“The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate their conservation efforts. These countries are home to 52% of the world’s...
The most important foreign affairs events of the week | ||
November 14, 2022 | ||
“The big three tropical rainforest nations – Brazil, Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) – are in talks to form a strategic alliance to coordinate their conservation efforts. These countries are home to 52% of the world’s remaining primary tropical rainforests, which are crucial to avoiding climate catastrophe. Specialists claim, however, that any alliance must recognise the role Indigenous communities play in protecting forests in order to succeed.” | ||
Click here to read more about the issue. | ||
The expression tropical rainforest describes a specific type of tropical forests, which present continuous warm weather with rainfall throughout the year. Conversely, tropical deciduous forests have distinct dry and wet periods. Therefore, you should always refer to the Amazon region as “the Amazon rainforest”. | ||
Spelling errors can be a painful way of losing points in the second phase. In this sense, you should pay attention to the noun community, which is written with double ‘m’. All words that begin with “com” must double the ‘m’: Communism, commander, or communicate. | ||
November 15, 2022 | ||
“On 15 November 2022, the world’s population is projected to reach 8 billion people, a milestone in human development. This unprecedented growth is due to the gradual increase in human lifespan owing to improvements in public health, nutrition, personal hygiene and medicine. It is also the result of high and persistent levels of fertility in some countries. While it took the global population 12 years to grow from 7 to 8 billion, it will take approximately 15 years—until 2037— for it to reach 9 billion, a sign that the overall growth rate of the global population is slowing.” | ||
Click here to read more about the issue and here to download the World Population Prospects 2022. | ||
The noun milestone means “an important event in the development or history of something or in someone's life”. Close synonyms are “landmark”, “event”, and “turning point” (in some cases). | ||
The noun lifespan means “the duration of existence of an individual”. There is a close synonym - “lifetime” - and a related expression - “duration of life”. | ||
November 16, 2022 | ||
“The G20 summit in Bali - Indonesia - did not result in the traditional joint announcement. Instead, the leaders' declaration presented ‘different assessments’ of the war in Ukraine, as the officials struggled to find common ground. The statement issued that ‘most members strongly condemned the war in Ukraine,’ but that ‘there were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions.’ Major powers like India and China have been unwilling to join the Western-led sanctions against Moscow, and Indonesia has not explicitly condemned Russia for the invasion.” | ||
Click here to read more about the issue. | ||
In this context, the noun summit means “a conference of highest-level officials (such as heads of state or government)”. You can also use “conference” or “gathering” as close synonyms. | ||
Instead (without “of”) is an adverb. It usually begins or ends a clause, working as a linking word. Close synonyms are “conversely”, “alternatively”, “rather”, or “by contrast”. Linking words are important to your text’s cohesion and coherence. | ||
November 17, 2022 | ||
“Ahead of World Toilet Day on 19 November, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is launching a new game plan to help governments achieve safely managed sanitation for their populations and meet the sanitation target laid out in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly the SDG 6.2. In a 2020 estimate, 3.6 billion people lacked safely managed sanitation services. The rate of sanitation coverage increase would need to quadruple to achieve universal access to safely managed services by 2030.” | ||
Click here to read more about the issue. | ||
The phrasal verb lay out means “to present a plan, an argument, etc. clearly and carefully”. Close synonyms are “display”, “exhibit”, “announce”, “reveal”, or “unveil”. | ||
We highlighted the expression Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for three important reasons: first, for you to know how it’s spelled; second, because you should be familiarized with its acronym; and third because the SDGs have a number of important arguments for you to use in your essays. | ||
The verb lack can be tricky due to its different meanings. If it’s used in its intransitive form, lack means “to be deficient or missing”, but if it’s presented in its transitive form, it means “to stand in need of : suffer from the absence or deficiency of”. | ||
November 18, 2022 | ||
“Although recent developments contribute to push up oil prices, such as Saudi Arabia’s cuts in its oil exports and EU’s decision to sharply reduce how much fuel they buy from Russia, oil prices have been sliding. The U.S. benchmark, West Texas Intermediate, fell to about $80 a barrel on Friday from more than $90 at the start of the month. The global supply of oil appears to be falling, but many oil traders think that demand is heading down even faster. That’s because economic growth is slowing or turning negative in many countries, and the use of oil and petroleum products usually plummets in recessions.” | ||
Click here to read more about the issue. | ||
Look how many words with negative connotations can be used in just one paragraph. All these variations make your text rich and easy to read, which contributes to a higher score in the second phase. Check the dictionary if you don’t know their exact meaning and build your vocabulary bank. |