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Improve your Speaking online Episode 11, Introduction:

This week we bring new current topics in Episode 11 so you can improve your online speaking from home.

 

Topic 1: ⚽️SPORTS

«The health benefits of sport and physical activity»

“There is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence on the positive effects of sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle” ?

Episode 11
Article

Although research interest on physical activity and health dates back to the 1950s, the breakthrough in the scientific evidence on health benefits of physical activity largely took place during the 1980s and 1990s. There is an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence on the positive effects of sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle. The positive, direct effects of engaging in regular physical activity are particularly apparent in the prevention of several chronic diseases, including: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis.

The Report from the United Nations Inter-Agency Task Force on Sport for Development and Peace states that young people can benefit from physical activity as it contributes to developing healthy bones, efficient heart and lung function as well as improved motor skills and cognitive function. Physical activity can help to prevent hip fractures among women and reduce the effects of osteoporosis. Remaining physically active can enhance functional capacity among older people, and can help to maintain quality of life and independence.

Physical activity and psychosocial health

The WHO has estimated that “one in four patients visiting a health service has at least one mental, neurological or behavioural disorder, but most of these disorders are neither diagnosed nor treated”. A number of studies have shown that exercise may play a therapeutic role in addressing a number of psychological disorders. Studies also show that exercise has a positive influence on depression. Physical self-worth and physical self-perception, including body image, has been linked to improved self-esteem. The evidence relating to health benefits of physical activity predominantly focuses on intra-personal factors such as physiological, cognitive and affective benefits, however, that does not exclude the social and inter-personal benefits of sport and physical activity which can also produce positive health effects in individuals and communities.

Sport and physical activity as part of a healthy lifestyle

A number of factors influence the way in which sport and physical activity impacts on health in different populations. Sport and physical activity in itself may not directly lead to benefits but, in combination with other factors, can promote healthy lifestyles. There is evidence to suggest that changes in the environment can have a significant impact on opportunities for participation and in addition, the conditions under which the activity is taking place can heavily impact on health outcomes. Elements that may be determinants on health include nutrition, intensity and type of physical activity, appropriate footwear and clothing, climate, injury, stress levels and sleep patterns.

Sport and physical activity can make a substantial contribution to the well-being of people in developing countries. Exercise, physical activity and sport have long been used in the treatment and rehabilitation of communicable and non-communicable diseases. Physical activity for individuals is a strong means for the prevention of diseases and for nations is a cost-effective method to improve public health across populations.

 

We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

  1. What’s your opinion about the health benefits of sport? Do you think they are useful?
  2. Do you think it is completely necessary to be physically active in order to be healthy?
  3. What do you think about outdoor sports? Do you think they are healthier?
  4. Which types of sports do you like to practise? Do you prefer individual or group ones?
  5. Do you think the sport is changing your lifestyle?

 

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk 

  • Lifestyle – the way in which a person lives.
  • Engaging – It is used in the organisational world to refer to the level of commitment and involvement that an employee has with his or her company.
  • Healthy – Serving to preserve or restore bodily health
  • mood – Mood is the mood or sentimental tone, pleasant or unpleasant, that accompanies an idea or situation and is maintained for some time.
  • hip fractures– A hip fracture is a serious injury, with life-threatening complications
  • footwear-Class or set of garments covering or protecting the foot and having a sole
  • Physical activity – is any movement of the body that makes the muscles work and requires more energy than being at rest.
  • psychosocial health – the set of conditions inherent to human beings and their lifestyle

Topic 2: Future jobs

«Ideas for the future of Europe’s economy«

The final meeting of a series of citizens’ panels saw Europeans formulate ideas on how the EU should promote quality jobs.

Article

The final meeting of a series of citizens’ panels saw Europeans formulate ideas on how the EU should promote quality jobs, a healthy economy and social justice, EU affairs.

A panel of 200 people randomly selected from across the EU gathered in Dublin on 25-27 February to adopt their recommendations for EU measures on the economy, jobs, education, culture, young people and the digital transformation.

It was the third and final meeting of the panel, which provides people’s input for the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Some participants joined remotely due to COVID-19.

Find out more about the role of the citizens’ panels in the Conference.

