Extra listening practice

On June 1, the New York Academy of Medicine presented Oliver Sacks, Doctor of Medicine, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor of Neurology and Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center, as a special speaker in a Humanities in Medicine series. Here is part of one of his lectures.

Activity:

You will watch the video twice. As you do, answer the following questions. The first one has been done as an example.

0. Where has Oliver Sacks spent his afternoon?

In the rare book section of the NYAM library.

1. What do nineteenth century case histories mean to him?

2. Why does he not like textbooks?

3. In what ways are the nineteenth century descriptions similar to novels?

4. Where did he use to accompany his father when he was twelve?

5. What does Martin Buber say about technology?

6. What can definitely be compromised by technology?

7. What fascinates Oliver Sacks?

8. Who have been his teachers?

9. How can the art of medicine be acquired?

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10. What is medicine threatened by?

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ANSWER KEY

1. What do nineteenth century case histories mean to him?

They are a crucial guide, by virtue of their inspiration for precision, beauty, respect for detail and the individual.

2. Why does he not like textbooks?

He prefers the feeling of discovery one gets from original accounts.

3. In what ways are the nineteenth century descriptions similar to novels?

They have the same sort of passion for detail, sensibility and drama.

4. Where did he use to accompany his father when he was twelve?

On house calls to patients' homes.

5. What does Martin Buber say about technology?

We must humanize it before it dehumanizes us.

6. What can definitely be compromised by technology?

The human relationship with the patient.

7. What fascinates Oliver Sacks?

Functional brain imaging.

8. Who have been his teachers?

His patients.

9. How can the art of medicine be acquired?

- Observation
- Apprenticeship
- Engagement with patients10. What is medicine threatened by?

-Technology
-Insurance
-Lawsuits
-Bureaucracy
-Profit margins

Leonardo Da Vinci

Leonardo Da Vinci is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".  

Some other historians have pointed out, however, that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time.

To find out more about this amazing character, you can start by doing some practice on Use of English and then, watch a video to practise listening:

* Click on the following link to do an open cloze (or gap-filling) exercise: Leonardo's biography

* Listening activity:

Mona Lisa is one of the best-known faces on the planet. But would you recognize an image of Leonardo da Vinci? Illustrator Siegfried Woldhek uses some thoughtful image-analysis techniques to find what he believes is the true face of Leonardo.

Siegfried Woldhek knows faces -- he's drawn more than 1,100 of them. Using sophisticated image analysis and his own skills as an artist, he's come up with a fascinating discovery about Leonardo Da Vinci.

Watch the following video to see how he found out Leonardo's true face...
(You can read the subtitles in English if you find it very difficult, but have a go first without them, please!)

Post Holiday Syndrome

Here you are the video we saw yesterday in class in case you want to watch it again with headphones on for a better sound ;-)

Google: best place to work for

This is the video we saw yesterday in class in case you want to watch it again and try to understand more details ;-)

JOB HUNTING (Listening practice)

Click on the image below and do the listening activity online!

There are also some extra activities, so don't feel lazy and have some practice ;-)

THE HERO RATS...and the importance of smell

This video is a must!! HeroRATs are saving lives, sniffing out dangers such as landmines and disease. They are true heroes, working hand-in-hand with humans to create safer communities and a better world. A fully-trained HeroRAT can identify landmines quickly and efficiently, or can sniff out deadly pulmonary tuberculosis faster than traditional laboratory microscopy.

In short, HeroRATs provide a simple, innovative solution to some of the complex global problems facing humankind today. By working together, they can save even more lives and limbs. Click here to visit their website.

Watch the video below and see how they work...

Click here to access the activity: Try to explain the meaning of the following words and expressions in the context of the documentary. Then you can check your answers by reading the summary of the tapescript on the second page.

Black Friday

Black Friday is the name given to the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, traditionally the beginning of the Christmas shopping  season. On this day, most major retailers open extremely early and  offer promotional sales to kick off the holiday shopping season, similar  to Boxing Day sales in many Commonwealth Nations. 

 Black Friday is not an official holiday, but many non-retail employers  also observe this day as a holiday along with Thanksgiving, giving their  employees the day off, thereby increasing the number of potential  shoppers. It has routinely been the busiest shopping day of the year  since 2005, although news reports, which at that time were inaccurate, have described it as the busiest shopping day of the year for a much longer period of time.

The day's name originated in Philadelphia,  where it originally was used to describe the heavy and disruptive  pedestrian and vehicle traffic which would occur on the day after  Thanksgiving.  Use of the term started before 1961 and began to see broader use  outside Philadelphia around 1975. Later an alternative explanation began  to be offered: that "Black Friday" indicates the point at which  retailers begin to turn a profit, or are "in the black".

Watch this video below and see how much you can understand ;-)

27th November: Thanksgiving Day

Do you remember Kiran telling us about this celebration?

Thanksgiving Day is a communal celebration marked as a sense of gratitude people feel for all the good things in life. This is done by offering prayers, gifting your near and dear ones. 

The fourth Thursday in the month of November is marked for the yearly celebration. The tradition of Thanksgiving continues till date in the form of Family Reunion and Feasting.

Family feast is an important tradition during Thanksgiving. The entire family sits at the table during dinner and offer prayer to the Lord Almighty for his continuous grace. It is also a time for relatives living in different places to come together and celebrate.

The traditional stuffed turkey adorns every dinner table during the feast. Pumpkin pie, Cranberry sauce, Corns are some of the dishes cooked everywhere to mark the day. Though historians don't have an evidence to prove that turkey was eaten during the first Thanksgiving dinner, but the thanksgiving celebration will be incomplete without it.

