Lunar New Year traditions

China celebrates the end of the lunar New Year celebrations with the Lantern Festival, on the 15th day of the first moon. That day is... tomorrow, February the 6th, the first full moon of their calendar.

This tradition is also held in other countries, but we're going to concentrate on China to watch again the video on New Year celebrations you received last month. By the way, in some regions this particular festival is also a lovers' day, a sort of St Valentine's Day!

Here are the comprehension questions:

1. Make a list of adverb + adjective collocations in the video.

2. How long have they been celebrating the lunar New Year?

3. What did they use the colour red, bright light and loud noise for?

4. Why did they fear the New Year?

5. What was the family reunion for?

6. When did the Chinese adopt the Gregorian calendar?

7. What's the traditional Chinese calendar?

8. What do they hang from windows? What for?

9. What do the fish and chicken stand for (represent)?

10. What's the origin of the Lantern Festival?

Enjoy the video and, if you get the chance, the lunar New Year too!

The Artist

Hi again!

I promised a little activity with this short video on the film The Artist. The interviewees are French speakers so it helps to get a grasp of different non-native accents in English.

As an initial activity I asked you to pay attention to the actress' intonation patterns (she has a very native-like musicality to her speech); in this case I'm providing you with some gapped sentences for comprehension practice. Please note that there may be more than one word in each gap, and that the wording of the sentences will usually vary from that of the video. Please make your answers fit the gapped sentence regarding grammar, negative/positive statements, tenses, etc.

Enjoy the video, and the film if you're planning to watch it! I did, and I had a great time. If you want to forget about everything for some hour and a half, this is the film to watch, if you ask me!

Please comment to share your answers with the rest of us!

The male protagonist is described as a joker, a seducer and a man who is (1)___________________ .

The female protagonist falls in love with him and remains (2)_____________________ even when he’s no longer a movie star.

The director had wanted to film a silent movie for (3)_____________________ .

To him, the most amazing thing about the format is (4)_____________________ the audience. It allows them to (5)_____________________ so many things, from the (6)_____________________ of the voices to the sounds of the (7)_____________________ and (8)_____________________ .

Participating in the film OSS (where these actors had previously worked with the director Michel Hazanavicius) was helpful to Bérénice because she had (9)_____________________ before. Jean, however, did not prepare (10)_____________________ differently.

Treasures of Afghanistan

Hello!

Back again with one video that you may have probably enjoyed already as part of your daily videos. It's an introduction to a wonderful exhibition at the British Museum. Unfortunately, it was on show last year, so there is no way for us to fly to London and see it now... To make up for it, we do have the chance to watch a wealth of videos kindly uploaded by the British Museum.

Here are some comprehension questions for this video, which tells the story of the preservation of Afghan national treasures from the atrocities of war.

1. Who discovered the nomads’ graves?

2. When did they decide to hide the objects? Which objects were to be hidden? Where?

3. Why has Mr Omar Sultan supported the exhibition to be shown outside Afghanistan?

4. According to him, what do Afghans want to share with the world?


I hope you enjoy it very much! It's nice to be back, and I'd LOVE to see a bunch of comments for this video!