Hello, everyone!
Sejam bem-vindos e bem-vindas a mais um episódio da nossa nova série de podcasts, o Fluency News! Aqui, você vai treinar a sua escuta e ficar por dentro do que está acontecendo no mundo, sempre com as três principais notícias da semana, tudo em inglês! Ao longo do episódio, nós também adicionamos explicações em português das coisas que achamos que precisam de mais atenção, assim você não perde nenhum detalhe!
No episódio desta semana, nós falamos sobre a visita do doutor Anthony Fauci ao Papai Noel, para garantir que todas as crianças ao redor do mundo poderiam ganhar presente. Também falamos sobre como a Nova Zelândia comprou vacinas suficientes para vacinar seus residentes e ainda doar para países necessitados, sobre os vigilantes que resgataram crianças raptadas na Nigéria, e sobre o Papa Francisco receber a vacina contra o coronavirus.
Nós temos uma nova página de dicas de inglês no Instagram, vá conferir! @fluencytvingles
Toda semana temos um novo episódio do Fluency News, não deixe de escutar! See you!
Este episódio foi escrito por Lívia Pond.
Sources:
‘I took a trip to the North Pole’: Anthony Fauci tells children he vaccinated Santa
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/19/anthony-fauci-vaccinate-santa-claus-coronavirus
Jacinda Ardern says New Zealand has bought so many COVID-19 vaccines that it will give free doses to neighboring countries
https://www.businessinsider.com/new-zealand-surplus-covid-19-vaccines-to-neighboring-countries-2020-12?utm_source=reddit.com
Nigeria: Vigilantes rescue kidnapped children
https://www.dw.com/en/nigeria-vigilantes-rescue-kidnapped-children/a-56001860
Pope Francis to Receive Pfizer Vaccine Against Coronavirus
https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/12/21/pope-francis-to-receive-pfizer-vaccine-against-coronavirus/
Transcrição do episódio:
What is up, everyone! I’m Scott Lowe and this is Fluency News, the news podcast that helps you improve your listening and comprehension skills. Welcome to the last episode of Fluency News of 2020! This year has been a rollercoaster, hasn’t it? But it’s coming to an end, and we have to thank you for tuning in every week, letting us be a part of your day and a part of your journey in improving your English.
Let us start this episode with a story to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Children around the world should not worry about the logistics of Christmas present delivery while the coronavirus pandemic rages, Dr Anthony Fauci said – because he vaccinated Santa himself.
“I took care of that for you,” the top US infectious diseases expert told CNN. “Because I was worried that you’d all be upset.
“So what I did a little while ago, I took a trip up there to the North Pole. I went there and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself. I measured his level of immunity, and he is good to go. He can come down the chimney. He can leave the presents, he can leave, and you have nothing to worry about. Santa Claus is good to go.”
How cute is that? There’s no need to worry, Santa Claus will be delivering presents as usual!
On Friday, a week before Christmas Day, the US approved a second vaccine for Covid-19 and recorded a record number of cases in one day. State healthcare systems are under brutal strain and city and state governments are reimposing social restrictions ahead of a holiday week in which millions are expected to travel, worsening the spread of a virus which has killed more than 313,000 in the US alone.
Asked by one small girl if it would still be possible to visit grandparents over Christmas, Fauci said: “You still need to be careful and wear a mask. Because until we get this blanket of protection over everyone, you can’t be absolutely certain that there isn’t virus there. So vaccines are extremely important to ending this outbreak.”
Quando o doutor Fauci disse que vacinou o Papai Noel, ele disse “I vaccinated Santa Claus myself”. Quando usamos MYSELF, e as outras palavras com ‘self’, o sentido é “eu mesmo” ou “por conta própria”. Aqui, ele adicionou essa palavra pra dar ênfase que ele mesmo deu a vacina, ele não supervisionou, nem assistiu ninguém. Ele mesmo administrou a vacina, pra garantir que o Papai Noel estaria pronto pra entregar os presentes no mundo todo.
Our next story comes from New Zealand!
On Thursday, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced that New Zealand had secured two additional COVID-19 vaccines. This means that the country now expects to have so many doses of the vaccine that it will be able to offer it to neighboring nations for free.
The Government signed deals with the University of Oxford/AstraZeneca and Novavax to bring in an additional 18.3 million doses. Both of these vaccines require two doses, meaning that over nine million people will be able to be vaccinated.
