Transcriptions des nouvelles de Log in 1
Unit 1
BRUSSELS SPROUTS.
A British supermarket will be testing whether British customers like
Brussels sprouts more when they are labelled "British". During the twomonth testing period, the sprouts on display grown in Great Britain will no
longer be advertised as "Brussels sprouts" but as "British sprouts".
The manager thinks that the supermarket should tell its customers the truth,
since the sprouts are a British product grown in Great Britain and not a
Brussels or Belgian product.
Perhaps Belgians should take revenge and in British restaurants order not
chips but "Belgian fries" provided, of course, they come from Belgium.
COCAINE SMUGGLERS IN PRISON.
Two men received 30-year jail terms for a two and a half million euros
cocaine-smuggling operation. It is believed to be the longest sentence for
smuggling pronounced in a British court.
WEEKEND FOR YOUNG TRAFFIC VICTIMS.
The second weekend of November is in Great Britain "Road Victims Day".
Inspired by this initiative the Belgian association "Parents of child road
victims" also wants to organize a weekend in November commemorating
their young road victims. According to statistics established two years ago
ten per cent of road victims, i.e. 1397, were below eighteen. And if to this
group one adds those between ages 19 and 24, the number of young victims
reaches no less than 28 per cent.
HELPFUL POLICE.
James Orr from Edinburgh was driving down the A1 heading for Wetherby
in the neighbourhood of Leeds. A car started to follow close behind, so he
signalled it to overtake. To his surprise it was a police patrol. They stopped
him, and checked his car documents and driving licence. Then Jim told them
he was in a hurry as he was going to a funeral. "Right," said the police,
"follow us". And for the next 25 miles Jim had a police escort with flashing
lights. The VIP treatment lasted all the way to the church in Wetherby. Says
Jim: "Needless to say since then I've had the greatest respect for all police
patrols in their difficult job."
ORIGINAL SIGNS.
In the North of England there used to be a sign saying "Please do not throw
stones at this notice".
In the state of Texas, USA, on Highway 281 from Brownsville to San
Antonio, there is a sign which reads: "Cemetery - Drive carefully".
Unit 2
IS MOBILE PHONE REALLY SAFE?
According to recent studies, worries about a link between mobile-phone
radiation and brain cancer can no longer be dismissed.
Many people, however, can't imagine life without their mobile. They take it
everywhere - cycling through the countryside, driving in the city, putting it
on the bedside table at night. "I feel so much safer," they say. But at the
same time, quite a few can't stop thinking about whether they are really
protecting themselves. A lot of times when they are using their mobile
phone, they admit that "they wonder if they may not get brain cancer".
No less than 150 million Americans now use mobile phones, and hundreds
of thousands of customers get connected every day. Health concern first
made major headlines in 1993, when a man alleged that his wife had died of
brain cancer from intensive cell phone use. He sued the manufacturer, but
ultimately the case was dismissed.
SUMMER JOBS AND UNEMPLOYMENT.
Unemployed as well as student summer job seekers apparently got what they
were looking for and helped push the unemployment rate to its lowest level
in fourteen years. The Labour Department says joblessness fell to 5.3 per
cent in June, as businesses hired lots of teenage workers. Analysts say more
Americans are spending their holiday in the US this year, increasing the
demand for summer workers.
ARE HUMANS THE ONLY ANIMAL TO OVEREAT AND BECOME
FAT?
The answer is "no", although in many animals food intake is closely
matched to energy expenditure. For example, before their long trip in
autumn to warmer countries migratory birds tend to put on a lot of fat.
Goldfish, on the other hand, will reduce the amount they eat if the water
temperature is reduced, causing a reduction in their metabolic rate. A study
in which laboratory rats were given an assortment of tasty foods led on the
other hand to overeating and obesity in about 40 per cent of the animals.
WIDOW TURNS DOWN 3.2 MILLION EUROS.
No pensioner in Hull was safe last week after the bizarre revelation that a 3.2
million euro National Lottery jackpot ticket is lying uncashed on an elderly
local widow's front room table.
Reporters, treasure hunters and officials of Camelot, the Lottery
organisation, began a systematic attempt to persuade the reluctant winner to
claim the prize.
