Soviet goods and luxury brands in Moscow shopping mall

Moscow's shopping mall GUM - or State Universal Store - has reflected many of the changes in Russia's politics and history.

Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC video clip by clicking on the picture below or on this link and answer the questions about it.

The activity is suitable for intermediate students.

1 When did the mall open?
2 What happened in the 1930s?
3 And in 1953?
4 What do many Russians feel nostalgic about?
5 What is GUM celebrating this year?
6 How many visitors does the store receive each year?

To check your answers you can read the transcript below.

This luxury shopping mall in the heart of Moscow echoes with the sound of Russia’s history and political upheavals. The vast corridors of GUM or the State Universal Store were originally opened in 1893. The steel and glass building was the testament of Czarist Russia’s architectural prowess and it was one of the largest shopping centers in Europe.
But Stalin closed the store in the 30s and used the building as offices and accommodation for bureaucrats. It was not until after his death in 1953 that the Soviet government decided to revive the store. GUM regained its cache and some queues of Muscovites eager to buy high and important goods started to stretch on for hours at times.
Even though the store was privatized in the early 90’s after the fall of Communism, many people in Russia still felt nostalgic about old Soviet products with their simple packaging. It is something that catering retailer Gastronom Number One kept in mind as it opened a Soviet-style food store in the shopping mall.
They are keeping the Soviet traditions, for example, here you can buy …, a traditional Soviet beverage, but also have new products from other countries, cheese, charcuterie, ham.
Now big name luxury brands wrestle to attention alongside the more retro stores. And as it celebrates its 120th birthday, GUM remains a consumer mecca for tourists and ordinary Russians alike, with around 15 million visitors flocking through the doors each year.

Leonid Louneev BBC news.

Talking point: Sporting heroes

Today's talking point deals with sporting personalities. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that ideas flow more easily and you can deal with vocabulary problems beforehand.

• Think of ten sports where you have to compete against an opponent, and ten sporting activities you can do alone.
• Which sports do you like to take part in?
• Which sports do you like to watch?
• What do you do to keep fit?

• Do you have a particular sportsperson that you admire? Who? Why?
• What do you think the life of a professional sports person is like? What are the highs and lows?
• What sort of person do you have to be to succeed in sport? Why do you think they do it?
• Do you know any examples of sports people burning out? What were the pressures on them?

• Why do sportspeople sometimes cheat? How can sportspeople cheat in different sports?
• What ways of enhancing their performance do sportspeople have?
• Do you think performance-enhancing drugs and dietary supplements or medicines should be illegal in sports?
• Do you think steroid use in sports is unethical? Why or why not?
• Who’s responsible for the fact that an athlete dopes? Just the sportsperson?
• How does steroid use in sports differ from cosmetic surgery in beauty pageants?

To gain further insight into the topic you can watch the beginning of Oprah interview to Lance Armstrong in January this year. You can read the transcript here.

Madrid Teacher series: Natalia's telephone call

Our Madrid Teacher post this week is devoted to Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students. Natalia has arranged to meet a friend but something unexpected has happened.

Listen to their telephone conversation and answer the questions below about it.



1 Where's Natalia?
2 How long has Natalia's friend been waiting?
3 What's the weather like?
4 What had the two friends decided to do?
5 What problem has Natalia had?
6 What does Natalia suggest his friend should do?
7 Who is Natalia waiting for? [You may not know the name for the profession, but you can deduce from context what this person's job involves.]
8  How is Natalia going to travel to their meeting point?
9  What time is it now?
10 What does the friend ask Natalia to do when this person comes?

You can check your answers by reading the transcript.

Suggested activity:
Get together with a friend and think about a similar scenario to that in Natalia's telephone call. Make up an  unexpected problem that happened to you just when you were about to leave home to get together with your friend and role-play a telephone coversation. Change roles.


Hello. Natalia. It’s me where are you?
Oh, yes, I’m sorry. I know you’re waiting. I’m sorry.
I’m waiting. I’m waiting in the rain and it’s really cold.
Yes.
I’ve been waiting for half an hour and the film starts in five minutes. Where are you?
I’m sorry, but I just can’t leave. I’m sorry. The key broke.
What do you mean you can’t leave?
It has broken inside the door. Can you believe my luck?
What? What happened?
The key has broken. I can’t get out. I’m trying, but I can’t.
What key? In what door hole? What are you talking about?
I’m still home. Still at home. I’m still there. I’m sorry. You will have to watch the movie without me.
I don’t want to do that… I bought the tickets. They’re expensive.
Well, well, why don’t you do this… why don’t you ask them if they can change the tickets for a later show. Please.
So, you can’t leave the house?
Well, not at this moment. I already called the lock smith and he’s coming. He’s coming. He told me he’ll come.
So, you put the key. You put the key in the door, you turned the key and then it broke?
And it broke inside. Can you believe this?
Oh, OK.
But I know this lock smith he should be here any minute. Well, like in maybe ten minutes and then I’ll take a taxi. I promise. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, it sounds like… I guess if he comes now… if he does it quickly, then you can probably make it? Well, yeah… I’ll take a taxi but, you know, it’s about six o’clock right now right, right? So, so… traffic and all of that.
OK. Give me a call when he gets here.
OK. I will. Try to change it to a later show please.
Yeah, probably I’ll just try and get a refund maybe. We can go another day.
Yeah, OK, OK, OK, and I’ll call you.
Good luck with your key.
Thank you. I’m sorry.
Alright, no problem. Bye
Bye.

The full-figured fitness instructor -video activity

On Wednesday last week our talking point had to do with Health and fitness. To illustrate the topic, we embedded the BBC video 'The full-figured fitness instructor', where Lauretta Johnnie talks on what being big means, the reactions she gets from people, the support from family and friends, her resolution to lose weight, and her choice of career.

Some of my students found the video interesting and asked me to prepare a listening activity around it. Here it is. Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 students.



1. Lauretta's students are shocked when they see she's big.
2. Big people feel self-conscious and can't keep up with Lauretta's class.
3. At some stage in her life Lauretta ended up using a wheel-chair.
4. Lauretta was sleeping right before the argument on the bus.
5. The bus incident motivated Lauretta to change.
6. Big people usually get very little understanding from society.
7. Lauretta has only changed her diet to lose weight.
8. Lauretta is a role-model for some of her students.

