THE YEHUDI MENUHIN SCHOOL

Perfect Harmony

Standard British Accent

Language Level: Advanced

Source: Speak Up

Perfect Harmony

Yehudi Menuhin was a musical genius and one of the great violinists of the 20th century. But he also dreamed of providing others with what he had missed as a child – a creative and caring environment with excellent teachers, time to practice and opportunities to perform. In 1963 he founded the Yehudi Menuhin School, which moved to the secluded Surrey village of Stoke D’ Abernon the following year. There is a very special atmosphere here, and the sound of music is everywhere: from classrooms, studios and pupils practising in their rooms. The enthusiasm and raw talent of the young musicians is something that needs careful nurturing says Nicholas Chisholm, who has been headmaster here for the past 17 years:

Nicholas Chisholm

(Standard, British accent)

What I think is always exciting, and the challenge, is to keep – and it’s the challenge, more than anything –It's to keep that awareness, that the imagination, that spark alive because adolescence can be such a deadening thing, if it isn’t given a chance to survive. And it’s very fragile. So I think that’s one of the reasons why the school Is as small as it is, so that there aren’t those competing pressures which, if you like, squeeze, or have the potential to squeeze, imagination and creativity out of children.

MAKING IT

The school currently has 64 pupils half are Britain and half are from countries around the world, including Romania, Korea, and New Zealand. The international flavour of the school represents the ideals of its founder and there are more than 200 applications each year for the handful of places on offer.

The Yehudi Menuhin School holds around 200 concerts every year and is currently building a 2.5 million pounds, 350 seat concert hall. Many of the school’s talented students dream of professional success, but in today’s celebrity focused world, that can be dangerous, as Nicholas Chisholm explains:

Nicholas Chisholm:

Everybody’s different, fortunately, and, of course, it doesn’t suit everybody. So I think there are quite a lot that are saying “I’m not sure I really want that.” And, to a certain extent, Yehudi set the school up to prevent what he saw as exploitation. I mean, he was playing on the stage around the world from the age of 10. And I think it… well, he was never quite sure this was a good idea. We don’t fell that there’s a need to rush. And so, to be honest with you, the cult of the visual, and the cult of the young, which seem to be what it’s really all about, is something that we don’t necessarily feel is all that productive.

THE STONES

Fame, of course, does have its rewards and musicians can enjoy enormous wealth as well as long playing careers. Sometimes they choose to put something back: in 2004, rock legends the Rolling Stones provided the money to set up a classical guitar course at the school.

Links between musical forms are not so unusual: Yehui Menuhin himself played jazz, was an admirer o the Beatles, and worked with the legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar.

Whether or not musical ability is genetic is open to debate, but great musicians certainly can come from unmusical parents.

THE REAL ME

Born in Dublin, Ireland, 16 years old Shophie Cashell is a brilliant pianist and now is her fourth year at the Yehudi Menuhin School. She began playing at the age of five, encouraged by her elder brother and sister who have also attended the school. She enjoys communicating through her music. But does she become a different person when she sits at the piano?

Sophie Cashell

Standard Irish accent

No, it’s more that you become more of the person that you are when you’re at the piano, I find. It’s like a concentration of all your feelings and the whole point is that you want to express who you are in the music, without taking away from it. You don’t become a different person at all.

The gentle genius (no sound)

When Albert Einstein heard the 13 years old Yehudi Menuhin play violin at a concert in Berlin, he declared: “Now I know there is a God in heaven!” Born in New York to Russian Jewish parents, on 22 April 1916, Yehudi Menuhin made his performing debut at the tender age of seven, but was never comfortable with the tag or “child prodigy.” A musician, composer, teacher and lecturer, Yehudi Menuhin devoted much of his time to peaceful causes. Throughout the 75 years of his musical career, he was an active campaigner for human rights and viewed music as an opportunity for cultural exchange. Yehundi Menuhin settled in Britain in 1985 but performed oil over the world and always thought of music as a global language. When he died in 1999, Yehudi Menuhin was buried in the school grounds.

