Video Killed The Radio Star

Language level: Advanced

Source: www.speakup.com.br

Standard: British accent

THE SONG

Video Killed The Radio Star

When television became popular in the 1950s, it was thought that this would spell the end for radio, but it survived this and many subsequent innovation.Yet in 1979 The Buggles released the huge hit "Video Killed the Radio Star." Co-written, sung and produced by studio wizard Trevor Horn, the singer reminisces about lying in Bed at night in 1952 (although Horn would then have been just three years old!), listening to what was then known as a "wireless." Despite his tender years, Horn was profoundly affected by what he heard.

Much has been written about the influence of the music video, but in the second verse Horn talks about how radio's influence has been ignored - the "second symphony" refers to the new wave of more electronic music, using technology to rewrite old ideas. (Ironically, the electronic synthesizer features heavily on the track, played by Hans Zimmer, who is now a film score composer). Some day in the future the singer will shamefully tell a new generation that video was the cause of the death of radio. The singer goes to an old radio studio to listen to old tapes on playback, and remembers the jingles, the short radio signature tunes - just like the "oo-a-oh" of the song. Radio was the first and the last, music started with radio, and will end with its demise. As he reflects, or looks around him as he drives his car, he realizes technology has come so far that is it impossible to rewind, or turn things back, and return to the golden age.

The song concludes with him surrendering to new technology of the VTR (Video Tape Recorder - now, 30 years later, it is itself obsolete!), and recognising the star on the screen as a one-time radio star.

"Video Killed The Radio Star" was also inspired by  the science fiction story "The Sound Sweep" by J.G. Ballard. The song took three long months to record and went to number one in 16 different countries. MTV, no doubt aware of the irony, chose it as their one millionth video to be screened. Trevor Horn became a career-reviving producer, working with Rod Stewart, Paul McCartney, Grace Jones and Tina Turner, amongst others.

He was also responsible for the success of Frankie Goes to Hollywood, a band who embraced the music video.

USEFUL SITES AND BLOGS IN ENGLISH

Actually today I’m going to talk about useful links on the internet, you find out a couple of them on my blog, for Brazilian and foreign people follow the list below:

Brazilian Blogs and sites:

http://www.denilsodelima.blogspot.com

http://www.teclasap.com.br

http://www.teachermanoelcarlos.blogspot.com

http://www.ingvip.com

http://www.ingvip.com/curso-de-conversacao.htm  (38 videos of Pro-Jovem) available on Inglês vip.

http://www.englishexperts.com.br  very useful for Self-Taught students as well as teachers.

http://www.maganews.com  it’s a Brazilian magazine I recommend for Students and Teachers visit the site, it’s not too expensive, great material.

There are many others, this is my favorite ones, of course due the Google Translator you may access without problem.

Blogs and English websites I recommend worldwide.

http://helpforyourenglish.wordpress.com/  I love this one.
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/  Excellent for Teachers great blog

http://www.englishexercises.org  (Excellent for Teachers and students)

http://www.real-english.com 

http://www.voanews.com  One of the best for beginners and all English learners must visit.

http://www.learningchocolate.com  Very useful for kids, and of course adults too, because I love games, once in a while I’m accessing there.

http://englishdailyworkout.blogspot.com/  Excellent ESL site for Teachers and students too.

http://www.elllo.org  ESL site

http://www.englishpractice.com/  great ESL site for Teachers and students.

http://www.idiomquest.com 

http://www.idiomsite.com

http://www.eslcafe.com/  Very useful too, ESL Site.

http://englishdailyworkout.blogspot.com/  this one is interesting ESL, by the way.

Do not forget to promote this sites and blogs, social media is excellent, you are promoting spammers but Education, not violence, unless knowledge. Thank you visiting, on my blog you will find out several links, no porn content or spam. You may have a wonderful weekend. 

Pro-jovem, part 23, Inglês vip

 

