Table of contents for No 484 in Speak Up

It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s the Goodyear blimp1! The Goodyear blimp is an American icon that has hovered2 over some of the world’s biggest events. Spotted3 over the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and the Super Bowl, it is easy to forget that the helium-filled airship started life as a flamboyant4 advert for a US tyre5 and rubber6 firm. This year, in celebration of the 100th birthday of its first launch, a Goodyear blimp will fly over sporting, cultural and music events held in over one hundred cities across North America and Europe, capturing live aerial footage7 of these events. INTRODUCING THE PILGRIM Founded in 1898, the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company is an American multinational that specialises in tyres for all kinds of vehicles. During the…

Stonehenge is one of the most iconic and mysterious monuments of the Neolithic era. The complex of huge standing stones1 was erected in about 2500 BCE2 on the Salisbury Plain in South West England. The largest of the stones, called ‘sarsens’, are a massive seven metres tall, two metres wide, and weigh over 25 tons. They were brought to the site from an area over 25km away. This would have required great engineering expertise and social cooperation from the community that built Stonehenge. The monument is aligned with the movements of the Sun but experts are not sure exactly what role Stonehenge played in the life of the community. The ancient site holds a spiritual fascination for the thousands of people who still come to celebrate the solstices here. CIRCLE…

Do you know how to make marmalade, grow your own spring beans1 , or repair a woollen jumper2? Charlie Gray does! And she’s been teaching these and other practical skills through videos posted on her website as well as on YouTube and Instagram. Since launching her brand in 2018, the British homemaker3 and influencer has attracted tens of thousands of followers worldwide. TUTORIALS Gray, who is forty-four, grew up in the south of England and learnt essential homemaking skills from her parents. When she became a full-time, stay-athome mother, she realised that many people have never learnt these skills, and that she was now in a position to teach them. In 2018, she started her website, Ask Charlie, and began to upload tutorial videos about everything to do with homemaking,…

By 2050, more than three-quarters of the world’s population will be living in cities. What will they eat? Where will the food be grown1? And can it be cultivated sustainably? With agricultural production currently responsible for almost a third of global greenhouse gas2 emissions, how can food be produced without damaging the environment? Some of the answers to these questions may be found deep beneath3 the streets of southwest London. SCIENCE FICTION Growing Underground is a pioneering urban farm in Clapham, run4 by two entrepreneurs and friends, Steven Dring and Richard Ballard. Ballard and Dring are developing new ways of growing tasty, healthy food in a sustainable way — below ground. A small lift5 descends thirty-three metres from their offices into a large tunnel system beneath busy Clapham High Street.…

The classic Christmas card depicts1 a pristine, snowy landscape; tumbling snowflakes2, rooftops3 covered in frost4 , children throwing snowballs, and cosy5 fires indoors. It’s no surprise that a phrase still associated with Christmas is “white Christmas”. This image has spread6 all over the world, largely thanks to Hollywood and the famous Irving Berlin song of the 1940s, made legendary by Bing Crosby. So popularised is the dream of a white Christmas that even in Australia, where Christmas might be celebrated on the beach, the idea of a “white Christmas” resonates. ONE SNOWFLAKE However, even in countries where a snowy Christmas is part of the culture, like the UK, it is unlikely7 that Christmas will actually be a white one. That is, according to the UK Met Office, the national meteorological…

Lady Diana Spencer was born on 1 July 1961, into a privileged family with close ties1 to the British monarchy. She had an unhappy childhood, as she was witness to violent scenes between her parents. After leaving school, she took several low-paid jobs, including working as a nursery2 teacher, before she secretly started dating Prince Charles in 1980. Charles was heir3 to the British throne and twelve years her senior4. WEDDING OF THE CENTURY On 29 July 1981, Diana married Charles at St. Paul’s Cathedral in what became known as the “Wedding of the Century”, watched by hundreds of millions on TV around the world. Charles and Diana, now the Princess of Wales, quickly had two sons, William and Harry. On the couple’s numerous royal tours around the world, the…

