English in Madrid

Source: Wikipedia UK employment total hits record high   The number of people in work in the UK has reached a record high of 32.54 million, latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show. Unemployment was flat , with a small increase of 8,000 between September and November for a total of 1.37 million. Average earnings excluding bonuses increased by 3.3% in the year to November, as wage rises continued to outpace inflation. The number of job vacancies rose by 10,000 to a record high of 853,000. ONS head of labour market David Freeman said: "The number of people working grew again, with the share of the population in work now the highest on record. " Meanwhile , the share of the workforce looking for work and unable to find it remains at its lowest for over 40 years, helped by a record number of job vacancies . " Wage growth continues to outpace inflation, which fell back slightly in the latest month."  The unemployment...

Source:  Kenneth Vellinga on Unsplash London murder rate overtakes New York for first time ever after spate of fatal stabbings and shootings London's murder rate has overtaken New York City's for the first time ever, according to a new report. February marked the first month the UK capital saw more murders than New York, with 15 dead (nine aged 30 or younger). According to the report in the Sunday Times, London also suffered 22 fatal stabbings and shootings in March, higher than the 21 in the Big Apple. Both cities have similarly sized populations of around 8.5m people. New York City's murder rate has decreased by around 87 per cent since the 1990s. Meanwhile , London's has grown by nearly 40 per cent in just three years, not including deaths caused by terrorist attacks. On Saturday a murder probe was launched after a 36-year-old woman was killed in what is believed to be the 30th incident of fatal knife crime in the capital this year. The deat...

Source:  Tim Mossholder on Unsplash   Learning a language is resolution for one in five Brits, survey says   Learning a language will be a new year's resolution for about one in five Britons in 2018, a survey suggests. About one in three said they intend to learn at least some key phrases. Spanish was the most popular language among 2,109 UK adults questioned by Populus for the British Council. "If we are to remain globally competitive post-Brexit, we need more people who can speak languages," said British Council schools advisor , Vicky Gough. Of the representative sample of adults polled : 64% said they had always wanted to speak another language fluently  56% said they regretted never hav ing made the effort to do so   58% agreed it was more important than ever for people in the UK to learn another language  but only a third said they could currently hold a basic conversation in one  45% were embarrassed by their poo...

Source:  Annie Spratt on Unsplash Warmer Arctic is the 'new normal' A warming , rapidly changing Arctic is the "new normal" and shows no signs of returning to the reliably frozen region of the past. This is according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Arctic Report Card . Director of the administration's Arctic Researcher Program, Dr Jeremy Mathis, said the region did a great service to the planet - acting as a refrigerator. "We've now left that refrigerator door open," he added. Dr Mathis was speaking at the annual American Geophysical Union meeting in New Orleans, where Noaa presented its annual summation of Arctic science. This is the 12th report the administration has produced. And although it pointed to "a few anomalies" in a recent pattern of warming in the Arctic region, Dr Mathis said: "We can confirm, it will not stay in its reliably frozen state." "The thing I took t...

Source:  Chewy on Unsplash Pets in the doghouse as ownership falls When it comes to the cost of owning a pet, many people in the UK are finding that there's just not enough money in the kitty . Modern economic pressures mean that fewer households now own a pet. Just 56% now have one, down from 63% five years ago, say retail analysts Mintel. Because many people cannot afford to buy their own home, more are renting from landlords who don't allow animals. People are also having a family later in life, and children are big pet fans. " Shrinking household sizes and the trend of consumers starting their families later in life are all having a negative effect on pet ownership," said Emma Clifford, associate director of food and drink at Mintel. " Additionally , the shift towards privately rented accommodation continues to put downward pressure on pet ownership."  Ownership of pet fish, including goldfish and tropical fish, has take...

Deaths outnumber births in Spain Recession and high unemployment have encouraged many citizens to (1) seek/search/look better prospects abroad Spain , long concerned (2) for/of/about its ageing population and emptying countryside, has passed a milestone in population decline, recording more deaths than births in the first half of this year. Deaths exceeded births by more than 19,000 in the first half of 2015, a turnaround from a year earlier when there were nearly 4,000 more births than deaths, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said. Spain has not consistently experienced more deaths than births since its 1936-39 civil war or the 1918 Spanish flu pandemic, according to news reports . Deaths (3) shortly/briefly/quickly exceeded births in early 1999, but demographers considered that a blip , while now they see it as the start of a longer trend . The INE predicted last year that a trend of more deaths than births would begin in 2015 and the gap would continue t...