The final meeting of a series of citizens’ panels saw Europeans formulate ideas on how the EU should promote quality jobs, a healthy economy and social justice, EU affairs.

A panel of 200 people randomly selected from across the EU gathered in Dublin on 25-27 February to adopt their recommendations for EU measures on the economy, jobs, education, culture, young people and the digital transformation.

It was the third and final meeting of the panel, which provides people’s input for the conclusions of the Conference on the Future of Europe. Some participants joined remotely due to COVID-19.

Find out more about the role of the citizens’ panels in the Conference.

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The panellists came up with 48 recommendations grouped under five main topics:

  • Working in Europe
  • An economy for the future
  • A just society
  • Learning in Europe
  • An ethical and safe digital transformation

In a discussion at the start of the panel, citizens expressed shock at Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the return of war on the continent. In a gesture of solidarity and support, they posed for a group photo with the Ukrainian flag.

Sustainable economy and quality jobs

The recommendations highlighted the need for a shift in the economy towards sustainability. Europe should get rid of plastic containers and planned obsolescence of products, further increase the use of renewable energy and reward companies that lower the environmental costs of production.

Panel participantd also demanded a common EU labelling system for food products and tax harmonisation with taxes paid in each country where a company sells products.

The EU should introduce a minimum wage to ensure a similar quality of living across member states, the panellists recommended. Companies should be incentivised to keep jobs – especially those that allow working remotely – in the EU and not relocate them to lower-cost countries.

Digital training and soft skills such as listening to each other, encouraging dialogue and critical thinking should be taught in schools, as they would be critical for the future job market.

Social justice

Participantds recommended guarantees for social and health care for the elderly and said minimum pensions should be above the poverty line.

Other demands included access to decent social housing, equal family rights in all EU countries and rules for assisted dying. “We want to have dignified death… We have this in Spain, we are a Catholic country, but there is no problem with that. If it’s done properly, I think it can work,” said Gloria, one of the participants.

Education and learning

Studying foreign languages should start in kindergarten, as it makes other countries and cultures more accessible, panellists said. They also called for English to be a core subject in primary schools across the EU.

They said that the dangers of digitalisation and the internet should be taught in elementary schools and that the EU should develop a platform with teaching materials on climate change and environmental issues.

«Young people are entitled to good education and good training,” said Ava from Sweden.

Digital transformation

The EU should strengthen its capacity to fight cybercrime and illegal content, invest in high-quality digital infrastructure and work to improve education on disinformation and fake news, the citizens said.

They also called for better enforcement of data protection rules. “We looked at these technology giants, these big platforms. They can’t dictate to us about our lives. They need to be told how to stick to the rules, how to protect our data and protect our private lives,” said Gino from Portugal.

Panl participants want further measures to fight disinformation, including rules forcing social media companies to come up with algorithms assessing the trustworthiness of content and the establishment of an independent platform that rates information from traditional media.

Coming up

Representatives of the panel will present and debate the recommendations at the next Conference plenary on 11-12 March 2022 in Strasbourg. The plenary includes representatives of the EU institutions, national parliaments, civil society and citizens.

There will be two plenaries in March and two in April, where the conclusions of the Conference will be discussed. The final outcome will be presented in a report to the presidents of the Parliament, Council, and European Commission, who have committed to following up on the proposals for EU action.

 

We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

  1. Which Jobs are the future? Why?
  2. Which is the most useful job?
  3. How do you feel about an uncertain economic features?
  4. Do you agree with the article? Why? And why not?
  5. Do you believe that one of the jobs that exist nowadays will dissappear in sometime at the future?

 

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk 

  • digitalization– make use of new tecnologies, laptops, tabltes or digital whitebords.
  • wage– financial support, pay for a certain service.
  • sustainability– to make an great support, keep up going.
  • social justice– ofrecing companionship as a work. Be social, or kind.
  • foreing languages– a language that belongs to another country.
  • disinformation– fake news, or false information that is circulating.
  • remotely– in a far away place, or not near populated areas.
  • Enfocement– the act of fullfilment or imposisition.

