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!

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!