Listening test: Passport for sale

Listen to a short report on the famous St. Kitts and Nevis passport and complete the gaps in the sentences below with UP TO THREE words. 0 is an example.

source: Deep English

0 Example:
According to the United Nations, there are 19.5 million refugees around the world.

1 In the US foreigners can get a permanent visa by investing $_________________ in a US business.

2 In the late 90’s, the economy of St. Kitts and Nevis was _________________.

3 Apart from the collapse of the sugar industry, _________________ hit the islands in 1998 and 1999.

4 Lawrence’s plan meant foreign companies giving donations or investing a lot of money in _____________ .

5 Lawrence calmed down the citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis by saying that the new citizens would not be given the _________________.

6 Citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis can travel to over 100 countries ________________.

7 The problem with St. Kitts and Nevis passports started when ________________ started using them.

8 Lawrence has ________________ about his plan because it brought a lot of money to St. Kitts and Nevis.

According to the United Nations, there are 19.5 million refugees around the world. Most of them are poor and in need of support. What most people don’t hear about are the ultra-rich who can easily buy their way into a new life abroad. In the US, for example, foreigners who invest $500,000 in a US business can get a permanent residency visa.
The country of St. Kitts and Nevis has taken it one step further. This island country has beautiful oceans, jungles, and mountains, but it doesn’t have much else. In the late 90’s, the economy of St. Kitts and Nevis was in trouble. Wendell Lawrence found a solution.
Lawrence worked for the finance ministry at a time when the government was in massive debt. The sugar industry, which employed a quarter of the country’s citizens, had collapsed. To make matters worse, a massive hurricane hit the islands in 1998, and in 1999 two more hit. Major rebuilding was necessary, but they had no money.
Lawrence found a foreign company that wanted to partner with St. Kitts and Nevis to sell passports. The plan was simple. For a $250,000 donation or a $400,000 investment in real estate, anyone could get a passport and citizenship.
Not everyone was on board. For many people citizenship is sacred. Some people said that foreigners might take over the country. Lawrence told them not to worry. They would be citizens, but they wouldn’t have the right to vote.
The plan was given the green light. While some customers were looking for a place to hide their money from their home countries, others were looking for the visa-free travel that a St. Kitts and Nevis passport would give. Being a member of the British Commonwealth, citizens of St. Kitts and Nevis have access to over 100 countries without a visa.
The product was a big hit. At its height, they were selling 2,000 passports a year. The plan eventually came to a head when international criminals started using St. Kitts and Nevis passports. Suddenly, countries started to scrutinize this once respected passport. Canada even said that non-native St Kitts and Nevis passport holders would not be allowed in without a visa. The market for these passports like the previous market for sugar collapsed.
Lawrence says he has no regrets. The plan raised a lot of money and improved the economy of the country. Other people disagree. One local woman said, “It’s wrong. There are ways to get money. Do it some other way. Don’t sell us out.”
St. Kitts and Nevis may have been one of the first, but they are not the last. Malta now sells citizenship, but EU passports don’t come cheap. The current price is 1.5 million Euros.

Key:
1 500,000
2 in trouble
3 (some/three massive) hurricanes
4 real estate
5 right to vote
6 without a visa
7 international criminals
8 no regrets

Extensive listening: How to raise successful kids without over-parenting

By loading kids with high expectations and micromanaging their lives at every turn, parents aren't actually helping. At least, that's how Julie Lythcott-Haims sees it.

With passion and wry humor, the former Dean of Freshmen at Stanford makes the case for parents to stop defining their children's success via grades and test scores. Instead, she says, they should focus on providing the oldest idea of all: unconditional love.

Julie Lythcott-Haims speaks and writes on the phenomenon of helicopter parenting and the dangers of a checklisted childhood — the subject of her book, "How to Raise an Adult".

You can read the full transcript here.

A tongue-twisting poem

Back in 1922 Dutch poet, traveller and teacher Gerard Nolst Trenité wrote a poem, The Chaos, to test a person’s English pronunciation.

For Gerard Nolst Trenit, only a true Englishman can pronounce all of the words in the poem, which contains around 800 bizarre irregularities in the English language.

Self-study activity:
Try to read the poem first without listening to the recording. Then listen to the recorded version to check how good your English pronunciation is. Finally, shadow-read the poem, that is, read the poem while listening to it at the same time.



Dearest creature in creation,

Study English pronunciation.

I will teach you in my verse

Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I will keep you, Suzy, busy,

Make your head with heat grow dizzy.