Topic 3: Strongest man alive

«2022 World’s Strongest Man Scheduled For May 24-29 In Sacramento, CA«

29 other strongmen will attempt to take Tom Stoltman’s throne.

Article

The 2022 World’s Strongest Man (WSM) competition has a home. Thirty of the most elite strongmen worldwide will converge on Sacramento, CA, from May 24-29, 2022, for the 45th edition of the WSM contest.

The announcement of the 2022 WSM dates and location was shared on the SBD World’s Strongest Man Instagram page via a video that highlights the following athletes in a splashy comic-book style treatment:

Nor the official roster or event list has yet to be released at the time of this article’s publication.

2022 World’s Strongest Man

2022 marks the second year of a three-year deal made with the Visit Sacramento Sports Commission (VSSC) for the WSM contest to be hosted in Sacramento, CA. In 2021, the competition took place at the Old Sacramento Waterfront, where all the events were held outdoors and temperatures reached as high as 108 degrees Fahrenheit.

Of the athletes featured in the WSM Instagram post above, only the previous WSM champions are guaranteed a spot at the 2022 contest — WSM champions retain a lifetime invitation to compete in the contest. In 2021, five different WSM champions competed in at least one strongman contest — Tom Stoltman, Licis, 2020 WSM champion Oleksii Novikov, four-time WSM champion Brian Shaw, and four-time WSM champion Žydrūnas Savickas.

Of those previous champions still active in the sport, it is likely safe to assume that all but Savickas will be vying for the 2022 WSM title. However, Savickas could also end up on the 30-man roster, a four-person increase from the 26-man roster in 2021.

Strongman Ahead

There are two significant contests already scheduled ahead of the 2022 WSM competition. First, the 2022 Britain’s Strongest Man contest is scheduled for Feb. 26, 2022, in Sheffield, UK, where Tom Stoltman will seek to defend his title. Second, the 2022 Arnold Strongman Classic is on the calendar a week later — March 4-5, 2022, in Columbus, OH, and uniquely does not have a deadlift on its event list.

We’ll see which strongman can build momentum from these two events before flying to the west coast for a shot at the most prized title in strongman.

 

We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

  1. Do you know who is the strongest man alive? (The person who won a certain competiton in order to be name strongest man alive)
  2. Do you know how the strongest man is selected?
  3. Have you seen any strong men cmpetiton?
  4. Do you think is hard to become the strongest man alive?
  5. Do you know any of the previous man that has carried the title of Strongman alive? If you do, can you name any?

 

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk 

  • champion– is a person who has defeated all of his rivals and won an competition or a fight. Similar to the word victorious.
  • contests– is a type of competition.
  • strongman– a person who performs a remarkable feats of strenght.
  • sport comission– a competitive athletic activity requiring a certain skill or physical action.
  • scheduled – to save a date for an certain event or meeting
  • build a momentum- build impulse, or build power, also means build motivation.
  • coverge on– take place in, to meet at a point.
  • end up – turn out to be, or to be part of.

Topic 4: Cake baking

«Everything is cake: how increasingly elaborate decorative baking became an online obsession

Is Cake obession gone too far?

Article

n July last year, a video of various objects being cut open went viral. Knives sliced into a Croc shoe, a pot plant, a roll of toilet paper, a pile of towels – all revealing spongy innards layered with icing.

“These Are All Cakes”, the video was captioned – creations belonging to Red Rose Cake’s Tuba Geçkil, a visual artist turned self-described haute couture cake maker. Posted by the food vertical Tasty, the video has been viewed more than 33m times on Twitter.

The compilation led to a flurry of online jokes, all iterations of knifing things – furniture, tissue boxes, Joffrey’s execution of Ned Stark in Game of Thrones – just to check whether they were also made of cake.

As surely as it was a sign that people had lost their minds in lockdown, the transient is-this-cake obsession stemmed, I suspect, from the uneasiness these culinary illusions evoke: they mess with our tenuous construction of reality.

Consider the discomfort of watching a man appearing to slice up an apple and then his own tattooed arm – a creation by Ben Cullen, a British former tattoo artist – or a bulldog being partially lobotomised, made by Natalie Sideserf, a cake artist who films a hyperrealistic creation each week.

