Tuesday, 28 January 2014

Repatriating cultural heritage

Hello there, and welcome to a topic we hadn't dealt with in quite some time: culture, heritage, history and arts.

Many of you will be familiar with this situation: going to a museum in the UK, in France, in Spain, and walking around a section of Egyptian art. Or Greek. Or Persian. And the pieces on display are not minor: you will see in the video that some of the most representative works of art of certain civilizations are to be found in museums thousands of kilometres away from their land of origin.

This video is just a brief report, but it sums up many of the arguments in favour of and against showcasing foreign cultural heritage in museums. It has captions but they're not accurate at all and they're likely to confuse you.

Time for some questions, with their key here:

On display in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo: the tomb of Tutankhamon, and one of the _________________ artefacts in the ancient world: the Rosetta Stone.

How the Rosetta Stone ended up in Britain is a tale of imperialist _____________ : the French discovered it in 1799, and when they _______________ the British in 1801, they gave them the stone.

The reporter suggests there is an argument to be made that the stone is in __________________ in the British Museum, and that people from all over the world can see it there. The reply is simple: that's true, but it's not at home, and Egypt __________________ .

Turkey has demanded the return of antiquities, and threatened to withhold the loan of artwork to those museums until __________________ .

Museums return pieces of art when there are grounds for their __________________ , or when a court forces them to. The St Louis Museum of Art is being __________________  for the return of an Egyptian mask.

When works of art have been taken legally, they are great __________________  for their countries of origin. 

In Greece they wonder who is authorized to __________________  a monument.

They display classical sculptures. The __________________  have been replaced with copies of the originals, the __________________  are in the British Museum.

It's difficult to decide how legitimate these claims are, because it isn't always clear whether something was __________________ . 

The case of recently acquired pieces is different from that of pieces that have remained abroad for a long time, in that the latter have become __________________  of the countries they are currently in. 

Security at the museums is also an issue. The Egyptian Museum, for example, was __________________  three years ago, and a human shield was the only thing that prevented a further __________________ .

It is argued that unstable governments are more likely to __________________ art repatriation.

What seems to be just bitter custody battles could __________________ more cultural exchange. In Greece the claim is becoming an opportunity for collaboration and sending more pieces to the British Museum for __________________ . 

In Dallas, they're borrowing pieces from Italy and Turkey in __________________  of their return of pieces to them. 


The looting of the Egyptian Museum is something that we witnessed here some time ago in one of our most popular posts.

"If something's been somewhere long enough it should stay there". Do you agree?


Friday, 22 November 2013

Video advertising

Hello there!

I bring some activities for a video explaining what video advertising is. There is quite a lot of interesting vocabulary that you can use for any discussion on the topic, and it combines a clear voice-over with interviews.

I propose the following gap-filling exercise. Be aware that you may need more than one word in each gap.


The popularity of online video in recent years (1) _______________ online video advertising, which is an increasingly attractive proposition for marketers.

This is a medium that seeks to engage consumers and making them want to be (2)_______________ a brand.

Broadband take up at an (3)______________________ of 89% of online users means we can enjoy faster speeds and better quality.

Around 40% of online adverts now carry (4)_____________________.

Broadband connection also leads to a more effective (5) __________________ of specific consumer groups, and the added bonus of marketers being able to (6)_______________ when and how long their films have been viewed.

If you were to (7) _____________ a TV spot in Coronation Street, your audience could be (8)_______________ an eight-month-old baby to a granny, and all the audiences in between.

Video advertising online can come in a variety of formats (9) _______________ every product: banners on site, pre-roll and post-roll video ads, as well as a range of new interactive units such as YouTube's new overlay format, (10) ________________________ the opportunity to interact.

An exciting part of online video is that viral videos enable marketers to tell a story in a slightly more (11)_____________ and _______________ way.

The last speaker suggests that to know whether online video advertising works for you or not, you should (12) ______________________ (idiom).




For those of you wanting to practice some pronunciation, I would propose to look for any words ending in -al, like "viral", and repeat the full sentence in the video to drill their pronunciation in context.

Key here, share your comments in the comment section! Enjoy!







Tuesday, 12 November 2013

The Short Transcript Challenge V: Desert Climates

Hello everyone!

As part of our long-forgotten Short Transcript Challenge, I propose this short video. It's a short description of desert climates and landscapes.

It's one minute long, but it's clear and the speed is quite reasonable. I would like to see your transcriptions in the comments, although I'll be posting a key soon (not too soon this time, though, to make sure you try!)

There are two words that you will need to know in advance, as they are very specific: erg and reg (better known as "desert pavement").


Go for it!

Tuesday, 5 November 2013

Understanding the weather

Hello again!

This is a video from a fantastic resource website, Education Scotland. Weather and climate facts and concepts explained in a lovely Scottish accent, starting by this video that goes through the most usual terms and symbols you are likely to hear in a weather forecast.

I give you the link so you can browse through their site: it's well worth a look.

To practice some listening comprehension, here's a collection of gaps with variying degrees of difficulty. Notice how some of the sentences are phrased very differently from the original recording, while others are almost verbatim. This is something that can make the activity more or less difficult, and you must gradually train yourselves to deal with any kind of rephrasing of the original text. Memory, note-taking strategies, and a good command of related vocabulary are essential to this purpose.

