Listening test: The car accident

Listen to Melanie telling the story of a car accident she once had. Complete the blanks in the sentences with up to THREE  words. 0 is an example.

Source: English Teacher Melanie

0 Example:
Melanie has been driving for 20 years.

1. Where she lives, they drive on the __________________ of the road.

2. The accident happened at __________________ .

3. Melanie assumed that the cars in the other direction _______________ because the car in front was moving.

4. The other car slammed into Melanie’s __________________ .

5. An off-duty __________________ in the car behind Melanie’s saw the accident.

6. The police explained that both drivers were responsible and gave them __________________ .

7. After the accident, Melanie avoids making __________________ as much as possible.

Photo: English Teacher Melanie

I consider myself a good driver. I’ve been driving for over 20 years. I’ve only been in one accident and I’ve only gotten one speeding ticket. Still, I hate making left turns, because I got in an accident once making a left-hand turn. We drive on the right-hand side of the road in North America, so when you make a left turn, you’re driving in front of cars coming in the opposite direction.
The accident happened at a busy intersection. I’d been waiting a while in the left-hand turn lane at the traffic lights, and there was one car in front of me. The light turned amber and the car in front of me turned left. I followed the car hoping to beat the red light. I’d just assumed that the cars in the other direction had already stopped since the car in front of me was turning left.
I saw too late that a car had sped up and was trying to beat the red light. I was hit in the middle of the intersection. The car slammed into my passenger-side door. I completed the left-hand turn and pulled over to the side of the road. There was an off-duty police officer in the car behind me who witnessed the accident. I don’t remember who called the police, but an officer arrived at the scene. He explained that both drivers were at fault and he gave both of us tickets. I shouldn’t have tried to rush through the amber light. I should have checked that all the cars had stopped before I started the left turn.
I wasn’t hurt. The other driver wasn’t hurt, either. There was damage to the passenger-side door and it cost me a lot of money to repair the door! I didn’t fight the ticket in court. I paid the fine. Now, I avoid making left-hand turns as much as possible, especially at a busy intersection!

KEY:

1 right-hand side

2 a busy intersection

3 had already stopped

4 passenger-side door

5 police officer

6 tickets

7 left-hand turns

Stranger in Brasov

Watch this travel story of a lonesome traveller in Brasov.

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



1 How long was the trip?
2 How do the Soviet block look?
3 What did the traveller do while sitting down in the apartment?
4 How did the visitor communicate with her friend's family?
5 How did the visitor realise she was in the wrong place?
6 When did the visitor panick and decide to leave?

The lonesome traveller blues hurt when I was half-way through (1) a four-month tour of Eastern Europe. As anyone who’s travelled alone can tell you, it starts to wear you out in pretty typical ways. You’re lonely, exhausted, you just want a home-cooked meal, but happily my Romanian friend had given me her mother’s address and encouraged me to visit.
When I arrived in the heart of eerie Transilvania I set off to find the right apartment. The Soviet blocks all look the same, and all-daunting (2) mess of grey cement. I settled on one apartment in a row of hundreds.
I knocked on the door gently, anticipating a lot of our encounter to be lost in translation. A kind old woman answered. Through a mixture of mild movement and enunciated English I explained that I was her daughter’s friend. She received me with a broad grin, quickly ushering me inside. A little girl who I assumed was my friend’s sister was also inside. We all sat down (3) to drink tea, watch Romanian soap operas and share home-made cake. The apartment was really cosy and full of lamp, souvenirs and crochet throws. I understood almost nothing of what was happening, but soap operas are pretty much the same in every language.
I also must have wolfed down my cake because my friend’s mum quickly offered to go buy food for dinner. She put a coat on and slipped out, leaving me with the little girl. When she got back she went to work making a genuine Romanian feast of hearty soup, meat and polenta. Throughout the meal we laughed and continued to (4) talk in a muddled mix of hand signals.
After about five hours, (5) my host put out photo albums. I looked forward to seeing potentially embarrassing photos of my friend as a little girl. As the pages turned and we passed an endless array of husbands, aunts, uncles and children I began to have a sinking feeling that these weren’t my friend’s relatives. I hadn’t seen one picture that looked like her. My mouth went dry my heart beat faster. I was in the wrong apartment.
To make matters worse (6) the woman and the little girl began pulling out a mattress for me to sleep on. I panicked and stiffened on the couch unsure of how to make a quick exit without being rude. In my best gesturing I explained that I already had a hotel booked. I thanked them profusely and made a hasty retreat. They waved a warm good-bye and I set off in the Soviet concrete jungle.

Near drowning in Morocco

Watch this short story of a  holiday that turned awry.

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




1 What did the couple's friend (of a friend), John, do the first night?
2 What activity did John insist on doing the next day?
3 What happened to him when he was a long way off the shore?
4 Why couldn't the hotel use their lifeboat?
5 How did the swimmer pull John back to the beach?
6 Who was in fact the person who saved their friend's life?

