Extensive listening: Antibiotic apocalypse

BBC Panorama investigates the global advance of antibiotic-resistant superbugs and the threat they pose to modern medicine and millions of patients worldwide. Reporter Fergus Walsh travels to India and finds restricted, life-saving antibiotics on sale without prescription and talks to NHS patients whose recovery depends on them.

Reading test: Pont des Arts love locks removed after Parisians lose affection for eyesore

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the 'insert a sentence' type of task. To do so, we are going to use The Guardian article Pont des Arts love locks removed after Parisians lose affection for eyesore, in which seven sentences have been removed. Read the text and choose the best sentence A-I for each gap. One sentence does not correspond to any of the gaps. 0 is an example.


As far as Paris and padlocks are concerned, (0) … . The French capital has had a definitive falling out with the estimated 1m “love-locks” that it says are threatening some of the city’s most historic monuments.

On Monday, workers armed with bolt cutters closed off the celebrated Pont des Arts over the Seine, (1) … , and began breaking hearts around the world.

Parisian officials have had a turbulent relationship with the trend since it hit Paris in 2008. When the first dewy-eyed couples began declaring their undying love by writing their initials or names on a padlock, attaching it to a monument and throwing the keys into the River Seine, (2) …. .

Since then, however, the locks have grown like metal barnacles over bridge railings, palisades, and parapets. Some have even been spotted on the Eiffel Tower.

Lisa Anselmo and Lisa Taylor Huff, two Americans who live in Paris, had started a campaign (3) … . Their petition currently has more than 10,400 signatures. Anselmo told journalists she was thrilled by the decision to remove the padlocks. “I hope this is the beginning of the end for this destructive trend,” she said.

Local officials had tried to persuade visiting lovers (4) … , but were forced to admit the campaign was a failure.

Paris city hall has denied being a killjoy. “This phenomenon (5) … : a lasting degradation of the heritage of Paris and a risk to the safety of visitors: Parisians and tourists,” it said in a statement.

Bruno Julliard, a deputy mayor, said he hoped to kiss goodbye to such an “ugly” trend.
 “We will cut away almost a million locks weighing 45 tonnes,” Julliard said of the Pont des Arts. He warned that similar measures would be taken on the nearby Pont de l’Archevêché, behind Notre-Dame cathedral, (6) … .

The Pont des Arts will be closed all this week while the locks are removed. To prevent their return (7) … , which will also make graffiti easier to remove, after the summer.

“We still hope that Paris will remain the capital of love and romance,” Julliard added.

A - another stop on the path of true lock-love
B - gives rise to two problems
C - it seemed relatively harmless
D - it’s the end of the affair 0 Example
E - that weighed down the bridge over the Seine in the centre of Paris
F - the authorities plan to install padlock-proof glass panels
G - to persuade the city authorities to clamp down on the locks
H - to take selfies and post a digital declaration of love online
I - where a railing collapsed last year under the weight of so many locks

Photo: The Guardian and Alamy

Key: 
1I 2C 3G 4H 5B 6A 7F

One woman discovers the wage gap

In many places and in many jobs, women don't make as much money as men, even if they're doing the same job.



Thank you.
Wait. $1,273 after taxes.
Wait. You make $1,273?
Yeah. What do you make?
78% of that? But that's so weird because we have the same job. That's not fair. Unless...
One woman discovers the wage gap.
Can you give this folder to Mark?
Sure.
Thank you.
Hey, can you give this folder to Mark?
Oh, Mark's right there.
I know. Thanks for doing all of the job that you are paid to do.
Hey, Mark.
Hey, Elsa. Can you give me those reports we talked about?
Oh, yeah. I can get you roughly four out of five of the report.
Why not all five?
You tell me.
So, before we adjourn, does anyone have anything to add?
Oh, I've actually noticed that in the most recent research, the most important thing that we can do...
Elsa, you didn't finish your sentence.
Oh, I know. You did most of it though, so...
Elsa, are you available for a conference call at 2?
Sure. How long do you think it will take?
Only about an hour.
Great.
Okay. Really need you on this one.
You got it.
2:47, time for a snack.
Elsa, I feel like you're not giving this job a 100%
You're right. I'm giving it about 78%, and it's already 4:45, so I'm on overtime. Wouldn't want to cost you any extra money.
Okay, but I need you to come in this weekend.
That is a good one, Mike. I'll see you.
Can you believe and I only make 78%?
I don't even make that!
We need to fix this.

Grassless Lawns Catching On During California Drought

The California drought has caused many residents to rethink their water use. To help conserve water, some Los Angeles County residents are taking advantage of a rebate program that allows them to convert their lawns to a landscape that requires little to no watering, virtually for free, and lower their water bills too.



