sábado, 1 de janeiro de 2011

American History: 'Roaring Twenties' a Time of Economic and Social Change

Source: www.voanews.com


Congressman T.S. McMillan of Charleston, South Carolina  with two women who are doing the Charleston dance near the Capitol building in Washington D.C.
Photo: loc.gov
Congressman T.S. McMillan of Charleston, South Carolina with two women who are doing the Charleston dance near the Capitol building in Washington D.C.






















BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
The nineteen twenties were a time of economic progress for most Americans. During the administrations of President Warren Harding and President Calvin Coolidge, many companies grew larger, creating new jobs. Wages for most Americans increased. Many people began to have enough money to buy new kinds of products.
The strong economy also created the right environment for many important changes in the day-to-day social life of Americans. The nineteen twenties are remembered now as an exciting time that historians call the "Roaring Twenties."
This week in our series, Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe tell more about that period.
(MUSIC)
KAY GALLANT: The nineteen twenties brought a feeling of freedom and independence to millions of Americans, especially young Americans. Young soldiers returned from the world war with new ideas. They had seen a different world in Europe. They had faced death and learned to enjoy the pleasures that each day offered.
Many of these young soldiers were not willing to quietly accept the old traditions of their families and villages when they returned home. Instead, they wanted to try new ways of living.
HARRY MONROE: Many young Americans, both men and women, began to challenge some of the traditions of their parents and grandparents. For example, some young women began to experiment with new kinds of clothes. They no longer wore dresses that hid the shape of their bodies. Instead, they wore thinner dresses that uncovered part of their legs.
Many young women began to smoke cigarettes, too. Cigarette production in the United States more than doubled in the ten years between nineteen eighteen and nineteen twenty-eight.
Many women also began to drink alcohol with men in public for the first time. And they listened together to a popular new kind of music: jazz.
Young people danced the Fox Trot, the Charleston, and other new dances. They held one another tightly on the dance floor, instead of dancing far apart.
(MUSIC)
KAY GALLANT: It was a revolution in social values, at least among some Americans. People openly discussed subjects that their parents and grandparents had kept private.
There were popular books and shows about unmarried mothers and about homosexuality. The growing film industry made films about all-night parties between unmarried men and women. And people discussed the new ideas about sex formed by Sigmund Freud and other new thinkers.
An important force behind these changes was the growing independence of American women. In nineteen twenty, the nation passed the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution, which gave women the right to vote.
Of equal importance, many women took jobs during the war and continued working after the troops returned home. Also, new machines freed many of them from spending long hours of work in the home washing clothes, preparing food, and doing other jobs.
HARRY MONROE: Education was another important force behind the social changes of the nineteen-twenties. More and more Americans were getting a good education. The number of students attending high school doubled between nineteen twenty and nineteen thirty. Many of the schools now offered new kinds of classes to prepare students for useful jobs.
Attendance at colleges and universities also increased greatly. And colleges offered more classes in such useful subjects as teacher training, engineering, and business administration.
Two inventions also helped cause the social changes. They were the automobile and the radio. The automobile gave millions of Americans the freedom to travel easily to new places. And the radio brought new ideas and experiences into their own homes.
Probably the most important force behind social change was the continuing economic growth of the nineteen twenties. Many people had extra money to spend on things other than food, housing, and other basic needs. They could experiment with new products and different ways of living.
(MUSIC)
KAY GALLANT: Of course, not all Americans were wearing strange new "flapper" clothes or dancing until early in the morning. Millions of Americans in small towns or rural areas continued to live simple, quiet lives. Life was still hard for many people including blacks, foreigners, and other minority groups.
The many newspaper stories about independent women reporters and doctors also did not represent the real life of the average American woman. Women could vote. But three of every four women still worked at home. Most of the women working outside their homes were from minority groups or foreign countries.
The films and radio stories about exciting parties and social events were just a dream for millions of Americans. But the dreams were strong. And many Americans -- rich and poor -- followed with great interest each new game, dance, and custom.
HARRY MONROE: The wide interest in this kind of popular culture was unusually strong during the nineteen twenties. People became extremely interested in exciting court trials, disasters, film actors, and other subjects.
For example, millions of Americans followed the sad story of Floyd Collins, a young man who became trapped while exploring underground. Newsmen reported to the nation as rescue teams searched to find him. Even the "New York Times" newspaper printed a large story on its front page when rescuers finally discovered the man's dead body.
Another event that caught public attention was a murder trial in the eastern state of New Jersey in nineteen twenty-six.
Newsmen wrote five million words about this case of a minister found dead with a woman member of his church. Again, the case itself was of little importance from a world news point of view. But it was exciting. And Americans were tired of reading about serious political issues after the bloody world war.
(MUSIC)
KAY GALLANT: The nineteen twenties also were a golden period for sports.
People across the country bought newspapers to read of the latest golf victory by champion Bobby Jones. "Big Bill" Tilden became the most famous player in tennis. And millions of Americans listened to the boxing match in nineteen twenty-six between Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney. In fact, five Americans reportedly became so excited while listening to the fight that they died of heart attacks.
However, the greatest single sports hero of the period was the baseball player, Babe Ruth.
Ruth was a large man who could hit a baseball farther than any other human being. He became as famous for his wild enjoyment of life as for his excellent playing on the baseball field. Babe Ruth loved to drink, to be with women, and to play with children.
Babe Ruth
loc.gov
Babe Ruth
HARRY MONROE: The most famous popular event of the nineteen twenties was neither a court trial nor a sports game. It was the brave action of pilot Charles Lindbergh when he flew an airplane across the Atlantic Ocean without stopping. He was the first man in history to do this.
Lindbergh flew his plane alone from New York to France in May, nineteen twenty-seven. His flight set off wild celebrations across the United States.
Newspapers carried story after story about Lindbergh's success. President Coolidge and a large crowd greeted the young pilot when he returned to Washington. And New York congratulated Lindbergh with one of the largest parades in its history.
Americans liked Lindbergh because he was brave, quiet, and handsome. He seemed to represent everything that was best about their country.
KAY GALLANT: The nineteen twenties was also a time of much excellent work in the more serious arts. We will take a look in our next program at American art, writing, and building during the exciting "roaring twenties".
(MUSIC)
BOB DOUGHTY: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Kay Gallant and Harry Monroe.
You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and images at voaspecialenglish.com. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter at VOA Learning English. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.
___
This is program #169

