English Tips Self-Taught

terça-feira, 14 de dezembro de 2010

Family Album, part VI

Source: Youtube, Family Album part VI

Renato Aragão celebrates 50 years of comedy

Source: www.maganews.com.br

People & TV

Renato Aragão celebrates

50 years of comedy

The creator of Didi, one of the most charismatic characters on Brazilian television, made his debut on TV in 1960

Didi is one of the most charismatic and entertaining characters on Brazilian television. Okay, everybody knows that. But have you ever imagined Didi working as a lawyer [1]? Or as a banker [2]? How about following a military career? These professions do not go with[3] the bumbling [4] “Didi Mocó”, but they are on Renato Aragão's résumé, the comedian whocreated the character Didi. Renato earned a law degree and later worked as a lawyer in the 1950s. He also worked as a banker and served in the military. But his talent for comedy made him change these careers for the noble art of making people laugh. On November 30, 1960 he made his first appearance on TV Ceará. Globo will show a special program this year to honor the comedian from Ceará, who was born in Sobral, on January 13, 1935.

Success in TV and movies

In recent years Renato has been a big hit on Sunday afternoons with his show "Aventuras do Didi," and also as the lead host of "Criança Esperança." Some of the happiest years of his career were spent alongside his partners Dedé, Mussum and Zacarias. In 1974 they formed the quartet Os Trapalhões, which first aired on TV Tupi and later on Globo. This program only ended in the mid-1990s [5], after the deaths of Zacarias and Mussum. Renato is also a writer and director, and has starred in over 40 films. The comedian is also known for his religious faith. In 1991 he made a dangerous crawl [6] along the arm [7] of the statue of Christ the Redeemer [8] in Rio to kiss the statue's hand. In 1999 he walked from São Paulo to Aparecida to complete a promise.

Vocabulary
1 lawyer - advogado
2 banker - bancário
3 do not go with – aqui = não combina (m)
4 bumbling – atrapalhado
5 in the mid – em meados
6 crawl – caminhada (engatinhando ou rastejando)
7 arm – braço
8 Christ the Redeemer – Cristo Redentor

Narração - Aasita Muralikrishna
Foto - Globo / divulgação

segunda-feira, 13 de dezembro de 2010

Hillary Duffy

Source: Speak Up

Standard: American accent

The perfect Girl

Hilary Duff is a rich, young star with the world at her feet. She became famous at the clumsy teenager in Disney’s TV comedy Lizzie McGuire. She seems to be perfect with her long blonde hair and good looks, but Hillary maintains she really is just an average girl, like Lizzie McGuire.

Can we believe her? This girl who has starred in films like Steve Martin’s Cheaper by the Dozen, the Madonna-inspired Material Girl with sister Haylie, and The Perfect Man and Heather Locklear’s daughter. She’s also a successful pop singer: in the last five years she’s had four hit album, including her latest release, Dignity. But that’s not all: she’s even a fashion designer with her own range of clothes and cosmetics, “Stuff by Hilary Duff,” that shell around the world. All this makes her one of the richest young ladies on the planet.

IMAGE

Hilary’s fan base consists of teenagers, many of whom have grown up with her. She has maintained the image of a nice girl, unlike Disney’s other more rebellious star, Lindsay Lohan. Critics accuse Hilary of being a manufactured star and of being talentless, but John Cusack, her co-star in this year’s War Inc., doesn’t agree: “People don’t know how talented she is. She’s a great actress, a revelation every day.”

PROBLEMS…

Hilary likes to help out: she’s worked for the charity Kids with a Cause since 1999, gave generously to Tsunami and Katrina funds, and is involved with many other charities. She has a very strong relationship with her mother, Susan, and older sister, Haylie – they help her keep her feet on the ground. Yet life isn’t always easy for Hilary: a stalker, Maksim Miakovsky, threatened to kill her last year. He was arrested and sent to prison.

Hilary on Hilary (no audio)

ON HER LIFE:

“I sometimes wish I wasn’t being watched all the time, but I can’t complain: I’ve experienced thing other girls haven’t. I’ve travelled. I’m financially independent. I own a beautiful home and I’m happy with my job.”

ON HER PASSIONS:

“I just love shoes, clothes and make-up and I don’t like to war the same thing too often!”

ON HER CAREER:

“it’s crazy, I think I’m just a normal 20 years old girl from Texas, but everybody around knows my music, my films and my face!”

Where’s Your Dignity?

