Every week, we summarise the news to give you some insight into what is happening in Britain, and what people are talking about. It is a great way to practise your English. 

This week find out about: a new statue in London's Trafalgar Square, how the English language is changing, which country the prince and princess are visiting and a GBP20 million painting that was discovered in a house in Scotland.

Trafalgar Square is one of London's most famous landmarks. As you probably know, it has Nelson's Column in the middle with four big stone blocks at the corners. Three of the blocks have statues on them. The fourth was empty till 1999, when a temporary art work was put on it. Since then, the "fourth plinth" has had a series of art works on it. Last week the latest one went on show. 

 

It is called Really Good, and it is a giant black metal hand. The fingers are curled round, and the thumb is sticking up. But it is not an ordinary thumbs-up. The thumb is much longer than a normal thumb would be (and it's seven metres high) so the effect isn't really cheery at all.

 

 

A report on how English is changing says that in 50 years local accents and words will have been killed off. 

 

It says keyboards will be replaced by voice recognition software, which will change how we use the language. We will also change because we hear American voices a lot, and in London "multicultural English" with input from Caribbean, west African and Asian communities, is likely to make a big difference. The Th sound may be replaced by F or V, and R may be replaced by V.

 

The authors of the report say shortened words and simpler pronunciation will bring more changes. In 50 years you might say to somebody who's got a new car: "Hey bruv, I totes fink that car is a beauty."

 

Prince George and Princess Charlotte, the youngest children in the Royal Family, were in the news this week as they appeared in public in Canada. They were visiting with their parents, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

 

They appeared at a tea party in Victoria, Canada, with other small children and were photographed having a lovely time playing with balloons and running around. 

 

 

Art expert Bendor Grosvenor was examining paintings at a Scottish historic house for a TV show when he noticed a gloomy little picture hanging high above a door. He always carries  binoculars and a torch on house visits so he could actually see the painting, which was very dirty. He thought it looked like it was painted by Raphael, and persuaded the owners to have it carefully cleaned.

 

He found out that the painting was originally thought to be a Raphael but later someone decided that it was a copy. However, Grosvenor is now convinced that the picture is a Raphael, painted in the 1500s, and might be worth GBP20 million.