Show on Earth

Language Level: Advance

Standard: British Accent

Source: Speak Up

Show on Earth

The Punch and Judy puppet show, which is an adaptation of the Italian “pulcinella,” has been playing in England since the seventh century. The fact that it continues to survive in the age of the blockbuster movie and video games means that it must be pretty special. Certainly, its characters are remarkable: the Crocodile, the Baby, Joe the Clown, Toby the Dog, a policeman, a ghost and a spider. Martin Scott Price began his career as a Punch and Judy performer at the age of five, when his cousin gave him her set of characters:

Martin Scott Price

(Standard English/mild northern accent)

The show doesn’t really differ greatly from one show to another, but it’s the audience that change every time, and you have to…have a good repartee with the children because they know straight away whether they’re going to like you or dislike you. I mean, it’s the puppets that are controlling the children and, of course, the wooden puppets of Punch and Judy, none of the mouths move, so it’s really a sort of a great show, seeing the puppets working and the pieces of wood are controlling the children.

So why is the show still going strong?

Martin Scott Price:

Because it is a tried-and-tested show, it’s a slapstick sort of show with a lot of tradition, a lot of humour there and it’s something that the children get involved with, which of course, all these sort of video games and things like that, they can’t get sort of involved physically, in the sense of shouting, screaming, that type of thing.

NEVER-ENDING STORY

And it’s not just the show that keeps going on and on. The Punch and Judy men themselves don’t have a retirement age:

Martin Scott Price:

Usually a Punch and Judy man doesn’t give up, hopefully, unless age or illnesses prevent him! But…’cause they…puppets are handed down to the next generation. It’s one of the oldest running traditional shows that I can think, more so than music hall. I don’t think there’s any other show I can think of that’s been running for so long. Three hundred and fifty years is quite a long time.

The first Simpson (no audio available)

The performance of the tale of Punch and varies with each individual puppeteer, but the basic outline is the same: Punch behaves badly. He fights with his with Judy and the Baby, but later wins over the forces of law and order.

ACCENTS

Today I decided to talk about Accents. They are really important during a conversations and there are a lot of them around the world. Even though I'm not native learners, and my accent is similar to British Standard Accent. However we have to adapt to different accents spoken around the world, your have to keep a standard. Sometimes I heard and read in some English communities on orkut: I don't like this, for instance, American, Australian, Indian, African, Asian accents etc.Like or don't like they are going to take part of your life, it means you have to understand, otherwise it's impossible communicate with someone. A good example is on Skype Software where you can keep in touch with different nationalities, I recognize that it's really difficult to adapt them, but it's amazing to make friends throughout the world. This is an example to illustrate, it is all about 21 different accent, Have a look at: "Remember, no matter what kind of accent do you speak, your country, dialect, where are you from? The most important keep practicing, if you have money take private classes or do an interchange, if not, study by yourself, but never give up...communicate and make friends around the world". 

 

Business gone bad

350 Business Gone Bad

Kevin talks about a business experience that did not go so well and what he learned from it.

source: www.elllo.org

Todd: So Kevin, you were saying that you've been poor, broke, a couple of times. You talked about being in New York, and being broke. When else have you been broke?

Kevin: Wow. Well, after New York, the following year, when I came down from New York, I was determined to be my own boss. I had not been in control of

 my life while I was in New York. It was all depending on other people to let me have a job. And when I lost the job, that really, that really hurt.

And so when I went home I decided that I was going to own my own business, and I opened my first business which was a Karate school, and I put a lot of money into it that I had worked for almost a year saving up and then, well I also had a smallinheritance

 from my grandmother.

Todd: Oh okay.

Kevin: Yeah. But I ended up losing all of the money in the Karate school.

Todd: Now did you actually know Karate?

Kevin: Yes.

Todd: Oh you do?

Kevin: I do.

Todd: I did not know that about you.

Kevin: That would have been a strange business to start if I didn't know it. But yeah, yeah, I'd done it, I started when I was a kid. And, at the time, I was 20, I think 20, just about to turn 21 when I opened it. And I was ni-dan at the time, second degree black belt, and I had been teaching at my instructor's school for a while and he had encouraged me, you know, to go ahead and do it. But it was the wrong location, and the wrong town, the town was really poor. And I lost about $20,000 in 6 months.

