Listening

Warm Up

Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. abuse
    • ex. It’s important to ask for help when any kind of abuse is happening.
  2. a threat
    • ex. The government increased airport security to stop any threats.
  3. inappropriate
    • ex. The inappropriate behavior of the students made the teacher upset.
  4. abusive
    • ex. Abusive comments on social media can be very harmful.
  5. to the best of one’s ability
    • ex. She tried to finish the project to the best of her ability although she was sick.

Article

Read the article below and answer your tutor's questions.

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The International Tennis Federation (ITF) and other tennis organizations said that a new monitoring service will help protect tennis players from online abuse and threats. They said the “Threat Matrix” service would operate in 35 languages as of January 1. So, why did tennis organizations do this? In a statement, they said that tennis players receive high levels of social media abuse and other inappropriate messages. These affect the players’ performance and mental health negatively.

Threat Matrix is a service developed by the AI company Signify Group. The monitoring service would search players’ public social media accounts, such as X, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok, for content that shows abuse or threats. It will also find the people who write abusive content against tennis players.

According to David Haggerty, president of the ITF, tennis must be a sport in which players can play against each other to the best of their ability. Players should be free from any form of abuse. The men’s ATP tour, Australian Open, and French Open were not part of those who made the statement.

This material was based on an article by The Associated Press.

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

To the Best of One’s Ability

  • Do you work/study to the best of your ability? Why do you say so? Discuss.
  • Do you think it’s important to do something to the best of your ability? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • Who is an excellent person that you admire the most? Why? Discuss.

Abuse and Threats on Social Media

  • Why do you think there are a lot of abuse and threats on social media? Discuss.
  • Threat Matrix is a monitoring service that will protect tennis players from abuse and threats on social media. Who else do you think needs this service (ex. ordinary people, celebrities)? Why? Discuss.
  • In your opinion, what should be done to people who write abusive comments on social media? Discuss.