Paolo Nutini, The New Scottish Star

I'm blogging again about Paolo Lutini and after you listen to the podcast there is an exercise from Speakup in Class, any question, please get in touch through www.speakup.com.br or e-mail me carlosrn36@gmail.com 

Paolo Nutini, The New Scottish Star

Source: Speak Up

Language level: Basic

Standard accents: British and Scottish

The New Scottish Star

Everything about Paolo Nutini is impossible. His name is Italian, but he’s Scottish. He has the looks of a teenage pop star, but sings like a 1960s soul man. His record company told him to change his name, if he wanted success, but he refused. Last year he released a debut album, These Streets, which was a hit, and he is currently in the middle of a sell-out tour of the United States. The magazine Rolling Stone named him one of its “Ten Artists to Watch.”

FISH AND CHIPS

Paolo, who turned 20 in January, grew up near Glasgow, in the town of Paisley, where his parents own a fish and chip shop. His grandfather, Jackie, introduced Paolo to music and encouraged him to sing; Paolo wrote the song “Autumn” in his memory. Paolo says. “He was a big music lover. He loved boogie woogie piano and adored opera.” Jackie died when Paolo was about 11 years old, but he would have loved the passion and soul of his grandson’s voice.

Last summer the family visited their ancestral home Barga, a small town in the Northern hills of Tuscany, where Paolo gave a free concert. He announced, “I’m playing here in my nonno’s opera house, unbelievable! I’ll try to put on a show for you, if I can stopgreetin’.” (Greetin’ is Scottish slang for “crying.”) Paolo’s songs are autobiographical; his album These Streets is a diary of his last three years. For example, the songs “Last Request” and “Rewind” recount problems with his girlfriend, whereas the title track, “These Street,” recalls his first, homesick days in London.

GOING HOME

“In my head i see a vineyard in Italy. I’ll build a recording studio there. That’s the plan…though I’ll have to return to Scotland now and then, just to keep my sanity.” If his voice doesn’t pay for that vineyard, his looks will: he has signed a contract with prestigious London agency Storm Models.

The Barga Connection (no audio)

High in the Tuscan hills, Barga is a town full of surprises. Visitors, who ask for directions, or perhaps a cup of coffee in a bar, get a big shock when the local people reply in broad Scottish accent. If it’s August in Barga, there is another big surprise: The Fish and Chip Festival.

Fish and Chip in Italy? Well, thousands of families emigrated from the area during the famines of the late nineteenth century. For example, Paolo’s great-grandfather took the Nutini family to Paisley where he opened their fish and chip shop. Over the years, many of the emigrants’ descendants have returned to their home town and brought Scottish traditions with them.

Speak up in Class

PAOLO NUTINI (C2)

TASK 1. Speaking. With your partner(s) discuss these questions.

a)   What kind of music do you like? Why?

b)   What kind of music do you hate? Why?

c)   How often do you buy CDs, or iTunes? Why?

d)   Do you think downloading music for free is morally unacceptable? Why (not)?

e)   Do you know Paolo Nutini? If so, do you like his music? Why (not)?

 LISTENING

TASK 2.  Prediction. You are going to listen to an interview with Paolo Nutini. Before you listen, discuss these questions with your partner, and make some notes. If you don’t know/aren’t sure, guess!

a) How old is Paolo Nutini, under or over 30?

b) Where is he from, and what is his connection (if any) with Italy?

c) Since when has he been interested in music?

d) Did his career start on television, on the radio or at a live concert?

e) What is Paolo’s ambition for the future?

TASK 3. Listening for Overall Comprehension. Listen to all of the recording and answer the question from TASK 2. You do not need to write long sentences, as the answers are short.

TASK 4. Prediction #2. Before you listen to all of recording again, work with your partner and decide if these statements are TRUE or FALSE. If you don’t know, guess.

a) Paolo’s first album came out in 2007.

b) His family own a pizzeria in Glasgow. 

c) His grandfather loved music and beautiful women.

d) If David Sneddon hadn’t been late for the civic reception, Paolo wouldn’t have been discovered.

e) Paolo was chosen randomly from 300 people to sing.

TASK 5: Listening for Detailed Information: Listen to the whole recording and check your answers from TASK 4. How many were correct?

