24.09.2020

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/skills/writing/upper-intermediate-b2/a-summary-of-a-line-graph

 

https://agendaweb.org/exercises/grammar/adjectives/order-quiz

 

 

Cabinet Office Chief Mouser

Larry the cat currently holds the official role of chief mouser to the Cabinet Office, a position that’s said to date back hundreds of years.

Prime Minister David Cameron was responsible for bringing Larry to Downing Street in 2011. The four-year-old cat was a rescue who came from a dogs and cats home. Though Larry was thought to have a strong hunting instinct, it wasn’t until two months into his period of office that he started showing Downing Street’s mice that he meant business. As The Guardian reported in April 2011, Larry “preferred hanging out in the corridors of power to walking in the grass” and the building’s staff was forced to train the cat “by giving him a toy mouse to play with when he failed to catch any mice for two months.” Finally, “Larry appeared through a window from the Downing Street garden with a mouse in his mouth.” Ever since Larry has continued his duties between daily cat naps.

On Larry’s first day on the job, ITV News reporter Lucy Manning paid a visit to 10 Downing Street. Such attention was a new thing for Larry at the time, and he didn’t immediately like it. Instead, he lashed out and scratched Manning on the arm four times, then hid under a table and refused to come out.

In a 2016 interview with the Sunday Times, Prime Minister Theresa May noted there were parts of Number 10 where Larry has certain seats where he expects to sit on. However, her own office chair was not one of them.

During American President Donald Trump’s June 2019 visit to 10 Downing Street, Larry – who is allowed outside – decided to hang out under Trump’s limousine (nicknamed “the Beast”) to take shelter from the rain ... and reportedly wouldn’t move, which pulled up Trump’s departure. He did eventually walk off (hopefully in search of mice). Earlier that day the cat was about to disrupt the photo session of Trump and Prime Minister Theresa May in front of 10 Downing Street.

On the whole, Larry is likely to be most interested in the ongoing territory war between him and Palmerston, the Foreign Office cat. In 2016, Palmerston, named after 19th-century Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, was hired as the Foreign & Commonwealth Office’s Chief Mouser. Like Larry, Palmerston used to be a stray. Soon after Palmerston moved in, the cats had a couple of rows, including a major one in August 2016, during which they “were at each other hammer and tongs,” according to witnesses. Larry lost his collar in the battle and messed up Palmerton’s ear as they “literally ripped fur off each other.” The territory war was so bad that police had to step in, and Larry had to be taken to a vet clinic.

Larry is now so famous that he has published his own diaries (with help from author James Robinson), has his own picture gallery and newspaper cartoon and was mentioned by David Cameron in his resignation speech. Besides, Larry has an impressive 136,000 subscribers on Twitter, has inspired a book, and now a competition for the best poem about him.

 

How did Larry appear at 10 Downing Street?

A)  Larry was rescued when attacked by stray dogs.

B)  Larry was taken from a pet shelter several years ago.

C)  Larry was given to the Cabinet Office as a present.

D)  Larry came in through a window four years ago.

 

How did Larry start his career as a chief mouser?

A) He caught a mouse under the table.

B) He occupied the Prime Minister’s seat.

C) He injured a media representative.

D) He hit the national media headlines.

 

Which of the following is TRUE according to the text?

A) Larry received a nickname from President Trump.

B) Larry interfered with President Trump’s leaving.

C) Larry searched for mice under President Trump’s car.

D) Larry was present in a photo with President Trump.

 

What is NOT TRUE about Palmerston?

A) He got the name of a British statesperson.

B) He was homeless before appearing in the Office.

C)) He had regular violent fights with Larry.

D) He was taken to the veterinarian by the police.

 

What is the evidence of Larry’s popularity?

A) The cartoon about Larry won a national competition.

B) James Robinson writes Larry’s personal newspaper column.

C) David Cameron himself opened Larry’s picture gallery.

D) Larry enjoys lots of followers in social networking.

