quarta-feira, 2 de março de 2011

Pro-jovem, part 34, Inglês vip



For more information you should visit http://www.ingvip.com go to the section in Curso de Coversação because it was a government project a.k.a (Also known as) Pro-Jovem there are 38 useful videos. 

South Pasadena, part II

Source: Speak Up
Language level: Advanced
Speaker: Chuck Rolando
Standard: American Accent








South Pasadena, part II

Hurray for Hollywood!

When you wander through the streets of South Pasadena, in southern California, it’s easy to believe you’re on a film set. So it’s no surprise that the city is a popular movie location: examples include The terminator, Gone with the Wind, Hallowen, American Pie and Legally Blonde. We asked City Manager John Davidson  why South Pasadena was such a favorite with Hollywood producers:

John Davidson
(Standard American accent):

I think it’s popular for a couple of reasons. One, you know, we go back to the homes, the trees, some of the wide streets that you might see. On top of that, it is, from a filming standpoint, it’s rather close to Hollywood. So you can get over to Hollywood pretty quickly from here, to the west side. And it makes economic sense for them, as opposed to…having to travel for days, or extended trips. We’re relatively close to the downtown area, but you don’t feel it.

We’re 10 minutes away, but you’d never know it.

Another striking characteristic of South Pasadena is the relative absence of traffic. As John Davidson explains, residents have managed to defend their community from the horrors of urban development:

John Davidson:

The people in South Pasadena had a vision. And they recognised that we’re…not going to fall, in the way that so many other communities have, to where they were going to allow developers to drive what the community looks like, versus the community will drive what the developers are going to be allowed to do. So I’m going to say it’s been a combination of citizen involvement, good government and selective projects being, you know, processed and the ability to say yes, but also the ability to say no. It’s a community that recognized a long time ago that our schools are important, and we have wonderful schools here, they’re just incredible, but they’re also recognized that, no, it’s not going to happen here in South Pas, where they’re preserving the past and, you know, and they’re also proactive to looking at the future.

The Allure of Fishing

image
926 The Allure of Fishing
Darren tries to convince David why fishing is such a fun sport.
Source: www.elllo.org


terça-feira, 1 de março de 2011

Family Album, 45



Source: Family Album

Do not forget, the best way to improve your English is practising as much as possible, and no worry about mistakes, keep studying hard. 

Riders, Off-Road trails, Adrenaline and much more. check out

SDC10134SDC10088SDC10093SDC10100SDC10109SDC10116SDC10122SDC10123SDC10126
Click  Aqui (here) and have a look at beautiful pictures Last Sunday a group of riders did an expedition towards to the Rural Zone, passing by mountains, dams, rivers, waterfalls. Young people, elder people, involved in an adrenaline atmosphere, beautiful scenario, canyons rock forming. Always respecting the environment. It worths it doing that. Check out http://carnaubaemfoco.blogspot.com/2011/02/trilha-deste-domingo-de-final-de.html 

South Pasadina, part I

Source: Speak Up

South Pasadena is just 10 miles from the hyperactivity of Downtown Los Angeles, but, with its quiet streets, tall trees and friendly atmosphere, it seems like a different world.

South Pasadena, a city on the east side of Los Angeles, is home to a haunted theatre, a vintage pharmacy and the first ostrich farm in the United States. Farmers from the area gather at the Farmer’ Market every Thursday to sell their produce while local artists provide free entertainment. Residents and visitors stroll through the tree-lined streets at all times of the day admiring the characteristic homes and historical buildings. Shoppers visit the many boutiques, art houses and antique stores. And nature lovers go to the local parks forests and gardens to cycle, hike or just lie on the grass on a warm sunny afternoon.

TRAFFIC-FREE

But that isn’t all. Another thing that makes South Pasadena so remarkable is that it is relatively free of traffic. This is thanks to the community’s refusal to allow city planners to build a freeway through their community. Now planners are considering building a freeway under the city instead.

John Davidson is the City Manager of South Pasadena and he has lived in the area all his life. As he explains in the interview, the residents of “South Pas” are very proud of their city, while tourist visiting it.

Kate Mosss




Source: Speak Up
Language level: Advanced
Speaker: Justin Redcliffe
Standard:British accent





What do a best-selling author and a world-famous supermodel have in common? They both share the same name. Well, almost. The writer Kate Mosse is known for writing hefty historical thrillers which are read by millions: Labyrinth, set in Carcassonne, in Southwest France, took readers on a quest for the Holy Grail.

It enjoyed huge commercial success and comparisons were made with Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. It has been translated into 37 languages.

Some have criticized Sepulcher, Mosse’s latest novel, for being too close to Labyrinth –it’s also epic in length, with the same French location and a similar narrative style – but the book’s selling well. There’s even talk of making movies of both novels. When Kate Mosses met with Speak Up, we asked her whether having such a glamorous namesake ever presented a ´problem:

TAXI!

Kate Mosse
(Standard: English accent):

It’s completely fine. It’s a funny thing because obviously there are very few similarities between a novelist and a supermodel, but it’s actually people remember your name. she’s a very accomplished and rather beautiful young woman; it’s not as if I share a name with someone who is a maniac or evil, or terrible, so I mean I think I can imagine if you had a difficult name, it would be slightly different, but it means people do remember it and it gives quite a lot of opportunity for jokes, really, you know, cab drivers arrive and their poor faces fall because you know. I’m older, shorter, you know, more tired, no doubt than she is, but actually it’s just fine.

THE WRITING PROCESS

Labyrinth wasn’t Kate Mosse’s first published book, but it was the first one to achieve bestseller book, but it was the first one to achieve bestseller status. We asked her whether this (had) made writing Sepulchre easier or harder:

Kate Mosse:

The challenges were different. With Labyrinth, I was writing entirely for myself. There was no expectation and it felt like the only thing that mattered was the text ant the story and was I getting it right. With Sepulchre, because I had been so extraordinary lucky with Labyrinth, and I knew I had millions of readers, I did feel this awful sense of fear about letting fans down. Before Labyrinth I didn’t have any fans: I mean, people had read my books, but in a very modest way! So, with Sepulchre, to start with, I had the sense that I was looking beyond the book, to the readers. And that’s no way to write a book, but once I’d got rid of that feeling, and I just…concentrating simply on writing the book again, you know, putting one foot in front of the other, finishing this chapter, then the experience became very similar to writing Labyrinth, actually. So, it’s not as simple as “Is one harder than the other?” they both have challenges and writing a book that you care about will always have a challenge…I now understand that it won’t ever get any easier. It will always be hard work, which is, of course, right because you don’t get anything back, if you haven’t put stuff in really!