sexta-feira, 31 de dezembro de 2010

We are the World, we are the children


We can do anything in order to improve our lives and the other ones, Happy New year

Author: Judith Jékél ESL teacher in Hungary

Clicking in the box in front of the words that you can hear.

There    comes        was a time when we need a certain   call       cold
When the    word        world   must come together as one
There are people    drying     dying
And it's time to     lend     land a hand to life,
The greatest gift of all

Type in the words that you hear

We can go  pretending day    day
That someone, somewhere will   make a change
We are      a part of God's great big family
And the     you know love is all we need

Unscramble the lines of the Chorus

Chorus
 We are the ones who make a brighter day
 We're saving our own lives
 There's a choice we're making
 We are the children
  It's true we'll make a better day
 So let's start giving
 Just you and me
 We are the world

Choose the words that you hear
Send  your heart so they know that someone 
And their    will be stronger and free
As God has shown us by    stone to bread
So we all must lend a helping   

Chorus

Click in the box in front of the words that you can hear.
When     your   you're down and out
There   Their seems no hope at all
But if you just believe there's no  way      weigh we can fall
Well let us realize that a  chance     change can only come
Where    When we stand together as one

Happy New Year

Thank you so much for giving support of English' tips, desire for you, your families, and friends specially for each Readers, by the way, you are the most important here. Have a wonderful weekend and a wonderful New Year's  Eve, God bless you (Alah Bless my dear Muslins who visit this blog) continuing share it and telling for friends about English tips. Within 3 hours I'm going to travel to the Capital, but I'll be back next Monday and visit you my friends. Happy 2011, Carlos owner of English tips.