READING AND VOCABULARY

TASK 6. Reading for New Vocabulary. There are some interesting words and phrases in this recording. Read all of text carefully and find words/expressions to compete these sentences. The words/expressions are order.

a) Prince William was recently in Australia on an official tour representing the British monarchy, taking the place of his grandmother, Queen Elisabeth II. He was the _________   __  _______ at numerous events, including a barbeque lunch in Flowerdale.

c) I always thought that Benetton was a big company ________  by a board of managers and directors until I found a website which listed the biggest family ________ companies in the world, and Benetton was one of them!  (same word used twice)

d) One of my friends seems to think that  Paolo Nutini was born and raised in Italy,

 but  ______   _________   __________ , he was born in Scotland and is of Italian descent. I could be wrong, though.

e) My husband and I normally like to plan our free time and tend to book things like concerts, restaurants and hotels well in advance. This year, though, we were sitting at home watching television when we heard that there was a free concert which had just started in Jardim Botânico starting half. We decided to go  _____ _______  ________   ____  ____  _________. I’m glad we did because it was great.

f) “How is your new project going?” “Well, to tell you the truth, we haven’t really started yet. We’ve got the deigns, we’ve got the financing, and we really want to ____  ___  ____   ______ but we’re being held back by bureaucracy: we’re still waiting for that last piece of paper!

WEBQUEST

TASK 7. Writing. Visit this website and write a brief biography of someone famous. You could devise a quiz and and test your classmates! 

  http://www.famouspeople.co.uk/

Aaron Copland, 1900- 1990: His Music Taught America About Itself

Source: www.manythings.org/voa/people

I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein with PEOPLE IN AMERICA in VOA Special English.

Today we tell about Aaron Copland, one of America's best modern music composers.

Aaron Copland wrote many kinds of music. He wrote music for the orchestra, piano, and voice. He wrote music for plays, movies and dance. Copland also was a conductor, pianist, speaker, teacher and author.

Music critics say Copland taught Americans about themselves through his music. He used parts of many old traditional American folk songs in his work. He was influenced to do this after studying music in France. He said that composers there had a very French way of writing music. He said Americans had nothing like that in this country. So he decided to compose music that was truly American.

Aaron Copland was born in nineteen hundred in Brooklyn, New York. He was the youngest of five children. His parents had come to the United States from eastern Europe. They owned a store in Brooklyn. Aaron began playing the piano when he was a young child. He wrote his first song for his mother when he was eight years old. His dreams of becoming a composer began when he was young.

When he was sixteen, he urged his parents to let him study composing with Rubin Goldmark. Goldmark had taught the composer George Gershwin.

When he was in his early twenties, Copland went to Paris where he studied music with Nadia Boulanger. She was one of the most important music teachers of the time. He returned to New York in nineteen twenty-four.

The famous conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Serge Koussevitzky, learned about Copland's music. Koussevitzky led the orchestra for the first performance of Copland's early work, "Music for the Theater," in nineteen twenty-five. Koussevitzky also conducted Copland's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra" in nineteen twenty-seven. This work was unusual because Copland used ideas from jazz music in his concerto.

Copland later wrote the music for two ballets about the American West. One was about the life of a famous gunfighter called Billy the Kid. Copland used music from American cowboy songs in this work. This piece from "Billy the Kid: Ballet Suite" is called "Street in a Frontier Town."

In nineteen forty-two, the conductor Andre Kostelanetz asked Copland to write music about a great American, Abraham Lincoln. Copland wrote "Lincoln Portrait" to honor America's sixteenth president. Copland's music included parts of American folk songs and songs popular during the American Civil War. He added words from President Lincoln's speeches and letters.

"Lincoln Portrait" has been performed many times in America. Many famous people have done the speaking part. Eleanor Roosevelt, the wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, was one of them. Here, actor James Earl Jones performs in Copland's "Lincoln Portrait."

Also in nineteen forty-two, the music director of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra asked eighteen composers to write music expressing love for America. For the competition, Copland composed "Fanfare for the Common Man." This music is played in America during many national events, including some presidential inaugurations.

