Current Affairs and Issues

The unit opens with four pictures of the issues people argue about today. Here is what each shows, and something you could say about it.

Picture	The issue	Something to say
A man and a robot face to face	artificial intelligence (AI): machines that do tasks we used to think needed a human mind	AI can save time and catch diseases early, but it may also take away jobs and spread false pictures and news.
The Earth held in two hands, half burning, half green	climate change	Burning coal, oil and gas is warming the planet; our choices decide which half the future looks like.
A girl covering her face among the icons of social media apps	too much social media	Social media keeps us in touch, but hours of scrolling can leave us anxious and lonely.
Many cupped hands reaching for a handful of grain	hunger, not enough food for everyone	War, poverty, waste and failed harvests leave millions of people without enough to eat.

What kind of text it is

The text is a feature article from BBC Future, the science and technology part of the BBC’s website, written by Jenny Cusack in November 2021. A feature article is longer than a news report and does more than give the news: it opens with a scene to pull you in, then explains, quotes experts, and looks ahead. Watch for these moves; you will use them yourself in Writing I.

The article, part by part

1. A car with nobody in it

The article begins like a story, in the present tense, as if you were standing on the street. It is late at night in Phoenix, Arizona, in the United States. A car comes slowly along under the streetlights, its sensors humming. A glowing “W” on the windscreen gives just enough light to see that the driver’s seat is empty. The car stops at the edge of the pavement, the passenger’s phone pings, and when they get in, a voice welcomes them and tells them the car is all theirs, “with no one upfront”.

The car is a Waymo One robotaxi, booked with an app ten minutes earlier. Waymo is the self-driving company owned by Alphabet, Google’s parent company. The writer’s point: driverless cars are not science fiction any more; members of the public can already ride in them.

2. Why people want driverless cars

Next the writer lists the promise of driverless technology, the reasons it has “long been enticing”:

• it could change our commute, the daily trip between home and work, and long journeys;
• it could take people out of dangerous jobs (driving in mines or on busy roads, for example);
• it could make industries run more smoothly;
• it could help build cities of the future that depend less on private cars, with lower carbon emissions and more sustainable ways of living;
• and it could make travel safer. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that more than 1.3 million people die on the world’s roads every year. Camilla Fowler, who heads automated transport at the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), says that in the end, automation could give us safer roads and fewer deaths.

3. What still has to change

The writer now turns: “But”. Driverless cars still have hurdles, problems in the way.

• Human drivers. David Hynd, TRL’s chief scientist for safety, says a driverless car should give a calm, peaceful ride, but the humans driving around it won’t always behave calmly. It has to cope with people who speed or break the rules.
• Everything around the car: the laws (regulation), the rulebook for road users (in the UK, the Highway Code), what the public thinks of the cars (public perception), and the streets and roads themselves (infrastructure).
• Who is to blame after a crash? This is the question of liability, being legally responsible. Today the driver is responsible; with no driver, is it the car’s owner, the maker, or the software company? Richard Jinks, of the British driverless-software company Oxbotica (now called Oxa), says the whole insurance industry is working out how to deal with that change.

4. The goal

What experts are working towards is fully driverless vehicles that can go anywhere in the world: in industry, in public transport and as people’s own cars.

5. The next two years: a pretend town

The article then looks ahead. The biggest problem for the next two years is to make the cars drive safely in messy, unpredictable human places. At Mcity, at the University of Michigan, experts test cars in a pretend town built only for that: the world’s first such testing ground, with 16 acres of roads, traffic lights and signs, an underpass, fronts of buildings, trees, homes and garages, railway tracks and pavements. There, cars face situations that would test even an experienced driver, from children playing in the street to two cars trying to merge at a junction at the same moment.

The short summary printed beside the article says it all: self-driving cars are steadily becoming real despite many hurdles, and they may change our world in ways we don’t expect.

Words from the article

Words linked here open in English Vocabulary, where you can see an example and practice them in the word game. The meanings below are the ones the words have in this article.

