Family Album, part XIII

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Malvina's Island, the stupid War

Language level: Intermediate

Standard: British accent

Source: Speak Up

25 years ago a bizarre event took place. The Argentine military junta decided to invade the Falkland Island in the South Atlantic Ocean. The Argentineans believed that this territory, which they called “Las Malvinas,” belonged to them. In actual fact they were inhabited by 800 people –mainly sheep farmers – with British passports. The British prime minister at the time was Margaret Thatcher and her popularity was at low ebb. She immediately sent a task force which, after several bloody battles, took back the islands.

Argentineans surrendered on June 14^th. Defeat spelled the end of the military junta, while British victory meant huge popularity for Mrs. Thatcher, who stayed in power for another eight years, prior to being removed from office by fellow members of the Conservative Party. Back in 1982 Tim Phillips was a 10 years old schoolboy in Britain. Today he runs a design company in Buenos Aires, where he live with his Anglo-Argentinean wife and their children. We asked him for his views on the Falklands War:

Tim Phillips (standard British accent):  

My view, I suppose, is that the Falklands…the inhabitants of the Falklands should decide what they do with the Falklands Island but, as for whether I think that the war was sensible thing to do, of course not, I think it was absolutely stupid. I can’t believe that nearly a thousand people died trying to protect some tiny little islands that very few people live on. I think it was Borges who said that the Falklands War was “two bald men fighting over a comb”. I think that’s a great quote about Falklands war, it was a stupid, stupid adventure, it was a political war and I think everyone in Argentina agrees with that as well, that most Argentines I talk to about the war say it was a stupid political war, it was a battle between a military government here and Margaret Thatcher, both of whom were needing to be re-elected and wanted political power.

“LAS MALVINAS SON ARGENTINAS”

We then asked him about Argentinean people opinions:

Tim Phillips:

The attitude in Argentina surprised me when I first got here, it’s one of the only topics I think – one of the only political topics – in Argentina that everybody agrees on, which is that “Las Malvinas”, or the Falklands Islands, as we call them, should belong to Argentina, and there is absolutely no question about that and to give you an example, if you buy a map of the world here in Argentina, then the Falkland Islands don’t exist, there are some islands which are called Las Malvinas and they are…they’re in brackets “(owned by Argentina)” and that is always the case in Argentina, there’s no question that these islands are owned by Britain. And so it’s very interesting, coming from the UK, where the attitude is, of course, that the Falklands are British and should remain British, or at least should remain whatever nationality that the occupants of Falklands decide they want in the future. The attitude is very different here and so it’s one of those topics that is slightly difficult to talk about in an objective way.

Back in 1982…(no audio)

Although war was never officially declared, the events known as “The Falklands war” (or “La Guerra de Las Malvinas”) began on March 19^th, 1982, when 50 men landed on the Island of South Georgia and raised the Argentinean flag. On April 2^nd, General Galtieri, head of the military junta, ordered the invasion of the Falklands. The British government sent a task force and Argentina surrended on June 14^th. 258 British and 649 Argentinean servicemen died during the conflict.

Words and Their Stories: Money, Part 3

Source: www.voanews.com

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

Most people enjoy working for several reasons. Their job might be fun, or they like their employer and the other people at work. Most people I know, however, work for the money. I do not know anyone who is loaded, or extremely rich.  Most of my friends work to earn enough money to live. They have to make ends meet. They have to earn enough money to pay for the things they need. Some even live from hand to mouth.They only have enough money for the most important things.

They struggle to earn enough money to bring home the bacon. It can be difficult to earn enough money for a family to survive. Sometimes, poor people even get caught short. They do not have enough money to pay for what they need.

Or they have to spend or lay out more money than they want for something. When this happens, poor people have to tighten their belts and live on less money than usual. I hate when I have to live on less money. It takes me longer to get back on my feet, or return to good financial health.

However, other people are on the gravy train. They get paid more money than their job is worth. These people make a bundle. They really rake in the cash. In fact, they make so much money that they can live high off the hog. They own the best of everything and live in great ease. Sometimes they pay an arm and a leg for something.

Because money is no object to wealthy people, they will pay high prices for whatever they want. Sometimes, they even pay through the nose. They pay too much for things.

I am not rich. I did not make a killing in the stock market when my stocks increased in value. Yet, I am not poor either. When I go out with friends, I do not want to shell out or pay a lot of money. Often, my friends and I will chip in or pay jointly for a fun night out. When we go to restaurants the meal isDutch treat. Each person pays his or her own share.

Once, the owner of a restaurant gave us a dinner on the house. We did not have to pay for our meals. However, I admit that we had to grease someone’s palm. We had to pay money to the employee who led us to our table. The money was for a special request. Yes, it was a buy off. The employee put us at the top of the list for a table instead of making us wait like everyone else. We had a great time that night and the meal did not set me back at all. I did not have to pay anything.