Sometimes you agree to go on holiday with people you don’t really know. And sometimes those people (1) drink too much on the first night.
My husband and I found ourselves on such a holiday in Morocco, where a friend of a friend, let’s call him John, had a place at a beach resort in Ashilla. John insisted on taking Ashilla’s night life by storm and the next day, even though he looked like he could use a nap, continued to amp up the activity level with a bout of (2) windsurfing. This is a vacation after all, why relax?
When he jumped on to the windsurf board he was immediately swept 300 metres off shore and then (3) the mast broke. My husband and I couldn’t swim out to help. He’s not a strong swimmer, neither am I. So we watched with increasing dread as John was rapidly swept further out to sea.
Crowds gathered on the beach and began to get rowdy:
If he doesn’t drown, the sharks will definitely get him. 
Come here! There’s a guy drowning.
The hotel offered to call in a lifeboat from Tangiers, (4) theirs was broken. Tangiers was over an hour away.
Suddenly, Morocco’s version of Arnold Schwarzenegger parted the crowds with his rippling muscles and proclaimed: I watched a guy die here last year. I can’t let that happen again, and in he dove, swimming towards the small dot that John had become on the horizon. He seemed to swim for hours, stopping only briefly to catch his breath and began pulling John back (5) on the broken windsurfer.
As they came on to the shore the previously cut-throat crowd was cheering and crying. The lifeboat from Tangiers had just arrived, the crew basking in undeserved glory.
Turns out the Moroccan Arnold was (6) a professional bodybuilder on vacation from LA. And if he hadn’t weighed 300 pounds we would have lifted him on our shoulders and paraded him through the Medina.

Madrid Teacher: Horrible weather

In this week's Madrid Teacher video four teachers talk about horrible weather conditions they have witnesses. As usual, we'll be using their conversation as a springboard to go over some of the features of spoken English they use.

First of all, watch the video through to get the gist of what they are talking about.

Now watch the video more carefully paying attention to the following:

• Showing surprise and reacting to what you hear: Really?; Oh yeah; Wow; Oh, lord; OK, right, yeah
• Conversation fillers to gain thinking time: Well, you know, like
• Use of really,  pretty  and quite to emphasize the adjective
• Use of vague language: like an hour; and everything; like the sky opens
• Use of I mean to paraphrase what you have just said and make yourself clear.
• Use of actually to introduce a bit of surprising information
• Showing agreement: Yeah; Of course!; Exactly!

Now it's over to you. If possible, get together with a friend or relative and talk about any weather anecdotes you have gone through or heard about. Don't forget to use some of the features of spoken English we have revised in this post.

I was once in a, in a tornado.
Really?
On one side it demolished a church, and on the other side, it destroyed a . . . a truck stop. Then a little bit further on it, it just demolished a little town.
So it just went around you?
Well, no, it went, like, over me. It, it . . . you know these bounce sometimes
Oh yeah!
There was, this was a little tornado, it was small, but really destructive.
I’ve seen videos of that tornado bounce . . .
Yeah.
…that you’re talking about.
That type of, yeah. That, that can be pretty destructive…
That’s wild.
The interesting thing is that it crossed an entire city and only destroyed one church . . .
Wow.
In the whole city, but then - was it - at the edge of the city it destroyed a truck stop, and then went on to destroy . . .
Was it a wooden, a wooden church, or just a . . .
It was a wooden church, just like a big quonset hut, you know just a rounded building. So it’s just asking for problems.
Were you, were you personally frightened, or . . .
Yeah, because it . . . it was, it was frightening.
And was anybody injured?
Yeah, it killed people. It killed people in the truck stop, then it killed . . . it’s like, near a highway. And that was about . . . maybe a mile from me, half a mile to a mile.
Well, my, my most frightening weather experience was, I was skiing once and got to the top of the mountain and suddenly just went completely white, complete white-out. And it was like a snowstorm . . . couldn’t see anything, and started skiing down, stupidly, I mean, we should have just stayed. And suddenly, just like, not knowing exact…, not knowing where, where I was and, just like, it was, like, quite frightening because it was like an hour, just being stuck on the top of a mountain…
It’s risky, too. You never know if you’re going to ski off the edge of something, or . . .
It was snowing. . Couldn’t see a thing . . .  Yeah that’s why I stopped because you can’t even, you couldn’t even see where the ski run was, and it was… It was in Switzerland right on the top of a mountain. You know, when you’re in the mountains in Switzerland, you can, you can go on for six hundred kilometers and not see another house.
Wow! Were you really cold?
No, I was, I, I had some good, you know, some good clothing and everything.
That’s good.
It was just, like a snowstorm. It was just the thing of not being able to see where you were . . .
Of course!
…and just like snow everywhere .
But the encroaching freeze could really add to the fear.
Yeah. Well, there was that fear of, you know, you could get trapped up there at night…
Yeah, yeah.
…don’t get out.
Oh, lord.
So you’ve been . . .
Oh yeah, actually, I was, I was driving from the north of Spain into Madrid. And we were driving up the mountain and there was a little sign for a snowflake. And my father looked at me and said, “snow?” And I said, “of course, we’re in the mountains!” I was teasing . . . until a few went by the window, a few snowflakes, and I looked at him and he looked at me and we’re like, “are we really seeing this?” And then, boom – another whiteout, like you were talking about.
Just like mine, yeah?
…could not see anything. This was at the end of, like, and eighteen hour drive and I was determined to get to Madrid and stop. And we ended up just going for about two hours at about six kilometers an hour, driving by while lines of cars followed plows and skidding along the road yelling at each other: “stop! I’m doing this!” I had never seen weather like that in Spain.
That’s incredible. You don’t expect it here.
Exactly! I was totally unprepared. We were in a Peugeot.
I’m from a hot place so I haven’t got any snow stories, but . . . I, I used to live in Southeast Asia and there you have the most incredible monsoon rain. I mean, all day long you sit and you sweat. And it’s, and the heat builds up and builds up and builds up and then three o’clock in the afternoon it’s like the sky opens . . .
Wow!
And these rain, raindrops, I mean, huge raindrops . . . fifteen minutes of the heaviest rain you could possibly imagine, and then it stops.
And that’s every day?
Every day.
And it’s only fifteen minutes?
Usually fifteen minutes to twenty minutes, sometimes only five minutes. It’s like the sky just can’t hold any more water and it just, it just drops down.
Do you go, do people go out and like, you know, use it as a shower, because it’s so hot? Or no, everyone just stays inside?
It’s funny, everybody tries to stay out of it actually.
OK, right, yeah.
All the cars, all the motorbikes, everyone pulls off the road and tries to find shelter and . . .
Yeah. OK.

