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Article of the month:
The Other Drug Scandal
When you think of kids on drugs the first drug that probably comes to mind is cannabis (aka dope, marijuana, weed, herb, ganja), but there is another equally disturbing drug phenomenon: kids on anabolic steroids. These aren't drugs to make you high but to make you fitter, faster and stronger than your competitors on the sports field. According to one report in America, US children as young as 11 are taking illegal steroids in a bid to achieve their dream of sporting glory.
Head of the US anti-doping agency, Terry Madden, told a Senate committee that people needed to be warned how dangerous steroids could be to a child's health. They also needed to be aware how widespread the problem is. More than 500,000 high school-age children are estimated to be using steroids.
In the American population generally it has been estimated that some five million people
annually used the drugs "to improve athletic performance, appearance and self-image". Of that, 175,000 are estimated to be high school girls and 350,000 are high school boys. "Those same studies have shown that some users start even younger, first using steroids while they are in middle school," said another Doping Agency member.
One of the side-effects of anabolic steroid use is psychological disturbance. One father told how his 16-year-old son took steroids after he was told to gain 20 pounds if he wanted to be a starting pitcher in baseball. After he stopped taking the drugs, he suffered a depression that drove him to suicide.
Mr Madden expressed his dismay that at the moment there was no effective regulation of the availability of steroid-based products. He described it as a "health crisis that affects not just Olympic athletes, but every American teenager who dreams of becoming a professional or Olympic athlete, and every consumer who takes one of these products without being informed of the risks."
Mr Madden also called for uniform standards for testing US amateur and pro athletes across all sports. He said insufficient doping testing in some premier pro sports leagues had given a perception to other countries that US athletes routinely used illegal performance-enhancing substances.
Other ECPE resources on external sites
ECPE general information from the University of Michigan
Official description of the Michigan ECPE speaking test (i.e. the format for 2009 onwards)
Practice ECPE test with answer key from the University of Michigan
Official sample essays - the indication from Michigan of the standard that students must reach to pass the ECPE writing section
Audio materials for listening practice
Here are a few places to find audio files for free.
Voice of America has a good range of monologues about topics in the news although the artificially slow rate of delivery will not be to everyone's liking.
ESLpod.com has some quite interesting dialogues in American English about issues of general interest complete with vocabulary explanations and comprehension questions. Again, the unnaturally slow rate may be a major drawback.
Thewordnerds.org is our favourite so far with long interesting dialogues in American accents sometimes about oddball topics, delivered at a normal speed (as it should be, in our opinion). Very professional.
Businessenglishpod.com has lengthy and very well presented explanations of business terms in American accents sometimes with the transcript unfolding at the same time. A great resource for business terminology.
Freetalklive.com is not an EFL resource but something akin to an American online phone-in programme with conversations between the anchor-man (Ian) and everyday Americans talking about what's been on their minds. No vocab help of course and sometimes the quality of the voices over the phone makes comprehension a little difficult, but genuine stuff.
The BBC World Service has its Learning English department that offers a range of audio material in the very best of British accents.
Download entire American radio broadcasts from the National Public Radio archive. Teachers who want to deal head on with some of the thorniest social issues might like the Democracy Now prgrammes which are listed in this archive.
CNN - the American mainstream news network - also do podcasting
e-pron.com offer a wide range of pronunication exercises that don't get too technical, including things like sentence stress.
manythings.org have lots of texts to read while listening to them being read in an American accent. Plus other listening and pronunciation exercises (like tricky word pairs and tongue twisters).
Why not download an entire audio book? Find these at freeaudio.org, scottsigler.net or librivox.org.
Blogging
Start your own blog for free at www.blogger.com.
Think of a name for your blog (one that no one else has already thought of) and then register with blogger.com. To do this you will need an email address. If you don't have one, get one free from www.yahoo.com.
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