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.