Tear in eye, your dress will tear.

So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Pray, console your loving poet,

Make my coat look new, dear, sew it!

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,

Dies and diet, lord and word,

Sword and sward, retain and Britain.

(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)

Now I surely will not plague you

With such words as plaque and ague.

But be careful how you speak:

Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;

Cloven, oven, how and low,

Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,

Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,

Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,

Exiles, similes, and reviles;

Scholar, vicar, and cigar,

Solar, mica, war and far;

One, anemone, Balmoral,

Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;

Gertrude, German, wind and mind,

Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,

Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.

Blood and flood are not like food,

Nor is mould like should and would.

Viscous, viscount, load and broad,

Toward, to forward, to reward.

And your pronunciation’s OK

When you correctly say croquet,

Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,

Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour

And enamour rhyme with hammer.

River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,

Doll and roll and some and home.

Stranger does not rhyme with anger,

Neither does devour with clangour.

Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,

Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,

Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,

And then singer, ginger, linger,

Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,

Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rime with very,

Nor does fury sound like bury.

Dost, lost, post; and doth, cloth, loth,

Though the difference seems little,

We say actual, but victual.
Compare alien with Italian,

Dandelion and battalion.

Sally with ally, yea, ye,

Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.

Say aver, but ever, fever,

Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.

Crevice and device and eerie.

Won’t it make you lose your wits,

Writing groats and saying grits?

Islington and Isle of Wight,

Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough

Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?

Hiccough has the sound of cup.

My advice is to give up!!!

A century of exile and homelessness

In 2015, the war in Syria and economic hardship in parts of Africa led to record levels of migration in Europe. Some experts have advised caution over the numbers, stressing that mass movement of people has been an even greater challenge for the international community at key points in the past century, including World War Two and the wars in Vietnam and the Balkans.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1. What does 'a quarter of a million' refer to?
2. When did the Kosovo conflict take place?
3. What is the new factor in the current European immigrant crisis?
4. How long does it take a wave of immigrants to be absorbed by the destination countries?
5. Why did the Vietnamese boat people leave their country?
6. What is the global problem that makes it difficult to deal with the current refuge crisis?


The vast wave of would-be immigrants into Europe has seemed unprecedented, and yet this sort of thing has been happening again and again for a hundred years.
When Germany invaded Belgium in 1914, a million people fled the country, and a quarter of a million came to Britain. After 1945, an estimated twelve million ethnic Germans fled Eastern Europe. They took refuge in East and West Germany. During the Kosovo conflict in 1988 and 9, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Albanians fled abroad. But there is something new and different about this current wave.
I think it’s a crisis of politics rather than numbers. What's dramatic about today is this is the first time Europe has faced people coming outside of Europe in large numbers as refugees. So the fact that many are Muslims, that they are from the Middle East, is perceived often as threatening, as challenging Europe's identity.
Even so, for centuries now, Britain, like the rest of Europe, has accepted great waves of immigrants, and each time it has needed at least a generation to absorb them. This process of absorption has never been as great as it is now, with more than three hundred languages being spoken in schools here in London. Yet with each new wave of immigrants, the basic reaction to them seems exactly the same.
The Asians arrived in cold, wet weather at Stansted...
We saw this divided response when almost 60,000 Ugandan Asians were forced out by Idi Amin in the 1970s. Some people welcomed them, others didn't.
If there was room, there was houses, there was jobs I would say nothing about it, nothing at all, but again, I say that we have too many coloured people in this country to absorb in our community at this time.
That hasn't always been the international response. After the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese boat people, fearing Communist persecution, sought refuge abroad, and the United States persuaded the outside world to accept them. That was then.
We have a global problem, which is poor global governance, if you like, at a multilateral level. It’s the rise of other powers. The US doesn't have the influence it had, and the big powers don't agree fundamentally on some of these big issues and Syria is a classic example. So the problems are not being fixed, no-one can come in with a big stick and sort it out, and therefore we are left picking up the pieces in ways which are extremely difficult to deal with.
An entire century of exile and homelessness. The pictures are remarkably similar, so is the cause: conflict and bad government. Unless they are dealt with, the flow won't stop.
John Simpson, BBC News.

Key:
1. Belgians who went to Britain when the Germans invaded their country
2. 1988-89
3. the large number of immigrants coming from outside Europe
4. a generation
5. they were afraid of the Communist persecution
6. a problem of governance or new powers have emerged or the big powers don't agree or one nation (US) doesn't hold all the power

My new life as an Indian wife

Two years ago Lauren was living in the south of England. She now lives in Nagpur in central India together with her Indian husband while she is trying to adjust to life as a traditional Indian wife. Here's her story.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions below.



