Mr. Bean

Source: Speak Up

Language Level: Advanced

Standard: British accent

The Amazing Mr. Bean

The movie Mr. Bean’s Holyday stars the British comedian Rowan Atkinson. Directed by Stephen Bendelack, it is described as a “sort of sequel” to the first Mr. Bean movie, which was released 10 years ago. Rowan Atkinson talks about the movies’ basic idea:

Rowan Atkinson

Standard British accent:

The central idea of the movie is that Mr. Bean is in pursuit of the perfect beach. At the beginning of the movie, really, he’s in a rain-soaked Britain and he sets off in pursuit of a lovely beach in the south of France. You know, that is the story, it is a road movie, really, in which we follow his journey from London to the south of France but, you know, unsurprisingly, it is not a simple journey.

THE EUROPEAN DIMENSION

In actual fact Atkinson says that the new Bean movie is very different from its predecessor:

Rowan Atkinson

I think we always felt there was a different movie to be made with Mr. Bean. We did the first movie 10 years ago, which was you know, commercially successful, and I suppose, if we were going to make a sequel, it would have been logical to make it, you know, nine years ago, or eight years ago, rather than now. But I suppose it just took time, you know, with the other distractions, to get round to thinking about it and I suppose I certainly always believed that was a more Europeans-style movie to be made with Mr. Bean. Undoubtedly the first movie was more of an American-style movie, it had the story and format and sort of tone of an American family comedy, I think, whereas we always felt that there was a different thing to be done, and I was always interested to the idea of Bean being the more pro-active element, being the element driving the story, rather than him being a reactive element, a sort of satellite figure who was sort in the background while there was a story being driven by other characters, which was, I think, more the shape of the first film.

HARD WORK

In spite of the colourful characters he plays, Rowan Atkinson is known to be a quit and rather shy person in real life. He admits to finding filming hard work:

Rowan Atkinson

I haven’t found it difficult after the…passage of time, in finding him again, and understanding him and knowing how he would behave in any given situation. I think I’m… I’m pretty familiar, but I still find the business of shouting and acting him quite stressful, quite anxiety-inducing. I’ve always found him… it’s the very singular nature of the character and the fact that he is at the centre of the film, I mean, obviously, but I mean to be in virtually every shot, of every day of the shooting, is, I find, quite challenging. It’s not just my performance, as it were, that I have to have in my head, it’s how he’s being shot and how he’s being presented and the people and the characters that he meets all these things… you know, making sure that all the relationships between Bean and the people he meets  work and work well. I’ve always found the business of shooting any movie, actually, very, very difficult. I think the bit before shooting’s great when you when you’re thinking, you know, “wouldn’t it be funny it be was in this situation” and that all sounds, you know… you know, relatively straightforward, but when you get down to the nitty gritty of actually trying to make the jokes work, i… I find that very difficult.

WILD WILLEM…

The film’s cast includes the American star Willem Dafoe, who plays a splendidly obnoxious Hollywood director called “Carson Clay.” Dafoe clearly enjoyed “doing comedy.”

Willem Dafoe

Standard: American accent

I’ve always been interested in doing more comedy and I think from my perspective, I’ve done a lot of comedy through the years! But it’s not. You know, kind of obvious, like something like Bobby Peru in Wild at Heart, if you’re ever seen that movie, I think is comedy, but all I can say is I look at projects and a lot of good comedies came up and a lot of good opportunities to do something slightly different, or at least whether that’s an illusion, you know, a self-delusion. It feels like it’s something different, so I can invest myself in a different way and it’s more fun.

THE YOUTUBE GENERATION

Mr. Bean is now an institution. In conclusion, director Stephen Bendelack describes the characters enduring appeal:

Stephen Bendelack

Standard: British accent

Bean endures because Rowan has a very singular vision and also be doesn’t over-expose himself, in my view, I mean, in an age where, if you so choose, if you want to post your own picaresque adventures on YouTube, for everybody else’s declaration, you can.

