It's the biggest thing in the night sky, so it's no surprise the moon appears in many English expressions. Here are a few examples.

If someone says they "love you to the moon and back," it means they love you very much, because their love is as large as the distance between the Earth and the moon – an average of 384,000 kilometers.

This expression is used in Guess How Much I Love You, a 2008 children's book by Sam McBratney. It's usually said to romantic partners or people in your family.

If someone is talking "moonshine" it means they're talking about something that isn't real or is foolish. But more often someone will offer you a drink of "moonshine," which is a word used in the US for illegal liquor.

If something doesn't happen very often, it can be said to only happen "once in a blue moon." A "blue moon" isn't really blue – it's either when a second full moon is seen in the same month, or the third full moon when four full moons are seen in the same season.

Both types of blue moon don't happen very often, only about once every 2.7 years.

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

You'll Love These Expressions 'To the Moon and Back'

Pizza is one of the world's most popular fast foods. It's believed that over 5 billion pizzas are sold around the world every year. In the US alone, people buy about 3 billion pizzas each year, which is about 46 slices per person!

But it wasn't always as popular as it is today — in fact, it used to be looked down on, even by Italians!

The modern pizza we know today started in Naples, Italy, in the 18th century. Poor people in the city needed cheap food that was easy to eat as they looked for work. Street vendors sold them pizzas with simple toppings like garlic and tomatoes.

For a long time, pizza was looked down on as food for the poor, and visitors to Naples thought it was dirty and unappealing.

But this changed in 1889, when Queen Margherita of Italy tried pizza and loved it. The pizza with tomatoes, mozzarella and basil was named after her, and pizza started to become a national dish in Italy.

Pizza became a favorite in the US after Italian immigrants brought it with them. It became especially popular in cities like New York, and new styles like Chicago deep dish and Hawaiian were invented.

And it became even more popular with the invention of frozen pizza, which let people make their own pizzas at home.

Today, pizza is enjoyed around the world, with many different toppings and styles. But its basic form hasn't changed very much from all those years ago.



From Poverty to Popularity: The History of Pizza

You may sometimes notice people at airports wearing a green lanyard with sunflowers on it. This is usually worn by people who have a hidden disability — disabilities that can't always be seen from the outside, such as learning difficulties or autism.

But soon, you might start noticing the Sunflower lanyard somewhere new: Lego pieces.

The toy company announced on December 3 — International Day of Persons with Disabilities — that it has partnered with Hidden Disabilities Sunflower, the UK company that first created the lanyards in 2016.

Lego is releasing three sets featuring the lanyard: one for its Duplo toys, which are for kids under the age of 8; an airport set for older children; and a set with over 3,000 pieces for adults. The sets will go on sale between January and June 2025.

People will also be able to add the Sunflower lanyard when customizing their own Lego pieces at official Lego stores in parts of Europe and North America.

The Lego Group said it's proud to have created what it calls "the world's first toys to feature the official Sunflower lanyard," and hopes the sets will promote inclusion for people of different ages and with different disabilities.

On Lego's website, Martin Moxness, an adult Sunflower lanyard user, said seeing the lanyard on Lego pieces will help normalize hidden disabilities.

"As a child, this would have been life-changing and would have made me feel seen and accepted," he added.

According to the World Health Organization, one in six people around the world lives with some form of disability, many of them hidden. Disability inclusion is an important part of achieving health for all, it said.

Over 280 airports around the world now recognize the Sunflower lanyard, Hidden Disabilities said.

Lego Announces New Toys with 'Hidden Disability' Lanyards

Saudi Arabia scored a big win in its campaign to attract major sports events to the kingdom when it was formally named as the 2034 men's soccer World Cup host on December 11.

For the last year, there hasn't been too much doubt that Saudi Arabia would be confirmed as host, as the only other contender — Australia — had withdrawn from the contest to host the World Cup.

Awarding the tournament to Saudi Arabia has been seen as controversial by some soccer observers.

That's mostly because of the country's human rights record. Some have said that Saudi Arabia is using sports to divert attention from social or environmental problems, something that's known as sportswashing.

Saudi Arabia has denied this is the case.

The World Cup may be a number of years away but there are a lot of questions that need to be answered about the tournament, from where games will be played to how workers' rights will be protected.

Saudi Arabia aims to host all 104 games, though there has been speculation that some games could be played in neighboring or nearby countries.

Currently, 15 stadiums have been proposed, although eight are still on paper. They include a 92,000-seat venue planned in Riyadh and another near the capital that's set to be on top of a 200-meter cliff.

The timing may also be an issue. The tournament may have to be moved from the traditional period of June and July to the cooler months of November and December.

This also happened for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, although it wasn't a move that was popular among European soccer clubs, who had their domestic seasons interrupted.

The question of workers' rights was also discussed before and during the competition in Qatar. Saudi Arabia has promised to reform and enforce labor laws, and fully respect migrant workers, but some human rights groups are skeptical.

In the meantime, there are still World Cups in 2026 and 2030 to think about!

Saudi Arabia Confirmed as 2034 World Cup Host

Online reviews are everywhere, whether you're looking for a movie to watch, a hotel to stay in or a new air fryer.

Many of us read these reviews carefully, even though we probably know that not all reviews are unbiased — or even real.

Now, researchers have found out something interesting about online reviews: women generally rate things higher than men.

The researchers looked at more than 1 billion online reviews on five different websites, including Amazon, Google and the movie site IMDb.

They found that, on average, women rate things more positively than men, and are more likely to give five-star reviews.

The research team then did two smaller studies to find out why this might be. They said women don't actually like things any more or any less than men, but they still generally leave better reviews.

In one of those smaller studies, more than 1,100 people were asked to rate art made by artificial intelligence software. They were asked to rate the art privately and then publicly.

Privately, there was not much of a difference between male and female ratings.

But when participants were asked to write public reviews, women were less likely to post lower ratings, especially when they really didn't like the art.

The researchers said women may feel more worried than men about the consequences of writing bad reviews.

They added that everyone should be able to write reviews without being worried about the consequences.

Women More Likely to Write Positive Reviews Online

Netflix now has 10 million subscribers in Japan, according to the streaming company.

It got to that number during the first half of 2024, so it may be even higher by now — and it's double the number of subscribers Netflix had in the country four years ago.

It's believed that new Japanese shows on the platform — including Tokyo Swindlers, The Queen of Villains and The Boyfriend — have helped the streaming service get more subscribers.

"Japan in particular is a country which wants to see a lot of its own content so we strongly feel the need to produce it," said Kaata Sakamoto, Netflix's vice president of content for Japan.

He added that the company wants to produce more content that will be popular with people in Japan, including more sports and comedy shows.

Subscribers around the world have also been enjoying Japanese content on the platform. It's the third-most-watched non-English-language content on Netflix, after Korean and Spanish. And Japanese anime shows and movies have been watched more than 1 billion times on Netflix in the last year.

Sakamoto said there are plans to make more anime for the platform, but he wants to find "stories that have never been told before."

Netflix first came to Japan in 2015. In 2023, it was the most popular streaming service in the country, with about 22% of the market share.

Around the world, Netflix has more than 280 million subscribers.