var objshow3 = { "showcontent":{"showepisode": "March 17, 2020", "showcurrent": "March 17, 2020", "showlink": "https://rhythmenglish.com/video/update3.mp4#t=1", "showname": "St. Patrick’s Day", "showcomment": "Today’s update: St. Patrick’s Day", "showvocab": "till (noun):

a machine or place where money is kept from transactions in retail shops.

happen (verb):

by chance or by coincidence, (also used to politely ask for information)
e.g. Did you happen to see Susan this morning?
e.g. You don’t happen to have the time, do you?

revelry (noun):

festivities, partying
e.g. We went to Ibiza for a week of non-stop revelry.

carbon copy (adj/ noun):

a near or exact duplicate of a given person or thing; replica.

drizzly (adj) drizzle (noun):

light rain.

bar (verb):

to block or prohibit.
e.g. All citizen are barred from leaving their homes.

curb (verb):

to control, restrain or begin to stop or slow something.
e.g. The police are working to curb the uptick in crime.

stockpile (verb):

to accumulate – material, goods or the like – for future use.

to search high and low (idiom):

to look intently for something, usually in many different places

watchdog (noun):

organized or functioning as a watchful guardian, especially against illegal or unethical conduct.", "showquestion":[ "1. You can go out to a pub for St. Patrick’s Day if you are in Wellington, New Zealand.", "2. Madrid has changed a lot in the twenty-four hours prior to this update.", "3. There are more than five thousand cases of coronavirus now reported in the United States.", "4. NASCAR plans to have a full season of racing.", "5. Tom Brady is finally retiring from American Football.", "6. Apple has received a huge fine due to not taking proper measures to stop the coronavirus." ], "showanswer":[ "true", "false", "true", "false", "true", "false", "true", "false", "true", "false", "true", "false" ], "showvalue":[ "true", "false", "false", "true", "false", "true", "true", "false", "false", "true", "false", "true" ], "showid":[ "answer_1", "answer_2", "answer_3", "answer_4", "answer_5", "answer_6" ], "showtrans": "Hello, welcome and thank you for tuning in to RE News Update for March 17, 2020

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day.

Well, I’m not sure how happy it is really. Obviously, Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations have been canceled around the world in order to stop the spread of the coronavirus. If you’re wondering how this is going over in Ireland, I have found that Ireland ordered all pubs to close down their tills and shut up shop ahead of Saint Patrick’s day. If you happen to be in Wellington, New Zealand, you can still go out and celebrate. This may likely be the only place in the world where Saint Patrick’s Day revelry will be allowed.

For most of the world however, it’s Saint same crap different day.

Here in Madrid we have a carbon copy of yesterday. The city and country as a whole remain on lockdown. It’s a drizzly day in the Spanish capital and it feels like winter is coming back. The supermarket was well stocked this morning, so, there’s something to be thankful for.

Let’s go around the globe.

China, Italy, Spain, the Philippines, and Lebanon have put their citizens under partial or total lockdown. France has issued restrictive measures that require all vehicle and pedestrian movements to be justified and Malaysia will impose a nationwide movement control order that bars citizens from traveling abroad, while foreign tourists and visitors will be restricted from entering the country.

In the United States cases have surpassed 4,400 and at least 87 people have died. The White House recommends people avoid gatherings of more than 10 people, and a growing number of US states and cities have announced widespread mandatory closures as part of attempts to curb the spread of the virus. Top US health care officials have warned the country doesn't have enough stockpiled medical equipment like masks and gloves to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said that the state's health director will order presidential primary polls closed Tuesday as a health emergency.

Tom Hanks and his wife have been released from an Australian hospital. They had both reportedly come down with the virus, so long live Forest Gump, I guess.

NASCAR is postponing all of its races but says a full racing season is still expected, which is to begin – or either resume - in May.

Low cost Philippine airline Cebu Pacific has canceled all of its flights.

In an attempt to find some news that is not related to the coronavirus pandemic. I have searched high and low on the internet and it has not been an easy task, but here it goes.

Tom Brady is leaving the New England Partiots but has not yet said where he will end up.

A Prince Andrew accuser will be part of a new Netflix series on the Jeffery Epstein scandal.

Apple has been hit with a 1.6 billion dollar fine by The French antitrust watchdog, the French Competition Authority.

And that’s pretty much it folks. That’s all I could find that was not directly related to coronavirus.

Stay calm, stay healthy, stay inside, hang in there, everyday we are closer to the end of this particular stitch in time.

Thanks for listening, take care and stay tuned." } }