Prior to these agreements, New Zealand had already secured 750,000 courses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 4 million courses from Janssen.
Given that New Zealand’s population stands at just five million people, the country expects to have almost triple the number of vaccines required.
In a press release, Ardern revealed that spare vaccines would go to neighboring countries.
She said: “We now have agreements in place with four providers, covering three different types of vaccine technology and we have secured more than enough doses to cover our entire population plus the Pacific.”
Government officials announced that free doses will be provided to Tokelau, Cook Islands, Niue, Samoa, Tonga, and Tuvalu, according to NPR.
Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta has said that New Zealand is committing $65 million of development assistance money to support Pacific countries to “access safe and effective COVID-19 at the earliest opportunity.”
An additional $10 million is going towards a global commitment to ensuring that lower-income countries get access to vaccines.
New Zealand has been praised for its response to coronavirus, as the country reports only 2,110 cases and 25 deaths.
Let’s hope these good news keep spreading and more countries go the New Zealand way.
Now an update to a story we covered last week, the kidnapping of schoolchildren in Nigeria. Vigilantes from a small village in northern Nigeria rescued scores of children who had been abducted while returning from a religious ceremony, police said on Sunday.
Armed bandits kidnapped 80 children on Saturday as they were heading home to the village of Mahuta in the state of Katsina, Gambo Isah, spokesman for state police said.
The children who were from local Islamic seminaries had been traveling with their teachers at the time of the abduction.
Locals said that they rescued 113 children including some who had been abducted earlier.
The vigilantes assembled after learning of the abduction of the children. Local leader Abdullah Sada said that the group then set off in pursuit of the kidnappers who had been identified as Fulani herdsmen.
The locals found the bandits’ hideout and after a fierce firefight the group finally freed the children.
“We laid siege on the area [where] we knew they were holding the children and also took some Fulani settlements in the area hostage, warning that if anything happened to our children no Fulani would live in the area henceforth,” Sada said.
“They released 60 children around 3:00 am and this morning they called and said they had released the remaining 53 who are now being ferried from the bush,” he added.
Police were still looking for the perpetrators, who had managed to escape.
Pode ser que você tenha perdido o significado de algumas palavras nessa história. Primeiro, nós dissemos que os vigilantes resgataram “scores of children”. “Scores” normalmente significa pontuações, mas se for seguido de “of”, o significado passa a ser “dezenas de”. Scores of children, dezenas de crianças. Sada disse “we laid siege”. “Lay siege” significa sitiar, fazer um cerco. Por último, “henceforth” é uma palavra pouco utilizada no inglês cotidiano. Ela significa “doravante”, ou melhor, “daqui em diante”.
And, to finish this episode, let’s talk about the pope! The Vatican has announced that Pope Francis will receive the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in January, which will also be made available to the 800 residents and nearly 3,000 workers of the small city-state.
The Vatican will launch its vaccination program against the coronavirus during the first quarter of 2021, which will also allow the pope to travel safely to Iraq in March. The vaccination will not be mandatory for Vatican workers and residents, noted the head of the Vatican’s health department, Andrea Arcangeli, but will be made available for anyone who wishes to receive it.
The pope has spoken often of the vaccine, emphasizing the need to make sure it reaches the groups that need it most.
In September, Francis called for universal distribution of coronavirus vaccines, insisting that the “richest” individuals should not be first in line to receive them.
“The recent experience of the pandemic, in addition to a major health emergency in which almost a million people have already died, is turning into a serious economic crisis, still giving rise to poor people and families who do not know how to move forward,” the pope said.
“While charitable assistance is being carried out, it is also a question of combating this pharmaceutical poverty, in particular with a widespread distribution of new vaccines in the world,” he continued. “I repeat that it would be sad if the richest people got priority when giving out the vaccine, or if this vaccine became the property of this or that nation and was no longer for everyone.”
“It must be universal, for everyone,” he said.
Alright, that is it for today, guys! We hope you enjoyed getting informed with us today, and we hope to see you back next year. We’re taking a break until the first week of January, but don’t worry, we have lots of things planned for next year. You should follow us on our Instagram page, @fluencytvingles to be in the loop and have all the updates to all our content. Don’t forget to check out fluencytv.com for the transcript of this episode and all our sources. Thank you so much for joining us every week, for these past 20 weeks. We, from Fluency Academy, wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Until next time. Peace out.
