Life after Bollywood

Life after Bollywood

Source: Speak Up, Ed 260

English Level: Intermediate

British and Indian Standard Accent

G.S.Rajan is an Indian musician. Earlier in his career he composed music for the Bollywood Film Industry. But he subsequently fell in love with his country’s classical musical tradition and dedicated his energies to studying and playing the work of its finest composers. A flautist, he also performs his own work. Speak Up met with him when he recently played at a special “monsoon concert”. We began by talking about the fact that monsoons are seen as a source of celebration in Indian Culture:

WATER MUSIC

G.S. Rajan

(Indian Accent)

In Indian it’s different. It’s like a celebration because a tropical climate, a lot of sun and dry climate, and when the monsoon comes, it cools down the place and the rivers gets a lot of water and it’s good for irrigation. As far as music is concerned, we have monsoon ragas, ragas means a scale, a combination of notes is raga, so special melodies for monsoons, special folk songs, even the tribal’s (tribal people) used to have songs to welcome the monsoon and they used to dance while it’s raining, so a lot of importance for monsoon.

GREAT NAMES

We then asked him to talk about India’s classical music tradition.

G.S. Rajan

One of the most respected composers, who’s treated as a saint in India, is Tyagaraja. At the moment we have more than 50.000 of his compositions available, and he was not bothered about the world, he was in a different world, singing and praying to God. He never sat and composed, it was just coming out of him. So what we have is more than 50.000 compositions are available of one composer; that is Tyagaraja.

NORTHERN SONGS

Then, we have, in the Northern side, the great composer and singer, Tanser. Tanser has created a lot of compositions, he has used ragas of the five elements, which is made of the human body, the fire, the sky, the earth, the wind, so all that has been exploited by, of course, all the composer. There are the two main important composers, one from South and one from North, worshiped like Gods in Indian classical music

The Man and his Music (No audio)

The two composers mentioned by G.S. Rajan in this interview are the Carnatic Musician Tyagaraja (1767-1847) and the Hindustani musician Tansen (1493 or 1506). In his concerts, G.S. Rajan likes to play their work, as well as some of his own “raga symphonies”. For further information, visit G.S. Rajan’s official website: http://www.malabarian.com As he explain, the site is named after the Malabar coast, the region in Southwest India (today it forms part of Kerala State) where he was born.

Moon Hoax Jonathan talks about how some people think NASA never went to the moon and his thoughts on the matter.

1055 Moon Hoax

Jonathan talks about how some people think NASA never went to the moon and his thoughts on the matter.

Transcript

source: www.elllo.org

Jonathan	Todd

Todd: So one very popular conspiracy theory is the moon hoax.

Jonathan: Yes, that's always a very funny one to hear people talk about. They saw this one program on Fox which had five or six points which look so impressive, you know, when you've got the guy from Star Trek presenting them, and then now they believe it to be complete truth. Something like thirty percent of Americans now believe that the United States never went to the moon.

Todd: So let's go through these points. And you can refute them. What are some common points that are brought up?

Jonathan: People talk about the flag. That the flag is waving on the surface, and they say, "Well, there's no atmosphere on the moon. The flag wouldn't be waving." But of course the reality is if you see the entire footage

, the astronaut takes some time to plant the flag on the surface. His hand is moving about, so of course the flag, which is connected to the pole, naturally moves about. When the astronaut steps away from the flag, you'll see that it hangs completely limp

 in space.

Todd: Ah, right, that makes sense. The what about the argument that when they took photographs, you can't see stars in the background?

Jonathan: I'm not completely familiar with this one, but I remember there being a lot of talk of strange shadows that didn't line up or alternate light sources, when people said, "Oh, there should be other light source in that case." I believe though that was not taken into account

 was the fact that the moon itself can reflect light is such a way that serves to be an alternate life source .... sorry a light source, and that way it can explain the different shadows and the non-visibility of the stars.

Todd: Then what about the one about the blast crater? People say that there should be a big blast crater?

Jonathan: Yes, were the jet engine of the rocket would have lifted off. Again from what I understand, in that atmosphere and the force of the engine with the make-up

 the surface of the moon, this was completely overstated point. In fact, when this program on Fox originally aired, which got everyone talking, NASA thought it was so ridiculous, they they didn't even respond to these points, which actually I guess made the conspiracy theorists think, "Ah-ha! NASA was afraid." Whereas the reality was they just thought it was all a big joke

. It wasn't until later that some magazine like a mechanics or scientific magazine took the time to completely destroy their argument line-by-line.