Best story ever

Strombo is a Canadian talk show host. The 'Best Story Ever' video clips are part of his show. They are short videos featuring interesting and (mostly) funny anecdotes of well-known people, which might be of interest to the English language learner in the intermediate-to-advanced spectrum to develop their listening skills and which you can find here.

Here are a couple of examples of 'Best Story Ever' videos, showing American political activist Ralph Nader and Scottish crime writer Ian Rankin.







Ralph Nader
One day I came home from school and I was in the fourth grade to my mother, and I said, mom the boys are wearing long pants. I wanna wear long pants. I said if I keep wearing short pants, if I trip I'm going to cut myself and, you know, in cold weather it’s cold without long pants. And she smiled and said, Ralph, are you worried about being different? I was not to be persuaded so I unloaded my trump card. I said, mom their mothers let them wear long pants. And my mother looked at me again with her beautiful smile and said, well, they have their mothers and you have yours. And by the way, Ralph if you're ever gonna wanna be a leader, sometimes you have to turn your back on the pack. I never forgot that. I'm Ralph Nader and that was one of my best stories ever.

Ian Rankin
So I was at University, doing a PhD and suddenly got an idea for a crime novel. I, I thought how do I find out about the police? Went along to a police station and asked if I could speak to a couple of detectives. Sadly I’d been a student at the time, in the mid-eighties, I looked a bit like a tramp. Told them the plot of my novel and the two detectives said, well, we have a really great idea. Why don’t we pretend you're a suspect in an ongoing inquiry. What I didn't realize was these cops at this very police station were investigating a crime that was almost identical to the one I’d just told them about was going to be in my book. So they took me to an interrogation room. They interrogated me for an hour and a half. They got all the information online, on their computer. I didn't think anything of it. Went home that weekend, hadn’t got some great stuff from them, I thought. My dad said to me, you, you're crazy if they think you did it, and you were coming into the police station to play games with them. So I went back to the police station the Monday morning, asked for the two detectives and they said, yeah, you're the only suspect we have in an ongoing police inquiry. So that was a problem for me because what it told me was that when you do research as a novelist you tend to get into trouble. So for a while after that I didn't do any research, I didn’t look into the police, I didn’t get near the police because I did not want to become the only suspect in a murder inquiry. That's what happened to me when I was writing my first Inspector Rebus book. My name's Ian Rankin and that's my best story ever.

Talking point: My favourite person

In our weekly 'Talking point' section we continue focusing on the anecdote feature of Macmillan's Inside Out.

Today's topic is talking about your favourite person. You are going to tell the members of your conversation group about a member of your family or a person you know well. Before getting together with your friends, go over the questions below, so that you ideas flow more easily when you meet up with the members of your conversation group and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• How long have you known this person?
• What is their relationship to you?
• How often do you see each other or talk?
• Have they got any annoying or endearing habits?
• Is there anything they used to do in the past but don't do anymore?
• What attracts you to this person?
• Have you had / do you have any disagreements?
• What is their conversational style like?
• How do they approach life?
• Do you have anything in common?
• In what aspects are you different?

To illustrate the point listen to Rebecca and Gareth talking about their best friend in two audio clips from ELLLO.

