Listening Practice Exercises - Poverty, Community Service, Infectious Diseases

**Hello students! How are you? I hope you are all feeling good!** **Today, we are going to have a listening lesson.** **Unit 6 listening** **Listen to the audio, and give answer to the questions!** **Poverty in Ethiopia** Poverty has been a societal problem since times immemorial. It is a situa...

**Hello students! How are you? I hope you are all feeling good!** **Today, we are going to have a listening lesson.** **Unit 6 listening** **Listen to the audio, and give answer to the questions!** **Poverty in Ethiopia** Poverty has been a societal problem since times immemorial. It is a situation where an individual is unable to purchase basic necessities such as food, clothes, and shelter. Moreover, these individuals sustain themselves on a single meal a day since they can't afford more. They may engage in begging since they cannot earn money any other way. Sometimes, these individuals may scavenge rotten food from a dumpster near a hotel or a restaurant just to satisfy their hunger. They may sleep on the pavement or park benches on clear nights. On rainy days, they may sleep under bridges or any other indoor shelters. **How is Poverty Caused?** There are a lot of socio-economic variables that influence poverty. First and foremost is the unequal distribution of wealth. This is compounded by corruption and the ever-increasing population of the country. The next influential factor that causes poverty is illiteracy and unemployment. These two factors go hand-in-hand because, without proper education, unemployment is sure to follow. Most of the people under the poverty line have no marketable or employable skills required by the industries. In case these individuals do find a job, most of these pay extremely low wages, which is insufficient to support oneself or lead a family. **Effects of Poverty** When individuals are unable to afford basic necessities for life, other undesired consequences follow. For instance, health care becomes impossible to afford. This means the individual is at an increased ris of diseases and infections. Sometimes, these individuals also resort to unfair means to obtain money -- such as robbery, murder, assault, and rape. **Solutions to End Poverty** Poverty is not a problem that can be resolved over a week or a year. It requires careful planning from the government to implement relevant policies that cater to the population falling below the poverty line. Another important factor affecting poverty is illiteracy and unemployment. This issue can be tackled with one stone -- i.e., to provide education and financial support. Access to education, especially providing means to pursue higher education increases the employability of individuals. This directly helps to alleviate poverty as the individual can start earning. Therefore, one of the most effective tools to combat poverty is education. In conclusion, poverty in Ethiopia may remain for another decade or so. However, there are strategies that help to gradually alleviate the problem. This text is Adapted from [https://www.toppr.com/huides/essays/poverty-in-india- essay/](https://www.toppr.com/huides/essays/poverty-in-india-%20essay/) **Hello students! How are you? I hope you are all feeling good!** **Today, we are going to have a listening lesson.** **Unit 7 Listening** **Listen to the audio, and give answer to the questions!** **Community Services** Community service is a very important factor when it comes to bettering your society. Through my own experiences and observations, I have come to support my opinion on this issue. My experience that supports this theory involved my job last summer of 2004. I paced around the house for a while. Finally, I decided to sit down and read the newspaper. There was a section on the community which contained a list of volunteer activities. They ranged from helping in soup kitchens to helping as an electrician. I called a number and decided to spend my time taking care of the grocery shopping for an elderly handicapped woman. She has since become a good friend. Finally, I was spending my time having fun. I was making a difference in one woman's life. It may not have paid in dollars. The experience and pleasure I gained was more valuableto me than any amount of money I could have earned. Even more significant is the value and importance of community service in our society. Without community service in our society, many people would not know the importance of charity. In conclusion, I believe that choosing to help your community through community service should be very important to you. It is also important to the people around you. I feel that helping in your community to benefit others will bring you good thing. You will also make the person you helped feel cared about. Adapted from https://www.toppr.com/huides/essays/community-service- essay/ **Hello students! How are you? I hope you are all feeling good!** **Today, we are going to have a listening lesson.** **Unit 8 Listening** **Listen to the audio, and give answer to the questions!** **Occurrence of Infectious Diseases** Epidemiology is the study of the occurrence of disease in populations. Epidemiologists are concerned not only with infectious diseases, but also with noninfectious diseases such as cancer and atherosclerosis, and with environmental diseases such as lead poisoning. These professionals work to prevent or minimize the impact of diseases in the population. Their work may include such activities as identifying unusually high incidences of a particular disease, determining the effectiveness of a vaccine, and calculating the cost effectiveness of various means of controlling disease transmission. Occasionally, epidemiologists act as "detectives" who track down the cause of a "new" disease and mode of transmission, and help organize various health care workers to bring the disease under control. **Modes of transmission** Infectious agents may be transmitted through either direct or indirect contact. Direct contact occurs when an individual is infected by contact with the reservoir, for example, by touching an infected person, ingesting infected meat, or being bitten by an infected animal or insect. Transmission by direct contact also includes inhaling the infectious agent in droplets emitted by sneezing or coughing and contracting the infectious agent through intimate sexual contact. Some diseases that are transmitted primarily by direct contact with the reservoir include ringworm, AIDS, trichinosis, influenza, rabies, and malaria. Indirect contact occurs when a pathogen can withstand the environment outside its host for a long period of time before infecting another individual. Inanimate objects that are contaminated by direct contact with the reservoir (for example, a tissue used to wipe the nose of an individual who has a cold or a toy that has been handled by a sick child) may be the indirect contact for a susceptible individual. Ingesting food and beverages contaminated by contact with a disease reservoir is another example of disease transmission by indirect contact. The fecal-oral route of transmission, in which sewage-contaminated water is used for drinking, washing, or preparing foods, is a significant form of indirect transmission, especially for gastrointestinal diseases such as cholera, rotavirus infection, cryptosporidiosis, and giardiasis. These modes of transmission are all examples of horizontal transmission because the infectious agent is passed from person to person in a group. Some diseases also are transmitted vertically; that is, they are transmitted from parent to child during the processes of reproduction (through sperm or egg cells), fetal development, or birth. Diseases in which vertical transmission occurs include AIDS and herpes encephalitis (which occurs when an infant contracts the herpes simplex type II). This text is Adapted from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK203