In mid-August this year Taylor Swift announced that she was to release a new album.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and answer the questions about it.
The activity is suitable for intermediate 2 students.
1 Why is Taylor Swift making history that day?
2 What does 'two years' refer to?
3 What's the key word of what may happen in two years?
4 When was Taylor Swift born?
5 What's the lesson she has learnt in these two years?
6 What two things does she think about all the time?
7 What greatly reflects life and who we are?
You can check the answers by reading the transcript below
Welcome to this live stream extravaganza adventure-a-thon! Tonight they’re telling me that we’re making history because this is the first ever worldwide live stream for ABC and Yahoo to get together (1) and I’m so excited I can’t even!
Well, I’ve been working on a new album for two years (2). And two years gives you enough time to grow and to change (3), and to, you know, change your priorities, change where you live, change your hair, change what you believe in, change who you hang out with, what’s influencing you, what’s inspiring you. And in the process of all of those changes that happened in the last two years, my music changed.
I’m thinking about how this new album is a bit of a rebirth for me because it’s so new. I’ve never really made these kinds of changes before. And having been born on December 13th, 1989 (4), this album is called 1989.
The song that… the idea came up with and what I wanted to write about was the idea that, I’ve had to learn a pretty tough lesson in the last couple of years that people can say whatever they want about us at any time. People can say whatever they want about us at any time and we cannot control that (5). The only thing we can control is our reaction to it. And I figure that we had two options. You can either let it get to you, let it change you, let it make you bitter or not trust people. Option two, you see, you just shake it off.
I wanted to tie this to this metaphor that I’ve been thinking about a lot because all I think about are metaphors and cats (6). My idea was that life itself and who people actually are can be greatly reflected in how they dance (7). We basically decided that we would get this huge group of incredible professional dancers of all different types of dance and throw me into the middle of them and see what happens. So fun fact, at the end of the video, you will see a group of about 100 fans. Those are people we plucked from Instagram, Twitter, website, letters, everywhere. Can I get a round of applause?
Thank you to the fans in New York and around the world. Thank you to ABC and Yahoo. This is the most unbelievable party you threw for us. And to go, pre-buy the album go to taylorswift.com. You know what they say. There’s no sale like a presale. No one says that. I love you. Thank you for watching with us.
