Video advertising

Hello there!

I bring some activities for a video explaining what video advertising is. There is quite a lot of interesting vocabulary that you can use for any discussion on the topic, and it combines a clear voice-over with interviews.

I propose the following gap-filling exercise. Be aware that you may need more than one word in each gap.


The popularity of online video in recent years (1) _______________ online video advertising, which is an increasingly attractive proposition for marketers.

This is a medium that seeks to engage consumers and making them want to be (2)_______________ a brand.

Broadband take up at an (3)______________________ of 89% of online users means we can enjoy faster speeds and better quality.

Around 40% of online adverts now carry (4)_____________________.

Broadband connection also leads to a more effective (5) __________________ of specific consumer groups, and the added bonus of marketers being able to (6)_______________ when and how long their films have been viewed.

If you were to (7) _____________ a TV spot in Coronation Street, your audience could be (8)_______________ an eight-month-old baby to a granny, and all the audiences in between.

Video advertising online can come in a variety of formats (9) _______________ every product: banners on site, pre-roll and post-roll video ads, as well as a range of new interactive units such as YouTube's new overlay format, (10) ________________________ the opportunity to interact.

An exciting part of online video is that viral videos enable marketers to tell a story in a slightly more (11)_____________ and _______________ way.

The last speaker suggests that to know whether online video advertising works for you or not, you should (12) ______________________ (idiom).

online video advertising

For those of you wanting to practice some pronunciation, I would propose to look for any words ending in -al, like "viral", and repeat the full sentence in the video to drill their pronunciation in context.

Key here, share your comments in the comment section! Enjoy!

The Short Transcript Challenge V: Desert Climates

Hello everyone!

As part of our long-forgotten Short Transcript Challenge, I propose this short video. It's a short description of desert climates and landscapes.

It's one minute long, but it's clear and the speed is quite reasonable. I would like to see your transcriptions in the comments, although I'll be posting a key soon (not too soon this time, though, to make sure you try!)

There are two words that you will need to know in advance, as they are very specific: erg and reg (better known as "desert pavement").


Go for it!

Understanding the weather

Hello again!

This is a video from a fantastic resource website, Education Scotland. Weather and climate facts and concepts explained in a lovely Scottish accent, starting by this video that goes through the most usual terms and symbols you are likely to hear in a weather forecast.

I give you the link so you can browse through their site: it's well worth a look.

To practice some listening comprehension, here's a collection of gaps with variying degrees of difficulty. Notice how some of the sentences are phrased very differently from the original recording, while others are almost verbatim. This is something that can make the activity more or less difficult, and you must gradually train yourselves to deal with any kind of rephrasing of the original text. Memory, note-taking strategies, and a good command of related vocabulary are essential to this purpose.

Here it goes. The link includes a transcript, but I'm also including this one, where you can find a key to the gaps.

Enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

(1)    Over the hills, heavy rain will be ________________________ (becoming).

(2)    What’s the expression they use to forecast sunny weather?

(3)    Where is there a risk of south-westerly gales?

(4)    The specific terms used in a certain field are called j___________.

(5)    To understand something better is to s______ t________ t_______ f________ (idiom).

WIND

(6)    South-westerly wind means ______________________________ the southwest.

(7)    Wind speeds can ______________________________ a gentle breeze blowing around 10 miles per hour that just rustles leaves in the trees to a strong wind at 25 to 30 miles per hour.

(8)    When wind blows at speeds between 39 and 46 miles per hour, it means we have reached ______________________________.

(9)    Storm force winds can _________________ and ____________________________.

PRECIPITATION

(10) If the cloud stretches ______________________________ it gets so cold that the water droplets freeze and become ice particles.

(11) Sleet is ______________________________.

TEMPERATURE

(12) The _____________________ daytime temperatures in Scotland range from around 6 Celsius in December to around 19 Celsius in July. 

(13) In summer, temperatures can be ______________________________.

MIST

(14) With fog or mist visibility ______________________________.

(15) The ______________________________ of visibility changes whether we refer to airports or to road traffic.

HUMIDITY

(16) In Scotland, we say it’s 'close' or 'muggy' ______________________________.

(17) Some of Scotland’s most humid days occur because ___________________________.

PRESSURE

(18) Air in the atmosphere is constantly rising and ______________________________.

(19) Areas of high pressure bring dry and settled weather, and on the map the isobar lines are __________________________, whereas the isobar lines for low pressure areas, which bring wet and windy weather, are often __________________________.

EXTREME WEATHER

(20) One consequence of climate change could be ___________________and ___________________ weather.

(21) Severe flooding can bring about blocked roads or even_________________________.

(22) The most extreme weather in the UK is be ___________________and ___________________, which can knock down trees and damage property.

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!

