Listening

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Helpful Words and Phrases

Listen and repeat.

  1. underprivileged
    • ex. Many underprivileged families cannot afford healthy food.
  2. diversity
    • ex. The company values diversity in the workplace.
  3. detection
    • ex. Early detection of the disease can save lives.
  4. prevention
    • ex. Regular exercise is important for the prevention of heart disease.
  5. criticism
    • ex. He accepted the teacher’s criticism and worked to improve his essay.

Article

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

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For the past ten years, Dr. Priscilla Chan and her husband Mark Zuckerberg have used their wealth to support health and education programs. They helped underprivileged schools and promoted diversity through social programs.

The couple is now focusing on science through their organization, Biohub. It uses artificial intelligence to study human cells and speed up disease detection, prevention, and treatment. Chan and Zuckerberg have promised to give away 99% of their lifetime wealth from Meta Platforms, where Zuckerberg is CEO. Since 2016, they have donated $4 billion (more than ¥619 billion) to research and plan to double that amount over the next ten years.

However, their foundation recently faced criticism for reducing support for some social programs, including diversity and immigration projects. Yet, the couple says their main goal is now to advance science for better health. Chan, a former children’s doctor, hopes AI can help doctors understand what happens to sick children’s cells. Chan said, “Until now, that kind of understanding has been out of reach. AI is changing that.” She said she hopes more research can help develop treatments for such problems.

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

Discussion

Choose a topic and discuss the questions with your tutor.

Donations

  • Chan and Zuckerberg have promised to give away 99% of their lifetime wealth from Meta Platforms. Do you think everyone should donate some of their money if they can? Why or why not? Discuss.
  • The couple announced that they will donate 99% of their lifetime wealth from Meta Platforms. What do you think of this announcement? Discuss.
  • If you had a lot of money to donate, what charity group would you like to support (ex. groups fighting climate change, shelters for homeless people)? Discuss.

Wealth and Wealthy People

  • In your country, who do you think is the wealthiest person? Discuss.
  • If you were a wealthy person, what would you do? Discuss.
  • If you had a choice, would you like to have more wealth? Why or why not? Discuss.