Someone with Rowan’s singular and original vision, in a way, I think, has more resonance now maybe than it did maybe five years ago.

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Henry Ford, 1863-1947: He Revolutionized the Automobile Industry

PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English on the VOICE of America.

Source: www.manythings.org/voa/people  www.voanews.com

Every week at this time, we tell the story of a person was important in the history of the United States. Today Steve Ember and Frank Oliver begin the story of industrialist Henry Ford.

(MUSIC)

Many people believe Henry Ford invented the automobile. But Henry Ford did not start to build his first car until eighteen ninety-six. That was eleven years after two Germans -- Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz -- developed the first gasoline-powered automobile.

Many people believe Henry Ford invented the factory system that moved a car's parts to the worker, instead of making the worker move to the parts. That is not true, either. Many manufacturers used this system before Ford. 

What Henry Ford did was to use other people's ideas and make them better.

Others made cars. Henry Ford made better cars. And he sold them for less money. Others built car factories. Henry Ford built the biggest factory of its time. And he made the whole factory a moving production line.

Henry Ford had great skills in making machines work. He also had great skills as an organizer. His efforts produced a huge manufacturing company. But those same efforts almost ruined the company he built.

(MUSIC)

Henry Ford was born on a farm in the state of Michigan on July thirtieth, eighteen sixty-three. The farm was near the city of Detroit.

Henry was always interested in machines. He was always experimenting with them. He enjoyed fixing clocks. And he helped repair farm equipment. When Henry was sixteen years old, he left the family farm. He went to Detroit to learn more about machines.

In eighteen seventy-nine, when Henry began work in Detroit, the city was a center of industrial development. Travelers could tell they were near Detroit by the cloud of smoke that hung over the city. Detroit was a center of iron and steel making. Nearby mines of lead and salt brought chemical companies to the city. And Detroit's copper and brass business was the largest in the world.

ONE thing Henry Ford learned in Detroit was to have the right tool to do the job. It was something he would never forget.

After three years in Detroit, Henry returned to his family farm. He remained on the farm until he was thirty years old. But he was not a real farmer. He was a machine man. A nearby farmer, for example, had bought a small steam engine to be used in farming. The machine did not work correctly. Henry agreed to try to fix it. At the end of just one day, Henry knew everything about the machine. And he made it work again.

Henry remembered that time as the happiest in his life. He said: "I was paid three dollars a day, and had eighty-three days of steady work. I have never been better satisfied with myself. "

Another thing that made those days happy was meeting a young woman. Her name was Clara Jane Bryant. Years later Henry said: "I knew in half an hour she was the one for me. " They were married in eighteen eighty-eight, on Clara's twenty-second birthday.

(MUSIC)

Henry and Clara lived on a farm near Detroit. But, still, Henry was not a real farmer. He grew some food in a small garden. And he kept a few animals. But he made money mostly by selling trees from his farm. And he continued to fix farm equipment. It was really machines that he loved.

In eighteen ninety-one, Henry visited Detroit. There he saw a machine called the "silent otto. " It was a device powered by gasoline. It had been developed by a German, Nikolaus August Otto. He was one of the men who had worked with Gottlieb Daimler, who developed the first gasoline-powered automobile.

The silent otto did not move. But Henry saw immediately that if the machine could be put on wheels, it would move by itself.

He returned home to Clara with an idea to build such a machine. He was sure he could do it. But the machine would need electricity to make the engine work. And Henry had not learned enough about electricity. So he took a job with an electric power company in Detroit. Henry, his wife Clara, and his young son Edsel moved to the city.

While Henry worked for the power company, he and a few other men developed a small engine. In June, eighteen ninety-six, Henry had his first automobile. He called it a "quadricycle. " It looked like two bicycles, side by side. It had thin tires like a bicycle. And it had a bicycle seat.