Talking point: My favourite teacher at school

In our weekly 'Talking point' section we continue focusing on the anecdote feature of Macmillan's Inside Out.

Today's topic is talking about your favourite teacher at school. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that you ideas flow more easily when you get together with the members of your conversation group and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• Was it a man or a woman?
• What was their name?
• What did they look like?
• What sort of clothes did they use to wear?
• Were they strict or easy-going?
• What subject(s) did they teach?
• Were you good at that subject?
• Where did you sis in their lessons?
• What sort of things did you use to do in class?
• What was special about your favourite teacher?
• How did they affect your life?
• Were they popular with your classmates?
• Are you still in touch with them?

To illustrate the point, watch this Vimeo video where Aspen Aman, from Which Advisor School, talks about the teachers that most affected her life.

My favourite teacher by Aspen Aman from Which School Advisor on Vimeo.

Talking point: Your most treasured possession

In our weekly 'Talking point' section we continue focusing on the anecdote feature of Macmillan's Inside Out.

Today's topic is about your most treasured possession. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that you ideas flow more easily when you get together with the members of your conversation group and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• What is your most treasured possession?
• What's it made of?
• What does it look like?
• How old is it?
• How long have you had it?
• Did somebody give it to you or did you acquire it yourself?
• What special significance does it have?
• Did it belong to somebody else before?
• Does it remind you of a particular person? Who?
• Does it remind you of a time or an event in the past?
• What happened?
• Where do you keep your treasured possession?
• Do you wear it, carry it around with you or does it have a special place in your home?
• Who will you leave it to when you die?

To illustrate the point, watch the videos of Adam Garber, an attorney in Levenfeld Pearlstein's Trusts and Estates Group, and Andrea Crews, Director of Marketing for the same firm, discussing their most treasured possession

Talking point: Talking about a couple you know well

In this week's talking point we are going to talk about a couple we know well. This activity is inspired in the famous Inside Out (Macmillan Publishers) Anecdote.

Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that ideas come to mind more easily when you meet your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• Who are you going to talk about?
• How do you know them?
• When and where did they meet each other?
• How old were they when they met?
• Did they start going out together straightaway or were they just friends in the beginning?
• Do you think their family and friends approved of their relationship?
• Why do you think they were attracted to one another?
• What personal qualities make them compatible?
• Have they had any ups and downs in their relationship?
• What are they doing now?
• When was the last time you saw them?

To illustrate the activity, watch Gabby and Anthony telling us their love story.



I’m Gabby. This is the story about how Anthony and I met. I opened up Joe with my brother in 2003 and by 2006 I knew several thousand people and I thought it would be fun to start setting people up on dates. It usually doesn’t work out, but I had one couple that got married, then they got divorced, but I think it still counts.
I moved to New York in 2006 from Sydney, and I was in the hunt for some good coffee like all the Australians do, so I came in one day and ordered my latte, and then next to the counter I saw this sign that said, ‘come and join this running team on Saturday morning’ so in 2007 I started running with the team Joe, and that’s where I met Gabrielle. Now, the next two years, you know, I would show up every Saturday morning and we would be for our run and we became best friends.
So I really wanted to set him up with myself, it’s true. So we jokingly go on these pretend dates where I was kind of hoping they would turn in more than pretence, but then at the end of the night, you know, I got a pat on the back, you know, and then I went home thinking, oh I guess he likes me as a friend.
My last effort was to plan a New Year’s Eve party for all our Joe friends. My plan was to see if he wanted to kiss me at midnight.
Then I started thinking, ‘ah, she’s a…, you know, she’s a really nice woman and I like spending time with her and… then I sort of like as we got to New Year’s Eve I thought, ‘why not?’
Later that night it was time for the kiss and… so I said ‘so, what do you think? Should we have our New Year’s kiss now?’ And so he leans in and he kisses me on the cheek.
Just like this.
And I probably looked at him like that, and then I said ‘So this is your big chance, really, that’s all, that’s all I get? I mean, really, we can forget about it tomorrow, but let’s go for it.’ So then he leaned in for another kiss and the kiss turned into another kiss and before you know it, there was quite a kiss.
I think both of us were afraid of, you know, jeopardizing our friendship, we really valued that so much more than having a short-term relationship or a fling, and so… We… I actually took our relationship slow for a few months.
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, we got engaged about six months after we started dating, it was really slow, it was very slow.
Wow.
We went to Montreal for a romantic weekend, and we were on the plane he started getting very sick with a cold. He was also acting a little bit nervous I thought because he was sick…
Because I am carrying this ring in my pocket for the entire time.
So he kept jokingly asking me, ‘will you marry me? Do you want to spend your life with me?’, and I said ‘yes, of course I do, but stop asking me unless you have a ring’, so we get back to the hotel, we walk in the front door, he pulls me in and says again ‘will you marry me? I love you, do you want to spend your life with me?’ I say ‘of course, you have the ring or not’, and so he pulls out the box and I just froze.
And then I go down on one knee. I could hardly speak, so I was whispering into her ear, ‘will you marry me?’
Just couldn’t wait any longer.
Just couldn’t wait.

