Topic: Culture - Broadway Musicals

Hi everyone!

Doing a bit of research for this topic I have found out that there are so many musicals worth watching! And so many we know of because they have been adapted for the silver screen, like Grease, Hair, Mamma Mia, The Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story,... Actually, with some of these I'm not even sure if it was the musical production or the film that came first. Any help?

This is a top ten list that, obviously, will not please everybody, particularly if you're a fan of more classical musicals. I, for one, find that there is one unforgivable absence!. But we have to take into account that the list aims at presenting some of the most successful or critically acclaimed productions. Or... this might one of those cases where a top ten just won't do. A top twenty, maybe?

What I propose is:

1. First, to take a look at compound adjectives with present participles. Remember that they are easy to interpret if you "read them" from right to left forming a relative clause:

e.g. a Tony Award-winning musical would then become a musical that has won a Tony Award... or several! Don't forget that the first part of this adjective is always singular, no matter what.

2. Then, to complete some gapped sentences.

3. To read the full transcript and annotate any interesting collocations (there are soooo many I couldn't make gaps for all of them!)

4. To comment!

So we start with the adjectives. Match the adjectives you're going to hear with the noun they refer to in the video. There may be more than one acceptable match. Then check while you're listening.

history-making                                  characters

attention-grabbing                           numbers (figures)

show-stopping                                   dance numbers

longest-running                                 flick (film)

Oscar-winning                                   twelve Tony Awards

award-winning                                   production

record-breaking                                musical 

And here are the gapped sentences:

1. Wicked will captivate you _______________________ of “The Wizard of Oz” film.

2. The Producers, thanks to its musical numbers, choreography and characters,  _______________________  of classic Broadway shows.

3. RENT is a landmark musical, _______________________  and RENT-heads alike.

4. Oklahoma! is a successful combination of a serious storyline, _______________________  and dance numbers.

5. Oklahoma! is thought to be a musical that  _______________________  the musicals that came after it.

6. A Chorus Line is simple in its concept: a bare stage on which we watch several Broadway dancers _______________________  a musical.

7. Chicago follows two women _______________________ , wealth and “all that jazz”.

8. The Lion King manages to _______________________ universally appealing songs with colorful costumes and impressive puppetry.

9. Even though there is __________________________ in it, Cats is a “purrfect” musical.

10. Cats has vibrant costumes and incredibly complex dance numbers. _______________________  the distinct personalities of the Jellicle cats and_______________________ this is one of Broadway’s most popular shows.

11. Les Miserables is one of the longest-running musicals on Broadway, which the narrator doesn’t hesitate to call “a musical and _______________________.”

12. The Phantom of the Opera counts with detailed costumes, ___________________ and haunting music.

All that is left for you to do now is to read the transcript and annotate your favourite vocabulary.

Oh, I almost forgot... And to comment! Do you agree with the list? Which is your favourite musical? You can also share the vocabulary you found interesting with us.

Enjoy!

Topic Video: Charity

Hello everyone!

This is a video about a very particular charity shop. A pair of shoes for 850 pounds... is that a rip-off or a bargain? Well, here, it turns out to be a bargain! The proceeds of this charity must have been really high!

I propose a gap-filling exercise to practise collocations, either related to this topic or not. You know my insistence on collocation, and my firm belief that it is the key to successful comprehension and natural expression.

Some vocabulary to check before listening (remember to use a monolingual dictionary! You have a dictionary widget on this same page):

cobbler
cast-offs
highstreet
kudos

Notice the emphatic structure at the beginning of the report (cleft sentence):

________________________ buy  Beyoncé’s dress, Shirley Bassey’s shoes or Natalie Imbruglia’s hat all under one roof.

Complete with a suitable word or phrase:

But you can at this ________________________ charity shop inside London’s department store Selfridges.

The idea came from ________________________  Annie Lennox, and Vanessa Branson, sister of ________________________  Richard, was one of several of her friends ________________________ .

Vanessa Branson highlights that:

• Everybody feels ________________________ the project.
• It’s not just about ________________________  every year.
• You know you’re making ________________________ .

So far, 30,000 pounds ________________________  by the shop.

Charity shops in general are ________________________ : profits were up by ________________________  to 100m pounds.

With more than 700 ________________________ , Oxfam is the biggest UK charity retailer.

Theresa Colonette runs a boutique selling only the creme of ________________________ cast-offs.

