Inside the Great Mosque

Back from the break! I hope you had time to rest and got new batteries for the (short) rest of the year!

Again with the invaluable help of Encarna first, then Irene (I actually corrected some details from my own transcription, thank you to both!) we can give you this video with a full transcript in the comments. It's part of a series about art in the South of Spain. Some of you have already watched the video, but now it's time to enjoy it and work a little with it.

Gap-filling for the activities, with more than one word per gap. Answers, as usual, in the comments, although you can always check with the transcript.

Enjoy!

1. The effect of mirrored columns intends to make the visitor feel _______________ and _______________ .

2. The designers could only use architectural forms as Islam bans the _______________.

3. Islam being a religion without hierarchy, the architects could create a feeling of _______________ in those who entered and prayed.

4. Abd ar-Rahman considered that what the palm tree had in common with him was his condition as _______________.

5. The Catholic cathedral was built by dismantling _______________ of the Mosque.

6. The Emperor Charles V realised it had been a mistake, even though he had _______________ himself.

7. The historian believes that the Catholic cathedral represents how one set of religious values was _______________.

Travel Apps

Hi everyone!

A very short video but with a challenging activity, as some of the vocabulary used is very specific.

1. What cities does Zagat to Go cover?

2.What does Flight Track Pro offer?

3. Can you describe what Trip Journal offers?

Which of these apps is the most useful, do you think?

As usual, answers and doubts in the comments.

Enjoy!

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!