Shadowing the newsreader
Listen to the newsreader read out each line and then practise saying it. Record your own voice line by line and submit your voiceover.
Upwards of 100 million people received air quality alerts in the US last week, thought to be sparked by devastating wildfires ravaging the province of Quebec, Canada.
Winds spread the pollution southwards across a vast swathe of the US, cloaking densely populated urban areas such as New York, Chicago and Washington DC in orange-coloured smoke.
Reaching as far south as Atlanta, Georgia, the pall of thick smoke blanketed the sun and obscured many of the nation's celebrated landmarks, as New Yorker Jack Wright comments.
For foreign visitors such as Nicha, from Thailand, the lack of visibility was a source of dismay.
A Code Red alert was issued by the Environmental Protection Agency, warning the public that the Air Quality Index was deemed dangerously severe, with concomitant health implications.
The smoke and minute airborne particulates can be detrimental to people's breathing.
Although most individuals will get over brief periods of exposure, people with respiratory and bronchial problems, as well as those with grave illnesses, are more vulnerable.
Jack Wright has also been impacted by the toxic atmospheric conditions in New York.
Some, like Charmaine Franco, took precautionary measures when braving the outdoors.
Even as the orangey smog began to disperse, the odour of burning lingered across the city, which was apparently far more of a nuisance for Nicha than local resident Pamela Roderick.
