EF p 66. How Being Quiet Can Change Your Life. Cloze

Silence is (1)_____________ the rise. Whole businesses have sprung (2)_____________ to meet a rising demand for quiet time, (3)____________ silent weekends away to silent dining, silent reading parties, and (4)_____________ silent dating. We usually only spend silent time with those closest to us, (5)______________ there is something quite radical about the recent trend for enjoying silence with strangers.

The concept of silent reading began in Seattle, USA. Devised as a literary meeting place for people (6)__________ don’t like book discussion groups, the idea was simple: show up, shut up, and read. Readers bring their books and meet in a bar, (7)____________ they read together in silence for an hour or two, then put the books away (8)___________ chat and have a drink. ‘When the reading starts, everything goes quiet,’ says Symeonidou. ‘There is something special about sharing silence with others. An event like this gives people the opportunity to escape the hubbub (9)____________ their lives for a while.’ 

London’s silent speed dating event organizers, Shhh!, say that we are ‘instinctively better (10)_____________ choosing the right partner when we have the chance to put aside words and see (11)______________ other as we really are’. Shhh! hosts regular singles events (12)___________ are very popular with creative professionals (13)____________ their 20s and 30s. The sessions begin with games to break the (14)____________. Then you are paired off for a limited time, when you are allowed to communicate only with gestures, before engaging in 60 seconds of uninterrupted eye (15)_____________. Afterwards, you are given the contact details of people who are interested (16)_____________ you. A second date might be something like a silent dinner date or a mute trip to the pictures. 

Honi Ryan, from Berlin, began hosting silent dinners over ten years ago. The rules of the dinner are: no talking, no using your voice, no reading or writing, try to make as little noise as possible, do not interact with technology, and stay for at (17)___________ two hours. So (18)___________, Ryan has hosted silent dinners in Mexico, the USA, Australia, Lebanon, and China. ‘It’s evident that the age‑old connections we make over food do not depend (19)____________ the words around it,’ she says. ‘Silence strips away our rehearsed social behaviours.’ 

Perhaps the most well‑known event is the silent retreat. These often have a religious or spiritual element. They can last (20)_______________ between a couple of days to a few weeks, and are usually held in remote locations.  

Silence is taking (21)_____________ a new meaning in an era in which we are consuming information and engaging in conversation with each other endlessly on social media, without ever opening our mouths. (22)_______________, while we might cherish rare moments of peace and quiet, when it comes to embracing silence and stillness, the real question is, can we actually muster (23)____________ the self‑restraint?

KEY

1. on

on the rise: increasing

E.g.

Police say that youth crime is on the rise again.

2. up

spring up: to appear or develop quickly and/or suddenly.

E.g.

Play areas for children are springing up all over the place. Opposition groups are springing up like mushrooms.

3. from

4. even

5. so

6. who

7. where

8. to

9. of

hubbub: /ˈhʌbʌb/

1. the loud sound made by a lot of people talking at the same time. Sp. barullo

E.g.

It was difficult to hear what he was saying over the hubbub.

It was some time before the hubbub of laughter died down.

2. a situation in which there is a lot of noise, excitement and activity. Sp. alboroto, jaleo.

E.g.

the hubbub of city life

He was left wondering what all the hubbub and expectancy had been about.

10. at

11. each

12. which

13. in

14. ice

15. contact

16. in

17. least

18. far

19. on

20. anywhere

21. on

take on: 

take on something ​[no passive] to begin to have a particular quality, appearance, etc. Sp. asumir.

E.g.

The chameleon can take on the colours of its background. 

His voice took on a more serious tone.

22. However

23. up

muster up: 

muster something (up) to find as much support, courage, etc. as you can. Sp. conseguir, reunir, armarse de valor

E.g.

muster (up) the courage/confidence/energy etc to do something

Greta is mustering up the courage to hand in her resignation.

The boss is trying to muster up a team for an interdepartmental football tournament.

Senator Newbolt has been trying to muster support for his proposals. 

‘It’s going to be fine, ’ replied David, with as much confidence as he could muster.

self-restraint: the ability to stop yourself doing or saying something, even though you want to, because it is more sensible not to do or say it. Sp autocontrol. 

E.g.

exercise/practise self-restraint 

The UN appealed for both sides to exercise self-restraint.

EF p 65. Sounds. Listening

The dog has a (1)________   /   ___________ bark.

She dislikes the crunch of the little (2)_______________ in her daughter's mouth.

The steady breathing of her children when they are asleep makes her feel (3)__________________ that they are healthy.

The sound of the waves whether they are gentle or are (4)____________ / ____________ rocks makes him feel relaxed.

Having to (5)______________ / _____________ the household appliances when she is having a relaxing evening watching TV annoys her.

She loved the videos of babies (6)______________ / ________________ laughter.

He doesn't like hearing background music like (7)_____________ / ____________.