1. What was Lauren's job?
2. What did Lauren find strange when she moved to India?
3. Where did she meet her husband?
4. What feeling did both Lauren and her husband have when they first started to chat online?
5. How long did they spend together the first time they saw each other face to face?
6. When did Lauren move to India?
7. When do Indian women wear a sari?
8. What have Lauren's in-laws learnt to give her?
9. What does Lauren say about destiny at the end?


My name is Lauren Mokasdar, and I grew up in the south of England.  I found love online, so I gave up my career to become a pharmacist, and I moved to central India to get married to the love of my life.  I now live in a small apartment with my husband and my in-laws.
When I first came here it was quite stressful, because everyone was staring at me, and I was so busy.  There were stray dogs everywhere, even cows, and it was just quite strange, it’s definitely not anything like Sainsbury, what I’m used to, though very different, I’ve got used to it now.
I joined a vegetarian forum online, and within minutes, a stranger started talking to me, and I won’t usually reply to strangers, but on this occasion, I did.
I was working in New Jersey at that time, and then I joined a vegetarian forum, and then I saw that one day Lauren was online, and so I pinged her, and then we started chatting online.
And I started to think I must have known this person in a past life and just as this thought across my mind,  the words came up on the screen, ‘I think we knew each other in past lives’.
About six days from that day, I told her that I loved her.
In two months, he had flown from the U.S., where he was studying his master,s to London to meet me.
And when we saw each other, we were like almost crying because it was just too ecstatic.
And we spent an amazing ten hours. We went on the London underground to central London. And I showed him Big Ben, and the Thames, and the London Eye.  And it was so beautiful because it was night time and no one was there. It was just very romantic.
Lauren booked her tickets for Nagpur, and she came here in the month of June, and immediately when she came here, in a pair of few days, we went off to my hometown in Arabi and there we got married in a temple that I used to visit very often when I was a kid.
I’ve chosen to become a traditional Indian bride, so instead of wearing a wedding ring, I now wear a red pattern called sindoor in the parting of my hair, and a necklace called mangle sutra.  I’ve also had to learn how to drape my own sari. In my family, it’s traditional for the women to wear sari during festivals, and in many of the festivals, I get a new sari.
One of the things I’ve had to learn is how to make roti.  I’m not very good at it, but I’ve been trying my hardest, it’s a lot harder than it looks.
There was a communication gap between us, if I wanted to tell her something, there used to be some misunderstanding which created a lot of problems, but now we just giggle a lot. She comes from a different culture, and we’ve had to learn to give her space and privacy.
When I first came to India, I really wanted to visit a temple, because I saw them everywhere and they are so beautiful, but I was really nervous that I would offend someone and I didn’t know the etiquette of how you visit a temple. And since going to temple while my husband is at work,  I’ve gained so much solace and it’s really given me strength, and put me in touch with my spirituality and really helped me cope with all the struggles since we moved to India.
I genuinely believe that if my husband and I hadn’t connected on that vegetarian forum that our paths would have crossed somewhere, somehow, some place. It was just a matter of time because I really believe that it’s destiny that we are together.

Key:
1. a pharmacist
2. (stray) dogs and cows everywhere
3. on a vegetarian forum
4. that they had known each other in past lives
5. ten hours
6. in June
7. in festivals
8. space and privacy
9. Lauren and her husband were destined to be together

Talking point: Old people

This week's talking point is old people. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.
 
What problems do old people usually have?
What is your personal experience with old people?
Do you spend any time with older people?
What can young people learn from the old?
Where do old people generally live in your country?
What do retirement homes offer elderly people?
How do the elderly spend their time?
Does society have a responsibility to look after its elderly?

Interaction –How the elderly can contribute to society
You and your partner(s) have just retired and as you feel both physically and mentally fit, you want to get involved in some activity that benefits society, especially those in need.

Discuss how beneficial to society the activities below can be and then try to agree on two to do together. Give reasons for your choice.

Food bank: Distribute food and clothes to poor families
Teaching immigrant children: Teach Spanish or literacy
Lollipop man/woman: Bring safety to children on their way to school
Help line: Check on other elderly people with no one to talk to
Prison visitor: Give support and advice to people doing time
Babysit: Look after the children of working parents
Computer literacy: Teach technology to other elderly people
Helping vet: Rescue and look after stray pets

To illustrate the topic you can watch this video by Prudential, where a woman talks about her first day after retirement.