Source: http://www.ingvip.com/curso-de-conversacao.htm follow this link and find out 38 videos on www.ingvip.com there are interesting texts with audio. Liked this site? Recommend it for friends and twit it.
Lucas: You are so different these days. It looks like(1) you are in love(2)Pedro: Hã? Me?
Lucas: It is in your face(3). So, who is she? Is she beautiful?
Pedro: She is blonde(4), has straight hair(5), medium built(6), a little tall(7), very funny(8)Lucas: Wow!(9) You have a crush on this girl(10)Pedro: Yes.
Lucas: What about you and Mariana?
Pedro: Oh man. We are going so slow!(11) I'm too shy(12) When I finally(13) have the courage(14) to ask her out(15) she gets the flu
Lucas: You know what I think? You are slow! Mariana is a nice girl(16). She is funny, honest, and very beautiful
Pedro: I know. I'm not very self-confident(17). I think I'm thin(18), I don't like my hair, sometimes(19) I can be boring
Lucas: Come on(20) Pedro! You are a nice boy! You are always in a good mood(21), funny. To me, you are kind of(22) ugly(23), I must say. But I think Mariana likes you.
Pedro: How about you?(24)Lucas:  I have a friend from the internet
Pedro: It must be nice(25) to have a friend from the internet. I don't have any virtual friends(26)Lucas: Of course you don't. You don't have email. You rarely use computers
Pedro: Yes, I'm not into computers(27). I don't know how to use it like you do
Lucas: Don't worry my friend. I can help you. First, we can make an email for you. And then, I can show you how to use the computer, OK?
Pedro: Good. Thanks man!
Lucas: You're welcome
Julia: Boys, you are here. I have to talk to you. I have to go to the community TV station tomorrow to write a story for my office's newspaper. The story is going to be about training projects. Would you like to come?
Lucas: Yes, we would
Julia: Right, good. So, let's meet here at nine, OK? Bye bye!
Pedro: I like Julia. She is very outgoing(28), hardworking(29). I look up to(30) her
Lucas: Yes, me too(31). She is a nice girl.

  

---

                                      Vocabulary
 1. It looks like  = Parece que
 2. In love = Apaixonado
 3. Face = cara, rosto
 4. Blonde = Loira
 5. Straight hair = Cabelos lisos
 6. Medium built = Estatura mediana
 7. Tall = alto(a)
 8. Funny  = engraçado(a)
 9. Wow! = Nossa!
 10. You have a crush on this girl = Você tem uma "queda" por esta garota
 11. We are going so slow! = Nós estamos indo tão devagar!
 12. Shy = tímido(a)
 13. Finally = finalmente
 14. Courage = coragem
 15. Ask her out  = Convidá-la para sair
 16. Nice girl = garota legal, simpática
 17. Self-confident = auto-confiante
 18. Thin = magro(a)
 19. Sometimes = às vezes
 20. Come on = "deixe disso"
 21. In a good mood = De bom humor
  22. Kind of =  Do tipo
  23. Ugly = feio(a)
  24. How about you? = E você?
  25. It must be nice = Deve ser legal
  26. I don't have any virtual friends = Eu não tenho nenhum amigo virtual
  27. I'm not into computers = "Eu não curto computadores"
  28. Outgoing = Extrovertido(a)
  29. Hardworking =  Trabalhador(a)
  30. Look up to = admirar
  31. Me too =  Eu também

ESL CAFE

Actually this is a useful website excellent for teachers and students. Designed by Daves' ESL Café check out this single example of phrasel verbs, you may find out on my useful links search for ESL's Café Site. Keep focusing, keep studying hard and never give up. To be fluent depends on you, and the key of success is studying. The more you practise, more you learn, good luck.

Source: http://www.eslcafe.com

Promote it for friends twitting, have a wonderful weekend, friends.

act up (no object): misbehave (for people); not work properly (for machines).

"The babysitter had a difficult time. The children acted up all evening."

"I guess I'd better take my car to the garage. It's been acting up lately."

act like (inseparable): behave in a way that's like _____ .

"What's wrong with Bob? He's acting like an idiot."

Note: This phrasal verb is very informal.

add up (1. no object): logically fit together.

"His theory is hard to believe, but his research adds up."

Note: This phrasal verb is often negative.

"His theory seems, at first, to be plausible, but the facts in his research don't add up."

add up (2. separable): find the total.

"What's the total of those bills? Could you add them up and see?"

add up to (inseparable): to total.

"The bills add up to $734.96. That's more than I expected!"

ask out (separable): ask for a date.

"Nancy has a new boy friend. Joe asked her out last night."

