A Secret part of England

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: Advanced

Standard: British accent

A SECRET PART OF ENGLAND

IF you’re looking for an original way to see the English countryside, then we suggest you should rent a narrowboat and spend a few days travelling along part of the country’s extensive canal system. And you might want to visit the village of Stoke Bruerne in Northamptonshire, which has a canal instead of high street. The village is home to Lynda Payton, who explains how she first discovered England’s inland waterways:

Lynda Payton

Standard: British accent:

I discovered the canals in the late ‘60s, when I was still at school, and I lived in London and we had a photographic project and London was changing a lot then because it was, you know, post-war, a lot of building going on and a lot things disappearing, and I discovered there was a canal running very close to where I lived. And I never knew what a canal was. And I set out to photograph it before it disappeared because that’s what was happening, it was being built over. And by doing that, I suddenly discovered there was this sort of entirely different parallel universe, where there were all these waterways going off to different parts of the country and it was just totally separate from the rest of life, if you like, and no one knew about it. It was like discovering a secret part of England, really, and I soon, in researching it, for this school project, discovered that it was full of history and heritage and industrial archaeology and it was a fascinating place to be.

ANOTHER WORLD

I you take a canal holiday, you will only travel a few miles, as the pace is very slow but, as waterways enthusiast Brian Collings explains, that is a big part of the attraction:

Brian Collings

Standard: British accent

You don’t realize just how much you’ve unwound until you get off your boat and try and cross a dual carriageway, to get to the chip shop: you suddenly realize how much in the slow lane. There’s so much to enjoy as well, whatever your interests are, whether it be historical, wildlife, nature, or just leisure, or even getting from one pub to the next! It’s all there for you. And the beauty, again, you go along, and you go from one bridge to the next, you go round the next corner and the view is completely different. You see the world from a completely different point of view.

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Pro-jovem, part 15, Inglês Vip

Source: www.ingvip.com visit and improve your English there, you may contact with teacher  Fuvio he is a Brazilian teacher and translate documents, check out his homepage.
Mariana's boss: Let's have lunch now(1). I'm hungry. There's a snack bar(2) near here. Let's go? There. That's the snack bar I like.
Mariana: Hi Pedro
Pedro: Hi Mariana. What a surprise!(3)
Mariana: My supervisor loves this snack bar. We are
having lunch here today.
Mariana's boss: Yes, I want to have a sandwich
Pedro:Well, then let me get a table(4) for you. Here. Can I take your order(5)?
Mariana's boss:  Do you like sandwiches?
Mariana: Yes, I do.
Mariana's boss: So, let's order(6) two, OK?
Mariana: OK, fine.
Mariana's boss: Two sandwiches and two soft drinks.
Pedro: Two soft drinks
Pedro's boss: You are improving(7) every day! Very nice(8) Pedro!
Pedro: Thanks boss
 

---

Julia: Hello Mariana, Hello Pedro. Good news?(9)
Mariana: Yes, we have a job now! I'm a call center operator. And I am a waiter at a snack bar.
Julia: That is so nice. Congratulations!(10)
Mariana: Thank you
Julia: What time do you have to work Pedro?
Pedro: Monday is my day off(11) . On Tuesdays(12), Wednesdays(13) and Thursdays(14), I have to work from ten to six. And on Fridays(15) and on weekends(16) I start(17) at nine and finish(18) at seven o'clock
Julia: And you Mariana. do you like your job?
Mariana: Yes, I do.
Julia: Tell me about(19) your first day.
Mariana: You are not going to believe(20) if(21) I tell you...
 

---

Mariana: I have to go guys. I have to be at the travel agency at ten o'clock.
Julia: OK. See you at night. We have to prepare the party(22) this weekend.
Mariana: Oh, OK. What time do we meet?(23)
Julia: We can meet at seven in my house, OK?
Mariana: OK, bye bye!
  