Well I think that happy is a momentary thing. Happiness comes and goes. I think contentment is there all the time even underneath when you’re having a problem. I mean to be content, you have to work with what you’ve got.
I guess there is something in me that I’ve always been strong. I’ve always gotten through some pretty rough stuff without falling to pieces. It’s my nature to survive, it’s my nature to land on my feet.
It’s kind of hard to make decisions by yourself all of a sudden when you’ve been making them with somebody else for 35 years.
I had a wonderful, wonderful happy marriage and I was well loved and so many people don’t have that. So they gave him three to six months but we all knew better. He sort of sit enough and he reached out and touched my face and died in my arms.
The good thing about change is that you grow each time, you expand each time I think. My executive director and I started talking about it  in the spring that I might take early retirement and I just got antsy, I just said, you know I need to go and do this if I’m going to do it, I need to do it.
Good morning, buddy, what’s up there? Ok, Ok, I’m getting up, I’m doing it.
He don’t talk back, he just looks like he understands.
Tom didn’t leave very much but  he left me a little money. I bought Dicken with the last of the money that he left me. Just the companionship is, made a huge difference. I think when you hug somebody you just feel that sense of being loved and being held. I think that’s contentment. I think if you can carry that with you which pretty much do just feel like I’m walking around in one big hug.
Day one. First day of my retirement. First day I never had to answer anybody for anything, except Dicken. Gotta give him his treats or he’d be unhappy.

Why is New York City cracking down on Airbnb?

Airbnb, the short-term housing rental industry giant, now lists more than 1 million rooms available in 192 countries. The platform's largest market is in New York City, with more than 25,000 listings per night, but it's also where the debate over how to regulate short-term rentals is the most contentious.

In light of a new report by the NY Attorney General that says nearly three-quarters of Airbnb's listings in the city are technically illegal, the city is cracking down.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and asnwer the questions below.



1. Why does Jennifer rent her place?
2. How does this scheme benefit the community and the visitors?
3. What does '25,000' refer to?
4. Why might Jennifer be acting illegally?
5. Why have hotel rates gone down in New York?
6. How much tax does Airbnb pay in New York?
7. Why do residents also complain about Airbnb?
8. What additional problem is mentioned by Senator Liz Krueger and the reporter?
9. Why does Airbnb make the housing situation harder in New York?
10. How does the rental system help the residents who decide to rent out their apartment? 
11. How is this issue dealt with in Santa Monica?


