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Students using A.I. over humans to learn English (23rd December 2024)

        More and more students in Japan are using artificial intelligence (AI) to learn English and other languages. The language learning app Duolingo conducted a survey on how students study languages. More than 4,700 Japanese students answered questions about their language-learning habits. The survey found that the number of people using ChatGPT and other AI tools increased by more than 80 per cent in 2024. AI was particularly popular with younger people. The researchers said more young people used AI than took face-to-face lessons. However, some people in their 20s were not totally happy with AI lessons. They said AI lacked natural responses and was a little boring.

        Duolingo said: "We're in the midst of an AI revolution.…Technology has long had an impact on language learning." It found that apps were the most popular method in Japan to learn languages. English was the most studied language, followed by Korean. People are studying Korean "to understand the language as spoken by…favourite artists and celebrities." Duolingo said around 58 per cent of people who took the survey used language-learning apps. This was followed by video streaming platforms like YouTube and Netflix (37%), textbooks (36%) and online lessons (16%). The number of people going to a language school is decreasing. Just 13.8 per cent of people went to classes with a teacher.

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2024/12/19/japan/chatgpt-english-lessons/

https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20241218/p2a/00m/0li/017000c

https://blog.duolingo.com/2024-duolingo-language-report/

Text 10A2-III

As the world keeps warming and electricity bills take center stage in national politics, the data center boom will drive up USA carbon emissions and electricity costs. But a few simple policies could help bring both emissions and prices back down. That‟s the message of a new analysis from the Union of Concerned Scientists released Wednesday, which models a variety of scenarios for how to fuel the coming artificial intelligence boom. The USA is poised to see a 60 to 80 percent increase in electricity demand through 2050, with data centers alone making up more than half of the increase by the end of this decade, the analysis finds. If policies stay the same as they currently are—with attacks on renewable energy being embedded into regulatory regimes and few significant national policies restricting carbon emissions from power plants—we could see between a 19 and 29 percent increase in CO emissions from USA power plants tied just to the energy needs of data centers over the next 10 years. There are answers, though: Bringing back tax credits for wind and solar energy, even if data centers eat up a significant chunk of new demand for electricity, would cut CO emissions by more than 30 percent over the next decade. They could also make wholesale electricity costs go down by about 4 percent by 2050, after a slight rise over the next decade. Power plants are the second-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the USA, making up about a quarter of the country‟s overall emissions. Last year, emissions from the USA power sector rose slightly, marking the first increase since 2023; commercial buildings like data centers, a separate analysis released last week from the Rhodium Group found, were the main drivers of that demand. 

Internet:http://www.wired.com/ (adapted).

Text 10A2-II

It was the middle of the afternoon, and my son, as he often does, wanted to watch Paw Patrol. “Pups Save a Humsquatch‟?” he pleaded, rattling off episode titles. “No, „Pups Save the Bears.‟ No, „Pups and the Stinky Bubble Trouble‟!” I hesitated, the first sign of defeat. We‟d settled into a virtuous no-TV-on-schoolnights routine, but it wasn‟t a school night, and my husband and I had already done everything there was to do with a 6-year-old on a below-freezing Chicago Saturday — made pancakes, drawn pictures, counted and written numbers up to 100, read stories, played hide-and-seek (which became tickle-and-run), practiced piano, gone to Sky Zone, eaten chicken and rice, played computer games at the library, transformed an errant cardboard box into a tube for our dog, pulled out his new kids‟ cookbook and cooked up chocolate pudding on the stove. What more was there? TV. There was TV! Deep down, parents know that plopping your young child in front of the TV feels bad. Of course, there are even more malevolent screens lurking. In an age of YouTube Kids and artificial intelligence chatbots and when a 2025 Pew survey showed that among parents of children 12 and under, more than half reported daily YouTube consumption, worrying about the cartoons my kindergartner streams may sound quaint. But my son is, for now, too young for the perils of the Internet and adequately distracted by streaming shows, which doesn‟t make me feel any better about leaning on them to keep him occupied. 

Internet: http://www.nytimes.com/(adapted).

Text 10A2-I

Everyone ages, but, sometimes, people outlive all predictions. Previous research has uncovered an unlikely factor related to longevity: intelligence. However, intelligence isn‟t a simple characteristic. There are many traits that contribute to it that can be tested — from memory to mathematical logic. In a 2024 clinical psychological science study, Paolo Ghisletta, of the University of Geneva, linked longevity specifically to one of those traits: verbal fluency, the measure of one‟s vocabulary and their ability to use it. Ghisletta‟s research used samples from the Berlin Aging Study, which started collecting data shortly before the Berlin Wall came down in 1989. It tracked 516 people aged 70 to 105 from enrollment to their death, over as long as 18 years in some cases. The study measured factors like dental health, stress levels, and economic well-being, as well as cognition. This makes it a “rich and rare data set,” said Ghisletta in an interview.

Internet: http://www.sciencedaily.com/ (adapted).