Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.
Preparation
Transcript
The first item in the news today is the recent elections that took place across the country. This was a crucial vote, which may see a dramatic change in how the country develops over the coming years. Overall, a 54.5 per cent voter turnout was registered. This represents an increase of 11 per cent over the previous election and six per cent above the average for the past 50 years. There has also been a slight change in demographics, with an increase in youth turnout in the 18- to 24- and 24- to 29-year-old brackets. Despite this increase, young people are still less likely to vote than older people; 84 per cent of voters in the 70 plus age group came to the polling stations.
Moving on, the global digital powerhouse ONK today posted quarterly results which were above forecast. Back in March, Tim Bolling, CEO, issued a profit warning over fears that there would be losses following the recall of their leading product, the 40d device. In fact, the company posted quarterly revenue of US$14.8 billion which represents an increase of 11 per cent from the same quarter a year ago. They also announced that they had sold 21 million 40d devices over the quarter. The company has provided the information that with this level of revenue, there will be a gross margin of 34 to 35 per cent, ultimately leading to a US$1.20 per share cash dividend awarded to shareholders.
And in our final news item we ask, will we soon be saying goodbye to coins and notes forever? The nationwide trend of using cashless payment options is increasing. There are a number of reasons for this development. A key reason for this is a growing interest in reducing the number of items people need to leave their homes with. As almost everyone carries a smartphone with them, and many people also have smartwatches, the ability to pay for things using one of these two technologies is particularly appealing. More and more retailers are accepting cashless payments and in some cases they've stopped accepting cash altogether.
In September 2022, political elections to renew the Italian Parliament took place across the country in Italy. In fact, in 2021 the former Prime Minister Draghi's government went into a sudden crisis and ended its task before its natural term of five years. The voter turnout register was 64 per cent that has been the worst result since Italy became a republic, and 9 points under the previous negative record. There were two coalitions, the right-centre wing and the left-centre wing, plus some other minor political parties and movements. The first won the elections and named as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is also Fratelli d'Italia's leader, on of the most important political party of the coalition. Last, but not less important to remember, Giorgia Meloni also represents the first woman to have been Prime Minister in the history of Italian republic.
My country has been going through an economic crisis for ten years the currency is beginning to drop and is having an impact on our and every town in our country the things are getting expensive and the elections are coming soon and there is way more things to come in the future
My country has been going through a deep economic crisis for 12 years and these are the figures that worry me the most: we have expected inflation for this year of 170% and this has brought the poverty rate to 45% of the population, reaching 60% of children below the poverty line. Those are the worst economic numbers in the last 100 years, it's very sad and I don't know if we will be able to fix it in the near future.
Topic of the News is Conflict in Lasanod Somaliland.
in the lasanod city of somaliland there are a conflict between a malitias which are promots dividing the countries and the millitery. the war is ongoing about 6 months. in the begining of the war there were a local leaders who looks a piece makers but povokes the war with the government. unfortunately many locals flee from the city due to the war.
I was scared of these tasks as I kept hearing numbers and numbers in the recording. I expected questions about them, but there were only 2 out of 6.
I got 5/6 and the one I did wrong wasn't even about numbers lol.
It's hard for me to remember numbers or names and I don't think it would be any easier if it was in my native language. But maybe I'm wrong, after all, I don't really do these exercises in my native tongue.
In my living country, there are some notable statistics and trends that are affecting people's lives. For instance, the cost of living has been increasing rapidly, particularly in terms of rent prices. Since the end of the COVID lockdown, most rental prices have risen by 25%, which has put a lot of financial pressure on renters. Additionally, loan repayment pressure has been on the rise. I have a friend who paid more than $2,000 per month to the bank last year for their home loan, but they now have to pay almost $6,000 monthly due to increasing interest rates. Lastly, grocery prices have also increased significantly, which can be attributed to various factors including the rising cost of transportation and supply chain disruptions. Overall, these trends have resulted in significant living pressures for many people.
Thank you for the amazing question,
First of all, I want to share with you the glad moment of living Ramadan Moments from here in Dubai,
Ramadan Kareem for all,
As an answer to this question, I want to talk about the Pareto Law, which was suggested in the 19th century in order to explain many phenomena.
This rule is basically a statistical graph which stated that between 10 to 20 % of your income as a business owner is coming from 80 to 90% of the customers while 80 to 90 % of the revenue is coming from the other 80% to 90, in other words, for a company, 90% of the outstanding results that drives its success is caused by 10% of the employees only.
This principle called the law of sparsity.
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in this audio i found that "young people are still less likely to vote than older people; 84 per cent of voters in the 70 plus age group came to the polling stations." and in my analysis, it is true that older people tend to vote more than younger people. but in the current generation there should be more young people voting than older people.
~From Indonesia, Thank you.
The national trend of using cashless payment options is increasing.This trend shows how much new technological sophistication will affect everyday life.
~ Pontianak, Indonesia