Experts say "Fanfare for the Common Man" was an example of Copland's change in direction during the nineteen forties. He began writing music that was more easily understood and more popular. Copland wrote about this in nineteen forty-one in his book, "Our New Music." He wrote that a whole new public for music had developed as a result of the popularity of the radio and record player. He said that there was no reason to continue writing music as if these devices did not exist. So he decided to write music in a simpler way.

Copland spread his ideas about music in other ways. He taught at the New School for Social Research in New York City and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. One of the many awards he received was the Pulitzer Prize. He won it in nineteen forty-five for his famous music for a ballet called "Appalachian Spring." It is one of his most popular works. The last part of the ballet is based on a traditional song, "A Gift to be Simple."

Copland also wrote music for several major motion pictures. He won an Academy Award in nineteen fifty for composing the music for the film, "The Heiress." Then, he began experimenting with what is called a twelve-tone system of composing. His music no longer was as easy to understand, or as popular.

Copland stopped composing at the end of the nineteen sixties. Yet he continued to be active as a conductor and speaker. In nineteen eighty-two, Queens College of the City University of New York established the Aaron Copland School of Music.

Copland was a strong supporter of liberal ideas. In the early nineteen fifties, he and other famous writers, actors and intellectuals were accused of supporting communism. Public opinion changed, though. In nineteen sixty-four, President Lyndon Johnson presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. It is America's highest award to civilians. Aaron Copland died in nineteen ninety at the age of ninety. But his music lives on.

This Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust. It was produced by Lawan Davis. I'm Steve Ember. And I'm Barbara Klein. Join us again next week for anotherPEOPLE IN AMERICA program in VOA Special English.

Colour Idioms, Linguas Expectrum

Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-A67e-isDR0&feature=player_embedded#!


Getting in touch daily with English tips', in particular of today's website tip and video is about LINGUAS EXPECTRUM's websiste it's really funny and easier learn English through useful English material, available for free on the video or through the website http://linguaspectrum.com as soon as you accessing sign up for free and learn the useful videos. See you around and telling for your friends about English tips blog. 

Ways to improve your English, check it out.

Ways to improve your English:

Read and listen a lot:

Read new articles and underline or circle the new ones, remember one of the most important thing is listening, in this way you will be a great speaker. Commonly people are worrying to learning in grammar all the time, that's a mistake, because you should speak automatically, you are not a robot but a human being. When you are reading a book, memorizing the new vocabularies, and do that as much as possible.

This one could figure out strange or stupid thing, but stand in front of the mirror and it will be your confident, your teacher, speak as much as possible and at the same time, record your own voice. Of course, you will be more self-confident to speak with your friends.

Use labels with English words on things in your house: It's really helpful when I started to practise English I used to label in Portuguese (for things) cell phone (labels) and everything I wrote the nouns and fixed all every time I was looking for them, I mean use your mother tongue and label everything in English. Really helpful.

Don't be afraid if you cannot speak fluent and no worry about the mistakes, Ice breaking (Break your shyness) and self-confident for speaking without fear, writing in English, as I mentioned previously, label everything you can surround you, and getting started to develop your ability, after all the most important thing is the communication. 

Listen to broadcast radios, 'cause in this way you are going to keep in touch with different accents, by the way, one of the most important thing you should contact with different spellings, no worry if you decided to speak American or British ones, but listen to different accents definitely is the most relevant for English learners. 

In addition, it's recommendable you also listen to podcasts I recommend you visit http://www.voanews.com or BBC's Website http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcast . 

In conclusion, being motivated, willpower and dedication is the best recipe, overcoming your difficulties and carry on, practise makes perfect, the more you do, more you get. Keep an eye on English tips' blog and if you liked recommend it for your friends. sincerely, I hope you liked this entry, good to see you, guys. 

Learn English Conversation, useful website

Well, today's website tip, I am going to talk about Learn-English conversation website, I was surfing on VOA LEARNERS GROUP on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/voalearnersgroup/ when one of member Boussy Haitham shared with us this helpful webiste. Learn-English Conversation is a great website with short dialog which it provides a great English material. Just to inform all members and English tips' Fans now you can help through pay pal account, or going for shopping getting the Amazon products. As much as possible you can find me on Skype, add me on ID: englishtipsbrasil thank you for your help in advance. Liked this entry?Please promoting for your friends. 

