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Showing posts from January, 2013

SUPERSIZE ME (2004)

Fast food facts from the Super Size Me  Web site Each day, 1 in 4 Americans visits a fast food restaurant In 1972, we spent 3 billion a year on fast food - today we spend more than $110 billion McDonald's feeds more than 46 million people a day - more than the entire population of Spain French fries are the most eaten vegetable in America You would have to walk for seven hours straight to burn off a Super Sized Coke, fry and Big Mac In the U.S., we eat more than 1,000,000 animals an hour 60 percent of all Americans are either overweight or obese One in every three children born in the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime Left unabated, obesity will surpass smoking as the leading cause of preventable death in America Obesity has been linked to: Hypertension, Coronary Heart Disease, Adult Onset Diabetes, Stroke, Gall Bladder Disease, Osteoarthritis, Sleep Apnea, Respiratory Problems, Endometrial, Breast, Prostate and Colon Cancers, Dyslipidemia,...

BURIED IN A BLIZZARD

NEWSCAST: January 22 listening exercise

Bushfire rages in eastern Victoria Lance Amstrong's confession Death toll unknown after Algerian forces storm gas plant Mid-air scare over Kolkata

THE NEWS + TRANSCRIPTS

The World Today (Australian accent) Voice of America (American accent) National Public Radio (American accent) English Lesson Listening Library Online  (different accents) Words in the news (BBC) PBS News Hour (American accent) BBC podcasts (British: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish) Podcasts in English (different accents) Listen to English New Zealand news The University of Birmingham: podcasts

THE NEWS: Helicopter crash in central London

MONEY FOR NOTHING: slang

yo-yos ain't:  slang contraction of is not, are not, am not, do not or does not. lemme tell ya them guys ain't dumb: let me tell you these guys aren't dumb gotta: 've got to, have to shoulda: should've

THE ECONOMIC CRISIS

  VOCABULARY EXERCISE on this video Some of the language, if case you need help (in order of appearance): - an investment bank - you have your fingers right on the pulse of the financial market - two things about the financial market: it is made up of very sharp and sophisticated people and it's driven by sentiment. - out of the blue - shall I jump out of the window? - in August when the market absolutely plunged in London - he said, and I quote - mature wisdom - granting vast numbers of mortgages to people who can't afford them - properties that are dimishing in value - the so-called subprime situation - a mortgage salesman. His income depends entirely on the number of mortgages that he can arrange - a package of dodgy debts  / ˈ dɒdʒɪ   d e t s / -  what's in it? I haven't got the faintest idea - the hedge funds (a  limited partnership of investors that uses high risk methods)   have very good names - Bear Stearns announced that ...