Todd: That's a lot of money.

Kevin: That is a lot of money. Especially to a 21 year old who, you know...

Todd: Yeah, $20,000 when you're 21, you can live for like 3 years.

Kevin: Right, and not a year and half earlier I was flat busted

broke in New York, and then, you know, things picked up

 and I thought that I could really try and make something of it. But you know, nothing ventured, nothing gained

, and that was the attitude that I had, and, you know, found myself broke again.

Todd: So that fact that you've been poor, but you were poor both times when you were very young, do you look back and are you glad that you had those experiences?

Kevin: Sure. Sure, I learned a lot. Those experiences were valuable. You can't buy that kind of experience, you know, I carry it around with me now. I listen to other people who have business ideas and, you know, one thing that I gained from it is I can tell if they are going into a business, if they're gonna try and start up a business and, you know, they haven't considered all the things that they really need to consider, I can see the pitfalls

 that I fell in. And, you can try and suggest people to, you know, make other arrangements or to be more careful about this or that, but it doesn't always work out

. Sometimes they just have to go out andlearn the hard way

 like I did.

Useful tips about websites and blog

This days a lot of people decide to study by themselves. How is it possible? There are useful websites and blogs,       I recommend a list of them for Brazilians and foreign people.

Brazilians' sites and Blogs:

http://www.denilsodelima.blogspot.com

http://www.teclasap.com.br

http://www.englishexperts.com.br

http://www.ingvip.com

http://www.maganews.com.br

Of course there are many others which so far I don't remember.

Here is some website for foreign people, including Brazilians students can access.

http://www.bbc.co.uk

http://www.voanews.com

http://www.real-english.com

http://www.idiomquest.com (Phrasal Verbs)

http://www.sozoexchange.com

http://www.idiomsite.com

http://www.elllo.org

I hope this can be useful for you, and do not forget, no worries about mistakes and blocks, just practice English, no worries about your accent, students learners have to adapt any kind of them, but you have to choose a standard, even though remember, we're not Native learners. About fluence...It takes a long time, or not, depends basically on you, how much time you dedicate yourself to practice English. In conclusion, practice makes perfect, the more you do that, of course you learn...Never give up. 

I would like to thanks for those visitors come from different accents, dialects, culture and nationalities who have been visited the English tips, as soon as I'm available I give some tips through skype, however do not forget if you want to help me to continue this I use a paypal account. Or simply everytime you visit this blog share and spreading it, telling for friends about Tour Guide (English tips' Blog). It's really hard to be volunteer, but doing small things we can do this world a better place to live. Thanks for everything and may you have a wonderful day, that's why I dedicate this posting to you. Your sincere friend forever...Carlos

Hepatitis - Part 1

Source, for more info visit   audio        www.inglesvip.xpg.com.br

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Steve Ember. And I’m Barbara Klein. This week, we will tell about six diseases of the liver. The diseases come from six different viruses. Doctors have one name for all of them: hepatitis.
 

1. The liver is in the upper right part of the stomach. This dark, red organ is big. It weighs more than one kilogram. And, it has a big job. The liver helps clean the blood and fight infection. It also helps break down food and store energy until the body needs it.

2. Hepatitis destroys liver cells. Some kinds of hepatitis are much more serious than others. Which kind a person has can only be known from tests for antibodies in the blood.

3. Antibodies are special proteins that the body's natural defenses against disease produce in answer to a threat. Identify the antibody and you identify the threat.  Hepatitis A is usually spread through human waste in water or food. It is in the same group of viruses as those that cause the disease polio.

4. The hepatitis A virus causes high body temperature, pain and weakness. It causes problems with the stomach and intestines, making it difficult to eat or break down food. Also, the skin of a person with hepatitis may become yellow. This is a sign that the liver is not operating normally.

5. To help prevent the spread of hepatitis A, people should wash their hands after they use the restroom or change a baby's diaper. People should also wash their hands before they eat or prepare food. Hepatitis A can spread quickly to hundreds or thousands of people. But the virus is deadly in less than one percent of cases. Many people infected with the virus never even get sick. But those who do usually recover within two months.