Pro-jovem, part 22 Inglês vip

For more information access the link and all credits and source belongs www.ingvip.com 

http://www.ingvip.com/curso-de-conversacao.htm

Mariana: Excuse me.
Doctor: Hello. You must be(1) Mariana
Mariana: Yes I am. Oh, You look just like(2) my boss
Doctor: We are twin sisters(3). How are you feeling?(4)Mariana: My body hurts(5), my back hurts, my face is getting bigger(6), my nose is runny, my head(7) is exploding and my eyes are getting smaller(8)Doctor: Ok, ok. Let's see what we have here. OK, say thirty-three.
Mariana: thirty-three.
Doctor: Again(9)Mariana: thirty-three.
Doctor: OK Mariana, it's definitely(10) a flu, and a big one!(11). I would like you to take three days off from work(12)Mariana: Three days, I can't do that!
Doctor: Don't worry(13). I can call my sister and tell her about it OK? You have to take this medicine(14) here every day
Mariana: How often(15) should I take this medicine?
Doctor: Four times a day(16). In five days, you are going to be fine.
Mariana:  Five days? Buty, doctor, I have a date tonight(17)Doctor: No, no! No dates Mariana! You must rest(18)Mariana: Not even(19) one little date?
Doctor: No Mariana. You can hang out(20) with this boy in five days OK?
Mariana:  OK, fine!
Doctor: Here. OK? Nice to meet you.
Mariana: Nice to meet you too
Doctor: Take care!(21) bye bye!

---

Pedro:  HelloMariana: Hello Pedro.Pedro:  Yes, that is me(22)Mariana: I have some bad news(23)Pedro: Who is this? Mariana? What's wrong with your voice?(24)Mariana:  I have the fluPedro: Oh, no, really? How are you feeling?
Mariana: Not good. I must rest for five days. I can't go out(25) for five days! Can you believe that? This is so boring!Pedro: Oh, that's too bad. But don't worry. We can hang out if five days.
Mariana:  OK, I have to go. I have to take my medicine and rest. Bye bye.Pedro: Bye. Mariana is sick(26). No spaghetti tonight!

---

                                      Vocabulary
 1.  You must be = Você deve ser
 2. You look just like = Você se parece muito com
 3. Twin sisters = Irmãs gêmeas
 4. How are you feeling? = Como você está se sentindo
 5. My body hurts = Meu corpo está doendo
 6. My face is getting bigger = Meu rosto está ficando maior
 7. Head = cabeça
 8.  Smaller = Menores
 9. Again = Novamente
 10. Definitely = definitivamente
 11. A big one! = Uma bem grande!
 12. Take three days off from work = Tirar três dias de folga do trabalho
 13. Don't worry = Não se preocupe
 14. Medicine = Medicamento
 15. How often  = Com que frequência
 16. Four times a day = Quatro vezes por dia
 17. I have a date tonight = Eu tenho um encontro esta noite
 18. Rest = descansar
 19. Not even = Nem mesmo
 20. Hang out = sair (passear)
 21. Take care = Cuide-se
  22. Yes, that is me = Sim, sou eu
  23. Bad news = Notícias ruins
  24. What's wrong with your voice? = O que há de errado com sua voz?
  25. Go out = sair
   26. Sick = doente

Liked this blog? Thank you for your help in advance, for those visitors, readers and friends, as well as bloggers partners, have a wonderful weekend. You are the most important, remember I really appreciate your comments. Keep promoting English tips, for each twitter you are deserving the project living and learning. I'm searching for sponsors, you can advertise here, just contact for carlosrn31@yahoo.com.br 

Kids on the Streets of Buenos Aires

Source: Actual English

Kids on the Streets of Buenos Aires

By Alejandra Labanca

Aslim, red burn crosses the left side of Victor’s face from cheekbone for forehead. His eyelid is burnt. His lower eyelashes are gone, charred to the rim on his eye. Only 3-months old, Victor leads a tough life. “He got burnt with a pipe,” says his 16-year-old mother, Marta, referring matter-of-factly to the pipe she uses to smoke paco, a cheap, highly toxic by product of cocaine refining.

With her baby is tow, Marta lives on the streets, begging and stealing, seeking shelter in dark porches or under trees. They rarely spend two nights in the same place. Many times they don’t even spend them together. They eat what she can get, when she can get it.

Marta and Victor embody the plight of most vulnerable of Argentines, the street children of Buenos Aires, a city struggling to come to grips with in your face misery since the 2001 economic meltdown led the country to the largest debt default in history and plunged more than half of all Argentines into poverty.

Some of them have a home and a family to go back to at the end of the day, but at least 700 sleep on the streets every night, exposed to violence, hunger, sickness and drugs.

One a sunny November afternoon in Retiro train station, Marta hangs out with you four other kids. Marta is lean and tall. Her black eyes look just like Victor’s. Marta can’t wait to see her baby walk. “He’s too heavy to carry him around,” she explain, scratching her flat belly through a hole on her white tank-top.

