Talking point: Talking

This week's talking point is talking. 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.

Do/did you talk a lot at school/university?
Do you talk a lot when you are with your friends?
And what about with your family?
Do you think you should change anything about the way you talk (e.g. talk more, talk less, more loudly, more quietly, pay more attention)? Why (not)?
When was the last time you were in the following situations?

a face-to-face conversation
expressing your feelings
at a job interview
telling a joke
speaking in public
giving opinions
socialiasing with friends
talking on the phone
talking to someone from a different country
speaking English
talking to older/younger people

What of the situations above do you enjoy the most/least?

Do you have any difficulties communicating with people of a different generation from yours?
If so, which difficulties do you face?
What topics you feel more comfortable talking about?
What topics do you usually avoid?
Are there any taboo topics in your family or in your group of friends?
Do you ever gossip?

To illustrate the topic, you can watch the video The Art of Conversation.

Fashion vs Art

Fashion occupies a prime position in our culture and economy. But is it art?

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



1 What's the name of the tour?
2 How much of the object of art is what the characters are wearing?
3 What were the three 'arts' that constituted art as opposed to the 'decorative arts'?
4 What did the soldiers capture their enemies' wives in ancient Greece?
5 What does '1450' refer to?
6 What two elements does fashion combine in today's world, according to Anne Winterthur?
7 What is the name of John Singer Sargent's painting?
8 What was a suntan a symbol of in the Industrial Revolution?


There is the perennial debate about whether or not fashion can ever be art. It has, in some instances, to do with intention.  But just because it's clothes doesn't mean it can't be art.
The name of this tour is Fashion and Art.
Fashion is laden with cultural, social, aesthetic ideas, everything that we subject the criteria of art to.
What we do is look at the objects of art… masterpieces and highlights of our collection from a very interesting viewpoint. What are the people wearing in the object of art? And more than that, what does it mean? This is something almost nobody talks about. But sometimes it's 60% to 70% of the object of art anyway. So I hope that you will see fashion is not trivial.
When I started off as a curator, art was considered to be painting, architecture, and sculpture.  Anything outside of that was decorative arts and quite frankly, looked down on, costume and fashion being one example of that.
Our first object dates from ancient Greece. The basic garment was made by one long length of linen. The flax had to be picked, it had to be spun, it had to be woven by hand.  And in war, the soldiers who were victorious would kill the man and capture the women as slaves to do the spinning and the weaving. So the fabric represents a great deal.
Fashion is still considered more in the female domain than something like painting. And I think that's a reason why some people are quick to dismiss fashion as art.
So we will move on to another culture altogether, another civilization altogether.
It's our role as a center of art and culture to give fashion and costume respect and that attention.
Fashion should be recognized for how it defines a time, how it can be controversial, how it can be revolutionary.
So right now, we are in Burgundian France. And these are courtiers in a rose garden. This is one of the earliest examples we have of cut and tailored clothing.  With the growth of big, powerful courts, people began to want to outdo each other in a fashion sense. You are looking at the red carpet of 1450.
Fashion seems frivolous and trivial to the 19th-century attitudes about fine art. There's a kind of puritanical tradition, and we hate the notion that there might be commerce associated with anything, because somehow, that makes it less pure. But as the definitions of art have become more elastic, you know, post-Dada, post-Warhol… we're no longer bound by the 19th-century categories of art.
In the world that we work in, you need the mixture of art and commerce. They have to exist hand in hand.
High fashion paired with celebrity becomes something bigger than both…
All right, we're going to finish the tour with John Singer Sargent. This is Madame X.  People wanted the artists of the day to advance themselves. And the artist of the day wanted the famous people in order to advance their career.
The art of what someone wears is as important and as revealing an artefact as a particular portrait painted at a particular time.
Why did she wear this white duck skirt? One day, she came in from playing tennis, and her face was all flushed, and her eyes were sparkling. But what we don't see is what it's saying about society. In the industrial world, when people were in factories all day long, it suddenly became a status symbol to have a suntan. So this dress shows a complete switch in values.
Fashion can be used to tell stories about gender, race, and identity, and challenge us to rethink what is beautiful, and challenge our prejudices, and our expectations.
Everyone aspires to go higher in life, to be better than they are. And these moments in a museum give you moments of betterment. Escapism, yes.  But this could be inspiring.  This could inspire someone.
This is the achievement of having no delineation between what is high and low culture, what is right and wrong history.
Cara, how you…
Rihanna! 

Key:
1 Fashion and Art
2 60% or 70% 
3 painting, architecture, and sculpture
4 to have them as slaves making clothes for them
5 the year the red carpet was painted
6 art and commerce
7 Madame X
8 status

Listening test: TripAdvisor's top destinations

Listen to a report on TripAdvisor's top destinations and choose the heading that best describes each of the cities. There are two headings you do not need to use.

source: VOA News

Which city…?
A - combines sightseeing and enjoyment
B - has a famous clock
C - has an independent state within
D - has the market area surrounded by a wall
E - is full of natural spaces
F - is home to alternative cultural movements
G - is ideal for people whose hobby is history
H - is well known for its wide streets

Siem Reap

Here’s a look at TripAdvisor’s most popular cities to visit!

