World population day in numbers

Level: intermediate B1

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July the 11th is World Population Day, when the United Nations tries to bring attention to the issues of population.
How much do you know about the world's population and what it will be in the future?

Watch this short video (one minute and twenty seconds) and then answer the following questions:

1) What is the current world population?
2) How many people are added to the world's population every year?

3) What will the population be in 2050?

4) What is the fertility rate in Africa?

5) What is the current population in China?

Answers below!

1) 7.6 billion
2) 83 million

3) 9.8 billion

4) 4.7
5) 1.4 billion

Exhibition on Prague's role as an animal smuggling hub

Level: upper-intermediate B2

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A exhibition has opened at Prague airport featuring large photos of celebrities morphed with animals endangered by poaching and illegal trafficking.

Listen to this short radio interview (three minutes) about it and then answer the following questions:

1) When was Wild for Life launched?
2) Who is the main organiser?

3) Who is Thu Minh?

4) A lot of rhino horn goes through Prague; where does it come from and where does it go?

5) What can ordinary people do to take part in the campaign?

Visit the Wild for Life website.

Answers below!

1) Last year
2) UNEP

3) A Vietnamese singer

4) South Africa to Vietnam

5) Visit the website, share your photo, tell your friends and family about the issue.

Washed up whale 'most contaminated' on record

Level: intermediate B1

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A dead killer whale (Orcinus orca) found on the Scottish coast had 20 times the expected levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in her system.

Watch this short (one-minute) BBC video about her and then answer the following questions:

1) What do high levels of PCBs do?
2) What were PCBs used for?

3) When were they banned?

4) What does 'leach' mean?

5) What is bioaccumulation?

You can read more about this story here.

Answers below!

1) They weaken an animals immune system, affect the brain and stop whales from reproducing.
2) Everything, from plastics to electrical goods and cement.?

3) From the 1970s

4) Leach: (with reference to a soluble chemical or mineral) drain away from soil, ash, or similar material by the action of percolating liquid, especially rainwater. (Oxford Dictionaries)
5) Bioaccumulate: (of a substance) become more concentrated inside the bodies of living things (Oxford Dictionaries)