Victor, like the most street kids, is already nobody’s child. He is not with Marta today. Nor is he with his father, 17-year-old Jonathan, who is  in jail for stealing.

“The baby is with my mom,” Marta says.

 Maria, Marta’s mother, is also homeless. At 40, she hasn’t held a job in more than a decade, and both her children have lived on the streets since their father died in 2001.

Argentina’s slow descent into economic hardship started 30 years ago, experts say, but history hit fast-forward during the last decade.

Unemployment peaked at 18 percent during an attempt to privatize and open up the economy in the 1990s. In 2001, the economy collapsed, pushing almost six out of every 10 people into poverty. Argentina, which had along prided itself on its large working class, awoke to misery.

The impact on the country’s poorest families was devastating. Many were shattered by hunger and despair.

City authorities say one-third of the 700 kids living on Buenos Aires streets left home to escape hunger. Another 40 percent fled abuse and neglect.

Buenos Aires’ street children don’t hang out alone. It’s boring, they say. They form gangs, of 10 or 15 kids, most of them harmless. Their worst crimes are pretty thefts and a growing drug problem.

Children of the same gang share the money they get begging or stealing. They buy food and drugs.

They sleep on cardboard or dirty mattresses, packed together in human piles.

“The gangs work as physical and emotional support for these kids who, under a façade of bravado, actually feel very vulnerable,” said Emilia Zadcovich, head of the city’s Center for the Children’s Integral Assistance, known as CAINA in its Spanish acronym.

The center provides showers, food, play and some education to street children.

Teen pregnancy is a growing problem on the streets. Just among the children who go to CAINA a small fraction of the kids wandering the streets –the center documented 22 pregnancies in 2005. Now CAINA is looking for private funding for workshops for young moms.

Much like its children, Buenos Aires s a kaleidoscope. Half a mile south of Recoleta, the Paris of South America turns into a third-world city. Piles of garbage bags line the streets of Constitution, a working-class neighborhood. Patches or dirt cover a square where children play.

“You should be careful. They’re going to snatch your camera,” says Romina, a 14-year-old girl who hangs out in the neighborhood.

Roberto Gomez, a security guard at the station, knows what Romina, is talking about.

“What’s to be done with these kids? They should all be locked up. They snatch your purse, take your bag if you leave it unattended, tear off your necklace or steal your watch,” he says.

Authorities are under fire for what some Argentines consider a soft approach on underage crime. However, the government argues against repression.

“Statistics show that 70 percent of the children that have been institutionalized end up in jail when they grow up,” Graham said. “What these children need is a future.”

American History: Stock Crash of 1929

Source: www.voanews.com

Photo: AP

Crowds gather in the Wall Street district of Manhattan in reaction to the heavy losses on the stock market on October 24, 1929, or "Black Thursday

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.

The election of Herbert Hoover in nineteen twenty-eight made Americans more hopeful than ever about their future.

Hoover seemed to have just the right experience to lead the nation to more economic progress. He was an engineer and businessman who had served in the government as commerce secretary. He understood economics and had faith in the future of private business.

On a rainy day in March of nineteen twenty-nine, Hoover rode down Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington to become the new president. "I have no fears for the future of our country," he told the cheering crowd. "It is bright with hope."

This week in our series, Faith Lapidus and Bob Doughty tell more about the Republican administration of Herbert Hoover.

(MUSIC)

FAITH LAPIDUS: The clearest evidence of the public's faith in the economy is the stock market. And the New York Stock Exchange reacted to the new president with a wild increase in prices. During the months after Hoover's election, prices generally rose like a rocket. Stocks valued at one hundred dollars climbed to two hundred, then three hundred, four hundred. Men and women made huge amounts of money overnight.

Publications and economic experts advised Americans to buy stocks before prices went even higher. Time and again, people heard how rich they could become if they found and bought stocks for companies growing into industrial giants.

"Never sell the United States short," said one publication. Another just said, "Everybody ought to be rich."

BOB DOUGHTY: A number of economic experts worried about the sharp increase in stock prices that followed Hoover's election. The president himself urged stock market officials to make trading more honest and safe. And he approved a move by the Federal Reserve Board to increase the interest charged to banks.

However, both efforts failed to stop the growing number of Americans who were spending their money wildly on stocks.

Some experts pointed to danger signs in the economy during the summer of nineteen twenty-nine. The number of houses being built was dropping. Industries were reducing the amount of products that they held in their factories. The rate of growth in spending by average Americans was falling sharply. And industrial production, employment, and prices were down.

