The English language

Some peculiarities of the English language are on occasion noted by its speakers, as is the case with the use of because here, or the prevalence of the midwestern accent, disputed pronunciations of New Nork placenames and piles of misused words and expressions.

Doppelgänger

Have you ever wondered if there's someone out there in the world who looks exactly like you? Or maybe even more than that: someone who shares your mannerisms, your way of standing, or even some part of your being? More examples here.

Big Solar And Renewable Energy In The Age Of Fracking

The world’s largest solar power plant is up and running in California. We’ll look at where solar stands now, and the future of renewable energy. You access the programme here.

How Rupert Murdoch Changed the Media

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch built News Corp from its roots in Australia to become an international multimedia empire. NPR's media correspondent David Folkenflik writes about the billionaire businessman in his new book, "Murdoch's World: The Last of the Old Media Empires." Folkenflik joins us to talk about the magnate's politics and about the trial now underway of alleged bribery and phone hacking by Murdoch's journalists in London.

 Listen to minutes 0 to 15:09 and answer the following questions:

1. What are the links between Murdoch’s and 10 Downing Street?

      2.  What examples of people does the interviewee provide as to the targets of News Corp hacking?

       3.  Although it was well known up to the scandal blowup that News Corp was hacking people, why were the English tolerant of it?

      4.  Why is Rupert Murdoch said to have become a lot more wary of media coverage?

      5. What is said to be peculiar about Fox?

      6. Complete the following sentences with the word(s) you hear:

        a.       This trial’s getting under way, …………………, …………………….., …………………………., we recently saw an article about, well, …………….. being taken away by Rebekah Brooks and others.

b.      Rebekah Brooks used to head the News of the World and then she went on to head The Daily Sun tabloid. She’s been described by others as being a ……………….. daughter. 

      c.       Andrew Coulson, who was her colleague as editor of the News of the World, and who then went on to be ……………………  guy for PM David Cameron.

       d.      We’re looking at …………………….. essentially of the Wall Street Journal reporters on the News of the World hacking scandal. They tried a number of times to kill the story.

      e.       At this ………………………… moment in the summer of 2011 when hacking scandal first blew up in the UK.

      f.       A family that has never …………………………. except in this terribly tragic and painful way

      g.      It was almost as if they we ………………………. feeding on themselves.

       h.      She (Cheri Blair) certainly …………………….. against News Corp and its successor company 21^st Century Fox.

       i.       They wouldn’t talk to you, News Corp weren’t talking to you and they were ……………………. others from talking to you and in a way publicly denigrated your reputation.
  
  

      j.      Roger Ailes and Fox have made Murdoch a ton of money and therefore that wins you some …………………………. .

       7.   What is meant by the words and expressions in bold?

      The media and the political elite were hand in glove.

       Rather than working for public interest they were working to further their own interests.
      
      Tony Blair and some of these other politicians were the poodles of Rupert Murdoch rather than Bush’s as so often they alleged.

       It is a credit to the newspaper and its journalists that that news did appear

Social Media: The First 2,000 Years - Tom Standage

The author of this book argues social media is much older than we believe. Listen to this extract in which Tom Standage talks with Steve Paulson about his book, "Writing on the Wall: Social Media - The First 2,000 Years." which you can find here and answer the following questions:

 

1. What was the main content of the Martin Luther’s 'Ninety-Five Theses'?

2. What triggers him to follow up with a series of pamphlets in German?

     3. Did the Roman Church have any means of broadcast?

     4. What, according to the interviewee, is the difference between social media and broadcasting?

     5. What has been the effect of the role of the internet in this development?

     6. What’s the interface between broadcasting and social media?

     7. Explain the meaning of following phrases in bold uttered during the interview:

a.       They were masters of social media long before Mark Zuckerberg was a in twinkle in his mother’s eye there was media and it was social.

b.      It’s an incredibly effective way for him to galvanize support for his idea that the catholic church needed to be reformed

c.       My tongue is somewhat in my cheek

d.      I've actually plotted Luther's traffic stats.

e.      This is what modern scholars call synchronization of opinion.

f.        You are not describing the mass media here as the institutions we tend to know as the major newspapers, as television networks, where the news has gatekeepers and it's centralized and there are professional journalists.

g.       So we end up with this very centralized media system which has, yes, this small priesthood of journalists and politicians and businessmen that have access to it.

h.      The mass media era is the anomaly, a blip that has now come to an end.

Doubts Shed on Benefits of Knee Surgery

Around 700,000 people in the U.S. undergo knee surgery each year. But a new study finds no significant difference in improvement between patients who had one common knee surgery - arthroscopy - and those who underwent a fake surgery. We'll discuss the effectiveness of knee surgery and how to keep your knees healthy. Listen to the interview up to minute 8:06 where the study is discussed here and answer the following questions:

1. Have a look at this language and expressions which are used in this section of the interview:

A new study has called into question its value

The meniscus is a type of fibrocartilage which is a type of cartilage we distinguish the cartilage found on the ends of bones called hyaline cartilage

It can be thought of as a shock absorber

To prevent the ends of the bone from coming into contact during weight-bearing

There are different types of tears, there is an acute tear (runners or athletes) and a degenerative tear (traumatic episodes that occur over time)

A sham or fake surgery

They only trimmed the meniscus after an envelope was opened in the operating room to determine which group the patients would fall under

There was an out for those who had the fake surgery

2. What do the doctors interviewed conclude from the results of the study?

Christopher McDougall: Are we born to run?

Christopher McDougall explores the mysteries of the human desire to run. How did running help early humans survive - and what urges from our ancient ancestors spur us on today? McDougall tells the story of the marathoner with a heart of gold, the unlikely ultra-runner, and the hidden tribe in Mexico that runs to live.

Listen to this talk here and answer these questions as you go along:
 

      1. Complete these sentences with the word(s) you hear:

a.       She decided she’d ..................................and try for one last big payday in the marquee event, the New York City marathon.

b.      They are free from all of these modern ................................

c.       The only problem is, the first ................................ only appeared 200,000 years ago.

d.      Now we’re not using our strength because we’re the biggest .............................. in the jungle

e.      And then after that, you ............................... to the rigors of time.

f.        You can’t be bearing ............................. .

            g.       The benefits, social and physical and political and mental, could be ..............................

      2. What are the three mysteries Mr. McDougall presents in relation to humans?

          3.  What explanation does McDougall put forward in order to account for the three mysteries he has previously laid out?

      4. Which are the two times he mentions in which humans benefit most from animal protein?

            5.  In what way does McDougall say we have spoiled our natural ability?

      6. What is McDougall’s proposal at the end of the talk? Does it have other implications?

      7. The following phrases contain words in bold uttered throughout the talk, can you explain what they mean?

a.       But the under-underdog hangs tough

b.      Deratu Tulu ruins the script again

c.       It’s a heartwarming story

d.      Outliers

e.      Scientists at Harvard and Utah University are bending their brains to try to figure out what the Tarahumara have known forever.

f.        They have fangs, they have claws, they have nimbleness, they have speed.

g.       In that very short learning curve, you have gone from broken organs up to the fact that you’re only 10 minutes off the male world record.

h.      …you put them in a race 50 or 100 miles against anybody in the world and it’s a coin toss  who’s going to win.

i.         It being prehistory, you can say whatever the hell you want and get away with it.

j.        It’s us in modern times who have sort of gone off the path.

k.       I need to cross-train. I didn’t do yoga. I’m not ready.