English in the News – Lockdown
The word lockdown has been named …
News Round Up 347
A London store has become the first one in the UK to offer a till-free service.
News Round Up 254
ACCORDING to the Daily Star, postal workers have stopped delivering mail to Regent Gardens in Hereford because they are being dive-bombed by seagulls.
Apparently residents have received a letter from Royal Mail bosses warning them they wouldn’t get any more letters and parcels and have been told to make a 45-minute round trip to collect their post from the nearest sorting office.
The letter explained: “The gulls are nesting and rearing their chicks. Postmen are attempting to deliver to customers every day and we apologise if any customer has been affected by this.
“The safety of our people is paramount to Royal Mail and these swooping attacks made it difficult for the postmen to carry out their deliveries.”
News Round Up 253
A worrying article about butterflies from the BBC. The TV naturalist Sir David Attenborough has warned that they are are facing “a vital” period following a worrying decline in their numbers.
He claimed some of the UK’s most common species have suffered “significant declines” in recent years.
Apparently more than three quarters of the UK’s butterflies have declined in the last 40 years, with numbers falling quicker in towns and cities.
Sir David, president of Butterfly Conservation, said that despite a warm summer last year, species like the small tortoiseshell, peacock, meadow brown and gatekeeper had seen numbers fall due to a warm winter and a subsequent cold spring.
“In the last decade our butterflies have experienced several poor years and although resilient, they simply cannot sustain repeated losses, especially if the habitats they need in order to rebuild their populations are also under threat,” added Sir David.
News Round Up 252
THERE is a treat in store for Abba fans later in the year.
The moment when the Swedish group won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 is celebrated in Super Troupers, an immersive exhibition at London’s Southbank Centre, says The Guardian.
Producer Paul Denton commented: “It will be a different take on Abba we hope. In 1974 Britain economically was not doing that well … what was it about Abba that actually caught the imagination of the public?
“If you look at pop music across the decade, the huge shifts in musical tastes and the emergence of punk – if you look at the charts, Abba were a mainstay in the album and singles charts and there is something about that which is worth celebrating, and we will show what it was about them which captured hearts and minds.”
Abba: Super Troupers is at the Southbank Centre from December 14 to April 29 2018.