30 years without John Lennon

Source: www.maganews.com.br

30 years without John LennonThe most controversial [1] Beatle was abandoned by his parents when he was a child, but overcame[2] the hardship [3]and became one of the great legends of the 20th Century

On December 8th fans and journalists all around the world willmark [4] 30 years since the death of John Lennon, one of the most famous people of the 20th Century. The most controversial of the four Beatles was murdered[5] with four shots [6] fired by fan Mark David Chapman, in front of the Dakota Building, where he lived in New York. The Press considered him the leader of the greatest band of all times and the most creative of the Beatles. However, outside the world of music, his image was not the best. Some biographies published recently (like the ones by Albert Goldman, Rosa Montero, and Cynthia Powell, his ex-wife) portrayed [7] Lennon as an authoritarian and very egocentric man, and often very aggressive, as the result of his addiction [8] to alcohol and hard drugs.

Ex-Beatle had a hard childhood

    The bad behavior (according to some biographies) of this musical genius possibly originated in his childhood. John Winston Lennon was born on October 9th 1940, the son of Julia and Alfred. The couple soon split up [9] and Lennon was abandoned by his parents and raised [10] by an aunt[11]. In 1955 he got together with some friends from school and put together a band called The Quarry Men (which later would change to The Beatles). At the peak of his success, Lennon dared to say that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ. In 1968, he left his wife, Cynthia, to live with Yoko Ono. In 1970, John said, in an interview with the magazine Rolling Stone, something that would go down in history: “the dream is over”, saying goodbye to The Beatles. After the end of the band, Paul continued to have hits and more hits. John, for his part, recorded almost nothing in the 1970s – but got involved in peace campaigns to end the war in Vietnam, and in humanitarians causes. In 1980, he made a come back with the excellent Double Fantasy album, which was highly praised by the critics. The good old Lennon was back. But this would only last until 11PM on December 8^th, 1980.

Vocabulary

1 controversial – polêmico

2 to overcome - superar
3 hardship – sofrimento
4 mark – marca / marcar / lembrar
5 to murder – assassinar
6 shot – tiro
7 to portray – retratar
8 addiction - vício

9 to split up – se separar
10 to raise – criar / educar

11 aunt – tia

Twitter...the latest sensation

Level: Basic

Source: Speak

British Standar Accent

Every year there is a new internet phenomenon. In the past we have seen e-mail, Google, Messenger, Wikipedia, Youtube, MySpace and Facebook. The latest sensation is called Twitter. It is very popular in the United States, Britain and Japan. Twitter is a "Social networking system" like MySpace and Facebook. The difference is that you write messages with a maximum of 140 characters. In your message you answer one simple question: "What are you doing now?"

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

Twitter is popular with "normal people," but it also popular with celebrities who use it as a blog. Barack Obama, John McCain, Gordon Brown and Britney Spears all like Twitter. The simple format makes twitter esay to use from a mobile phone. Many guests at Obama's presidential inauguration wrote Twitter messages during the ceremony. People watching on televison complained about this.

A BIRD LANGUAGE

A Twitter message is called a tweet. "Tweet" is literally the sound of a small bird: the symbol on the twitter website is a bird on a tree. The word twitter also refers to the sound of birds singing. Humans can also twitter when they talk quickly and nervously. In British English a twit is a stupid person.  

Twitter may not be an intelligent word, but it is the new digital activity. It is replacing "chat" as the most important form of communication. Other twitter words include follower, a person who "follow" a twitter's old messages: re-twit, which means sending another person's message; a twitterati, which describes the people who use twitter. Twitter is based in Silicon Valley, California. Will Twitter replace Facebook? Who knows. According to the British newspaper The Financial Times, last year Facebook offered to buy Twitter for $ 500 million. Twitter said no.

The City of Books

Source: Speak Up

Language Level: Advanced

Standard Accent: American

There aren’t many bookshops where you need a map to find your way around, but it’s easy to get lost in Powell’s City of Book, the world’s largest independent bookstore, which is located in Portland, Oregon. Powell’s main bookshop on Burnside is a vast Aladdin’s cave of books in every shape, size and format. More than one million volumes line the shelves of the different colored rooms, each of which corresponds to different themes. And, if you include the five warehouses and five other store locations around the city. Then Powell’s has over four million books.