The life of Celia Cruz

As you know, biography videos tend to make use of certain expressions that recur time and time again, and I'm starting to think that they are a genre of their own in their use of language. Take, for example, the sentences we are looking for to answer these comprehension questions:

"A career that spanned five decades" - can you express this idea in other words?
How many prizes and recognitions did she receive? Can you find the verb+noun collocations that are used in the video to give this information?
What expressions with the word "influence" can you find?
How do they define "the ultimate American spirit"?

I will try to make the key available as soon as possible here ... seeing as most of you decided long ago not to share answers in the comments section. Comments are still (and always) welcome, though!

Enjoy!

Azucar! Life of Celia Cruz from c.p. granado on Vimeo.

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: 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.

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!

Shopping online tips

Hello again!

This video shows us several useful tips to buy online. Disable the subtitles to do the comprehension and gap-filling below. You must complete each gap with up to 4 words.

ONLINE SHOPPING TIPS FROM THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

1.       Plan ahead by ______________________ .

2.      Be sure to include __________________________ in your budget.

3.      You must distinguish between the __________________________ features of a product and those that are simply ____________________________ but can be done without.

4.      Look for feedback about how the product works, or its _________________________ .

5.      Read several reviews on the company selling the product to avoid ________________

__________________ source.

6.      Make sure you take into account ______________________________ and other add-ons when considering the price of the item.

7.      Sellers are required by law to ship items _________________________________.

8.      Credit card is safer because the law allows you to ____________________________ if you dispute a charge.

9.      The “s” at https stands for “secure” and will allow your information to be ____________________________ before transmission.

10   You can ____________________________ with the Federal Trade Commission if you can’t work out problems with the seller first.

The Short Transcript Challenge V: design at the MoMA

To bring some change of subject to our series of minute-long transcripts, here's one on design to challenge our views of art and what is worthy of a place in a museum.

Of special idiomatic interest could be, for example, the expression used here to suggest that the enumeration is just a selection of a larger collection (and it's not "and so on").

Let the transcription challenge continue!

What's on in Bath

Hi everyone!

This video should give you some practice on what's on guides, description of events, leisure activities, etc. Pay attention to dates and common verbs for this type of guides, like coming up, looking towards (April), hosting, showcasing. I remind you that the dictionary widget is available on your right to look them up, but it would be great if you tried to assign meaning to these verbs by using the context.

So, the comprehension questions:

1. What three ways of finding out what's on in Bath does she mention?

2. What can we explore in BathDigital Festival? It's t____  d_____ s_____

3. What's the advantage of getting rugby tickets at the visitor centre?

4. What will Bath In Fashion concentrate on this year?

Answers in the comments! Thank you!

The Short Transcript Challenge IV: Killing Caesar

Violence and power struggle. A timeless classic. You can revise the pronunciation of some vocabulary on history for this transcription, and don't forget the pronunciation of proper names!

A milestone event in ancient Roman history:

Killing Caesar

Enjoy!

The Short Transcript Challenge III: Ancient Superpower

These videos all elaborate on the same subject, and hopefully you will be able to see some progress in your transcription as you get used to the voice, the topic, and the type of discourse. Everything's a matter of frequency and practice.

Gotta love Roman times:

Ancient Superpower

Enjoy!

The Short Transcript Challenge II: Doomsday Pompeii

This is the other video you already know, and which originated work with short transcriptions. Prepare for the exhibition and hone your listening skills with this tiny video:

Doomsday Pompeii

Enjoy!

The Short Transcript Challenge I: The Heart of the Empire

Since some of you were keen enough to send me your versions of some transcripts, I propose comparing them here.

So, for the next entries, and probably from time to time when I find suitable videos, we'll carry out The Short Transcript Challenge (fanfare!)

The procedure is very simple. Just write down your version in the comments and compare with others. I'll include mine, probably on a separate window. I suggest that you check with other people's versions before correction, but to do that, we need some active participation!

We start with your already known The heart of the Empire. If you didn't participate during last week, now's the moment! Very interesting new vocabulary for the people that did it then, don't miss the chance of learning it too.

Enjoy!

Conditional hunt: the size of the universe

Back from a long break...

What's a conditional hunt? Well, in this blog, it is an activity that consists in finding as many conditional clauses as possible in one single video. The function of conditional clauses and hypothesis here, particularly at the end of the video, is to try to explain a concept in terms that we can understand. Given that the size of the universe is impossible for us to picture, Pete Edwards of the University of Durham resorts to an imaginary situation:

Supposing our galaxy were the size of a grain of sand, how big would the universe be?


So, let's open our ears! Go to the link above and try to find as many conditionals as possible! The solution, coming up in the comments. But don't forget to contribute with your own comments, telling us how many you found!

A nice idiomatic expression to start the video : "you'll never get your head around how big the universe is"

to get your head (a)round something: to be able to understand or accept something (OALD)