6. The World Health Organization says hepatitis A is often found in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. People who have had hepatitis A cannot get it again. There is a vaccine to prevent hepatitis A. America's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the vaccine is the best way to protect against the disease.

7. The World Health Organization says as many as two billion people are infected with the hepatitis B virus. More than three hundred fifty million of those infected have lifelong infections. WHO officials say an estimated six hundred thousand people die each year as a result of hepatitis B.

8. The virus is in the same group as the herpes and smallpox viruses. Hepatitis B vaccines have been given since the nineteen eighties. The W-H-O says the vaccine is ninety-five percent effective in preventing the development of infection. Hepatitis B spreads when blood from an infected person enters the body of another person. An infected mother can infect her baby. The virus can also spread through sexual activity, and if people share injection devices.

9. Blood products from an infected person can spread hepatitis B. People also can get infected if they share personal-care products that might have blood on them. Some examples are toothbrushes andsharp hair-cutting instruments.

10. Worldwide, most hepatitis B infections are found in children. Young children are the ones most likely to develop a chronic or lifelong infection. The risk of such an infection is small for children older than four years.

11. About ninety percent of babies infected with hepatitis B during the first year develop chronic infections. Such persons are at high risk of death from liver disease or liver cancer. The hepatitis B vaccine is considered to be the first medicine that can protect people against liver cancer.

12. Hepatitis C is even more dangerous. Like hepatitis B, it spreads when blood from an infected person enters someone who is not infected. The hepatitis C virus belongs to the same group of viruses as yellow fever and West Nile virus. Most people living with hepatitis C develop chronic infections, often without any signs. They are at high risk for liver disease and liver cancer.

13. The World Health Organization says about one hundred seventy million people are infected with hepatitis C. That is three percent of the population of the world! The WHO. also says that as many as four million more become infected each year. It warns that those infected may develop diseases of the liver, including liver cancer. The WHO says the highest rates of infection are in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America.

14. The hepatitis C virus was first observed in nineteen seventy-four. But it was not officially recognized as a new kind of hepatitis until nineteen eighty-nine. Scientists have been working to develop a vaccine and other treatments.

Words and Their Stories: Feel The Pinch

Source: www.voanews.com

I'm Susan Clark with the Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

In the nineteen thirties, a song, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?," was very popular in the United States. It was the time of the big Depression. The song had meaning for many people who had lost their jobs.

A dime is a piece of money whose value is one-tenth of a dollar. Today, a dime does not buy much. But it was different in the nineteen thirties. A dime sometimes meant the difference between eating and starving.

The American economy today is much better. Yet, many workers are concerned about losing their jobs as companies re-organize.

Americans have special ways of talking about economic troubles. People in businesses may say they feel the pinch. Or they may say they are up against it. Or, if things are really bad, they may say they have to throw in the towel.

A pinch is painful pressure. To feel the pinch is to suffer painful pressure involving money.

The expression, feel the pinch, has been used since the sixteenth century. The famous English writer William Shakespeare wrote something very close to this in his great play "King Lear."

King Lear says he would accept necessity's sharp pinch. He means he would have to do without many of the things he always had.

Much later, the Times of London newspaper used the expression about bad economic times during the eighteen sixties. It said, "so much money having been spent ... All classes felt the pinch."

Worse than feeling the pinch is being up against it. The saying means to be in a lot of trouble.

Word expert James Rogers says the word "it" in the saying can mean any and all difficulties. He says the saying became popular in the United States and Canada in the late nineteenth century. Writer George Ade used it in a book called "Artie." He wrote, "I saw I was up against it."

Sometimes a business that is up against it will have to throw in the towel. This means to accept defeat or surrender.

Throwing in the towel may mean that a company will have to declare bankruptcy. The company will have to take legal steps to let people know it has no money to pay its debts.

Word expert Charles Funk says an eighteen seventy-four publication called the Slang Dictionary explains throwing in the towel. It says the words probably came from the sport of boxing, or prizefighting. The book says the saying began because a competitor's face was cleaned with a cloth towel or other material. When a boxer's towel was thrown, it meant he was admitting defeat.

Most businesses do not throw in the towel. They just re-organize so they can compete better.

(MUSIC)

This WORDS AND THEIR STORIES was written by Jeri Watson. I'm Susan Clark.

Pod English, lesson 75, getting help