

In 2003, in the hours before American bombs began falling on Baghdad, one of President Saddam Hussein’s sons, Qusay Saddam Hussein, carried off nearly $1 billion in cash from the vaults of the country’s Central Bank. The volume of cash was so great — some $900 million in American $100 bills and as much as $100 million worth of euros — that a team of workers took two hours to load the money on three tractor-trailers.

According to the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing, all dollar notes have the same dimensions: 2.61 inches by 6.14 inches by 0.0043 inches. Each note weighs approximately one gram.

That is true for all notes in circulation — $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. Notes worth more than this value — 500, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 — were taken out of official circulation in 1969, though some still circulate, and Colonel Qaddafi might have some of those.

Ten billion dollars in 100-dollar notes, stacked one on top of the other would weigh about 110 tons.

What does a mountain of cash worth tens of billions of dollars actually look like?


adapted from The NYTimes

Yesterday on the streets of Amsterdam. Today ....... (audio)

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European Airport Taxes (video)

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After a meeting at 10 Downing Street, Prime Minister David Cameron gives a statement confirming British forces are active over Libya (video)

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Ethanol Subsidy: tax credit under fire (video)

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After stating the general idea and details of the video, please focus on the context in which the following words are used

makes up
almost all
renewable
skyrocketed
meet the demand
huge change
on global markets

risen
driving
major

in the short run
unavoidable
developing
even if
deficit cutting
agree on
rising
overstated
period
on the table
while

Which words are used more than once? How many times?

Forbes Magazine Wealthiest List (video)

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• Question asking time! Let's try to get the missing info

1. Forbes Magazine list mirrors ……………………………..

2. The 200 new billionaires this year are from ………………………..

3. There is dynamism in the world economy, but it's not in the United States and it's not in Western Europe. It is in ………………

4. ………………………………………. retains the top spot

5. Microsoft founder Bill Gates gave away $……………………….. to charity.

6. Moscow has …………………..billionaires, the most of any major city.

7. The number of new billionaires in ………………… has doubled.

8. China's richest man's success symbolizes ………………………….

9. The Chinese government must do more to help its ………………

10. In the U.S.10 percent of the people own about ……………. percent of the nation's net worth.

• Please fill in the blanks with one of the following words

A) although

B) in spite of

C) however

1. The wealth of the world's billionaires has increased ......................................... a difficult recession for most of the world

2. The wealth of the world's billionaires has increased ……………………………… most of the world has faced a difficult recession

3. Most of the world has faced a difficult recession.
…………………………………………. , the wealth of the world's billionaires has increased

4. ……………………………………… the number of billionaires has increased in China, many middle-class Chinese feel their government isn't doing enough to make ordinary people richer

5. Chinese consumers agree it is good for their country to have more billionaires. ……………………………………., the government should do more to make the ordinary people richer

6. ……………………………………. having more billionaires, China should do more to make ordinary people richer

• Click HERE to have a look at the complete Forbes list

You can sort it by age, country, source and net worth to find out the answer to the following questions

1. Who's the youngest billionaire?

2. Who's the oldest?

3. Who's the "poorest"?

4. Who's the richest Argentine billionaire?

Cowboys at the annual Houston Rodeo (video)

Japan earthquake and tsunami (audio & video)

sources: VOA, AP and Japan Defense Ministry

People Power - The Game of Civil Resistance (video)

Popular social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, were instrumental in organizing the non-violent protests that led to the resignation last month of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. Some people in Egypt and other parts of the world have also been using other media for ideas on how to remove a dictator. This includes watching TV documentaries on civil disobedience created by a private video company in Washington. The company has also produced video games on ways to use non-violent tactics to enact change, for exampe "People Power"

Here's a video on the subject


You can also watch this video by clicking HERE

• After having understood the global idea and most details, please focus on how the following words are pronounced and the context in which they are used

Washington
Produced
Several
Says
Shown
World
Translated
Arabic
Authoritarian
Called
Documents
Used
Resigned
Disputed
Arrested
Tried
Died
Finished
Organized
Hired
Government
Contains
Uses
Street protests
Strikes
Educated .
Focus on all the nuances
Apparent
Engaged
Materials
Used
Graduate
Embedded
Downloaded
Internet
Costs
Certainly
Currently
Available
Spanish

World Marks 100th Women’s Day (video)

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How many native and non-native accents have you been able to identify?

Have you detected any mistakes? If so, which?

With traffic expected to slow, low-cost air carriers are getting fancy

SINCE taking off in the mid-1990s, Europe’s budget airlines have soared to account for a third of all air travel in the region. But their growth is slowing. “The low-cost carrier market used to be about fast growth and uncomplicated strategies,” says Keith McMullan, of Aviation Economics, a consultancy. “Now it is about slow growth and complicated strategies.”

The model was Southwest Airlines, the original American budget carrier. Low-cost airlines held down maintenance costs by using just one kind of aircraft, bought in large numbers with bulk discounts. They charged for meals and drinks. Airplanes flew back and forth along a single route, often between quiet, out-of-the-way airports, rather than using busy hubs. As a result the airlines could turn planes around in less than half an hour. Almost from the beginning, bookings took place online. Such savings were passed on to customers.

