Finnish woman, 34, to be world's youngest prime minister

A 34-year-old woman (1) ___________________ the youngest prime minister in the world. The new leader is Sanna Marin. She (2) ___________________ 34th birthday last week. She became the head of the Finnish Social Democrats Party last week. Members of (3) ___________________ for her in an election on Sunday. She received 32 of the 61 votes to become chairperson of her party. Ms Marin was (4) ___________________ transport and communications in Finland. She will (5) ___________________ Finland's prime minister after her former boss announced that he would be stepping down. The ex-prime minister, 57-year-old Antti Rinne, announced last week that (6) ___________________. Marin will be the youngest prime minister in Finland's history.

Sanna Marin said she is very excited at (7) ___________________ leading her country. She said: "There's a lot of work (8) ___________________. First, we'll have to call a meeting between the ruling parties and review the government program. We (9) ___________________ government program which glues the coalition together." She added that one of her first jobs is to increase (10) ___________________ her party with the Finnish people, saying: "We have a lot of work ahead (11) ___________________." Marin will lead a coalition government. All of the other four leaders in the coalition are also women. Marin is new kind of leader. She (12) ___________________ her private, social and political life on her Instagram page.

 

Task 8. Answer the questions using the information from the audio.

1. What did Sanna Marin celebrate last week?

2. How many votes did Ms Marin get in an election?

3. When was the election?

4. What was Ms Marin minister of?

5. Who is stepping down?

6. How does Ms Marin feel about leading her country?

7. What will Ms Marin review?

8. What did Ms Marin say a joint government program glues together?

9. How many other leaders are there in the coalition in Finland?

10. Where does Ms Marin share photos of her life?

 

Task 9. Match the synonyms from the listening.

1. leader 2. voted for 3. received 4. former 5. quitting 6. prospect 7. review 8. ahead 9. coalition 10. private

a) ex- b) possibilities c) personal d) elected e) in the future f) resigning g) union h) head i) study j) got

Task 10. Role play

Role A – Defence
You think defence is the most important area of government. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their areas aren't as important. Also, tell the others which is the least important of these (and why): economy, health or education.

 

Role B – Economy
You think economy is the most important area of government. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their areas aren't as important. Also, tell the others which is the least important of these (and why): defence, health or education.

 

Role C – Health
You think health is the most important area of government. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their areas aren't as important. Also, tell the others which is the least important of these (and why): economy, defence or education.

 

Role D – Education
You think education is the most important area of government. Tell the others three reasons why. Tell them why their areas aren't as important. Also, tell the others which is the least important of these (and why): economy, health or defence.

Transcripts

Unit 1

The English language. It’s the official language of 54 different countries and is spoken by over a billion and a half people worldwide. Adding together native speakers, people who speak English as a second language or an additional language and people who are learning English, and it’s the most commonly spoken language across the globe. So what makes English so great? And why do people want to learn English?

This is the British Library in London. It’s the national library of Great Britain and there are over a hundred and fifty million items here from every age of the written word. Let’s go inside.

The Library’s collection has developed over two hundred and fifty years and keeps on growing. There are books, magazines and over the world, so we capture a snap shot manuscripts, maps, music and so much more. Every year, 3 million new items are added, so an extra 12 kilometres of shelves have to be put up. Roger Walshe is the Head of Learning.

Richard: Roger, why is the British Library a good place to come to find out about the English language?

Roger: Well, there’s lots of reasons. We’ve a hundred and fifty million items from all of what the language is like. But I think perhaps more importantly, we have documents here that go right back a thousand years to the beginning of the language. And so what you can see is how this changed and evolved over time. And when you see it changing like that you get a feel for where it might be going in the future.

Richard: So how has English changed over time?

Roger: Oh, it’s changed hugely. If you look back to old English - like a thousand years, it’s almost like German. Very, very difficult to read, only a few people can do so. Then you look up to, say, Shakespeare's period: early modern English. Printing has come in and that begins to standardize the language.                              

Richard: So what impact has technology had on the English language?

Roger: Well, it has two big impacts: one is that lots of new technical words come into the language. We see this in the industrial revolution over a hundred years ago. But the other, bigger, influence is that it enables people all over the world speaking English to communicate with each other, underneath YouTube clips or in chat rooms, and they’re influencing each other's English.

Richard: That’s great, Roger. Is there something you can show me?

Roger: Absolutely. We’ve got some great stuff. If you’d just like to follow me...

Richard: So Roger, what’s this?

Roger: Well this is one of the treasures in the British Library’s collections. English goes back about thousand years to Old English. This is Middle English, about five hundred years ago, and it’s the first book ever printed in the English language.

Richard: So who actually printed this?

Roger: This was printed by William Caxton. Very famous. He went on to print Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the first bestseller in the English language. And one of the difficulties you have as an early printer is that there’s no standard language. There’s no dictionary, there’s no grammars, there’s no guides to usage really, so he often had to make up how to spell words himself.

Richard: And is the spelling consistent throughout the book?

Roger: Well, no, it’s not, even on this page here. This is a kind of a foreword - an introduction to the work. He says he translates it from the French. He has here ‘to French’: f - r - e - n - s - s - h - e.

Richard: Right    

Roger: That’s how he spells French. But if you go back to the centre of the page here, you’ve got ‘French’ again, and it’s got one ‘s’ in it: f - r - e - n - - – e.

Richard: Incredible... And this looks a lot more modern here, what’s this over here?

Roger: This is a very different work. It’s something we chose. It’s from 1867, so a hundred and thirty years ago and we’re all familiar with how people use mobile phones now to text each other - SMS. And they shorten words and they use letters to get their message across. This is a poem written in the nineteenth century in which somebody has done exactly that; he says 'I wrote to you before' - he uses a number 2, letter ‘B’, the number 4.

Richard: That’s amazing. So what does this tell us about the English language?

Roger: Well, it tells us it’s very versatile. It tells us that people play with it and sometimes the changes they make stay. Some of those changes were made 500 years ago, some of them were made 100 years ago. But some of the changes we make now in internet chatrooms and the way we talk to each other and the way people around the world use English will become the future of English as well.

I’d never really thought about English changing, but of course new words are being added all the time and not all types of English are the same.

 

Unit 7

The Canadian Government

When we think of the Royal Family, we usually think of Great Britain's royal family: Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, Princes Harry and William, and Kate Middleton. But did you know that Canada's system of government also includes a royal family?

It may come as a surprise, but Canada's royal family is the same one as Great Britain's. How can this be, especially since we don't hear too much about the British royal family as it relates to Canada? Let's take a look at how Canada's system of government works.

Type of Government

Canada's government can be described in two ways: both a constitutional monarchy and a parliamentary democracy.

Constitutional Monarchy

In a constitutional monarchy, the Queen (or King) is the Head of State of a nation but is bound by that state's written constitution. While heads of state are not directly involved in governing the country, they typically have ceremonial duties, such as appointing governors to represent them.

To ensure a fair and properly functioning government, Canada, like most constitutional monarchies, also has a parliamentary system.

Parliamentary Democracy

In a parliamentary democracy, citizens elect representatives to a parliament that is responsible for making all legislation and decisions for a nation. As the chief governing officer of a nation, the Prime Minister is the head of parliament (also called the head of government).