In eighteen ninety-nine, Henry resigned from the power company to work on his automobile. He won the support of a small group of rich men who formed the Detroit automobile company. By the start of nineteen-oh-one, however, the company had failed.

Another man might have decided that the automobile business was not the best business for him. He might have stopped. Henry Ford was just getting started.

(MUSIC)

In the early days of the automobile, almost every car-maker raced his cars. It was the best way of gaining public notice. Henry Ford decided to build a racing car.

Ford's most famous race was his first. It also was the last race in which he drove the car himself.

The race was in nineteen-oh-one, at a field near Detroit. All of the most famous cars had entered. And all withdrew, except two. The Winton. And Ford's. The Winton was famous for its speed. Most people thought the race was over before it began.

The Winton took an early lead. But halfway through the race, it began to lose power. Ford started to gain. And near the end of the race, he took the lead. Ford won the race and defeated the champion. His name appeared in newspapers. His fame began to spread.

Within weeks of the race, Henry Ford formed a new automobile company. He left soon after, however, because he could not agree with the investors. He had no trouble finding new ones.

Henry continued to build racing cars. His most famous cars of the time were the "Arrow" and the "Nine Ninety-Nine. " Both won races. And they helped make the name Henry Ford more famous.

Henry used what he learned from racing to develop a better engine. In nineteen-oh-three, he was ready to start building cars for the public. On July fifteenth, nineteen-oh-three, a man named Doctor Pfenning bought the first car from the Ford Motor Company.

The sale to Doctor Pfenning was the beginning of a huge number of requests for Ford cars. By the end of March, nineteen-oh-four, almost six hundred Ford cars had been sold. The company had earned almost one hundred thousand dollars. Sales were so great that a new factory had to be found.

At the start of nineteen-oh-five, the Ford Motor Company was producing twenty-five cars each day. It employed three hundred men. The company produced several kinds of cars. First there was the "Model A. " Then there were the "Model B," "Model C" and "Model F. " They were just a little different from the "Model A" -- one of Ford's most famous cars.

Ford's "Model K" car was for wealthy buyers. One of the company's investors was sure the future of the automobile industry was in this costly car. Henry Ford did not agree. He was sure the future of the automobile industry was in a low-priced car for the general public. He said then, and many times after, "I want to make a car that anybody can buy. "

(MUSIC)

These conflicting beliefs led to a battle for control of the company. In the end, Henry bought the stock of the investors who wanted to make costly cars. He was then free to make the low-cost car he believed in.

The story shows the way Henry's mind worked. When he thought he was correct, he was willing to invest his efforts and his money. Earlier, he had walked away from the business of making cars when he could not control the business. Now he had the money to buy the stock of those who disagreed with him.

In nineteen-oh-seven, Henry Ford said: "I will build a motor car for the great mass of people. It will be large enough for the family, but small enough for one person to operate and care for. It will be built of the best materials. It will be built by the best men to be employed. And it will be built with the simplest plans that modern engineering can produce. It will be so low in price that no man making good money will be unable to own one. "

That was what Henry Ford wanted. To reach his goal, his life took many interesting turns. That will be our story next week.

(MUSIC)

You have been listening to the Special English program PEOPLE IN AMERICA. Your narrators were Steve Ember and Frank Oliver. Our program was written by Richard Thorman. I'm Ray Freeman.

Rogerio Ceni, record collector

Rogerio is a Sao Paulo's team goal keeper, as a former Paraguay goal keeper who made history for scoring almost 100 goals, Rogério did 100, check out, friends.

Source: www.maganews.com.br Recomendo a leitura e assinatura para professores e alunos Brazileiros. Recommend for Brazilian teachers and students to take a Maganews subscription excellent content.

Sport

Rogério Ceni, record collector [1]!