The (8)___________ backwards and forwards of the train relaxes her.

KEY

1. high-pitched yappy

high-pitched: A high-pitched noise is high and sometimes also loud or unpleasant

E.g.

the high-pitched scream of the fire alarm.

yappy: (of a dog) often making short high sounds. Sp. con ladrido agudo.

E.g.

a yappy little dog 

Yorkshire Terriers have a reputation for being yappy.

2. kernels

kernel: /ˈkɜːnl/ the inner part of a nut or seed. E.g. pine/apricot kernels

3. reassured

4. crashing against

5. attend to

attend to: to deal with somebody/something; to take care of somebody/something. Sp. atender, ocuparse de.

E.g.

 I have some urgent business to attend to. 

A nurse attended to his needs constantly. 

(British English, formal) Are you being attended to, Sir? (= for example, in a shop).

6. roaring with

roar: to laugh very loudly.

E.g.

 He looked so funny, we all roared. 

roar with laughter It made them roar with laughter. Sp. reírse a carcajadas

7. lift music

 lift music (also known as Muzak /ˈmjuːzæk/, piped music, or elevator music) is a type of background music played in elevators, in rooms where many people come together for reasons other than listening to music, and during telephone calls when placed on hold.

8. jolting

jolt: /dʒəʊlt/ to move or to make somebody/something move suddenly and roughly. Sp. sacudir.

E.g.

The truck jolted along the rough track through the field.

EF p 62. Interview with a Translator. Listening

Part 2 (4.5)

Beverly finds (1)________________ texts the most challenging to translate, not least due to the (2)__________________ that should be given to both the writer and the original version.

The interviewer would like to know whether the translators of novels are usually also novelists in (3)__________________.

Being able to communicate with (4)______________ authors makes the task of a translator less daunting.

Slogans have to be (5)______________.

"Sensation of living" sounds (6)_______________ in English.

Titles are not supposed to be translated (7)______________________.

There are special (8)_______________________ when translating subtitles. This is why the translation is sometimes a (9)_____________________.

You can (10)____________________ the idea but it would be too long to explain it.

Some of the mistranslations might be down to the fact that the translators might have (11)___________________ what has been said.

Humour based on (12)_____________________ can be untranslatable.

(13)________or _________ words might sound much more offensive in another language.

KEY

1. literary

2. consideration

3. their own right

4. living

5. punchy

punchy: (of a speech, song, etc.) having a strong effect because it expresses something clearly in only a few words. E.g. a bright, punchy style of writing.

6. weird

7. accurately

8. constraints

9. paraphrase

10. get across

get across (to somebody) | get something  across (to somebody) ​to be communicated or understood; to succeed in communicating something.

E.g.

 Your meaning didn't really get across. 

He's not very good at getting his ideas across.

11. misheard

12. wordplay

13. taboo or swear

EF C1.1 p 61. Spoilers. Word Formation

Spoilers actually enhance your enjoyment 

I am one of those people who can’t read a book without flicking to the end to check what’s going to happen. It turns out that, actually, I am very (1)___________ (WISDOM). Psychologists at the University of California in San Diego gave students 12 short stories, by authors (2)____________ (INCLUDE) Agatha Christie and Roald Dahl. Some stories were in their original form and others had spoiler paragraphs added at the beginning. And do you know what? The readers of ‘spoiled’ stories actually had more fun. 

According to the psychologists who carried out the research, ‘students (3)_____________ (SIGNIFY) preferred the spoiled versions of the stories. For instance, knowing in advance in an Agatha Christie story that Poirot will discover that the ‘victim’ of the attempted murder is, in fact, the real murderer, not only didn’t hurt the (4)______________ (ENJOY) of the story, but actually improved it.’ 

As a huge reader of crime and thrillers, this (5)___________ (DEFINITE) rings true for me. When I’m reading horror novels, I need to check the hero or heroine is still alive at the end of the book. And I usually take a (6)___________ (SNEAK) look at the end of a romantic novel, just to make sure who is going to end up with whom. ‘It could be,’ says psychologist Jonathan Leavitt, ‘that once you know how the story turns out, you’re more comfortable processing the information and can focus on a deeper (7)_______________ (UNDERSTAND) of the story.’ 

I will also admit that, even when I know full well what is going to happen in a book, either because I’ve read it a million times before, or because I’ve read the end, I often find myself hoping that, this time, it’s going to be different, that the sad (8)__________ (END) will turn into a happy one! Adapted from The Guardian

 

 

 

KEY

 

 

 

1. wise

 

 

 

 

 

2. including 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. significantly 

 

 

 

 

4. enjoyment 

 

 

 

 

 

5. definitely  

 

 

 

 

 

6. sneaky

 

 

 

 

 

7. understanding 

 

 

 

 

 

8. ending 

Thanksgiving | Journey to American Democracy

 Thanksgiving is the quintessential American holiday…but not for the reasons we generally remember.