It’s a desert out here in Southern California and expecting every homeowner to have lush green lawns isn’t exactly realistic anymore.
They’re doing my rental house today across the street which is a big yard and they are doing the front and the back which is going to save me a lot of water.
Turf Terminators launched last summer so we’ve been going at it for about ten months and we’ve grown from, you know, 3 employees to 500. We realized that turf removal rebates that are available for the replacement of turf grass were rising in value so we put two and two together and figured out that we can run a business doing drought tolerant landscaping here.
We’ve got a variety of drought tolerant vegetation. Primarily here we are going to be installing some lavender shrubs, we have kangaroo paw in the back, and also tea tree here. So, it’s a good variety. You get a lot of color in these yards, but none of these require much maintenance and certainly not a lot of water.
Green grass is, you know, a staple of American life. It’s been amazing to see so many people willing to stand up and sort of take action. It’s all part of a transformation of California’s relationship with water, I think. When we actually, perform services in a neighborhood, about 3.5 neighbors make the transition as well. Mr. Smith has ten of his neighbors who have already signed up with us.
I’ve been living here 48 years. No one in this area haven’t been living here less than 25 or 30 years. I know all of my neighbors on this block and quite a few of them all around the area. Majority of the people over here are senior people and they are retired and on a fixed income.
This is absolutely free. If you think about the amount of water that you’re saving …
Fixed income man, I tell you. And with this program, I think I can live with that. I’ll be Hopalong Cassady on that one.
Yes, I was the first lawn on the block to change from grass. My neighbor, Mr. Smith, he was the one who introduced me to it. I just finished this last week.
Hot potato …
My grandkids, my dog, and myself love the astroturf. My water bill is half of what it used to be since I had the astroturf. A lot of people think that just, somebody is just talking about a water shortage, I can do all I want with my water. But, it’s a real threat of us running out of water. As the water bill gets higher, a lot of people will think I should have done this and then if it becomes mandatory then they are going to wish they had got it done beforehand. It’s almost like Las Vegas, you go to Las Vegas, just about everybody has this type of lawn

Talking point: Sightseeing

This week's talking point is sightseeing. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

Imagine the following people are coming to visit your town or city on holiday for a week:
- a school trip of twenty 13-year-olds.
- four 18-year-olds.
- a young couple with two kids.
- a retired couple.
Decide where you would recommend they go. Think about sights to see, restaurants, nightlife, cultural activities, shops and so on giving reasons for your choice.

Talk about a festival / carnival in your town or city or about another festival / carnival you have been to. Think about the following:
- the history of the event
- how long it lasts
- what typical food and drinks people have
- what people typically do
- what problems visitors may encounter
- some recommendations for first-timers

To illustratre the point you can watch the EF PodEnglish video Sightseeing.

10 Questions for Nigella Lawson

A couple of years ago Nigella Lawson talked to Time about her new cookbook, being the only female judge on The Taste, and when it's okay to lick the spoon.



