Fiona Wattam

IELTS online tutor and course creator. Owner of ieltsetc.com and The Members Academy - the only IELTS Test Preparation website with everything in one place. Weekly Podcast - IELTS Made Easier

Magazines

IELTS Exam Training Courses
By Fiona Wattam

Flips

Culture (UK)
'Like' isn't a lazy linguistic filler – the English language snobs need to, like, pipe down
The Conversation UK - Rebecca Woods
The latest series of the television show Love Island is over, with Amber and Greg now snuggling up as the most recent winners – at least until the …
Oceans
The mood-altering power of the Moon
BBC Future - Linda Geddes
The idea that the lunar cycle can influence people’s behaviour dates back thousands of years, but has been largely dismissed by modern medicine. But new research suggests there may be some truth to these
Birdwatching
The rise of ‘ungardening’: how to turn a backyard into a wildlife haven
The Guardian - Sirin Kale
A wildlife gardening expert gives her tips on attracting birds, mammals and bugs to your outdoor space Manicured privets and immaculate lawns are a thing of the past. Nowadays, it’s all about “ungardening”:
Habitats
Can we really restore or protect natural habitats to 'offset' those we destroy?
The Conversation UK - Sophus zu Ermgassen and Joseph William Bull
In the forests of northern Sweden, a major train line cuts through land originally protected for migratory birds – so new seasonal wetlands have been …
Air Travel
How much does your flight actually hurt the planet?
Quartz - Cassie Werber
The advice seems simple: Flying has a huge climate cost compared to other individual actions, and if we care about our impact on the environment, we should limit how much we do it. But the bigger question
Condemning poor children to a life without culture is a form of cruelty
The Guardian - Barbara Ellen
Disadvantaged children in England are being priced out of a cultural hinterland. A Social Mobility Commission study, from the University of Bath, reports that children aged 10-15 from low-income families
Reforest an area the size of the US to help avert climate breakdown
The Conversation UK - Mark Maslin and Simon Lewis
Restoring the world’s forests on an unprecedented scale is “the best climate change solution available”, according to a new study. The researchers …
It's all gloom and despair in the UK but as an outsider I still think it's wonderful
The Guardian - Brigid Delaney
It’s a summer Sunday in a beer garden in Islington, London, at drinks organised by Ivan, a friend visiting from Sydney. Ivan is inhaling some soggy crust thing covered in gravy and some hard-looking peas.
Berkeley, CA
Tree planting 'has mind-blowing potential' to tackle climate crisis
The Guardian - Damian Carrington Environment editor
Planting billions of trees across the world is by far the biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis, according to scientists, who have made the first calculation of how many more trees could
Great Pacific garbage patch: giant plastic trap put to sea again
The Guardian - Associated Press
A floating device designed to catch plastic waste has been redeployed in a second attempt to clean up a huge island of garbage swirling in the Pacific Ocean between California and Hawaii. Boyan Slat, of
Paper straws won’t save the planet – we need a four-day week
The Guardian - Andre Spicer
Working less would massively reduce our carbon footprint, and bring many other benefits besides When the Extinction Rebellion protesters took to the streets, I was doubtful about how effective their tactics
Birds: we studied 4,000 'alien introductions' to find out why some were successful
The Conversation UK - Tim Blackburn
Species introduced by humans to areas where they don’t naturally occur are a worldwide problem. These “alien species” can cost a lot of money to deal …
What is extinction? The answer is complicated. | National Geographic
nationalgeographic.co.uk - By Liz Langley
From locally extinct to functionally extinct, here are the various ways scientists track species’ decline. Extinction is a natural phenomenon: After …
It is absurd to question whether we can afford to keep our planet liveable
The Guardian - Fiona Harvey
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, has written to the prime minister to warn against adopting the strict targets on greenhouse gas emissions recommended by the government’s advisers. His intervention, first
The Guardian view on facial recognition: a danger to democracy
The Guardian - Editorial
We don’t want our faces stored in vast databases, whether these are public or private The pressure group Liberty has denounced automatic facial recognition as “arsenic in the water supply of democracy”.
Greta Thunberg: How one teenager became the voice of the planet
Wired UK - Amelia Tait
When Greta Thunberg first downloaded Instagram in June 2018, the Swedish schoolgirl used the app to post pictures of herself posing with her rescue …
28 ways to improve your IELTS vocabulary
ieltsetc.com
28 ways to improve your IELTS vocabulary - IELTS Exam Training Courses IELTS Vocabulary Course - get all the vocabulary you need in 28 days Is your …
Curious Kids: how is global warming heating up the Earth?
The Conversation UK - Richard Hodgkins
Curious Kids is a series by The Conversation, which gives children of all ages the chance to have their questions about the world answered by …
How prehistoric people faced climate change revealed by video game technology
The Conversation UK - Peter Allen and John Stewart
How will climate change remake our world in the 21st century? Will we be able to adapt and survive? As with many things, the past is a good guide for …
Plastic
Plastic straws to be banned from April next bars will still have to provide them if asked
The Telegraph - By Sarah Knapton
A crackdown on plastic straws will come into force in April but pubs and restaurants will still be required to hand them over if requested by customers under a medical loophole. Today Michael Gove, the
‘This is a wake-up call’: the villagers who could be Britain’s first climate refugees
The Guardian - Tom Wall
The situation is a timebomb. It is not going to be affordable to protect large stretches of coast It is an almost perfect spring day. The sky is milky blue and there is barely a ripple on the mirror-flat
Millions are using this Japanese-inspired technique to radically improve their presentations—here's how it works
CNBC - Mark Murphy, Contributor
For each slide, ask yourself, "What will the audience learn from this slide? What questions might they ask? Is this topic relevant to the main …
If sugar is killing us, why does Britain farm so much of it?
independent.co.uk - Emily Clark
It seems drastic to link a packet of Percy Pigs to the death of all life on Earth as we know it. And largely, it is – most species would thrive as …
Wealth from waste – three ways pollution can be turned into something useful
The Conversation UK - Maria Sotenko
Solving environmental problems usually just means cleaning up the mess people have made. But scientists are increasingly interested in creating …
Environment
Scientists invent 'transparent wood' in search for eco-friendly building material
The Guardian - Nicola Davis
New material could replace plastic or glass in construction of energy-efficient homes In an era of glass and steel construction, wood may seem old-school. But now researchers say they have given timber
Thawing permafrost is triggering thousands of landslides across the Arctic
The Conversation UK - Dave Petley
Early spring temperatures in the town of Deadhorse, on the north coast of Alaska, average -17°C. But with global warming affecting the Arctic more …
Seaweed
Feeding farm animals seaweed could help fight antibiotic resistance and climate change
The Conversation UK - Lauren Ford and Pamela Judith Walsh
Demand for food is increasing rapidly – the global population is expected to reach 11.2 billion by 2100. To keep up with the additional mouths to …
Parents of autistic children often face a tough linguistic choice – but bilingualism can be of huge benefit
The Conversation UK - Katie Howard and Jenny Gibson and Napoleon Katsos
Bilingual or multilingual families have difficult choices to make if their child is diagnosed with autism. While it is certainly possible to be …
EU bans UK's most-used pesticide over health and environment fears
The Guardian - Damian Carrington Environment editor
Officials say chlorothalonil poses high risk to wildlife and may potentially harm humans One of the world’s most common pesticides will soon be banned by the European Union after safety officials reported
Childhood obesity crisis study blaming working mothers causes outrage
independent.co.uk - Sarah Young
A study suggesting working mothers are to blame for childhood obesity has come under fire. The UK’s childhood obesity crisis has long been associated …