São Paulo soccer club's biggest idol [2] is the first goalkeeper [3] in the history of the game to score 100 goals

   Barueri,  March, 27 - Rogério Ceni scored the 100^th goal of his career to give a 2-1 win over arch-rival Corinthians. It was Ceni’s 56^th free kick goal [4] (the others have come from penalties). In 1969 the world stood still [5] to watch Pelé score his one thousandth goal. Decades later, in 2007, another Brazilian, Romário, scored his one thousandth goal, and made the headlines around the world. Now it is time for a goalkeeper to go down in the history of world soccer. By FIFA's reckoning [6], however, Rogério has 98 goals (FIFA does not include two goals he scored in two friendly [7] matches).  Either way [8], Rogério has scored more goals than any other goalkeeper ever. In second place is Chilavert, with 62 goals, but the Paraguayan ended his career several years ago.

Rock 'n roll goalkeeper

The greatest goalkeeper-striker in soccer history holds another record: he has played most games forSão Paulo: 965 times. He is very close to reaching a staggering [9] one thousand games played. Ceni was born in Pato Branco (Paraná state), but was raised in Mato Grosso. His career at São Paulobegan in 1990, when he was only 17 years old. For many journalists and fans, he is the greatest idol in the history of the club. In his time off, Ceni likes to play guitar and sing. While most players love samba and pagode, Rogério prefers rock 'n roll. One of his best friends is the composer Nando Reis, a former member of the band “Titãs”.  Ceni is married to psychologist Sandra and is the father of twins, Clara and Beatriz. The marriage ceremony was performed by Father Marcelo Rossi.

Vocabulary

1 collector – aqui = colecionador

2 idol – ídolo

3 goalkeeper – goleiro

4 to score – marcar

5 to stand still – exp. idiom. = parar para assistir

6 reckoning (to reckon = contar) – cálculo / conta / cômputo / contagem

7 friendly - amistoso

8 either way – de qualquer forma

9 staggering – incrível / impressionante

Fotos – Luiz Pires / VipComm e Wagner Carmo / Inovafoto / Vipcomm

A WORLD OF APPS

 

Source: Speak Up
Language level: Pre-intermediate
Speaker Chuck Rolando

TRAVEL

A WORLD OF APPS

The way we travel is changing fast. Today many people book their holidays through the internet. Low cost airlines like Ryan Air work almost exclusively online. The internet also offers photographs and information about any destination in the world. In the past a computer was necessary – it isn’t anymore. “Smart” mobile phones – and the new iPad –are revolutionising travel again.

A WIRELESS WORLD

Smart phones, like Apple’s iPhone have touch screens and a wireless connection to the internet. So you can use all those online travel service without a computer. It is, however, very expensive to surf the internet with a mobile phone. What’s the answer? Apps. These ae small programs, or application, that you download to your phone. An app gives you instant connection to a particular service such a Wikipanion. Simply press its icon on your mobile’s touch screen. Wikipanion will then give you information about your location.

AT THE AIRPORT

What are the best travel apps? Begin with “iFlight.” It tells you if your flight is on time, the gate number and boarding time. On you arrival you need a taxi, so use “Taxi Magic.” It gives you the nearest taxi service and calls it for you. You can’t understand the taxi driver? Use “Lonely Planet Phrase books” for translations. “Urbanspoon heps you find good restaurants, clubs and hotels. Simply type in the name of the city and shake the phone, the best location will appear on the screen. Shake the phone again for an alternative. It’s time to pay your bill in the restaurant, but how much is it? Use “Convert Me” to change the local currency to Euros. And “Big Tipper” calculate how much money to tip your waiter.

ALTERNATIVELY

Apple’s iPhone is the most popular smart phone today, but Google’s Nexus One and the Blackberry are valid alternatives. In fact Google has the most exciting apps: “Google Googles.” This uses image recognition and GPS technology. Take a photograph of a city, a statue, or even a wine bottle label. Goggles automatically finds reviews, alternatives and prices. It’s not infallible. But it is incredible!