The strangest twist yet in the unpredictable history of lottery oddities was an
unsigned letter to the local newspaper "The Hull Daily Mail". The woman's
letter said the winning ticket had been bought by her husband shortly before
his death. "It was a grand feeling to win, but too late".
The woman also gave her age - which was courteously left out by the
newspaper. Then she added: "Sorry, I don't wish to give my name. I am sure
the fuss would finish me off. The ticket is on the front room table. I keep
looking at it but I cannot make up my mind".
The six-month deadline for claiming the jackpot runs out this week, and
Camelot warned that the money would go automatically into the good causes
pool if the winner failed to contact them by Friday.
PET GIVES BLOWS.
In Arizona a 10-year-old boy got beaten up by a pet for no apparent reason.
For a long time the family had had a chimpanzee in the house and the animal
had always behaved normally. Last weekend, however, the chimp suddenly
started behaving aggressively towards Bryan, the son, and gave him several
hard blows on the head.
Bryan's parents took the ape to the clinic where they didn't find anything
abnormal. In the meantime the chimp quietened down and behaved normally
again. According to the parents, his aggressiveness had no lasting
consequences. Said the mother: "He's part of the family and he can stay on
with us. We only have to find an appropriate punishment for his behaviour.
He has to realize that he's not allowed to do this any more."
Unit 3
OIL PRICES UP ON OPEC TALKS DELAY.
Oil prices rose again at the beginning of the week due to signs that the
Middle East crisis is putting OPEC, the producers' cartel, under increasing
strain.
Saudi Arabia failed to persuade other OPEC members to attend an
emergency meeting to increase production quotas. It is therefore expected to
increase its own output to make up the shortfall of other 13 oil producing
countries.
FRANCE TO SHELVE LOIRE DAM SCHEME.
European environmentalists are rejoicing as the French government
suspends its plans to tame the 600-mile Loire with a series of eight dams.
Opponents fear that the Loire, Europe's last untamed river, could become
polluted like the Danube or the Rhine. The environmentalists were assured
that the two most controversial dams would not go ahead and that other
flood control programmes will be abandoned or will be considerably
reduced.
The French president played a leading role in persuading the government to
change its mind over a project intended to provide more water for the four
nuclear power stations of the state electricity company, to feed new
irrigation schemes, to control annual flooding, to improve navigation and to
create new areas for industry and residents.
CREW SAVE PILOT SUCKED OUT OF WINDSCREEN.
The pilot of a British Airways jet was sucked halfway out of the aircraft at
24,000 ft when the cockpit windscreen shattered over Oxfordshire.
The pilot, aged 41, was pulled out of his seat and part of the way out of the
window when the drop in pressure created a vacuum. He was grabbed by
members of the crew, who hung on to him until the co-pilot made an
emergency landing at Southampton airport a few minutes later. As
passengers left by emergency chutes, firemen working from outside pulled
the captain clear. The plane with 83 passengers from Birmingham was on its
way to Malaga, Spain.
THE ECONOMY, FOOL'S GOLD IN A FOOL'S PARADISE.
It's a paradox. Britain earns applause from the economists, but according to
the criteria that most people use to judge their own and the country's
prospects, neither the economy nor society is notably prospering. Low pay
and job insecurity are spreading; investment is low and society is
fragmenting. If there have been gains, they have been bought at heavy cost.
It is in the world of work where the stress is most obvious. Some 60 per cent
of the adult population is either without work or employed in jobs which are
structurally insecure - notwithstanding the recovery. Two thirds of the new
jobs created over the last five years are part-time jobs. Where jobs are fulltime, three quarters are offered only on short-term contracts. These are hard
times.
This is the basis of the 30/30/40 society: 30 per cent of adults are
marginalised, another 30 per cent of work is in insecure forms of
employment and only 40 per cent have tenured full-time jobs.
MOVES TO PURGE CHILD LABOUR.
Two major companies in sportswear want to help end child labour and
improve conditions at their Asian factories. The chairmen and chief
executives of Nike and Reebok are proposing joint monitoring of factory
conditions. The move was welcomed by different associations which have
campaigned against exploitation of workers in the footwear and clothing
industry in developing countries. The decision was taken under pressure
from British and American globalists who have campaigned relentlessly
against child labour and exploitation of Asian workers.
