Table of contents for No 481 in Speak Up

The world is getting older, fast. According to the World Health Organization, within the next five years, one in six people will be more than sixty years old. By 2050, their number will reach 2.1 billion. A staggering1 426 million people will be over eighty. We are not only growing in age, but also in number. Right now, more than eight billion people live on the planet and the number continues to rise. In wealthy countries, this growth may be driven2 by immigration, while in poorer countries, it may come from having a lot of children. However, the real problem may not be population at all, but the distribution of resources and wealth. IN SEARCH OF A NEW LIFE So, what are the implications of our ageing, growing population? With…

Thirty years ago, two of the most prestigious newspapers in the world surrendered1 to the blackmail2 of a terrorist. After months of deliberation and ethical debate, on 19 September 1995, The Washington Post published, with the financial support of The New York Times, an eight-page special section titled “Industrial Society and its Future”. The essay3 was a 35,000-word manifesto signed as FC (Freedom Club). The author, however, was best-known to the public as ‘the Unabomber’, the man responsible for a long and intermittent bombing campaign across the US that, starting in 1978, had killed three people and injured twenty-three others. THE TERRORIST’S BROTHER Both The New York Times and The Washington Post received the manifesto in June of that year, along with the demand that it be published within ninety…

The Dalai Lama has spent decades in exile thinking about ways to prevent the Chinese government from taking control of Tibetan Buddhism after his death and ending the struggle for Tibetan autonomy. Early on1, he suggested that the institution of the Dalai Lama could be ended altogether2 to deprive3 Beijing of a target to exploit. Later, he focused on how to keep the Chinese Communist Party from installing its own choice to succeed him. He floated4 a sharp break5 from precedent, saying he might transfer his spiritual powers to an adult during his lifetime to avoid6 the vacuum that would come with selecting a child as his reincarnation and successor. But in July, as senior monks filed into7 a much-anticipated conference in Dharamsala, India, as part of the 90th birthday…

The legitimacy of the monarchies of the past was rooted as much in1 the use of force and an alleged2 divine mandate as in ceremony and performance, with strong hierarchies and complex codes and rituals. The Trump presidency replicates many of the dynamics of a dynastic court, where everything gravitates around a single figure who prizes3 loyalty above all else. BLOOD TIES AND YES-MEN The President’s inner circle4 is, unsurprisingly, composed largely of blood relations5; of Trump’s five children, the three eldest — Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric — and their spouses have held official roles or benefited from their proximity to power in their private ventures6 (or both). The court intrigues become much more volatile when it comes to the second circle of influence, composed of trusted appointees7 and…

An atmospheric thriller about friendship and betrayal1 , The Third Man is set in Vienna after the Second World War. British author, journalist and former2 intelligence officer Graham Greene was employed to write a screenplay3 for the film and the novella4 he produced to do so became an instant classic of crime fiction. OCCUPIED VIENNA A narrator, later revealed to be a British military officer called Calloway, begins by musing5 on Vienna’s fall from grace6. The Austrian capital is occupied by four Allied powers: Britain, the United States, France and the Soviet Union, and there is a tense relationship between them. The city’s impoverished inhabitants rely on7 the black market to survive. “I never knew the old Vienna before the war with its Strauss music, its glamour and easy charm…

So we’ve fixed the date for the product launch1. Now let’s start planning the campaign. Yes, we need to get everyone together. Who’s involved2? The creative team, the social media team and our PR agency, of course. OK, I’ll schedule3 the meeting. What shall we put on the agenda4? For now, top-line goals, marketing strategy, communication channels, deliverables and timelines5. Good. I’ll check everyone’s agenda and book a meeting room. Try and get the large conference room with the audio-visual equipment. Sure. And can you gather all the relevant presentations? OK, will do. When we’ve mapped it all out, we can start brainstorming some ideas. Excellent. It’s so exciting. I can’t wait! NOW LET’S REVIEW THE VOCABULARY! To fix a date means to arrange6 a time and place for a…

Scientific achievements1 often amaze or fascinate us. Then there are some, such as the discovery that mammals can potentially breathe through their anuses or that dead trout2 can swim, that are so unexpected, bizarre or downright3 dubious4 that it makes us laugh in disbelief5 and delight6. It is these type of achievements that are celebrated at the 35th annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts in September. IGNOBLE AWARDS Created in 1991, the Ig Nobel (a play on the word ‘ignoble7’) Prize ceremony is organised by the scientific humour magazine Annals of Improbable Research (AIR). It awards8 ten prizes that “honour achievements so surprising that they make people LAUGH, then THINK,” according to AIR. The prizes are intended to celebrate the unusual,…

Elizabethan England’s most famous sea captain, Sir Francis Drake, used his brilliant navigational skills to become the second person in the world to circumnavigate the globe. His audacious attacks against the Spanish Empire elevated him to an almost mythical status, and brought immense wealth to England, fuelling1 a dramatic growth in the country’s economy and maritime capabilities. He also participated in England’s first steps as a slave-trading2 nation, kidnapping3 and transporting thousands of African men, women and children to the New World. ENEMIES AND SLAVES Drake was born around 1540 in Tavistock, Devon, the son of a tenant farmer4. Under King Henry VIII, England was becoming a Protestant country, making it a religious enemy of Catholic Spain, the most powerful country in Europe. Under Elizabeth I (1558-1603), England began to…

The Industrial Revolution and its consequences have been a disaster for the human race. They have greatly increased the life expectancy1 of those of us who live in ‘advanced’ countries, but they have destabilized society, have made life unfulfilling2, have subjected human beings to indignities, have led to widespread3 psychological suffering […] and have inflicted severe damage on the natural world.” These were the words that shook4 America on the morning of 19 September 1995. On the recommendation of the FBI, The Washington Post agreed to publish the Unabomber’s manifesto, after he vowed5 to pause his seventeen-year-long campaign of terror if his message was made public. BESTSELLER The decision to publish the essay proved crucial in solving the case — but it also served the terrorist’s purposes6. In the thirty…