The Pilgrims and the Wampanoags did indeed share a harvest celebration together at Plymouth in fall 1621, but that moment got forgotten almost immediately, overwritten by the long history of the settlers’ attacks on their Indigenous neighbors.

In 1841 a book that reprinted the early diaries and letters from the Plymouth colony recovered the story of that three-day celebration in which ninety Indigenous Americans and the English settlers shared fowl and deer. This story of peace and goodwill among men who by the 1840s were more often enemies than not inspired Sarah Josepha Hale, who edited the popular women’s magazine Godey’s Lady's Book, to think that a national celebration could ease similar tensions building between the slave-holding South and the free North. She lobbied for legislation to establish a day of national thanksgiving.

And then, on April 12, 1861, southern soldiers fired on Fort Sumter, a federal fort in Charleston Harbor, and the meaning of a holiday for giving thanks changed.

Southern leaders wanted to destroy the United States of America and create their own country, based not in the traditional American idea that “all men are created equal,” but rather in its opposite: that some men were better than others and had the right to enslave their neighbors. In the 1850s, convinced that society worked best if a few wealthy men ran it, southern leaders had bent the laws of the United States to their benefit, using it to protect enslavement above all.

In 1860, northerners elected Abraham Lincoln to the presidency to stop rich southern enslavers from taking over the government and using it to cement their own wealth and power. As soon as he was elected, southern leaders pulled their states out of the Union to set up their own country. After the firing on Fort Sumter, Lincoln and the fledgling Republican Party set out to end the slaveholders’ rebellion.

The early years of the war did not go well for the U.S. By the end of 1862, the armies still held, but people on the home front were losing faith. Leaders recognized the need both to acknowledge the suffering and to keep Americans loyal to the cause. In November and December, seventeen state governors declared state thanksgiving holidays.

New York governor Edwin Morgan’s widely reprinted proclamation about the holiday reflected that the previous year “is numbered among the dark periods of history, and its sorrowful records are graven on many hearthstones.” But this was nonetheless a time for giving thanks, he wrote, because “the precious blood shed in the cause of our country will hallow and strengthen our love and our reverence for it and its institutions…. Our Government and institutions placed in jeopardy have brought us to a more just appreciation of their value.”

The next year, Lincoln got ahead of the state proclamations. On July 15 he declared a national day of Thanksgiving, and the relief in his proclamation was almost palpable. After two years of disasters, the Union army was finally winning. Bloody, yes; battered, yes; but winning. At Gettysburg in early July, Union troops had sent Confederates reeling back southward. Then, on July 4, Vicksburg had finally fallen to U. S. Grant’s army. The military tide was turning.

President Lincoln set Thursday, August 6, 1863, for the national day of Thanksgiving. On that day, ministers across the country listed the signal victories of the U.S. Army and Navy in the past year and reassured their congregations that it was only a matter of time until the United States government put down the southern rebellion. Their predictions acknowledged the dead and reinforced the idea that their sacrifice had not been in vain.

In October 1863, President Lincoln declared a second national day of Thanksgiving. In the past year, he declared, the nation had been blessed.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, he wrote, Americans had maintained their laws and their institutions and had kept foreign countries from meddling with their nation. They had paid for the war as they went, refusing to permit the destruction to wreck the economy. Instead, as they funded the war, they had also advanced farming, industry, mining, and shipping. Immigrants had poured into the country to replace men lost on the battlefield, and the economy was booming. And Lincoln had recently promised that the government would end slavery once and for all. The country, he predicted, “with a large increase of freedom,” would survive, stronger and more prosperous than ever. The president invited Americans “in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea, and those who are sojourning in foreign lands” to observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving.

In 1863, November’s last Thursday fell on the 26th. On November 19, Lincoln delivered an address at the dedication of a national cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. He reached back to the Declaration of Independence for the principles on which he called for Americans to rebuild the severed nation:

​​”Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”

Lincoln urged the crowd to take up the torch those who fought at Gettysburg had laid down. He called for them to “highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

The following year, Lincoln proclaimed another day of Thanksgiving, this time congratulating Americans that God had favored them not only with immigration but also with the emancipation of formerly enslaved people. “Moreover,” Lincoln wrote, “He has been pleased to animate and inspire our minds and hearts with fortitude, courage, and resolution sufficient for the great trial of civil war into which we have been brought by our adherence as a nation to the cause of freedom and humanity, and to afford to us reasonable hopes of an ultimate and happy deliverance from all our dangers and afflictions.”

In 1861, Americans went to war to keep a cabal from taking control of the government and turning it into an oligarchy. The fight against that rebellion seemed at first to be too much for the nation to survive. But Americans rallied and threw their hearts into the cause on the battlefields even as they continued to work on the home front for a government that defended democracy and equality before the law.

And in 1865, at least, they won.

Happy Thanksgiving.