Hottest Day on Earth, Olympic Hopes, Tech Outage
Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30 minute program from the Voice of America. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Mario Ritter junior. This program is designed for English learners.
So we speak a little slower and we use words and phrases, especially written for people learning English. This is what you will hear on today's program. Anna Matteo has a story about a new record for global temperature. John Russell reports on the Paris Olympics. Bryan Lynn tells us more about the recent computer outage. Finally, we have the lesson of the day.
But first. The European climate change service, Copernicus said Monday, broke the world's hottest day record. That was just set a day earlier. The European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service said the daily global average temperature reached 17.15°C on Monday.
Earlier satellite data published by Copernicus on Wednesday showed that Monday's temperature broke the previous day's record by 0.06°C. Countries around the world, from Japan to Bolivia to the United States, are said to be having hot conditions. Climate scientists say the world is now as warm as it was 125,000 years ago. They blame human caused climate change for the warm temperatures. Scientists cannot be certain that Monday was the hottest day in more than 100,000 years, since data does not go back that far. But average temperatures have not been this high since long before humans developed agriculture.
The Associated Press reports the temperature rise in recent years supports what climate scientists predicted would happen if humans kept burning oil, natural gas and coal at an increasing rate. Roxy Matthew Cole is a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology in western India. Cole said we are in an age where weather and climate records are frequently stretched beyond our tolerance levels, resulting in insurmountable loss of lives and livelihood.
Copernicus's early data shows the global average temperature on Monday, July 22nd was 17.15°C before last summer. The previous recorded hottest day was in 2016, when the average temperature reached 16.8°C. The European agency said what caused this week's high temperatures was a warmer than usual Antarctic winter.
The same thing happened last year when a record was set in early July. Copernicus records go back to 1940. Other global measurements by the United States and British governments go back to 1880.
Many scientists also consider tree growth rings and ice samples. They say that information suggests that last year's record high temperatures were the hottest in about 120,000 years. Now, temperatures reported in the first six months of 2024 have broken the earlier records without human caused climate change.
Scientists say that extreme temperature records would not be broken nearly as often. Former head of U.N. climate negotiations ChristiAnna Figueres said we all scorch and fry.
If the world does not immediately change course. One third of global electricity can be produced by solar and wind alone, but targeted national policies have to enable that transformation, she said. I'm on a Matteo. Paris is a popular place for visitors because of its food, art and history. The city itself is likely to be central to the experience of the Olympic Games. The athletes going to France have been making long lists of things they want to try, see and eat.
I'm excited to just explore and just take in everything Paris has to offer because me and my friends, we look at things and we get inspired, said Braker Jeffrey Lewis, also known as B-Boy Jethro. He added there's a lot of things that we want to try and just explore. Some athletes want to ride to the top of Gustave Eiffel creation from the 1880s.
The Eiffel Tower maybe even dine at its restaurant. The Louvre Museum with Leonardo da Vinci's painting the Mona Lisa. The famous Venus de Milo statue and many other objects are high on many lists of things to do.
Notre Dame Cathedral also is popular, although repair work after a 2019 fire will not be completed until after the Summer games. Such a big city, a beautiful city. Diver Andrew Capobianco said athletes are also excited to try the food and drinks.
Eat as many crepes as you can if you're in Paris. Track and field Paralympian Noelle McCormack said looking forward to macaroons, pastries, bread, sitting volleyball Paralympian Nicky Nieves said others are excited about coffee, meats and sweet desserts such as creme brulée, and some hope to drink the wines from the Loire Valley, Bordeaux or Champagne. There are those, such as Braker Sonny Choi or rower Michelle Secor, who know they will need to wait to enjoy some of the food and drink. We do have weight class restrictions. We have to weigh in two hours before a race, sex said. So after racing is done, I'm most excited to get out and explore the Parisian food and really enjoy some French meals.
Canoe and kayak star Evie leap forth the first American woman to qualify in three whitewater boating events at an Olympics, looks at the situation differently. She makes sure to fill herself with foods that help with athletic performance, but she also does not want to deny herself too much. If I'm going to be thinking about my croissant the whole time I'm paddling, I may as well just eat it, you know? So it's all about balance, said Libby Pfaff, a 20 year old from North Carolina. It's just making sure that I'm getting the right amount of protein and the right amount of carbs before a race, while also balancing in the things that I want to eat. As she looked forward to her fifth trip to Paris. Libby Bath offered some words to Olympians headed for the first time to the City of Light, which is another name for Paris.
Don't be afraid to just drop the recommendations and everything and just walk around and find things to do, because that's the best I have done. I'm John Russell. A major computer system outage affected a wide range of businesses around the world. Beginning late last week. But the cause of the outage was quickly identified, and fixes were deployed to bring most businesses back online. The problems were linked to a software update provided by cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.