Unit 4
CLEANING UP THE DIRT.
A campaign to clean up Britain's beaches has been launched by the group
"Keep Britain Tidy". It's designed to increase public awareness and clean
beaches will be awarded a blue flag. The problem of sewage around our
beaches has been causing much concern: millions of tons of dirt and litter
are pumped into the sea each year. Britain now has 400 designated bathing
waters, about one fifth of which don't come up to European Union standards.
RECORD HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT IN JAPAN.
For the first time since World War II, unemployment in Japan has reached
more than 5 per cent, i.e. 3.3 million people are without work. This figure is,
however, approximative since some 120,000 Japanese without work have
not registered with the appropriate service.
The reason for the worsening unemployment is well-known. The economy
has slowed down considerably in the biggest industrialized countries and
especially in the States. The Japanese electronic industry is particularly
affected by the recession. More than 1 million workers have voluntarily
handed in their notice. This voluntary unemployment has mainly affected
workers below age 35. Second, the reforms undertaken by the government to
lower Japan's foreign debt have also contributed to increasing the
unemployment rate.
CRIME RISE IN MONACO.
The chief of police was sacked because of a 400 per cent rise in serious
crime in Monaco.
This figure is a symbolic one, because there was no serious crime two years
ago compared to three hold-ups and a jewel robbery last year. But the
attacks showed sloppiness in the tax haven's police force as well as the
inefficiency of its CCTV security system.
The first duty of the new chief will be to find out why the mini-state's 500
policemen were unable to protect the 29,000 residents from the incursion of
Marseille-style gangsters.
Until last year, Monaco's most famous violent crime was committed with a
champagne bottle - an antique dealer was hit on the head by his mistress.
The Court of Assizes has not sat for five years and one of the tiny port's
charms has been the feeling of safety as rich residents parade in jewels and
with fat wallets.
MISS WORLD PICKED AMID INDIA PROTEST.
The MISS WORLD contest went on in India last weekend after police
arrested more than 1,300 protesters and broke up crowds by firing tear gas
and striking demonstrators with batons.
The crown went to Miss Greece, a professional model. The pageant
prompted an intense national debate about the role of women in the poorest
country ever to host the annual contest.
Feminists said that such pageants lower the dignity of women by turning
them into commodities. Hindu nationalists said Indian traditions give
women a central role in families and do not approve of them parading before
strangers.
The leader of a new women's group had threatened that a dozen members
would sneak into the cricket ground and set fire to themselves to protest
against the dishonouring of Indian women. But tight security that banned
matches and cigarette lighters apparently succeeded in keeping protesters
out. A pageant spokesman said only 15,000 of the 20,000 seats were sold.
SMOKE SCREEN.
A friend of ours found a novel but efficient way of dealing with the terrible
transistor noise from the garden next door. Receiving no response to his
friendly request to turn it down, our friend noticed that the wind came from
the right direction. So he lit a smoky bonfire and when a protesting head
popped over the hedge, our friend asked him: "Why don't you play our
favourite record "Smoke gets in your eyes"?"
Unit 5
SHE PASSED HER DRIVING TEST WITH FLYING COLOURS.
An Edinburgh woman was taking her driving test. At one point, the
examiner told her to take the first turning on the left. At that moment a boy
ran across the road just in front of the car. She braked hard, and the examiner
who had been looking at his notes, hit the windscreen giving him a nice
bump on his forehead.
She passed the test with the dry but objective comment "Your emergency
stop is excellent."
UNDERSTANDING HATRED.
Bradford, a northern England town, was the site of Britain's third race riot
last summer. It was also its worst: 281 policemen were injured and 36
troublemakers arrested.
The riot's immediate cause was a rumour that the National Front, a rightwing extremist group, planned to march through the city. It didn't, but
clashes between Asian and white youths turned into a fully-fledged battle.
The riots shocked the Bradfordians, but didn't surprise them. For years the
city had been sliding into a de facto apartheid, with Asian, Afro-Caribbean
and white communities living, working and studying separately.