HARI SREENIVASAN: So it’s a two bedroom?
JENNIFER: Yeah, two bedrooms.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Three years ago, Jennifer and her husband began listing their two bedroom apartment on what was then an up-and-coming website Airbnb.
JENNIFER: My husband travels a lot for work. We also have family all over the country. And so when we knew we were going away, I would just make the apartment available. We have a space that sleeps six. So people almost always rented it. It just kept going well and we kept having all these good experiences
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb connects hosts who want to share their homes with guests who are looking for a place to stay – short term, typically for a weekend or a vacation. Airbnb lists the property, connects the two parties, and collects a booking fee.
Jennifer – she did not want us to use her last name – charges up to $200 a night to rent her place when she and her family goes away, up to a week every month.
JENNIFER: I think it’s great for the local communities, I can kind of, direct people to my favorite restaurants in the neighborhood. I’m able to help people come in here and really experience what the city has to offer, you know.
HARI SREENIVASAN: What sounds like a win-win situation for Jennifer and her guests is not so simple. What Jennifer is doing may be illegal in New York City, where city and state laws restrict short-term rentals.
The short-term home rental industry is booming. Platforms like Homeaway, Flipkey, VRBO are popular. And Airbnb has emerged as the giant in this space, especially in cities. Airbnb now lists over one million rooms available in 192 countries. And New York City, with more than 25,000 listings a night, is the platform’s largest U.S. market.
New York is also where the debate over how to regulate short term home rentals like Airbnb is perhaps most contentious.
According to a report by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman last year, nearly three-quarters of Airbnb’s listings between 2010 and 2014 were essentially ‘illegal hotels’– short term rentals that violate state and city laws against renting out an apartment for less than 30 days unless the occupants are also present.
Schneiderman found 94 percent of Airbnb hosts are like Jennifer and her husband. They have only one or possibly two listings.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: Those are rooms that would have gone to the hotel industry and should have gone to the hotel industry given what we’ve invested in the city and our buildings.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Vijay Dandapani chairs the New York City Hotel Association and is President of Apple Core Hotels, which owns five in Midtown Manhattan, including this ‘La Quinta’. He says competition from Airbnb has driven down his hotels’ room rates.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: Rates have not gone back up to pre-financial crisis despite the fact that tourism has gone up. That’s because, let’s say you had 100 rooms, now you’ve suddenly got 140 rooms, 40 of those rooms being not hotels.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Dandapani complains Airbnb and its hosts not only steal business, they also do not follow the same rules and regulations as hotels.
VIJAY DANDAPANI: We have a fire command system, security systems that give you protections from intruders, and so on. The moment you get into converting your house into a hotel, which is de facto what is being done nowadays, none of those protections are there.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Then, there’s the issue of taxes. Airbnb collects a hotel occupancy tax on behalf of hosts in many cities but not New York.
Chip Conley, Airbnb’s Head of Global Hospitality, says the company is looking at how to do that.
CHIP CONLEY: The annual taxes that we would be paying would be 65 million dollars if the state and city of NY would allow us to be a collector of taxes and a remitter of taxes. Currently they are not allowing us to do that.
HARI SREENIVASAN: City officials counter that allowing collection of taxes legitimizes activity that is largely unlawful.
CHIP CONLEY: So what’s odd to us is that actually New York is actually sort of a laggard here relative to so many other communities across the US who have said, let’s create sensible legislation and let’s make sure we’re actually collecting taxes as well.
HARI SREENIVASAN: New York Airbnb hosts Jordan and Joshua — who also prefer us not to use their last names — say they’d be willing to pay a hotel tax for renting out their two bedroom apartment. They already declare the income: about a $180 a night.
JORDAN: If Airbnb collected the tax right when it was booked; then we wouldn’t have to worry about it.
HARI SREENIVASAN: The hotel industry is not the only group fighting Airbnb. So are residents of apartment buildings where neighbors’ apartments are rented out to total strangers. New York State Senator Liz Krueger represents the east side of Manhattan.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: Constituents started coming to me and saying, “There’s something strange going on in my building. The apartments seem to be being rented out on a nightly basis. There are groups of tourists wandering in and out with luggage, with keys to the buildings."
HARI SREENIVASAN: Krueger, who has often been dubbed Airbnb’s Doubter-in-Chief, was the primary sponsor of the 2010 state law that effectively banned short-term apartment rentals in New York City.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: They encourage illegal activity. They don’t have to, but they choose to do so as a business model.
HARI SREENIVASAN: And the short-term rental activity that troubles officials like Krueger and Attorney General Schneiderman most is what they call ‘commercial users’ of Airbnb and similar websites.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: People becoming entrepreneurs and renting one to 100 apartments, claiming that they’re their own homes, and turning them into ongoing illegal hotel arrangements.
HARI SREENIVASAN: In fact, the Attorney General’s report found that while only 6 percent of Airbnb hosts advertise three or more listings, they account for more than a third of Airbnb’s business in New York.
The report also found thousands of Airbnb listings were rented for three months or more of the year.
We found that New York Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal went on what she terms an undercover sting operation this spring to find these commercial users.
ROSENTHAL: Do you live here? You don’t live here, oh ok.
In one of the videos that she released to the press, Rosenthal is seen visiting a host who, she says, was renting seven apartments in a building, none of which he lived in.
HOST: “But in case anybody asks something, you don’t know what’s Airbnb is."
ROSENTHAL: “Oh, OK."
HOST: “That’s why Airbnb always calls you guests.”
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb has taken steps to remove users who have a large number of listings.
CHIP CONLEY: We, like the Attorney General, support the idea of cracking down on illegal hotels and unscrupulous landlords. In spring we took down 2,000 listings, what we were calling bad actors who we just felt shouldn’t be using the site
HARI SREENIVASAN: But State Senator Krueger argues Airbnb is enticing landlords like the one in the undercover video, to convert apartments into short-term rentals, which can be more profitable than renting them to long-term residents. And that, Krueger says, makes it harder for New Yorkers to find affordable housing in a city where the housing market is already tight.
SEN. LIZ KRUEGER: Airbnb has told me, “If you could just do one or two, it would be okay,” and the answer is no, because if 10,000 people decide to rent out two apartments fulltime, that’s 20,000 units off the market.
HARI SREENIVASAN: So we’re sitting in an illegal hotel room, according to the State Senator.
JENNIFER: Yes, I have a difference of opinion with her, for sure. It’s really hard for me to feel like my home is a hotel. I feel like someone who is welcoming a lot of people who become friends. I think the key is just making sure that it’s people are, it’s something that people are doing with their primary home. Financially, it really helps my family. Rents here have skyrocketed in the 10 years that we’ve been here.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Airbnb argues it helps residents stay in their homes by allowing them to earn supplemental income to pay their rent or mortgage.
JOSHUA: It affords me as an artist to be an artist. I use part of this income to survive on.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Joshua also says that the Airbnb system allows them to be very choosy about who they let stay in their home and when.
JOSHUA: It’s up to us as hosts what we want to do. I say we deny 8 out of 10 people that ask us to stay here. And we get a lot of requests, a lot. So that’s how I regulate it. The question that people ask is do we feel safe having people we don’t know in our home and the answer is yes.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Arun Sundararajan is a business professor at New York University. He says cities like New York should partner with companies like Airbnb and residents to forge new ways of regulating the activity on those platforms.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Why is the AirBNB model so different than the model for lodging that we’ve had all the rules and regulations around so far?
ARUN SUNDARAJAN: The fundamental innovation is in tapping into underutilized capacity: repurposing what used to be residential real estate and sort of converting it into a new form of mixed-use real estate where for some of the time it is short-term accommodation, and for the rest of the time it’s residential.
HARI SREENIVASAN: Cities across the country are grappling with these questions.
Like New York, Santa Monica banned short-term rental of entire homes when the host is not present and additionally imposes a 14-percent tax when a host rents out a room in his house.
Other cities have recently forged a middle ground.
San Francisco residents are permitted to rent out homes a maximum of 90 days a year.
In Philadelphia, the maximum is 180 days and hosts must pay an eight-and-a-half percent hotel tax to the city.
ARUN SUNDARARAJAN: I think that there’s a growing recognition among cities that this kind of sharing economy activity can be good for a city.
HARI SREENIVASAN: But for now, New York City is cracking down. It has expanded the office tasked with investigating complaints of illegal hotels and is proposing higher fines for violators.

