Breaking News English

Wherever we look [daily / nowadays] , we see people wearing headphones or earbuds. They are becoming [increasingly / increased] popular with the younger generation, for work and [for / of] leisure. However, a new report from the BBC suggests noise-cancelling earphones could [steel / lead] to hearing loss. The BBC interviewed doctors and audiologists (hearing specialists) [as / at] audiology departments in five UK hospitals. The doctors told reporters they are [seen / seeing] many young people who are [funding / finding] it more and more difficult to [process / proceed] sounds. The young patients say they can hear sounds, but they're often not [surely / sure] where the sounds are coming from. The doctors say noise-cancelling earphones could [be / is] the problem.

The BBC spoke to Dr Renee Almeida, an audiologist at London's Imperial College. She said there was an [increase / decrease] in the number of [young / youngster] people complaining about poor hearing. She said people [necessary / need] to hear many [kinds / kind] of sounds. One important listening skill is to focus [in / on] and decide which sounds are helpful. Our ears must filter [out / up] sounds we don't think are important. Dr Almeida said: "There is a [difference / different] between hearing and listening. We can see that listening skills are suffering." Another audiologist suggested that headphones can lead to [bald / bad] listening habits. She said we can "forget" to hear important sounds, [liked / like] cars beeping. Headphones may even cause problems in hearing [spoken / speaking] words.