Group 301-401 (Evening): May test

If you were not able to be in class for the May test, here is the online version.

There are advantages in taking the test in the classroom--for example, if students did not understand something, I was able to answer questions within reason. Here you will not have the same help. On the other hand, you have fewer limits on time. I hope the different circumstances compensate for each other. In any case, please be honorable and take the test as if you were being watched by me and the other students!)) Time limit: 90 minutes.

First, here are the four audio clips for the four sections of the test. After the audio clips you will find the test itself. (Please contact me if you have trouble with any of the clips; I can give you access to the audio some other way.)

Listen to each clip TWICE. Of course you should feel free to take notes while listening.

1. Every Little Step.




2. Reality Is Broken




3. Speaking Proper




4. The Brain in Love



Please finish this test by Monday evening, June 2. We will discuss our answers when we meet for class on June 3. (UPDATE: This is a new time. We will meet on Tuesday instead of Wednesday. See schedule on bulletin board.)

Here is the test form. Be sure to push the "continue" button after part 3, and push the "submit" button when you have finished. Thank you!

Hans Theessink Band, "Running Home"

(song by Hans Theessink)

Baby when you call me
Honey when you need me
I come running I come running
Baby I come running home

When I get a notion
When I'm out across the ocean
I come running I come running
Baby I come running home

I want to feel your heartbeat
I want to see you smile
My love for you is so strong
I come running a thousand miles
You is where I belong.

Baby when you call me
Honey when you need me
I come running I come running
Baby I come running home

I'll travel highways I'll travel byways
Get a ticket on some homebound plane
Ain't nothing now gonna stop me now
Just to hold you in my arms again

Baby when you call me
Honey when you need me
I come running I come running
Baby I come running home

Heaven opens when you smile
Your voice sounds like music to me
Sweet look in your eyes still gives me butterflies
They drive me crazy after all these years

Baby when you call me
Honey when you need me
I come running I come running
Baby I come running home

I'll travel highways I'll travel byways
Get a ticket on some homebound plane
Ain't nothing now gonna stop me now
Just to hold you in my arms again

Baby when you call me
Honey when you need me
I come running I come running
Baby I come running home
I come running I come running
Baby I come running home

Groups 201-204 Tests May 22 and 28

Groups 203 and 204: Your final test in my class will be on Thursday, May 22.
Groups 201 and 202: Your final test in my class will be on Wednesday, May 28.

Source.   

Are you familiar with the test blanks used for the exam? I will be using them for our tests in case you need some practice using them. (Don't laugh; every year, some students put their answers in the wrong places.) Here are the blanks (at least for now) as shown at the official site:

At the official site, there is also a registration form, but we won't use that; you will write your name and group number at the top of each answer blank.

Best wishes!!

Group 301-401 (Evening): Many Tongues Called English ...

. . . One Global Language.

This is part 8 of Melvyn Bragg's "Adventure of English" series. Last Wednesday we reached question no. 17 (see questions below video); we hope to finish this program on May 21.

1. What "artificial" international language does Bragg speak at the beginning of this program?
2. What did Otto von Bismarck consider the "decisive fact of modern history"? Why might he have said this?
3. What are the "two Englishes" that Bragg refers to?
4. what is the historical development out of which these words and phrases emerged? ...
   

   big business
   executive
   well-heeled
   fat cat
   go-getter
   yes-man
   assembly line
   closed shop

5. What is the difference between "hôtel" in French and "hotel" in American English? Do you know what the more traditional English word is for a hotel (usually rather small)?
   
6. Which is British English, and which is American English? ...
   

   elevator - lift
   closet - wardrobe
   tub with faucet - bath with tap
   bedclothes - covers
   dressing gown - bathrobe
   nightstand - bedside table
   trash can - wastepaper basket

7. The film notes that the British obsession with proper English was mostly due to concern with three elements: manners, morals, and what else?
8. What does Bragg mean when he says that Edwardian English "abhorred flamboyance"? As an example, how did Rupert Brooke's mother change the account of her son leaving Cambridge?
9. The film notes that the British obsession with proper English was mostly due to concern with three elements: manners, morals, and what else?
10. How did World War I affect the last of these elements?
11. Are you familiar with these terms that gained currency in World War I? ...
    

    barrage
    firepower
    front line
    gas mask
    camouflage
    bonk
    dud
    the balloon goes up
    zero hour
    over the top
    eleventh hour

12. About this time, the mass migration of Black Americans to Northern cities enhanced English in many ways. Examples:
    

    hip
    cat
    boogie
    jazz
    jive
    rock 'n roll
    mellow
    groove/groovy
    cool
    bad

13. This was also a period of massive immigration from Central and Eastern Europe, particularly Germans and Jews. We received ...
    

    ouch
    hamburger
    frankfurter
    wanderlust
    seminar
    dumb
    poker
    bum
    hold on
    bagels
    lox
    pastrami
    borshch
    nosh
    
    ... and such examples of Yiddish humor as
    
    am I hungry
    I'm telling you
    now he tells me
    could I use a drink
    I should worry