Some of their work falls deep in the uncanny valley, like Sideserf’s cake self-portrait, or her Die Hard-era Bruce Willis, whose smooth CGI patina calls to mind the Ted Lasso actor and “real, normal human man” Brett Goldstein.

Cullen’s edible replica of Rita Ora is better than some likenesses in Madame Tussauds, and is at least less creepy than the bronze bust of Cristiano Ronaldo.

 

We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

  1. What is your opinion about about confecionary or cake baking? Do you like it?
  2. What do you think is your opinion visual realitic or creative cakes?
  3. Have you seen any video of an realistic representation of an particular object in a cake? Which whas your impression?
  4. Do you know who Tuba Gackil is?
  5. Do you think that in this particular are the so called cake obssesion gone too far?

 

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk 

  • confeccionary – a type of cooking that focused mostly on making sweets
  • bakery art- type of art that is made by using a cake, and giving it a certain fom.
  • furniture– necessary accessories for a certain work or some particular action.
  • hyperrealism- a certain expression of art that can be confused for an real object.
  • haute couture– word taken form french, that means high class
  • stemmed– normally used for plants or lexical
  • uncanny valley– it could have the meaning of being a supernatural, causing fear or even extraordinary.
  • evoke – call up or produce.

Topic 5: Technology

«Electric cars are the future»

“The costs of running our cars have dropped from €300 per week to around €65 per week. It’s life changing.’’

Article

Ivan Murphy filled up his work van with €125 worth of diesel and said to himself: “That is it.”

Within weeks the Galway-based electrician traded in two work vans and the family cars for electric vehicles. He has never looked back.

“The costs of running our cars have dropped from €300 per week to around €65 per week. It’s life changing.”

A new report lays bare the challenges faced by the Government plan to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2030. Research for the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) claims we need to establish 100,000 fast-charging points over the next eight years to help meet that EV target.

Currently, we only have 1,900 public chargers at 800 sites.

Still, EV owners and enthusiasts say the picture isn’t as grim as it may appear.

Mr Murphy and his wife Tina live in Ballinderreen. They have a three-year-old son Harry and four-day-old daughter Ava.

Mr Murphy owns EV Chargers Galway; he and his team install EV home chargers around the west of Ireland. He believes in the future electric vehicles will be charged primarily at home, and there won’t be a need for anywhere close to 100,000 fast-charging points.

“Some people who are maybe travelling for work and are driving 300km a day will need rapid charging points, but without a doubt, home charging is for the masses.

“These superfast chargers draw a massive amount of power from the grid in a short period of time, especially during the day; that is not what the grid needs.

“If you charge cars slower, over eight hours at night, that is much less strain on the system. Rapid charges are great in a pinch but not for everyone every day.”

His decision to convert was well thought out, but he had a breaking point last year when he filled his work van for €125.

We will focus the conversation on the following questions:

  1. What’s your opinion about electric cars? Do you think they are useful?
  2. Have you ever thought about buying an electric car? Do you think it is the right moment?
  3. What do you think about the rise in the price of electricity? And how about oil prices?
  4. what do you like most about these cars?
  5. Do you think this change is positively affecting the environment?

 

Here we leave you some vocabulary you can use during the talk

  • Engine – A engine is the systematic part of a machine capable of operating the system, transforming some kind of energy
  • Oil – Is a substance that, when burned, generates energy that can be used for a variety of purposes, whether in the domestic or industrial sphere.
  • Hybrid car – vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine and an electric motor, which uses energy stored in batteries.
  • Battery range – distance an electric or hybrid vehicle can travel before the battery needs to be recharged.
  • Climate crisis – describes global warming and climate change, and their impacts on society and the environment.
  • Convert – to change to a different system or method
  • Greenhouse effect – a process that occurs when gasses in Earth’s atmosphere trap the Sun’s heat.
  • Total cost of ownership – represents the complete financial cost during the time a consumer owns the vehicle.

 

Topic 6: Free Topic

Do you find these topics boring or uninteresting? Don’t worry. Dilo gives you the opportunity to choose your own topic for a conversation class.

Think of some vocabulary you would like to learn related to your topic and send us some information about it with the subject «Free topic». We are sure your ideas will be very good 😁