This is the website http://www.learn-english-conversation.net/ 

Homeless in Hollywood

Source: http://www.speakup.com.br

 

Source: of the picture simviaje.com

Imagine having no home, no job, no family and no friends. Imagine that you are so addicted to drugs, that you would prefer to sleep in a cardboard box (and not in a bed). Imagine trying to survive on the streets of one of the world’s most dangerous cities.

Bruce Turner doesn’t have to imagine any of this. He spent two-and-a half years living on the streets in Skid Row, Los Angeles, an area full of homeless people, drug addicts and prostitutes.

Bruce Turner, who is originally from Los Angeles, was addicted to drugs for 40 years, before becoming homeless. He survived on the streets by selling drugs and cheating people out of their money.

Then one day he decided to change his life. He stopped taking drugs and started working with the Los Angeles Mission, an organization that has been assisting homeless people in LA for more than 70 years.

LIFE ON THE STREETS

Bruce started living and working at the Mission two years ago. He recently got a second job and will soon get his own apartment. He spoke to Speak Up about life on the street:

Bruce Turner: “It was rough, but it was fun because I could go anything that I wanted. I had no bills. I didn’t have to do anything I didn’t want to do you’re getting high, you’re drinking. There are women out there too, so you’re involved with women. Skid Row in the last: there’s nowhere else to go. People think that the highest percentage of people out there have mental problems. Some of them are lost and don’t want to be found. They are in their own world.”

MISCONCEPTIONS

Speak Up: “What is the biggest misconception about homeless people?”

Bruce Turner: “People think homeless people are dumb and dirty. But homeless people are not. There are a lot of smart people out there. Some homeless people walk around looking sharp every day, you can never tell they’re homeless. Sometimes, when homeless people die, other people go through their baskets and they find thousands of dollars. People misjudge the homeless. They’re not dumb: you need to be smart if you want to survive out there.

FACTS AND FIGURES

WHO IS HOMELESS?

      About 3.5 million people in the US experience homelessness every year.

      About that a million people sleep on the streets in the USA every night.

      43% of homeless people are female and one third of the homeless population is made up of families with children.

      About 40% of homeless people are under the age of 18 and almost half of homeless children are under five.

      42% of homeless people are African American, 39 per cent are white, 13 per cent are Hispanic, 4 per cent are Native American and 2 per cent are Asian.

     

WHY ARE THEY HOMELESS?

      The biggest causes of homelessness include unemployment, lack of government support, lack of housing, lack of affordable health care, domestic violence, mental illness and addiction to drugs and/or alcohol.

      20% of homeless females say they became homeless as a result of domestic violence.

      73% of homeless people don’t have jobs.

The Ambitious Guest (American Stories)

Source: en.wikipedia.org

Source of the entry www.manythings.org/voa/stories

Our story today is called, "The Ambitious Guest. " It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Here is Harry Monroe with our story.

Narrator:  One December night, a long, long time ago, a family sat around the fireplace in their home. A golden light from the fire filled the room. The mother and father laughed at something their oldest daughter had just said.

The girl was seventeen, much older than her little brother and sister, who were only five and six years old. A very old woman, the familys grandmother, sat knitting in the warmest corner of the room. And a baby, the youngest child, smiled at the fires light from its tiny bed.

This family had found happiness in the worst place in all of New England. They had built their home high up in the White Mountains, where the wind blows violently all year long. 

The family lived in an especially cold and dangerous spot. Stones from the top of the mountain above their house would often roll down the mountainside and wake them in the middle of the night.

No other family lived near them on the mountain. But this family was never lonely. They enjoyed each others company, and often had visitors.

Their house was built near an important road that connected the White Mountains to the Saint Lawrence River. People traveling through the mountains in wagons always stopped at the familys door for a drink of water and a friendly word.

Lonely travelers, crossing the mountains on foot, would step into the house to share a hot meal. Sometimes, the wind became so wild and cold that these strangers would spend the night with the family. The family offered every traveler who stopped at their home a kindness that money could not buy.

On that December evening, the wind came rushing down the mountain. It seemed to stop at their house to knock at the door before it roared down into the valley.

The family fell silent for a moment. But then they realized that someone really was knocking at their door. The oldest girl opened the door and found a young man standing in the dark.

