Table of contents for No 475 in Speak Up

SPEAK UP IN CLASS On the dawn of the new millennium1, an eye-catching2 landmark3 was erected in London, a giant Ferris wheel4 called the London Eye was built on the south bank5 of the River Thames, next to County Hall6 and opposite7 Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. It was meant to be a temporary structure to celebrate the inauguration of new era as a temporary structure. A quarter of a century later, it has become permanent and is one of the city’s most-visited tourist attractions. A WINNING DESIGN The London Eye was the result of a 1993 competition sponsored by the Architecture Foundation and newspaper The Sunday Times. No official winner was declared, but the design by husband-and-wife team Julia Barfield and David Marks of Marks Barfield Architects was…

SPEAK UP IN CLASS Any visitor to the north of Scotland will be struck1 by the strange ruined towers that dot2 the landscape. Known as ‘brochs’, these ancient conical structures are unique to Scotland, particularly the county of Caithness. For centuries, archeologists have tried to put together3 the clues that reveal their origins, their use and their significance. STRANGE STRUCTURES Brochs were built by the Caledonian tribes during the Iron Age, between 400 BCE4 and 100 CE5. They are arresting6 because of their size — the tallest remaining broch on the abandoned island of Mousa is 13.3 metres tall, making it the tallest prehistoric building in Britain. The towers were constructed with two concentric drystone7 walls, held together with long stone slabs8, and probably had roofs of wood or thatch9.…

On 27 September 1825, a steam-powered1 locomotive set off2 on a twenty-six mile [41,8km] journey through County Durham, a major coal-producing3 region in the north-east of England. The inauguration of the Stockton and Darlington Railway (S&DR) was a history-making event: for the first time, a steam-powered public railway could carry products (coal) and passengers, connecting collieries4 around Shildon with the market towns of Stockton and Darlington. Steam marked the advent5 of the modern railway network which spread rapidly across the country, transforming Britain’s landscape, economy and society. STRANGE STRUCTURES To celebrate the bicentennial of this important event, a year-long programme called Railway 200 is taking place across the UK. Railway 200 began on 1 January 2025 with an experience known as a ‘whistle off’, when historic locomotives across the country…

Selecting just five poems from across English literary history is quite a challenge! Nevertheless, here are five that are often taught in British or American schools. These are poems about life’s big themes: love, death, solitude and struggle1. All the poets mentioned had a major cultural impact at the time they were writing, and all five poems below are still read and quoted2 today. The choice has been made with historical perspective, which is why three of the poets are white, male, and English. All the poems are from Britain or the US, even though the profile of people publishing poetry in the language is considerably more varied and people from around the globe have written world-changing poetry in English. There are many omissions: we could have gone all the…

SPEAK UP IN CLASS I’ve been a slippery1 character since the day I was born. Seconds after the midwife2 cut the umbilical cord, I wriggled3, slipped out4 of her hands and fell to the floor. Fortunately I was born at home; I owe my life to the thick carpet5 in my parents’ bedroom. My parents could never hug or tickle6 me. Throwing me into the air and catching me was completely out of the question. Their inability to show their affection in any tangible way worried them. They took me to a child psychologist, but by that time I’d invented an explanation for my behaviour, which convinced everyone. I was never involved in any physical altercations at school. I enjoyed provoking the school bullies7, but while they tried to beat…

SPEAK UP IN CLASS Pi, represented by the lowercase1 version of the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet π, is an irrational number used to measure2 circles. Also known as the Archimedes constant, pi is the number you get when you divide the circumference of a circle by its diameter, using the mathematical formula pi(π) = circumference / diameter. Pi is a mathematical constant, meaning that no matter how big or small the circle, pi is always the same. REAL-WORLD USES The first few digits of pi are 3.14, but pi is irrational because it has an infinite number of digits after the decimal point. While the calculation can be traced back3 thousands of years to the ancient Egyptians and Babylonians, the earliest known use of the Greek letter to…

One of the most important and innovative thinkers of the 19th century, Charles Babbage is considered to be the father of the computer. Almost two hundred years ago, this brilliant mathematician, inventor and mechanical engineer originated the concept of the digital programmable computer. Born on 26 December 1791, the son of a banker, Babbage was often unwell1 as a child and was educated at home. Largely self-taught2 in mathematics, he entered Cambridge University in 1810, where he discovered that he knew more than his tutors! THE DIFFERENCE ENGINE After leaving university, Babbage started to consider one of the major scientific problems of his time: printed mathematical tables, which were central to navigation, science, engineering and maths, were calculated by hand; mistakes were common and these could have disastrous consequences, especially…

The killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson has mesmerized1 a deeply polarized nation that shares a collective frustration over dealings2 with health insurance companies. On social media, some people have cheered3 for the gunman and expressed little remorse4 over the death of Thompson, fifty, a father of two boys from Maple Grove, Minnesota, with some painting him as the villain in a national health care crisis. And now that the identity of the suspect, Luigi Mangione, twenty-six, has been revealed and more photos of him have emerged, he is being defended or even applauded in some circles. That adulation reflects public anger5 over health care, said Nsikan Akpan, managing editor for Think Global Health, a publication that explores health issues at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The UnitedHealthcare killing and…

