English is all around

Thursday, 13 January 2011

Heroes of Troy

How much do you know about Troy and its history?:

Paris of Troy arrives in Sparta - home of King Menelaus and Helen, his beautiful queen.
The Greeks arrive in Troy to demand the return of Helen...or else!
The Greeks invade and fight their way up the beach towards the walls of Troy.
Achilles takes a break from the fighting - bad news for the Greeks.
A dark day for the Trojans when Hector is slain by Achilles.
Odysseus has a plan to end the war - a wooden horse!
The wooden horse goes into action...and the ancient story ends...

Click on this BBC Learning English link to learn each of the songs with your vocal coach David Grant and to access the full range of supporting resources, including lyrics, music and backing tracks as you can see on the picture below.

Monday, 10 January 2011

The Tube

The London Underground - also fondly known as 'the tube' - isn't really a place where you meet new friends and interesting people. Of course, thousands of interesting people travel on the tube every day, but as strangers don't speak to each other on the tube, it's highly unlikely that we'll ever meet them.

So why aren't people friendly on the tube? We went out to a nearby tube station to get some answers.

Before you listen to the programme, have a look at these comprehension questions. You'll hear the answers during the programme.

1: What do passengers often do to help pass their time on the tube?
2: Why is it difficult to hear and be heard on the tube?
3: What type of person is 'a weirdo'?
4: What did Steve offer the other passengers on his tube train?

Vocabulary from the programme

the tube
the London public transport system which consists of trains that run on tracks under the streets of London

tourists
people who are visiting a country

passengers
people who pay to use a form of transport

strangers
people who we don't know can be referred to as 'strangers'

sweets
a small piece of confectionery made with sugar or sweet chocolate (known as 'candies' in American English)

to fancy
to have the feeling of wanting, liking or wanting to have something or someone, e.g. I really fancy some chocolate.

a jingle
a short, memorable tune that is used to advertise a product

embarrassed
nervous, worried and uncomfortable about what other people might think

stop
a station or place where people get on or off a train or bus

Londonlife friendliness on tube by begonals

Try the comprehension questions.

Tapescript

Thursday, 23 December 2010

Merry Xmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS BABY

Bring it down, band!

Now, I just came here tonight to say...
I just wanna say...
I just wanna say...

Merry Christmas baby, you surely treat me nice
Come on, merry Christmas baby, you surely treat me nice
I feel just like I'm living, living in paradise

Now listen
Now you see, I feel real good tonight
And I got music on the radio
And I feel real good tonight
And I got music on the radio
And the boys in the band are playing pretty good!
Now, I feel just like I wanna kiss you
Underneath my mistletoe

But now listen
Santa came down chimney, half past three
With lots of nice little presents for my baby and me
Merry Christmas baby, you surely treat me nice
And I feel like I'm living, just living in paradise
Come on boys!

Well now, Santa came down chimney, half past three
With lots of nice little presents for my baby and me
Merry Christmas baby, you surely treat me nice
I feel like I'm living, I'm living in paradise

And I just came down to say
Merry Christmas baby
I just wanna say, merry Christmas baby
I just wanna say, merry Christmas baby
I just wanna say, merry Christmas baby
And happy New Year, too!
Oh yeah!
Play it boys, go!
Merry Christmas
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-happy New Year
Ohhhh!

Oh yeah!
Merry Christmas baby!