Word	Meaning here
glare	a strong, dazzling light (“the artificial glare of streetlamps”)
curb	the raised edge of a pavement (also spelled kerb in British English)
hail (a taxi)	to call or wave to a taxi to stop for you; here, with an app
enticing	attractive, tempting
commute	to travel regularly between home and work; the trip itself
streamline	to make a system simpler and quicker to run
fatality	a death in an accident
serene	calm and peaceful
regulation	an official rule; the laws for something
perception	the way people see and think about something
infrastructure	the basic structures a place needs: roads, bridges, power lines
liability	being legally responsible for something (for damage, for paying)
deploy	to put something into use where it is needed
hurdle	a problem to get past (a hurdle is the frame a runner jumps in a race)
autonomous	able to act and decide without help; an autonomous vehicle drives itself
scenario	a situation that could happen
merge	of two roads or lanes of traffic: to join into one
junction	a place where roads meet
terrain	the kind of ground: road, footpath, hill

A. Words with two meanings

Each word has two meanings. Which one does it have in the article?

B. Choose the correct answers

C. Answer the questions

D. AI in other areas

The unit asks you to write words in phonemic script, the symbols dictionaries use for sounds, and then say them. (Pronunciation is tested in school, not in the SEE’s written paper, but it helps you speak and listen.) A dictionary such as the Oxford Learner’s shows British pronunciation like this; (r) means the r is said in American English, and in British English only when a vowel follows.

Word	British	American	Watch out for
glare	/ɡleə(r)/	/ɡler/	one syllable
curb	/kɜːb/	/kɜːrb/	the vowel of bird, not cur-ub
junction	/ˈdʒʌŋkʃn/	/ˈdʒʌŋkʃn/	the n before k is /ŋ/, as in sing
carbon	/ˈkɑːbən/	/ˈkɑːrbən/	stress on car
car	/kɑː(r)/	/kɑːr/
president	/ˈprezɪdənt/	/ˈprezɪdənt/	s is said /z/; stress on pre
hurdle	/ˈhɜːdl/	/ˈhɜːrdl/
exterior	/ɪkˈstɪəriə(r)/	/ɪkˈstɪriər/	stress on te
driver	/ˈdraɪvə(r)/	/ˈdraɪvər/
traffic	/ˈtræfɪk/	/ˈtræfɪk/	the vowel of cat

When you tell someone what another person said, you can quote their exact words (direct speech) or give the meaning in your own words (reported, or indirect, speech). Grammar I explains the rules; here you use them.

A. Who said it?

B. Report what people told you this morning

C. The whisper game, alone

In class, A whispers a sentence to B, and B reports it to C. Alone, you can be all three.

Direct and reported speech

Direct speech gives someone’s exact words inside quotation marks: Pemba said, “I am hungry.”
Reported speech (also called indirect speech) gives their meaning in your words, with no quotation marks: Pemba said that he was hungry.

The sentence that introduces it (Pemba said) has a reporting verb. In reported speech, three kinds of words change to fit the person reporting, and the time and place of reporting:

1. Person words (pronouns and possessives): I → he/she, we → they, you → I/me/we/us (whoever was spoken to), my → his/her, your → my/our.
2. The tense, one step back into the past, when the reporting verb is past (said, told).
3. Time and place words, when the time or place is no longer the same.

The tense moves one step back

Direct speech	Reported speech (after said)
present simple: “I play football.”	past simple: He said that he played football.
present continuous: “I am reading.”	past continuous: She said that she was reading.
present perfect: “I have finished.”	past perfect: She said that she had finished.
past simple: “I saw a red panda.”	past perfect: He said that he had seen a red panda.
past continuous: “I was waiting.”	past perfect continuous: She said that she had been waiting.
will: “I will come.”	would: He said that he would come.
can: “I can swim.”	could: She said that she could swim.
may: “It may rain.”	might: He said that it might rain.
must: “I must go.”	had to (or must): She said that she had to go.

Some forms have no step further back and stay the same: had done (past perfect), would, could, should, might, ought to, and used to.

