Pronunciation ChallengeCNN10: Crypto Falling / Wearable Technology / Saved by Drone

Happy year of the tiger folks! 祝大家虎年吉祥、虎虎生風. May you forge ahead with the vigor and vitality of the tiger. And it’s time for our CNN10 news briefing.

Crypto Falling

Crypto is short for cryptocurrency, or digital currency, which are not doing so well recently. These forms of money are volatile; they can be valuable today, then worth a lot less next month. And a great example of that is Bitcoin. It's the most famous and most valuable cryptocurrency in the market. Last November, one Bitcoin was worth $68,000 but around January 23 it dropped to less than $36,000, losing almost half of its value in just two months. In addition, Ethereum, the second most valuable digital currency, has also lost almost 50% of its value since November; others, in general, have dropped as well.

A couple of factors can be blamed for this drop. One, because of their volatility, cryptocurrencies are considered risky assets; they lose a lot of their value when inflation is high like it is now. That’s why, many investors are avoiding putting money into crypto because they want safer bets. Also, crypto isn't centralized, it's not managed or controlled by a bank or a government. Supporters of these currencies like that idea, and they'd rather rely on a network of computers to determine cryptos' value. However, some governments see it as a threat to their own economies because they have less control over it. For example, China has banned people from trading cryptocurrencies or mining for them. Russia’s central bank has also proposed a ban on cryptocurrency, and India's government is also looking at ways to regulate these currencies.

Even though Bitcoin is valued at less than $36,000 now, American investment bank Goldman Sachs thinks it'll soar to over $100,000 sometime over the next five years. So folks, if you happen to be in the cryptomarket, keep digging!

Wearable Technology

Wearable technology, or computerized clothing like the Teslasuit, offers tremendous amounts of info about athletic performance, but a lot of it is relatively expensive. There are concerns about how long it'll last and about what happens if a competing team were to get a trove of sensitive data about the team using it. In terms of the scale of use of wearable technology, every elite sportsman and sports teams apply wearable technology because it can lead to the difference between winning and losing; the margins are so small. With firms like STATSports and Catapult leading the charge, sports technology will soon be a 40-billion-dollar industry, with the wearables and data collection sector worth around 8 billion dollars.

British-based company, Teslasuit, has developed a full-body haptic training suit that provides touch and force feedback to train and develop an athlete's muscle memory. It looks just like the suit from the movie “Ready Player One” with statistics measurements and prescriptive analysis functions. And From F1 to Karate to tennis, Teslasuit is already working in a diverse array of sports to improve the skills needed for a competitive edge.

Saved by Drone

Millie the rescue dog recently needed rescuing herself. She had slipped out of her collar, run away, and got trapped in southern England's mudflats, which can flood when the tide is high. Millie was there for two days and volunteers‘ efforts to fetch her only scared her farther away. But then someone had an idea: Why not tie a piece of sausage to a string, attach it to a drone, and use that to try to lure Millie to safety? And amazingly, it worked. A drone, a dog and a sausage, sounds just like a perfect holiday. Check out today’s CNN10 video for this cute story.

And now here’s our sentence of the day:

Wearable technology, or computerized clothing, offers tremendous amounts of info about athletic performance, but a lot of it is relatively expensive.

[Vocabulary words]

1. wearable
Something that you can wear and easy to wear because they’re comfortable and acceptable in most social situations.

Ex: Unlike a lot of women's fashion magazines, it features clothes that are both affordable and wearable.

2. tremendous
Very great in amount or extremely good. (And also one of Donald Trump’s signature words)

Ex: She's been a tremendous (= very great) help to me over the last few months.

If you want to congratulate someone you can say:

Ex: You won the game? That's tremendous!

3. relatively
An adverb used in comparison with other similar things or with what you expect.

Ex: John is a relatively good baseball player.
Ex: Relatively speaking, her lasagna was disgusting.

Alright, that’s all we have time for today.
Have a wonderful time with family and friends during the new year celebrations
And a big thumbs up for those of you who kept their Pronunciation Challenge routine even today.
I left some useful tips and references in the comment section down below so be sure to check them out.
This is Ken Miao, 新年快樂 and I’ll see you again next time. :)