My name is Lauretta Johnnie. I’m a plus-size fitness instructor. I’m quite big. When I jump, my body moves. I’m not lean and muscular. The kind of reactions I get in the class are some people are really delighted and some people are quite shocked, and I’ve seen , I’ve seen that, you know,  wow,  you’re the instructor.
Big people sometimes don’t feel comfortable attending normal classes because they just feel no synergy with the instructor, they feel that the instructor feels so different to them and then, then don’t necessarily aspire to be slimmer, they just want to be fitter. They may feel self-conscious, they don’t feel that they can keep up with the class. Big people just completely felt left out, so I’m felt let me try and offer a service that can meet those needs.
I weighed about 26…, 27 stones initially. Life as a big person can be quite challenging. You have issues of mobility and for me it became quite bad, I found it hard to walk properly and walk a long distance and I ended up using crutches. 
In terms of being big, people seem to feel they can say what they want to say about you, or they can stare or so on. I was on a bus and there were two seats. I sat down and I was drifting off and the lady sat on me, she sat on me leg, and she kind of slid off and then she just moves me with her hip, so I kind of woke up, opened my eyes and said why did you do that? She said this is the seat for two people, you are one and a half. I was fuming at that woman, she was so rude, she sat on me. She was, you know, that was like the whole of society saying ‘get lost, you fat person and whack’.
I just said Lauretta this is it. You’ve got to the point where you have to change. I always knew I had to, it was to do with my health, it was to do with just my social life, my confidence. I had to make changes because, you know, my weight was just becoming overbearing. 
I’ve been blessed to have lots of support from friends and family and… who helped me on my journey, who offered to come walking or cycling with me, they just listened to me, they are really encouraging, their language… sorry I feel overwhelmed… Sorry!
There is a lack of compassion. It’s not just for me. I think generally about… a lack of understanding about big people. It is as if they’ve become less human when you are big but and… And I just wish people didn’t have that… I mean people speak on behalf of big people, people know how they feel, they know they should lose weight, they know they should cut down, and it’s so difficult to do all those things. They know they should exercise more. It’s very difficult.
I changed my diet and I also changed things such as portion size and I use a smaller plate often and I have a lot more salads and vegetables. 
I actually ask people ‘why do you come to my class? I’m bigger than you’, and they say Lauretta I like the way you teach, I’ve seen you lose weight and I’ve watched your body change, and that inspires me to come.
I don’t have an issue with a big instructor because obviously that instructor wants to get fit, so I think that’s quite commendable.
She’s got that personality that brings people together in just, you just want to jump up and down really just enjoy, it’s just a party.
Well done, ladies.

Key:
1F 2F 3F 4T 5T 6T 7F 8T

Extensive listening: Bill Gates 2.0

CBS 60 Minutes devoted a segment to Bill Gates in May this year. Most equate Bill Gates with Microsoft, computers, technology and wealth. However, we know very little about the man behind Bill Gates.

He lelft Microsoft five years ago to work full time in other projects, and he's determined to make the world a better place, planning to use his fortune to eradicate disease.

The segment lasts around 13 minutes. Remember you can activate the CBS CC subtitles on the lower side of the videoplayer. You also have the option to read the full transcript of the interview here.

Boston as a second language

In summer this year Larry Ferlazzo posted about Talk Boston, a platform with an aim to teaching students how to pick up a Boston accent.

Bostonians have a reputation for talking funny, which makes it hard for non-native speakers to understand them. The accent is different, the vocabulary is different, and the idioms and slang are different.  I guess the same could be said about lots of specific areas around the world where English is spoken.

Because of that, Talk Boston may backfire on those students who have to study in a non-immersion situation, with hardly any possibilities to put into practice what they've learnt in class or on the platform.

Anyway, Talk Boston can be useful for students to come face-to-face with natives speakers and to gain some insight into what learning English the rough way entails.

Talk Boston is divided  into five sections: Videos (very short videos explaining pronunciation), Vocabulary, Game section to test what you have learnt, Translate, and Celebs, where we can hear some Talk Boston alumni on video.

Give Talk Boston a try. It's fun.

Bristol gets European Green Capital Award

This year Bristol won the European Green Capital Award for 2015.

So, what does a green city look like?
How do you integrate urban living with environmental responsibility?
How does a city become an ecosystem?
How can locals engage with biodiversity?
How can a deprived area become sustainable?
How can locals be persuaded about getting involved in the new projects?

Watch this six-minute video, which is a compendium of the five films Bristol presented to the European Green Capital Award jury, and find out the answers to the questions above.

Watch the video again and answer the questions below. You may already be able to answer some of them.

The activity is suitable for Intermedio 2 students.



1 Which four words summarise the vision for Bristol and for Bristol Futures?
2  What will Bristol achieve next year in terms of waste?
3 How do Bristol inhabitants get familiar on how to save energy?
4 What was celebrated on 23 May 2012?
5 How many languages are spoken in Bristol?
6 What is North West?
7 What is the city's policy about persuading people?
8 How many universities are there in Bristol? What are they working together on?

To check your answers you can read the transcript below.

Bristol is an inspiring place: Creative, open connected and green. It's big enough to have challenges but small enough to be collaborative and inclusive. It's a great example of a city that is integrating urban living with environmental responsibility. Everyone can enjoy nature and green space within easy reach, even in the heart of the city. We are a knowledge-based city built on the foundations of two leading universities transferring and creating knowledge with businesses that are at the leading edge of change. We are competitive in the modern economy and creating the future economy of low-waste, low carbon, smarter work.
The local authority is central to leadership and to inspiring change in the city and a green strategy is at the heart of council planning.
Bristol Futures is our new grouping of different teams within Bristol City Council helping to achieve our climate change ambitions. In four words: creative, smart, green and connected, that's the vision for Bristol and for Bristol Futures.  It is about future proof in the city to make sure that it's a good place to do business and a good place to live.
The city is an ecosystem. The urban environment and its people and the key to change is getting them involved. We are progressing quickly. We've adopted a policy of reduce, reuse, recycle, and we don't incinerate to avoid landfill. We went from one bin to multiple bins, reducing the total amount of domestic
waste by a quarter. The language changed: ‘waste’ becomes a resource and next year we will achieve our vision of zero landfill. We have an open approach: demonstration projects in the city share their practical experience of eco-homes or installing solar energy. We support social enterprises sharing their knowledge, working with people by enabling them to show each other.
Everybody can identify with one of the homes. These are ordinary people doing good stuff to their house and these are eco-warriors. If we are all working together, we can, really, really make something happen here.
We get people engaged with biodiversity in a new way.
Its May 25th 2012, just a couple days after International Year of Biodiversity. We are here at Arnos Vale cemetery for our fourth annual Bio Blitz. We’ve got a couple of hundred kids on site, already out with scientists surveying the site. We’re hoping to find a thousand different species over the next thirty hours, and these kids are off and running just about to find and record our first species of the day.
And we are inclusive. We work with a huge range of people. There are eighty-nine languages in Bristol communities. We connect directly with people’s real lives.
North West is a test bed community, a municipal housing a state in a deprived area of the city. European funding enabled the creation of a highly sustainable community building that acted as a focus for engaging the people in the green agenda. North West is very eco-friendly. We care about the environment just as much, if not more, than the posh parts of Bristol. In North West it’s the young people who tell the stories using video and animation.
I’m off to see Dave. He's got solar panels on his roof.
Persuading people is not about telling, it's about showing. We are good at that: A factual broadcasting center of excellence, a knowledge hub, a creative industry city with a sustainable heart and global impact.
When we have exciting projects, we share their knowledge. We promote good community stories so people are inspired by people like them.
We've embedded green thinking at the center of our city, so we’ve embedded green technology and green business, and that means that we can engage with the business community, with people such as you can see behind me, but also we’ve embedded in our communities and that means we can get to the hard-to-reach people, deprived people in our city in a kind of a virtual circle working with business, working with them to ensure our green future. And that’s a message, we can win the green capital, we can send out around Europe because it's a very very sustainable model based on a sustainable technology, I think that's a very very exciting concept for Europe going into the future.
Here at Bristol we have two leading-edge universities working together on new research and innovation to support developments to protect the environment and to boost the economy of the southwest.
Hello, this is Nick Clarke, the leader of the Liberal Democrats and the Deputy Prime Minister in the UK government. I fully support Bristol’s excellent bid which I believe is a fitting tribute to the work that has been carried out in partnership by the council and others to promote a green and sustainable agenda across the city. The UK government recognizes the significance of the European green award and as the winning city in 2014 Bristol will engage widely with other cities, providing a catalyst for the sharing of best practice across the whole of Europe.
Bristol is the green capital of the UK. We want to be European green capital in 2014 and inspire change across Europe.

Nike presents 'Just Do It' possibilities

This Nike ad was released in August this year. The underlying idea is that we are all capable of a little more.

