Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

A cable car crashed in Italy. It was going from the town of Stresa. It went up a mountain that was 1,400 meters high. In May 2021, 14 people died in a cable car accident. The cable car fell down 20 meters. It rolled down the hill and broke.

crash (墜落する), Stresa (ストレーザ, モッタローネ山のふもとの町), died (die死ぬ, 過去形), accident (事故), fell (fall落ちる, 過去形), roll down (転がる), hill (丘), broke (break壊れる, 過去形)

Questions:

1. What crashed in Italy?
   (何がイタリアで墜落しましたか?)
2. Where was the cable car going from?
   (ケーブルカーはどこから出発しましたか?)
3. How many meters high did cable car go up?
   (ケーブルカーは何メートル登りましたか?)
4. How many people died in the accident?
   (その事故で何人が亡くなりましたか?)
5. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

A tank collector in the United Kingdom got a tank on the internet. He found gold bars of 2.4 million dollars inside. The tank was owned by Iraqi army. People think Iraqi soldiers stole and hid the gold bar when they attacked Kuwait in 1990. They called the police and the gold was taken by police.

tank (戦車), collector (収集家), found (find見つける の過去形), gold bar (金の延べ棒), own (所有する), Iraqi (イラクの), soldier (兵隊), stole (steal盗む の過去形), hid (hide隠す の過去形),  Kuwait (クウェート)

Questions:

1. Who got the tank on the internet?
   (インターネットで誰が戦車を購入しましたか?)
2. How much is the gold bars found in the tank?
   (金の延べ棒の価値はいくらか?)
3. Who owned the tank in the past?
   (過去において誰がその戦車を保有していましたか?)
4. What does people think why the gold bars were found in the tank?
   (人々はなぜ、金の延べ棒が戦車で見つかったと思っていますか?)
5. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

A woman in Brazil went shopping and at the same time a robbery was there. Accidentally a robbery shot the gun to the woman near the heart. The woman had no blood but felt the pain. The woman’s bra stopped the bullet.

robbery (強盗), accidentally (偶然に), shot gun (銃を撃った), blood (流血), felt (feel感じる の過去形), pain (痛み), bullet (銃弾)

Questions:

1. Who went shopping?
   (誰が買い物に行きましたか?)
2. What did the robbery do?
   (強盗は何をしましたか?)
3. How was she saved?
   (彼女はどうやって助かりましたか?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

A 15-year-old Russian figure skater, Kamila Valieva, was at the Winter Olympic Games in China. She and her team won a gold medal. The figure skater had taken illegal drug named trimetazidine. Though the athletes are not allowed to take the drug, it helps them to train harder and longer.

figure skater (フィギアスケート選手), Kamila Valieva (カミラ ワリエワ), Winter Olympic (冬季オリンピック), won (win勝つ の過去形), illegal (違法の), trimetazidine(トリメタジジン), though (だけれども), athlete (選手), allow (許す), harder and longer (よりはげしく長く)

Questions:

1. How old was Kamila Valieva?
   (カミラ ワリエワは何歳ですか?)
2. What did Kamila do?
   (カミラは何をしたのですか?)
3. What was the name of the drug that was taken by the skater? (スケーターが服用した薬の名前は何ですか?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)   

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

Africa is helped by international organizations. They give food to the African people and Ukrainian refugees. Due to the war in Ukraine, price of food became higher. Food like peanuts, oil, dry milk and other things were given by the organization and price of those products also has been increased.

organization (組織), refugee (難民), due to (により), dry milk (乾燥ミルク), product (製品), be increased (増加する)

Questions:

1. Who helps African people?
   (誰かアフリカの人々を支援してますか?)
2. Which food is given to the African people and Ukrainian refugees?
   (どの様な食品をアフリカ人及びウクライナ難民に援助してますか?)
3. What was the main cause for the food price to become higher?(食品価格上昇の主要な理由は何ですか?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)   

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

Fewer people used London’s subway and buses. The reason was the omicron variant of Covid-19 spread in 2022. There were few people who had omicron. Everyone preferred to work from home and thus fewer people traveled to their workplace during the Covid-19 pandemic.

fewer (ほとんどいない), variant (変異株), spread (まん延する, spread[現在形] – spread[過去形] – spread[過去分詞]), few (ほとんどいない), prefer (好む), work from home (在宅勤務), thus (したがって), workplace (仕事場)

Questions:

1. Why did people prefer to work from home?
   (なぜ人々は在宅勤務を望むのですか?)
2. Why did fewer people use subway and buses?
   (なぜほとんどの人々は地下鉄やバスを使用しなかったのですか?)
3. What is the variant of covid-19?
   (変異株というのはcovid-19の何ですか?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)   

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

Lisala Folau is 57 years old and lives on an island of Atata in Tonga. This island is 50 kilometers away from a volcano which erupted suddenly in December 2021. A tsunami occurred and the man was alone on the beach. The waves took him away but he came back alive.

island (島), Tonga (トンガ王国), away from (から離れている), volcano (火山), erupt (噴火), suddenly (突然), occur (起きる), alone (独りで), wave (波), take way (連れ去る), alive (生きて)

Questions:

1. Why did the tsunami occur?
   (なぜ津波は起きたのですか?)
2. Why was the man in the sea?
   (なぜ男性は海にながされたのですか?)
3. How old was he when waves took him?
   (波が男性を流し去った時の彼の年齢は何歳ですか?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)   

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

An Italian ferry was travelling from Greece to Italy. It had 290 people on it. Most of them were from Bulgaria, Turkey and Romania. It caught fire and 153 cars and trucks on it were destroyed.

Greece (ギリシア), Turkey (トルコ), Romania (ルーマニア), catch fire (火災を起こす, caught=catchの過去形)

Questions:

1. How many people were there on the ferry?
   (フェリーには何人が乗っていましたか?)
2. From which countries were the people from?
   (乗客の出身国はどこですか?)
3. How many cars and trucks were destroyed?
   (何台の車やトラックが破損しましたか?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思いますか?)       

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

Oil has been getting more expensive since 2008. Russia attacks Ukraine in February 2022. The US and EU countries stop importing its oil. The US and EU wanted Russia to stop the war. Because they do not have enough oil, the price of it goes up.

oil (石油), get more (どんどん上がる), expensive (高価な),  import (輸入する), enough (十分な), go up (上がる)

Questions:

1. Since when has oil become expensive?
   (石油の価格はいつから高くなってきた?)
2. Who stopped importing oil from Russia?
   (誰がロシアからの石油の輸入をとめた?)
3. Why did oil become expensive?
   (なぜ、石油は高価になったのか?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思う?)

Let’s read aloud first. 最初に声を出して読んでみましょう。

Burkina Faso is a poor country in Western Africa. They do not have enough money to live. Some parents decided to force their children into marriage. Girls are less than 18 and parents want to save money. The girls have no choice.     

poor (貧乏な), enough (十分な), to live (生活するために), parents (両親), decide (決心する), force (強制する), marriage (結婚), less than (以下の)

Questions:

1. Which country in Africa is poor?
   (アフリカのどこの国?)
2. Do girls have a choice in marriage?
   (女の子に結婚選択の自由はある?)
3. How old are they when they get married?
   (結婚する歳は何歳?)
4. What is your opinion?
   (あなたはどう思う?)