Dignity, Duff’s latest album reflects the latest events in her life and the difficult end of a recent relationship. The title song “Dignity” is an attack on the values of society girls like Paris Hilton. She think “Where’s your dignity?” I think you lost in the Hollywood Hills.” In another song, “Happy,” she sings to an ex-boyfriend: “After all the things you put me through. I’m finally getting over you. I’m happy.”

A large part of Hilary’s appeal is her fragility – the fact she is experiencing life just like any other young girl. She says, “Girls don’t feel happy with themselves unless they have a boyfriend. But we must be independent. We must show the power!”

Let's do it

Source: Speak Up

Continue talk about about do and does, have a look it this article. Let's do it?

BASIC RULES

It seems simple enough: we do things, right? we do research; we do housework; we do a job. In fact "do" is implicity linked to jobs, so the question "What do you do? Means What's your job?

We can make a list of dos and don'ts: things we should do and things we shouldn't do. We should do our best, and we should do our duty. But we shouldn't do away with someone, or do someone in- both means to murder someone. If you kill someone, you may do time - that is spend some years in prison. You shouldn't do someone either; that means to deceive them, or to beat them up. We shouldn't do (or take) drugs, of course.

GIRL TALK

Women do their faces; they put on their make up and do their nails. If they're going to a big do, an important party or meeting, they'll need to get their hair done at the hairdressers and perhaps choose a new hairdo, a new hair style.

HELLO, HELLO, HELLO

Why do English people greet each other by repeating the phrase " How do you do? Well, British chickens, or more precisely, cocks, "Cock-a-doodle-do!" There's an unmistakable similarity in the sound, and curiously, both phrases are equally meningless. Unfortunately, the wonderful theory that Englishmen learnt to speak from chickens is incorrect: " How do you do?" was the 17th century equivalent of today's "How are you?

Glossary

i.e, isto é (do latim id est).

On its own- por si só.

We do research- nos fazemos pesquisas.

We do housework- nós fazemos trabalhos de casa, tarefas domésticas.

Linked- ligado.

Do our best- Fazer o nosso melhor.

Do our duty- Cumprir com nosso dever.

To murder- Assassinar.

To deceive them- Enganá-los.

To beat them up- Espancá-los.

Make up- Maquiagem

Nails- Unhas

Get their hair done at the hairdressers- Fazer seus penteados nos salões de beleza.

Chickens- galos (machos e fêmeas).

Cocks- galos. (Inglês americano, no Britânico rooster, não pega bem usar cock, tem o sentido perjorativo da genitália masculina).

Unmistakable- inconfundível.

Meaningless- Sem sentido.

Fonte: www.speakup.com.br

Family Album, part V

Source: Family Album

For more information searching for Family Album USA, I think you watch the series can be useful.

How to Talk About Changes

Useful site, recommend it for Teachers and Students very useful.

Source: http://www.englishpractice.com/expressions/talk/

The words become, get, go, come, grow and turn are all used to talk about changes. There are, nevertheless, a few differences between them.

Become

Become is used with adjectives and noun phrases to talk about changes.

What do you want to become when you grow up?

It is becoming very dark.

Note that we do not use become to talk about changes we deliberately make.

It takes me only around five minutes to get ready. (NOT It takes me only around five minutes to become ready.)

Get

Get is used with adjectives without nouns. It is also used before past participles like lost and broken. Note that it is less formal than become.

It is getting very dark. (Less formal than ‘It is becoming very dark’.)

You are getting younger and younger.

Get is not usually used before nouns with this meaning.

I want to become a doctor. (NOT I want to get a doctor.)

Go can be used before adjectives to talk about changes of color and quality.

She went green with envy.

Leaves go brown in autumn.

Common expressions are: go green with envy / go blue with cold / go white with anger / go red with embarrassment

Note that turn can also be used in these cases.

Leaves turn brown in autumn.

Go can be used with adjectives in some common expressions such as go mad / go crazy / go blind / go deaf / go grey / go bald / go lame / go rusty / go bad / go stale / go wrong etc.

The horse went lame.

The meat has gone bad.

He went grey in his twenties.

Grow

Grow is used before adjectives to talk about slow and gradual changes. Note that grow is more formal than get or go.

Before he knew it he grew old.

When you grow rich you shall not forget your old friends.

Maria Callas, 1923-1977: A Beautiful Voice and Intense Personality

Listen to the podcast and improve your English visiting VOA Special English there are some sections in order to practice grammar structures, texts with audio, excellent for beginners.

Source: VOA SPECIAL ENGLISH

Photo: AP

Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world

Double-click any word to find the definition in the Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to People in America in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus. Today, Shirley Griffith and Ray Freeman tell about one of the most famous opera singers of the twentieth century, Maria Callas.

