Music and creativity

Hi everyone!

Just how prominent is music in your lives? Do you use it to dance, to accompany daily activities, to entertain yourselves while you shower? Or maybe you play music yourselves, or compose it? Do you ever think about how musical a language (such as English) can be ?

This video explains the pervasiveness of music in Ancient Greece. Would Plato be shocked at the kind of music you listen to?

The video is narrated at a very good rhythm to do structure hunts. Can you find:

1. any reduced relative clauses (omitting the pronoun and the verb "to be")?
2. any passive constructions?

Notice the very strong collocation with the verb accompany (and its word family). How many collocations with it can you find?


Remove the captions for the hunt, and then check. Let me know in the comments if you'd rather have a key, or if you want to compare your answers or correct them.

Enjoy!

Conservation stories

Hello everyone,

Protecting biodiversity is the topic of this video we present today. To address some of the linguistic points that we have seen lately at different levels, I propose:

- Writing down all the adjective + noun collocations. Which of these adjectives have been formed with a prefix? Which of the nouns have been formed with a suffix?

- Writing down all the passive voice constructions.

What words or expressions from the video would you like to learn and use? Tell us in the comments!

The key, coming soon. Enjoy!

Yosemite National Park - facts and figures

Here's a little video with facts and figures of Yosemite National Park, which contains some nice examples of collocations typically used in travel and tourism.

I propose the following:

Find these expressions in the video and complete the facts:

Located in…

It’s visited by…

It’s home to…

Some of the visitors look for…

It boasts …

Find the figures! For an extra challenge, try to use the same wording as in the video, with full compound adjectives. Careful with spelling! 

How high is Yosemite Falls?

How high is El Capitan?

What are the dimensions of the slab of granite beneath the surface to which El Capitan belongs?

How high are sequoias (include the comparison)? 

An extra question: why are researchers climbing the sequoias?


You can find the key here. Let's travel a bit!

Proof or evidence?

Hello there again! I've just come across this delightful animation from the Royal Institution, supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.

It tells us about how ancient Greek thought influenced the way we think about Mathematics, and ultimately about... everything else.

I take the chance, with this video, to make you reflect about similar words. In this case, proof and evidence. They are near synonyms in certain contexts, but as usual... the collocations make the difference. So always keep a good record of where the word appears, what the topic is, and what words it collocates with. For example, evidence tends to appear quite a lot in contexts related to court, justice, and the like. Proof is often used in science, as in this video, where it is used to talk about demonstrations of theorems.

Not to mention the fact that both can be either countable or uncountable, so we must always be careful with the verb and articles we use!

Always look up the examples in good monolingual dictionaries to help with these aspects. In the best scientific spirit, read the examples provided by the dictionary to draw conclusions of use, deduce and then test (through trial and error: use use use, make mistakes, correct your assumptions). The activity here includes:

1. Reading the definitions of "evidence" and "proof" in the Learner's Dictionary widget on the right of the page. Taking notes if necessary.
2. Answering these questions: 
-What is the definition of "proof" in the video?
-According to the video, what is a good proof?
3. Writing down some collocations of the word "proof" used in the video.
4. Enjoying the video!

Key here. Enjoy!



The Greek Legacy: How the Ancient Greeks Shaped Modern Mathematics from 12Foot6 on Vimeo.

Surveys!

Hello everyone,

Following the reading about "Truth and Statistics", here's the British comedy Yes, Minister showing us how to obtain opposite results in a survey. Wonder how? Through the use of so-called "leading questions", that is, the questions that lead or introduce one more important question in the poll.

The one piece of vocabulary you whould know in advance is National Service, which was the obligatory military service in the UK (although this could be easily guessed by the nature of the questions.

I propose two activities with different degrees of difficulty: either transcribing the poll questions (ready for some British accent!), or completing this gap-filling.

You can check your answers here.

Enjoy!

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Green Offices: a gerund and infinitive challenge

Hello everyone!

Today's video is a little presentation of eco-friendly measures in a company.

I suggest summing up or transcribing at least four or five measures that they implement at their offices, identifying all the to - infinitive and -ing forms. What is their function? 

ex. In Beijing, they arrange over 70 different bus lines from different parts of the city, helping them to (or: "which helps them to", expresses consequence) reduce the number of cars, and with it their carbon footprint.

How many more can you identify? The main objective for you is to transcribe them, and if possible, say:

a) if they are the subject 
b) if they are the object of a verb (remember certain verbs take infinitives, others take -ing, others take both...?)
c) if they express manner (they way we do something)
d) if they express consequence
e) if they express purpose 
f)  Extra: any participle clauses?

Enjoy! Here's the key.

Skyscraper history

Hi everyone!

This National Geographic video seems to be the beginning of a longer documentary. I quite like the language used, and the voiceover is just challenging enough with its pronunciation of weak syllables.

The documentary reviews seven "historic giants". Why do we use the word "historic" here, and not "historical"?

Have you seen any of these buildings? Personally, I'd love to see the Flatiron. I actually saw it yesterday in a film, just in passing, and I thought it was impressive.

Time for some comprehension. Complete with one or two words:

The Burj Dubai  _________  its success to seven key inventions.
At the heart of each of those seven buildings lies a major technological innovation that _________ to reach taller into the sky.
Seven ingenious leaps forward that _________  skyscrapers to evolve from big to bigger into the world's biggest.
Stairs in old office buildings were long and very dark, so people weren't willing to _________  more than to the second or third floor.
In the explanation of the security device for elevators, the rope breaking _________  a chain of events that locks the elevator.
The elevator completely transforms the _________  .
The Burj Dubai takes the idea of the elevator to _________  . Its more than 160 storeys _________  elevator technology to its absolute limit.


Enjoy! The key is here, but comments are also welcome!