Business Pet shop, a great business

Business

Pet shop, a great business

Credits www.maganews.com.br

Brazilians’ love for animals is boosting the number- and profits – of pet shops 

   

According to a survey done by *Assofauna, almost two thirds

 of Brazilian families belonging to classes A, B and C have a dog at home (or other animals, such as cats or birds). They treat their animals as if they were members of the family. That is, today, Brazilians do not limit themselves just to washing, feeding, playing with and caring for their animals. They are increasingly looking for specialized pet shops to buy the best products for their animals. Furthermore, many people are taking their animals to have dental work done, to get special diets to lose weight, to have beauty treatment, and they even have acupuncture done on their animals. This love Brazilians have for their animals, mainly dogs, is boosting the number of pet shops in this country. In November 2004 there were eight thousand of them in Brazil. Today this number has reached nine thousand. Since 1995 this sector has been growing, on average, by 17% a year and turns over about US$ 1.5 billion a year, according to Assofauna data.

* Associação dos Revendedores de Produtos, Prestadores de Serviço e Defesa destinados ao Uso Animal.

Country has large dog population

Brazil is the third country in the world ranking of dog populations: 25 million, behind just the USA and China. As for cats, there are 11 million of them in the country and about 4 million pet birds.

Vocabulary

to boost – impulsionar / fazer aumentar

profit – lucro (s)

pet shop – loja especializada em produtos para animais domésticos

to belong – pertencer

cat - gato (a)

bird – pássaro

to treat – tratar

to feed – alimentar

to care for – tomar conta / cuidar de

increasingly – cada vez mais

furthermore – além disso

to turn over – aqui = movimentar / lucrar

Leonardo Da Vinci, part II, Ingles VIP

Leonardo da Vinci - Part II    audio        www.inglesvip.xpg.com.br

1.-Leonardo’s first known portrait now hangs in the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. He made this painting of a young woman named Ginevra de’Benci around fourteen seventy-four. The woman has a pale face with dark hair. In the distance, Leonardo painted the Italian countryside.

2. He soon received attention for his extraordinary artistic skills. Around fourteen seventy-five he was asked to draw an angel in Verrocchio’s painting “Baptism of Christ.” One story says that when Verrocchio saw Leonardo’s addition to the painting, he was so amazed by his student’s skill, that he said he would never paint again.

3. Leonardo once said the following about actively using one’s mental abilities: “Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.” His mind was so active that he did not often finish his many projects.

4. One religious painting he never finished was called “Adoration of the Magi”. He was hired to make the painting for a religious center. The complex drawing he made to prepare for the painting is very special. It shows how carefully he planned his art works. It shows his deep knowledge of geometry, volume and depth. He drew the many people in the painting without clothes so that he could make sure that their bodies would be physically correct once covered.

5. Around fourteen eighty-two, Leonardo moved to Milan. There, he worked for the city’s ruler, Ludovico Sforza. This ruler invited Leonardo to Milan not as an artist, but as a musician. Historians say Leonardo was one of the most skillful lyre players in all of Italy. But he also continued his work as a painter. He also designed everything from festivals to weapons and a sculpture for Ludovico Sforza.

6. One famous work from Leonardo’s Milan period is called “Virgin of the Rocks.”  It shows Jesus as a baby along with his mother, Mary, and John the Baptist also as a baby. They are sitting outside in anunusual environment. Leonardo used his careful observations of nature to paint many kinds of plants. In the background are a series of severe rock formations. This painting helped Leonardo make it clear to the ruler and people of Milan that he was a very inventive and skillful artist.

7. Leonardo later made his famous painting “The Last Supper” for the dining room of a religious center in Milan. He combined his studies in light, math, psychology, geometry and anatomy for this special work. He designed the painting to look like it was part of the room. The painting shows a story from the Bible in which Jesus eats a meal with his followers for the last time. Jesus announces that one of them willbetray him.

8. The work received wide praise and many artists tried to copy its beauty. One modern art expert described Leonardo’s “Last Supper” as the foundation of western art. Unfortunately, Leonardo experimented with a new painting method for this work. The paint has suffered extreme damage over the centuries.

9.  In addition to the portrait of Ginevra de’Benci that we talked about earlier, Leonardo also painted several other non-religious paintings of women. One painting of Cecilia Gallerani has come to be known as “Lady with an Ermine” because of the small white animal she is holding. This woman was the lover of Milan’s ruler, Ludovico Sforza.

10. However, Leonardo’s most famous portrait of a woman is called the “Mona Lisa.” It is now in the collection of the Louvre museum in Paris. He painted this image of Lisa Gherardini starting around fifteen-oh-three. She was the wife of a wealthy businessman from Florence named Francesco del Giocondo. It is from him that the painting takes its Italian name, “La Gioconda.”