Source:  Jude Beck on Unsplash Rise in stay-at-home fathers fuelled by growing numbers of female breadwinners The number of stay-at-home fathers reached a record high last year, new figures show, as families saw a rise in female breadwinners. Men now make up nearly 10 per cent of those who care for children while their partner goes out to work, official employment statistics revealed today. There were 227,000 men staying at home to look after family between September and November last year, a rise of 19,000 compared to the same period in 2011 and the highest increase since figures began in 1993. Experts suggested that the shift was down to men losing their jobs in the recession and either failing to find new employment or deciding that it did not make financial sense for them to return to work if their partner was a high earner.   Source: Daily Telegraph      Vocabulary :   to fuel -   a breadwinner - el sostén ...

Source:  Breno Assis on Unsplas h IT’S OFFICIAL...WOMEN ARE SAFER DRIVERS THAN MEN MEN may not like reading this but women are officially better behind the wheel.   They break speed limits less, brake less suddenly and avoid danger after dark by driving considerably less often at night than male motorists.   Overall, a team of experts has concluded, women are up to a fifth safer on the road. The verdict comes from the study of data from black box recorders in the vehicles of 19,000 motorists which were used to monitor more than 40 million journeys and 154 million miles of travel over four years. Half the drivers were men and half were women. The research was carried out by car monitoring firm Wunelli, which analyses black box systems used by some insurance companies to set premiums.  Their experts found women drive 28 per cent less at night than men, exceed speed limits 12 per cent less and brake hard 11 per cent less.  The news comes a month befo...

Source: Anastase Maragos on Unsplash Body image concerns more men than women, research finds Anxiety about body image has led to some men conceding they would exchange a year of their life for the perfect physique More men worry about their body shape and appearance – beer bellies, "man boobs" or going bald – than women do about how they look, according to research. More than four in five men (80.7%) talk in ways that promote anxiety about their body image by referring to perceived flaws and imperfections, compared with 75% of women. Similarly, 38% of men would sacrifice at least a year of their life in exchange for a perfect body – again, a higher proportion than women. "These findings tell us that men are concerned about body image, just like women. We knew that 'body talk' affected women and young people and now we know that it affects men too," said Dr Phillippa Diedrichs, from the centre of appearance research at the University of the West of E...

Women are better at parking than men, study suggests It is a cliché almost as old as the motor car itself, and the subject of many a sexist joke. But the idea that women cannot park is simply untrue, according to research indicating that female drivers are more adept than men at manoeuvring into a space. Covert surveillance of car parks across Britain has shown that while women may take longer to park, they are more likely to leave their vehicles in the middle of a bay. The study is one of the most comprehensive ever conducted on gender driving differences, and took into account seven key components of parking styles.  Women were also found to be better at finding spaces, more accurate in lining themselves up before starting each manoeuvre, and more likely to adopt instructors’ preferred method of reversing into bays.  Men were shown to be more skilled at driving forwards into spaces and more confident overall, with fewer opting to reposition their car once in a bay....

Source:  Jamie Street on Unsplash Oh Fido, will you be my Valentine? FORGET going gooey-eyed over our other halves this ­Valentine’s Day – we save most of our love for our cats and dogs. On the most romantic day of the year, a survey reveals that a third of pet owners are more affectionate to their furry friends than their human lovers. On the most romantic day of the year, a survey reveals that a third of pet owners are more affectionate to their furry friends than their human lovers.  And so devoted are we that an amazing 80 per cent would never date someone who didn’t like their pet – while 20 per cent admit they would rather have a pet than a relationship.  The poll of 3,000 British dog and cat owners also showed that, faced with giving up their pet for the sake of love, 79 per cent would refuse to do it.  Pets can even take the place of starting a family.  Almost a third – 29 per cent – of people in a relationship prefer to have a pet ...

Source: cetteup on Unsplash Tuesday at 10am is most stressful time of week Half of British employees pin-pointed mid-morning on Tuesday as their 'stress peak' - when their workload becomes 'too much' and they start to crumble under the pressure. The  (1) most/majority of workers said they coast through Monday getting their brain in gear and * catch up with gossip from the weekend and (2) discussing/speaking TV shows they've watched. But on Tuesday reality sets in and staff spend the very first part of the day * going through emails they ignored on Monday before planning the week (3) forward/ahead . And they're faced with a mountain of a to-do list to tackle and struggle with their boss' demands or impending deadlines . A spokesman for leading recruitment agency Michael Page, which  (4) made/carried out the research of 3,000 Brits, said: ''It seems our jobs are the biggest cause of stress in our lives - even little things l...