Self-study activity:
Watch the ad and complete the gaps in the transcript with the missing words.

The activity is suitable for Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students.



Listen, if you can run a (1) ,,, , run a (2) ... .
You know what? Run a marathon.
Outrun a movie star.
If you can ride a (3) ... , ride that thing.
Ride a (4) ... . Ride a, ride a tougher (4) ... .
Let’s watch this.
What kind of (4) ... is that?
If you can move your (5) ... , if you can dance, move your legs, move your feet, move the ball.
Is that Pique? (6) ... the goal.
Yeah, that is Pique.
You like to fight?
Well pick on someone your own (7) ... .
Pick on someone twice your (7) ... .
Pick on him.
That’s not good.
Oh, uh… lesson learned.
If you can play table tennis, serve like that, (8) ... the champ, (8) ... her mentor.
C’mon you got this.
(8) ... Serena.
If you can (8) ... your friend one-on-one, (8) ... him.
(9) ... it, take it.
Sorry, girls.
Now, take your talents to the streets.
(8) ... the street (10) ... legend.
That’s good.
(8) ... that guy.
(11) ...   ... .
We’ve been waiting for this.
That was nice.
Good luck with that.

Key:
1 mile 2 race 3 bike 4 bull 5 hip 6 Score 7 size 8 beat 9 Steal 10 court 11 Hold on

Talking point: Health and exercise

This week's talking point is health and exercise. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that you can work out any vocabulary issues and ideas flow more easily when you get together with your friends.

Is our culture obsessed with sport, fitness and health?
Which sports do you like to take part in?
Which sports do you like to watch?
What do you do to keep fit?
Do you keep a balanced diet? What aspects of your diet do you need to improve?

Are we what we eat?
What measures can be taken to ensure society becomes healthier?
And what about your lifestyle? Do you need to alter it somehow?
‘If you're fit, you don't need to exercise. If you aren't fit, exercise is dangerous.’ Do you agree with this logic or not? How can you injure yourself taking exercise?

To illustrate the topic, watch the BBC video below and discuss your reactions to it and the questions below.
What is the life of a big person like?
Would you like to have Lauretta as a fitness instructor?
Do you know any big people?
Have they gone through the same experiences as Lauretta?



My name is Lauretta Johnnie. I’m a plus-size fitness instructor. I’m quite big. When I jump, my body moves. I’m not lean and muscular. The kind of reactions I get in the class are some people are really delighted and some people are quite shocked, and I’ve seen , I’ve seen that, you know, wow, you’re the instructor.
Big people sometimes don’t feel comfortable attending normal classes because they just feel no synergy with the instructor, they feel that the instructor feels so different to them and then, then don’t necessarily aspire to be slimmer, they just want to be fitter. They may feel self-conscious, they don’t feel that they can keep up with the class. Big people just completely felt left out, so I’m felt let me try and offer a service that can meet those needs.
I weighed about 26…, 27 stones initially. Life as a big person can be quite challenging. You have issues of mobility and for me it became quite bad, I found it hard to walk properly and walk a long distance and I ended up using crutches.
In terms of being big people seem to feel they can say what they want to say about you, or they can stare or so on. I was on a bus and there were two seats. I sat down and I was drifting off and the lady sat on me, she sat on me leg, and she kind of slid off and then she just moves me with her hip, so I kind of woke up, opened my eyes and said why did you do that? She said this is the seat for two people, you are one and a half. I was fuming at that woman, she was so rude, she sat on me. She was, you know, that was like the whole of society saying ‘get lost, you fat person and whack’.
I just said Lauretta this is it. You’ve got to the point where you have to change. I always knew I had to, it was to do with my health, it was to do with just my social life, my confidence. I had to make changes because, you know, my weight was just becoming overbearing.
I’ve been blessed to have lots of support from friends and family and… who helped me on my journey, who offered to come walking or cycling with me, they just listened to me, they are really encouraging, their language… sorry I feel overwhelmed… Sorry!
There is a lack of compassion. It’s not just for me. I think generally about… a lack of understanding about big people. It is as if they’ve become less human when you are big but and… And I just wish people didn’t have that… I mean people speak on behalf of big people, people know how they feel, they know they should lose weight, they know they should cut down, and it’s so difficult to do all those things. They know they should exercise more. It’s very difficult.
I changed my diet and I also changed things such as portion size and I use a smaller plate often and I have a lot more salads and vegetables.
I actually ask people ‘why do you come to my class? I’m bigger than you’, and they say Lauretta I like the way you teach, I’ve seen you lose weight and I’ve watched your body change, and that inspires me to come.
I don’t have an issue with a big instructor because obviously that instructor wants to get fit, so I think that’s quite commendable.
She’s got that personality that brings people together in just, you just want to jump up and down really just enjoy, it’s just a party.
Well done, ladies.

Madrid Teacher: For and against television debate

Television is a recurrent topic in the English class, so most students at an intermediate level and above will be no strangers to this three-minute debate on TV, where two Madrid Teachers hold opposing views, one in favour of TV and the other one against it.

Once again, these Madrid Teacher videos give us the opportunity to get acquainted with the conversational strategies native speakers use in conversation. Watch the video through and pay attention to the following:

Expressing disbelief in what the other person is saying
You’re kidding right?
Are you kidding me? 
Really?

Showing the speaker that you are paying attention
Ok.
Right.
Uhum.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, true.

Involving the listener in the conversation
What do you think?

Explaining yourself more clearly
I mean

Introducing contrast, change or hesitation
Well

Introducing a change or a request for clarification
So



Remember that if you want to understand everything that is being said in the conversation, you can activate the CC subtitles on the lower side of the YouTube videoplayer, which will give you a very accurate transcription.

English students very often find 'for and against topics' (like TV, mobile phones, social networking sites, living in a big city, living in a flat, sharing a flat, being an only child) in the writing paper of exams. These composition tasks have a clear-cut structure that students must follow.

The topic in the composition below is 'advantages and disadvantages of university students living on campus'. Pay attention to the four-paragraph structure and the connectors or linking words that join ideas and which are highlighted in blue.

Paragraph 1: Introduction
In recent years, the number of British students living on campus has increased dramatically, but is this the most suitable form of accommodation for young people who are preparing to obtain a degree and who also have their first opportunity to learn about life?
 
Paragraph 2: List of advantages (usually two or three)
I will start by looking at the advantages of living on campus. For a start, life is usually cheaper. For example, food and accommodation are often subsidized by the university and students who live off campus have to pay normal prices for everything. Moreover, you don’t have to deal with things that go wrong in rented accommodation, such as washing machines breaking down or gas cookers that don’t work properly. The most important reason is the time you save being so close to places like the library. Consequently, you have much more time to study.

Paragraph 3: List of disadvantages (usually two or three)
However, there are some disadvantages too. First of all, it is easy to spend all your time on campus and because of that you can lose contact with the ‘real world’. What is more, you don’t have as much independence or freedom on campus as off. For instance, you normally can’t choose what and when to eat. Finally, if you live on campus, it isn’t necessary to develop the same life skills as you would if you lived off campus –skills like managing the day-to-day running of a house.

Paragraph 4: Conclusion
To sum up, we must bear in mind that the main reason for being at university is to study. Although it has some obvious drawbacks, living on campus allows students more time to study without the distractions and responsibilities of rented accommodation. As a result, I would recommend people to live on campus if they have the chance.

Suggested activity:
Write a for and against composition on the advantages and disadvantages of television. Write about 160 words.