11. Lisa Gherardini is sitting down with her hands crossed in her lap. She looks directly at the painter. She seems to be smiling ever so slightly. A great deal of mystery surrounds the painting. Experts are not sure about how or why Leonardo came to paint the work. But they do know that he never gave it to the Giocondo family. He kept the painting with him for the rest of his life, during his travels through France and Italy.

12. Leonardo da Vinci died in France in fifteen nineteen. A friend who was with him at his death said this of the great man’s life: “May God Almighty grant him eternal peace. Every one laments the loss of a man, whose like Nature cannot produce a second time.”

YouTube - podEnglish 49

Global warming

Global Warming Threatens Our National Security

IISS: “A Global Catastrophe” For International Security

A recent study done by the International Institute for Strategic Studies has likened the international security effects of global warming to those caused by nuclear war. [On Deadline]

U.N.: As Dangerous As War 

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this year that global warming poses as much of a threat to the world as war. [BBC]

Center for Naval Analyses: National Security Threat

In April, a report completed by the Center for Naval Analyses predicted that global warming would cause “large-scale migrations, increased border tensions, the spread of disease and conflicts over food and water.” [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

Genocide in Sudan

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon charges, “Amid the diverse social and political causes, the Darfur conflict began as an ecological crisis, arising at least in part from climate change.” [Washington Post]

War in Somalia

In April, a group of 11 former U.S. military leaders released a report charging that the war in Somalia during the 1990s stemmed in part from national resource shortages caused by global warming. [Washington Post] 

Starvation

A study by IISS found that reduced water supplies and hotter temperatures mean “65 countries were likely to lose over 15 percent of their agricultural output by 2100.” [Yahoo]

Large-Scale Migrations

Global warming will turn already-dry environments into deserts, causing the people who live there to migrate in massive numbers to more livable places. [MSNBC] 

More Refugees

A study by the relief group Christian Aid estimates the number of refugees around the world will top a billion by 2050, thanks in large part to global warming. [Telegraph] 

Increased Border Tensions

A report called “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change,” written by a group of retired generals and admirals, specifically linked global warming to increased border tensions. “If, as some project, sea levels rise, human migrations may occur, likely both within and across borders.” [NY Times]

Famine

“Developing countries, many with average temperatures that are already near or above crop tolerance levels, are predicted to suffer an average 10 to 25 percent decline in agricultural productivity by the 2080s.” [Economic Times] 

Droughts

Global warming will cause longer, more devastating droughts, thus exacerbating the fight over the world’s water. [Washington Post] 

The Poor Are Most at Risk

Although they produce low amounts of greenhouse gases, experts say under-developed countries—such as those in sub-Saharan Africa—have “the most to lose under dire predictions of wrenching change in weather patterns.” [Washington Post]

Your Checkbook

A report done last year by the British government showed global warming could cause a Global Great Depression, costing the world up to 20 percent of its annual Global Domestic Product. [Washington Post]

The World’s Checkbook

A study by the Global Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University found that ignoring global warming would end up costing $20 trillion by 2100. [Tufts]

This piece is from the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Mic Check Radio.

A Simple Rule for Past Tense -ed Pronunciation

Source and credits for http://www.travelteachtravel.blogspot.com/ an interesting weblog I really recommend you visit there.


Don't worry traveling folk, Travel Teach Travel is not about to turn into a how to teach and learn English website. I just wanted to help Carlos at Tour Guide, and the easiest way for me to do this is to write a post here and then share it with him.

Carlos has posted a video of an on-line English teacher reading out a very long list of simple past tense words and modeling the correct pronunciation for each word. I don't know if you've ever tried to learn another language, but there is enough to remember without memorizing great lists when you could just learn a simple rule. So here it is:

Add /ɪd/ if the base word (infinitive) ends in /t/ or /d/

This means you make the /ɪd/ sound at the end of these words. For example: 
waited, created, mated are pronounced waitid, creatid, matid
boarded, raided, waded are pronounced boardid, raidid, wadid

That's it! That is all you need to remember.

Of course there are more rules that cover the other -ed ending sounds /t/ and /d/. The pronunciation of these is easier as they flow with the word, so learning the rules isn't as important.

Add  /t/ if the base word ends in a soft (voiceless) sound.
Some examples are: 
stopped, pricked, laughed, hissed, fished are pronounced stoppt, prickt, laught, hisst, fisht

Add /d/ if the base word ends in a hard (voiced) sound.
Some examples are: 
bobbed, tugged, moved, opened, rolled, sawed are pronounced bobbd, tuggd, movd, opend, rolld, sawd


So,
- soft end sounds = use the soft /t/ sound
- hard end sounds = use the hard /d/ sound
- if the base word already ends in a /t/ or /d/ then use the /id/ sound

Easy as that :)