Activities for intermediate and advanced adult students. You will read about news and current affairs. Politics and Economy. Sport, Music and Literature. And of course all aspect of language.
Saturday 26 December 2020
Saturday 19 December 2020
Thursday 17 December 2020
News
The UK and Singapore have signed a free trade agreement, delivering positive news for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as the country remains locked in negotiations with the EU. International Trade Secretary Liz Truss signed the agreement with her Singapore counterpart Chan Chun Sing in the city-state last week. The new deal covers more than £17billon of trade in goods and services and largely replicates the existing EU-Singapore FTA.
Under the current arrangement, 84 percent of tariffs that apply to Singapore exports to the UK are exempted, with the balance set to be struck off by November 2024.
Ms Truss said the agreement was “part of a much wider strategic investment for the UK, taking us a step closer to joining Singapore” in the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), a regional trade deal.
She added: "Joining the CPTPP would boost the UK's “economic security, diversify supply chains and strengthen the global consensus for rules based free trade."
The CPTPP is a high-quality free trade agreement which binds together Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico, Malaysia, Peru, Chile and Brunei.
"The EU has agreements with quite a lot of countries in the CPTPP, but not all of them.
"It would make it much more difficult for the EU to conclude agreements with countries like Australia for instance, if Britain and the US were to join."
"That there are a few places where CPTPP has rules that members accept. Digital trade is one of those areas."
Saturday 7 November 2020
Thursday 10 September 2020
Historic Vs Historical
Hillary Clinton was the first female nominee from a major party for the office of US president. Now, Kamala Harris—while she is the third woman to run for vice president—is the first woman of color on a major party’s ticket.
These strong women are setting important examples for the next generation of children, but have their candidacies been historic or historical? Or are these incredibly similar words simply synonyms that can be interchanged? Let’s take a closer look.
What does historic mean?
Historic is an adjective that means “well-known or important in history.” For example: the Declaration of Independence is a historic document crucial to the United States’s history. Or: that building around the corner is a historic landmark and deserves to be renovated.
Historic was first recorded around 1605–15. It originates from the Greek historikós (“historical, scientific”) via the Latin historicus. Synonyms for historic include notable, renowned, famous, famed, and memorable.
What does historical mean?
Historical is an adjective that can be defined as “of, pertaining to, treating, or characteristic of history or past events.” For example: when he was going through the garage, he found some historical documents from World War II in what he thought were just boxes of junk.
Historical can also refer to something that is “based on or reconstructed from an event, custom, or style from history.” For example: the theater company invested a huge amount of time and money to ensure the historical costumes were as authentic as possible.
Lastly, historical can mean something that existed (“opposed to being part of legend or fiction or as distinguished from religious belief”). It can also mean “several” pertaining to analysis based on a comparison among several periods of development … as in language or economics.”