Key:
1. her husband travels a lot for work and they have family all over the country
2. Jennifer directs visitors to specific places (restaurants) in the neighbourhood; visitors are advised on interesting places to drop by
3. the number of Airbnb houses available in New York
4. Jennifer and her family rent their apartment when they are away
5. there are many more rooms available thanks to platforms like Airbnb
6. none
7. total strangers keep coming up to the buildings
8. a small percetage of individuals are renting out hundreds of apartments, which means 1) it is not possible they live in those apartments they rent and 2) they have created an illegal business
9. empty apartments are rented short-term because it is more profitable and so New York residents who would be willing to rent the apartmemts long-term do not have the option to do so
10. they get extra cash that help them pay very high rents
11. Santa Monica banned short-term rental of entire homes when the host is not present and additionally imposes a 14-percent tax when a host rents out a room in his house

Listening test: Holiday in Thailand

In this week's listening test we are going to practise the heading-matching type of task.

Listen to a person talking about different aspects of his holiday in Thailand and choose the heading A-H that matches each extract. There are two headings you do not need to use.

A - Extreme weather
B - Places to avoid
C - Preconceptions
D - Religion everywhere
E - Tourist route
F - Unknown facts
G - Why Thailand
H - You may need to change some habits

source: Teacher Luke

 
1
These days we like to go abroad more and see new things. It was just a break and a chance to get away from it all. We’d never been to Thailand before. I have been to Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia. And also we like food, the two of us, we like eating good and tasty food and Thailand is famous for its good food. And also Thailand’s just a good destination. It’s quite diverse in terms of the things you can do. For example, there’s the city, you know, Bangkok, you can explore this extremely busy, huge city and all the things that’s got to offer. There’s also there is sort of the culture, the food and the arts, particularly in the north, where there are a lot of temples and things like that and then in the south there are these beaches, these islands have got beautiful sunny beaches and stuff like that and also at the moment Thailand is not too expensive.

2
So we started off in Bangkok, which is obviously the capital city, and it’s sort of in the center-ish in terms of sorts like from north to south, it’s kind of in the middle, basically, and we went there for a few days, and then we went north to Chiang Mai, which is another city but in the north and we stayed there for a few days, and then we travelled down south to one of the islands, called Koh Samui, and we stayed there for a few days and then we went back to Bangkok for a few days and then we went home!