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                                      Vocabulary

 1. Let's have lunch now = Vamos almoçar agora
 2. Snack bar = Lanchonete
 3. What a surprise! = Que surpresa!
 4. Get a table = Arrumar, conseguir uma mesa
 5. Can I take your order? = Posso pegar seu pedido?
 6. Let's order = Vamos pedir
 7. Improving = Melhorando
 8.  Very nice = muito bem
 9. Good news? = Boas notícias?
 10. Congratulations = Parabéns
 11. Day off = dia de folga
 12. Tuesdays = Terças-feiras
 13. Wednesdays = Quartas-feiras
 14. Thursdays = Quintas-feiras
 15. Fridays  = Sextas-feiras
 16. Weekends = Finais de semana
 17. Start = começar
 18. Finish = terminar
 19. Tell me about = Conte-me sobre
 20. Believe = Acreditar
 21. If = se
  22. Party = festa
  23. What time do we meet? = Que horas nos encontramos?

Family Album, USA, 41

Source: Family Album USA ESL content

Britain's waterways

BRITAIN’S WATERWAYS


Source: www.speakup.com.br

The metallic surface of the water ripples as the man navigates the 20-metre-long narrowboat around a Bend in the river. A dog barks excitedly as it chase along the river bank after the boat. When the dog’s owners arrive they chat for a minute or two with the boat owner. And then they walk past along the towpath. This is truly life in the slow lane: the narrow boat has just been overtaken by two people walking a dog!

LIFE ON BOARD

There are more than 6.400 kilometres of inland waterways in Britain, including 3.200 kilometres of historic canals. The narrowboat (not to be confused with a “longboat,” which was the type of ship used by Vikings!) is well named, being 2.1 metres or less in width. Inside, however, there is a surprising amount of space: most boats have a large living and dining area, a fully equipped kitchen, bathroom, and comfortable beds. There’s usually heating and hot water. Best of all, there’s room to stand without banging your head!

There’s something special about cruising along a canal or mooring a boat beside a waterside pub and watching the world go by – slowly!

“Water has its own pace, it has its own heartbeat, and you slow down to that pace and that heartbeat,” says Lindy Foster Winreb, who has enjoyed a 50-year love affair with waterways. She lives in a canal-side house in Berkhamsted near London, where she started he own hire boat company back in 1972. What are her tips for enjoyable boating? “It’s not the arrival that counts, it’s the travelling,” she says, with a smile.

THE RURAL ROUTE

Britain’s canals are corridors through the countryside and back doors into towns and cities. A narrowboat can glide quietly, almost unseen, under bridges full of traffic. Even a sedate four kilometers per hour seems fast by comparison with the rush-hour queues. And along the canals there are usually people out walking, jogging, cycling and fishing.

SINCE ROMAN TIMES

The first British canal is believed to have been built by Romans: the Foss-dyke, which connected the city of Lincoln with the River Trent and is still in use today. But the system of canals for inland navigation only really arrived in Britain with the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century. Roads were then notoriously unreliable and railways didn’t exist. Most trade ran up and down Britain’s canals involved the formation of completely new bridges, tunnels, aqueducts, pumps and locks. More than 200 years later, many of these original structures are still in use, thanks to the dedication and enthusiasm of an army of volunteers. With trains, and then heavy goods lorries, dominating the transport industry, canals fell into disrepair. After the Second World War the nationalized canal system was saved in large part by the enthusiastic campaigning of the Inland Waterways Association.

PEOPLE CARRIER

Very little commercial cargo is carried of Britain’s canals today, but the waterway is busier than ever, with millions of people every year enjoying narrowboat cruises. Lindy Foster Weinreb explains that everything changed in 1968, when “it was recognised that the canals had a new reason for existence – which was that the cargo they could carry wasn’t just goods, it could be people.”