The responsibility for all this will soon pass to 27 years old Emily Powell, whose father, Michael, currently runs the business. Back in 1979, Michael Powell left his Chicago bookstore to join his father, Walter, in Portland and then bought the store from him two years later.  Emily is “Director of Used Books.” Powell’s places new and used books, hardback and paperback, next to each other on the same shelf. As Emilly explains, this was her grandfather’s idea:

Emily Powell

Standard: American Accent

And, since he wasn’t really a book person, he saw that… he was selling used books and he said “well, I see people coming in and they’ve got their new books from another store. You know, this doesn’t make sense. Why shouldn’t I be selling these, too? And apparently my dad said, something (like) “Oh, you know, that’s a tough business, or “margins are bad,” or, you know, whatever, and sort of, on the surface, wasn’t that interested, but my grandfather decided to do it and that was sort of… has been one of our key success. We were… I don’t know f we were the first , but certainly one  of the first to do it. At the time, even if a store had new or used books, they would be in separate sections, so you would go and find your new look at used. But why not put them together, so that you can have the choice of whichever price you want? Do you want a new copy, or do you want something that’s a little bit cheaper but, you know, maybe not pristine?

A SENSE OF COMMUNITY

It certainly proved to be a successful formula as Powell’s expanded from its humble beginning in a derelict northwest corner of Portland to become a true “City of Books.” Michael Powell, now 66, knows the value of words in more ways than one: he has always been a strong supporter of freedom of expression and anti-censorship issues. As a family-owned, independent bookseller, Powell’s has also built strong ties with the local community; it regularly donates books, time and money to literacy programs and local organizations. Powell’s Community Giving Program has donated 40.000 books in nine years, while its new School Book Challenge program has already donated more than 55.000 books to local students. Powell’s is certainly moving with the times. Its award-winning website was launched back in 1994 and now accounts for one third of total business. But, says Emily Powell, that isn’t the key reason for its success:

Emily Powell:

I think part of it is the people here who are really book lovers. I mean, you walk into  our breaks room in our internet warehouse here and people are sitting there with a book in their hand. I mean, they’re with books all day and then they’re… on their spare time, you know, they’re off reading. So I think it’s really about… it’s those folks who are making sure we have the best inventory of the books that are really the most interesting and the most unusual – so you have a great experience when you walk in and stumble upon something, but are also sure to find the classics that we just need to have day in and out.

Powell’s has five stores in Portland: 1005 W. Burnside, 33 NW Park Avenue, 3723 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 3747 SE Hawthorne Blvd, 7000NEAirport Way (Suite 2250), 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd: and one is nearby Beaverton of 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd. For further info visit http://www.powells.com

The origins of the symbols of Christmas

Recommend this magazine for Brazilians teachers and students, for more information, keep in touch through http://www.maganews.com.br 

The origins of the symbols of Christmas

The birth of Jesus Christ is a date that is celebrated around the world. The greatest symbols of the date are trees [1], the stable [2], and someone children love:  Father Christmas [3]. Here we detail the origin of these symbols

Merry Christmas.  This is the phrase English speakers use with friends and family. In England, a lot of people also say Happy Christmas.  In Spanish it is “Feliz Navidad”, in French, “Joyeux Noel” and in Italian “Buon Natale”.  The languages are different but in all Christian countries Christmas traditions and symbols are the same. Brazilians normally spend Christmas with their families, which is the same as in Europe and throughout the Americas. The tradition of giving presents to friends and relations [4]  is also very common. Christmas symbols are also the same in Brazil, Europe, the USA and even in countries where Christianity is not the predominant religion - symbols such as trees, the stable, and Father Christmas.  Here we explain the origins of these symbols.

Father Christmas – Saint Nicholas was a bishop [5] who lived in ancient Turkey, four centuries after Christ. He was deeply saddened [6] by the suffering he saw amongst his people, who were very poor. Legend [7] has it that at the end of every year he would give out food and presents to the people, especially children. The figure of Father Christmas was inspired by this generous saint.

Tree – The tradition of decorating trees began in Germany, in the 16th Century. For the Germans the trees symbolized the renewal [8] of life and the birth of Christ. German families decorated their trees with colored paper, fruit and sweets.  The tree chosen to be decorated was the pine [9].

The stable  – The first nativity scene was created in Italy in 1223. Saint Francisco de Assis wanted to celebrate Christmas in a memorable way. He had the idea of putting [10] together the scene of Jesus’ birth. Saint Francisco then used a stable and placed an image of the baby Jesus in it, surrounded by real animals.

