Intermediate

Airport Wi-Fi

2016年11月28日

  Pre-reading questions: Can you bear waiting in a place where there is no Wi-Fi? Have you experienced traveling by plane? How was it? What do you usually do when there is no Wi-Fi in your area?   Rotten Wi-Fi, the public Wi-Fi watchdog, reveals the Top 20 airports worldwide for best Wi-Fi connection in 2016. Wi-Fi speed and quality have been assessed in two hundred twenty-six airports worldwide. Airports from the USA and Thailand lead the list, with at least six airports listed in the Top 20. Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport, USA leads the list with average download speed of 42.17 Mbps. Next is Lennart Meri Tallinn,…
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Intermediate

Overworking Issue

2016年11月25日

Pre-reading Questions: Did you have a dream job when you were a child? Does anyone in your family work overnight? A company in Japan is inspected by authorities due to the report that employees from the company worked overtime illegally. It is suspected of violating the labor law. Japanese companies now are on a hot seat and will not be exempted to the inspection. Japanese businesses are far behind in legal compliance. Employees normally spend more than 100 hours of overtime work in a month. Authorities are aiming to stop excessive overtime. Surprise on-site inspections of workplace are also planned. The company Dentsu Inc. forbids employees to work from 10…
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Intermediate

Daytime students in night schools

2016年11月18日

  Pre-reading questions: Have you ever thought of attending night classes? Do you think night classes are safe for teenagers? What can you say about a class consisting of students of different ages?   In 1947, night facility assembly for junior high school students started after World War II. It was the time when everything was in turmoil. Recently, the government is in progress with their latest policy. The government will soon acknowledge junior high school students to attend night facilities. The said junior high school students were the ones who declined going to or are unable to go to daytime facilities. The ministry has requested additional funds for this…
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Intermediate

Programming, a new fun way of learning

2016年11月18日

  Pre-reading questions: Do you like using computers? What comes to your mind when you see or hear the word “programming”? What is your most favorite subject in school? Why?   The number of classes that teach programming to children is increasing. This is in accordance to plans making programming a mandatory elementary school subject by academic year 2020. These kinds of classes are expected to promote creative and logical thinking at an early age. Last September, 60 elementary school pupils gathered in a room, their eyes glued on their computer screens. A second-grade pupil made a computer game about a parrot that rescues the monkey on a cloud by…
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Intermediate

Researchers Announced the Countries with Tallest Man and Woman

2016年11月18日

  Pre-reading questions: What’s the average height of Japanese people? Did you eat healthy food when you were younger to be taller? What food did you eat? How tall are you?   A research conducted by the Imperial College of London identified that the tallest men in the world came from Netherlands and the tallest women are from Latvia. The researchers evaluated height charts of 18 year olds over a 100 year period. The study shows that Dutch men has an average height of 182.5 centimeters and Latvian women has an average height of 170 centimeters. Over 800 scientists participated in the said research. They observed that in some countries…
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Intermediate

Halloween party in Shibuya

2016年11月18日

  Pre-reading questions: Do you like attending parties? Do you think proper clothing is necessary in attending parties? Are you familiar with zombies?   People all over the world are fascinated by how Halloween is celebrated in Shibuya. The Shibuya Tourist Association is preparing a parade of fashion and not the living dead. They prepared a new method of celebrating Halloween without wearing extreme costumes. The official said high congestion will come on Saturday and Sunday. However, on Halloween night 50 young girls will ask party-goers to act carefully. Holding signs that say “No Trouble!”. Hundreds of police forces will be around the station area on Friday. The largest event…
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Intermediate

Education ministry experts want to know what is “serious” school abuse

2016年11月18日

  Pre-reading questions: What do you think is the best way to prevent bullying? In your own words, what are the effects of bullying to a person’s growth? Do you think bullying is a serious issue?   Experts are calling the attention of the Education Ministry to define “serious” school bullying. Modern law gave a directive to the schools and boards of education to establish teams for investigation of “serious” school bullying cases. However, the experts noticed that the scope of “serious” cases under the law is inscrutable, which makes the enforcement weak. The ministry must enumerate examples of grave penalties for bullying so that “serious” cases will be defined….
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Intermediate

China’s October Exports, Imports Drop

2016年11月15日

Pre-reading questions: Do you buy products from China? What are the things you buy that are made in China? China’s exports in the first ten months of this year went down to 7.7 percent, while imports fell 7.5 percent. It is officially shown in the data on November 1st. The General Administration of Customs said that it left the country a big amount of trade surplus. It means that China sells more to other countries than it buys from other nations. The imports were expected to have decreased by 1 percent after falling 1.9 percent last month. Reuters had forecasted a 6 percent tumble for exports, 1 percent slump for…
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Intermediate

Paris reveals plans to win back tourists

2016年11月15日

  Pre-reading questions: What are some of the benefits of traveling? How adventurous are you when you travel? Where is the most amazing place you have been?   The government reveals new strategies to win back tourists. These past few months, the number of tourists has been declining due to terrorist attacks and extreme weather conditions. They are planning to deploy English-speaking volunteers, mostly college interns, to different tourist spots starting this December. People working with tourists like bus and taxi drivers, and hospitality staff will be taking English classes to have good English communication skills. They will also launch an app as a guide for first-timer visitors. To assure…
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Intermediate

United Nations talks about climate change

2016年11月15日

  Pre-reading questions: What do you think is the effect of climate change to living things on Earth? What do you think is the difference between a developed and a developing country?   MARRAKESH, MOROCCO– One hundred ninety-six world nations gather for the Paris Agreement amidst US elections. The Paris Agreement ties all countries, developed and developing to end global warming. Despite the gathering of fifteen thousand stakeholders for the twelve-day UN talks, the world is focused on US elections, which could propel climate denier Donald Trump to US Presidency. US President Barack Obama warns that all the steps made for climate change now depends on the votes of the…
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Intermediate