Flu season in full swing

Hi everyone,

Inspiration for this video came, as you probably know, from these miserable days at home in the company of the flu. I also love the expression "in full swing": we say that something is in full swing when it's at its highest level of activity. I prefer to use it for more positive events, like a party: We were a bit late, and when we arrived the party was in full swing.

This video is from last year, I think, when the flu season was in full swing: December/January. I propse two activities to be carried out with it: 1) a gap-fill; 2) finding out about the tone and intention of the text by listing adjectives: you know a newsreader is being dramatic when he uses the word "alarming" too often!

The main activity is this gap-fill in which I have highlighted the collocations in bold.

Flu season is (1) ____________ all across the country, with states in the North (2)____________ very hard.

Swine flu is making (3) ________________.

What’s (4) ________ about the H1N1 that’s a little more concerning is that it has additional symptoms: not only the fever, (5) __________, cough and congestion, but it can also have stomach-upset-like: (6) _________, vomiting and diarrhea. This makes one more (7) _____________ to dehydration.

In terms of prevention, the best thing to do is to get (8)_________________, but bear in mind it takes two weeks to (9) _____________.

It has been found that some bacteria can live longer on certain surfaces than (10) ________________. These bacteria can cause a strep throat, as well as (11)_____________ infections, sinus infections and even (12) ________________.

It was thought that once they touched a surface, they would die in (13) _______________ hours. It has now been found that they can survive longer.

A good prevention is not to touch your face, including (14) _____________ your eyes and (15) __________ your ___________.

You must also cover your mouth when you (16) ___________ or you (17) ____________.

Go for it! The key is available here.

Remembering all those who fought

Hello everyone! Remembrance Day is here, marking the end of hostilities in WWI "at the eleventh hour of the elenveth day  of the eleventh month".

To celebrate peace, I bring you a video about the dogs that were recruited at Battersea and the roles they took up during the war.

This video illustrates some of the accents we've been studying, and this, together with the recent practice on spelling and pronunciation we've been doing, has inspired me to introduce a different modality of activity that focuses on the "bête noire" of pronunciation: weak syllables.

When you read automatic captions, the usual thing is for them to be a little inaccurate. Guess where those mistakes tend to occur... Yes, as it happens with spelling bees, most of the inaccuracies will appear in weak sounds.

So, here's this challenging activity:

1. Watch the video once without captions.
2. Watch the video with closed captions on (CC button) and spot the inaccuracies.
3. Correct the captions.

This is going to test your listening, vocabulary, spelling and pronunciation skills at the same time, and I hope it shows you how interrelated these skills actually are when we try to understand connected speech.

A difficult one done for you:

00:22 - CC: left tenant Colonel Richardson
should read:  Lieutenant Colonel Richardson (you can check the pronunciation of "lieutenant" on the widget on the right side bar to see why it was misspelt in the captions)

The rest are not so difficult, so... all yours! I expect a lot of activity in the comments until we get it all done! I'll keep an eye to help whenever it's needed.

Enjoy!


 

A brief history of the electric guitar in one song

Hi everyone!

Here's a little history of the electric guitar brought to you by the Smithsonian Channel. I hope you can recognize the song they play throughout the video!

The activity is a gap-fill of varying length: any number of words can fill the gap. What I like most about this video in particular is the fact that we have different voices, with slightly different accents, and a music background.

You can check your answers by activating the closed captions in the video (CC button). It's very approximate, so it'll do. (UPDATE:  this is the link to the video that has a CC button available)

Hope you enjoy it! And if it inspires you to play some music afterwards, then my purpose is accomplished!

All right now, what me and the _____________  are trying to do right here is a short history of the electric guitar, starting with ________________ that you can hear.

The creativity that comes out of, here was a tool where you can  ________ things in a way, and that, the only _____________ your imagination.

There's something beautiful about it, and it _______________, it doesn't sound like where the instrument ____________, it's gone in a _____________ round.

__________________ a way to express yourself in a way that,  maybe a __________________, maybe a little crazy, maybe ___________you to do things that you _________________ on your own, but you have that guitar in hand, it gives you ______________.

The fascinating thing about electric guitar history is that the product ___________________ much since it _______________, and all the innovations have been small, ____________ in their effect on a country as it changed music _______________.

In the story of the electric guitar you have so many things about America, and about __________culture _______________. You have invention, faith ____________, you have faith in technology, and you have ________________, you have creativity. All of these things come together in a guitar.

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!