Vocabulary

1 tree – aqui = árvore de Natal

2 the stable  (Nativity scene) – presépio

3 Father Christmas (or Santa Claus) – Papai Noel

4 relations (the same as “relatives”) - parentes

5 bishop – bispo

6 deeply saddened – muito entristecido

7 legend has it that – exp. idiom = diz a lenda que

8 renewal – renovação

9 pine - pinheiro

10 to put together – aqui = recriar

Matéria publicada na edição de número 46 da Revista Maganews

Ilustração - Calberto

History of the radio

Source: www.voanews.com

Photo: loc.gov

A group of radio listeners in Washington DC in the 1920s

STEVE EMBER:  And I’m Steve Ember with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.  Today we tell about the history of radio and the latest technology.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  Our story begins in Britain in eighteen seventy-three.  A scientist named James Maxwell wrote a mathematical theory about a kind of energy. He called this energy electromagnetic waves.

His theory said this kind of energy could pass unseen through the air.  James Maxwell was not able to prove his idea.  Other scientists could not prove it either until German scientist Heinrich Hertz tried an experiment around eighteen eighty-seven.

STEVE EMBER:  Hertz’s experiment sounds very simple.  He used two pieces of metal placed close together.  He used electricity to make a spark jump between the two pieces of metal.  He also built a simple receiver made of wire that was turned many times in a circle or looped.  At the ends of the loop were small pieces of metal separated by a tiny amount of space.  The receiver was placed several meters from the other device.

Heinrich Hertz proved that James Maxwell’s idea was correct.  Electromagnetic waves or energy passed through the air from one device to the other.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  Later, Hertz demonstrated the experiment to his students in a classroom.  One of the students asked what use might be made of this discovery. But Hertz thought his discovery was of no use.  He said it was interesting but had no value.

He was wrong.  His experiment was the very beginning of the electronic communications we use today. In recognition of his work, the unit of frequency of a radio wave, one cycle per second, is named the hertz.

STEVE EMBER:  Radio waves became known to scientists as Hertzian Waves.  But the experiment was still of no use until Guglielmo Marconi improved on the device that created Hertzian Waves.  He began his experiments in Italy in eighteen ninety-four.

loc.gov

Guglielmo Marconi

Marconi was soon able to transmit sound across a distance of several kilometers.  He tried to interest Italian government officials in his discovery, but they were not interested.

Marconi traveled to Britain.  His invention was well received there.  In eighteen ninety-seven, he established the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company.  The company opened the world’s first radio factory in Chelmsford, England in eighteen ninety-eight.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  Very quickly, people began sending and receiving radio messages across long distances using equipment made by Marconi’s company.

Ships at sea needed the device.  Before Marconi’s invention, they had no communication until they arrived in port.  With radio, ships could call for help if they had trouble.  They could send and receive information.

All of Marconi’s radios communicated using Morse code.  An expert with Morse code could send and receive thirty or forty words a minute. Marconi’s radio greatly increased the speed of communications.

STEVE EMBER:  On December twenty-fourth, nineteen-oh-six, radio operators on ships in the Atlantic Ocean near the American coast began hearing strange things.  At first it was violin music. Then they heard a human voice.  The voice said “Have a Merry Christmas.”

That voice belonged to a man named Reginald Fessenden.  He had been working on producing a device that could transmit the human voice or music using radio.  He decided to try it for the first time on December twenty-fourth.  It was the first time a human voice had been heard on radio.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  Improvements in radio technology now came more quickly.  Large companies became interested.  Broadcasting equipment and radio receivers were improved.

Fourteen years after Reginald Fessenden’s voice was heard by radio operators at sea, the first real radio broadcast was transmitted.  It came from the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The radio program was transmitted on radio station KDKA on the evening of November second, nineteen twenty.  The man speaking on the radio was Leo Rosenberg.  He was announcing the early results of the presidential election between James Cox and Warren Harding.

STEVE EMBER:  Those first KDKA broadcasts led to the success of the radio industry.  People began buying the first radios.  Other companies decided radio could make a profit. Only four years after the first KDKA broadcast, there were six hundred radio stations in the United States.   Radio stations also began to broadcast in other countries.

Radio stations began selling “air time” as a way to pay their workers and to pay for needed equipment.  A few minutes of air time were sold to different companies so they could tell about their products to the radio station’s listeners.  This method of supporting radio and later television is still used today.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  Radio changed the way people thought and lived.  It permitted almost everyone to hear news about important events at the same time.  Political candidates could be heard by millions of listeners. The same songs were heard across the country.