Time and place words

Direct speech	Reported speech
now	then
today, tonight	that day, that night
yesterday	the day before, the previous day
tomorrow	the next day, the following day
last week	the week before, the previous week
next week	the following week
two days ago	two days before
this, these	that, those
here	there

When nothing moves back

• The reporting verb is present (says, tells, has said): the tense stays. Susan says, “I will leave next week.” → Susan says that she will leave next week.
• A fact that is always true (a law of science, a general truth) may keep its tense: The teacher said, “The Earth revolves around the Sun.” → The teacher said that the Earth revolves around the Sun.
• Something still true now, reported soon after, may keep its tense: “I live in Changunarayan,” she said this morning. → She said that she lives in Changunarayan. Moving it back (lived) is also correct, and is the safe choice in an exam.

Reporting verbs say more than “said”

A good reporting verb tells the listener what kind of thing was said, and often changes the pattern after it:

Verb	Pattern	Example
admit	admitted (that) …	He admitted that he had broken the mirror.
advise	advised + person + to …	Pemba advised me to see a doctor.
warn	warned + person + (not) to …	The librarian warned me not to make a noise again.
offer	offered to …	Raman offered to help me plant rice.
inform	informed + person + that …	The assistant informed us that classes would start the following week.
thank	thanked + person + for …	Sonam thanked me for my help.
agree	agreed to …	Prakriti agreed to return my money by Saturday.
promise	promised (+ person) + to …	Tshering promised to meet me that Saturday.
apologize	apologized for + -ing	Karma apologized for coming late.

A. Match the statements with their reported speech

B. Choose the reporting verb

How to write a newspaper article

A newspaper article gives facts and views on a topic of public interest, for ordinary readers. In the SEE it is one of the free writing tasks (about 200 words, 8 marks), marked on organization, linking ideas, content, correct language, range of vocabulary and layout. Its layout:

1. Headline: short and catchy, in the present tense, with no full stop (“AI brings new worries along with new help”).
2. Byline: By + your name (in the SEE, use a made-up name or “a staff reporter”, never your own if the instructions say so).
3. Place (and date, if you like), then the opening paragraph (the lead): what the topic is, and why it matters now. The model opens with what AI can do today, then turns with “But…”.
4. Body: one paragraph for each main point, its first sentence saying what the paragraph is about, then an example or fact. Signal words help the reader: The first…, The second…, Third…, Finally…, However…, For example….
5. Conclusion: sum up, and end with a thought, a warning or a hope.

Before you read

The picture before the text shows young people holding signs at a protest, one of the climate strikes that schoolchildren led around the world in 2019. They are protesting peacefully, asking leaders to act on climate change.

What kind of text it is

An open letter is addressed to one person but published for everyone to read, to put public pressure on them. This one was written on 7 August 2020 by two organizations for children’s rights, Save the Children and Child Rights Connect, to António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations since 2017. It is also a model of a formal letter, which you write in Writing II.

The letter, part by part

1. The layout

At the top are the recipient’s title and address (His Excellency António Guterres, at the UN Secretariat on 42nd Street, New York), the date, and a subject line beginning “RE:” (regarding): including children in the Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change. In a formal letter, the subject line tells the reader at once what the letter is about.

2. Praise first

The letter opens by congratulating Guterres on choosing seven young climate leaders, aged 18 to 28, for his new Youth Advisory Group on Climate Change, which will advise him on speeding up the world’s action on the climate crisis. The writers welcome his wish for “frank and fearless advice”, honest advice even when it is hard to hear, and for holding governments and companies to account, making them answer for what they do.

3. The problem

Then comes the turn: “We are disappointed, however…”. Nobody under 18 is in the group, although children have been leading the movement: millions joined school strikes for the climate in 2019 and early 2020, angry but also bringing solutions. They used their channels of influence, schools, social media and street protests, to catalyze (speed up) action around the world, and from the global North to the global South they spoke to political and business leaders, most recently at the UN Human Rights Council, claiming their right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment.

