Fluency News #61

Hello, everyone!

Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa série de podcasts, o Fluency News! Aqui, você vai treinar a sua escuta e ficar por dentro do que está acontecendo no mundo, sempre com as cinco principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português das coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!

No episódio desta semana, nós falamos sobre a Áustria, que está fazendo outro lockdown por causa da Covid; temos algumas novidades sobre o Afeganistão; boas notícias sobre Ann Arbor, que se tornou a primeira cidade dos EUA a exigir a disponibilização de produtos menstruais gratuitos em banheiros públicos; Adele, que mudou a plataforma do Spotify, e também boas notícias para os fãs de Harry Potter.

Nós temos uma página de dicas de inglês no Instagram, vá conferir! @fluencytvingles

Toda semana temos um novo episódio do Fluency News, não deixe de escutar! See you!

Este episódio foi escrito por Alessandro Ladelfa.

Episode Transcript

What is up, guys! How are you doing today? I’m Scott Lowe, and you’re listening to Fluency News, Fluency Academy’s news podcast series. Here we share some of the world’s most relevant stories of the week, and we learn a bit more about unique structures and expressions of the English language with some explanations in Portuguese for you to get the most out of this episode.

Before we get started, let me just remind you to visit fluencytv.com. There, you’ll have access to the transcript of this episode and all of our sources and you’ll also find over a thousand free lessons, in seven different languages! How good is that?

Alright folks, now let’s dive in.

Austria re-enters Covid lockdown as Europe battles a virus surge.

People in Austria are not allowed to leave home except to go to work, shop for essentials and exercise, as the country returned to a Covid-19 lockdown on Monday morning, the 22nd.

Infection rates have risen sharply on the continent, prompting warnings from the World Health Organization (WHO).

On Saturday WHO regional director Dr. Hans Kluge told the BBC that unless measures were tightened across Europe – such as on vaccines, wearing masks and with Covid passes for venues – half a million more deaths could be recorded by next spring.

Last week Austria became the first European country to make Covid vaccination a legal requirement, with the law due to take effect in February.

Andreas Schneider, 31, from Belgium, who works as an economist in the Austrian capital, described the lockdown as a “tragedy”.

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to this, especially now that we have the vaccine,” he told The Guardian.

New restrictions have sparked protests throughout Europe. People clashed with police in the Netherlands and Belgium. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets on Saturday to protest against the measures, some blaming the government for not doing more to avert the latest coronavirus wave crashing into Europe.

Battling a resurgent pandemic almost two years since Covid-19 first emerged, several countries on the continent have reintroduced curbs, some banning unvaccinated people from venues including restaurants and bars.

Schools will remain open, although parents have been asked to keep their children at home if possible. Working remotely is also recommended.

Elsewhere in Europe – as infections soar and anti-Covid measures get stricter – frustrations have also erupted into demonstrations, with some marred by clashes with police.

More than 130 people have been arrested in the Netherlands over three days of unrest sparked by a Covid curfew, and in Brussels on Sunday, officers fired water cannons and teargas at a protest police said was attended by 35,000 people.

In Denmark, about 1,000 demonstrators protested against government plans to reinstate a Covid pass for civil servants.

“People want to live,” said one of the organizers of the Dutch protests, Joost Eras. “That’s why we’re here.”

A palavra Elsewhere usada na frase “Elsewhere in Europe” tem como sinônimo anywhere else e somewhere else e significa outro lugar ou outros lugares. Assim, elsewhere foi usada na frase da notícia para deixar claro que os protestos relacionados ao lockdown não estão ocorrendo somente na Áustria, mas sim em outros lugares na Europa também – Elsewhere in Europe – como nos Países Baixos (Holanda), em Bruxelas e na Dinamarca.

Now, let’s have an update on Afghanistan.

Taliban unveil new rules banning women in TV dramas.

Yes, women have been banned from appearing in television dramas in Afghanistan under new rules imposed by the Taliban government.

Female journalists and presenters have also been ordered to wear headscarves on screen, although the guidelines do not say which type of covering to use.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in mid-August and many fear they are gradually imposing harsh restrictions. The militant Islamist group, which took control following the departure of US and allied forces, almost immediately instructed girls and young women to stay home from school.

During their previous rule in the 1990s, women were barred from education and the workplace.

The latest set of Taliban guidelines, which have been issued to Afghan television channels, features eight new rules. They include:

→ the banning of movies considered against the principles of Sharia – or Islamic – law and Afghan values, while footage of men exposing intimate parts of the body is prohibited.

→ comedy and entertainment shows that insult religion or may be considered offensive to Afghans are also forbidden.

→ the Taliban have insisted that foreign movies promoting foreign cultural values should not be broadcast.

A member of an organization that represents journalists in Afghanistan, Hujjatullah Mujaddedi, said the announcement of new restrictions was unexpected. He told the BBC that some of the rules were not practical and that, if implemented, broadcasters may be forced to close.

The Taliban’s earlier decision to order girls and young women to stay home from school made Afghanistan the only country in the world to bar half its population from getting an education.

The mayor of the capital, Kabul, also told female municipal employees to stay home unless their jobs could not be filled by a man.

A palavra bar em inglês tem muitos significados. Podemos usar bar para falarmos de “barra” como em “ bar of soap” que significa “uma barra de sabonete” e também podemos usar bar para falar de “barra de metal”. Outra possibilidade para a palavra bar é usá-la para falarmos de um local onde vende bebidas, um bar – mas a pronúncia é diferente, em inglês bar e em português bar. Porém, nessa notícia, a palavra bar é usada como verbo e tem a ideia de barrar algo de acontecer, impedir, trazendo a ideia de proibição. Note que quando estamos usando bar como verbo, usamos a proposição from como em “journalists were barred from entering the country” que significa “os jornalistas foram barrados de entrar no país”.

