Download here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/122944701/Barca-Soccer-and-Lionel-Messi-video-listening-activity
SOURCE: CBS NEWS
With stars like Lionel Messi and a youth academy bringing up the next generation of athletes, is Barcelona becoming the world’s best soccer team? Bob Simon reports.
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Click here to download a worksheet about Lionel Messi.
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SOURCE: http://www.history.com/videos/bet-you-didnt-know-thanksgiving
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TRANSCRIPT
We are all familiar with the story of the first Thanksgiving, when the Pilgrims invited local native Americans to share a meal with them. But we bet you didn’t know Thanksgiving didn’t become an annual tradition until more than 200 years later.
That first Thanksgiving in 1621 wasn’t just one big meal. It was a three-day festival of eating, hunting and other entertainments in honor of the Pilgrims’ first successful harvest. The Indians killed five deer as gifts for the colonists. So venison was definitely on the first Thanksgiving menu but we bet you didn’t know that turkey was not. They also didn’t have pumpkin pie or potatoes, which hadn’t been introduced to New England yet. And while they may have eaten cranberries, they would have been served plain not in a sauce or relish.
The Pilgrims didn’t plan on starting a Thanksgiving tradition. In fact they didn’t repeat the November celebration in subsequent years. In 1789 President George Washington announced the first ever national Thanksgiving holiday, which took place on Thursday November 26th but it didn’t become an annual tradition nationwide until the 19th century. That’s when an American writer named Sara Josepha Hale, most famous for writing the nursery rhyme ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’, was inspired by a diary of Pilgrim life to recreate that first Thanksgiving feast. Beginning in 1827 Hale waged a 30-year campaign to make Thanksgiving a national holiday. She also published recipes for pumpkin pie, turkey and stuffing, that probably didn’t appear on the Pilgrims’ plates but would become staples of modern Thanksgiving meals.
In 1863 in the midst of the Civil War President Abraham Lincoln announced that the nation would celebrate Thanksgiving every year on the final Thursday in November. But did you know in 1939 President Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to move the holiday up a week to give Depression Era retailers more time to make money during the pre-Christmas shopping season. The move was widely criticized and in 1941 F.D.R. signed a bill fixing Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November, where it stays today.
One of the quirkiest Thanksgiving traditions began in 1989 when President George H. W. Bush granted the first official pardon to a turkey. Every November since then the current oval office occupant has given a reprieve to one or two turkeys sending them into retirement on a farm rather than to a dinner table. Though it only began in the late 20th century, the story has become one of the more unusual chapters in the long history of Thanksgiving traditions.
VOCABULARY
Now test your knowledge of Thanksgiving with the following quiz.
Watch the video and answer the following questions.
TRANSCRIPT
When most people think of Halloween, they think of trick-or-treating, parades, bobbing for apples and other family-friendly activities. But bet you didn’t know the true story behind the ancient origins of Halloween. It all gets back some 2,000 years to the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain celebrated on November 1st. On the night before Samhain people believed that the dead returned as ghosts. They would leave food and wine on their doorsteps to keep roaming spirits at bay and were masked when they left the house so they would be mistaken for fellow ghosts.
The Christian Church turned Samhain into All Saints’ Day or All Hallows in the 8th century. The night before became All Hallows’ Eve, later shortened to Halloween.
You’ve heard of trick-or-treating on Halloween but what about souling or guising? All three of these traditions originated in medieval Britain. On All Souls’ Day, November 2nd, the needy would beg for pastries known as soul cakes. In return they would pray for people’s dead relatives. This was called souling. In the medieval Halloween tradition of guising young people would dress up in costume and accept food, wine, money and other offerings in exchange for singing, reciting poetry or telling jokes.
In 19th century America Irish and Scottish immigrants revived these old traditions. The result was trick-or-treating. At first it was much more about the tricks in the form of pranks and hijinks than treats. It wasn’t until the 1950s that the custom took on its current family-friendly, kid-centered form. Today Halloween is big business with US consumers spending more than $2.5 billion on costumes annually. Add in the candy and it’s estimated that Americans spend $6 billion on Halloween each year making it the second most commercial holiday after Christmas. So whether you are a fun of tricks, treats or trivia, there’s a bit of Halloween history. I bet you didn’t know…
VOCABULARY
RELATED POSTS
Halloween – History of the Jack O’ Lantern (worksheet)
Halloween Crossword (worksheet)
MORE HALLOWEEN RESOURCES:
http://www.history.com/topics/halloween
http://www.esolcourses.com/topics/halloween.html
http://www.englishcentral.com/video/15174/halloween-a-holiday-rich-in-history
http://www.englishcentral.com/video/18473/its-halloween-again
http://www.insideout.net/blog/elessons/halloween-3
http://www.newsflashenglish.com/english-lessons/halloween
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/english-skills-practice/life-uk/halloween
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/magazine/halloween
Watch the video and answer the following questions:
TRANSCRIPT
TV PRESENTER: …and now for a jump that is right out of the ages. Felix Baumgartner stepped out of a balloon more than 24 miles up on Sunday, and he stepped right into the record books. NBC’s Tom Costello has more on fearless Felix’s death-defying plunge. Say that three times fast. Tom, good morning.