The work by British scientist James Maxwell and German scientist Heinrich Hertz led to the development of modern communications technology.  This includes television broadcasts, satellite use, cellular telephones, radio-controlled toys and much more.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER:  Now we will explain electromagnetic waves.  We will begin with Heinrich Hertz’s experiment.  You can also try this experiment.  First, move the controls on your radio to an area where no station is being received.

Now, you will need a common nine-volt battery and a metal piece of money. Hold the battery near the radio and hit the top of the battery with the coin.  You should hear a clicking noise on the radio.

Your coin and battery are a very simple radio transmitter.  This radio will not transmit very far. However, if you know a little of Morse code, you could communicate with this device.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  Electromagnetic energy travels almost like an ocean wave – up and down, up and down.   It also travels at the speed of light – two hundred ninety-nine million seven hundred ninety-two thousand four hundred fifty-eight meters each second.

Scientists have learned how to separate radio waves into different lengths called frequencies.  This permits many radio stations to broadcast at the same time and not interfere with each other.

STEVE EMBER:  You may be hearing our broadcast on what is called short wave.  These are frequencies between three thousand and thirty thousand kilohertz.  They are often called megahertz.  One megahertz is the same as one thousand kilohertz.

Short wave is good for broadcasting very long distances.  The short wave signals bounce off the ionosphere that surrounds the Earth, back to the ground and then back to the ionosphere.

The first radio broadcasts were made using amplitude modulation. AM radio can be sent over larger distances, but the quality of the sound is not as good as a later kind of radio signal processing, called frequency modulation. FM radio stations transmit in a range of frequencies between eighty-eight and one hundred eight megahertz.  AM radio is between five hundred thirty-five and seventeen hundred kilohertz.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  Radio technology continues to improve.  Today, VOA broadcasts to satellites in space that send the signal back to stations on the ground that transmit programs with a clear signal.

AP

Radio personality Howard Stern in New York City during his first show on Sirius Satellite Radio in 2006

In the United States, people who want satellite radio programs can buy the services of the company Sirius XM. The company provides listeners with programs about music, news, sports, weather, politics and much more. Many of these programs do not include commercial advertising.  People can use these satellite radio services in their cars, homes or on portable devices. More and more radio stations are also broadcasting using digital radio technology.

STEVE EMBER:  The Internet is also adding to the expansion of radio programming. Radio stations around the world can put their programs on the Internet for listeners everywhere to hear. The website Pandora began its Music Genome Project to create a database of song descriptions.  Pandora’s Internet radio is able to predict what songs listeners will like based on their earlier musical choices.  Listeners can create their own personalized radio programming with this and other forms of Internet radio.

We think Heinrich Hertz would look at all these developments and he very proud of the device he made that he thought would never be of any use.

(MUSIC)

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH:  This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Dana Demange.  I’m Shirley Griffith.

STEVE EMBER:  And I’m Steve Ember.  Our programs are online with transcripts and MP3 files at voaspecialenglish.com. And you can find us on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English

.

Strange story: World Nettle-Eating Championship

Source: Speak Up

Speakers: Rachel Roberts (British Accent)

Chunk Rolando (American Accent)

Source: www.speakup.com.br (edition 253)

The British are famously eccentric: what other nation would invent a World Neattle Eating Championship? Every year people come to The Bottle Inn - a pub in Marshwood, Dorset - in order to take part.

Contestants sit before enormous piles of stinging nettles, and have one hour to strip the leaves and eat as many as possible; apparently, there's a technique which stops the plants from stinging your lips and tongue. Contestants Matt Thurtan explain: " Food  the Leaf, get it past your lips, and swallow quickly". The winner is decided by the total length of stripped nettle sterms; 2004 winner Simon Sleigh holds the World record of 22 metres. The event began in 1986 when local farmer Alex Williams made an unusual challenge: if anyone could produce a taller nettle than his own, then he would eat it. Unfortunately for him, he lost.

AMERICAN STYLE

Americans may dispute that Britain has a monopoly on ecentricity. Visitors to Spivey's Corner in North Carolina will discover that this tiny village, with a population of only 49, is the home of theNational Hollerin' Contest. "Holler" is another word for "Shout", but contestants says that hollering is an art and one of the olders form of communication. In the past, farmers would shout out greeting and warmings to neighbours, sometimes several miles away. Hollering is a dying art which the contest organisers hope to keep alive; 10000 people come to Spivers Corner every June in order to hear the unique techniques of Sampson County's hollers.