Talking point: Talking about your favourite famous person

In our weekly 'Talking point' section we will be focusing on the anecdote feature of Macmillan's Inside Out for a few weeks.

Today's topic is talking about your favourite living famous person. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that you ideas flow more easily when you get together with the members of your conversation group and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• Is it a man or a woman?
• What are they famous for?
• Are they a singer, actor, politician or something else?
• What do you particularly like about them?
• How long have you been a fan?
• When did you first become aware of them?
• Did they look any different from how they look now?
• What do they look like now?
• How old are they?
• Are they married?
• Do you know where they live?
• Are they world famous?
• Have you ever seen them in real life?

 To illustrate the point, here's an interview with Colin Firth for Time Magazine, who might be someone's favourite famous person, who knows.


10 Questions with Colin Firth - TIME from marina rossi on Vimeo.

Colin Firth is an Academy Award winning actor. His new movie is Railway Man and I’m excited to say that he’s here with me now. Mr Firth, welcome.
Good to be here.
So Railway Man is based on the story of a former POW, who, who goes back to Thailand to kind of hunt down one of his torturers, more or less. Are veterans particularly interesting characters to you, is it just the, is it just that’s two great stories?
One of the most interesting areas of my job is when I get asked to have a brush with someone else’s extraordinary experience, whether it’s beautiful or horrific or inspiring or, or otherwise. It’s nevertheless an exploration beyond anything that has happened to me. And and it become my job, a very difficult job at the to understand it as best as I can. And then to hopefully relay something of it you know, through this particular medium.
When I saw the movie I thought, oh, this is going to be a nice little romance between Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman.
He’s a wonderful man. I’ve seen it, but he’s a mess.
You couldn’t possibly imagine what he’s been through.
And then suddenly, you’re in a war movie. And I was like, oh, he’s tricked me with his romanticness.
Well I think that’s Patti Lomax felt when she met her Terry Lomax. I think, we’re, we’re walking a mile in her shoes, because she didn’t really have a clue when she met him.
I love him and I want him back.
As you see in the film, it wasn’t really until they got married that it very suddenly and abruptly became apparent because his nightmares were harrowing. For anybody who, who is present or even in the same house, they couldn’t even have guests staying with them because his screams were so distressing. So, yes, she met a charming, somewhat eccentric rather brilliant individual who proved to be profoundly complicated and extremely damaged.
Do you believe in revenge?
It’s a question that comes up and I think it’s a question that probably should come up. But I don’t really think. I’m not in the business of answering that question. And I don’t think the film is really trying to. It’s not a morality tale. It’s not a bromide for life. It’s not a prescription.
It takes the position though, I would say on revenge.
I don’t actually think it does. I think it tells a story about how a man found healing and some peace by letting go of his need for revenge. I asked Erik himself over lunch. It’s a very strange thing to find yourself asking a question about someone’s plan for murder. And his wife’s sitting there, and we’re having Shepherd’s pie.
Tea?
Yes. And I wasn’t quite sure what the proper vocabulary is in polite company. But I have. I said, did you? I mean, did the people around you, the counselors, your wife, were they aware of your, your plan to like… and he just said ‘kill him?’ Well, yes, and he said, ‘oh yeah.’ And he said it didn’t matter whether they knew or not. And he said, I knew I was going to do it. He’d thought about it and it was like he’d seen in the film. And he said he’d nursed himself to sleep on the screams of his, his victim, in his mind, and he had, he sustained himself on that, you know, and I think this story is meaningless unless we are honest about that, and those years spent completely compelled by those things. I think it makes it much more meaningful and it, and actually it adds, I think it adds incredible weight to the decision he eventually made.
At one point, Nicole Kidman’s character kisses you unexpectedly, and I’m thinking, well, that’s gotta be happening to Colin Firth all the time, though.
No.
Really? Strange women coming up and kissing you awkwardly.
Oh, no, no. If only. No.
Oh, come on.
No. And I can honestly say I think it has never happened, and no, it’s that way in my dreams. And in my dreams that it would look like Nicole Kidman.
Questions from readers. This one is from Kirstie Cameron from New Zealand. Did you keep the waterlogged  white shirt from Pride and Prejudice?
No, there were probably about seven of them because, yeah, they came from a costume house called CosProp in London, very good, it was the most wonderful tailor there who made it all on a tiny, tiny budget. We had to rotate very few costumes to make them looks as if I had a lot. And I didn’t. And it was a moment when just for the sake of continuity we had to look like I’d been for a swim, and this shirt is barely soggy or clingy or any of  the things that is mythologised to be and they’ve even got me coming out of a lake which I never did. And that got voted as the most memorable moment in television history, the thing that never happened. And so I think it’s been auctioned off probably more times than is actually feasible.
Is your Italian good enough for you to do an Italian movie?
Yes as long as I’m playing an Englishman I couldn’t be mistaken for an Italian.
Do you have a favourite word in Italian?
I love, I mean the insults are wonderful, because they use them more sparingly than we do. But they really do use them to great effect. Stronsa is a wonderful word, it’s an insult.
Is it clean enough to say?
 It means a piece of ***, but it’s more specific than that, it means a floating piece of ***. And there’s the whole thing of Lafigura, because we don’t really have that concept. It’s about the impression you create. It’s very important. It’s important enough to have a word, which is in very, very common currency. So bella figura is when, you know, I’ve made a good impression of myself. It’s not as we have to… I’m saying it in  a way which is rather labored, but it’s not. A bella figura. It means like ‘that came across well’ or que bruta figura or figuracha you put acho on the end is the bad version of something. And that’ll mean when you’ve, there’s been a gaffe or when you…
Messed up.
Yes, so you’ve just, you know, if I sat here and made some idiotic mistake about who I was talking to or where I was, that would be a figuratta. And we don’t really have that.
We do it, we just don’t do it.
We do it but we have to sort ofanatomize it and create a phrase out of it, and you know, and so you often find that there a lot of these things have a precision in that language which we don’t.
Mr Firth, thank you so much.
Thank you.