3
Now we didn’t go to the islands on the west because generally there are sort of islands on the west and a few islands on the east. We didn’t go to the islands on the west, places like Phuket, because of the climate in August, it’s kind of monsoon, rainy season in August, and the western islands get a lot of rain, so we avoided them, we stuck to sort of the eastern side. Also, just before we left and even while we were there, there were some explosions, some attacks, some bombings, which is a bit worrying. In fact, the first bombing took place just a day or so before we were due to leave and we did consider not going, and we thought, well, then we thought, we live in Paris, so we’ve got as much chance of being blown up here as in Thailand.

4
Whether or not they’ve been there it seems certainly in sort of places like the UK there’s a general view of what people expect about Thailand. So that it’s busy, it’s crowded, there’s amazing food – specifically green curry and pad thai noodles, there’s also the idea that there’s weird sex tourism in Bangkok, also lady-boys, bizarre sex shows involving ping pong balls, full moon beach parties, buckets full of ridiculously full cocktails, kickboxing, temples, buddhist monks in orange robes and western people being locked up in prison for drug possession, scooters, Sagat from Street Fighter 2, snakes, golden buddha statues, amazingly friendly and smiling people and the movie  “The Beach” starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

5
Thailand, the country name, or I think in Thai  that’s “Prathet Thai”, that’s how they say it, Thailand actually means “land of the free”… Thailand has never been colonised by a foreign power, that’s why they call themselves “the land of the free” because they’ve never been colonised by a foreign power, unlike other neighbouring countries which were colonised by European nations like Britain, France and the Netherlands. Thailand had a few wars with Burma, but was never successfully invaded and it was never colonised by any other country. So, well done Thailand.

6 
In Thailand the feet are considered to be very unclean, both clinically in terms of cleanliness and spiritually as well, and so it is very rude to reveal the soles of your feet to anyone. So, don’t sit with your feet facing outwards, or put your feet up on the table when you’re relaxing like we do in the west sometimes. It’s also rude to point at people with your feet, which is fine, isn’t it, really because I literally never do that anyway. I’m never pointing at people with my feet. So that’s fine, it wasn’t a problem.


KEY:
1G 2E 3B 4C 5F 6H

Extensive listening: B Is for Book

B is for Book is a BBC documentary following a group of primary schoolchildren over the course of a year as they learn to read.

We can see how even at this early age, some children make a flying start, while others struggle even with the alphabet.

The film takes us into their home lives, where we find that some parents are strongly aspirational, tutoring children late into the night, while others speak English as a foreign language, if at all.

As the children master the basics, they discover the magical world of stories and look with fresh eyes at the world around them.

The film gives us privileged access to a profound process that all of us only ever do once in our lives.

Reading test: Spain home of the luxury espadrille

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the multiple choice grammar and vocabulary test. To do so, we are going to use El Pais article Spain: home of the luxury espadrille.

Read the text and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each blank. 0 is an example.

Spain: home of the luxury espadrille

Back in the 1970s, Isabel and Lorenzo Castañer, a Spanish couple with a small artisanal business (0) … espadrilles, or alpargatas as they are known in Spain, (1) … Yves Saint Laurent in Paris. When the fashion designer discovered what they did for a living, he asked if they would be able to make a wedge version of the traditional sandal.
“My father, (2) … was always looking for new challenges, accepted,” says Antonio Castañer, now CEO of the family firm that dates back six generations.
The offer to work with Yves Saint Laurent came at a time when Castañer was facing a(n) (3) …: its traditional market, made up of farmers and villagers, was getting smaller as rural Spaniards left the countryside for the cities in search of work and better opportunities, leaving their espadrilles behind.
Now, four decades on from that meeting in the French capital, tastes have changed and the time-honored simplicity of the original espadrille is (4) … . Around a third of Castañer’s production are designs for luxury (5)… .
The espadrille’s rustic (6) … has always had its admirers but an increasingly varied range of models are now available, making it an haute couture option. In 2011, Karl Lagerfeld took Chanel’s famous two-tone dress shoe and adapted it to the traditional espadrille. A year later, Valentino created a sensation by using delicate designs (7) … the usual strong canvas for the top part. Since then, both pret-à-porter luxury companies and high street (8) … have helped put the espadrille in the center of attention. There is something special and (9) … about it, says Antonio Castañer. “It’s a return to something natural, to something hand-made, Mediterranean.”
Barcelona-based company Naguisa, a newish firm that (10) … a name for itself by reviving traditional, hand-made espadrilles, brought out its SOC model in 2012 by copying the traditional model using unusual colours. “Eight years ago we (11) … to see a trend developing for home-grown, sustainable shoes using natural materials,” says Claudia Pérez Polo, the firm’s co-founder. Naguisa exports more than 70% of its (12) … to more than 25 countries. Its designs, many of which have been copied and recopied, are sold in US trendy women’s fashion chain Anthropologie.
“When we started out, the truth is that I (13) … espadrilles,” says Pérez. But conscious it needed to attract a younger clientele, Naguisa was able to combine tradition with local know-how to build a business that could establish an international presence. Since then, other Spanish fashion designers (14) … Paloma Barceló, Like Mimika, and Prism have begun making luxury espadrilles now found in the best-known stores around the world by combining Spanish tradition with cutting-edge design.