So, much that is on television is just absolute garbage, trash. I think television has been getting worse, worse, and worse every year. It’s a . . . Really.
You’re kidding right?
No, I think the best thing for reading and literature is television.
Really?
Actually, yea, true, that’s true.
You’re kidding?
No, I’m not. Look “Big Brother”
What about it?
It’s, it’s garbage.
Ok.
It’s cheap trash, and what, children are watching that! People are watching that, and emulating that, copying that.
Right.
I mean they’re copying everything off that boob tube. They are copying the violence, a lot of criminals are actually learning. They’re getting an education there on how to be better criminals.
Uhum. . .
It’s an absolute waste of time. Instead of getting an education, children are watching three hours of TV a day, and as an added bonus they are gaining weight. They’re getting overweight watching television.
Are you done?
No, but go ahead. What do you think?
Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Are you serious? You really believe that all the problems in society have to do with television?
Mmmmm. . .. yeah!
Ok. So, where does parenting come in to all this?
Well, I think parents are delegating their responsibilities to television.
Ok. So, it’s not television the problem, it’s the parenting. Society not doing their job.
Well, if they didn’t have television, if they didn’t have television, they would find something else like take their children out to the park.
Oh, yeah. . .
But they can’t take their children out to the park, because, what! All the other children are watching television.
Well, that has nothing to do with it. People, to begin with. . . many. . . centuries, centuries, centuries ago... people were still violent, and you know. . . what, Hey! Look at the French Revolution. They were chopping people’s heads off left and right. What television was to blame then?
Well, thankfully, they didn’t have television, because...
So, who are you blaming then?
Well, if they’d had television, it would have been even worse.
Society is just screwed up! Society is screwed up because we’re, in… we’re usually just thinking about ourselves, and very selfish, and not only that, we have beast traits to us.
Yeah, true, but television is not helping anything out, it’s making it worse.
Oh, wow, so, what, making it worse? They were still being violent back then when there was no television. So, what, what, what are you saying now? Now, it’s just, the reason now that we know about all this violence is because of television, because now television serves as double. . . okay, a “double edged” sword. I’ll give you that, because before people did not hear about it, because they were in a mountain. Far and off, off, off away. And then so, who told them there was being killed or murdered or raped? No one! But now we have this beautiful world called. . . you know Media, and television, and we get images and then people are shocked, but this has been happening for centuries.

Best-selling Author Elmore Leonard Died at 87

Elmore Leonard, the crime novelist whose best-sellers and the movies made from them chronicled the violent deaths of criminals, died on August 20.

Self-study activity:
Watch this short Associated Press video and say what the following refers to.

87
40
his 60's
60 years
10 to 6
3
5
2012

The activity is suitable for intermediate students.



You can check your answers by reading the transcript below.

Elmore Leonard, the prolific author has died at age 87. Leonard wrote more than 40 novels, many spotting hit movies like Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Jackie Brown. Leonard died in his suburban Detroit home surrounded by family just a few weeks after he suffered a stroke. He had minor successes with Western-themed books in movies in the 50s and 60s but truly didn’t gain fame until he was in his 60s. Three years ago Leonard told AP that he wasn’t going to put down his pen anytime soon.
There is no reason to because this is the most enjoyable thing I do. I’ve been doing it for nearly 60 years. You know, it was very hard in the beginning.
Leonard was known for a writing style that was unadorned and colloquial. His characters were pathetic schemers, clever conmen and casual killers. His hallmarks were black humor and wickedly acute depictions of human nature.
I think there are more people imitating me that I’ve imitated. I’ve imitated some really, I mean, I’ve learned from and trying to write like some very good writers, you know, from Hemingway on. Until I found out that Hemingway didn’t have a sense of humor at all.
He kept a strict writing schedule working at his desk from 10 to 6 each day, first writing long hand, then pounding up the words on an electric typewriter. Leonard married 3 times and had 5 children from his first marriage. He won the National Honorary Book Award in 2012.
Matt Friedman Associated Press.

Extensive listening: Cuba

In 2012 BBC journalist Simon Reeve went to Cuba to find a communist country in the middle of a capitalist revolution.

Two years before Cuba had announced the most radical economic reforms the country had seen in decades. From ending state rationing to cutting one million public-sector jobs, one of the last communist bastions in the world had begun rolling back the state on an unprecedented scale.

In the documentary, Simon Reeve meets ordinary Cubans whose lives are being transformed, from the owners of start-up businesses to the newly rich estate agents selling properties worth a fortune.

Cuba, famous for its hospitality and humour, is uncertain whether this new economic openness will lead to political liberalisation in a totalitarian country with a poor human rights record. Will Cuba be able to maintain the positive aspects of its long isolation under socialism - low crime, top-notch education and one of the best health systems in the world - while embracing what certainly looks like capitalism? Is this the last chance to see Cuba before it becomes just like any other country?




You can read the transcript for the first fourteen minutes here.

Reading test: I met my burglars on holiday

Today it's time for another reading. I met my burglars on my holiday was published by The Guardian in May this year.

Before you read the text, think about these questions.
Have you ever met someone in a place where you/they shouldn’t be?
Have you ever met someone who leads a double life?

Now read The Guardian article by Hannah Booth I met my burglars on my holiday and find out about her experience. You may come across some vocabulary difficulties. Just ignore them for the time being.

Reading comprehension
Answer these questions about the text.
1 Why was the house unusually cold?
2 What was Hannah’s Dad’s hobby?
3 Why was it difficult to believe that the man on the photo was a criminal?
4 What’s the relationship of the ‘nice English couple’ with Hannah’s parents’ friends?
5  At first, how confident was Hannah’s mother that George was the burglar?
6 How did Hannah and her parents feel during their ‘investigation’on the boat?
7 Why didn’t they tell their friends in the beginning?
8 Can you explain the joke about Mr W?

Now it’s time to focus on vocabulary. As you will have noticed, some of the comprehension questions above were based on correctly understanding vocabulary items in the text. Sometimes we can work out the meaning of a word or expression through the context. Some other times, however, you know or you don’t know the item, which fully affects our comprehension of the text.

1. Go over the text and ‘underline’ as much car-related vocabulary as you can find.
2. There are two adjectives in the text which mean ‘strange’.
3. In the first two paragraphs, the verb ‘turn out’ appears with two different meanings.
4. Where in a house is the ‘cellar’? (second paragraph)
5. In the ‘Fast-forward 30 years’ paragraph there is an expression which means ‘instead of’.
6. In the final part of the text (from ‘We didn't let on to our friends’ to the end), find a verb that means ‘look after’ and another that means ‘joke about something to show that you think it is not important or serious’.

Discussion
Have you ever been the victim of or witnessed a crime?
Have you ever met a criminal? 

Key:
Reading comprehension
1 The kitchen door was open
2 He liked cars ('he was into motor-racing')
3 He was genial-looking (friendly and cheerful)
4 They were the crew (the people who work on an aeroplane or boat)
5 No, she just had a hunch (a feeling based on intuition)
6 Excited, amused, but not angry (bitter)
7 The family wanted to make sure the English couple were the burglars
8 Every time they went back home they feared having been burgled again

Vocabulay
1 tyre - make - sports car - motor racing - vehicle - bonnet [where the engine is vs 'boot' for luggage] - oil
2 odd and bizarre
3 cupboards had been turned out (=emptied) / It turned out (=resulted) they had burgled
4 a room under a house to store things
5 rather than
6 they had to care for (=look after) a sick relative / I expect they would have laughed it off (=joke about something...)

Canadian team's human-powered helicopter takes flight

A team of engineers from Canada has won a substantial prize for making the first human-powered helicopter.