4. The evidence: two children

• Greta Thunberg of Sweden started the whole movement in 2018 with a protest on her own. By 2019 she could say that it had proved no one is too small to make a difference.
• Fabrizio, a 16-year-old from Peru, told the writers in an online conversation that children’s future is at stake (at risk) now, and tomorrow will be too late. Children like him fear that in the rush to rebuild economies (after the COVID-19 pandemic) governments will scupper (wreck) their promises on climate change and net zero. They want a green recovery.

5. The requests

Congratulating him again, the writers make two requests:

1. Open the group to children and adolescents under 18, respecting their right to be heard and to give their own expertise.
2. As preparations for COP26, the UN’s climate conference, go ahead, ask the UK and Italy (its hosts) to give children a safe space to influence the meetings before it.

They also offer to help make children’s involvement meaningful.

6. The lesson

The letter closes with what the last two years have taught: children with information and a sense of purpose have a special part to play in decisions and in solving crises. “Let us make sure that we learn and apply this lesson.” It ends Sincerely yours, with the two organizations’ names.

Words from the letter

Word	Meaning here
accelerate	to make something happen faster
tackle	to deal with a difficult problem
frank	honest and direct
hold to account	to make someone explain and answer for what they did
corporate	of large companies
diversity	many different kinds (of people, ages, backgrounds)
outrage	strong anger at something seen as wrong
catalyze (British catalyse)	to make something happen or speed it up
activism	taking action, such as campaigning or protesting, to bring about change
assert	to say firmly
at stake	at risk; could be lost
anxiety	worry
scupper	to wreck a plan or a chance
net zero	giving out no more greenhouse gas than is taken back out of the air
adolescent	a young person between childhood and adulthood
expertise	special skill or knowledge
facilitate	to make a process easier
constructive	helpful, building something better

A. Fill in the blanks

B. True, False or Not Given

A statement is True if the letter says the same thing, False if the letter says the opposite, and Not Given if the letter doesn’t say either way. (This is a common question type in the SEE’s reading section: see “Reading strategies” below.)

C. Answer the questions

D. What can you do?

The textbook’s listening task is a talk on the causes and effects of climate change. CDC’s own recording is below: read the questions in B and C first, then listen, as many times as you need. The answers are hidden under the questions; after that, practice with a talk of our own that your browser reads aloud.

B and C. The textbook’s audio: answers

Grammar II practices the hardest part of reported speech, the tense. Before you start, look again at the table of tense changes and the cases where nothing moves back.

A. Choose the correct answers

B. Rewrite in reported speech

How to write a formal letter

A formal letter (also called an official letter) is written to someone you don’t know personally, or in their official role: a mayor, a principal, a company, an editor. In the SEE, personal and official letters and letters to the editor are free writing tasks (about 200 words, 8 marks). Its parts, in order:

1. Your address and the date, at the top (on the right, or on the left; keep to one).
2. The recipient’s title and address, on the left: The Mayor, Suryabinayak Municipality, Bhaktapur.
3. Subject: what the letter is about, in a few words.
4. Salutation: Dear Sir/Madam, (or Dear Mayor,) when you don’t know the person; Dear Mr. Thapa, when you do.
5. Body: paragraph 1, who you are and why you are writing; paragraphs 2–3, the problem and your reasons, with an example; paragraph 4, your exact request; a short polite close.
6. Closing: Yours faithfully, after Dear Sir/Madam; Yours sincerely, after a person’s name. Then your name.

How you read depends on why you are reading. Good readers switch between four ways.

Strategy	What you do	Use it to…
Skimming	run your eyes quickly over the text, reading the title, headings, first and last paragraphs and topic sentences	get the main idea (the gist)
Scanning	move your eyes quickly looking only for one thing, a name, date or number	find a particular fact: a timetable, a result, an answer
Extensive reading	read longer texts, for pleasure or general knowledge, without stopping at every word	build vocabulary and general knowledge
Intensive reading	read a short text slowly and closely, so that you understand every word and fact	answer detailed questions, study a text

SEE-style practice on this unit. Try each one as in the exam, then open the answer.