If you Go…

Travel safety with Anglo Welsh Narrow Boats, a member of DRIFTERS, a consortium of awar-winning holiday boat companies with bases throughout the UK; tel :08457 626252; www.drifters.co.uk

No special skill or experience is required to hire a narrowboat. They are simple to control and it’s hard to get lost! Speed is limited t 6kmph an each look takes about 15 minutes to complete. Boats come fully equipped. Hire costs vary depending upon the season. Costs for four people (a six-berth narrowboat) vary from £550 to £1.300 per week. The National Waterway Museum is one national museum at three different waterside locations, each with its own special appeal. Admission costs £3.95 (Gloucester Docks), £4,75 (Stoke Bruerne) or £5,50(Ellesmere Port); www.nwm.org.uk

Justin Timberlake, Changing places

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: Intermediate

Standard: American accent

Changing Places

29-year-old Justin Timberlake is chiefly known for being a singer, but recently He has also been working on his movie career, acting in films like The Love Guru and The social Network.Timberlake was asked to compare the experience of recording an album with that of making a movie:

Justin Timberlake

(Standard American accent):

Recording an album is a lot less organized. It’s a lot of more on a whim. For instance, the last album I did, I would work for two weeks and then take a week off, and then work for two weeks and then take a week off. And whatever I got out of there, I would just keep kind of pounding away at, but I find that a film takes longer to do because the process is more organized. You write the film, you get the film green lit, you find the director –that happens around the same time – you cast the players, you film the film, you edit the film, you score the film. With music, you’re sort of doing all that at the same time. I’m writing and recording, at the same time I’m going back, fixing lyrics, fixing notes, adding piano to certain songs, adding guitar to certain songs, redoing the drums. You’re constant…you’re editing, you’re producing, you’re directing, you’re writing, all at the same time.

A PIECE OF ME

He was then asked whether he managed to be objective when it came to writing and recording songs:

Justin Timberlake:

It’s completely objective. I think that, even when I write for myself, I’m very objective. It’s not as personal as you would think. I find this analogy kind of interesting and I’ve said this since I started doing film, that a lot of our favorite actors, they end up playing a lot of parts that you start…start to realize, “Oh, he was cast in that, or she was cast in that movie, because that’s kind of who she is.” And I find that the drill for acting is to find something personal that makes it relative, so that you can display the truth of the character or the emotion of the character.

DYLAN’S POETRY

And, with writing, it’s kind of the opposite, you know, so many of Dylan’s songs, I mean, they were just poems, and then, all of a sudden, they get stuck to you, like they’re supposed to be more personal. We praise actors for playing someone else, when in reality they’re using so much of themselves to play it. And then we praise musician for being so personal, when, in reality, they’re probably using someone else to write the song. I mean you look at the Bee Gees, who wrote, “To Love Somebody.” They wrote that song for Otis Redding. He died before he recorded it, so they recorded it themselves, it was one of their biggest hits.  You know, and in reality they were writing for a young soul singer.

So I find that analogy kind of interesting, in the way that people perceive the art and the way that art is created.

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Pro-jovem, part 14, Inglês vip

Source: www.ingvip.com
Boss: Ready(1) for your second day at work?
Mariana: Yes, I am 
Boss: OK, Let's start(2). We are starting the high season(3). High season is when people travel more. Our high season is during(4) the summer(5).
Mariana: Yes, that is true(6). It is during summer that people have vacations(7).
Boss: That's right(8). So those are the places(9) people want to visit more: Porto Seguro, Recife, Rio de Janeiro.
Do you know any of these places?
Mariana: No, I don't
 

---

Mariana: Good afternoon. Travel agency. How can I help you?(10)Customer: Good afternoon. I want to go to Ceará with my family during summer. We are five: My wife(11), three children and me.
Mariana: How would you like to go? By bus(12) or by airplane?
Customer: By airplane
Mariana: Just a second sir. I'm going to see the prices for you OK? It's R$ 899,99
Customer: But the prices are too high! It's very expensive.
Mariana: Well sir(13), it's summer, the high season
Customer: High seasons? High prices, it's very expensive. Can't you give me a discount?(14)Mariana: Just a second, sir. I'm sorry, sir. Summer is a high season. Airplane tickets(15) are expensive, hotels too. But if you go before Christmas(16), we can give you a big discount. I can send(17) you an email with the prices. I'm sending it right now(18). Have a nice day(19).  

