Fluency News 68

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 três principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português sobre as coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!

No episódio desta semana, nós falamos sobre os diferentes derramamentos de óleo que estão ameaçando a natureza e o meio ambiente em diferentes países, e sobre os esforços de uma família para manter um legado vivo e salvar animais na Austrália.

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 Lívia Pond.

Episode Transcript

What’s up, folks. Welcome to another episode of Fluency News. I’m Scott Lowe, one of your teachers here at Fluency Academy, and I’m thrilled you decided to join me today. We’re going to cover some of the most relevant stories of the week, and we might pop in some Portuguese from time to time to clarify or explain some things that might deserve a little more attention.

Before we get started, let me just remind you that, as always, you can find the transcript of this episode and all of our sources in the description, or by going to our content portal, fluencytv.com.

We’re going to start today’s episode with eerily similar stories, from two very distinct parts of the world. Oil spills are threatening nature in both South America and in Thailand.

A burst pipeline in Ecuador caused an oil spill within a protected area of the country’s Amazon rainforest. The environment ministry said that the pipeline operator will face legal consequences.

Heavy rains caused landslides and rockfalls at the end of last week, leading to the rupture of a crude oil transport pipeline in the Piedra Fina area.

The incident took place on Friday at the border between the provinces of Napo and Sucumbios, on this 485-kilometer pipeline, which crosses four provinces, and is operated by the private company OCP (Oleoducto de Crudos Pesados).

The affected zone spans some 21,000 square meters, most of them within the protected zone of Cayambe Coca national park, which is inhabited by western mountain coati, a relative of raccoons; red brocket deer; bird species including the Andean cock-of-the-rock, and various amphibians.

According to the government, the landslide affected four infrastructure pipes, which transports 160,000 barrels of crude a day from oil wells deep in the jungle.

Operator OCP Ecuador said it has stopped pumping crude, and begun cleanup. The company that runs the pipeline said it had contracted three specialist companies to carry out cleaning and remediation work.

The government has started legal and administrative actions against OCP Ecuador and the ministry added it has requested the company carry out a detailed investigation to measure the spill’s impact.

Oil has been found on the Coca river’s banks, according to communities living in the area. The river was previously impacted by a major oil spill in April 2020 after both the OCP and SOTE pipelines burst due to the effects of the regressive erosion.

A palavra spill significa “derramar”, “entornar”. Nessas notícias, estamos falando de derramamento de óleo no mar, então faz muito sentido, não é? Mas essa palavra está presente em algumas expressões, frases e ditados, que podem ter um sentido diferente.

Você já ouviu a expressão “don’t cry over spilled milk?” Em português, nós temos um ditado que é bem parecido, que é “não adianta chorar pelo leite derramado”, ou “não chore pelo leite derramado”. A tradução é literal, mas o significado, a “moral”, é que não faz sentido se lamentar por coisas que não podem ser alteradas.

Existem duas outras expressões, que também usam a palavra spill, mas que não podem ser traduzidas literalmente para fazer sentido. São spill the beans e spill the tea. “Spill the beans” é literalmente, “derrame os feijões”, mas o sentido é de “contar tudo”, “não guardar segredos”. Spill the tea tem o mesmo sentido, mas é uma expressão mais recente, muito usada no sentido de compartilhar uma fofoca, uma novidade bem interessante.

A little earlier this month, an oil spill happened in another country in South America, Peru. The Peruvian government has described the January 15 spill as the largest “ecological disaster” in recent years.

The spill occurred on the same day that unusually powerful wave action – driven by the volcanic eruption and tsunami event in Tonga – struck the coast of Peru.

At the time of the incident, the tanker Mare Doricum was unloading a shipment of Brazilian crude oil at the La Pampilla refinery, just off Peru’s coast, when a quantity of the cargo was released. The spill has coated miles of beaches near the nation’s capital, as well as the shores of an environmentally sensitive marine reserve and a seabird sanctuary.

According to Environment Minister Ruben Ramirez, the Peruvian government now believes that the spill released nearly 12,000 barrels of oil into the sea, up from an initial estimate of 6,000 barrels. The ministry estimates that about one-third of the total has been recovered in cleanup efforts so far.

A judge in Peru has barred four oil executives from leaving the country for 18 months, as authorities investigate the gigantic oil spill.

“The crude oil spill constitutes a sudden and of significant impact event against the coastal marine ecosystem of a high biological diversity, and a high-risk for public health,” the Peruvian government said in a statement last Sunday.

In Thailand, the governor of a province declared a state of emergency after an oil slick washed up on a sand beach.

Some 20-50 tons of oil are estimated to have leaked in the Gulf of Thailand from an undersea hose used to load tankers at an offshore mooring point owned by the Star Petroleum Refining Co.

The leak was stopped within hours, the company said, but efforts to keep an oil slick from reaching the Mae Ramphueng beach in Rayong province southeast of Bangkok were unsuccessful.

A major part of the slick remains at sea and there are concerns it may hit Koh Samet, a popular tourist island that’s just beginning to recover from the coronavirus pandemic slump along with the rest of the country.

Aircraft have been dropping chemicals to disperse the oil and deploying floating booms to trap it so that it can be skimmed from the surface and removed.

Some 200 navy personnel and 150 people from Star Petroleum were helping in the cleanup with equipment to absorb and skim the oil, while two backhoes dug a trench to capture the incoming oil.

