Talking point: Ambition

This week's talking point is ambition. 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.

When people have ambitions, what kinds of expectations do they have of themselves?
Do you think people are sometimes unrealistic in setting goals for themselves? Why?
What are the positive and negative consequences of having high expectations of yourself?
Does ambition always bring success?
Who is the most ambitious person that you know?
Do you think younger people are inherently more ambitious than older people? Why/not?
Imagine that you're a parent. How could you instill a healthy sense of ambition in your child?

Read the quotes below about believing in your dreams. Which one do you like most? Why?

• ‘Work hard and dream the biggest dream you can –you’ll see amazing things happen!’
• ‘Dreams are all about what’s going to happen tomorrow. Don’t let  your dream get in the way of being the best person you can be –right here, right now.’
• ‘You need dreams when life gets boring or difficult –they’re what gets you out of bed in the morning and keeps a smile on your face.’

What do you think is the most important ingredient in realising your dreams? Why?

believing in yourself 

hard work 

knowing the right people 

luck 

money

Do you agree with the statement below? Why (not)?
‘If you’re going to succeed in something, you need to get started before you’re too old. If you leave things too late, you lose the ability to change and learn.’

ANECDOTE
Think of someone you know who is older than you  (a relative, a family friend, a colleague, someone well-known in your country) and has done something  you think is brave or amazing. Tell the members of your conversation group about this person and their achievements.

To illustrate the point you can watch the video What is ambition?

Homeless in New York: The Other Millennials

They’re recognizable by their overstuffed backpacks, dogs, and cardboard panhandling signs. They’ve been given many labels: gutter punks, crusties, street kids.

In New York, their base is the East Village, that long-time hub for young people on the fringes; when the weather grows cold, many will hitchhike or “hop freight” to warmer cities in the South or out West.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.



1 People are eager to get more and more stuff, according to the first girl.
2 The couple met through a dog.
3 The boy was thrown out of his parents' home.
4 The second girl was homeless as a child.
5 The girl with the dog resents people taking pictures of her.
6 The three of them are happy with their life style.
7 The boy is trying to find himself.

Shut up!
People always want more, I guess. I grew up listening to my stepfather be like, oh if only I had a house. And then he gets a house.  And then it's like, if only I had a car in the garage. Then you get a car, and it's like, if I just had a boat. A lot is lost in wanting more stuff.
I don't want too much. It would be nice to have a lot of things, but at the same time, I feel like if I had them, I wouldn't feel good about having them, so… so why want them, really?
Everybody's trying to help you defeat the homeless problem, get back on your feet, like we tripped a little bit. There's not a place for this to exist, we just do it anyway.
We came here to try and make money to get a new pack.
Once I figured out happiness without money, it seemed really silly to compromise myself to make money.
Do you want me to brush your hair?
How'd we meet?
She came up and talked to my dog.
In Portland.
I'm from Springfield, Missouri, and I'm always welcome in my parents' home. I'm my own person.  I've heard my mom say that a couple times with just a touch of forced pride. 
What pants are you going to wear? Because I'm wearing your pants.
They have a board with a world map on it with pins from where everybody's from that's eaten here.
My parents just lost our house, so my childhood home is now gone.
I'd say most of us have had huge structural failures in their life support system.
It's Charlie.  That's my baby.  Greatly appreciated.  People like the dog.
Can you not take my picture, please? Thank you.
People do that all the time.  They just stop in front of you like you're in the zoo or something and take your picture.
All right.  Now he's ready to play.
We really know how to clear a place, huh? It's OK. Shake it off.
Probably most of us are leaving something we don't like. And then once you start free-falling, everywhere, there's just this culture that will reach out and help you stand back up. Or keep going.
There's a bunch of kids around the corner if you guys want to hang out with them.
Awesome.
If you're sitting on the ground someplace here people don't sit on the ground, they know something's wrong.
Is something wrong?  No.  I suppose I may be taking advantage of that misconception.
Let's hope for better days.
Because I don't give them their money back and explain, oh no, you have misjudged the entire situation.
I actually am OK doing this.
I'm really happy right now.  It's almost my job to just eat that discomfort.
I really don't know what the hang up is. I like working.  I like getting up and having something to do and feeling accomplished, and doing that and getting my paycheck at the end of the week, earning something. But I doubt if I got it, that I'd be satisfied.
Self-exploration is only possible when you have a multitude of different experiences.  If you're doing the same thing over and over again, you don't have any idea who you are in another place, doing another thing.
I just want to enjoy myself. For now, I mean, I plan for the future… I just do it differently.  And the adventure parts a lot of fun.
Yeah, it's all about the adventure.

