New course! A video about films

Hi everyone! We're back with some more video goodness.

Have you ever thought "no one could be Corleone but Marlon Brando"? What about any other characters? Actors and their iconic characters remain together forever, but the process whereby a specific actor is chosen can be long and involve a huge number of other people and circumstances. If that other actor hadn't turned it down...

This video takes us through some of the best alternate castings. Here's some vocabulary that I'd recommend you check before jumping to the open questions:

turn down

aficionado

contender

to be halted

to buckle (figurative sense)

And here are the questions. Key coming shortly! Enjoy the comeback!

Why did Burt Reynolds turn down Bond's role?

What was the problem with Stallone's script for Beverly Hills Cop?

What actor was only rumoured to have turned down a role? In which film? In that case, who would be to blame for not accepting a successful role?

What difficulties did Harrison Ford find to obtain the role for Han Solo? How did he finally get it?

And what difficulties did Michael J. Fox have when shooting Back to the Future?

Why was Harrison Ford cast for Indiana Jones only three weeks before production?  

What unexpected even could have enabled Tom Selleck to accept the role?

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: Book Reviews

Hello everyone!

The topic of today is reading, so here we have a double activity with an author's description of her latest novel and an author telling us about what she's reading at the moment. Note this vocabulary:

First video:

to run afoul of the law (new for me!)
neat - a neat guy

Second video:

Notice the pronunciation of the title (French words in English): Les Miserables
I figured... = I thought, I considered
Western literature

Book review:  Moving Target

1. What was difficult from having so many characters in different locations in Moving Target?
2. There are two mysteries in the book. Who is the second one about?
3. How much can she tell us about the last book she describes?



What are you reading?

1. The book she's reading
a) is based on a musical
b) is hard to read from cover to cover (from beginning to end)
c) is not an adaptation.

2. As she reads the book
a) she likes to listen to the songs from the musical
b) she realizes why it's considered such a great book
c) she thinks she should've read it earlier in life





Enjoy! As usual, key here.

And remember you can share things with us in the comments section. What are you reading at the moment? Any books on your nightstand? Here's mine.

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!