The Thai chapter of the environmental action group Greenpeace said the spill was the second involving Star Petroleum after an incident in 1997.

It issued a statement demanding that the oil company show clear accountability for the accident, pay for the cleanup and issue a complete report on the economic, social and environmental impacts of the spill.

Authorities are now rushing to prevent the oil spill from damaging fragile corals, after officials said the leak was drifting towards more coastal areas.

Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment Varawut Silpa-archa said it was crucial to try to prevent the main mass of oil from reaching the shore at Ao Prao, a small bay on Koh Samet, which is a popular resort island.

“If the oil reached inside this area, it could impact the beach and cause heavy damage to the shallow water corals,” Varawut said.

Nessa notícia, nós falamos mais de oil slick, do que de “oil spill”, como foi na primeira. A principal diferença entre “oil spill” e oil slick é a forma de dispersão das duas. “Oil spill” é um derramamento de óleo. Então pense em uma mangueira escoando óleo. Quando falamos de oil slick, estamos falando em uma mancha de óleo, uma “fatia” de óleo na superfície do mar. Oil slicks são causadas por “oil spills”. Mas no dia a dia, você pode usar qualquer uma dessas definições para falar sobre o derramamento de óleo ou manchas de óleo.

How sad and concerning is that? Three countries dealing with different oil spills that are threatening the environment and lives of so many. While hearing those stories might make you feel a sense of loss, we’ve got a story that might restore your faith in humanity, just a bit.

The Irwin family is continuing the “Crocodile Hunter’s” legacy of rescuing and saving wildlife in danger.

The family has helped rescue 90 thousand animals, including those falling victim to the ongoing wildfire devastation in Australia.

Terri Irwin, the widow of Steve Irwin, and their children, daughter Bindi and son Robert Irwin, own and operate the Australia Zoo’s Wildlife Hospital.

This week, they’ve reached a milestone, officially rescuing 90,000 animals. The 90,000th patient is an orphaned platypus rescued from the fires, who the family named “Ollie.” The animal is receiving round the clock care until he can be released back to the wild.

“With so many devastating fires within Australia, my heart breaks for the people and wildlife who have lost so much,” Bindi said in an Instagram post.

The Australia Zoo and their conservation properties are not endangered by fires.

The zoo’s Wildlife Hospital has been “busier than ever,” Bindi said in the caption of the photo which shows her smiling in front of a picture of Steve and his mother holding a crocodile.

“My parents dedicated our Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital to my beautiful grandmother. We will continue to honour her by being Wildlife Warriors and saving as many lives as we can,” Bindi said.

Em um dos posts que Bindi fez, ela fala que o hospital está “busier than ever”. A palavra ever tem alguns significados diferentes. Isso significa que ela não pode ser traduzida ao pé da letra, mas existem alguns significados que são mais comuns. Ever pode significar “em algum momento”, “desde”, se pareada com a palavra “since”, e também pode significar “sempre” ou “nunca”. Sim, ever pode ser essas duas palavras que têm significados opostos. O contexto vai te ajudar nessas situações, para saber o que significa. Na frase “we’ve busier than ever”, o significado é “estamos mais ocupados do que nunca”. Na frase “he was ever helpful”, o significado é “ele sempre ajudou”. O contato frequente com o idioma vai te usar a pegar os sentidos dessa palavra sem nem perceber!

Antes de a gente se despedir, quero te fazer uma pergunta. Você quer chegar à fluência mais rápido e com todo o suporte dos professores da FluencyTV? Faça a sua inscrição 100% gratuita na nossa lista de espera! Assim você vai saber antecipadamente sobre novas vagas nas turmas de todos os idiomas que a Fluency Academy ensina. Então se você sonha em conseguir um lugar na Fluency Academy e finalmente chegar à fluência, aperte o link na descrição desse episódio e faça a sua inscrição.

And this is where we’re going to end today’s episode, peeps! We hope you have a good day, a great week, and that you’re staying safe. We’ll see you next week for another episode. Until next time! Peace out!

Stories
Oil Spills Around the World
https://maritime-executive.com/article/oil-spill-off-peru-was-twice-as-large-as-previously-believed
https://kfgo.com/2022/01/31/ecuador-oil-spill-affected-protected-area-in-amazon-government-says/
https://turnednews.com/ecuador-leak-of-an-oil-pipeline-in-the-amazon-jungle/
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/1/28/peru-oil-spill-judge-bars-repsol-executives-from-leaving-country
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thai-beach-declared-disaster-area-after-oil-spill-2022-01-29/
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/oil-spill-sprays-crude-ecuadors-amazon-rainforest-rcna14084
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/oil-spill-threatens-corals-eastern-thailand-2022-01-30/
https://edition.cnn.com/2022/01/28/americas/peru-oil-spill-travel-ban-intl/index.html
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Environment/Thailand-oil-spill-governor-declares-state-of-emergency-on-beach
Irwin family has helped rescue 90K animals
https://abc7.com/steve-irwin-family-australia-wildfires-australian/5816785/
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/04/australia/bindi-irwin-australia-wildfires-hospital-animal-rescue-trnd/index.html
https://abcnews.go.com/International/steve-irwins-family-saved-90k-animals-including-australia/story?id=68078641