Self-study activity:
Watch this short BBC video by clicking on the picture below or on this link and complete the gaps in the transcript with the missing information.

The activity is suitable for Básico 2 and Intermediate 1 students.

(1) ... years after the American Helicopter Society threw down the gauntlet of creating a human-powered helicopter, the (2) ... has finally been met. This is the Atlas, designed by an engineering team from Toronto. It has defied gravity with a (3) ... lasting (4) ... seconds, reaching an altitude of 3.3 metres, to scoop the $ (5) ... prize. And its fuel: just a pair of strong legs.
“That was the loudest yell I have ever put out”
Apart from pedal power, it also took 18 months of hard  (6) ... to design the contraption.
“We were driven at all hours to make it better, to overcome setbacks and to make (7) ... , to make this impossible thing happen.”
You may not see one soaring over your (8) ... any time soon, but the team hope their success will at least help inspire the next generation of aviation (9) ... .

Key:
1 thirty-three  2 challenge  3 flight 4 sixty-four 5 two hundred and fifty thousand 6 work 7  improvements 8  neighbourhood 9  pioneers

The man who cycles 100 miles every day

Steve Hamilton cycles between 80-100 miles every working day. That makes 22,000 miles a year. And in London! (see our post of early October this year 'Why do some many Dutch people cycle'?)

Self-study activity:
Watch this three-minute BBC video by clicking on the picture below or on this link and find out all the details of Steve's job.

Steve's accent is not easy, but I think intermediate students can try the activity below.

1 Why does Steve mention a 'red van'?
2 How old was the elderly guy who died in an accident?
3 Why are cyclists and couriers necessary?
4 What makes a good courier?
5 How old is Steve?
6 Why does he do this job?

You can check your answers by reading the transcript below.

There are those moments when your heart just goes Ttttt.
Two forty-four.
I like the adventure of going through a thin line, two buses, black cabs, cars.
I was coming on Great Eastern Street, it was a red van, somehow he didn’t see me and… he turned! That was it.
I hold them, going down as fast as possible and somebody ran across the road. Aahh! Must have been centimetres.
I remember when I just started there was an elderly guy, he was sixty, who died… He was a very friendly guy. He died on Bishop’s Gate.
Get out of the lane!
We work hard. We work really hard, because we want to earn. I’ve gone home where I am knocked out, totally knocked out. After eating dinner, that is it. Can’t even talk to the wife.
There are stuff you can’t send over the Internet. People need cyclists to get from point A to point B.
What makes a good courier? Experience. Sometimes we can see things way ahead, I don’t know if that’s a sixth sense with courier cyclists.
Look at me. I’m forty-nine years old. I just love what I’m doing so far. It’s absolute fun. Is this fun gonna run out? I don’t know.

Talking point: Crime and punishment

This week's talking point is crime and punishment. Before you get together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily and you can deal with vocabulary problems beforehand.

Go over the crimes in the wordle below. Do you know what each of the crime entails? Have you heard recent news about some of the crimes? Can you think of some other crimes?

• Are there any areas of your city considered dangerous?
• What steps do you personally take to prevent crime?
• Do you think there is less crime now than in the past?
• Have the times we are living in brought new crimes?
• Are the laws in your country tough with criminals?
• Is capital punishment justified with some crimes?
• How can society deal with gender violence and bullying?
• Some people are in favour of punishing criminals, some others of rehabilitating them, while others prioritise restorative justice, by which criminals play a part in repairing the harm they have done. What's your take?
• What alternatives to prison can you think of?

We have published a number of crime-related videos on this blog. We have selected two for today's talking point. Watch the two videos and in your conversation group decide what punishment the criminals should get. You can click on the link of each video for a full transcript and a listening activity.

The gang who sold houses they didn't own

Bribe who survived rape

Madrid Teacher series: A day in the life of an English teacher

Today's lesson from Madrid Teacher is devoted to elementary students (Básico 1 and Básico 2) and deals with daily routines. Victoria Fontana, an English teacher who lives in Madrid, tells us about a typical working day in her life.

The video is divided in two parts. The first part (up to 3'00") shows us Victoria telling us about her busy lifestyle. The second part is, in fact, a repeat, but everything that Victoria says is subtitled, with what she makes sure we fully understand everything.

I must say Victoria is a bit of a fast talker, so we may need to listen to her several times to understand her comfortably.

Watch the video clip. What does Victoria do at these times?
7'00''
8'30''
1'00''
4'00''
4'30'' to 8'30''
9'00 to 10'00''



What do you usually do on a typical working day?
Do you have any hobbies?
Do you have any classes?

How British is Gibraltar?

In summer, Gibraltar was again at the centre of a centuries-old diplomatic dispute between the UK and Spain, but the reason why we are bringing this video clip to your attention has to do with the opportunity this BBC video clip offers English students to get acquainted with the accent of the Gibraltarians.

Self-study activity:
Watch the BBC video clip and answer the questions below about it.

The activity is suitable for intermediate students.



1 What does John Charles Guy do?
2 What customers ask Mr Guy questions about the Rock?
3 What does 'nine' refer to?
4 Where do Spaniards who cross the border work?
5 Where does Elizabeth Walker live?
6 What is the source of the 'recent tension here'?

To check your answers, you can read the transcript below.

In llama land there's a one-man band
And he'll toot his flute for you
Come fly with me, let's fly, let’s fly away
Come fly with me, let's float down to Peru

John Charles Guy is an all-singing, passionate and very proud Gibraltarian taxi driver.
First of all, I feel British, but Gibraltarians we have an allegiance for the Queen which I think it’s unparalleled by any other. I get a lot of expats coming into my car and they ask me, ‘Why don’t you want to belong to Spain?’ or ‘Why don’t you want to be Spanish?’ My answer to them is Gibraltar is yours, it’s British.
And the idea of being part of Spain?
Never, I’d rather be dead.
John might have been born in Scunthorpe, but moved to Gibraltar when he was just nine, and asked about Gibraltar’s future, he is defiant.
Gibraltarians will always stand together, we will always come together. You can’t take us over. You cannot divide us. You cannot conquer us. And you can’t give us away.
Gibraltar, that’s my home town.
British pride is everywhere is Gibraltar. A town of just thirty thousand, in some ways it feels more British than the Britain most of us know. Several thousand Spaniards cross the border to work in the restaurants, bars and offices every day. And, of course, temperatures have been rising here because of increased checks and delays.
Elizabeth Walker’s family runs this fish and chips shop. She was born here but grew up in Britain.
I’m not Gibraltarian, but I’m a very proud Gibraltarian.
Now she crosses Gibraltar’s border every day from her home in Spain.
When someone looks at the map and they see Spain and then see this tiny bit of land at the edge and they say to you, ‘how can that be British?’, what do you say?
It’s British since three hundred years ago. They won it in the battle of Trafalgar and it became British and it belongs to Britain and the people on Gibraltar want to be British, they don’t want to be Spanish, so, you know,  they have a right to determine what they are and what their future holds, and they’ll always want to be British.
Up here at the top of the rock, you get a sense of the geography here. Take a look down to the left and you can see the town of Gibraltar. Just beyond that and you can see the airport. A little bit further on, it’s the border with Spain. And just beyond that it’s the Spanish town of La Línea de la Concepción. If we then go left, you can begin to see the number of boats in the waters here. And these disputed waters are the source of the recent tension here.
With these monkeys up top, some will always see Gibraltar as a peculiar place, but there is a lot of history here, and the vast majority of those living on the rock, from where you can see Africa, passionately tell you that this will always be a slice of Britain in the sun.
Tom Burridge BBC News in Gibraltar

Extensive listening: The retirement gamble

Retirement is a time of uncertainty for a lot of people. It's not just that our health becomes more and more fragile as our life reaches its final stage, but also that our sources of income get more and more meagre. For that reason, it is important to make plans way before that stage of our lives begins.

