The Berlin Philharmonic

Here we go again with some activities that may ring a bell to some of you. I am posting it here to give you the transcript (in the comments). Thank you very much to Encarna for a transcription of part of the video, and to Irene for astonishing research work on the piece played by Anne-Sophie Mutter on the video.

Sorry for not having been able to subtitle it, I may try again one of these days!

So enjoy it as it is!

As activities, I propose answering the following questions:

1. How do the different people describe the sound of the orchestra from minute 1:30 to 2:00?

2. How does conducting compare to horseriding?

3. How many chief conductors of the Berlin Philharmonic has there been?

4. Where do the people who watch the Berlin Philharmonic come from?

5. Why does Simon Rattle fit in so well with this orchestra, according to the horn?

6. Throughout the 20th century, what has changed and what has remained in the orchestra?

7. Why wasn't this conductor very well received at the beginning?

8. Find an example of a second conditional.

9. What does Simon Rattle compare their work with at the end of the video?

Feel free to ask any questions of comprehension.

Good listening!

Travelling to Japan

A kind look at Japan. The proposed exercised (which must be familiar to some of you) is

1. to list the many collocations with adjectives that appear in the video

2. to transcribe sentences that do not start with the subject

Answers in the comments, as usual. And the key in a week or so...

Enjoy!

Agatha Christie Sketch: sentence order

A really really funny Monty Python sketch. Apart from the absurd, there are some interesting language features in this little piece. I suggest trying to decipher inspector Tiger's crazy variations of the first sentence. Can you transcribe some of them?

Enjoy! By the way: Who do you think is the murderer?

Answers, as usual, in the comments.

The IT Crowd: team players!

Back again with some brief pieces of the hilarious BBC series The IT Crowd. In this episode, which is the first one, Jen goes to an interview where what she has included in her CV turns against her.

Some vocabulary you may need for this piece:

a stare

to know your stuff

As you can imagine, her relationship with the IT team is not precisely great, so they decide to tell their boss that it's not working out for them. Do you remember the collocation, "to work as a team"? Well, you'll hear it a couple of times here.

This second video is subtitled. Some vocabulary you may want to look up before watching:

to escort

the premises (do you remember what it means?)

recruitment

to get on like a house on fire:

http://www.oxfordadvancedlearnersdictionary.com/dictionary/get+on+like+a+house+on+fire#house_1

Enjoy!

(dedicated to all the IT technicians and engineers in our classes)

BBC Wildlife

Hello everyone!

I'm getting quite addicted to the BBC Worldwide channel in Youtube. The video I bring you today is part of a BBC Worldwide documentary. Let's work on some of the complex structure "ingredients" that we have been seeing in class, as well as some vocabulary:

Phrasal verbs and verb+preposition

Give the full context for these verbs. What do they mean?

to stretch up:

to head for:

to bring up:

to pull up:

Finding complex structures

Find an instance of:

A relative clause

A participle clause

Finding collocations

How many instances of adverb+adjective can you find? How many adjectives?

Find a new meaning for the verb "to claim", providing its context.

Enjoy!

BBC News - student fees rise

Hello everyone!

The video for today was already seen as one of the "daily videos" for Avanzado 2. I have been trying to subtitle it but try as I might, there is always something wrong. Encarna had so kindly provided us with a transcript, and I don't want to waste it, so we'll do it the old way: I'll give you the link to the video, and post the transcript as a comment.

The video is in BBC News, and it's usually a pain to load. Please insist, refresh and refresh until it loads.

Some comprehension questions:

What is the cost of Theresa's university studies?

What do students have to do in Dani's class?

Why is the student community important in Maastricht?

What's the difference between local students and overseas students according to Nijls?

When they graduate, what are the advantages that the students at Maastricht will have over other British students?

Enjoy (again)!

A Bit of Fry and Laurie

A little video in which the meaning of the verb "to claim" is very clear. Let's remember what the dictionary says:

1 [transitive] to say that something is true although it has not been proved and other people may not believe it

claim (that)… He claims (that) he was not given a fair hearing.claim (somebody/something) to be/do something I don't claim to be an expert.claim something Scientists are claiming a major breakthrough in the fight against cancer.it is claimed that… It was claimed that some doctors were working 80 hours a week.

In this video,

1. What did the psychic claim?

2. What did he not claim?

So, I continue with my vindication of British humour. And a good opportunity to see Hugh Laurie outside his role of Dr.House (and a lot younger, too!)

Enjoy!