HAPPY THANKSGIVING

- Read the article and watch the video in which Obama pardons "Courage".

- Click here to listen to some history or watch this video about the history of Thanksgiving.

- Listen to the article and learn about "Black Friday". Don't read it at first (have a look at the instructions that come after the text).

- Listen to some Americans talking about how they celebrate Thanksgiving and answer these questions. Then read the script of the programme and check your answers.

1. What do the Americans do on Thanksgiving Day?

2. Angelo Rosa didn’t celebrate Thanksgiving when he was a child because…
a) His family came to America when he was a teenager.
b) Thanksgiving was not such a big holiday and his family didn’t have a lot of money.
c) His family were from Naples in Italy and they only adopted the tradition after having their six children.

3. What is he doing this Thanksgiving?

4. Does Angelo have memories of Thanksgiving?


5. Cathie Dahlstrom has to prepare dinner for ________________________ celebrants.

6. What doe Cathie think of the situation in the USA?


7. Why could Cathie’s Thanksgiving get bigger and more complex?
a) Because her mother is dating a man who has 6 children.
b) Because her daughter has 8 step-brothers.
c) Because she has 5 younger brothers and sisters.

Jobs

1. Listen and do the exercise. Have a look at the language and grammar tips.

2. Listen to the second part and do the same.

3. Read the job advertisements and do the exercise. There's some useful vocabulary about jobs.

Eating out in Brick Lane in east London

1. Read the text and answer the questions.

2. Listen to this short conversation at a restaurant.

3. Listen to this short conversation where two people discuss what to order in an Indian restaurant.

Getting fat

Listen and read this conversation between two friends. You can listen to it at two different speeds and practise pronunciation.

Waste

Read this review about the book "Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal".

On this website you can listen to different interviews with the author, Tristam Stuart. The first interview is the longest (20 minutes) but the second interview is a video (TV interview) and lasts 5 minutes and the third link is to a radio interview that lasts only 4 minutes.

Freegans

This is the video we watched in class.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Extra listening handout for November

These are the websites you need for your November listening handout:

1. The magic bus: http://potatopals.podomatic.com/entry/eg/2006-09-18T04_50_58-07_00
2. To make a comeback: http://www.listen-to-english.com/index.php?id=479
3. Workaholism: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/general/sixminute/2009/05/090528_6min_workaholism_page.shtml
4. Sleep: http://china232.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=412523

Sesame Street celebrates 40th anniversary

Sesame Street has Michelle Obama as a special guest on their 40th anniversary and she speaks about healthy food and healthy habits.

Watch the videos.

The Fall of the Berlin Wall

1. Watch this video about the Wall of Berlin.
2. Watch the news twenty years later.

3. Watch the video and read the story of the fall of the wall.

Moments in History - The Fall of the Berlin Wall - For more amazing video clips, click here

In Praise of Slow

The spark for In Praise of Slowness came when I began reading to my children. Every parent knows that kids like their bedtime stories read at a gentle, meandering pace. But I used to be too fast to slow down with the Brothers Grimm.
I would zoom through the classic fairy tales, skipping lines, paragraphs, whole pages. My version of Snow White had just three dwarves in it. "What happened to Grumpy?" my four-year-old son would ask.
Then one day I caught myself eyeing a collection of One-Minute Bedtime Stories -- think Snow White boiled down to 60 seconds -- and that's when the alarm bells started ringing.
I never bought the one-minute fables. Instead, I set off to investigate whether slowing down was still an option in the modern world and I wrote a book.
In Praise of Slowness chronicles the global trend towards deceleration that has come to be known as the Slow Movement. Don't worry, though: it is not a Luddite rant. I love speed. Going fast can be fun, liberating and productive. The problem is that our hunger for speed, for cramming more and more into less and less time, has gone too far.
These days, we work fast, talk fast, think fast, eat fast, play fast. We even make love in a hurry. A British magazine recently featured the following headline: "Bring Her To Orgasm In 30 Seconds!"
Yet there is a price to pay for living in fast-forward. Our health, diet and relationships suffer. We make mistakes at work. We struggle to relax, to enjoy the moment, even to get a decent night's sleep.

