Andante

2010/07/07

Listening Repo #1

66-year-old woman has triplets

Access Date: 2010-06-23

Summary
An old woman has just given birth to triplets at age 66. In spite of obvious difficulty and danger, the reason of this childbirth is that they have to grow a family. Her doctor used a young woman’s egg and sperms of the woman’s husband. The trial had failed twice but finally the third bore fruit. In India women have their first babies under their twenty-one. In other hands, there is no limit of upper age to birth. A female doctor is anxious about the possibility that the kid’s parents can be living until they grow. She also referred to unborn baby.

My Opinion
The danger of childbirth at older age is well-known. There is not only the risk of losing mother’s life but also stillbirth, miscarriage and birth of handicapped child. Year by year, in Japan the rate of birth is decreasing. Things which this news shows us are quite contrary. I do not agree with the childbirth of old age but I hope young people consider about their new family and think having a child as their happiness

5 vocabularies
Triplet ----- one of three children born at the same time to the same mother
Egg ----- a cell produced by a woman or female animal that combines with sperm (=male cell) to make a baby
Sperm ----- also sperm cell a cell produced by the sex organs of a male person or animal, which is able to join with the female egg to produce a new life
Publicity ----- the attention that someone or something gets from newspapers, television etc
Fragile ----- easily broken or damaged

News Report #2

Source of Article
URL: http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/06/28/belgium.church.raids/index.html?fbid=kuBSjvra-nj
Source title: Church panel resigns to protest raid
Access date: 3rd / July/ 2010

Summary
Members of a Belgian church commission were resigned because of their criminal act of sexual abuse. Police carried out a criminal investigation and took possession of some documents that had relevance to allegations of child abuse. Pope Benedict XVI criticized the police searching as a deplorable conduct. In addition, "They searched even in the cathedral and bored a small hole into the tomb of a deceased cardinal," he said. "Do they really expect to find documents in there?" Such words were from the Vatican. Clergy members’ abusing children is brought up in some countries, including the pope’s native Germany, as well as Belgium, Ireland, Austria, the Netherlands and U.S.

My Opinion
The problem of abuse is never forgiven but I have some question at the way of searching. Searching in the graves is not needed, I think. It is no better than a burglar and the over-searching of police is not praiseworthy. In the other hand, the abuse which caused this situation is of course terrible and the victims must have suffered serious hurt in their mind. In addition, unfortunately, most of victims are children. The assailant should be punished severely and counseling to remove the pain of the victims’ minds is necessary.

Question
1) Have you ever faced a religious problem?
2) How do you feel about this searching?
3) What is needed to prevent abuse?

Vocabulary
Raid ----- if police raid a place, they make a surprise visit to search for something illegal
Headquarters ----- the main building or offices used by a large company or organization
Abuse ----- to treat someone in a cruel and violent way, often sexually
Clergy ----- the official leaders of religious activities in organized religions, such as priests, rabbis, and mullahs
Pope ----- the leader of the Roman Catholic Church