We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions

We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions

Source: http://www.englishexercises.org/makeagame/viewgame.asp?id=105

Author: Judit Jékel

Watch the video and do the following exercises

Unscramble the lines of “We Will Rock You”

You got mud on yo’ face

Kickin’ your can all over the place

Playin’ in the street gonna be a big man some day

Buddy you’re a boy make a big noise

You big disgrace

We will we will rock you

We will we will rock you

The following verbs come from “We Are the Champions” Write in their correct forms as you listen.

kick pay commit have come do make

I've my dues -
Time after time -
I've my sentence
But no crime -
And bad mistakes
I've a few
I've my share of sand in my face -
But I've through

Which word can you hear in the Chorus?We are the champions - my trendsfriendsgrandsfired
And we'll scrapcreepkeepleap on fighting - till the andhandlandend -
We are the champions -
We are the champions
No time for usersloserslooserslossers causebecausecauses'cause we are the champions - of the wordworldwildwide -

Tick the words that you can hear.I've taken my bows vows
And my curtain falls calls -
You brought bought me fame and fortune torture and everything that goes with it
-
I thank you all -

But it's been no bed bad of roses
No pleasure cruise cause-
I consider it a challenge before the hole whole human race -
And I ain't gonna loose lose -

Chorus

Rosa Parks, 1913-2005: Mother of the American Civil Rights Movement

Source: www.manythings.org/voa/people Originally posted by VOA Special English, for more info keep in touch through http://www.voanews.com 

I'm Pat Bodnar. And I'm Steve Ember with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.  Today, we tell about Rosa Parks, who has been called the mother of the American civil rights movement.

(MUSIC)

Until the nineteen sixties, black people in many parts of the United States did not have the same civil rights as white people. Laws in the American South kept the two races separate.  These laws forced black people to attend separate schools, live in separate areas of a city and sit in separate areas on a bus.

On December first, nineteen fifty-five, in the southern city of Montgomery, Alabama, a forty-two year old black woman got on a city bus. The law at that time required black people seated in one area of the bus to give up their seats to white people who wanted them.  The woman refused to do this and was arrested.

This act of peaceful disobedience started protests in Montgomery that led to legal changes in minority rights in the United States.  The woman who started it was Rosa Parks.  Today, we tell her story.

(MUSIC)

She was born Rosa Louise McCauley in nineteen-thirteen in Tuskegee, Alabama.  She attended local schools until she was eleven years old. Then she was sent to school in Montgomery.  She left high school early to care for her sick grandmother, then to care for her mother.  She did not finish high school until she was twenty-one.

Rosa married Raymond Parks in nineteen thirty-two.  He was a barber who cut men's hair.  He was also a civil rights activist.  Together, they worked for the local group of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.  In nineteen forty-three, Mrs. Parks became an officer in the group and later its youth leader.

Rosa Parks was a seamstress in Montgomery.  She worked sewing clothes from the nineteen thirties until nineteen fifty-five. Then she became a representation of freedom for millions of African-Americans.

(MUSIC)

In much of the American South in the nineteen fifties, the first rows of seats on city buses were for white people only. Black people sat in the back of the bus. Both groups could sit in a middle area.  However, black people sitting in that part of the bus were expected to leave their seats if a white person wanted to sit there.

Rosa Parks and three other black people were seated in the middle area of the bus when a white person got on the bus and wanted a seat.  The bus driver demanded that all four black people leave their seats so the white person would not have to sit next to any of them.  The three other blacks got up, but Mrs. Parks refused.  She was arrested.

Some popular stories about that incident include the statement that Rosa Parks refused to leave her seat because her feet were tired.  But she herself said in later years that this was false.  What she was really tired of, she said, was accepting unequal treatment.  She explained later that this seemed to be the place for her to stop being pushed around and to find out what human rights she had, if any.