Welcome to Hell...Town



Source: Speak Up
Standard: American accent
Language level: Advanced


Welcome to Hell!

The state of Michigan in the US Midwest is home to Detroit, capital of the nation’s automotive industry. Not only that, it is the birthplace of many famous Americans, including the late political activist Malcom X and, more recently, singers like Diana Ross, Aretha Franklin and Madonna, basketball player Magic Johnson and film director, Michael Moore. Moore was from the depressed industrial town of Flint, which he helped put on the map with his first documentary, Roger and Me, in 1989.

Michigan is also home to a smaller town: Hell, Legend has it that this bizarre name was born out of a linguistic misunderstanding. In the 1830s some German travelers were passing through on a stagecoach. When they stepped out to admire the view one of them remarked that it was “so schon under hell,” meaning “so beautiful and bright.” The locals overheard this and the name stuck. 170 years later the town hasn’t grown much. Residents say the population is only 72: according to Wikipedia, it is 266. The town consists of a few houses and stores and its main source of income is the sale of kitsch souvenirs with a diabolical theme. Ron Douguay, for example, makes “supremely evil pizza” at the Hell Country Store. He says that he and his colleagues are always on the look-out for events that could help business:

Ron Dougay

Standard: American accent

Believes it or not, there’s only three stores here. I mean, this is the town, that’s all it is, but every year we seem to get something more…we pinpoint certain dates, like Halloween is big, Friday 13th is big, anything that goes against…oh, gosh, you hate to say it, but, you know, anything, bad luck, or evil, so to speak, we try to, you know, capitalize on that and make some money off it, so we kind of promote it on, you know, radio stations and in the papers and things like that.

THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST

In actual fact June 6th 2006 was to provide the citizens of Hell with a wonderful opportunity:

Ron Dougay:

The date 6/6/6, you know, like the number of the Beast, so to speak, in the Bible, it’s a big deal, you know, since we’re Hell, you know, people kind of put two and two together and it snowballed – pardon the pun! – but it got really big, we got like 12.000 people out here and they were lined up for gosh, 2…300 yards out the store and they bought everything in the Hell Country Store that we had. Everything was gone.

AND IN ANN ARBOR…

If you decide to “go to Hell” – the one is Michigan, that is – you might also want to go to “Paradise,” which is in the northern part of the state. Hell itself is about 20 miles (32 km) from Ann Arbor. This is home to the prestigious University of Michigan which, trivia fans may like to know, was where the young Madonna was briefly a dance major.
According to local resident Dan Mazur, Ann Arbor is the all-American community:

Dan Mazur
Standard: American accent

Well, here is the US now many people are expressing a desire for what they call “American Values” and, when they express this, really what they’re talking about are Midwestern values. Ann Arbor is clearly in the Midwest of the United States, halfway between the East Coast and the West Coast. Midwestern values, unfortunately for some, though, imply small town America and Ann Arbor has that flavor to it, but it also has the University of Michigan here and the capital of Pfizer and is close to the automotive center of the United States as well, so we have the Midwestern lifestyle, the small-town feel to it, but very dynamic and international culture. And so that gives us a lot of appeal both to tourists who come here, but also to small business that…very hi-tech-oriented and…bring a lot of wealth to our area, and so it’s a very dynamic culture.

Any mistakes? Let me to know, sometimes when I do the transcription I made mistakes, 'cause there are some different accents, I'm not good at in American accent. Do you like this post? Share it for friends, please.



quinta-feira, 30 de dezembro de 2010

Strange Stories



Language level: Basic
Source: Speak Up
Standard: British and NZ accents


STRANGE HISTORIES

Musical Madness

SCOTTLAND THE BRAVE

Scotland’s Ben Nevis is the highest mountain in Britain so it was a big surprise when volunteers, who were removing rubbish, found a piano near the mountain’s 1.350m peak this summer. Volunteer Nigel Hawking says: “We couldn’t believe our eyes! It was under a pile of stones. The only thing missing was the keyboard, and that’s another mystery…”

Well, 64-year-old Kenny Campbell has all the answers: “It was an organ. I carried it to the summit and played Scotland the Brave up there. That was 1971…after we sold the keys for charity.” He returned two months after his performance, but couldn’t find the organ: someone had buried it under the stones.