Considered to be a seminal1 Modernist work, The Waste Land2 was written in the aftermath of3 the First World War by American-born poet, playwright4 and literary critic Thomas Stearns Eliot. A 434-line poem divided into five parts, it addresses themes of death, loss and confusion. While The Waste Land is intentionally hard to decipher, lines and expressions evoke visceral images that can be universally understood. MODERNISM Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1888, T.S. Eliot moved to England in 1914 and renounced his US citizenship5 in 1927. He became the most influential voice of the Modernist literary movement, arguing that, in modern times, “the poet must become more and more comprehensive, more allusive, more indirect, in order to force, to dislocate if necessary, language to his meaning.” Eliot’s poem The…

Hello, everyone. So nice to meet you in person! Likewise! We’re happy to meet you and your team. So, first of all, thank you for inviting us to pitch for this job. Not at all! Your agency has an amazing reputation in this particular market. Oh, that’s good to hear! We put our heart and soul into each and every one of our projects, so it’s nice that it’s recognised. Well, we are very selective about the partners1 we work with and everyone we spoke to recommended we talk to you. Great! We know there are a lot of agencies in this sector, so we appreciate the opportunity to show you our credentials and give you an idea of how we work. We are eager2 to see what you can…

The highlight of countless1 fairs, theme parks or riverbanks2 today, Ferris wheels3 have been relentlessly4 turning for more than a century now. They are the late-19th century5 product of a group of engineers, who applied their ingenuity6 and courage to the design of an enormous, technologically-innovative structure, which would make headlines7 worldwide. The Ferris wheel was named after the man who constructed one of the first for Chicago’s World’s Columbian Exposition in 1893. ENGINEERING CHALLENGE In 1890, the architect Daniel Burnham received the important commission8 of managing the exposition in Chicago, organised to commemorate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ arrival on the American continent. Burnham challenged9 engineers to create something that would rival the Eiffel Tower, which had amazed the world in the 1889 French Exposition in Paris. Many…

Is there anyone out there? Do aliens really exist? Will they communicate with us one day? These are some of the questions that the Arecibo message could help answer. Sent into space1 on 16 November 1974, the message was the first deliberate attempt2 to communicate with aliens. THIS IS WHO WE ARE The Arecibo message is so called3 because it was transmitted from the Arecibo Telescope at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. The event took place at a ceremony to celebrate the the observatory’s remodelling. Installed in the 1960s, the Arecibo Telescope has since been dismantled. The message was sent to Messier 13, a large cluster4 of stars relatively close to Earth. It contained some basic information about Earth and the human race that was transmitted via frequency-modulated radio…

In the last ten years, dating apps like Tinder1, Bumble2, Match Group and Grindr3 have become very popular. They have attracted tens of millions of users, all hoping to have a fun date, casually hook up4 with someone, or even find love. But by now many of us are suffering from dating app fatigue. This refers to a state of extreme emotional exhaustion as searching through enormous databases of potential partners on screen appears never-ending. Many people are abandoning dating apps altogether5 and returning to more traditional IRL (in-real-life) dating events. RISE AND FALL As a result, the world’s biggest dating apps have registered a decrease in the number and engagement6 of their users. At the same time, IRL dating events have been increasing in popularity. The ticketing platform Eventbrite…

Poetry is everywhere and in every culture, from traditional ballads to political rap, from love poems to prayers1. We hear poetry, in the form of nursery rhymes2, when we’re babies. And repeating simple poems can help us acquire language at any age. The oldest known poem, The Epic of Gilgamesh, was composed almost four thousand years ago in ancient Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) but oral poetic traditions probably go back3 much further than that. To celebrate the universal nature of poetry and try to support the linguistic diversity that can be expressed through it, UNESCO4 observes World Poetry Day every year on 21 March. On World Poetry Day, people of all languages, all across the world, hold events aimed at5 raising the profile6 of poetry in education and the media and above…

Released1 in July 1965, Like a Rolling Stone is a six-minute stream2 of vitriol3 written and performed by Bob Dylan. The title draws on4 the saying5 “A rolling stone6 gathers7 no moss8 ”, which also inspired the 1950 blues song Rollin’ Stone by Muddy9 Waters, and the name of the English rock band The Rolling Stones. Dylan’s four verses and chorus10describe a woman’s fall, comparing her lofty11 past to her current low12. There have been many interpretations of the song; Dylanologists believe it is an attack on model Edie Sedgwick, who was Andy Warhol’s muse. Dylan claimed that the song began as an extended ten-page verse that was “just a rhythm thing on paper all about my steady13 hatred14, directed at some point that was honest.” He later confessed to being impressed…