Talking point: A journey you have been on

In our weekly talking point we will be focusing on the Inside Out (Macmillan Publishers) 'anecdote' section in the coming weeks.

Just let me remind you of the fact that there is a whole section on this blog devoted to anecdotes, many of which are based on Inside Out videos and activities.

Today's topic is talking about a journey. Think about a journey you have been on and go over the questions below so that ideas flow more easily when you get together with the members of your conversation group and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• Where did the journey start?
• When did the journey finish?
• What was the reason for the journey?
• What form of transport did you use?
• What was the weather like?
• Who did you go with?
• How long did it take you?
• What did you do during the journey?
• Did you stop en route? What for?
• Would you like to go on the same journey again? Why?

To illustrate the point you can watch the Macmillan video The Journey, about an ill-fated journey made by a group of friends from Basingstoke to a party in Oxford.

You can download a worksheet for the video here and the transcript and the key here.

Talking point: A time when you were in a dangerous situation

This week's talking point deals with personal stories. To be more precise, you will be talking about a time in your life in which you were in a dangerous situation. It is based on the famous anecdote feature of Macmillan's Inside Out.

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

You're going to talk about when you were in a dangerous or exciting situation:

• What was the situation?
• When did it happen?
• Where were you?
• Who were you with?
• What were you doing?
• What happened?
• What happened next?
• How did you feel?
• What were the consequences?
• What happened in the end?

To illustrate the way you can tell an anecdote, watch Laila telling us about an occasion in her life when she went through a dangerous situation. You can answer the questions below to check your understanding of her anecdote..

a) What happened to Laila?
b) Who was Laila with?
c) Why were they in the States?
d) Why did they go to New York from New Jersey that day?
e) Why did they take a taxi?
f) How much do taxis usually cost?
g) How much did they pay?
h) What problem did the taxi driver have when they got to New Jersey?
i) What did the taxi driver ask Elton to do?
j) What did the taxi driver do when Elton got out of the car?
k) How did Elton react?
l) What excuse did the taxi driver give?
m) What time was it?
n) What did Elton and Laila do?

Key
a) She was Nearly kidnapped by a taxi driver in New York b) A friend, Elton c) They went to another’s friend wedding d) To see Manhattan, have a laugh, go to some bars, and do some cabbing e) They missed their last train home. The last train was at half twelve f) $120 g) $70, because Elton haggled h) He didn’t know the way i) To ask for street directions at a petrol station j) He drove away with Laila in the car k) He ran after the taxi, and caught up with it because the taxi had to stop at a red traffic light l) He had driven away to ask somebody else for directions m) 4 am n) They paid the taxi driver and walked the rest of the way

Talking point: The best city in the world

For this week's talking point the topic is the best city in the world. Forget the city where you live or your home town and think about  a city which made an impression on you when you visited. Decide which city you are going to talk about and then look at the questions below, most of which are taken from the Anecdote section of the Macmillan textbook series Inside Out. Think about the answers to the questions before you get together with the members of your conversation group. That way, you will also be able to overcome vocabulary problems beforehand.

•    When did you first visit the city?
•    Have you visited it more than once? If so, when was the last time you were there?
•    What was your overall impression of the place?
•    Is there any one particular image that sticks in your mind?
•    How would you describe the general atmosphere of the city?
•    Why did you go there? On holiday? For work? To study?
•    Was it your decision or did you go on a trip with friends or your family?
•    How long did you stay? Where did you stay?
•    What were the people like? What was the weather like?
•    What did you do? The usual touristy things?
•    Have you made any plans to go back? Would you recommend it to a friend?
•    Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

To illustrate the point, here are two Lonely Planet videos which feature two well-known  capitals: Madrid and Paris. Which one is your favourite? Why?.