The current recession is a stark reminder that an economy based on fast growth, fast consumption, and fast profits is not sustainable. On the contrary, it is the surest way to burn out the planet and everyone on it. Today, with oil running out and the global economy in tatters, doing everything in a hurry is clearly nuts. Anyone still in doubt should try attending a speed yoga class or a drive-thru funeral.That is why the Slow Movement is growing - and fast.

Around the world, 120 official Slow Cities are now putting quality of life ahead of sprawl. Slow Food is a household name and the Slow Sex movement could be next. Slow Travel is booming as people look for ways to savor the journey. A Harvard dean has written an open letter extolling the virtues of doing less and relaxing more. Its title: "Slow Down."

And that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are now movements for Slow Medicine, Exercise, Parenting, Retail, Design, Education, Blogging, Production, Fashion, Art and Reading.
Even the workplace is warming to the Slow revolution. Companies such as the Boston Consulting Group and KPMG are goosing productivity by encouraging staff to spend less time on the job. Others are imposing speed limits on the information superhighway with email-free days and cellphone blackouts. A senior executive at IBM has launched a Slow Email Movement to encourage us to check our inboxes less. And that's IBM, not an aromatherapy cooperative.
It is no surprise that some of the fastest people are now urging us to put on the brakes. After all, Slow does not mean doing everything at a snail's pace. It means doing things at the right speed -- fast or slow. In other words, you don't have to ditch your career, toss the iPhone and join a commune to slow down. You can be Slow anywhere. It's about striking a balance and using time more wisely.

The journey that In Praise of Slowness has made since publication shows how far this message resonates. The book has been translated into more than 30 languages. It appears on reading lists from business schools to yoga retreats. Rabbis, priests and imams have quoted from it in their sermons. A doctor in Sydney, Australia gave my aunt a copy when she was suffering from stress. TV producers even placed a few copies inside the Big Brother house in Argentina to encourage the contestants to talk about more than just cellulite and cosmetic surgery.
Writing the book has certainly changed my life. I travel around the world now talking and writing about the Slow revolution. But I also walk the talk. I have reconnected with my inner tortoise.
This has made me more relaxed, dynamic and creative. I feel closer to my friends and family and more able to enjoy each moment. I'm living my life now instead of rushing through it.
Snow White is certainly a lot more fun with seven dwarves.

Questions (the answers in "comments")

1. What made him write the book?

2. What is the Slow Movement and why has it appeared?

3. What does being slow mean?

4. Why has the book been so successful?

5. How has the book changed Honore's life?

Watch this video:

Carl Honore, author of In Praise of Slowness, explains how you can get more out of life by doing less @ Yahoo! Video

Super Size Me

Watch the video once and try to get the main idea. Then watch it at least two more times and try to answer the questions or complete the sentences below (you need one word in each gap). The answers are in "comments".


1. What has America become?

2. How many people in the USA are overweight or obese?

3. What’s the fattest state in America?

4. The man on the video remembers his mother...

5. Today American families ____________ _____________ all the time and they are paying for it, not only with their _____________ but also with their _____________.

6. _____________ is now second only to smoking as a major cause of preventable death in America, with more than _____________ deaths per year associated with related illnesses.

7. In 2002 a few Americans decided to _____________ these companies, making them responsible for their obesity and health problems.

8. Each day _____________ in _____________ Americans visits a fast food restaurant, and it’s happening on a _____________ _____________.

9. McDonalds feeds more than _____________ million people worldwide every day. More than the entire population of _____________.

10. McDonalds are _____________, even in _____________.

11. Why did the lawyers for McDonalds call their suers ‘frivolous’?

12. The judges said that if lawyers could prove that eating McDonalds’ products for every meal every day is _____________ _____________, they may be able to state a claim.
13. What’s the man in the video going to do? Why?

RUSSIA AND NEW ZEALAND

It's not in English, but you can see some of the most important sights in Russia.


New Zealand: watch the presentation video at the tourism website.