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| Ihre 10 Minuten Englisch pro Woche |
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Dear email,
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Well, the people of the UK have spoken. Their housing crisis is shocking and the new Labour government plans to build 1.5 million homes. Their aim, they say, is to speed up the time it takes to get plans for new housing through the system, and to get new homes built. More housebuilding means more construction jobs, and more investment. Will they be able to deliver on their promise? Let’s hope so, for the sake of our friends across the Channel.
As a native New Yorker, I can tell you that there’s always construction on the streets there. Roadworks, steampipes and scaffolding are an integral part of the cityscape in Manhattan. Below, in a text from our New York correspondent, you can learn all about the phenomenon of New York’s scaffolding.
We also have an interview for you with someone I personally find fascinating. Father Paolo Benanti is not only a Franciscan friar – he’s also a professor of robotics, and digital ethics, and he’s an advisor to the Vatican and the Italian government on artificial intelligence. He discusses science and religion, and explains how they are not mutually exclusive. A captivating read!
Finally, if you’re glued to the screen watching the European soccer championships, we have all the English vocabulary you need to talk about it (and scream or cheer at the screen).
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Judith Gilbert
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Editor-in-chief, Business Spotlight
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housing: Wohnung; Wohnungswesen, -bau | construction: Bau; auch: Baustellen | deliver on sth.: etw. einlösen, einhalten | channel: Kanal | steampipe: Dampfrohr | scaffolding: Baugerüst, Einrüstung | cityscape: Stadtbild | friar: Mönch | mutually exclusive: sich gegenseitig ausschließend | captivating: fesselnd, faszinierend | glued: be ~ to sth.: an etw. kleben
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Word of the Week
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heat dome
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Did you know...? The American Meteorological Society defines the term “heat dome” as an “exceptionally hot air mass that develops when high pressure aloft prevents warm air below from rising”, trapping this air like a lid on a pot. Heat domes last from days to weeks, and because of global warming, they’re becoming hotter. In June, a heat dome in the western US contributed to record-breaking temperatures.
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dome: Kuppel | exceptionally: außergewöhnlich | aloft: in der Höhe | trap: fangen | global warming: Erderwärmung
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© Illustration: Georg Lechner
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Ihr Gutschein für Business Spotlight
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Sie erhalten die erste Ausgabe unseres Abonnements gratis
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Society
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Letter from New York
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Heike Buchter, a correspondent in the New York office of DIE ZEIT, reports on the city’s scaffolding:
“When I went into the office recently, there was a truck blocking Broadway and builders were busy installing steel posts along the frontage. When I went to get my lunch, they had already covered the construction with corrugated iron and wooden panels. Underneath, there was the atmosphere of an Arab souk. New Yorkers call this construction a ‘shed’ and it protects pedestrians from falling masonry. In other cities, scaffolding is usually in place only until, for example, construction work is completed. In New York, sheds can stand for years.
Sheds have a tragic history. After a 17-year-old student was killed by a falling piece of masonry in 1979, a law was passed. Since then, buildings over six storeys high must have their facades inspected every five years. A shed must be put up during the inspection. If damage is found, the scaffolding stays until the repairs are completed. According to The Wall Street Journal, maintaining the sheds, including insurance, can cost up to $100,000 a year. Repairs, however, can quickly run into the millions. It is therefore often far cheaper to leave the shed standing than to carry out the construction work.
In December, Mayor Eric Adams celebrated the dismantling of a shed in Harlem that had been covering the facade of an apartment building for 21 years. It was about giving New Yorkers their city back, explained Adams, who has made the fight against the sheds part of his political agenda. A 93-year-old resident had tears of emotion in her eyes. She had never thought she would live to see this moment. A few weeks later, the facade was scaffolded again after a fire.”
