What were you doing in 2022? Can you remember some of the events that made an impact in the world?
Test your memory and your vocabulary with this quiz.
From the team at english-podcasts.com we wish you a happy and successful 2023. Â
How well do you remember 2022?
More than 100,000 people are granted French nationality every year.  This represents around 2.5% of foreigners living in the country and is well above the number in Germany (1,5 %) and Italy (2 %), but way under the UK (4,2 %) and Spain (5,2 %).
Since the Brexit referendum in 2016 many Brits living in France have applied for French nationality.
Before 2015, 386 British residents in France applied for French nationality. The year after the number rose to 1,363 and in 2018 it was 3173.
Why would they do this ? What are the benefits compared to permanent resident status ?
Well, having voting rights is a very important difference, as is the freedom to travel freely in the European Union. Other people have also mentioned being able to avoid long queues at airports and a greater sense of stability.
But it’s a long road to achieving nationality:
Firstly, getting a slot for the interview is difficult as the interviews are limited. Then you have to wait at least a year for the actual interview. In the meantime you have to gather together many financial and personal  documents getting copies and translations.
During the actual interview the documents will be scruperously checked, you’ll be asked questions about your motivation and some questions about France…. some easy, some not so easy. Â
So how much do you know about France ? Enough to pass the citizenship test ? Try this quiz to find out !
Could you pass the test to gain French nationality?
These 40 questions cover just some of the possible questions in the Gaining French Nationality booklet.
This quiz starts with the most frequently asked questions which most people could answer, and then it gets progressively more difficult with questions which people who have read the citizenship booklet should be able to answer, and then it finishes up with some really tricky questions that will really stump you ..... Bonne chance !!
For extra great questions, try these other fun quizzes too.
https://english-podcasts.com/where-should-you-live-in-france/
https://english-podcasts.com/25-off-the-wall-facts-about-france/
Ahead of the Climate crisis meeting with world leaders, COP26 in Glasgow in October 2021, Chris talks to Renu, who lives in India, about how India is going green.
Air pollution in India is a serious health issue, of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, 21 were in India in 2019, but are things getting better?
The Indian government has pledged to eliminate all single use plastics by 2022 – they have one year to go – but just how are they doing?
India generates 25,940 tonnes of plastic waste every day – that sounds a lot, right? But, just what does that figure mean?
It is the weight of 9,000 Asian elephants – every day!
88 Boeing 747 jets – every day!
Of this 10,746 tonnes is uncollected plastic waste and 66% of this waste is generated by 60 cities and 50% of this waste comes from 5 cities :Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi.
This all sounds alarming, and it is, but India is the 15th biggest polluter in the world
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Did you watch the Euros 2020? Are you a football fan? What did you think about the backlash against the losing finalists, England, and in particular the 3 players who missed the crucial penalties?
In this podcast Sue caught up with Dave, a West Ham supporter, who gives his opinion about the football and the harsh criticism that the players received, and also Victoria who runs an equality blog on Instagram, Feminists of Reading.
As a langage learner tune your ear to Dave’s London accent. Also listen out for these expressions that he uses:
The boozer
Name and Shame
A bloodbath
The bandwagon
The fans are thick (Sue replies that he has probably “put his finger on it”)
One of the people in the background says “I couldn’t agree more”. What does this mean? Does the person agree or disagree?
This is a podcast for language learners and although the english-podcast team support anti-racism, Â the views of Dave and Victoria are entirely their own.Â
The podcast was recorded by Zoom so the sound is unstable at times.
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Test your knowledge of sporting idioms.
Welcome to your Test your knowledge of sporting idioms.
Sport is a huge part of British and all Anglo-Saxon culture and it is naturally reflected in the way we speak. We use expressions from boxing, horse racing, football, cricket and even card games to give our language more character and make it more interesting.
As a learner of English it's important to learn some idioms to be able to fit in more easily with the Anglo-Saxon culture.
Just in case you're wondering what an idiom is, take a look at this:
An idiom is a phrase or an expression that has a figurative, or sometimes literal, meaning. So you will see that these sporting idioms are based on real sports situations but the meaning has been transferred to non-sporting events, situations or feelings. While there are thousands of idioms, occurring frequently in all languages it is estimated that there are at least twenty-five thousand idiomatic expressions in the English language !
So "don't let the side down", "give it your best shot", try this quiz of just 18 questions to see just how useful it is to learn idioms. It could catapult your English into "a whole new ball game" !!!
What a year it’s been ! Only one subject dominated our lives, so not much meat for an end of year quiz !
So this year here at english-podcasts we’ve focused on what people said.
Which sentence sums up your year ? For Sue, it’s “What’s Zoom ?” !!! For Chris, it’s… “You are on mute …”
Here’s hoping for a better 2021 !
Quotes of 2020