Extra Listening Practice

11th November: REMEMBRANCE DAY

You might have seen the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, or some other politicians on TV wearing this poppy on the lapel of their suits. This is because Remembrance Day is on 11th November. It is a special day set aside to remember all those men and women who were killed during the two World Wars and other conflicts.

Remembrance Day (also known as Poppy Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day) is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries to remember the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and civilians in times of war, specifically since the First World War.

Remembrance Day is observed on 11th November to recall the official end of World War I on that date in 1918, as the major hostilities of World War I were formally ended "at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month" of 1918 with the German signing of the Armistice. (Note that "at the 11th hour", refers to the passing of the 11th hour, or 11:00 am.)

The day was specifically dedicated by King George V, on 7 November 1919, to the observance of members of the armed forces who were killed during World War I.

The red poppy has become a familiar emblem of Remembrance Day due to the poem In Flanders Fields. These poppies bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders in World War I, their brilliant red colour an appropriate symbol for the blood spilt in the war.
 

THE AMISH

When talking about "Changes" in Unit 2, we shouldn't forget about the Amish, a community which has always kept its traditions intact, turning their backs on  major technological changes and the modern world.

Watch this interesting video and click here to download the activity with the answers and script.

 

**Below you have some extra activities to do and find out more about the Amish:

1. Introduction: Open cloze exercise (click here to start!) It mainly focuses on prepositions.

2. Now,watch the video and do an extra comprehension exercise by clicking here. The answers and script are included.

THE HISTORY OF HALLOWEEN

On the eve of the 1st of November, Halloween is always celebrated. Halloween is not just costumes and candy; it's a cultural holiday rich in tradition.

Find out more about it in this video from National Geographic.

THE INVENTION OF THE TOILET

Yesterday in class we talked about how some inventions have changed our lives...and this is one of them indeed. Do you agree?

Watch the video and have your say! Add a comment and share your views with us, please! In your opinion, what has been the best invention ever?

Catch up with the latest news around the world

Have a look at this website because it's well worth seeing to practice your listening skills at your level!

CNN Student News is a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program for middle and high school students produced by the journalists and educators at CNN. This award-winning show and its companion Web site are available free of charge throughout the school year.

Why not start to catch up with today's breaking news by watching the video below? You can activate the subtitles by clicking the "cc" button in the bottom righ-hand corner, once the video is playing.

Unit 1: The 30-day Challenge

Find below the video we saw in class yesterday in case you want to watch it again and read along the script. 
And remember! If you want to practise your listening skills, you can visit  www.ted.com to find out lots of videos about many different topics.

And find below two more posts to read and listen to more people who decided to take up different challeges!

MANON OSSEVOORT

Listening Comprehension activity

Dutch actor, Manon Ossevoort decided she wanted a bit of an adventure. So she set out on a journey from Europe to the South Pole... on a tractor! 

Manon Ossevoort (born 1976 in Vriezenveen, Overijssel)  travelled by tractor from the Netherlands, through the Balkans, down through Africa to Cape Horn, then by boat to the Antarctic, collecting dreams (written on pieces of paper by people she meets). She is performing her theater show 'DOEN' (Do It!) in some post-conflict countries on her way, and raising money for War Child. She is sponsored by the Italian manufacturer of the tractor.

By the end of April 2006 she had travelled right down through Egypt and Sudan, crossed into Ethiopia and then reached the border with Kenya. She had picked up a little dog, which is travelling with her. Her plan was to travel through northern Kenya and into Uganda, before proceeding southwards.

By December 3 2007 she had reached Tanzania, 30 months and 20,000 km into the trip. She made the front page of BBC online news. The tractor was holding up just fine although it was slow, rough going.

By October 22 2008 she had reached Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. Before crossing the ocean and continuing her travel across Antarctica to the south pole, she flew over to the Arctic (Nunavut) in February 2009 for training.

ACTIVITIES: 
1.- Click here to find the listening activity

2.-Click here to check the script
3.- Watch the following video if you want to know more about her:

TED TALKS to practise your listening skills

Click on the image below to access this interesting website I told you about yesterday in class. 

You can search videos by the topic you are most interested in, activate the subtitles in English while you are watching, get the transcript or even download the video. 

It's a really amazing option to practise your listening skills!

"Hackschooling": Can we change the system?

When 13 year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal. 

Watch the video below and be fascinated by this kid's personality and reasoning! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

You can download the script by clicking here.

Obama wins election for second term as president

Breaking news this morning!!

Watch the videos below if you want to keep updated with the latest news or just to practise listening :-)



..and below you can watch and hear his victory speech. 

Varieties of English: accents and dialects

British English, or UK English or English English is the broad term used to distinguish the forms of the English language used in the United Kingdom from forms used elsewhere. There is confusion whether the term refers to English as spoken in the British Isles or to English as spoken in Great Britain, though in the case of Ireland, there are further distinctions peculiar to Hiberno-English.

There are slight regional variations in formal written English in the United Kingdom (for example, although the words wee and little are interchangeable in some contexts, one is more likely to see wee written by someone from northern Britain (and especially Scotland) or from Northern Ireland than by someone from Southern England or Wales). Nevertheless, there is a meaningful degree of uniformity in written English within the United Kingdom, and this could be described as "British English". The forms of spoken English, however, vary considerably more than in most other areas of the world where English is spoken,and a uniform concept of "British English" is therefore more difficult to apply to the spoken language. (extract from Wikipedia)

** Learn and listen to different accents and dialects of the UK (click here)

** Practise listening to different people in conversation (click here) 

LISTENING PRACTICE:

Now it is your turn to do a little bit of work by doing this exercise designed especially for you from a radio recording:

* Battling for a baby (recorded from radio   Scotland)  

* Answers

 ...and finally, unwind for a while by watching this interview to Hugh Laurie: The British accent vs. the American

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