What does Beethoven taste like?

Hi everyone!

Here's a video about the senses, and about a condition called synesthesia in which certain senses which are not normally connected are very much related: for example, some people see sounds or taste letters. Synesthesia is also a literary device whereby we associate different senses together, like when we speak about "the caress of your voice", for example.

So here's a little video briefly describing this condition. Some previous vocabulary and some questions:

Vocabulary:

the culprit
sensory (adj)
tangle up
shut down
to keep sth in check


Questions:

- Which senses are mentioned throughout the video?
- What is sequence synesthesia?
- What is a possible explanation for seeing A as red?
- What do we mean by the association of senses being durable? And memorable?
- Why was the host reticent to do an episode on this topic?


My ongoing battle with difficult verb patterns for Spanish speakers, like suggest, leads me to asking you to find the use of that verb at the end of the video and transcribe the full sentence. Ideas in the comment section! Thank you!

By the way, you can use closed captions for the key in this one. Enjoy!

More "¡azúcar!": sugar-eating children

It's all well and good to like "azúcar", but as everything else in life... in moderation. After the overview of Celia Cruz's career, we look at sugar from a critical point of view.

This is a rather old interview with Felicity Lawrence, a British author who warned against the dangers of excessive sugar in processed food. I would like you to notice the use of several adjective+noun and adverb+adjective collocations, and to try these comprehension questions:

1. What is the meaning of "acquiring a taste for sth"? When does she use this expression?

2. Why do parents resort to processed food (e.g. formula milk) so early in the baby's life?

3. How does she explain our liking of sweetness in evolutionary terms?

4. What kind of sweeteners can be found in baby's food?

5. What's the main problem with eating refined sugar?

The key, coming soon here. But let me insist on sharing your answers in the comments section!

Topic Video: Health

Hello again!

Some of you tell me that you're not commenting because you watch the videos in a rush, kind of frightened by the whole burden of the exams. About fear of the exams, I will let someone speak for me.

Take it easy, guys, you can do this!

The questions for today are related with health. This is a series of very short videos. Open questions for the first one, and gap-filling, no more than three words per gap.

I like to link you to websites with playlists that you can continue watching if you have the time and inclination, so apart from embedding the videos, here's the link. Enjoy! Key coming soon here!

VIDEO 1

1. What do they want to prevent, mainly? What are the difficulties they are facing?
2. What three diseases are mentioned?
3. Who are they teaming with? To prevent what disease?

 


VIDEO 2 (pronunciation, please, the name of this illness is pronounced so differently in English!)

1. The first reason to make of Alzheimer's a ___________________ is the fact that it is stigmatised.
2. The Alzheimer's patient can also be invisible because it mainly affects old people in a _____________ culture.
3. One reason that the caregivers aren't advocating more strongly for better attention to the disease is that the 24/7 care leaves them ___________________ , ___________________  and ___________________  drained (what's the synonym of this word in the video?)

VIDEO 3

1. She claims that American and Western healthcase systems are entrenched in practice patterns, so introducing a new technology can be actually  ___________________ .
2. India is perfect to introduce some of these techonologies because they have an ___________________  and many increasingly successful hospitals, where patients pay for all of their healthcare.
3. Other places that might benefit from wireless technology are those where they have ___________________  but no electricity.