A group of black activist women in Montgomery was known as the Women's Political Council.  The group was working to oppose the mistreatment of black bus passengers.  Blacks had been arrested and even killed for violating orders from bus drivers.  Rosa Parks was not the first black person to refuse to give up a seat on the bus for a white person.  But black groups in Montgomery considered her to be the right citizen around whom to build a protest because she was one of the finest citizens of the city.

The women's group immediately called for all blacks in the city to refuse to ride on city buses on the day of Mrs. Parks's trial, Monday, December fifth. The result was that forty thousand people walked and used other transportation on that day.

That night, at meetings throughout the city, blacks in Montgomery agreed to continue to boycott the city buses until their mistreatment stopped.

They also demanded that the city hire black bus drivers and that anyone be permitted to sit in the middle of the bus and not have to get up for anyone else.

The Montgomery bus boycott continued for three hundred eighty-one days. It was led by local black leader E.D. Nixon and a young black minister, Martin Luther King, Junior. Similar protests were held in other southern cities. Finally, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Mrs. Parks's case.  It made racial separation illegal on city buses.  That decision came on November thirteenth, nineteen fifty-six, almost a year after Mrs. Parks's arrest.  The boycott in Montgomery ended the day after the court order arrived, December twentieth.

Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King, Junior had started a movement of non-violent protest in the South.  That movement changed civil rights in the United States forever.  Martin Luther King became its famous spokesman, but he did not live to see many of the results of his work. Rosa Parks did.

(MUSIC)

Life became increasingly difficult for Rosa Parks and her family after the bus boycott.

She was dismissed from her job and could not find another. So the Parks family left Montgomery.  They moved first to Virginia, then to Detroit, Michigan.  Mrs. Parks worked as a seamstress until nineteen sixty-five.  Then, Michigan Representative John Conyers gave her a job working in his congressional office in Detroit.  She retired from that job in nineteen eighty-eight.

Through the years, Rosa Parks continued to work for the NAACP and appeared at civil rights events. She was a quiet woman and often seemed uneasy with her fame.  But she said that she wanted to help people, especially young people, to make useful lives for themselves and to help others.      In nineteen eighty-seven, she founded the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self-Development to improve the lives of black children.

Rosa Parks received two of the nation's highest honors for her civil rights activism.  In nineteen ninety-six, President Clinton honored her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  And in nineteen ninety-nine, she received the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor.

(MUSIC)

In her later years, Rosa Parks was often asked how much relations between the races had improved since the civil rights laws were passed in the nineteen sixties.  She thought there was still a long way to go. Yet she remained the face of the movement for racial equality in the United States.

Rosa Parks died on October twenty-fourth, two thousand five. She was ninety-two years old. Her body lay in honor in the United States Capitol building in Washington.  She was the first American woman to be so honored.  Thirty thousand people walked silently past her body to show their respect.

Representative Conyers spoke about what this woman of quiet strength meant to the nation.  He said: "There are very few people who can say their actions and conduct changed the face of the nation.  Rosa Parks is one of those individuals."

Rosa Parks meant a lot to many Americans. Four thousand people attended her funeral in Detroit, Michigan.  Among them were former President Bill Clinton, his wife Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

President Clinton spoke about remembering the separation of the races on buses in the South when he was a boy.  He said that Rosa Parks helped to set all Americans free.  He said the world knows of her because of a single act of bravery that struck a deadly blow to racial hatred.

Earlier, the religious official of the United States Senate spoke about her at a memorial service in Washington.  He said Rosa Parks's bravery serves as an example of the power of small acts.  And the Reverend Jesse Jackson commented in a statement about what her small act of bravery meant for African-American people.  He said that on that bus in nineteen fifty-five, "She sat down in order that we might stand up… and she opened the doors on the long journey to freedom."

(MUSIC)

This program was written by Nancy Steinbach.  It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Pat Bodnar. And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for another PEOPLE IN AMERICA program on the Voice of America.

Around the World in Eighty Days Talking Book Chapter 1/6

Source: http://www.manythings.org/b/e/2312