Today's Headlines:

Antibiotic breakthrough

Water shortage in India's Silicon Valley

Free pizza for the homeless on your behalf

Transcript:

Resistance to antibiotics has been classed by the World Health Organisation as one of the biggest threats to global health. Researchers at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States say they've now managed to modify one antibiotic which was becoming ineffective against one strain of bacteria. The new version of the drug vancomycin is now so powerful they've labelled it as 'magic'. It's 1,000 times stronger and works in three different ways, making it much harder for the bacteria to fight back.

Bangalore is one of India's fastest growing cities, known as its Silicon Valley, because it's the hub of the IT industry. A vibrant, modern and global city, but its traditional water sources are shrinking, and increasingly are contaminated. So many people now depend on water delivered by private tankers, owned by a clutch of operators who control supply and, it is alleged, prices.

Rosa's Fresh Pizza shop in Philadelphia in the United States offers pizza to customers at a dollar a slice. But you can pay for a slice, leave a post-it note, and that slice will be given free to people in need. Owner Mason Wartman hopes other shops will follow. He says that a little kindness could help people turn their lives around.

Words and phrases and definitions:

bacteria
small living things that can cause disease

hub
the main or most active part of something

turn their lives around
improve their personal situation

Exercise:

Use one of the words or phrases from Lingohack to complete each of these sentences. Note that you may have to change the form of a word or phrase to complete the sentence correctly.

bacteria / hub / turn (their) lives around

1. Sally was a troubled teenager. She ran away from home at 15 but a decade later was taken in by a family in Lisbon who helped her ______ as a young adult.  

2. ______ living in the mouths of seals and sea lions can cause a painful and potentially serious condition, with symptoms including cellulitis and debilitating joint inflammation. 

3. A £38m investment in next generation electronics could help make south east Wales the ______ of a new industrial revolution, Newport council's leader has said. 

Answers:

1. Sally was a troubled teenager. She ran away from home at 15 but a decade later was taken in by a family in Lisbon who helped her turn her life around as a young adult.    

2. Bacteria living in the mouths of seals and sea lions can cause a painful and potentially serious condition, with symptoms including cellulitis and debilitating joint inflammation. 

3. A £38m investment in next generation electronics could help make south east Wales the hub of a new industrial revolution, Newport council's leader has said.