Here it goes. The link includes a transcript, but I'm also including this one, where you can find a key to the gaps.

Enjoy!


INTRODUCTION

(1)    Over the hills, heavy rain will be ________________________ (becoming).
(2)    What’s the expression they use to forecast sunny weather?
(3)    Where is there a risk of south-westerly gales?
(4)    The specific terms used in a certain field are called j___________.
(5)    To understand something better is to s______ t________ t_______ f________ (idiom).

WIND

(6)    South-westerly wind means ______________________________ the southwest.
(7)    Wind speeds can ______________________________ a gentle breeze blowing around 10 miles per hour that just rustles leaves in the trees to a strong wind at 25 to 30 miles per hour.
(8)    When wind blows at speeds between 39 and 46 miles per hour, it means we have reached ______________________________.
(9)    Storm force winds can _________________ and ____________________________.

PRECIPITATION

(10) If the cloud stretches ______________________________ it gets so cold that the water droplets freeze and become ice particles.
(11) Sleet is ______________________________.

TEMPERATURE

(12) The _____________________ daytime temperatures in Scotland range from around 6 Celsius in December to around 19 Celsius in July. 
(13) In summer, temperatures can be ______________________________.

MIST

(14) With fog or mist visibility ______________________________.
(15) The ______________________________ of visibility changes whether we refer to airports or to road traffic.

HUMIDITY

(16) In Scotland, we say it’s 'close' or 'muggy' ______________________________.
(17) Some of Scotland’s most humid days occur because ___________________________.

PRESSURE

(18) Air in the atmosphere is constantly rising and ______________________________.
(19) Areas of high pressure bring dry and settled weather, and on the map the isobar lines are __________________________, whereas the isobar lines for low pressure areas, which bring wet and windy weather, are often __________________________.

EXTREME WEATHER

(20) One consequence of climate change could be ___________________and ___________________ weather.
(21) Severe flooding can bring about blocked roads or even_________________________.

(22) The most extreme weather in the UK is be ___________________and ___________________, which can knock down trees and damage property.

Monday, 28 October 2013

More "¡azúcar!": sugar-eating children

It's all well and good to like "azúcar", but as everything else in life... in moderation. After the overview of Celia Cruz's career, we look at sugar from a critical point of view.

This is a rather old interview with Felicity Lawrence, a British author who warned against the dangers of excessive sugar in processed food. I would like you to notice the use of several adjective+noun and adverb+adjective collocations, and to try these comprehension questions:

1. What is the meaning of "acquiring a taste for sth"? When does she use this expression?
2. Why do parents resort to processed food (e.g. formula milk) so early in the baby's life?
3. How does she explain our liking of sweetness in evolutionary terms?
4. What kind of sweeteners can be found in baby's food?
5. What's the main problem with eating refined sugar?

The key, coming soon here. But let me insist on sharing your answers in the comments section!


Tuesday, 22 October 2013

The life of Celia Cruz

As you know, biography videos tend to make use of certain expressions that recur time and time again, and I'm starting to think that they are a genre of their own in their use of language. Take, for example, the sentences we are looking for to answer these comprehension questions:

"A career that spanned five decades" - can you express this idea in other words?
How many prizes and recognitions did she receive? Can you find the verb+noun collocations that are used in the video to give this information?
What expressions with the word "influence" can you find?
How do they define "the ultimate American spirit"?

I will try to make the key available as soon as possible here ... seeing as most of you decided long ago not to share answers in the comments section. Comments are still (and always) welcome, though!

Enjoy!




Azucar! Life of Celia Cruz from c.p. granado on Vimeo.

Thursday, 13 June 2013

Topic Video: Privacy

Hello everyone,

This is a piece of news that has had most of my attention for the last couple of days. I don't know if you're familiar with the story (I guess you are): Edward Snowden worked for outside contractors of the NSA (National Security Agency), and decided to leak top secret documents about surveillance procedures that were, in his view, a breach of privacy.

The amazing thing, to me, is that he has revealed his identity of his own accord, becoming what is called a whistleblower.

This video takes you through some of the events, in a mixture of British English (from the Telegraph reporter) and American English (from Snowden).  I strongly recommend that you also read the accompanying article (with video on the same page).While some accuse him of treason (which could lead to death penalty, as far as I understood from a newspaper article), others hail him as a hero. The widest coverage I have found on the topic so far is in The Guardian.

Some words whose pronunciation you may want to check before listening (remember, monolingual dictionary on your right):

surveillance
extradite
disclosure


So, some questions:

1. The person who has revealed himself as the whistleblower is a former ________________.
2. The NSA has been collecting the phone records of millions of Americans to find out if _____________ have been in contact with people in the US.
3. Snowden believes that it's fundamentally dangerous to democracy to _______________ of government.
4. He wants to go ______________ to defend the authenticity of his disclosures.
5. The journalist he spoke to, Greenwald, believes that ______________ he must be anxious about what may happen to him.
6. Most likely, he will be ______________ by the US government and _____________ from Hong Kong.

Key coming very soon here!