She thinks that charity shops can be an alternative fashion resource, offering a ________________________  for anyone.

The last dress shown doesn’t have a celebrity connection, but it is still ________________________ , something which more people are likely ________________________ in the ________________________ .

Key here. But I hope to see your comments anyway, about the activity or about the vocabulary you've learnt with it. Thanks!

Topic Video: Architecture and Conservation

Hello everyone!

Back after a short break with a topic video! This one was inspired by my finding out that the magazine Arts and Architecture has been reprinted by Taschen. Definitely not affordable, but great news for those interested in that magazine, and who could only try to get hold of vintage issues.

One of the features of the magazine was the Case Study House Program. If you want to find out about it, and about what has been done in recent years to promote conservation of these designs, go ahead and watch the video!

...with an activity, of course. Here's the key: now you only need ten minutes and, if you could find two minutes more, you could even leave a comment!


1. There were _______________ 11 individuals, organizations, projects or programs that received awards.
2. The Case Study House Program was one of the seminal efforts in designing and building _______________  in the US.
2. Only 25 houses were built of a total of 35 homes and _______________  designed and published on the magazine.
3. They designed single-family residences, incorporating the _______________  in construction, materials, landscaping, and even _______________ .
4. The result had a _______________  on architectural design all over the world.
5. Due to risk of demolition or alterations that would make them _______________ , there was an effort to get the homes listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
6. The project spanned 11 years, after which ten houses were listed and one was _______________ for listing.
7. The project succeeded in raising awareness of and appreciation for these _______________  and their architects.

Topic Video: Social Networks

Hi everyone!

I hope that you will find some useful vocabulary in this video to talk about social networks and their risks, but also about entertainment and age-appropriate leisure activities for children. A very complete one!

So check out this top ten and answer the questions. Then watch it again and try to complete the sentences with up to three words:


a) What are the most desirable features of social networks for kids? Tick the ones you hear:

- parental control
- signing in is only possible with parental approval
- online games
- limits of time spent online
- certain features can be enabled or disabled by parents
- age-appropriate content
- appealing photo-sharing facilities
- adult moderators
- Disney characters
- parents can access chatrooms
- review of photos before upload

b) What other features not mentioned in a) do you think can also be beneficial to a children networking site?


1. Togetherville works ______________ Facebook.
2. At whatswhat, a kids-only network,  it is required to log in with biometric facial recognition ______________ account security.
3. Without ______________, friends are limited to one grade level.
4. In Scuttlepad, content in ______________, ______________ and comments is kept age-appropriate, and photos are reviewed by their staff before posting.
5. At gianthello, friends are made from ______________ email addresses, and not from random online invitations.
6. It's a safe place for your kids to play online if they ______________ games.
7. Skid-e-kids has special features that let parents ______________ and monitor friends.
8. On imbee, parents have ______________ to everything. Age-appropriate parameters can be set, and features can be ______________ or ______________ by parents.
9. At four is kidswirl, which comes ______________ games, photo albums, videos, quizzes, music,...
10. On everloop, children can create ______________ pages, play online games, buy virtual goods and chat through various media.
11. The children's private loop is ______________ anonymous intruders.
12. On Club Penguin, children use penguin avatars to ______________, and they can use emoticons, chats and games to interact.
13. Signing up for children ______________ is forbidden unless they have parental consent. That will also grant parents access to a parent portal where they can ______________ their children post.

Key here... Tell us what you think about these children-friendly networks and their safety features in the comments!

Topic Video: Law

Hi everyone!

Here's a video on the origins of copyright law, and on the difference between what it was created for and what it is used for nowadays. The views of the author of the video are not necessarily my own, but he does raise a question. Who benefits from extending copyright to 70 years after the demise of the author? Heirs, companies?

I like the topic precisely because there doesn't seem to be a right or wrong answer to it, so the best way to argue in favour or against is by giving examples.

In any case, I'm using this video for you to find conditionals. The guy speaks fairly quickly, so turn on the captions for the difficult ones. All the conditionals I could catch are here.

The opposite of copyrighted material is public domain. A folk story, for example, is public domain. I wonder how it works with reworkings of that public domain story? For instance, The Little Mermaid. Could I make a film based on that? Or is it copyrighted since Disney made a version of it? I suppose if I go back to the source material, I could do it, but what if it looked "suspiciously similar" to the Disney story? I love to imagine those cases where definitions are slippery. What do you think?