Early this year PBS programme Frontline aired the documentary The retirement gamble, where they drew viewers' attention on how Americans could ensure a safe retirement, while raising some troubling questions on the way American financial institutions protect the savings of thousands of clients who have trusted them.

Reporter Martin Smith wrote the article The Retirement Gamble Facing of all us, where he wrote a short summary of the programme.

The documentary is a bit lengthy, upwards of 50 minutes, so you may decide to watch it bit by bit. You can read the transcript here, although CC subtitles are available on the lower side of the PBS video player.

Watch The Retirement Gamble on PBS. See more from FRONTLINE.

Columbus Day -video activities

12th October is the Spanish National Day. Spaniards remember on this holiday the day when Cristopher Columbus discovered America in 1492.

There are a couple of posts on this blog around the event and the figure of the explorer Cristopher Columbus:

• From National Geographic for Kids, you can watch this video clip. 
• Columbus is also well-known for the anecdote of the egg. Listen to this video clip to find out all about it. 

My favourite post, however, is this short CBS video clip which adds a new slant to the holiday and to the way we view it all.


Self-study activity:
Watch this six-minute CBS clip and say whether the statements below are true or false. The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 students.

1 Many people in New York know there is a statue in Columbus Circle.
2 The main problem with the place where the statue is shown is that there is no elevator.
3 More and more states in US are not celebrating the holiday any more.
4 Lief Eriksinson discovered America a few years before than Columbus.
5 Columbus never accepted he had discovered a new world.
6 Columbus's skills as a navigator are doubted today.
7 Columbus brought tobacco to Europe.
8 Columbus Day started in 1947 in US.
9 The main controversy about Columbus Day lies on the fact that Columbus didn't actually discover North America.
10 Columbus and his men killed thousands of Indians.
11 Karl Frank's suggestion for renaming the holiday is Exportation Day.

You can check the answers below and read the transcript here.

Something curious is happening above New York City’s Columbus Circle. Tourists and New Yorkers alike are rediscovering the statue that stands above it. Would you believe it? It’s Christopher Columbus.
Very nice!
Yeah, thank you.
I have for many New Yorker friends that they didn’t even know that the statue of Columbus is here.
Thanks to the art installation of Tasumisi.
I love what you’ve done with the place, but don’t you think you should have moved the statue off to the side?
To reach the 13 foot statue visitors climb six flights of stairs to an 800 square foot deluxe apartment in the sky. Columbus has his own flat-screen TV, views of Central Park, even hard wood floors.
The problem is that there’s no bathroom up here.
There’s no bathroom! How did you leave that out?
Tomorrow, if you are a federal employee or a school kid chances are you’ll celebrate Columbus Day, but more and more states are leaving it off the official calendar. States like Alaska, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Iowa,  Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
Does Columbus deserve his own holiday?
Well, that’s a good question because, you know, he actually didn’t discover North America. He never set foot in North America and never even knew it existed and he wasn’t the first person to discover the American continent from Europe.
Lief Eriksinson made landfall in North America centuries earlier, ancest historian Laurence Bergreen, who strolled with me through New York City’s Hispanic Society. There were plenty of explorers sailing the seas in Colombus’s era.
It’s kind of like space exploration. If it hadn’t been John Glenn to be the first person to circle the world it would have been another astronaut at that time because the moment was right.
But there are no didis about Americo Vespucci and not just because it is hard to write Vespucci, you try it.
Columbus came along and with his outsized ego and his sense of destiny and his also passion for recording what he did, he put his stamp on that error.
Ironic since every school kid knows Columbus was actually looking for a route to China when La Nina, Pinta and Santamaria set sail. But even after four voyages, when many of his own shipmates were convinced that they had discovered a new world, Columbus refused to acknowledge it.
These sailors are saying, hey, this is not China, this is a whole different thing.
That’s right, that’s right. So with each voyage, you know in a sense he disproved his hypothesis but didn’t want to realize it, so with a certain sense of Quixotic , tragic heroism about his misguidedness, we now looked at it with the benefit of hindsight as the New World. He would have been astounded at his posthumous reputation, it would have made no sense to him.
Make no mistake. Columbus was a brilliant navigator who sailed across the Atlantic in five weeks, fast even by today’s standards, and with almost no loss of life on board he would introduce Europe to the potato, the pineapple, the tomato and a very bad habit.
He saw Indians walking by with burning leaves in their mouth, well, that was tobacco.
That’s not why he got his own national holiday. That happened when a US president discovered the Italian-American vote.
Columbus Day started in 1937, as recently as that by President Roosevelt, largely as a political move for a federal holiday and he wanted to incorporate the Italian-American vote in the Democratic Party.
But even a day off and spectacular discounts can’t quiet the storms that from the beginning has clouded Columbus’s legacy.
Columbus was always controversial because it was not just the political correctness or something that started in the 1970s. This goes back to his voyages, and the brutality was the main reason. Stories of the way he treated the Indians, the fact the he hemmed them up or killed them got back to Spain, even Ferdinand and Isabella, who were not really known as apostles of humanitarism, were appalled.
When the Taino Indians of Española realized that Columbus’s men were stained, they saw no way out.
They felt that their homelands and their women were being taken away by Columbus’s men and that Columbus’s men were stealing the future of their people and they responded by mass suicide. Columbus and others writes about this, thousands of Indians poisoning themselves or jumping off cliffs to their deaths because they felt they had no future left.
That’s one reason why Karl Frank Junior, an IT consultant in St Louis wants to rename the holiday.
We feel like instead of having a federal holiday that divides us, we need a federal holiday that unites us.
Frank wants to call it Exploration Day.
It would be unique as a federal holiday in a sense that it celebrates the past, and the past explorers, the thousands of them the unnamed as well as the well-named, and also what’s possible for America if we kind of put our heads together and work towards a common goal.
But before we say ‘Good-bye Columbus’ enjoy the day, that is, if you have it at all. 

Key:
1F 2F 3T 4F 5T 6F 7T 8F 9F 10F 11F

Circumnavigating the world

Jason Lewis became the first people to circumnavigate the earth by using just human power. He started off the journey with his friend Stevie Smith, who dropped out in Hawaii. Jason carried on  alone.


Self-study activity:
Watch this three-minute BBC video clip and say if the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for Intermedio 2 students.




1 It took Jason thirty years to complete the journey.
2 All the means of transport he used had pedals.
3 It took them a bit more than three months to cross the Atlantic.
4 Jason was run over by a vehicle during the trip.
5 One of the reason why Jason kept going was because of the huge support he got.
6 After twenty days pedalling in the Doldrums he hadn't made any progress whatsover.
7 The locals in the Salomon Islands couldn't believe the boat didn't have an engine.

You can check the answers and read the transcript below.