AIR GUITAR!

Every teenage boy has stood in his bedroom, listening to his favourite rock song and pretending to play an imaginary guitar in front of the mirror. Well, some of these “air guitarists” will see their dreams come true on September 5, 6 and 7, at the Air Guitar World Championships, in Oulu, Finland. Here contestants, dressed from head to toe is spandex and bandannas will “play” to 10.000 screaming fans. National champs from 17 countries will take part in the competition, which starts with the traditional High Altitude Training Camping, goes on to a Qualifying Round, and reaches its peak at the AGWC Final on September 7, at the biggest rock club in Finland: Club Teatria. At last year’s Guildford music festival, 4.000 people mimed to the Guns ‘n’ Roses song “Sweet Child o’ Mine” and created the first world record for an air guitar ensemble.

Family Album, XX



Source: Family Album

quarta-feira, 29 de dezembro de 2010

The Tower of Babel



The Tower of Babel

Source: Speak Up

       A fifth of the planet speaks English competently. Another sixth is learning. 80 per cent of computer information is in English, as are Deutsche Bank board meetings.
       Yet the notion of one language for all sounds familiar. Remember Genesis, Chapter 11? Humans build the Tower of Babel up to Heaven. God doesn’t like it. He replaces the single languages that let us cooperate with today’s multilingual babble.
       Can English recapture monolingual paradise?

COCAINE GLUE

       Automated translator, like Babel Fish (this strange name comes from Douglas Adam’s science fiction comedy, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galax) seem to offer instant solutions. But here’s a typical computer translation: “I apologize for my (bad) English: I am Brazilian and as it’s know, nobody is perfect. Kindly, is it comprehensible what do I have written?” In Brazil’s Fortaleza Airport, you’ll find Bleeding jar and Cocaine Glue on the drinks menu: meaningless translations for jar of sangria and Coca Cola. Worst still, Pepsi’s slogan, Come alive with pepsi, was translated into Chinese as “Pepsi brings dead ancestors back to life.”

FALSE FRIENDS
       It’s easy to be fooled by Portenglish Anglicism. You cannot play baske or volley; the sports are basketball and volleyball. Outdoor means outside in English; big advertisements on the street are billboards. You don’t go to a shopping, but to a mall. Other nationalities have this problem, too. Italian speakers get confused with Britalian: slip is an old-fashioned English word for a lady’s under-garment, not boy’s underpants. George Pullman gave his name to the sleeping compartments for trains, not to buses. A showman, once people on TV are presenters or hosts. The French love investing nouns. Un parking is a car park, un relooking a makeover, un déstockage a clearance sale. These are not English, but Franglais.

CONFUSING MIXTURES


       US immigration has created many hybrids. Hispanic communities have producer dictionaries to help your suffer the web, deletear a document and vacuumear you carpet. There’s even a Hollywood film called Spanglish.

       The Dutch learn English in elementary school and watch undubbed films. Yet even they make mistakes. “That can instead of “That’s possible.” “I hate you welcome” for “I welcome you.” A Dutch prime minister confused undertaker with entrepreneur. The University of Delft awards a large sausage for the worst Dunglish errors. (“Worst” is Dutch for sausage.)

NEW ENGLISHES

Linguists speak of New Englishes: the healthy diversity of world English. But, as the pressure to learn English grows, these half-baked versions are proliferating. Computers can’t learn for us – not yet. With untrust worthy translation engines, dodgy internet courses, and troublesame false friends, the monolingual dream still sounds like babble of Babel.

The Tower of Babel Genesis, Charpter 11

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech…And they said, Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven…And the Lord said, Behold, the people have all one language; and now nothing will be restrained from them. Let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; confound the language of all the earth.