The outage affected computers using Microsoft's Windows operating system. The incident caused major flight delays and cancellations. It also affected banking, health care, media and other businesses.
Computers affected by the outage showed what is known in the technology industry as the blue screen of Death. This warning tool is designed to inform windows users that there is a problem and to block further activity to prevent wider system damage. Officials at Texas based CrowdStrike were quick to admit a software update containing a programing mistake was sent to customers and caused the outage.
Once the problem was identified and a fix deployed, CrowdStrike said it centered on assisting customers to get systems back up as soon as possible. Technology experts noted one issue with the latest outage was that the problematic software update could not be corrected remotely. Instead, individual machines had to be fixed with bad files removed by technology workers. CrowdStrike s main business is to provide solutions to help companies prevent internet attacks.
However, company leaders made clear that the latest outage was only related to the software update and not part of any cybersecurity attack. CrowdStrike continued to inform the public about its latest correction efforts and provided guidance for some businesses to attempt to deal with the issue themselves. The outage disrupted operations at airlines, banks, hospitals and organizations around the world among U.S.
airlines. Delta officials said Monday it was forced to cancel more than 4000 flights since the outage began last Friday. But other major carriers, including American Airlines and United, reported they had largely ended any flight disruptions. Delta Chief Ed Bastian apologized to the airline's customers for the continuing delays and cancellations. He said the company was working around the clock to fix all affected systems. Delta said about 60% of its main systems run on Microsoft Windows, and therefore were left inoperable by the outage.
Some technology experts expressed concern that such outages can be extremely disruptive, because the systems built to run most of the world's computers are provided by only a small number of companies. Gregory Falco is an assistant professor of engineering at Cornell University in New York. He studies internet security issues. Falco told the Associated Press, it is a problem that so many computer ers worldwide depend on the same technologies and providers. We rely on very few companies and everybody uses the same folks, so everyone goes down at the same time.
Falco said CrowdStrike is one of the largest cybersecurity service providers, especially in transportation, health care, banking and media. This is the reason it affected so many businesses in those industries. An irony of the outage was that companies normally look to CrowdStrike tools to help prevent internet attacks that could bring their systems down and cause costly disruptions.
Falco noted that while fears of such a widespread outage have long existed, he thinks too few providers are becoming even more entrenched with certain technologies. We like to think that we have a lot of players available, but at the end of the day, the biggest companies use all the same stuff. Richard Stein is a cybersecurity expert who has followed industry developments for 24 years. He told the AP he sees the software issue as a historic mistake.
By CrowdStrike. This is easily the worst faux pas, technical faux pas, or glitch of any security software provider ever, Stein said. He added that while the problem had an easy technical fix, it could still have lasting effects for some companies. This is because the outage required hands on efforts to fix each affected computer error, and this can severely disrupt business operations. I'm Bryan Lynn.
Now, Bryan Lin joins me to talk more about his technology report. Thanks for being here, Brian. Of course. Mario, thanks for having me.
This week, you reported on a major computer system outage that affected many businesses worldwide, and we have seen similar incidents happen in recent years. How did this outage compare with others? Yes, I did hear a few experts who follow these kinds of outages described the latest one as likely the biggest in history. So they definitely saw it as a very serious incident. most of the other big disruptions happened in recent years. And one of those was an outage in December 2021 that affected Amazon Web Services.
it is one of the main cloud service providers for companies worldwide. And that one also affected many large corporations. Amazon said at the time the problem was linked to a system update issue as well.
one big difference, though, with that outage was that it only lasted a few hours and the businesses were able to recover pretty quickly. Transportation was one industry heavily affected by this outage. And you mentioned in your report that in the U.S., Delta Airlines experienced more disruptions than other major carriers. Have the reasons for this been identified? So, yes, this is an interesting question. so far, officials from Delta have said publicly that many of their flight operations are linked to systems that run on Microsoft Windows.
And we know that windows systems were involved in crowd strikes. Failed software update. So it does seem that perhaps other airlines are not so dependent on windows as Delta.
It is also worth mentioning that because of these ongoing issues affecting Delta, the US Department of Transportation has opened an investigation into why its services were most affected in this outage. Part of the investigation will examine whether Delta violated any rules aimed at protecting the treatment of passengers during these kinds of situations. Very good. Thanks again, Bryan, for joining us on the program.
You're welcome. Mario, thank you. VOA Learning English has launched a new program for children.
It is called Let's Learn English with Anna. The new course aims to teach children American English through asking and answering questions and experiencing fun situations. For more information, visit our website.
Learning English. VOA News.com. And now it's time for the lesson of the day on the Learning English podcast.
My name is Jill Robbins and I'm joined by Andrew Smith. Hi, Andrew. Hi, Jill. Our lesson is based on our video series Let's Learn English.