On street corners, bored Asian and white youths say they have faced naked
racism every day but at interrace meetings nobody has had enough courage
to say "Hey, there are some lads in your community who are
troublemakers". Everyone is afraid of sounding racist. The question then is:
can multiracial society work and if so, how to make it work?
A HOLIDAY LOUIS WON'T FORGET IN A HURRY.
Louis Ross was overjoyed with the view of Blackpool from his hotel room
on the 17th floor. The weather being gorgeous, he thought it would be
worthwhile exploring the city. Unfortunately, he forgot to take down the
name of the hotel and the street in which it was located.
As he promptly got lost, he couldn't find his way back and he spent the rest
of his three-day mini break looking not only for his lost lodgings but also for
the hat, coat, suitcase and money he had left in his room. But without
success. He went to the police but all he could tell them was that he could
see towers from his window. A police spokesman said: "He really didn't give
us a serious clue to go on."
UNITED STATES REPATRIATES IMMIGRANTS.
The United States forcibly repatriates Latin and Caribbean immigrants by
the millions who have entered the country illegally. Whatever you may think
of this practice, the principle, anyway, has been widely accepted in the US.
It is indeed difficult if not impossible to make a distinction between political
and economic refugees. Furthermore, since the tragic events of the eleventh
of September 2001 the US wants to reintroduce a visa for quite a few of the
5 million visitors that come to the States every year.
ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST IN PRISON.
Animal rights activist Keith M. whose tactics had all the characteristics of
terrorism has been sentenced to 14 years in prison. He carried out several
attacks on mega chains serving a lot of meat.
Unit 6
FLY CATCHER FLIES TOO.
A 22-year old Swiss who at night wanted to chase flies and mosquitoes from
his room, fell out of his window, landing 18 metres lower. Astonishingly, he
was only slightly injured.
The man had climbed onto the radiator and window sill to chase these
pestering insects when he lost his balance and fell out of the window.
Fortunately his fall was broken 10 metres lower by the sun shade of the
restaurant right below his room. Then the man fell yet another 8 metres
ending up in the water of the Limat river, which at this place is two and a
half metres deep.
EL NIÑO PUTS WEATHER IN A GLOBAL SPIN.
A major change in water temperature in the Pacific Ocean years ago could
account for last year's violent rainstorms that caused the Mississippi river to
flood. It may also influence global weather for a decade to come, researchers
said last week.
The oceanographic phenomenon known as El Niño, where a rise in seasurface temperatures occurs every two or three years in the equatorial Pacific
off South America, is known to affect local climate.
More recent research has shown that El Niño can have wider effects by
producing atmospheric changes that can cause additional drought in the
Sahel or a rainfall shortage affecting the maize harvest in Zimbabwe. But
atmospheric changes such as these are however short-lived. Now researchers
are suggesting that a big El Niño can produce changes in ocean patterns that
may last decades.
ROW OVER FISHING NETS.
British fishermen accuse the Spanish of anarchy while the Spanish say the
British are using oversized nets. Several British trawlers had their fishing
nets cut by the Spaniards. The Spanish fishermen claim that one British
trawler had a dolphin caught in its nets.
Overfishing is at the heart of the conflict. The latter will intensify unless the
world's oceans are better managed. Fleets must be reduced to fit the
resource.
World fisheries caught 84 million tons of fish, almost 400 per cent more
than 50 years ago.
SECRET CAMERA.
Not so long ago the Doncaster police had a secret camera set up in the
changing rooms of a local soccer club in order to catch a persistent thief.
Last night, when they played back the film, the police found that they had
succeeded in filming one of their own policemen wandering around naked
and looking for his clothes which had been stolen. On the film, however,
there was no trace of the thief.
PLANE SHOT DOWN ACCIDENTALLY.
The USS-Vincennes warship accidentally shot down a commercial airliner
with 290 people on board. The American President said his country was
prepared to pay compensation to the families of the unfortunate people who
were on the plane. Polls showed that Americans were on the whole rather
opposed to such compensation. But the President told reporters: "We are
compassionate people and we feel sorry for all those families who have lost
people dear to their hearts".
So far the black box of the plane has not been recovered yet by search teams.
The flight recorder could indicate whether the plane received warnings from
the warship before it was shot down. It could also clear up questions about
whether the airliner was flying within commercial airspace.