Ryanair, the market leader (see chart), exemplifies how the industry is changing. Its passenger growth is expected to slow from 14% in 2009-10 to 6% by 2013 and just 4% thereafter. Ryanair is still committed to cheap fares and secondary airports where landing charges are low or non-existent. But it plans to drop ultra-low fares on new routes and may move some flights to primary airports, which are attracting low-cost carriers to boost growth. Ryanair will concentrate less on increasing traffic and more on extracting larger amounts of money from each passenger.

Its main rival is going further. EasyJet already offers greater frequency on its routes and makes more use of primary airports such as London Gatwick and Paris Charles de Gaulle. It is also targeting cost-conscious business travelers. The firm recently smartened up cabin service. Passengers can opt for priority boarding either by paying extra for their ticket (as with Ryanair) or by joining easyJet’s loyalty scheme.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of changes in the market is Air Berlin, Germany’s second airline and the third-biggest budget carrier in Europe. Air Berlin now arranges its timetables to encourage transfers at its Berlin Tegel, Düsseldorf and Palma hubs, like a traditional network carrier. It also has a frequent-flyer program. Through its Niki associate in Austria, the airline even offers a direct flight from Berlin to Dubai three times a week. It is discussing a co-operation deal with Emirates, so that passengers from the Gulf carrier can connect in Vienna to fly to other European cities. Air Berlin is also joining the oneworld alliance based around British Airways and American Airlines.

Traditional airlines will have to get used to such changes. The European sky used to offer a choice between full-service and budget airlines. It is increasingly crowded with options of all shapes, sizes and costs. Take your pick, and hope your luggage arrives.

adapted from The Economist

Viral Video: Baby Laughing at Ripping Paper (video)

Are you among the 9377833 people who have watched the video?




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Here's some further information about the baby and his parents. While reading it, how about filling in the blanks with the verbs in parenthesis?

Dad reveals story behind ‘laughing baby’ viral video


The disappointment of a rejection letter quickly …………………………………(turn) to smiles for unemployed Marcus McArthur

Little Micah ………………………………………….(start) laughing when dad Marcus …………… (shred) the letter, so Marcus quickly ………………………….. (take) the videocam. Later, he ………. (upload) the 1-minute, 44-second video to YouTube

Appearing live on TODAY Friday with wife Amanda and Micah, now a big boy of 10 months, McArthur ……………………………… (tell) the anchors that he …………………………..(be) a stay-at-home dad finishing up his Ph.D. in American history at St. Louis University in Missouri while his wife ………………
(work) at the university.

Marcus and Amanda, who ………………… (be) both 33 and ……………….
(be married) for 10 years, ………………….(be) quite impressed that their video has drawn more than 9.000.000 views.

“Of course, we ……………………. (not know) so many people, what’s going on? It ……………………………. (not make) sense to me,” Marcus …………….. (say).

But the video ……………………… (become) viral stratosphere last month when TV actress Alyssa Milano …………………….. (discover) it and ……………… (post) a link to the video on her Twitter account, tweeting: “If this post ……….
(not make) you smile, check your pulse.”

And even though his dad ……………………. (still look) for work, Micah ……….. (bring) home some money at the age of 10 months: the McArthurs …………. (now market) a ring tone of their son's laughs for 99 cents. They …………………. (plan - build) a fund for his college tuition




adapted from Today.com and msnbc by Michael Inbar

Eric Clapton guitars to be auctioned for charity

PHOTO Kiichiro Sato / AP


NEW YORK — More than 70 guitars belonging to British music icon Eric Clapton will go on the auction block in New York next week to raise money for his drug and alcohol treatment center in the Caribbean.

The instruments, shown at a preview last Friday, include a 2005 Fender Stratocaster Signature Model, which is expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

Clapton used the instrument during the Cream Reunion concerts at the Royal Albert Hall in London in May 2005 and at Madison Square Garden in New York in October of the same year.

Another guitar, also expected to fetch as much as $30,000 at the sale at Bonham's on Wednesday, is a 2006 recreation of Clapton's famed Strat "Blackie", complete with cigarette burns on the headstock. In 2004, the original "Blackie" sold for $959,000.

Proceeds of the auction will benefit the Crossroads Center in Antigua, which Clapton, a recovered alcoholic and former heroin addict, founded in 1998.

Clapton, 65, is widely regarded as one of the best guitarists of all time. In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine named him fourth on their list of the 100 best guitarists in music history.

adapted from Today People - The Associated Press

How about completing the following questions, taking into account the info provided in the article you've just read?

1. How many guitars will ………..?
2. What will Clapton …………..?
3. Why will Clapton ……..
4. How much will the instruments ……. ?
5. When did Clapton ……..?
6. What center will the proceeds ……..?
7. When was the Crossroeads Center …….?
8. Why did Clapton …….?
9. Did Clapton ………. ?
10. Is Clapton …….?
11. When did Rolling Stone Magazine ……….?

