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LEVEL C1

Shadowing the newsreader

Listen to the newsreader read out each line and then practise saying it. Record your own voice line by line and submit your voiceover.

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January 2020 now feels like a distant memory.

As the year began, the Bengaluru Police Force in India enlisted mannequins as new recruits to bring the city's motorists into line, despite some misgivings from the public.

The climate emergency remained in the headlines, as wildfires ravaged huge swathes of Australia, a plague of locusts decimated Africa's crops and even Earth's most rain-soaked village lacked water.

Preparations were underway for the Lunar New Year festivities, including spending time with loved ones.

Subtle transformations had also begun their slow burn in many places, with digital technology being harnessed in home kitchens by housewives using spatulas to turn a profit.

Companies helped olive farmers to bridge community divides, making their oil the proverbial olive branch.

And promoting sustainable fashion in London, a fabric expo showed garment manufacturers groundbreaking uses of materials, sowing the seeds of ecological clothing production.

The Academy Awards welcomed global cinema into the Oscar family, declaring the Korean-language film "Parasite" the year's best picture - its first non-English language recipient.

The pandemic had yet to rear its head and shutter Hollywood, and Parasite's producer accepted the award filled with optimism.

Within weeks, Covid-19 had thrown the world into panic, cities lay deserted as governments desperate to save lives imposed unprecedented lockdowns.

Our common efforts both curbed the pandemic and let nature breathe.

Renowned for its heavy smog, Delhi gleamed under azure skies and the fresh air provided vistas unseen for generations as bees made hay, or in their case honey by the gallon, unhindered by our pollution.

Behaviours shown by animals in zoos closed for public safety revealed that, like us, their moods were also affected by the lack of social interaction that our presence brought them.

Meanwhile, people did gather in one voice to take the knee and state for the record that Black Lives Matter, joining protests which spanned the globe calling for a world without discrimination.

When July came around, we kept calm and carried on as firms battled hardship on several fronts,

Social interaction took on new, open air forms and, behind closed doors, Liverpool belatedly became Premier League champions.

The social value of this was not lost on manager Jurgen Klopp.

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