Ken Follett’s latest novel, Circle of Days, is based on extensive historical research about the Neolithic community that built Stonehenge. Follett includes all kinds of historically accurate1 details about their everyday life, for example their religion, sexual politics, and building techniques. BEFORE STONEHENGE When the book opens, the main structure of Stonehenge has not yet been built. Where the stone circle will one day stand is a similar structure built of wood that the characters in the book call “The Monument”. Seft, one of the book’s main characters, notices how wooden uprights2 have been erected in a ring. The crossbars3 across the tops of the uprights form “a continuous circle that was perfectly level4.” Archaeologists have found evidence that a circular earthwork enclosure5 was built in about 3000 BCE and…

The ‘tradwife’ movement (tradwife is a portmanteau1 of ‘traditional wife’) is a controversial trend that has gained traction online. Defined as a lifestyle in which women embrace2 traditional gender roles, dedicating themselves to homemaking3 and child-rearing4, tradwives represent a return to ideals of femininity of the past. The online movement has gained significant popularity on social media since 2020, where ‘tradwifery’ is presented as a personal choice shrouded5 in nostalgia and staged6 through idyllic scenes of domestic bliss7. However, it became associated with the ideas long held by the Christian right, particularly in the US, who see gender roles as biologically- and divinely-ordained8. For some of its followers, these roles offer fulfilment9 in an age of angst10 and instability, while its critics view them as part of a propaganda campaign…

As the world’s population grows rapidly, so does its demand for food. Can it be grown sustainably? Is it possible to farm in an urban environment? Deep beneath the streets of southwest London, a futuristic business is finding solutions. As an urban agricultural pioneer and co-founder of Growing Underground, Richard Ballard believes passionately in sustainable and environmentally-friendly urban food production. His business limits waste1 from the three biggest CO2 contributors: buildings (and the energy required to power them), agriculture and transport. Ballard and his partner, Steven Dring, aren’t farmers or scientists, but they’ve been inspired by the ideas of two US thinkers: Professor Dickson Despommier, who was a pioneer of vertical farming; and economist Jeremy Rifkin, who’s known for his creative ideas. Ballard goes into more detail about these ideas.…

Winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Literature, British novelist Doris Lessing explores themes such as feminism, politics, psychology and societal structures in her work. In her satirical novel The Good Terrorist, political idealism propels1 a protagonist into committing a violent act. The novel was published in 1985 at a time when the IRA was bombing targets2 across the UK, including Northern Ireland. SQUATTERS The novel centres on a group of radicals in London. Alice, the book’s protagonist, is in her mid-thirties, well-educated, practical, caring3 and naïve. Determined to oppose what they believe to be a “fascist” establishment in the government of Margaret Thatcher, Alice and her partner, Jasper, join a communist group squatting4 a London council house5. The council6 has deliberately made the house uninhabitable, but Alice is still…

Our sales performance is down compared to last year. We need to analyse what’s working and what isn’t. I agree. We’re tracking a lot of data, but I’m not sure it aligns1 with our strategic goal2 of expanding into new markets. We need to identify the right KPIs. After all, we can’t improve3 what we don’t measure. How about lead generation? A good KPI could be the number of leads from our new market campaigns. Yes! And the conversion rates from those leads, too. That directly supports the expansion goal. What else? I’d like to see a KPI for our CAC within those new markets: how much is it costing us to acquire new customers? Great. Then we can see how effective our sales & marketing spend is. What about operations?…

“To go bananas” The expression ‘to go bananas’ means to experience heightened emotion, either anger or enthusiasm. In one sense, it is similar to ‘go nuts’ or to ‘go bonkers’ and is used by the person observing the behaviour, which appears farcical from the outside. The latter sense is akin to ‘go crazy’ and is used by those engaging in the behaviour, and could imply they are ‘letting loose’ or having fun. The expression has its origins in the 1960s and is associated with young, rebellious people who confront an authority figure, fixated on old rules. The expression spread through movies: Rebel without a Cause (1955) introduced adolescents as rebellious and socially-aware; subsequent films such as the satirical Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the…

Are you tired of the festive season? Perhaps you’re annoyed1 by the incessant commercialisation and consumerism. If so, why not forget the usual traditions: the decorations, the obligatory joy2, the lavish meal3 and even the gifts… and celebrate Festivus instead. This parody festival was popularised by the US sitcom Seinfeld, and is known and loved by fans of the series all around the world. THE STRIKE Festivus was invented by the father of Seinfeld writer Dan O’Keefe in the 1960s, as a non-commercial alternative to Christmas. O’Keefe introduced the concept to popular culture by writing an episode of Seinfeld based on it. The episode, called “The Strike4”, first aired in December 1997. It centred on the family of George Costanza, one of the series’ main characters. In this episode, it…

