Today's Headlines:

India withdraws rupee notes

Molecules on your phone reveal your lifestyle

Robot sets new Rubik's Cube record

Transcript:

Many Indians have been queuing up outside banks across India, following the announcement that the highest denomination currency notes are being withdrawn. These notes are widely used in business and property transactions to evade tax, and the measure aims to target that money. Now Indians will be able to deposit their old notes in bank accounts and get new ones.

Molecules found on mobile phones can reveal a lot about the owner’s health and lifestyle, including their food preferences and medication. That’s the conclusion of a study by the University of California. Scientists found traces of everything from caffeine and spices to skin creams and anti-depressants on 40 phones they tested. We leave traces of molecules, chemicals and bacteria on everything we touch.

A robot in Germany set a new record, by solving the challenge of a Rubik’s Cube in less than a second. The Sub1 Reloaded robot took just 0.637 seconds to analyse the toy and make 21 moves, so that each of the cube's sides showed a single colour. By contrast, the Rubik's Cube record for a human is a little under five seconds. (Images courtesy of Infinenon)

Words and definitions:

evade tax
not pay money you owe the government by law 

traces
extremely small quantities

solving
finding an reason, explanation or answer to a question or problem

Exercise:

Use one of the words or phrases from Lingohack to complete each of these sentences. Note that you may have to change the form of a word or phrase to complete the sentence correctly.

evade tax / traces / solving

1. You should go to the doctor if you find ______ of blood in your urine.

2. For taxpayers on a salary, it's difficult to ______ because it is deducted at source.

3. I ______ a very difficult equation in class yesterday. My maths teacher was impressed!

Answers:

1. You should go to the doctor if you find traces of blood in your urine.

2. For taxpayers on a salary, it's difficult to evade tax because it is deducted at source.

3. I solved a very difficult equation in class yesterday. My maths teacher was impressed!