Enjoy it!

Topic video: Traditions

Hello to you all!

The topic of today is traditions, so here it goes: birthday traditions from around the globe!

I would like to give some life to the comments section, so the questions for you, to be shared in the comments, are:

a. Which of the traditions mentioned in the video would you like to see or experience?
b. Do you know of any other birthday traditions?

Hard to choose!

Some more questions, anyone? With their corresponding key.

1. The Romans were the first to celebrate their family and friend's birthdays, and not just those of _______________ .
2. In Denmark, presents are placed on and around the child's bed so _______________ .
3. According to the host, we all know how adorable it is to _______________.
4. "Las mañanitas", aka "the little mornings" is sung _______________ before a group eats cake.
5. __________________ before their actual birthday is considered bad luck in Germany.
6. In the sock wreath hung at a bachelor's twenty-fifth birthday, the old socks are _______________ of his _______________.
7. Jewish girls have a bat mitzvah _______________ and boys have a bar mitzvah _______________.
8. When you turn 1, 10 and 15 in Nigeria, _______________ people may turn up at your birthday, which usually involves a feast.
9. In the last tradition mentioned, the Chinese believe that _______________ are indications of future interests.
10. The dog doesn't choose anything, indicating that she is _______________ .

Enjoy! And share your opinions in the comments!

Topic video: Politics

Hi everyone!

The video for today is not the best of topics, but... Here it goes! The European election explained in 99 seconds.

Get ready for some quick delivery! I strongly advise that you look up some vocabulary before watching:

cast a ballot
turnout
in the fringes
hard-line (anti-Europeans)
far-right parties
euro-sceptics

Why could these elections be, in the opinion of The Guardian, "a real turning point for the EU"?

Enjoy!

Topic video: tourism and conservation

Hello everyone!

One of the widest topics that we can deal with, it also includes some vocabulary on cities and transport.

An old piece of news about an eternal debate: is Venice selling itself to tourist exploitation? Work on the vocabulary first (you can use the widget on the right to help you), then answer the questions as accurately as possible. You can find a lot of useful collocations in the answers provided in the key.

Enjoy!

VOCABULARY

dwarfing
to (bitterly) resent sth
liner
vessel
guidelines
tide

QUESTIONS

What do those people against large cruise ships argue?
What is the justification given by the cruise company?
How many people does the tourist traffic in Venice amount to?
Who argues that there are far too many tourists?
How is the debate summarized at the end?

Topic Video: life stages / history

Hi everyone!

We begin our round of topic videos for this end of the academic year. The first one is on the topic of life stages, with a little bit of history.

The video is an account of a teenager's life in Ancient Rome. Do you want to know about Lucius's day? He's seventeen and he lives in Rome. Come in for a glimpse of his life...



And questions, of course!

What's the liberalia?
What poses risks in the building?
At what age did Romans come of age? Why was it such an important milestone?
What things has Lucius learnt in the classroom? And out of it?
How can Lucius make business?
Who is he bound to marry?
Describe the appearance of the streets during the liberalia.
What does the expression "wars were a fact of life" mean?
What expressions of time can you find (particularly at the end of the video)?


Here's the key! And don't forget that these TED-Ed videos come with transcripts if you watch them on their website or on Youtube.

Enjoy!

Topic Video: Privacy

Hello everyone,

This is a piece of news that has had most of my attention for the last couple of days. I don't know if you're familiar with the story (I guess you are): Edward Snowden worked for outside contractors of the NSA (National Security Agency), and decided to leak top secret documents about surveillance procedures that were, in his view, a breach of privacy.

The amazing thing, to me, is that he has revealed his identity of his own accord, becoming what is called a whistleblower.

This video takes you through some of the events, in a mixture of British English (from the Telegraph reporter) and American English (from Snowden).  I strongly recommend that you also read the accompanying article (with video on the same page).While some accuse him of treason (which could lead to death penalty, as far as I understood from a newspaper article), others hail him as a hero. The widest coverage I have found on the topic so far is in The Guardian.