0 Example:
A constructing
B doing
C making

1
A bumped into
B came up with
C encountered

2
A that
B which
C who

3
A downturn
B improvement
C rise

4
A in fashion
B into the fashion
C out of fashion

5
A brands
B makes
C marks

6
A exterior
B layout
C look

7
A instead
B instead of
C rather

8
A customers
B retailers
C shoppers

9
A appalling
B appealing
C disgusting

10
A had made
B has made
C made

11
A begun
B had begun
C has begun

12
A output
B input
C handouts

13
A had never worn
B never wore
C would never have worn

14
A as
B like
C such

traditional espadrille

wedge espadrille

KEY:
1A 2C 3A 4A 5A 6C 7B 8B 9B 10B 11A 12A 13C 14B

Ganges: India’s dying mother

The Ganges is one of the greatest rivers on Earth, but it is dying. From the icy Himalayan peaks, where it begins, right down to the Bay of Bengal, it is being slowly poisoned with pollution from the factories and farms  and from the riverside cremation of Hindu true believers.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions.



1 What is the main industry in the centre of India?
2 What polluting element do factories use?
3 What colour is the polluted water?
4 Why is the cleaning of the river more than an environmental project?
5 How many tanneries have been closed by the government?
6 How long will it take before we can see a difference in the cleanliness of the river?


You don't have to be a scientist to know the Ganges is polluted.
Really swells.
I’m in Can Po, the centre of India’s huge leather industry.
There is a tannery…
Much of the leather produced here is exported to Europe and the US.
Oh, God. It’s really powerful, very strong. What kind of waste do we have in here?
They are highly chemicalised end toxic water, waste water, coming from the tanneries. And you know tanneries use a variety of chemicals, hundreds of chemicals.
Including really dangerous chemicals like chromium they use to soften the leather, don’t they?
Yeah.
Chemicals having metals and pesticides also, as well.
So which ones are tanneries here?
The government says it is making progress reducing pollution, and to prove it, we’ve been given permission to go out with a team of pollution control officers on a surprise inspection of the leather tanneries.
Wow, this is a bit different.
Who’s stopping? Something happening down there.
Why are you stopping? Why are you stopping?
Who is in charge of this place?
Four days. It’s four days of flesh. This is where they strip the flesh from the hide. There are huge puddles of water and the water has that distinctive blue. It’s blue because there’s chrome in it. And there’s hides here, they clearly have been treated with the chrome. This just does not look so good.
Not tidy, not much tidy.
This just does not look tidy at all. Looks disgusting.
The effort to clean the river is more than just an environmental project. It’s being seen as a crucial test, as India’s ability to modernise because it means tackling corruption…
Man, it’s like walking on rubber.
… and enforcing effective regulation as well as massive investment in sewage and a fluent treatment infrastructure. It is clear there’s still a long way to go.
Meanwhile, the government says it has raised pollution standards and has already closed more than a hundred tanneries. It says its clean Ganga mission is a key priority, but warns it will take time.
We are not saying that the whole Ganga mission will be completed in five years, no, five years will ensure that there is a marked difference. But it’s a long project. Rhine and Thames were same dirty fifty or sixty years ago, but they also took nearly ten years to completely change the overall ecology of that, and we will also do achieve it.
It will take sustained effort and constant vigilance to clean this mighty river but Mr Modi has a key advantage: The fact that so many Indians want him to succeed.

Key:
1 leather
2 chemicals or metals or pesticides or chromium
3 blue
4 it is a test test of India’s ability to modernise and dealing with corruption
5 more than a hundred
6 five years