Let’s see some good news, shall we? Ann Arbor, Michigan, becomes the first US city to require free menstrual products in public restrooms.

The city council unanimously voted to pass an ordinance requiring all public restrooms in the 120,000-resident college community, including those located inside businesses, to offer pads and tampons for free, as well as toilet paper and soap.

The idea for this ordinance stems from a conversation Christopher Taylor, Ann Arbor Mayor, had with a high school student during which she expressed concern that homeless people do not have access to menstrual products,

“Access to these items is a matter of personal dignity, a human necessity and a health care right,” said Taylor.

Violations of the ordinance, which will go into effect January 1, 2022, will result in a $100 fine, according to the legislation.

California, New Hampshire and West Virginia are among the states voting to put menstrual products in school restrooms.

A study in St. Louis, Missouri published in 2019 found nearly two-thirds of low-income women could not afford the products at least once within the past year.

Michela Bedard, executive director of PERIOD., a nonprofit aiming to end stigma and high costs of menstruation, told CNN “We hope that this trickles up and one day in our lifetimes we are going to realize that these products need to be everywhere, need to be accessible”.

Você sabe a diferença entre as palavras between e among? Ambas as palavras, em português, significam entre, mas em inglês as usamos em situações específicas. A palavra between é usada quando falamos que algo ou alguém está localizado entre dois pontos diferentes – por exemplo, “my desk is between my bed and my wardrobe” que significa “a minha escrivaninha está entre a minha cama e o meu armário”. Já among é usada quando falamos que algo ou alguém está localizado entre mais do que dois pontos, como é o caso da notícia “California, New Hampshire and West Virginia are among the states voting to put menstrual products in school restrooms” que significa “Califórnia, New Hampshire e West Virginia estão entre os estados que votaram para colocar produtos menstruais nos banheiros das escolas” já que há mais do que dois estados entre os que votaram a favor. Então, usamos between para falar entre em uma situação com apenas dois referentes e among com mais de dois referentes. Como é o caso daquele jogo among us que significa entre nós, mas que possui mais do que apenas dois jogadores em cada partida.

We cannot deny that Adele is one of the most famous singers in the world, and now she’s just changed Spotify’s tools.

No more shuffle: Adele wants you to listen to her album in order, and Spotify agrees.

Following the release of Adele’s fourth album “30,” the shuffle button is no longer the default option for album listening on Spotify. The singer believes the tracks on an album should be listened to in their order of arrangement – and now she’s got streaming giant Spotify onside.

“This was the only request I had in our ever changing industry!” Adele wrote on Twitter Sunday. “We don’t create albums with so much care and thought into our track listing for no reason. Our art tells a story and our stories should be listened to as we intended. Thank you Spotify for listening.”

Last month, “Easy on Me,” the lead single from “30,” broke Spotify’s record for most-streamed song in a single day, and broke the UK record for most streams in a single week. Yet, a significant portion of users appear to be annoyed by the move, with several fans criticizing Adele for requesting the removal of the default shuffle.

Well, premium listeners can still shuffle individual tracks if they wish, but several fans thanked Adele online for the update, saying they would never listen to an album on shuffle particularly the first time round.

O verbo modal should pode ser traduzido como deveria e é usado para expressarmos uma opinião como em “you should study more” que significa “você deveria estudar mais”. Porém, na notícia, encontramos a formação should + be + verbo no particípio, como na passagem “should be listened” que significa “deveria ser escutado”. Essa formação da voz passiva é usada quando quisermos falar de uma necessidade ou de uma recomendação, como em “this box should be carried with extra caution” que significa “essa caixa deve ser carregada com cuidado extra”. Na notícia, Adele fala que “the tracks on an album should be listened to in their order of arrangement” que significa “as faixas de um álbum devem ser ouvidas em sua ordem de arranjo” e por isso ela pediu que o botão de “ordem aleatória” fosse removido.

What about you? Do you shuffle the albuns when you’re listening to them?

Great news to the ones who love Harry potter and its wizardry story.

The original cast of the Harry Potter series are to reunite on screen to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the first movie, Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone.

The announcement came exactly 20 years to the day since the release of the first movie on November 16 2001. The stars of the franchise, Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson, and their cast mates, will join the first movies’s director Chris Columbus at the reunion to discuss the eight movies in depth.

The author J. K. Rowling is not listed to appear at the special event but will reportedly feature in archive footage.

And it’s with that exciting bit of news we’re going to end today’s episode. Thank you so much for joining us and having me today.

E se você tem interesse em estudar na Fluency Academy, infelizmente todas as turmas estão lotadas! Então, se você quiser ter aulas de inglês, espanhol, francês, italiano, alemão, japonês ou mandarim com a melhor tecnologia disponível no Brasil, não arrisque ficar de fora da próxima turma! Faça a sua inscrição 100% gratuita na nossa lista de espera apertando o link na descrição desse episódio (leva uns 15 segundinhos).

And remember: there’s a new episode of Fluency News every week.

Peace out!

Stories:

Austria re-enters Covid lockdown as Europe battles virus surge
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/22/austria-re-enters-covid-lockdown-as-europe-battles-virus-surge
‍https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-59369488>

Afghanistan: Taliban unveil new rules banning women in TV dramas
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-59368488

Ann Arbor becomes first US city to require free menstrual products in public restrooms
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/21/us/ann-arbor-michigan-menstrual-products-restrooms/

Adele wants you to listen to her album in order, and Spotify agrees
https://edition.cnn.com/2021/11/21/entertainment/adele-spotify-music-streaming-album-shuffle-scli-intl/index.html

Harry Potter films at 20: What the cast did next
https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-59319961