The Reading / Listening - Bluesky - Level 2

A new social media site called Bluesky is growing quickly. It is getting over one million new users every day. The site opened to the public in February. It started becoming very popular after the U.S. Presidential Election. Many people are signing up for Bluesky as an alternative to X, Facebook and Threads. Bluesky is the most downloaded free app in Apple's and Google's app stores. Digital media journalist Ben Collins said: "Bluesky works and looks and feels just like Twitter." He said Bluesky has a fresh feel and gives users more control.

Bluesky started in 2019 as a research project at Twitter. It launched as an invitation-only site in February 2023. The platform is similar to Twitter. Even the logos are similar. Twitter's was a blue bird; Bluesky has a blue butterfly. The name Bluesky is from a Twitter idea that a bird flies freely in an open blue sky. This open blue sky is like free speech. Bluesky users can control their feed. They can focus on posts they are interested in. If they want only posts that have cat photos or posts related to sports, they can choose feeds from a marketplace.

Try the same news story at these levels:

    Bluesky - Level 0 Bluesky - Level 1   or  Bluesky - Level 3

Sources
  • https://www.cnet.com/tech/bluesky-explained-why-this-social-media-network-is-now-growing-by-1-million-users-daily/
  • https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/nov/17/bluesky-musk-trump-x-twitter-authoritarian-world
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bluesky


Make sure you try all of the online activities for this reading and listening - There are dictations, multiple choice activities, drag and drop activities, sentence jumbles, which word activities, text reconstructions, spelling, gap fills and a whole lot more. Please enjoy :-)

Phrase Matching

Paragraph 1

  1. A new social media site
  2. growing
  3. It is getting over
  4. new
  5. It started becoming very
  6. after the U.S. Presidential
  7. the most downloaded
  8. Bluesky has a fresh
  1. Election
  2. one million
  3. popular
  4. free app
  5. called Bluesky
  6. feel
  7. quickly
  8. users

Paragraph 2

  1. It launched as an invitation-
  2. Even the logos are
  3. a bird flies freely in
  4. This open blue sky is like free
  5. Bluesky users can
  6. They can focus on posts they are
  7. cat photos or posts related
  8. they can choose feeds from
  1. an open blue sky
  2. to sports
  3. control their feed
  4. a marketplace
  5. similar
  6. speech
  7. interested in
  8. only site

Listening — Listen and fill in the gaps

A new social media site called Bluesky (1) ___________________. It is getting over one million new (2) ___________________. The site opened to the public in February. It started becoming (3) ___________________ the U.S. Presidential Election. Many people are signing up for Bluesky as (4) ___________________ X, Facebook and Threads. Bluesky is the most downloaded free app in Apple's and Google's app stores. Digital media journalist Ben Collins said: "Bluesky (5) ___________________ and feels just like Twitter." He said Bluesky has a fresh feel and gives (6) ___________________.

Bluesky started in 2019 (7) ___________________ project at Twitter. It launched as an (8) ___________________ in February 2023. The platform (9) ___________________ Twitter. Even the logos are similar. Twitter's was a blue bird; Bluesky has a blue butterfly. The name Bluesky is from a Twitter (10) ___________________ bird flies freely in an open blue sky. This open blue sky is like free speech. Bluesky users can control their feed. They can (11) ___________________ they are interested in. If they want only posts that have cat photos or posts related to sports, they can (12) ___________________ a marketplace.

Put a slash (/) where the spaces are

AnewsocialmediasitecalledBlueskyisgrowingquickly.Itisgettingover
onemillionnewuserseveryday.ThesiteopenedtothepublicinFebruary
.ItstartedbecomingverypopularaftertheU.S.PresidentialElection.Ma
nypeoplearesigningupforBlueskyasanalternativetoX,FacebookandT
hreads.BlueskyisthemostdownloadedfreeappinApple'sandGoogle's
appstores.DigitalmediajournalistBenCollinssaid:"Blueskyworksandlo
oksandfeelsjustlikeTwitter."HesaidBlueskyhasafreshfeelandgivesuse
rsmorecontrol.Blueskystartedin2019asaresearchprojectatTwitter.Itl
aunchedasaninvitation-onlysiteinFebruary2023.Theplatformissim
ilartoTwitter.Eventhelogosaresimilar.Twitter'swasabluebird;Bluesk
yhasabluebutterfly.ThenameBlueskyisfromaTwitterideathatabirdfli
esfreelyinanopenbluesky.Thisopenblueskyislikefreespeech.Bluesky
userscancontroltheirfeed.Theycanfocusonpoststheyareinterestedin
.Iftheywantonlypoststhathavecatphotosorpostsrelatedtosports,the
ycanchoosefeedsfromamarketplace.

Student survey

Write five GOOD questions about this topic in the table. Do this in pairs. Each student must write the questions on his / her own paper. When you have finished, interview other students. Write down their answers.

(Please look at page 12 of the PDF to see a photocopiable example of this activity.)

Discussion — Write your own questions

STUDENT A’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student B)

(a) ________________

(b) ________________

(c) ________________

(d) ________________

(e) ________________

(f) ________________

(g) ________________

(h) ________________

STUDENT B’s QUESTIONS (Do not show these to student A)

(i) ________________

(j) ________________

(k) ________________

(l) ________________

(m) ________________

(n) ________________

(o) ________________

(p) ________________

Free writing

Write about this topic for 10 minutes. Comment on your partner’s paper.

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________

Answers

(Please check your answers against the article above.

Help Support This Web Site

  • Please consider helping Breaking News English.com

Sean Banville's Book

Thank You