1. Marrakech, Morocco –The market area is surrounded by a wall
Marrakech is known as the “red city” for its rose-colored buildings. The city’s walled medina, or old city, is a UNESCO world heritage site. One-thousand-year-old monuments remain within the medina, including the Koutoubiya Mosque, the Kasbah, and several gardens. Today, the medina is a crowded marketplace with traditional Moroccan goods for sale. Make sure to visit the Jamaa El Fna Square, an outdoor theater where storytellers and musicians perform.

2. Siem Reap, Cambodia -
The small city of Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat, the world’s largest religious monument. Visitors can also see hundreds of ancient Buddhist temples in and around town. After a long day at the temples, tourists can enjoy one of Siem Reap’s many bars, restaurants, and nightclubs.

3. Istanbul, Turkey
Turkey’s largest city has one foot in Europe and the other in Asia. As the former capital of the Roman, Byzantine, and Ottoman empires, Istanbul is a haven for history lovers. Visitors must see Istanbul’s most famous religious buildings: the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque. At night, sail on the Bosporus Strait, which separates the European and Asian areas of this extraordinary city.

4. Hanoi, Vietnam
Vietnam’s capital has tree-lined streets, lakes, and some 600 temples and pagodas. Visitors should not miss the Temple of Literature. It was built in the year 1070. It is one of several temples in Vietnam dedicated to Confucius.

5. Prague, Czech Republic
This Eastern European city is the modern capital of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of the kingdom of Bohemia. Walk across the Charles Bridge and visit the John Lennon Wall to get a sense of the city’s quiet revolutionary soul. From the unique art of David Cerny — often hidden in plain sight — to the growing counterculture scene, Prague is full of surprises.

6. London, England
The largest city in Western Europe is a world capital of culture and fashion. Visitors can tour rooms in Buckingham Palace, the official home of the Queen of England. They can investigate the Sherlock Holmes Museum or walk across Abbey Road, just like the band The Beatles did in 1969. And make sure to check the time at the famous clock tower, Big Ben.


KEY: 
1D 2A 3G 4E 5F 6B

Extensive listening: Why Brexit happened — and what to do next

We are embarrassingly unaware of how divided our societies are, and Brexit grew out of a deep, unexamined divide between those that fear globalization and those that embrace it, says social scientist Alexander Betts.

How do we now address that fear as well as growing disillusionment with the political establishment, while refusing to give in to xenophobia and nationalism? Join Betts as he discusses four post-Brexit steps toward a more inclusive world.

You can read a full transcript for the talk here.

Reading test: Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold

In this week's reading test we are going to practise the 'insert the sentence' kind of task. To do so, we are going to read the BBC article Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold.

Read the text and fill in the blanks with the corresponding sentence A-J. There are two sentences you do not need to use. 0 is an example.

Big Basket building in Ohio to be sold

An iconic building shaped (0) … in Newark, Ohio, home to a basket-making company, is to be sold. Nicknamed the "Big Basket," and belonging to the home decor Longaberger Company, the building is looking for a buyer. Employees (1) … the seven-storey basket building are being moved to another location in Ohio.
It opened in 1997 and once housed 500 employees of the company, the Columbus Dispatch reports. Now, the company is facing (2) … . The last employees working in the building are moving out this week.
"The Big Basket is like the St Louis Arch," Jim Klein, a former Longaberger president, told the newspaper.  He wants (3) … on the National Register of Historic Places. "It's a really important part of south-eastern Ohio history."
The building's shape was the company's founder's idea, the Dispatch reports. It cost $30 million (£22.5 million) to build. Dave Longaberger had a very specific idea for the building, the Dispatch reports, and would not settle on a design (4) … to make it look exactly like one of the company's baskets.
A Facebook group titled "Preserving the Longaberger 'Big Basket' as a National Treasure" has 1,683 members. Mr Klein keeps members updated on his mission to have the Big Basket registered on the National Register in the group. "Wish we could all donate enough $ to buy the big basket and turn it into a museum. I realise this isn't feasible at all, but (5) …," one member writes.
Not everyone at Longaberger is sad to be leaving the basket, though. Brenton Baker, director of marketing and communications for the company, told the Ohio Advocate that the office they are moving to is more convenient and they look forward to (6) … .
"It is not a sad thing we are leaving," Mr Baker told the newspaper. "People keep saying they feel sad for the employees. Don't feel sad for us. I cannot wait for next week. For me, next week (7) … . For the people on the outside, it's probably not that way."

A - be located in more modern premises
B - being closer to their colleagues
C - can't come fast enough
D - hard economic times
E - if it was possible
F - like a basket 0 Example
G - to get the building
H - until architects agreed
I - who work inside
J - wishful thinking

KEY:
1I 2D 3G 4H 5J 6B 7C

Where did sugar come from?