14. The 1920s were often a wild and criminal period, bringing words and phrases such as these into American English:
    

    gangster racketeer hatchet man goon fink the rap heist the can hot seat hijack submachine gun            chick bimbo

    broad babe blower spill the beans taken for a ride gimmick prankster junky pusher fuzz hooch micky finn to finger

15. The vocabulary of films also entered English around this time:  
    

    movies
    close-up
    tear-jerker
    slapstick
    spine-chiller
    cliffhanger

16. It was said of Winston Churchill that he mobilized the English language and sent it into war. What are some characteristics of Churchill's English usage?
17. Who really did "invade" Great Britain during World War II and, in so doing, influenced the language with such terms as ...?
    

    beefburger
    crew cut
    disk jockey
    gizmo
    gobbledygook
    pinup
    GI bride

18. How did the folklorist Jakob Grimm account for English's strength and vigor? And what contrast did Otto Jesperson make between French and English?
19. In contrast with the intrinsic qualities of a language (as emphasized by Grimm and Jesperson), David Crystal says that a language's prominence is more a result of what factors?
20. In postwar Germany, "knowing English gave people an edge...." What is an "edge"?
21. How many of these words derived from the technology of the "Baby" and its descendants are you familiar with?
    

    digital
    program
    bit (and byte)
    input
    data
    database
    floppy disk
    hard disk
    download
    mouse

22. In India, 40 million people speak English at first-language fluency. How many people have at least some acquaintance with English (as of 2003).
23. What are the three motives expressed by the three young women who are learning English?
24. What were the two original dominant languages in the European Parliament?
25. When Bragg, in Germany, says "the smart money is on the import," what does he mean?
26. "This kind of globalization could become a cemetery for English." What tendency is Bragg referring to? What is good and bad about this sort of English?
27. Listen to the Singlish conversation. What are some of this dialect's features?
28. How can you tell if an English-speaker grew up speaking Gaelic? Why do some bilingual (Gaelic and English speakers) speak Gaelic some of the time and English some of the time?
29. Why do some call centers prefer to locate in Glasgow?
30. Glaswegian seems to derive from two different streams of English. As a result, there are words that have two distinct pronunciations--one pronunciation is closer to the language of southern England, the other uniquely Glaswegian. We see children demonstrating these differences. Can you give some examples?
31. What do bilingual students in Bradford, England, mean when they say "kass me" and "awr"? What words are in the borderline area for the Oxford English Dictionary?
32. What is the rule for deleting words from the OED?
33. What provision have we made for communicating with intelligent beings beyond earth?

Bonnie Raitt, "Thing Called Love"

I love the lyrics of this song ... here are some of my favorite lines:

I ain't no porcupine, take off your kid gloves ... are you ready for the thing called love?
Whether your sunglasses are off or on, you only see the world you make

Here is a recent performance of this song--Bonnie Raitt on stage with the song's writer, John Hiatt:



Bonnie Raitt's "official" music video version of this song. Yes, it's a bit cheesy, but you get some good glimpses of Bonnie's bottleneck guitar playing.



Words by John Hiatt:

Don't have to humble yourself to me
I ain't your judge or your king
Baby, you know I ain't no Queen of Sheba
We may not even have our dignity, this could just be a powerful thing
Baby we can choose you know we ain't no amoeba

Chorus: Are you ready for the thing called love
Don't come from me and you, it comes from up above
I ain't no porcupine, take off your kid gloves
Are you ready for the thing called love

I ain't no icon carved out of soap
Sent here to clean up your reputation
Baby, you know you ain't no Prince Charming
We can live in fear or act out of hope
For some kind of peaceful situation
Baby, how come the cry of love is so alarming

Chorus

Ugly ducklings don't turn into swans
And glide off down the lake
Whether your sunglasses are off or on
You only see the world you make

Chorus

Are you ready for the thing called love
… Are you ready for it …
Are you ready for love, baby
Oooh yeah babe
Are you ready for love

Groups 201-204 Homework: Dreams (last homework of the year!!)

Source.  

You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen-friend Tom who writes:

I rarely have dreams. But yesterday I had a very interesting dream. I was on a ship in a huge storm. It was chaos. Then I saw a wall of water ahead of us−it fell on our ship and broke it like a mirror. I found myself on an island, where I began living like Robinson Crusoe.

How often do you dream? Can you tell me about a dream? Do you sometimes try to dream the same dream again?

My brother bought us two tickets to the cinema.

Write a letter to Tom. In your letter

• answer his questions
• ask 3 questions about the cinema tickets. Write 100 – 140 words. Remember the rules of letter writing.

This is your last homework assignment of the year!

With thanks to Rami (Group 201, last year) for his original version of this letter.

Groups 201-204 Homework: Use these words and phrases ...

"speechless" source.  

These words and phrases are from the reading comprehension section of Afanasyeva's unit 17. Please use them in complete sentences. (As always, you may use more than one word or phrase in a sentence.)

Please bring your homework to our class next week (May 14 or 15).

page 132
to take to the streets
(caught in) the act
to stand out (from the rest)
to enter (transitive)
to come up with
brainchild

pages 134-5
a/an (time period) away
smooth, smoothly
to make time for
speechless