My name is Jason Lewis and I’m the first person to circumnavigate the world using just human power. People have rode across oceans and people have bicycled across continents, but no one had yet connected a continuous journey all the way around the world just using the power of their own body.
It took me thirteen years. We would bicycle across the continents, inline skate, walk, and across the oceans we would use a specially-designed pedal boat, we would kayak, so any means of non-motorised non-wind assisted transport, it was just the human body.
Calling all stations. This is pedal boat loch shore.
We struck out into the Atlantic in this tiny little boat, the support boat went back and land slipped beneath the horizon, only then did I really, I think, appreciate what it was that I had got myself into.  Five thousand miles it ended up taking 111 days a little over three months.
It does take a tremendous amount of effort to not really get the dream off the ground but also then to keep on going. Sometimes I mean I was run over by an 82 year old drunk driver with cataracts in Colorado, for example. You know, that was a huge trip ender right there. But it is important to finish what you start and I think the more I got into this and the more people that were behind it the more people that were living and travelling by vicariously through the website or we had hundreds of schools following online. It just became almost like a part of me. The expedition became me and I became the expedition and it just seemed really important to finish it.
One of the lowest points of the whole expedition was pedalling for two and a half weeks on the spot in the Doldrums. So I would pedal for 18, 19 sometimes 20 hours a day, find out that I was back where I had started from the previous morning. And after a day of this, I was pretty depressed. After a week, it, you know, I was tearing my hair out and after two and a half weeks I just curled up in the bottom of the boat and I just gave up, I just, I cried, I just felt like I could not keep pedalling when I wasn’t going anywhere.
I would never have gone to the Salomon Islands, for example. We pedaled in there and the locals came up in their dug-out canoes. It was just a completely surreal experience, both for ourselves, pedalling in there, but also I think for the locals seeing this pedal-powered boat, you know, they were looking for the engine, where’s the engine?, no engine. And we lifted off the pedal unit, oh it’s a bicycle, and it just blew their minds.
Pretty much anyone could do this trip. I think that’s the thing that appealed to me was just so beautifully simple, and it was one of those adventures, one of those journeys that just have to be done.

Key:
1F 2F 3T 4T 5T 6F 7T 

How low interest rates affect borrowers and savers

Whenever authorities announce that interest rates will be lowered or not raised, there is widespread contentment. But not everybody welcomes the news.

Self-study activity:
Watch this BBC news item and answer the questions below about it.

The activity is suitable for intermediate students.



1 What's the employment situation in Ely?
2 Why didn't pensioners welcome the news about low interest rates?
3  What's the family situation of Amanda Freeman?
4  What benefits will she get from low interest rates?
5  How have many businesses reacted to the news of low interest rates?
6  How does Kate Marshall feel about the news?

To check your answers you can read the transcript below. Remember that if you don't understand the meaning of any word, you can easily look it up by double-clicking on it.

The cathedral city of Ely has grown rapidly in recent years. The employment rate here is higher than the national average even though it’s an easy commute to Cambridge and London, and tourism helps the local economy too. But this small community has felt the downturn, including these pensioners who meet in the morning to knit and natter. Those who rely on their savings to boost their income weren’t impressed by the promise to hold interest rates down.
I can understand that it will be stability for the country and the economy, but it doesn’t help me at all. I just feel that we’ve been prudent for a long time before our retirement and I can just now see our savings just being eroded away. It’s costing us more and more each month to live.
Many in this quiet and contained city have talked about having to tighten their belts in recent times, but the words of the Governor of the Bank of England have boosted the confidence of some.
Home-owner Amanda Freeman has been decorating, but wasn’t sure if she could afford to do everything she wanted. She is a single mother with two children and a mortgage and she brightened up for today’s announcement.
It’s good news obviously for me and now that my mortgage is hopefully going to stay as it is for a little while means I can budget easier and, well, hopefully do a few more home improvements.
Businesswoman Kate Marshall, who runs these dance studios, is more lukewarm. While many businesses well over welcomed what Mark Carney had to say, she thinks maintaining the status quo won’t provide much of a boost.
I don’t think it will make much of a difference to me financially other than, that I’m hoping it will hold down the interest rates on my loan and my overdraft which are quite high as it is.
The peace and beauty of this market city are underpinned by relative prosperity, but for many people who feel a little bit more secure after today, there’s another who feels worse off.

Talking point: Food rituals and food issues

Today's talking point is a follow-up from last week's about your favourite restaurant. We continue talking about food, but this time we are going to focus on food rituals and controversial topics around food.

The idea came to me when I watched The New York Times video clip below about food rituals. Just watch the video and read the accompanying article by Catherine St Louis, Rituals Make Our Food More Flavorful to get acquainted with idea. If you want to fully understand everything on the video, you can read the transcript below.



Now before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you meet your friends and you can work out vocabulary difficulties beforehand.

Do you have any food rituals or know anyone who has?
Do you agree with the idea that rituals make our food tastier?
If you were a food, what food would you be? Why?
Were there any foods you particularly loved or hated as a child? Do you still love/hate them?
What kind of food or drink would you associate with the following situations? Why?
being in love - waiting at an airport - rainy days - summer - your grandmother’s house

Food issues
How do you feel about slow food (also called 'free range food' or 'organic food' or 'biodiversity food')?
How do you feel about 'fast food' and 'ready-made food' (or processed/convenience food)?
What's your take on the controversy between 'sustainable organic farming' versus 'industrial agriculture'?

What do you think about the following?

• Healthy drinks
• Low fat options
• Labelling of ingredients
• Fraud in food
• Traditional cuisine
• Cuisine globalization
• Nouveau cuisine
• Fair trade products
• Local food suppliers
• Danger of food additives and preservatives for health
• Popularity of cooking TV programmes
• Celebrity chefs
• World-famous restaurants

Do you feel like it tasted different to you?
I’m Catherine Saint Louis from The New York Times. My story is about new research about food rituals. Four experiments show that the little things we do before eating our food enhances its flavour and help us savior what we eat and drink.

In this study, participants were asked to knock on a table, take a deep breath before eating a baby carrot. It turned out that those people reported enjoying their baby carrots more than the group that didn’t perform the ritual. Science may just be catching up with what many of us have known for a long time.

These things, or oysters or anything, I don’t necessarily chew them, I just shallow them.
I used to, as a kid, drink milk and soda, I can’t believe I’m telling you this, milk and soda, which was made popular by Laverne, on “Laverne and Shirley”
One milk, one Pepsi.
Excuse me.
Milk. Pepsi.
Half milk, fill it with Coke. But no ice. You have to put the milk first. If you do it any other way, [it] just doesn’t taste the same. It’s like mixing a martini, you know, just throw things into a shaker and shake it up. You know, it has to be done in a certain order sometimes and stirred in a certain way, and if you do it the right way it’s gonna taste better than what it would doing it in the glass. Sometimes it’s a mental perception. It might not always physically make the food taste better, but if you believe it tastes better that way, then it will.
How do you eat your eggs?
I take my fork and I cut it all up and mix it all together.
How long have you done that?
My dad taught me to do that when I was very young and I still do it that way.
I have a…
Ritual?
Not a ritual.
Yes, it is.
It’s a schedule. It’s really more of like a how I eat. The first time I see all the different sauces that I like I have to put them in the top of the sushi container and mix them together with the chopsticks, ok?, and then I deconstruct every single piece of sushi as I eat it, from the top to the bottom.
What about barbecue? Do you eat barbecue?
I love barbecue, but I will not touch it with my fingers.
So how do you eat barbecue?
Knife and fork, and there’s nothing left on the bone when I get done.
Are there any other foods that you eat in a particular way or a particular order?
You know what else Dad you eat bagels like a sandwich.
I plead the fifth amendment on that one.
What do you mean he eats them like a sandwich?
Like when I’m just getting ready. When I eat an egg sandwich I take it apart a hundred per cent, I take the eggs off, the cheese and…
You deconstruct them!
And then I eat each piece of bread separately.
I don’t eat them as halves I eat the whole bagel, with the filling and that way you don’t need…
Wait, wait just second, egg sandwich just when there’s cream cheese on it?
Yes, exactly, then you don’t touch the cream cheese, you’re just touching the bagel
I’m sensing a theme here?
Yes, I have some issues.