Brian Cox looks into where sugar originally came from and talks to a sugar historian about when it arrived in Britain. 

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



1. As well as sugar what other commodities were available to our ancestors part of the year?
2. Where was wild cane first farmed? 
3. When did sugar first come into Britain?
4. Who could afford to buy it?
5. Apart from being an additive to food and drinks, what was sugar used for?
6. How much sugar did Henry III order?
7. How much sugar could you find across the entire kingdom back in Henry III's times?


Back in the Middle Ages, sugar was only available to our ancestors part of the year, as fruit or honey. Sweetness was in short supply, so where did sugar, as we know it, come from? Well, it originated centuries before as a giant wild grass in the South Pacific, where its value was so recognised.
Legends from there tell of a story of how a sugar cane sprouted a man and a woman, who founded the human race. Wild cane was first tamed and farmed in New Guinea, and over time, spread by travellers, across the globe.
By the 13th century, it had migrated to the Middle East, where traders discovered it, and carried it to Europe. A commodity so rare, sugar's value equalled that of precious gems.
And what about its first appearance in Britain? My journey begins in Cumbria, where I'm going to meet a sugar historian, whom I'm told has a rather hands-on approach to this subject.
All of the sugar we imported into this country came from the Arab world, via the Venetians. The Venetians were the sugar controllers, they bought it from the Middle East, and then they shipped it out to every other European nation and they put a huge premium on it. If we go back into the 13th century, small quantities of it are coming to this country, but they are only being purchased by royal palaces.
Because it was quite expensive?
It was very expensive, and it was rare. Sugar in the early modern period is very much a symbol of status. But it was used as a plastic medium, as an art form.  We have some marvellously detailed images of these sugar sculptures.
My gosh.
There is one piece of sculpture which was six-feet high, entirely made out of sugar.
Six-feet high!
Yeah, so it is standing like that on the table.
And this would be consumed, they wouldn't be ornamental?
No, no, no it was totally ornamental.
You are talking about a kind of decadence. Ordinary people eat food just to sustain themselves, but the very wealthy use it to show off, and having a sugar sculpture, six- foot high, on your table, is the equivalent of having a Maserati nowadays.
And all we have is this evidence of it.
The only evidence we have are the actual images we have of them. The other bit of evidence, that is not really obvious, we also have some of the tools we used to create it. So, for instance, this lovely wooden mould has got these four little goddesses on it. I’m going to get you actually to have a go at making some of these….
Really!
Okay, that’s it, one more there, it’s sticking there. If you just drop it on to the surface, you have your perfect grinning gibbons.
My goodness me!
One of the first recorded royal requests for sugar was by Henry III in the 13th century, who ordered three pounds of it, if so much is to be had, he’s reputed to have said.
It was so rare and luxurious that today’s equivalent of a bag and a half from a supermarket might be all there was across the entire kingdom.
You have created your own beautiful little thing.
I am impressed, I am, because I'm so cack-handed normally.

Key:
1. fruit and honey
2. New Guinea
3. 13th century
4. royal palaces
5. art, ornaments 
6. three pounds
7. (the equivalent of) a bag and a half (from a supermarket)

Are smart homes at risk from hackers?

Smart household technology is increasingly being installed into millions of homes across the world and it promises to change the way we live forever.

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



Where does the outside world stop and private space begin? What details of your life are you willing to share with strangers? Take this house. Every morning, lights come on. Coffee (1) … automatically.   Technology just like this is increasingly being installed into millions of homes across the world and it promises to change the way we live forever.
So there are sensors of all kinds, there’s lights and (2) ... and thermostats and once they’re connected then our platform can make them do whatever you want them to do. So as an example, if I wake up in the morning, the house knows that I’m waking up. It can wake up with me. When we walk in the kitchen, it will play the local news and sort of greet us into the day, tell us the (3) ... ... so we know how to dress for the day and so on.
This technology is known as the internet of things, where the objects in our houses - (4) ... ..., anything electronic - can be connected to the internet.  But for it to be useful, we’re going to have to share intimate details of our private life.
So this is my things app. It can run on your mobile phone or on a tablet or something like that. I can do things like look at the (5) ... ... ... of family members. It can automatically detect when we come and go based on our mobile phones or you can have it detect your presence with a little sensor, you can put it in your car or something like that. So when we leave the house, and there’s no one home, that’s when it’ll lock up and (6) ... ... all the electricity used and so on.
For most of us, this is deeply private information. Yet once we hand it over, we have to (7) ... a company to keep it confidential.
The consumer really owns 100% of their own data so they’re opting in. It’s not something where that data would ever be shared without their giving their permission.
This house represents a new normal, where even the movements within our own home are documented and (8) ... . It’s a new frontier. The internet is asking us to redefine what we consider private.

Key:
1 brews
2 locks 
3 weather forecast 
4 kitchen appliances
5 comings and goings
6 shut down
7 trust 
8 stored