 

 

 

 

 

7 Reasons Why We Fall for Fake News

Critically thinking about fake news

Posted Nov 15, 2019

The concept of fake news is nothing new. It refers to a story that isn’t true or is not entirely true, taking the form of, for example, accidental misinformation or deliberate disinformation. But what makes it problematic now more so than ever is its abundance and the fact that people keep falling for it. In a recent piece, "10 Ways to Spot Fake News," my purpose was to provide tips for identifying it; however, perhaps just as important is our understanding of why we fall for it.

1. Confirmation bias.

Confirmation bias refers to our favoring of information that confirms our existing beliefs. Without accounting for this bias in our thinking, we are more likely to fall for fake news if we agree with what is being said. This works the other way around as well; indeed, confirmation bias will yield the opposite effect, enhanced skepticism, for fake news stories we dislike. Yes, it’s good that confirmation bias can, in some contexts, help us dispel fake news; but, at the end of the day, engaging this bias exhibits a lack of critical thinking.

2. Lack of credibility evaluation.

We engage the news in order to inform ourselves, generally because we weren’t there to witness events unfold first-hand. As a result, we trust our source of news that the information they provide us is, in fact, true; and in doing so, we put trust in the source’s credibility.  But we cannot blindly do so. We must first evaluate it.

3. Attention and impatience.

On the other hand, let’s assume that the topic in question is important to you and that you do have the skill of evaluating credibility—you are still susceptible to modern trends in information processing, let alone the other psychological factors presented in this piece. That is, in today’s world, it can be argued that we have a surplus of information (Dwyer, 2017). We don’t read everything in our social media newsfeed. We scroll past articles that are unimportant or uninteresting to us; we don’t pay attention to them. Sometimes, we barely read the headlines. If we do manage to read the headline, that might be all we read.

We want our information fast because we have been primed to get it fast. Now, I’m not saying fast, efficient access to information is a bad thing; it’s not an issue of declinism here; but, I recall a time that if you wanted information on a current event, you’d have to hope it was covered in the newspaper, on the radio, or the evening news on television. Nowadays, we can just type a few letters into our phone and what we want, from a wide array of sources, is there. But along with that is other information, from unfamiliar sources, that we didn’t necessarily seek out.

Moreover, we need to ask ourselves: Are we really attending to what is being said or are we just looking for a quick answer? 

4. We are cognitively lazy.

As discussed throughout this blog, humans are cognitively lazy (Kahneman, 2011). Our brains have evolved to conserve energy for "more important" tasks; and, so, they don’t very much like expending energy when an intuitive decision can be made that is good enough

5. Our emotions are targeted.  

One of the largest barriers to critical thinking is emotion, because, simply, it makes thinking irrational. When people think with their emotions, they think based on gut-level intuitive reasoning, fueled by how they feel and by past experiences associated with those feelings—the opposite of reflective, critical thought. Fake news, like propaganda, can evoke and breed emotions like fear and anger in the reader or listener. If you’re emotional, you’re not thinking rationally and are more susceptible to falling for fake news.

6. Reiteration: the illusory truth effect.

The illusory truth effect refers to the phenomenon in which the more we have been exposed to certain information, the more likely we are to believe that information. Earlier in this post, I mentioned that flip flops had been reported to cause cancer. If you have never been exposed to this information before, its very mention here is the second time you’ve encountered it. The more you read about flip flops and cancer, the stronger the link between the two becomes in your head. Of course, there is no causal relationship between the two. However, debunking isn’t necessarily a helpful solution.

 

7. Social pressure.

The final reason why people fall for fake news is kind of a big one with respect to its impact as well as the various subtopics it covers. One of the best-selling books of all-time, How to Make Friends and Influence People (Carnegie, 1936), was perhaps so successful because people recognize the importance of social influence and, likewise, social pressure. When you think about it, the mechanisms of such pressure are quite simplistic with respect to how it works within social media: if you say something that someone doesn’t like, they might unfriend you; if it’s something they really don’t like, they might report you; the more you have in terms of friends, followers, likes, views or clicks, the more influence you and your (signaled) values have.