KEY:
1T 2T 3F 4F 5T 6T 7T

Listening test: Sinkholes

Listen to two friends talking about sinkholes and choose the option A, B or C which best completes each sentence. 0 is an example.

source: Podcast in English

0 Example:
Last year
A 10 sinkhole incidents were reported in the UK.
B a man was swallowed in Florida in February.
C a man was swallowed while he was in his own house.

1 In one of the pictures they talk about
A a man saw a house disappear on his way back home.
B a man was unable to open a door in his own house.
C a woman noticed her garden had disappeared when she opened the window.

2 The soil collapses into the hole because
A of heavy rains.
B the hole is too big.
C the soil is too heavy.

3 The water makes holes in the limestone rock
A a long way from the surface.
B by erosion.
C overnight.

4 The building complex in China collapsed because
A a tunnel had been made.
B of a naturally formed sinkhole.
C there were no foundations.

5 In the UK the sinkholes were caused by
A construction work.
B excess rain.
C no known reason.

6 The sinkholes are next to the houses in the UK because
A of luck.
B the quality of the houses is better.
C the soil under the houses doesn’t get wet.

7 The woman is worried because
A of the soil in the area where they live.
B there are holes in the area where they live.
C they live in a cave.

Last year a man was sleeping in his bed when the ground opened up and swallowed him and his bed and he was never seen again. Now the man lived in Florida where sinkholes are relatively common but in February of this year more than ten were reported in the UK. And frightening pictures there were, Richard, weren't there?
There were many pictures. I remember, I think there was one lady, woke up one morning, opened her window, and her car had disappeared and there was a huge hole outside her house. Awful.
Horrible, yes. Then there was the man who... he came home after being out with his wife and he couldn't open the back door. It seemed a bit strange and he looked up and he saw a crack and as he was looking the crack got bigger and bigger and the house was just falling apart in front of him. Very frightening.
Awful
So how are sinkholes actually caused then, Richard?
I think they're mainly in limestone areas for a start and limestone gets dissolved by water. So the water goes though the ground and forms a big hole underground, and then, when there's a weight on top of the soil, the soil collapses and then all of a sudden there's a huge hole in the ground.
Why does the water make the hole in the ground?
Because the water is acidic and it dissolves the limestone, the rock.
So you're talking about rainwater here?
Yes
And this can take a long time?
It can take thousands of years. Because we know lots of places have caves, don't they, underground and they're perfectly safe. It's just that when they form quite close to the surface of the ground, that's when there's a danger.
But the holes themselves can also be man-made, can't they?
Yes. Actually one huge sinkhole occurred recently in China. An entire building complex collapsed and that was because... well, it may have... may have been because... of the construction of an underground metro line nearby.
Okay. So you've got this big hole and you're saying that after a while the soil collapses into the hole, right?
Yeah, well the hole's underground, you can't see it.
Right
And then what happened in England, the holes were there, all this rain they've been having, got soaked up by the soil, and of course it made it very, very, very heavy. The weight of that soil crashed through these holes and that's what formed the sinkhole.
So basically you need the hole and you need a lot of water then?
Yes.
Why is it then that when you see all those horrible pictures of the sinkholes in the UK, they're often by people's homes, whereas that man in Florida, it was his house that went down the hole. Why is that?
That's interesting because the water runs off the roof of the house, in Britain, and so that water goes down into the garden for instance, so it's that soil that's very heavy and sodden with water, not the actual soil underneath the house.
Well, I don't know why, for me there is something just horrific about falling down one of these sinkholes and I think I'm a little bit concerned because we live in a fairly chalky, limestony area, don't we?
Yes. There's lots of caves round here that's for sure.
And it rains a lot.
And what a horrible way to go! That man in Florida, he just disappeared forever.

KEY:

1B 2C 3B 4A 5B 6C 7A

Extensive listening -The truth about alcohol

A&E doctor Javid Abdelmoneim is on a mission to find out the truth about alcohol.

In January, the government released its new alcohol guidelines. For men, the recommended weekly limit was cut by a third to 14 units per week, equivalent to about seven pints of beer, bringing it in line with the amount recommended for women. So what is behind the change?

This is just one question of many that Javid aims to answer as he explores the science of drinking and the new evidence for the health risks of alcohol. Why do some people get drunk quicker than others? What is behind red wine's healthy reputation? Is a nightcap actually good for your sleep? Does lining your stomach work? And can alcohol actually make you eat more?

BBC Learning English: Towards Advanced

In ealry July BBC Learning English started the latest of their online courses for English students, Towards Advanced.

As the name of the course suggests, Towards Advanced is aimed at students who want to climb up the ladder from an upper-intermediate level to C1.

As the other BBC Learning English courses (Lower-intermediate, Intermediate and Upper-intermediate), Towards Advanced consists of 30 units. As a unit goes online on a weekly basis, the course will fully be available at the beginning of 2017.