(MUSIC: March From "Norma")

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Opera is a play that tells a story in music. The people in the opera sing, instead of speak, the play's words. Opera is one of the most complex of all art forms. It combines acting, singing, music, costumes, scenery and, sometimes, dance. Often there are many colorful crowd scenes.

Opera uses the huge power of music to communicate feelings and to express emotions. Music can express emotions very forcefully. So most opera composers base their works on very tragic stories of love and death. An opera often shows anger, cruelty, violence, fear or insanity. Opera has been very popular in Europe since it spread through it during the seventeenth century. It also has become popular in the United States.

RAY FREEMAN:

AP

Maria Callas sang in her first major opera at the age of 17

Maria Callas was one of the best-known opera singers in the world. During the nineteen fifties, she became famous internationally for her beautiful voice and intense personality. The recordings of her singing the well-known operas remain very popular today.

Maria Callas was born in New York City in nineteen twenty-three. Her real name was Maria Kalogeropoulous. Her parents were Greek. When she was fourteen, she and her mother returned to Greece. Maria studied singing at the national conservatory in Athens. The well-known opera singer Elvira de Hidalgo chose Maria as her student.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen forty-one, when she was seventeen, Maria Callas was paid to sing in a major opera for the first time. She sang the leading roles in several operas in Athens during the next three years.

In nineteen forty-five, Callas was invited to perform in Italy. This was the real beginning of her profession as an opera singer. She performed major parts in several of the most famous operas. In nineteen forty-nine, she married an Italian industrialist, Giovanni Battista Meneghini. He was twenty years older. He became her adviser and manager.

RAY FREEMAN: In nineteen fifty, Maria Callas performed for the first time at the famous La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy. She sang in the famous opera "Eida" by Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi. She sang the part of Aida, an Ethiopian slave in ancient Egypt.

(MUSIC: "Ritorna Vincitor" from "Aida")

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: During the nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, Maria Callas sang in about forty major operas in the most famous opera houses in the world.

AP

Maria Callas sang in about 40 major operas.

In nineteen fifty-six, she appeared for the first time at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. She sang the lead in the opera "Norma" by Italian composer Vincenzo Bellini. She was a great success. Norma, a religious leader in the ancient city of Gaul, became one of her most famous parts.

(MUSIC: "Casta Diva" from "Norma")

RAY FREEMAN: During the years, Maria Callas often had problems with her voice. Critics said some of her performances were not her best. Sometimes she had to cancel performances. Her relations with the officials of major opera companies often were tense. Many harmful stories were written about Callas. The stories suggested that people she worked with thought she was difficult. However, many people who worked most closely with her denied this.

When she was not singing in operas, Callas was making recordings. She made more recordings than any other singer of her time.

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: In nineteen fifty-nine, her marriage to Mister Meneghini ended. Maria Callas became the lover of a rich Greek businessman, Aristotle Onassis. Callas suffered more problems with her voice. So she sang less. In nineteen sixty-five, she sang in the opera "Tosca" by Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. She was Floria, an Italian singer. It was a part she had sung many times. It was the last time she appeared in an opera.

(MUSIC: "Vissi D'arte" from "Tosca")

RAY FREEMAN: Now that she was no longer singing, Callas wanted to marry Aristotle Onassis and have a child. However, in nineteen sixty-eight, Onassis suddenly said that he was leaving her. He had decided to marry Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the murdered American president, John Kennedy.

AP

Maria Callas at the La Scala opera house in Milan, Italy

Three years later, Callas decided to teach young opera singers. In the early nineteen seventies, she taught twelve classes at the Juilliard School in New York. Parts of these classes were released as records. Terrence McNally wrote a play about Maria Callas and her opera students called "Master Class."

SHIRLEY GRIFFITH: Maria Callas sang in many cities in Europe, the United States and East Asia in nineteen seventy-three and seventy-four. She performed with opera singer Giuseppe di Stefano. Critics said she was not able to sing as well as she had when she was younger. It is not known if Callas's troubles were caused by a physical problem or because she had not spent enough time training her voice.

Maria Callas died of a heart attack in her home in Paris in nineteen seventy-seven. She was fifty-three.

RAY FREEMAN: Many experts say Maria Callas influenced opera more than any other singer of the twentieth century. They say she had the deepest understanding of the traditional Italian opera. Her beautiful voice and intense feeling increased the effect of an opera. One expert said: "Callas sees and hears in the great operas the poetry of music. Others sing notes. She sings meaning. "

People who heard Maria Callas sing say they will not forget the experience. Her voice lives on in the many recordings she made. Some experts say Maria Callas is as popular now as she was when she was performing around the world.