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

The WhatsApp, chat-communication platform, has nearly 400 million users in India. A new law released in 2021 for social media says that messaging app like WhatsApp must trace the origin of a message and identify people who send messages. People do not like the idea their identity is revealed. WhatsApp says that it cannot identify the person sending messages. WhatsApp has sued the government because the new rules violated the right to privacy of Indian users.

WhatsApp (ワッツアップ, 世界中で最も利用されているチャットアプリ), trace (追跡する), origin (発信者), identify (特定する), identity (個人情報), reveal (明らかにする), sue (訴訟する), violate (違反する)

Questions:

1. How many users of WhatsApp are there in the country?
2. What kind of the law did Indian government make?
3. Do the Indian people like the new law?
4. What did WhatsApp company do against the government?
5. Do you think the government is right? Why?
6. What is your opinion?

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

A group of 100 women harvest argan oil from the mountains of southern Morocco. Women started this business to get money. These women helped the other women in their community. They started a free kindergarten for their children. They also started free reading, writing courses and health insurance. Price of one litter of argan oil is 250 dollars. Cosmetic companies use this oil in their products. Argan oil is also used as anti-aging skin treatment and haircare product.

harvest (収穫する), argan oil (アルガンオイル: アルガンの木の種子から採取), kindergarten (幼稚園)

Questions:

1. Who harvest argan oil?
2. From where did they harvest the oil?
3. What did they start?
4. What do the cosmetic companies produce from the oil?
5. How much is the price of one litter of argan oil?
6. What is your opinion?

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

Greece police announced that they found a stolen painting “Head of a Woman” of Spanish painter Pablo Picasso that had been taken from National Gallery in 2012, nine years back. This painting gifted by Picasso to Greece government in 1949. The robber got into the museum. He stole three famous paintings. The police found Picasso’s painting and two others in a forest, some 45 kilometers southeast of Athens. They were wrapped in plastic sheets and hidden in the bush. A 49-year-old carpenter has been arrested for the theft.

announce (発表する), stolen (steal 盗む の過去分詞), Pablo Picasso (パブロ・ピカソ), robber (泥棒), the Head of Woman (女性の頭部:ピカソの有名な絵), plastic sheet (ビニールシート), theft (盗難)

Questions:

1. When did a robber steal the paintings?
2. How many paintings were stolen?
3. Who painted “the Head of a Woman”?
4. Who found the paintings?
5. Where were the paintings found?
6. Do you like to see the paintings?
7. What is your opinion?

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

Gilbert Baker was an artist and he was also gay. He loved flags and therefore he made a colorful flag in 1978. The rainbow flag he created became the symbol of LGBTQ people. The flag became popular. He assigned symbolic meaning to each of the flag’s eight colored stripes. New flags were made after Baker’s death in 2017. Some flags have black and brown color on them. It is because people of many colors are part of this LGBTQ community. This community includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer.

LGBTQ (レズビアン, ゲイ, バイセクシャル, トランスジェンダー, クィア), assign (割り振る), symbolic (象徴的な), queer (クィア, LGBTのどれにもにあてはまらない性的なアウトサイダー全体をも包括する用語)

Questions:

1. What is the color of the flag?
2. Whose symbol is the flag?
3. What does LGBTQ mean?
4. Who made this flag and when?
5. When did Baker die?
6. What color did the new flags include?
7. What is your opinion?

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

The construction of the 295-kilometers and three meters height wall made of concrete blocks along the border of Turkey and Iran will be finished by 2023. Turkish government has already built the wall that was 190 kilometers long as of April 2022. This wall stopped almost 103,000 refugees from Afghanistan. 3.7 million refugees from Syria are already in Turkey. Turkey cannot look after more refugees. These refugees have run away from their countries. Refugees from Afghanistan are afraid of the Taliban and so they left the country.

made of (から作られた), as of (時点で), refugee (避難民), look after (面倒を見る), Taliban (タリバン, アフガニスタンを実効支配するイスラム教スンナ派)

Questions:

1. Who built the wall?
2. Why was it built?
3. How long is it as of April 2022?
4. How many Afghans were stopped by the wall?
5. How many Syrian refugees are there in Turkey?
6. Why do the people from Afghanistan run away?
7. What is your opinion?