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scaffolding: Baugerüst, Einrüstung | steel post: Stahlpfosten | frontage: Vorderfront, Fassade | corrugated iron: Wellblech | panel: Platte | souk: Suk, Basar | shed: Verschlag; hier: Baugerüst | pedestrian: Fußgänger(in) | masonry: Mauerwerk | storey: Stockwerk | maintain sth.: etw. erhalten, warten | dismantle sth.: etw. abbauen
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© Image: Alamy Stock Photo
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Quiz
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NYC
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1. How many languages are spoken in New York City?
A. 2
B. 575
C. 800
2. The largest gold storage in the world is in New York City.
A. True
B. False
3. What is the Pizza Principle?
A. The belief that you are only a real New Yorker if you eat your pizza slice folded
B. The tradition that New York sports teams share a pizza to celebrate a victory
C. The economic correlation between the cost of a slice of pizza and the cost of a subway ride
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storage: Lager | slice: Stück | subway: U-Bahn | ride: Fahrt
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© Illustration: Georg Lechner
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| Answers: 1.C; 2. True, in the New York Federal Reserve Bank; 3.C. Since the 1960s, the cost of a slice has been roughly the same as a subway ride.
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Exercise
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At a football match
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You’d have to have been living under a rock if you hadn’t noticed the EURO 2024 championship is taking place. If you’re a football fan, brush up on your soccer vocabulary – and if you’re not, well, at least you can join in the water cooler chats!
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live under a rock: hinter dem Mond leben | brush up on sth.: etw. auffrischen | water cooler chats: Flurgespräche
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© Illustration: Martin Haake
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Technology
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An interview with the Franciscan friar who advises the Vatican on AI
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Father Paolo Benanti is an engineer and professor. He also advises both the Pope and the Italian government on artificial intelligence (AI). Find out how a man of the cloth came to rub shoulders with the likes of Microsoft's vice chair and president, Brad Smith, and why he thinks AI can be used to make our world a more equal place.
As a special gift, our newsletter subscribers can read the online version of the article for free – but only for a week!
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friar: Mönch | engineer: Ingenieur(in) | man of the cloth: Geistliche | rub shoulders with: mit jmdm. verkehren | chair: Vorsitzende(r)
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© Image: Stefano Dal Pozzolo / contrasto / laif
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Skill Up!
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Recruitment, expansion and downsizing
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Is your company growing quickly? Do you have a lot of open positions? Or is your business going through a rough patch and you have to downsize? Practise some useful vocabulary to speak about company changes.
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open position: offene Stelle | rough patch: Durchhänger | downsize: verkleinern
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© Image: iStock.com
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Im aktuellen Magazin
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WTF are ETFs?
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What are exchange-traded funds? Why invest? | Artificial intelligence and religion: an interview with Paolo Benanti | Saving the rainforest in Brazil | How to listen and be successful at work
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Book Tip
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Knife
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Indian-born British-American writer Salman Rushdie spent 33 years defying the fatwa imposed on him after his novel The Satanic Verses went on sale. Then, in 2022, he was attacked during a literature event in New York by a young American of Lebanese descent. Knife is Rushdie’s story of his life since then – as a man and as an artist. Unsurprisingly, it’s about great pain and the struggle to survive. Surprisingly, it’s a book about how loved Rushdie felt: by his real-life family and by the wider family of all those readers devoted, like Rushdie, to freedom of speech.
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defy sth.: etw. trotzen, standhalten | impose sth. on sb.: etw. gegen jmdn. aussprechen, jmdm. etw. auferlegen | The Satanic Verses: dt. Titel: „Die Satanischen Verse“ | descent: hier: Herkunft | devoted: be ~ to sth.: hier: fest an etw. glauben
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Quiz
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Europe
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We might be in the throes of EURO 2024, but aside from football, how much do you know about Europe? Test your knowledge in our fun quiz!
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be in the throes of sth.: mittendrin in etw. stecken
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© Image: Waldemar / Unsplash.com
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Mitarbeit: Dennis Draber, Judith Gilbert, Susanne Krause, Nadia Lawrence, Richard Mote, Rachel Preece, Inez Sharp
Folgen Sie Spotlight und Business Spotlight auf Instagram.
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