Paris
The City of Light is the capital of France and the epitome of romance, culture and beauty. Home to over two million people Paris straddles the river Seine and is divided into twenty districts called ‘arrondissement’, each with its own personality.
The heart of Paris has changed little since the mid-nineteenth century when its grand boulevards and art and villa apartments were built. Strict planning regulations have preserved its layout and ensured and almost total absence of high rises. To fully appreciate the city’s charms you’re best exploring Paris on foot. Take a leisure stroll along the Seine or wander the cobble-stoned streets of Montmartre.
Paris probably has more familiar landmarks than any other city on earth. Once a fortress and royal residence, the iconic Louvre is the city’s greatest gallery, especialising in art from the Middle Ages to the 1848 Revolution.
Stroll the Champs Elysees to reach the might Arc de Triomphe commissioned by Napoleon to celebrate his greatest military victories.
The Eiffel Tower is the most famous fixture in the city’s skyline built for the World Fair in 1889.
Parisians live and breathe fashion, have an immense sense of style and dress with meticulous care. You can get the look and match your credit card in the boutiques of the route of Fabeau Saint Honoré, often cited as the world’s most fashionable address.
The side streets of Paris are full of quirky boutiques and specialty stores. Locals buy their pastries at the patisserie, bread at the boulangerie and cheese from the fromagerie. This style of shopping not only offers a wealth of expertise but a perfect excuse for Parisians to talk about their favourite subject. Food, fresh ingredients, great chefs and the refined style of French cooking makes Paris one of the best places on earth to be hungry, and if you subscribe to even half of the superlatives thrown at this city, it’s one of the best places to be. Full stop.

Madrid
It’s the nation’s capital. One of Europe’s cultural powerhouses and comes with a reputation for being more alive than any other city on earth. Welcome to Madrid.
Built on a plateau right at the very heart of Spain, Madrid is home to over 3 million people.  It is the sort of welcoming city best explored by diving straight in, and making it up as you go along.
The city’s great cultural heritage is on display at the Prado Museum, one of the greatest art galleries in the world. Part of the Prado’s appeal is not the artworks hanging on the walls, but the building that houses them, widely considered to be a neoclassic masterpiece in its own right.
The city’s other architectural gems range from the Baroque Royal Palace to the 20th century delight of the Crystal Palace, and the buildings lining the Gran Via. The Plaza Mayor showcases the city’s unique architectural style, Madrid baroque, which fuses Renaissance and Baroque styles.
Take a stroll through Plaza de Oriente, a living breathing monument to imperial Madrid, or relax in Buen Retiro Park, a great place to escape the urban hustle and bustle.
Eating in Madrid is always a social event. Going out for tapas is one of the most appealing of Spanish traditions. Tapas is a selection of appetizers eaten between meals, as an accompaniment to a drink or as a preview to the main event. Diners first go to Plaza Santa Ana, or try Casa Alberto, one of the oldest tapas bars in Madrid.
Madrileños are sports crazy. Head to Las Ventas to watch a bullfight, or catch a soccer match at the Bernabeu Stadium, the home of local favourites Real Madrid.
Flamenco emerged in the southern Spanish region of Andalucia in the 18th century, but the flamenco seen in Madrid is now second to none. Madrid oldest flamenco restaurant is in La Latina, the city’s medieval district. The Corral de la Moreria serves up  a variety of high quality dancing, singing and strumming, that is sure to get your hip shaking and your feet tapping.

Talking point: Golden moments

This week's talking point is golden moments, which refers to the way we celebrate big events in our life. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below so that ideas come to mind more easily the day you get together with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems beforehand.

• How often do you get together with family and friends to celebrate events?
• What are the reasons for the celebration? (Think about the following, but you can add your own ideas: birthdays; moving to a new home; getting engaged/married; anniversaries; getting a new job or being promoted; graduating from university; the birth of a child; retirement)
• How do you prefer to celebrate big occasions?
• Do you usually exchange presents?
• Have you ever been the protagonist of a celebration?
• Choose one of the following: A moment in your life when you won something; or a day you will never forget; or an embarrasing moment; or the best day in your life. What happened?

To illustrate the point you can watch the video a birthday party taken from the MacMillan Inside Out web page  from our Anecdotes series.

1 Whose birthday party was it?
2 How old did he turn?
3 What was special about the party?
4 What kind of party was it?
5 What was the theme of the party?
6 Why?
7 What fancy dress did she wear?
8 Where was the party held?
9 How many people turned up at the party?
10 Did she know everybody?
11 What did they eat?
12 What did they do all night?
13 Who did she dance with at the end of the night?