These experts warned that the American economy was just not strong enough to support such rapid growth in stock prices. They said there was no real value behind many of the high prices. They said a stock price could not increase four times while a company's sales stayed the same. They said the high prices were built on foolish dreams of wealth, not real value.

FAITH LAPIDUS: But the prices went still higher. Buyers fought with each other to pay more and more for company stocks. The average price of all stocks almost doubled in just one year.

It seemed everybody was buying stocks, even people with little money or economic training.

A clothing salesman got advice from a stock trader visiting his store and made two hundred thousand dollars. A nurse learned of a good company from someone in the hospital. She made thirty thousand dollars. There were thousands of such stories.

By early September, the stock market reached its high point of the past eighteen months. Shares of the Westinghouse company had climbed from ninety-one dollars to three hundred thirteen. The Anaconda Copper company had risen from fifty-four dollars to one hundred sixty-two. Union Carbide jumped from one hundred forty-five to four hundred thirteen.

Life was like a dream. But like any dream, it could not last forever.

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: In September, nineteen twenty-nine, stock prices stopped rising.

During the next month and a half, stock prices fell, but only slowly. Then suddenly, at the end of October, the market crashed. Prices dropped wildly. Leading stocks fell five, ten, twenty dollars in a single day. Everyone tried to sell their stocks. But no one was buying. Fear washed across the stock market. People were losing money even faster than they had made it.

FAITH LAPIDUS: The stock market collapsed on Thursday, October twenty-fourth, nineteen twenty-nine. People remember the day as "Black Thursday," the day the dreams ended.

The day began with a wave of selling. People from across the country sent messages to their stock traders in New York. All the messages said the same thing: Sell! Sell the stocks at any price possible! But no one was buying. And so down the prices came.

The value of stock for the Montgomery Ward store dropped from eighty-three dollars to fifty in a single day. The RCA radio corporation fell from sixty-eight dollars to forty-four – down twenty-four dollars in just a few hours. Down the stocks fell, lower and lower.

Several of the country's leading bankers met to discuss ways to stop the disaster. They agreed to buy stocks in large amounts to stop the wave of selling. The bankers moved quickly. And for two days, prices held steady.

But then, like snow falling down the side of a mountain, the stocks dropped again. Prices went to amazingly low levels. One business newspaper said simply: "The present week has witnessed the greatest stock market disaster of all time."

(MUSIC)

BOB DOUGHTY: The stock market crash ruined thousands of Americans. In a few short weeks, traders lost thirty billion dollars, an amount almost as great as all the money the United States had spent in World War One.

Some businessmen could not accept what had happened. They jumped from the tops of buildings and killed themselves. In fact, one popular joke of the time said that hotel owners had to ask people if they wanted rooms for sleeping or jumping.

But the stock market crash was nothing to laugh about. It destroyed much of the money that Americans had saved. Even worse, it caused millions of people to worry and lose faith in the economy. They were not sure what to expect tomorrow. Business owners would not spend money for new factories or business operations. Instead, they decided to wait and see what would happen.

This reduced production and caused more workers to lose their jobs. Fewer workers meant fewer people with money to buy goods. And fewer people buying goods meant less need for factories to produce. So it went. In short, economic disaster.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Why did the stock market crash? One reason, people had been paying too much for stocks. Everyone believed that prices would go higher and higher forever. People paid more for stocks than the stocks were worth. They hoped to sell the stocks at even higher prices.

It was like a children's balloon that expands with air, blowing bigger and bigger until it bursts.

But there were other important reasons. Industrial profits were too high and wages too low. Five percent of the population owned one-third of all personal income. The average worker simply did not have enough money to buy enough of all the new goods that factories were producing. Another problem was that companies were not investing enough money in new factories and supplies.

There were also problems with the rules of the stock market itself. People were allowed to buy stocks when they did not have the money to do so.

BOB DOUGHTY: Several government economic policies also helped cause the stock market crash of nineteen twenty-nine. Government tax policies made the rich richer and the poor poorer. And the government did little to control the national money supply, even when the economy faced disaster.

The stock market crash marked the beginning of the Great Depression -- a long, slow, painful fall to the worst economic crisis in American history. The Depression would bring suffering to millions of people. It would cause major political changes. And it would be a major force in creating the conditions that led to World War Two.

We will look at the beginning of the Great Depression in our next program.

(MUSIC)

JIM TEDDER: Our program was written by David Jarmul. The narrators were Faith Lapidus and Bob Doughty. You can find our series online with transcripts, MP3s, podcasts and pictures 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 #17
6