Some words whose pronunciation you may want to check before listening (remember, monolingual dictionary on your right):

surveillance
extradite
disclosure


So, some questions:

1. The person who has revealed himself as the whistleblower is a former ________________.
2. The NSA has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans to find out if _____________ have been in contact with people in the US.
3. Snowden believes that it's fundamentally dangerous to democracy to _______________ of government.
4. He wants to go ______________ to defend the authenticity of his disclosures.
5. The journalist he spoke to, Greenwald, believes that ______________ he must be anxious about what may happen to him.
6. Most likely, he will be ______________ by the US government and _____________ from Hong Kong.

Key coming very soon here!

Topic Video: Education

Hello everyone,

The video for today is on the topic of education.

I bring you one of my favourite TED talks: Ken Robinson speaks about education and creativity. For a more condensed, visual explanation, you have this animation video that I sent you once in the email video (I don't know if you'll remember of if you were in the list already).

The questions today require a bit of development, and quite a lot of attention. On the plus side, he's very entertaining. If you're having difficulties (British accent at tremendious speed sometimes... great), there are subtitles in English available.


1. He says we all have "a vested interest" in education - What does this common collocation mean, and why is it so?
2. What's his main point (as stated at the beginning)?
3. How is the education of children similar to running a company?
4. What's the universal hierarchy of subjects in education systems?
5. How would you rephrase the expression "to be predicated on the idea that..."?
6. What's the explanation of the "process of academic inflation"?
7. How does he compare the mind to the Earth in his "ecology" comparison?

Enjoy! Please leave a comment! Key coming soon!

Topic Video: Science and Research

Hello everyone!

The video for today is on one of my favourite topics: women in science. A video "with a twist": it's from 1954.

A promotional video by GE (General Electric) that shows us that "it's not a man's world". The questions:

1. What does each woman do (some details, please)?
2. What are polymers?
3. What is the biologist working on at the moment?
2. List the adverb + adjective collocations
3. List the adjective + noun collocations.
4. Which of these collocations are specific to science or could you use in a conversation about science?

My oh my the end of the video... Well it's 1954 after all...!

All my respect today to women devoted to science and research.

Key coming soon! Please comment!

Topic Video: Cities

Hello again!

The video for today corresponds to the topic of cities. Instead of the usual "city life vs country life" comparison, I bring you a video about the peculiarities of suburban life. That is, life in the suburbs. Please remember that can be a false friend! A suburban area is simply in the outskirts of a city. Anyway, you will see that the definition of "suburbs" becomes very clear in the video, as it features one of the largest suburban areas in the country.

Living in the suburbs has shaped the residents' way of life, but how? Let's find out. Before listening, consider this vocabulary (dictionary to your right, people!). You can also try to find out the meaning by context, if you want.

stretching North = expanding to the North
cul-de-sac (check pronunciation, the word is defined in the video. How is it defined?)
to come at a cost 
to track (or track down)
to be off the beaten path

Some questions:

1. How many synonyms or near-synonyms of  "going" can you find?
2. How has walking been transformed by this way of life?
3. What are the problems originated/not solved by the road system?
4. Why does the reporter call the situation in the Dallas-Fort Worth area a "construction loop"?

By the way: I can check how many people watch the videos. Is it possible that 63 people have watched yesterday's video in one day, and not one of them has shared their answers? I put it down to you having the key, but then the commenting/sharing element loses all meaning... I'm not too happy with that.

Answers to be shared in the comments, please! And the key coming soon here!

Topic videos: Food

I think that the New York Times have made all their videos available and free to watch. Hooray! So I thought that I might post a video for each important, large topic that we have seen this year, both for NA1 and for NA2. I'll try to keep it even. Advantage: your exams are very close together, so we have roughly the same amount of time.

I start with food (closely linked to health or to culture, usually), because it was seen at the beginning of the year and I imagine it must be far out in your memory: 

1. Consider this vocabulary and its pronunciation: 
processed- ultraprocessed food
aisle
whole(some) foods
navigate (quite modern, basically meaning "finding your way in")
come up with (an idea)

2. Note down adjectives or nouns related with food, especially those we have already seen. 

3. Answer: 

a) Why is it necessary to "navigate" the supermarket?
b) Can you find one of the most typical, strongest collocations of adverb+adjectives we have seen this course?
c) What's the difference between processed and ultraprocessed food?
d) Are frozen vegetables good, according to them?
 e) Why do yogurts have so much sugar in them?


 

Answers in the comments section, I hope to make the key available very very soon. Here's the key.

Enjoy!