The series shows Anna Matteo in her work and life in Washington, D.C.. Here's Anna introducing herself. Hello. My name is Anna Matteo. Watching and listening carefully to the video series can help you understand and speak English better. And in today's lesson, we're going to talk about that word speak and compare it with the word talk.
The words speak and talk are similar, but native speakers use them a little differently. Lesson 21 from level two of Let's Learn English shows some of these differences. In the lesson on A wants to buy a birthday present for Pete, her friend Ashley tells her to go to a special store that makes art from objects that people throw away in the trash or rubbish. Let's listen to the first part. Got it. Pete, I promise I won't tell anyone. Bye.
He is so strange. Hey, Anna. Hi, Ashley. Are you talking to yourself again? No, not this time.
I was talking to Pete. How's he doing? Good. He has a birthday coming up.
But he told me not to tell anyone. Why? Well, from the way he was speaking, I don't think he likes cake or presents or fun. That sounds like Pete. Well, I don't care. I'm getting him a present.
Do you know where I can buy something unique? I do. Tanglewood works. You will definitely find something unique there.
Great. I'll go this weekend. Now. Speaking of Pete's birthday, what else should I do? I know I'll rent him a clown. Yeah.
He'll never speak to you again. Now let's hear Professor Butt explain some of the differences between the words talk and speak. Did you hear Ashley and Anna using the words talk and speak? Talk and speak. Both mean to say words. And many times you can use either word without losing any meaning. But there are some differences in when we use these words. The word talk is usually used for conversations between two or more people and informal situations, such as between friends or family.
For example, Ashley asks Anna. Are you talking to. Yourself again? Speak is usually used for one way communication, such as presentations, formal situations such as a boss speaking with her workers to talk about language ability, and in polite requests. You know, I think the formal and informal difference is important for learners to know. For example, if you are going to meet with your boss or someone in a higher or important position, we don't use the word talk.
Instead, we say something like this. I need to speak with my boss. And on the phone. When we call a business, we always ask, May I speak with someone or may I speak with so-and-so? And we mention the person's name.
And the verb speak is also used in some idiomatic expressions. When we say speak for yourself, that means we don't agree with or we don't want to be involved in what someone else is saying. For example, if your work colleague says we should all tell our manager that we don't like him, but you disagree, then you could say speak for yourself. I actually like him a lot. But you do need to be careful if you use this expression. Speak for yourself because it can have a strong meaning.
So it can sometimes sound impolite or disrespectful. Yep. And we don't want to do that. That's right. But you might be able to say it in a more joking way with your friends.
Okay. And here's another expression with the verb speak. Great. I'll go this weekend. Now. Speaking of Pete's birthday, what else should I do?
I know I'll rent him a clown. When we say speaking of, we just mean we are connecting to something that was already mentioned. Now let's listen to Anna as she visits the special store to look for a birthday present. Hey there. Welcome to Tanglewood Works. I'm Sue. How can I help you today? Hi, Sue, I'm Anna.
A friend told me about your store. She said, Anna, this place is really unique. We are here at Tanglewood Works. We focus on things that are handmade, reclaimed and recycled.
Wow, that is really good for the environment. It's really good for you too. Local artists made all of these One-Of-A-Kind pieces and I paint most of the furniture. Can I look around? Oh, please do. So, Anna, do you like to make things me? Oh, no. Every time I try to make something, something goes wrong.
Oh, sorry. I'm sorry. No. It's okay. Anna.
Everybody can make something. So this piece is very interesting. You know, when I found these pieces, they were broken and in a dumpster. But they spoke to me, and they said, save me, Sue. Save me soup. What do you mean? They spoke to you.
When I see something special that someone has thrown away, I can almost hear her talk. Oh, yeah. It's not saying anything. Oh, no.
It's not easy to see the treasure in trash or hear it talk. But you can learn. In fact, I teach private classes, and one is called Turning Trash to Treasure. Next week, bring in some trash and we'll turn it into treasure. Just remember, pick some trash that speaks to you.
Got it. I'll see you next week. In the next lesson of let's learn English. Lesson 22 of level two.
We'll find out what honor tries to make from objects she finds in the trash. And did you hear another idiomatic expression with the verb speak? The store owner says the objects she found in the dumpster spoke to her. Of course, that does not mean the objects we're talking. Instead, it means she felt a special connection to or interest in the objects. We use this expression when we talk about visual art.
We can say a painting or sculpture speaks to us. Okay, so from today's lesson, we hope you've learned some of the special ways we use the verb speak. And remember that there are lots of things you can talk about when you speak English. So keep trying to speak English whenever you can. Thanks for listening to the lesson of the day. If you liked this program, please share it with your family and friends.
And remember that you can also find us on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. I'm Andrew Smith. Speak for yourself Andrew. I'm Jill Robbins. And that's our program for today.
Join us again tomorrow to keep learning English through stories from around the world. I'm Ashley Thompson. And I'm Mario Ritter, junior.
2024-07-28 06:06