Each unit is divided into five sections: English Masterclass (grammar), News Review (where an outstanding news story is thoroughly dealt with), Lingohack (headlines of the week's main stories), Vocabulary (idiomatic expressions) and Tim's Pronunciation Workshop.

BioBus – The UK’s first food and poo-powered bus

The BioBus is the first UK bus powered on gas generated from recycling food waste and treating sewage.

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



1 How much food is wasted in British households every year?
2 How many homes benefit from the biomethane generated in the Bristol plant?
3 What breaks down food waste to produce biogas?
4 What can biomethane generate?
5 Where is the fuel stored on the Bio-Bus?
6 How much food and sewage waste is necessary for a return journey Bath to Bristol?

Ooh! Hello. Not everything we flush goes to waste. For quite a while now, energy's been produced from sewage, but there is another source of renewable energy that's right under our noses.
Every year, around 7 million tons of food waste is thrown away by households in the UK, and that contains a lot of potential energy. But what happens to our scraps once we throw them in the food waste bin?
The gas-to-grid plant at Bristol sewage works is the first and largest of its kind in the UK. It uses both food waste and sewage to produce enough biomethane to supply 8,300 homes every day. And biomethane is produced by anaerobic digestion. It's a completely natural process. It's very similar to our own digestive system.
Microorganisms break down food waste, and as they do that, they produce biogas. And biogas can be collected and purified, and it turns into biomethane. And biomethane can be used to generate electricity, to generate heat, and it can even be used to fuel vehicles.
This is the GENeco Bio-Bus, and it's powered entirely by biofuel from food and sewage waste stored up on the roof in dome-like tanks. On a full tank of fuel, this bus can travel about 200 miles.
The Bio-Bus is currently doing the Bath to Bristol Airport route. Now, one passenger's annual food and sewage waste should provide just enough energy for my return trip.
The use of the Bio-Bus and other gas-powered vehicles can significantly improve urban air quality.
The Bio-Bus offers the most sustainable, environmentally friendly way of traveling. I really hope it takes off.

Key:
1 7 million tons
2 8,300 every day
3 microorgamisms
4 electricity, heat, and fuel for vehicles
5 in a tank on the roof
6 the waste generated by a person in a year

Sugar Daddy, Sugar Baby: Trading intimacy for education

Meet British women who are funding themselves through university by dating rich older men via websites.

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



1 What did Samantha use to work as?
2 What has her new life-style bought for her?
3 Who do the Sugar website advertisements target?
4 What does '$3,000' refer to?
5 What do the Americans call this trend?
6 How much did Fred pay for her education?


Meet Samantha. She’s 28 and used to work as a glamour model, but 10 years ago she discovered the Sugar world, where wealthy men shell out thousands of pounds to turn a pretty girl into a princess.
Over the years I’ve got everything I basically wanted it to make my life how it is now. I’ve got my home, I had my car bought for me, I have watches, you know, expensive shoes, Louis Buttons.
Samantha says she’s only slept with one of her sugar daddies, the gifts are all given in the spirit of altruism.
Sounds too good to be true? Take a look at some of the Sugar website advertisements which often target students and you get a hint of what’s expected back.
Enrol the Sugar Baby University today and get your education paid for by a generous sponsor.
I like dating beautiful women…
Sugar daddy Mike works a lot and says he doesn’t have time to join the quest for love, so he’s opted for a short cut, and no strings attached Sugar arrangements, and he pays his current sugar baby $3,000 a month.
I look for companionship, loyalty, a friendship and, yes, intimacy as part of that.
Sex.
Yeah, if it’s with the right person.
The trend began, of course, in the US. The Americans call it Mutually Beneficial Dating. The head of PR of one US site claims to have 4,000,000 members worldwide.
So the top five countries that participate in arrangements are, in order, the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia and France. This is where we have the most not only Sugar daddies but also Sugar babies participating in this lifestyle.
It is really high-class prostitution, isn’t it? It is a conduit for sex.
For seeking arrangements, no matter what country you access us in we don’t allow that kind of behaviour on the website.
I got into it through a friend in second year.
Twenty-two year old Fred, who’s asked us to keep her identity secret, graduated from a top university last year dead free, exhausted by poorly paid bar work, she signed up as a Sugar baby. It was, she says, the financial no-brainer.
If a girl is sexually active, sexually inquisitive, sexually open, and you have your head screwed on your shoulders, it’s an absolute gold mine.
Love it or hate it, in our time-starved luxury-hungry society, sugar-dating is on the rise, and every week more students looking for a quick fix for their soaring debts are signing up.
Emma Jane Curby, BBC News.

Key:
1 a glamour model
2 a home, a car, watches, expensive shoes
3 students
4 the money Mike pays his current sugar baby a month
5 Mutually Beneficial Dating
6 nothing