Key:
1 Her brother’s 2 Nineteen 3 It was a surprise party 4 A fancy dress party 5 The letter G 6 Her brother’s name is Ges 7 Lady Gaga 8 At her sister’s house 9 Forty-five 10 No, just a handful. All of her brother’s friends were there 11 Pizza, burgers and chicken wings because they had a barbecue 12 They played music and danced 13 A twenty-one-year-old 

Madrid Teacher series: How My Parents Met

In today's Madrid Teacher video Laura tells us the story of how her parents met.

Self-study activity:
Watch the video and complete the blanks in the transcript with the missing words.

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



My mom lived in a little town about (1) ... an hour from the city where my dad  (2) ...   ... . And… it’s in the same educational district, so a lot of times the high school sports teams will play each other. And… my dad was a baseball player. He was… he’s always loved to (3) ... things, and so when he was in high school, he played… he was a pitcher for the baseball team. And he was a crazy pitcher. He had a little (4) ...  controlling his arm and his throws. Sometimes his throws went a little wild, and they were very fast. So… one day, high school, baseball (5) ... . My mom’s high school baseball team and my dad’s high school baseball team have a (6) ... . And my mom is a scorekeeper for her school’s team. So she’s sitting on the side, taking notes… if someone’s out, if someone gets a home run, I don’t know. I don’t know what scorekeepers in baseball do. And my dad, it’s time for him to pitch, and one of my mom’s players is up to bat. And my dad lets loose one of his crazy pitches and nails my mom’s friend in the (7) ... with the baseball, and leaves, like… he leaves the imprint of the… of the ball… you could see the stitches of the ball in… in this guy’s (8) ...! And all the mothers from my mom’s high school… they were in shock, they were yelling, they were so (9) ... , they were, like, “That boy! Get him out of here! He (10) ... our child!” Or, whatever mothers yell when their children get hit with balls. And… so yeah, the first time my parents met, my dad… hurt one of my mom’s friends. But they didn’t know it until much, much later, so it didn’t hurt their relationship at all.

Key:
1 half 2 grew up 3 throw 4 trouble 5 season 6 game 7 shoulder 8 skin 9 upset 10 hurt

Talking point: Childhood memories

This week's talking point is childhood memories. Before getting together with the members of your conversation group, go over the questions below, so that ideas flow easily when you meet up with your friends and you can work out vocabulary problems.

What is your earliest childhood memory? Describe it.
What are your best memories of when you were a child?
Was your childhood a happy time? Why/Why not?
Do the photos from your childhood show?
What do your parents tell you from when you were a child?
Were you told off a lot? What for?
What did you enjoy doing as a child? Why?
Did you ever set up any secret groups or societies?
What was your favourite food when you were young? Do you still like it?

Do you ever talk about your childhood with anybody?
If yes, what kind of things do you talk about and who with? If no, why not?

To illustrate the topic, you can watch this Inside Out video where Ryan and Daniele tells us all about their childhood.
You can download the video here.
You can download a worksheet here.
You can download the transcript and the key here.

Reading test: I was trapped in my car hanging off a motorway bridge

I was trapped in my car hanging off a motorway bridge is The Guardian article from the series  Experience for our reading test.

Today we are going to practise the covert grammar and vocabulary type of task, which is very much favoured in the EOI exam.

The sentences below have been taken out of I was trapped in my car hanging off a motorway bridge. Choose the option a, b or c which best completes each sentence.

1 It was early November, and it had been raining hard the previous day and night. As we drove along the M6, it was ................. raining solidly.
a) already b) yet c) still

2 Three and a half hours into the journey we ........................ Haydock, Merseyside.
a) arrived to b) reached c) got at

3 The car then continued sliding and spinning, as the front and sides sheared off the vertical posts. Then it swivelled until my wife's side impacted on one of the posts. I shut my eyes and then realised we ......................... .   "Thank God that's over," I thought. 
a) have stopped  b) stopped c) had stopped

4 I checked Olivia. She said she was OK but ................. sleepy. 
a) sounded b) sounded like c) sounded as if

5 A guy ran towards the car and started pushing down on the bonnet. I thought that was strange: why wasn't he trying ......................  us out?
a) to get b) getting c) get

6 We could feel the vibrations created by the lorries .................... they drove over the flyover.
a) since b) as  c) because

7 There were strong winds and I worried that something big ................ drive past while the wind blew and buffet us backwards off the bridge.
a) will b) would c) was going to

8 ........................ the way the car had impacted, they couldn't just drag us forwards on to the road,
a) Because b) Because of c) Given

9  About an hour later they cut me out, using hydraulic cutters that ......................... huge lobster claws.
a) looked b) looked like c) looked as if

10 I was desperate to walk around, but the ambulance crew wanted ................... on a stretcher quickly
a) that I lay b) me lying c) me to lie

11 I wasn't aware of any pain, ..................... it turned out I'd shattered my collarbone. 
a) despite b) even though c) in spite of

12 I realised that ......................  had been spent creating the illusion of security and safety.
a) the most of my life b) most of my life c) most my life

Photo credit: Mark Chilvers for the Guardian

You can check your answers by reading I was trapped in my car hanging off a motorway bridge.