REPORTER: Good for you. Good morning! Felix Baumgartner said he was most afraid of dying in front of his family and his girlfriend, considering that he jumped from an altitude three times higher than where jets fly. It was the highest jump ever. He broke the sound barrier as he fell 833 miles per hour, and he broke a youtube record for the most watched number of live views.
MISSION CONTROL: Felix, disconnect the oxygen hose. that a boy.
REPORTER: There he was at 128,000 feet standing quite literally on the edge of space, preparing to do what no one had done before, with his mom watching from mission control, 43-year-old Felix Baumgartner offered a few words most hard to understand.
FELIX: The whole world is watching us.
REPORTER: …and then he was gone beginning a terrifying supersonic dive from 24 miles up. A white dot as he quickly passed 700 miles per hour.
MISSION CONTROL: speed 729.
REPORTER: The day began well before sunrise in Roswell, New Mexico as the Red Bull Stratos team laid out the paper-thin balloon and fearless Felix zipped into his high-tech spacesuit and capsule. Baumgartner is no novice. He’s made harrowing jumps before in Brazil and Croatia from 15 and 18 miles high, but Sunday’s mission was about breaking a free fall record that had stood since 1960 when Joe Kittinger jumped from 19.5 miles high and also breaking the sound barrier. If the suit tore, the former Australian military paratrooper faced instant death. He was a guest on the “Today” show earlier this year.
FELIX: I like the challenge…
REPORTER: Sunday, after a brief burst of wind Baumgartner’s balloon got the green light.
There’s the release, and there’s the applause.
REPORTER: Two and a half hours later he was standing where no man had stood before with Joe Kittinger on the radio.
JOE KITTINGER: And our guardian angel will take care of you.
REPORTER: Out of the capsule Felix was a bullet, 833 miles per hour, mach 1.24, exceeding the speed of sound, and then with his space mask fogging up what looked like a terrifying out-of-control flat spin before he stabilized. Finally four and a half minutes later Baumgartner pulled his chute and went to a gentle landing in the New Mexico desert.
FELIX: When I was standing there on top of the world, you become so humble you want to come back alive, you know, because you do not want to die in front of your parents, your girlfriend…
REPORTER: You want to come back alive… Nasa believes there could be real scientific value in this job, in the cutting edge spacesuit that he wore that allowed him to survive the jump and techniques that could be used in future commercial or Nasa space missions. What will he do after this? He’s ready to settle down and fly rescue helicopters for a living. Matt?
WATCH a related video and do some great interactive exercises:
http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/freetime/video-zone/record-breaking-skydive
Now try the following QUIZ: Skydiving the speed of sound
http://www.newsflashenglish.com/english-lessons/one-giant-leap
Watch the video and answer the questions. Click on the heading below to view the questions alongside the video. If you click on “flip”, you can see the answer to each question.
Alternatively, you can click on the image below to watch the video. Then answer the following questions.
TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: Rushed away for treatment, the teenage girl who dared to defy the Taliban. Malala Yousafzai was shot in the head. Doctors say the next few days will be critical. This was Malala in her beloved classroom. When the Taliban tried to take it from her, she spread the news around the world. It was 2009 and the militants controlling the Swat Valley decreed that girls’ schools must close. Malala, then just 11, started a blog for the BBC Urdu Service written under a pen name. This was one of her entries.
MALALA: I was very scared getting ready for school today because the Taliban announced that the girls should stop going. Our head teacher told us at assembly we shouldn’t wear a school uniform and just come in normal clothes. Out of 27 girls only 11 attended class today.
REPORTER: After the militants were driven out, Malala was an outspoken campaigner for education for girls winning recognition at home and abroad. A family friend told us she will fight on if she makes a good recovery.
FAMILY FRIEND: She will continue to educate herself, she will continue to inspire others also… I don’t think they are going to chicken out, I don’t think they are going to surrender.