Because of that experience, I will always remember that nice things still happen in a world that is driven by money. But, that is just my two cents worth. It is just my opinion.

(MUSIC)

WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, in VOA Special English, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.

Family Album, part XII

Source: Family Album


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What's the meaning of Raging

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Basic

Standard: British and American accent

TEACHER’S CORNER, RAGING WORDS

ALL THE RAGE

Today our lives are fast and furious and one result is a new phenomenon called road rage: drivers become so angry that they attack other motorists because of a small offence, such as a rude gesture of a dangerous manoeuvre. There’s nothing new about rage, extreme and explosive anger. Our society is changing, however, and examples of road rage are now common. There’s also air rage, where people become violent on planes. Experts have discovered that drinking alcohol at high altitudes can cause anti-social behavior. In any case, people today are impatient and often feel trapped in situations out of their control. This cause check- out rage at the supermarket, computer rage (when a computer doesn’t function) and desk or office rage at work. In fact the world “rage” is all the Rage – that means it’s very popular –and newspapers invent a new version every day.

ELEPHANTS

Rage can also cause terrible events such as the Columbine High School massacre in Colorado in 199. This inspired Gus Van Sant’s 2003 film, Elephant, but why did he use that title? The term “The Elephant in the room” refers to a problem that  no one talks about, but everyone knows exists. Then we have pink elephants and white elephants. People see pink elephants when they are drunk.

A white elephant, on the other hand, is something that is both useless and expensive. This phrase comes from East Asia where people gave their enemies a white elephant in order to ruin them. 

English tips comment: Listen up, the expression All the rage here means What is in evidence and Rage is synonym of Anger.

Family Album part XI

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Harry Houdini, 1874-1926: The Great Escape Artist

Source: www.voanews.com

Photo: AP

Legendary escape artist Harry Houdini is shown in chains in this photo circa 1899.

 

BARBARA KLEIN: I’m Barbara Klein.

STEVE EMBER: And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA.  Today we tell about Harry Houdini, the great escape artist and magician.

BARBARA KLEIN: It was a hot July day in nineteen twelve. A huge crowd gathered near New York City’s East River.  They were there to watch a man whose hands and legs had been locked together.  The man was put into a wooden box on a tugboat near the riverbank.  The box was nailed shut.  Ropes were wrapped around the box. More than ninety kilograms of lead weight were put on top.  The box was then lowered into the water.

STEVE EMBER: Time seemed to go by slowly.  The crowd was sure the man would soon be dead.  But suddenly, there were bubbles in the water.   The man swam to the surface, his arms and legs free. When the box was pulled to the surface, it was still nailed shut and the ropes were still wrapped around it. Scientific American magazine later wrote it was “one of the most remarkable tricks ever performed.”   The man who had just escaped death was named Harry Houdini.

(MUSIC)

loc.gov

Harry Houdini prepares to be closed in the crate and lowered into the New York Harbor.

BARBARA KLEIN: Harry Houdini’s real name was Ehrich Weisz.  He was born in Budapest, Hungary in eighteen seventy-four.  His father was a rabbi, a Jewish religious leader. His family moved to the United States two years later.  Young Ehrich worked at many different jobs to help earn money for his poor family.  But he really wanted to be in show business.

STEVE EMBER: When he was nine years old, he performed a trapeze act on a swing high above the audience. He was “Ehrich, the Prince of the Air.”  Then he read about a famous French magician named Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin.  It changed his life. Erich took Houdin’s last name, changed the pronunciation and added and “i” at the end.  He then began learning magic tricks, and called himself Harry Houdini.  He took his act to many places in New York State.  For a while, he worked in a traveling circus.

BARBARA KLEIN: At first, Houdini performed regular magic tricks, using cards, coins, and other objects that he would make disappear.  But the audience seemed to like it best when Houdini performed an escape. He soon became famous for being able to free himself from danger.

Most of the time, his wrists would be held together by handcuffs.  Sometimes chains would be wrapped around his body and locked.  At other times, he wore a straightjacket, like the kind used in mental hospitals to restrain patients.   He once escaped from a straightjacket while hanging high in the air, upside down, from a crane.

Houdini escaped from milk cans.  He escaped from the strongest jails in the United States.  No one ever found a pair of handcuffs that would hold him.

STEVE EMBER: But Houdini’s most famous escape was called “The Chinese Water Torture.”  First, his feet were locked together.  Then he was lowered, upside down, into a glass box filled with water.  A curtain was placed in front of the box so the audience could not see how the trick was done.