The old grandmother put a chair near the fireplace for him. The oldest daughter gave him a warm, shy smile. And the baby held up its little arms to him.

"This fire is just what I needed," the young man said. "The wind has been blowing in my face for the last two hours."

The father took the young mans travel bag. "Are you going to Vermont?" the older man asked.

"Yes, to Burlington," the traveler replied. "I wanted to reach the valley tonight. But when I saw the light in your window, I decided to stop. I would like to sit and enjoy your fire and your company for a while." 

As the young man took his place by the fire, something like heavy footsteps was heard outside. It sounded as if someone was running down the side of the mountain, taking enormous steps.

The father looked out one of the windows.

"That old mountain has thrown another stone at us again. He must have been afraid we would forget him. He sometimes shakes his head and makes us think he will come down on top of us," the father explained to the young man. "But we are old neighbors," he smiled. "And we manage to get along together pretty well. Besides, I have made a safe hiding place outside to protect us in case a slide brings the mountain down on our heads." 

As the father spoke, the mother prepared a hot meal for their guest. While he ate, he talked freely to the family, as if it were his own.

This young man did not trust people easily. Yet on this evening, something made him share his deepest secret with these simple mountain people.

The young mans secret was that he was ambitious.  He did not know what he wanted to do with his life, yet. But he did know that he did not want to be forgotten after he had died. He believed that sometime during his life, he would become famous and be admired by thousands of people.

"So far," the young man said, "I have done nothing. If I disappeared tomorrow from the face of the earth, no one would know anything about me. No one would ask Who was he. Where did he go? But I cannot die until I have reached my destiny. Then let death come! I will have built my monument!"

The young mans powerful emotions touched the family. They smiled.

"You laugh at me," the young man said, taking the oldest daughters hand. "You think my ambition is silly." She was very shy, and her face became pink with embarrassment. "It is better to sit here by the fire," she whispered, "and be happy, even if nobody thinks of us." 

Her father stared into the fire.

"I think there is something natural in what the young man says. And his words have made me think about our own lives here.

"It would have been nice if we had had a little farm down in the valley. Some place where we could see our mountains without being afraid they would fall on our heads.  I would have been respected by all our neighbors. And, when I had grown old, I would die happy in my bed. You would put a stone over my grave so everyone would know I lived an honest life." 

"You see!" the young man cried out. "It is in our nature to want a monument. Some want only a stone on their grave. Others want to be a part of everyones memory. But we all want to be remembered after we die!"

The young man threw some more wood on the fire to chase away the darkness. The firelight fell on the little group around the fireplace: the fathers strong arms and the mothers gentle smile. It touched the young mans proud face, and the daughters shy one. It warmed the old grandmother, still knitting in the corner. She looked up from her knitting and, with her fingers still moving the needles, she said, "Old people have their secrets, just as young people do." 

The old woman said she had made her funeral clothes some years earlier. They were the finest clothes she had made since her wedding dress. She said her secret was a fear that she would not be buried in her best clothes.

The young man stared into the fire.

"Old and young," he said. "We dream of graves and monuments. I wonder how sailors feel when their ship is sinking, and they know they will be buried in the wide and nameless grave that is the ocean?"

A sound, rising like the roar of the ocean, shook the house. Young and old exchanged one wild look. Then the same words burst from all their lips.

"The slide! The slide!"

They rushed away from the house, into the darkness, to the secret spot the father had built to protect them from the mountain slide.

The whole side of the mountain came rushing toward the house like a waterfall of destruction. But just before it reached the little house, the wave of earth divided in two and went around the familys home. Everyone and everything in the path of the terrible slide was destroyed, except the little house.

The next morning, smoke was seen coming from the chimney of the house on the mountain.

Inside, the fire was still burning. The chairs were still drawn up in a half circle around the fireplace. It looked as if the family had just gone out for a walk.

Some people thought that a stranger had been with the family on that terrible night. But no one ever discovered who the stranger was. His name and way of life remain a mystery. His body was never found.

Announcer: You have just heard the story, "The Ambitious Guest. " It was written by Nathaniel Hawthorne, and adapted for Special English by Dona de Sanctis. Your narrator was Harry Monroe. This is Shirley Griffith.