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

Robyn Rihanna born in 1988 is a Barbadian singer and actress. Her songs were influenced by Caribbean music and her best album was rated within the top ten of the US Billboard 200 Chart. She is also a successful business woman and owns a French company that makes luxury clothes. So, Rihanna is said as the richest female musician in the world. The total amount of her asset is estimated with 1.7 billion dollars. She also owns fashion and cosmetics companies. Rihanna also owned a lingerie company worth an estimate of 270 million dollars.

Barbadian (バルバドス人, カリブ海の島国), Caribbean (カリブの), luxury (高級な), lingerie (婦人用下着), worth (価値のある)

Questions:

1. What is the name of singer?
2. Where is she from?
3. Which kind of songs does she sing?
4. How much asset does she have?
5. Have you heard any of her songs?
6. Do you know any other famous American singer?
7. What is your opinion?

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

Only men can do sports in Afghanistan. New Taliban government was only consisting of men. The Afghanistan’s men’s cricket team could go to Australia for a man but the women’s team was banned. Taliban bans women from working outside their home, ban girls’ education after year six, denies women their right to political participation as well as their social, economic and cultural rights. Suddenly after Taliban returned to rule the country, all women’s dreams, rights and freedoms have been taken away from Taliban.

Taliban (タリバン, アフガニスタンを実効支配するイスラム教スンナ派), consist of (から構成される), cricket (クリケット, 英国の国技といわれるスポーツ), ban (禁止する), year six (6学年目), take away (奪う)

Questions:

1. Where women cannot do sports?
2. What is Taliban?
3. What does Taliban ban women other than sports?
4. Is equal opportunity given in Japan to both men and women?
5. What is your opinion?

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

Water cremation is the gentle process of changing the body to ash of organic material using water and a small amount of alkali-based solution. The body is first carefully placed in the water cremator, then the body returns to its basic organic elements. Once the process is completed, families receive the ashes in the same way with a traditional flame cremation. Water cremation service is provided by a company, Natural Funeral, in US. This process is nature friendly. They do not make any carbon emissions. Ash made from water cremation becomes good fertilizer and it helps the plants to grow. Some families are choosing this natural, environmentally sustainable funeral option.

water cremation (水葬), ash (灰), organic material (有機物質), amount (量), alkali (アルカリ), solution (溶液), water cremator (水葬炉), flame cremation (火葬), nature friendly (自然に優しい), carbon emission (二酸化炭素排出), fertilizer (肥料), plant grow (植物が育つ), funeral (葬儀)

Questions:

1. Which company provides water cremation?
2. What is used for water cremation?
3. Why is water cremation nature friendly?
4. Is ash made from water cremation good for plant?
5. What kind of cremation is done in Japan?
6. What is your opinion?

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

Japanese Princess Mako married Kei Komuro in October 2021. She was 29 years old. She met Komuro in college and got engaged in 2017. It is said that a girl born in royal family in Japan becomes an ordinary person after her marriage and will no longer be part of royal family. Now they are staying in New York together. They are trying to stabilize the new life. Komuro passed the test of US lawyer that allowed him to practice law in New York. Mako is now volunteering at Metropolitan Museum, New York. Mako graduated from International Christian University with a degree in art and cultural heritage.

get engaged (婚約する), no longer (もはや), stabilize (安定させる), practice law (法的業務行う), Metropolitan Museum (メトロポリタン美術館, ニューヨークに所在), heritage (遺産)

Questions:

1. Who is Mako?
2. To whom was she engaged?
3. Where did they meet?
4. Where do they live now?
5. What does Mako do in New York?
6. Why did Komuro leave Japan?
7. What is your opinion?

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

Tesco, Britain’s biggest supermarket, said it would challenge carbon neutral by 2035. It set the plan for how to cut carbon emissions from all key emission sources such as agriculture. It promised to do the annual update on progress as well. It requests suppliers to work together with Tesco to achieve this target. Tesco responded to growing consumer demands for less waste, less plastic and more action for the environment. Due to this, their products have become expensive and many customers are unhappy about it. The company sells unwashed potatoes as they can stay longer on shelves.

carbon emission (二酸化炭素排出量), annual update (年毎の公表), on progress (進捗について), respond (応える), due to (そのために), unwashed (洗っていない), shelves (shelf棚 の複数形)

Questions:

1. Which is the biggest supermarket in Britain?
2. What does the company want to do by 2035?
3. What does Tesco promise?
4. What do many consumers demand Tesco?
5. What does Tesco do for the challenge of carbon neutral?
6. Why does the company sell unwashed potatoes?
7. What is your opinion?