Unit 13: News Review
How to use the language from the latest news stories
Select a unit
- 1 News Review
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- 13 News Review
- 14 News Review
- 15 News Review
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- 18 News Review
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- 20 News Review
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Session 132
Air pollution is shortening our lives by 3 years. Catherine and Neil teach you the language the world's media is using to discuss this story.
Session 132 score
0 / 3
- 0 / 3Activity 1
Activity 1
News Review
Air pollution takes three years off life
Air pollution causes the average human life to be three years shorter than it could be, say scientists. Neil and Catherine look at the vocabulary in the news around this story.
Watch the video and complete the activity

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The story
Lung disease, cancer, heart problems and stroke have all been linked to air pollution – particularly man-made emissions from fossil fuels. Now an international group of researchers has used a new method to model the impact on our health. The team believes pollution led to around 8.8 million premature deaths in 2015. That represents an average shortening of life expectancy of nearly three years across the global population.
Key words and phrases
lifespan
how long someone or something lives
• The elephant’s lifespan is longer in the wild than in zoos.
• The lifespan of smartphone batteries is getting better.
shorten
make shorter
• Smoking shortens lives.
• Please shorten my trousers. They're too long.
deadlier
more likely to cause death than something else
• The plague was deadlier than coronavirus.
• Machine guns made WW1 deadlier than previous wars.
To do
Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language.
News Review quiz
3 Questions
Now you've watched the video, try to answer these questions about the language in the news.
Help
Activity
Now you've watched the video, try to answer these questions about the language in the news.
Hint
What happens when we add '-er' to words that end in 'y'?Question 1 of 3
Help
Activity
Now you've watched the video, try to answer these questions about the language in the news.
Hint
The correct answer is one word.Question 2 of 3
Help
Activity
Now you've watched the video, try to answer these questions about the language in the news.
Hint
The correct answer does NOT follow the 'adjective + '-en' = verb' rule!Question 3 of 3
Excellent! Great job! Bad luck! You scored:
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