Reddit is an online platform with over a hundred million daily active users. Describing itself as “the heart of the internet,” the platform, launched in 2005, has become one of the ten most visited websites. A place where people connect over common interests, it has been both influential and, at times, controversial. It has triggered1 acts of political and social activism that have influenced real-world events, including a financial market upheaval2 in 2021. RISING VALUE Reddit was founded in 2005 by University of Virginia graduates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian. The pair sold the platform to Condé Nast a year later for an undisclosed3 sum of between $10 and $20 million. In 2008, the platform introduced subreddits: communities focused on specific interests. A year on, it introduced Ask Me Anything…

In 1954, just a few years after the widespread introduction of antibiotics, doctors were already aware1 of the problem of resistance. Natural selection meant that using these new medicines gave an advantage to the microbes that could survive the assault — and a treatment that worked today could become ineffective tomorrow. A British doctor put the challenge in military terms: “We may run clean out2 of effective ammunition. Then how the bacteria and moulds3 will lord4 it”. More than seventy years later, that concern looks prescient5. The UN has called antibiotic resistance “one of the most urgent global health threats.” Researchers estimate that resistance already kills more than a million people a year, with that number forecast6 to grow. And new antibiotics are not being discovered fast enough; many that…

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and the airwaves1 are clogged up2 with songs of seasonal celebration extolling3 the joys of the festive season. Christmas hymns have been performed in the home since the 4th century, but they did not find a larger, more public audience until a millennium later, when the first carols4 appeared. Carols retell the nativity story and they are often performed at religious services. The carol Silent Night, which dates to early 19th-century Austria, was sung by British and German soldiers during the Christmas truce5 of 1914, a spontaneous ceasefire6 that took place on the Western Front during World War One. SECULAR SONGS As Christmas has become more secular, non-religious festive songs have begun to appear. Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, the most-played…

Forty-six-year-old fashion designer Howie Nicholsby hasn’t worn trousers in more than twenty years. Sure, Nicholsby is Scottish and he wears kilts — the traditional Scottish knee-length skirts1 —, but he does not believe they should be reserved only for Scotsmen. He also thinks kilts shouldn’t just be worn for special occasions or made exclusively in tartan — a woollen fabric2 with colourful square patterns3 and intersecting lines traditionally associated with historic Scottish clans. 21ST CENTURY KILTS In many ways, Nicholsby embodies4 tradition as a fourth-generation kiltmaker, yet he dares5 to reimagine the craft6. In 1996, he launched his brand, 21st Century Kilts, as part of the family business, Geoffrey Tailor7 & Kiltmaker. This shop, founded by his parents in 1971, is located on Edinburgh’s famous Royal Mile. Nicholsby’s goal is…

Can you move over1 a bit, please?” asked Debbie. “You’re taking up too much space.” Her twin, Julie, always took up too much space, not just physically but psychologically and emotionally, too. The twins were on their way to a start a new life. “I don’t even know why we’re here,” said Debbie. “Because it’s time for a change,” said Julie, “a new adventure. A new place, new people, new opportunities.” “Well, maybe I want to go on my own adventure, without you always cramping my style2.” Julie laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. You and I are inseparable. One of us can’t function without the other. You know that.” “I am my own person3,” said Debbie, defensively. “I just don’t know why we have to do everything together all the time.”…

UNIT 1 Page 8 B1LEVEL White Christmas SOLUTIONS PAGE 74 1.1 VOCABULARY ► Find in the article the words that mean: 1) escarcha 2) bola de nieve 3) paisaje 4) imagen 5) copo de nieve 6) tiempo (meteorológico) 7) clima 8) suelo 9) posibilidad 10) cambio 11) aumento, subida 12) grado (de temperatura) 13) aguanieve 14) granizo 1.2 READING COMPREHENSION ► Read the article and match questions ( 1 - 6 ) and answers ( a - f ). 1.3 LISTENING COMPREHENSION ► Listen and write the words in the correct order to form sentences. 1) somewhere / says / a / white / one / snowflake / 25 / falls / in / UK / The / Office / happens / Met / on / December / Christmas /…