Madrid Teacher series: Traffic rage, pedestrian rage and airport rage

This week's our Madrid Teacher series is devoted to intermediate students, and it deals with the topic of rage, traffic rage, pedestrian rage and airport rage.

Watch the video through and find out what the four Madrid teachers understand by 'traffic rage', 'pedestrian rage' and 'airport rage'.

Now, let's pay attention to the way they discuss the topic. First of all, let me remind you of some of the strategies the speakers use and that we have already touched on in this series:
- the use of 'you know' by the speaker to gain thinking time.
- the listeners short comments ('yeah', 'that's right', 'absolutely') to sow they are paying attention to the speaker.
- checking understanding ('is that clear?', 'yeah?'), which the speaker uses to check that the audience if following him/her.

Try to spot the above-mentioned features in the video. Also, pay attention to the second girl who takes part in the conversation, the one who is from Montreal. In her short speech, she uses four times the word like. This is a word native speakers use in their colloquial speech when they want to sound vague.  Like in this usage is used to introduce an idea which is just an approximation of what really happened.



If you want to fully understand everything that is being said, just activate the CC subtitles on the lower side of the video player in YouTube. They will give you a very accurate transcription of the conversation.

Now, it's over to you. What's your experience of traffic (or road) rage?
Have you ever been involved in or witnessed an episode of pedestrian rage?
And what about airport rage?

Remember to use some of the strategies native speakers use in conversation.

I was walking down the, er, down the street in London just before I came out here and, you know, London is very, very busy, there’s a lot of traffic, there’s a lot of buses, there a lot of cars, there are a lot of cyclists and there are a lot of motorbike users and I was walking down the road, and there was a girl cycling and all of a sudden a car driven by someone who was clearly in a rush, pulled out, nearly knocked her over and started beeping her horn right behind her. The poor girl on the bike got such a fright she went like this on the bike, thankfully she was OK and she didn’t fall off, and the driver continued and sped off. I was horrified. Have you ever been involved in, or experienced such acts of road rage, or travel rage you could say in general, not only, not only on the roads?
Yeah. People intimidate you. I cycle a lot around Montreal and, erm, I’ve had people, like, come up really close to me, and it’s like I’m thinking you’re, you’re closer and closer and closer to the car and you realise they’re just laughing, like they’re just trying to intimidate you… And I’ve kicked cars, and then they get really upset, but it’s like, well, sorry, you’re not giving me the space that I need so…
Yeah, I think no matter where you are cars think they own the roads… Car drivers think they own the roads…
Yeah.
And it’s, it’s not the case but I think the mentality is still changing… The acceptance of cyclists on the road is still…
I get pedestrian rage…
I nearly get knocked over about three times a day. You know, for cars that don’t stop when the green man’s there, especially taxis for some reason. Taxis are worse than your average drivers, in my opinion.
Well, they, they, they really feel like they own the road because they’re on it all day, so I think, you know, taxi drivers are special, you know, in that sense yeah.
Yeah and I think, erm, the bigger the vehicle the more important the driver thinks they are as well, so, you see people in their 4x4s and they think well, I’ve got more rights than your little car…It’s like the poor cyclist at the bottom, the bottom of the chain…
That’s right, absolutely.
Lot’s of suffering.
Have you ever had cyclist superiority because you’re being kind to the environment? Sometimes I feel very, you know, superior… I’m not burning precious, precious resources.
What about on airplanes? Have you ever seen anything…
I mean like…
difficult, any difficult situations?
I think, I think any, you’re so, you’re so powerless when you travel on airplanes and when there’s bad weather and this kind of thing, people are at their worse sometimes…
Oh, yeah.
I’ve seen lots of airport rage when it’s snowing, and, you know, everyone’s stranded and…
They’ve been at the airport for 8 hours…
8 hours…
And no one will give them a sandwich or something.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, some bad behaviour.
Yeah, it’s difficult because in an aeroplane, at an airport, the airline completely reserves the right to refuse you passage so, for example, if you’re angry with easyJet because they’ve delayed your flight for hours and hours and hours and informed you badly if you shout at the woman or the man, the attendant and you become aggressive, then they can just not let you on the flight…
Yeah.
…even when it does come.

Big baby born in the UK

In mid-March another famous baby George was born, this one in Bristol, and he got really popular for very different reasons.

Self-study activity:
Watch the two-minute video clip below and say whether the statements below are true or false.

The activity is suitable for intermediate students.



1 The baby hasn't put on any weight since he was born.
2 There were more than twenty doctors in the delivery room.
3 Despite his size, the baby didn't have any health problems when he was born.
4 The baby and his mum were sent home after four days in hospital.
5 Both the baby's mother and father were big when they were born.
6 Baby George isn't the biggest baby born naturally in the UK.
7 The mother is looking forward to having more babies.

You can check the answers and read the transcript below.

Six weeks on, mum Jade still can’t quite believe it. George was born twice the size of an average baby. He’s only put on a pound since.
He didn’t fit in into any of his newborn and he’s constrained to sort of three-to-six months clothes.
This is what mum was expecting him to wear, but he needs clothes twice the size.
When his head was out, that’s when they realized he was so big, and then his shoulders got stuck, and that’s when sort of everything sort of kicked off really. There was about 20 odd doctors in the room, and that’s when I got really scary.
Because no one knew he would be so big, doctors struggled to deliver him, George went without oxygen for five minutes. He was given a 10% chance of survival.
We were told we’re going to analyze your baby after, those nine months and finally the end of the worst.
He was transferred to St. Michael’s Hospital in Bristol and was only allowed home after four-and-a-half weeks. George is now going for regular check-ups, but mum and dad say all the signs are good.
Well, he’s had an MRI scan, they said there is nothing major abnormal showing up on the scan. So, again, it might just be that he is a little bit slow with his learning and things like that, so, hopefully it’s just minor little things.
Doctors are still trying to find out why George was so big, it doesn’t seem to run in the family. His mum weighed just over six pounds when she was born and his dad was a little over nine.
Well, my mum was there at the birth as well, and she was, she was quite scared and shocked as well after seeing everything that happened, but again everyone was so shocked that he was so big.
Only one baby born naturally in the UK has been bigger than George, and he was only an ounce heavier.
Dozens of tiny unused baby clothes have now been packed away, although, mum says, she’s been put off having anymore babies for a while. She is just happy to have her hands full with this one.
He is a little miracle, well, a big miracle, really, yeah.
Rachael Canter, BBC Points West in Cheltenham.

Key:
1F 2T 3F 4F 5F 6T 7F

Extensive listening: Why do so many Dutch people cycle?

In early August I came across this 11-minute video clip from BBC Newsnight where The Netherlands and the UK are compared in terms of the importance bicycles have in everyday life.

In the first part of the video, reporter Anna Holligan travels to The Hague, Holland, to find out about the reasons why cycling has become so popular in that country. In the second part of the clip, she shows us the other side of the coin, the UK, and focuses on London to let us know what being a cyclist in the capital means.




Lesson idea:
If you have the opportunity to have a computer lab at hand, get half the class to watch the part of the report about the Netherlands (from 0'50'' to 4'20") and the other half the bit about London (5'00" to 8'55") and get the two groups to compare the two countries in an information gap speaking activity.

Later on, the class as a whole can watch the final part of the report (from 8'55'' to the end) about the dangers of cycling in big cities without the right infrastructures).