Hi, I'm Belinda Luscombe. I'm an editor at large at Time. Nigella Lawson is a journalist, a cook, a cookbook writer, and the star of several cooking shows on TV. She’s here to talk about her ninth cookbook, Nigelissima. Am I saying that right?
Any way works for me, yes.
Thanks for coming, Nigella. So this book Nigelissima is easy Italian-inspired recipes. If you happen to come across a, the opposite of a domestic goddess like a domestic moron, I'm not sure that would be, what would be the first recipe you would start with?
Well, let me, before you start I have to say, when I wrote a book called How to be a domestic goddess it was meant ironically and also it was written from the perspective of someone who wasn't.
Right.
Otherwise, why, why they need to write such a book. I feel all my recipes have to work for people who've never cooked before, even a cake recipe. There's a chocolate olive oil cake which is pretty easy for anyone simply because you don't need machinery to make it. It's pouring and stirring. You pour and you stir, and then you pour and bake, and that's it. One of the advantages of not having any training myself is that when I write a recipe I go through the same possible panic areas anyone else will do, so I will notice, say, don't worry if the sauce looks like it's thinning, it will thicken later, whereas someone who actually had some technique wouldn't be worrying about the filling sauce…
Right.
…because they'd know it would thicken later
Well, you, you, this is your ninth cookbook and you do still, I believe, insist on calling yourself a cook.
Yes.
You’ve been on TV now. You've got cooking shows, you’re like when do you graduate to chef?
Never and most people who call themselves chefs are not chefs. Classically, a chef is in charge of other chefs and is, you know, he's he's he or she is in command. I am not in command and I have no one to command. And I'm, I cook in my kitchen.
Now in the book, in your books, you write a lot about the, you know, the character of foods, what they mean to you. What, is there a food that's, that is most emotional for you? Most emotionally resonant?
I supposed it goes, it goes back to chicken, really, because I feel that is… this again… I feel like so much what we said is really appalling for vegetarians and I did once say it to a vegetarian host, but whether we like it or not, animal sacrifice has been part of human culture since the Bible and the, the thaw before, and I think maybe why people often feel a sense that it's an important family meal when there’s chicken there, it’s because you do have a sense of it being the animal. I don't know, of course, most people would be horrified to think like that, and I don't think it’s conscious, because consciously is shocking, but I think beneath that, there is something so fundamental to being human. I mean, I have emotional connections to all sorts of food but it's more to do with what I've eaten when…
Right.
…than, than the actual food stuff, and I suppose I associate the fact that we often had chicken as fast food for lunch as a child.
Your signature actually is to be quite relaxed, about cooking and entertaining, we've discussed this…
I don't do entertaining with a capital E.
Right, I see. So what do you do when something doesn't work out?
One of the things
…
It depends. I mean, if it's over-salted, that's the only thing you can’t rectify. Anything else works. One of the… one of the things I always tell other people less good about XXX doing myself that I do try is not to apologize. That’s something very unrelaxing about interrupting people saying yes, it hasn't quite worked out, when I did it last time it was better. It’s like people who have garden. They always say, you should have seen it last month. So don't be that person. In savory things, if it doesn't look right, there's very little that can't be saved without lots of, you know, freshly chopped parsley, and sweet things, there is nothing like, you know, powdered sugar put through a tea strainer. Most things are made alright by either.
Now you are on show in, on American TV called The Taste and you are the only female judge on The Taste.
Yes.
 Now women, now women have traditionally been for many years the cooks. Why, why is it that it seems like it's such a man's profession?
Well, it's very difficult. Without making generalizations, which is dangerous, I would say that there are many, very, many conflict-driven women, but the particular aggressive conflict-driven mania that you need to have to be a good chef suits men often better. But most of all, it's really about, it's not really about what type of person you are. I chose domesticity, and if you don't, you can be a chef. But if you do, it is very difficult to have a working life if you have a family, if you have children. That means you’re are up at the crack of dawn to go to market and you don't get back about till four in the morning. I would find it very difficult. I would find it monotonous, because the difficulty is if you, if you’re a chef, yes you, there is this one creative spirit there who comes up with new ideas. But for everyone else, you may as well work in a factory because you're just reproducing the same recipe every time, whereas the liberation of home cooking is that you use whatever herbs you have in your fridge at that time or whatever vegetables or what you've got.
What is your, what do you consider your sort of guilty worst cooking habit, like licking the spoon and putting it back in.
I'm afraid to say I'm not big on, on guilt. I do… funny enough when I taste things, I do something my mother used to. So if I'm stirring with a wooden spoon, she always, it’s funny I suppose these things, she would then, to taste, dip in the other end, and then lick that, lick that, to taste.
Right.
Mostly though I feed my children so, for example, I feel I grew up… People often say to me, you look with your hair up, you haven’t got a net. And in a restaurant you have to think of other people. I cook for my children. I grew up eating my mother’s hair, and I don’t see why they can’t grow eating mine. And if they have to have some of my spit in their food, you know, clammy Johns.
So be it. Do you observe the five second rule in your household?
I will eat something myself if it's been on the floor but I would some I would be nervous about making someone else do it.
Someone else, right.
Because it would be just embarrassing to, you know, to give someone food poisoning. No good for business.
Nigella, thanks so much.
Thank you.

The international flag of Earth

A student has solved what will be one of the biggest problems facing the human race in the next 100 years: How we'll look when we inevitably conquer the galaxy. To help avoid any inevitable arguments between nations, student Oskar Pernefeldt has designed "The International Flag of Planet Earth".



What could the flag of the planet earth look like? Would it illustrate the planet itself? Or is it a symbol of the inhabitants of earth - a reminder that we should all stand united. Celebrate life itself. Remind us that all life is connected in one way or another. But life wouldn't be possible without the water on earth. Therefore it would be relevant for the blue planets flag to be blue. But what kind of blue? A flag like this would mainly be used while representing earth in outer space. It should be a clear contrast to the black of outer space. Also to the white of the space suits and shuttles which it would be placed upon. Light blue would disappear into the white and dark blue would disappear into the black. Therefore a brighter blue would be more fitting.

There are a lot of different ratios or proportions for flags. A few of them would be conceptually interesting for a flag like this. For example the one to one ratio is a perfect square, fitting a circle or a planet if you will. Five to eight is the golden ratio, a mathematical ratio that occurs in lots of mystical ways in nature. The most common flag ratio in the world is the two to three ratio.

All of these options were taken into consideration during the design process of the international flag of planet earth. Resulting in a flag that reminds us to take care of each other and the planet we live on.