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                                      Vocabulary
 1. Ready  = Pronto(a)
 2. Let's start = Vamos começar
 3. High season = Alta temporada
 4. During = durante
 5. Summer = verão
 6. That is true = Isso é verdade
 7. Vacations = férias
 8.  That's right = Está certo
 9. Places = Lugares
 10. How can I help you?  = Como posso ajudá-lo?
 11. Wife = esposa
 12. By bus = De ônibus
  13. Sir = Senhor
 14. Can't you give me a discount? = Você não pode me dar um desconto?
 15. Tickets  = passagens
 16. Before Christmas = antes do Natal
 17. Send = Enviar
 18. Right now = Já, agora
 19. Have a nice day = Tenha um bom dia

Yoko Ono

www.sergiomsoares.blogspot.com

Standard: American accent

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Language level: Upper intermediate

Opinions about Yoko Ono vary immensely. For her admires, like music critic Byron Coley, she is “one of the most important and enduring artist of the last half-century.” For her detractors, she is a mediocre performance artist whose dominance of her husband John Lennon led to the break-up of the Beatles. And yet, whether you love her or hat her, Yoko Ono is an important figure in the history of our times: who can forget the famous bed-ins that she and John staged in 1969, as a protest against the Vietnam War?

THERE WWILL BE AN ANSWER…

41 years later, the 77-year-old Yoko is still going strong. Last year she released an album on her son Sean Lennon’s Chimera label. Called Between My Head and the Sky, it features the first performance by the famous Plastic Ono Band since 1973. And whereas critics laughed at Yoko’s music in the past, this time she has received rave reviews. For The Daily Telegraph of London, for example, the album is “fantastically cool, fearlessly weird.” Here Yoko talks about the new album and the solution to the world’s problem:

Yoko Ono

(Japanese accent)

Oh, well, the solution is already here, but some people don’t realize it, and some people do. And the solution is to use the strong vibration that we discovered, such as music, such as art. They have (a) very strong vibration. One is auditory and the other is visual, but the visual vibration is very important, too. The visual vibration create future, creates things, and (the) auditory vibration heals things. So, between the two, if you can cover the earth with the vibration of art and (the) vibration of music, and this will become a planet of music and art, and that’s when everything’s going to be healed and we are going to have a peaceful world. Just like that. It’s going to happen very fast. And then, between us, we will still have this beautiful vibration of peace, which we will send it to the universe.

A WITCH

And Yoko doesn’t seem bothered about the criticism she received in the past. She called her last album, which was released in 2007, Yes, I’m a Witch:

Yoko Ono:

I had a life of my own, which had nothing to do with critics, you know. So, when they were attacking me, if that meant so much to me, I would be dead now. I mean, you know, spiritually dead. But it didn’t affect me so much because I was so much into my own music, and what to do about it and what to give to the world. And I was proud that I was giving so much, though they didn’t know that I was giving! And now this (is) very nice, I just don’t want myself to become sugar-coated.

IMAGINE

And she is positive about today’s artists:

What they’re doing now is incredibly revolutionary, and we don’t know it. I’ll tell you why: because, you know, they’re going into the area of communication, of imagining and communicating, no through words, but through vibration. And that’s really going to be the most important thing that’s going to happen to us, that we will be communicating and correcting the thing in the Planet Earth and everything through just thinking, through imagining.

THE NEW MEDITATION

Nor is she worried about today’s youngsters:

Yoko Ono:

In Japan there’s a group of children who don’t want to come out of their own room. And that’s being a very, very difficult thing for parents. And they’re all so upset that “My child is always in the room, and we have to just put a plate of food in front of it, and they just take it in.” And they’re thinking that that’s a terrible thing that the children (are) doing, but I think that those children are (the) equivalent of gurus 5,000 years ago, something like that, who’s being meditating, and it’s a form of meditation, and they are trying to not be with other people in their rooms meditating and somehow changing the world through meditation. And I don’t know if they (are so aware of that, but that’s what’s happening. And it’s a beautiful thing that’s happening, but, of course, the parents think (sic) it’s a terrible thing that’s happening. And it’s interesting, interesting that some of the kids decided that that’s the only way that they can survive or be alive.