Several minutes would go by.  Houdini’s helpers on stage acted as if something were wrong.  The audience feared that the Great Houdini was drowning.  They would yell: “Pull him out.  Lift him up.  He is dying!”

BARBARA KLEIN: But, of course, he was not dying.  Finally, the curtain would drop.  Houdini would be standing next to the box, free and unharmed.

Audiences around the world loved this trick so much, Houdini performed it for the rest of his career.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: During Houdini’s lifetime, some people thought it was possible to talk with or somehow communicate with dead people.  Houdini hoped this were true.  He had loved his mother very much.  After she died, he tried to talk with her spirit.  But after years of trying, he realized that he was wasting his time.  He decided that no one could talk with the dead.

AP

Magician Harry Houdini was also well known for his card tricks.

BARBARA KLEIN: But many other people thought Houdini was wrong.  They held meetings, or séances, to try to communicate with the “other world.”  Usually, people would sit around a table in a darkened room and hold hands.  They would close their eyes.  The leader of the group, called a medium, would speak out and ask a spirit to come into the room.  Sometimes they asked the spirit to speak to them, or to make some kind of sound.  Often, the medium would charge money in order to try to contact the spirits.

STEVE EMBER: Harry Houdini knew it was all false.  He easily discovered that these mediums were using some kind of trick just to make money.  He began to give speeches, telling how the mediums were fooling people.  He even spoke before the United States Congress.  He said:

JIM TEDDER: “Please understand that I am not attacking a religion.  I respect every genuine believer in spiritualism or any other religion.  But this thing, wherein a medium communicates with the dead, is a fraud from start to finish.  In thirty-five years, I have never seen one genuine medium.”

BARBARA KLEIN: Houdini was so sure that he was right, he offered ten thousand dollars to anyone who could prove he was wrong.  No one ever collected the money.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: Harry Houdini had a long career as a magician and an escape artist.  He became the most famous magician in the world.  He wrote books and acted in movies.  He made a lot of money and lived well. He bought a small airplane and flew it himself. His name was always in the newspapers.  It seemed the entire world knew the name of Harry Houdini.  But Houdini would not live to see old age.  His life ended suddenly in nineteen twenty-six.

AP

A group of celebrities pose in front of the star for legendary illusionist Harry Houdini on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

BARBARA KLEIN: Houdini was resting in a private room after giving a speech at McGill University in Montreal, Canada.  He had not felt well for several days.  A young college student asked to meet the great magician.  Houdini agreed.

The young man asked if it were true that Houdini would not be harmed even if hit very hard in the stomach.   Houdini said that was true.  The student drew back his fist and hit Houdini in the stomach three times.

STEVE EMBER: Houdini had not had time to stiffen his stomach muscles.  He fell backward in great pain. Doctors found that Houdini’s appendix had burst. In those days, this almost always caused death. Poisons had been released in Houdini’s body.

He lived for a few more days. Then died on October thirty-first  -- Halloween.  Thousands of people came to New York City for Houdini’s funeral.  He was buried next to his parents on Long Island. Under his head lay a pillow, filled with letters his mother had written to him.

(MUSIC)

BARBARA KLEIN: But the story of Harry Houdini did not end there.  He had said that no one could communicate with the dead. Yet he had told his wife, Bess, to try to speak with him after he passed into the spirit world.  Harry told her two words that he would say to her so that she would not be fooled by some trick.  Those words were, “Rosabelle, believe.”  “Rosabelle” was the name of a song that Bess had sung many years before.   No one but Houdini and his wife knew these secret words.

STEVE EMBER: Bess tried to talk with Harry’s spirit each year on Halloween night. The years passed.  Once, Bess said that she thought that one time she had made contact with Harry.  But she then said she was wrong. She had been sick.   She had heard nothing. Finally, after ten years of trying, something unexpected did happen.  Bess gave up.  She said that was long enough to wait for any man.

BARBARA KLEIN: Bess was said to have kept a lighted candle by a picture of Harry in her home.  Her last attempt at communicating with him was in nineteen thirty-six at the Knickerbocker Hotel in Hollywood, California.  She took the candle with her and kept it lit while she called to Harry’s spirit.  She tried again and again.  When nothing happened, she finally said, almost in a whisper:

FAITH LAPIDUS:“I do not think that Harry will come back to me or anyone. I think the dead don’t speak.  I now regretfully turn out the light.  This is the end, Harry.  Goodnight!”

BARBAR KLEIN: Then she blew out the candle.

(MUSIC)

STEVE EMBER: This program was written by Jim Tedder and produced by Dana Demange.  Jim Tedder was the voice of Harry Houdini.  Faith Lapidus was the voice of his wife, Bess.  I’m Steve Ember.

BARBARA KLEIN: And I’m Barbara Klein. 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 PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English

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