Soaring Food Prices (video)

Let's warm up by asking some questions.

1. The FAO began monitoring prices ………………………………….. ago.

2. …………………………………………… is the agency's senior grain economist

3. He says that ………………………………….

4. The price of basic food commodities has risen steadily since ……………………………….

5. Higher food prices triggered ……………………………………..

6. Currently, ………………………….. and ……………………. making matters worse.

7. More incentive to produce more biofuels means that ………………………

8. That happened because……………………………

9. The international aid group Oxfam says ……………………………………..

10. Millions of people around the world can't pay for ……………………………….

11. Oxfam is urging the ……………………………………… to ………………………..

12. Abbassian warns that ………………………………….

13. These high prices will have a spillover effect into the grain sector in ………………

14. A major difference between the current situation and the food crisis of 2008 is that ……..

15. The price of corn rose …………. % last year

And now let's watch the video, focusing first on the global idea and then on details.





You can also watch this video by clicking HERE

After watching the video, please provide the context in which at least 10 of the following words are used

Except for
Such as
Steadily
Still
Even further
Whether
A new high
Among
Trigger
Due to
Turmoil
Make matters worse
That means
Prompted
Sliding
Struggle
Curb
Until
The longer
Coming
Major
Current
Staple
On the other hand
While

Now that you know the subject thoroughly, can you state which of the 15 questions you asked at the beginning of this activity is NOT answered in the video?

Have you charged your glasses today?

A pair of emPower glasses in their charger. The glasses use liquid crystals to avoid the problems of bifocals.

A NEW device may be joining smartphones, iPads and music players that you have to charge overnight: electronic eyeglasses. These glasses have tiny batteries, microchips and assorted electronics to turn reading power on when you need it and off when you don’t.

Traditionally, people who hit their 40s often need extra optical help as farsightedness sets in. They may buy bifocals or no-line progressive lenses. But such glasses have a drawback: the lenses that magnify fine print also blur objects more than an arm’s length away when a wearer looks down, distorting the view when on a staircase, for example, or when swinging at a golf ball.

The new electronic spectacles, called emPower, are intended to handle that problem with an unusual insert in the bottom part of the lenses: liquid crystals, cousins to the familiar ones in television displays. The crystals change how the lenses refract or bend light, just as varying levels of thickness do in traditional glasses.

To call up reading power in the new glasses, users touch the side of the frame. Batteries in the frame send along a current that changes the orientation of molecules in the crystals. Touch the side of the frame again, and the reading power disappears. Turn it off to hit a golf ball; turn it on to read the scorecard.

The glasses, made by PixelOptics in Roanoke, Va., will be on the market this spring, said Dr. Ronald Blum, an optometrist and the company’s president. The estimated price, $1,000 to $1,200, will include frames, lenses, coatings and charger.

Dr. Larry Wan, a managing partner at Family EyeCare Center in Campbell, Calif., tested the glasses with 10 of his patients, all in their 50s. He said they were a hit.

Of course, you’ll have to remember to charge them. The charge lasts two to three days.

But you won’t have to worry if you drop them in the water. “Wipe them off and they should be fine,” he says, although they may require recharging.

Thirty-six different frames made by Aspex Eyewear will be offered initially, Mr. Rodriguez said. The electronic lenses will be manufactured by the Panasonic Healthcare Company in Japan.

The market for emPower glasses will not include the young. “About 80 percent of the people wearing reading glasses are past 40,” said Steve Kodey, director of industry research at the Vision Council, a trade group for eyewear manufacturers and suppliers. But the market is “much bigger than most people realize,” Mr. Kodey says.

Last year, some 20.6 million pairs of progressive lenses, and about 16.2 million pairs of bifocals, were sold in the United States.

adapted from The New York Times - by Anne Eisenberg

Lybia - Opposition Fights Pro-Gadhafi Forces

Before watching the video, how about practicing question asking?

Zawiya is ………………………… kilometers west of Tripoli.

Witnesses tell VOA that troops and tanks loyal to Moammar Gadhafi are lined up along ………………blocking the ………………………………

"Security militia that protects Gadhafi launched an ………………………. We managed to ……………………………"

Another man said protesters in Zawiya have few ……………………. "Forces should ………………………………. They should arrest ……………………………………."

The Obama administration on Monday increased ……………………….

Moammar Gadhafi told ABC News he plans to stay in Libya because …………………

"Lybians will ……………………… to protect me" Moammar Gadhafi said.

VOA has received a video posted on YouTube. Mr. Gadhafi's son, Saif al-Islam Gadhafi, promises …………………… to ………………………

But Saif al-Islam Gadhafi denied to ABC News that ……………………………

VOA spoke to one woman in Libya via Skype. She says " The proof is in the ……………………………… I saw …………………………"

The woman asked VOA to …………. She wants …………………….

And now let's watch the video. Try to get (1) the global idea, (2) the answers to the questions above and (3) as many details as possible.

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