#13: Heat Wave? Japan Turns Off the Lights

Hello my beautiful students and welcome back to English News Pod, the best way for you to learn practical English through the news. I’m your host and teacher, Caroline. 

In this episode, we’ll be talking about Japan’s solution to a heatwave - turning off the lights! You can find a full transcript of this podcast episode in the description. 

Japanese cities saw record high temperatures over the weekend - over 40 degrees Celsius! The Japanese government’s solution? Turn off the lights! In the peak of summer, the Japanese government is urging its citizens to decrease their overall use of electricity. The reason? Japan’s power grid is at its limit due to the current strain of constant air conditioning and electricity. The supply of electricity is scarce, due to the increased demand in summer, and the closure of nuclear power plants in the country in March due to earthquake damage. 

Let’s take a look at some grammar:

1. Rhetorical questions - did you notice I asked a few questions in my reporting? Those are called rhetorical questions. Rhetorical questions are questions that we ask when we don’t really care about getting an answer or when we already know the answer. We use rhetorical questions when we want to make listeners more intrigued in a conversation. 
2. Celsius - Celsius is the metric for temperature for most of the world besides America. America uses a different system called Fahrenheit. Fun fact: 40 degrees celsius is around 100 degrees Fahrenheit! It’s very hot!
3. The peak of something - a peak is the top of something, think of the top of a mountain, which is called a peak! ‘The peak of something’  is a phrase we use when we are describing the most intense part of a situation. In this example, we are discussing the peak of summer, or the hottest part of summer.  
4. Power grid  - ‘power grid’ is a noun and it is describing the network of power lines and other equipment used to distribute electricity in an area. In this case, we are talking about Japan’s power grid. 
5. Strain - to strain can be a verb and strain can be a noun. In both cases, they mean to demand a lot of something or someone. In this situation, we are discussing strain as a noun by saying “Japan’s power grid is at its limit due to the current strain of constant air conditioning and electricity.” 
6. Scarce - scarce means limited or insufficient. In this case, we are using it as an adjective by saying that the supply of electricity is scarce in Japan right now. 

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Thanks for listening, and I will see you soon for more news in English!