One can only imagine the horror the late1 Iain Banks would have felt on learning his legendary Culture series is a favourite of Elon Musk. The Scottish author was an outspoken2 socialist who could never understand why right-wing fans liked novels that were so obviously an attack on their worldview. But that hasn’t stopped Musk, whose Neuralink company — which develops implantable brain-to-computer interfaces — was directly inspired by Banks’s concept of neural lace3. The barges4 used by SpaceX to land their booster rockets5 are all named after spaceships from the Culture books. Musk’s entire career stems6 from trying to replicate sci-fi novels. His desire to colonise Mars was sparked7 by the Foundation novels of Isaac Asimov (another staunch8 left-winger.) Tesla’s Cybertruck is something that — in Musk’s words —…

In music, a rhapsody is an orchestral composition, free in form and structure, that expresses powerful emotions and tells a dramatic story. In honour of the genre, in 1975 English rock band Queen produced the six-minute song Bohemian Rhapsody. The track, an eclectic montage of distinctive styles, became the band’s magnum opus. It spent nine weeks at number one in the UK, returning to the top of the charts1 for a further2 five weeks after singer Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991. It begins with the singer’s feeling of helplessness3. An unidentified mistake leads into a confession while he awaits his fate4. Brian May’s now-famous guitar solo leads into a multi-tracked operatic section, which evokes the singer’s descent into hell with references to mythical and historic figures. With the limited studio…

UNIT 1 Page 8 B1LEVEL The Ig Nobel Prize SOLUTIONS PAGE 74 1.1 READING COMPREHENSION ► Read and complete the sentences choosing from the box. receive ◊ humour ◊ anniversary ◊ held ◊ won ◊ year ◊ fictional ◊ first ◊ public ◊ research 1) This year marks the 35th annual ______ of the Ig Nobel Prize. 2) The Ig Nobel Prize was ______ awarded in 1991. 3) The event aims to celebrate unusual and bizarre achievements in scientific ______. 4) The Ig Nobel Prize ceremony will be ______ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in September. 5) The prize is organised by the scientific ______ magazine Annals of Improbable Research. 6) The ten recipients of the prize are expected to give a ______ lecture. 7) Winners ______ a prize of…

Every day, the US Mint1 produces about thirty million pennies2, which cost over three times more to produce than they’re worth3. This year, US President Donald Trump instructed the Department of the Treasury to end the production of the penny. However, it’s not yet clear if the coin will really be discontinued4 or not. HEADS OR TAILS? The US penny, officially known as ‘the cent’, was first produced in 1787, and has been issued primarily as a copper or copper-plated coin5. Since 1909, the year President Abraham Lincoln would have turned6 a hundred, the coin has featured7 President Lincoln’s profile. Modern pennies feature the president’s profile on the obverse8 (heads9) of the coin and a Union Shield10 on the reverse (tails11.) The thirteen stripes12 on the shield represent the thirteen…

When children first started getting smartphones a decade ago, there was no research about what effect this would have on their mental health. Now it is understood that smartphones expose children to things their brains aren’t developed enough to deal with, causing serious problems, from triggering1 anxiety and eating disorders, to opening the door to addictive algorithms, cyberbullying or sexual predators. CONCERN FOR SAFETY Smartphone Free Childhood is a rapidly-growing grassroots movement2 that launched in the UK in early 2024. It reflects a growing concern3 among parents about online safety and the now-normal practice of giving children smart devices4 when they go to secondary school. The movement began as a WhatsApp group set up by two young mothers, Clare Fernyhough and Daisy Greenwell. Within weeks it had attracted over four…

When you see someone reading The New Yorker in Central Park or on the subway you can’t help but think, “Ah, there is a true New Yorker… Someone who is sophisticated, educated, cultured and intellectual.” This cliché is a bit passé1 now and seems snobbish, but one hundred years later The New Yorker is still a beacon2 of thoughtful3 journalism, literary quality and sharp4 cultural critique. With such outstanding5 credentials, the magazine has readers around the globe from many different walks of life6 with varied educational backgrounds. ACCURACY AND FACT CHECKING Although The New Yorker began in 1925, in the words of its co-founder and first editor Harold Ross, as a “Manhattan-centric fifteen-cent comic paper” with a focus on fiction, cartoons7, criticism and humour, it quickly evolved into something far…

Democracy is obsolete, they think. As a governing system, it is fundamentally flawed1, inefficient and burdensome2. It’s a gruelling3 process with all of its convincing the public to vote for one candidate (never mind4 the primaries and campaign finance regulations,) followed by endless debates, legislative compromises and institutional checks5. Worst of all, democracy is bad for business. This thesis is not new, but it is gaining traction6 among certain economic and political elites. And as the oldest democracy and still the most powerful country in the world, the United States is also leading the way into new forms of government. THE CULTURE WARS When Trump first came to power, some argued he was the figurehead7 of a new kind of fascism. Indeed, he had triumphed by tapping into8 the discontent…

Melissa sat staring at the pocket watch1, watching the smallest hand tick off2 the seconds of her life. “What are you doing?” asked her sister, Kathy, in an exasperated tone. “Nothing,” said Melissa. She was purposefully3 doing nothing in the hope that it would slow down time, the limited time she had, the limited time all humans had. Time had become an obsession ever since her father had died and left her his old pocket watch. It wasn’t the first time Melissa had become fixated on an abstract concept. The last time this had happened, she had been twelve and just gone through a growth spurt4. She had become fixated on the size of things then, thinking of herself and everything around her at one moment as enormous and the…