REPORTER: But the Taliban have threatened to target her again. They said she is western-minded and will not be spared. Tonight Malala remains in intensive care with her family at her bedside. Brutal Taliban attacks are nothing new here but the shooting of a child has caused shock and revulsion. The militants have said anyone else who speaks out against them, as Malala did, will be silenced. Orla Guerin, BBC News, Islamabad
VOCABULARY
SOURCE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19891396
RELATED ARTICLES
TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: She arrived in a plane bearing the flags of two countries that are uncomfortably bound together by the crisis in the Eurozone. Angela Merkel’s visit shows solidarity from the economic powerhouse of Europe to its weakest link and her host Antonis Samaras and his Greek government are desperately grateful for it.
From the streets a different mood. These hospital workers tried to block her convoy but were forced back by police. And in central Athens outside parliament many thousands came to protest despite police restrictions. Amongst them the leader of the Greek Left, Alexis Tsipras, who says austerity policies have been dictated to Greece by Mrs Merkel and have ruined this country. They came from all parts of society including reserves from the army who chanted that Nazis should leave the country.
PROTESTER: Mrs Merkel, hear the people of Greece. We are here. We are fighting for our rights and not for our country but for the whole Europe, for the people of Europe.
REPORTER: Many of the people who have come here to protest have seen their living standards fall dramatically in recent years but it’s important to remember that Greek society is now very divided and there are others who are not protesting, who will welcome a visit, they will see it as a gesture of support from the most poerful politician in Europe.
MRS MERKEL: Much success has been achieved by the Greek government between 2009 and 2011. The deficit went down. Many other factors say a lot of work was done. It was not easy for the people but I am convinced these difficult ways are worth trying and Germany wants to be a good partner and friend for Greece at these difficult times.
REPORTER: On the streets things turned ugly. Eventually the police made a determined effort to disperse the crowds. Germans watching these scenes will wonder whether Greece is worth saving just as Greeks will wonder if they can take more pain. Mrs Merkel belatedly has acknowledged Greek sacrifices but the economy here will continue to shrink. Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera, Athens
VOCABULARY
-If a crowd of people disperses, or if someone disperses it, the people separate and go in different directions.
-When a group of people storms something, they attack it suddenly with a lot of force.
-A barricade is a temporary wall, fence, or similar structure that is built to prevent people from entering a place or area.
-If you show solidarity with someone, you support them because you have the same opinions, aims, etc.
-A powerhouse is a group of people or an organization that has a lot of power.
-Austerity is an economic policy by which a government reduces the amount of money it spends by a large amount.
-A deficit is the total amount by which money spent is more than money received.
-When something happens belatedly, it happens very late or too late.
-When you acknowledge something, you accept that it is true.
Click on the picture above to watch the video and answer the following questions.
Alternatively, you can take the following quiz.
TRANSCRIPT
My name is Tang Xiaoqian. I’m eleven years old. I study at … (name of village) primary school. And it’s been eight years since I last saw my mum and dad. Almost all of my classmates are growing up without our parents. They are not at home for us. We are called ‘left behind’ children. When I was eight months old, my parents left home for Shanghai to find jobs. I live with my grandparents in the mountains. Every time it’s New Year my parents say they are too busy to come home. When I miss them, I write a letter, fold it into a boat shape, put it in the river hoping it will reach my mum and dad. Once I represented my school in a public speaking competition in a nearby city. Other children had parents cheering for them. I was just by myself. I want to study hard and go to university one day. I will make a lot of money and buy a big house for my parents. Then we can be together every day. Although the mountains and rivers are beautiful, we can only be farmers here. That’s why our parents have to leave to find jobs in big cities, like Shanghai and Beijing. They work very hard in the factories so we can go to school at home. When I grow up, I want to help turn my village into a city with big roads everywhere. I will open a big company and all the parents can come and work here. Then the children won’t be separated from their mums and dads any more.
READ an article about China’s ‘Left-Behind Children’.
WATCH a relevant documentary (in three parts):
Rural China “Children Left Behind” Documentary (part 1 of 3)
Rural China “Children Left Behind” Documentary (part 2 of 3)
Rural China “Children Left Behind” Documentary (part 3 of 3)
Watch the video and answer the questions.
VOCABULARY
A vessel is a ship or large boat (formal). e.g. a fishing/sailing vessel
A maritime disaster is a disaster that happens at sea.
When you launch something, you begin something that requires much effort. e.g. The police have launched an investigation into his activities.
A mortuary is a place where the bodies of dead people are kept until they are buried or cremated
There is a video transcript here.
Read more on this story:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19797588
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/02/hong-kong-ferry-disaster-36
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