jueves, 7 de abril de 2011

Words

Self-study activity:
Watch this video clip on the importance of words in our daily life and complete the blanks in the transcript with the missing figures and numbers.



Did you know the longest word in the English dictionary is Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis, consisting of (1) ... letters? It’s a lung disease in case you were wondering.

The average person speaks (2) ... words per day. This morning we’ll say (3) ... good mornings, we’ll sing (4) ... words. Rick will preach (5) ... words.

During the Civil War Edward Everett delivered a speech against birth counseling consisted of over (6) ... words and lasted for (7) ... hours. Abraham Lincoln followed it up with (8) ... words in two minutes to give new fund hope to a bloodied nation, and it’s considered one of the greatest speeches in American history.

On August 28th (9) ... a Baptist minister from Atlanta Georgia spoke (10) ... words that changed the course of a nation. (11) .. years before that an idealistic European Prime Minister’s words were instrumental in changing the course of the world.

Words can define a vision, no matter how sinister the vision might be. Some words are by mothers others by monsters. But do our words matter? Words that build up or words that demoralize, words that challenge or words that excuse, words that unite or words that tear apart. Did they matter? Is anyone listening? Or are they just words?

Key:
(1) 45 (2) 16,000 (3) 7.5 (4) 1,148 (5) 5,000 (6) 13,500 (7) 2 (8) 268 (9) 1963 (10) 1,578 (11) 28