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Le soleil sert désormais à voler la nuit

B. — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 18:45:57 +0000

Mission accomplie ! La démonstration spectaculaire que l’on peut voler 24 heures sur 24 à l’aide du seul soleil vient d’être réussie par Solar Impulse, l’avion électro-solaire suisse construit à l’initiative de Bertrand Piccard. Le 7 juillet à 6h51, l’appareil a décollé de sa base de Payerne piloté par André Borschberg, le PDG de la [...]

Lisez cet article sur www.science-et-vie.com

Arizona immigration battle turns bitter

P. H. — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:55:44 +0000

The intersection of 43rd Avenue and Thomas Road on the west side of Phoenix is lined with the same monotonous range of petrol stations, fast-food outlets, pharmacies and clothes stores that you’ll find in any modern city in America’s heartlands. It is distinguished only by the exceptionally mundane. Look closer, though, and a disturbing pattern emerges…

Read this on the Guardian.

turns bitter: becomes difficult and painful and causes people to argue with each other and feel angry

lined with petrol stations, fast-food outlets etc: There are petrol stations, fast-food shops etc on both sides of the street

It is distinguished only by the exceptionally mundane: the only unusual or noticeable thing about this place is that it is so ordinary (!)

disturbing pattern emerges: You can see that things are happening in worrying way

Earth is too crowded for Utopia

P. H. — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:31:13 +0000

The global population is higher than the Earth can sustain, argues the Director of the British Antarctic Survey in the first of a series of environmental opinion pieces on the BBC News website entitled The Green Room. Solving environmental problems such as climate change is going to be impossible without tackling the issue, he says…

Read this on the BBC.

Utopia is an imaginary perfect society in which everyone works well with each other and is happy.

higher than the Earth can sustain = higher than the Earth can support and keep alive

without tackling the issue = without dealing with and trying to solve this problem

Delight and despair as fans watch World Cup final at home

P. H. — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 07:48:09 +0000

As the Netherlands and Spain clashed in the final for the ultimate World Cup glory, football fans in the respective capital cities celebrated in their own unique way, writes Christian Fraser in Amsterdam and Sarah Rainsford in Madrid…

Read this on the BBC.

delight = great pleasure and happiness

despair = the feeling that there is no hope and that you cannot do anything to solve the problem or make the situation better

clash = fight

in the respective capital cities = in Amsterdam (the capital of the Netherlands) and Madrid (the capital of Spain)

Intellectuals with blood on their pens

P. H. — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:17:45 +0000

Early this week a former senior official from Scotland Yard accused the Labour government of slavishly following the American neocon view of Islam and terrorism. According to him, the Anglo-American assault on Iraq and Afghanistan and British complicity in torture of suspects at Guantánamo greatly increased the risks of terrorist attacks on the UK, notwithstanding New Labour’s strenuous attempts to deny such a causal connection…

Read this on the Guardian.

slavishly following the American neocon view = following the American neoconservative view like a slave (without thinking about it and questioning it)

assault = attack

complicity = involvement

notwithstanding = despite the fact that

strenuous attempts to deny such a causal connection = trying hard to deny that British involvement (in torture of suspects etc) caused the risk (of terrorist attacks on the UK) to increase

Fast food ‘fuelling Asia diabetes boom’

P. H. — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:16:17 +0000

Many Vietnamese have diabetes but are unaware of it – and the condition is spreading fast in South East Asia, scientists have warned. A study by Australian and Vietnamese scientists found about 11% of men and 12% of women in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City had undiagnosed type 2 diabetes…

Read this on the BBC.

A boom is a sudden increase in something.

A fuel is something that provides heat and power for a machine etc to work. Wood, coal, oil, petrol and gas are all different kinds of fuel. “Fast food is fuelling diabetes boom” means fast food is causing diabetes to be much more common.

If someone has undiagnosed diabetes, he or she has diabetes but doctors have not discovered his/her disease yet.

Dads ‘sleep on’ while babies cry

P. H. — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 09:02:00 +0000

Half of fathers hardly ever or never get up in the night to tend to their crying babies, a survey shows. Only a quarter wake up when the baby cries and a fifth wake up once the mother is already awake…

Read this on the BBC.

hardly ever = almost never

to tend for their crying babies = to care for and look after their crying babies

Which way forwards for BP?

P. H. — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:30:28 +0000

In June, financial markets were briefly pricing a bankruptcy of BP in the next five years as an odds-on probability as a result of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Things are not so bad now…

Read this on the BBC.

When a company goes bankrupt, it loses money and cannot pay its debts and stay in business.

Odds-on means very probable.

If something is ongoing, it continues to happen.

If you spill a liquid, for example coffee, you pour it onto the table, your shirt, the carpet etc accidentally. An oil spill is when oil pours into the sea from a tanker or pipeline because of an accident.

Il n’y a pas que les Bleus qui dérapent

B. — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 21:42:34 +0000

L’équipe de France de football n’est pas la seule à jouer avec les règles, se défausser, crier à la dénonciation et fuir leurs responsabilités. Le gouvernement français, ces jours-ci, offre une image bien peu reluisante.

Lire cet article dans Courrier international

Europeans on the age of austerity

P. H. — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 08:09:13 +0000

Governments across Europe are forcing through tough austerity measures to tackle huge budget deficits. Here, people across the continent explain how they will be affected by cuts and voice their opinion on this age of austerity…

Click here to read this report on the BBC.
Then, if you like, come back to this page and make a comment about how your life has changed because of the economic crisis.

We use the word age to talk about a particular period in history, for example, the Victorian age, the modern age, etc.

The age of austerity in this article means a period of time in which you cannot have a comfortable life.

A country has a budget deficit when the amount of the money that the government earns (from taxes etc) is less than the country has to spend (on repairing roads, maintaining hospitals, education etc)

A cut is a reduction in something (= when there is less of something), for example a “price cut” means that the prices are lower than before.