You went out for dinner with your friends to celebrate your birthday. You were very disappointed with the service you received. Write a letter of complaint to the restaurant manager explaining why you were dissatisfied and asking for an explanation and an apology.
Write 100-140 words. Remember the rules of letter-writing. Please be ready to give me your letter at your class next week. Be prepared--I might ask you to read your letter!
Suggestions:
If you don't know the restaurant manager by name, you can use this format:
Radio Street Restaurant
Attention: Manager
First paragraph: Introduce yourself, explain why you are writing.
Second paragraph: Briefly tell what happened at the restaurant.
Third paragraph: Ask for the action(s) you want from the manager.
Exercise adapted from Olga Afanasyeva, Virginia Evans, Victoria Kopylova, Practice Exam Papers for the Russian State Exam, 2010 Revised Edition, Moscow: Express Publishing/Prosveshchenie Publishers.
Most of you will do this task on Wednesday or Thursday during class (in twenty minutes). But in case you are absent this week, or come to class late, here is the task:
You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend Steve who writes:
… I can't believe we are finishing school this year! What are your plans after you have finished school? What career interests you? What do most students in Russia do after finishing school? Here in Britain, some students take a gap year before continuing their studies or starting a job.
I have decided to spend a year volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal....
Write a letter to Steve. In your letter, answer his questions and ask him three questions about his gap year. Write 100-140 words. Remember the rules of letter-writing.
Exercise adapted from Olga Afanasyeva, Virginia Evans, Victoria Kopylova, Practice Exam Papers for the Russian State Exam, 2010 Revised Edition, Moscow: Express Publishing/Prosveshchenie Publishers.
How to Save a Life, Joseph King and Isaac Slade
(performed by The Fray)
Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it’s just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
You begin to wonder why you came
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you’ve told him all along
And pray to God he hears you
And pray to God he hears you
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you’ve followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he’ll say he’s just not the same
And you’ll begin to wonder why you came
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life
How to save a life
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
CHORUS:
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life
This episode is entitled, "Roads to Revolution." Today (November 13) we will finish this episode and begin part three. Here is the whole video and all of our discussion questions.
Discussion questions:
According to Andrew Graham-Dixon, St Petersburg was part of a great cultural project to do what?
Elizabeth I left her mark on Russian culture--in what way?
“A distinctly Russian feeling of excess” ... what is Graham-Dixon referring to?
If you wanted to experience the “full baroque blast” of Peterhof, where would you go? What does Graham-Dixon mean by Elizabeth’s “Midas touch”?
On the ceiling of her ballroom, Elizabeth had herself painted in whose company?
Who made possible the luxurious life of the elites, according to the narrator? [Judy would add: How did the Russian system differ from classical feudalism?]
What is meant by “a hand-to-mouth existence”?
Did the condition of the rural working class improve or worsen under the reign of Catherine the Great?
“And artists too had to endure their own form of servitude.” What does Graham-Dixon mean?
“Utterly competent, completely derivative”--what is Graham-Dixon asserting about the Russian academic painters?
By the beginning of the 1840’s, “Russian culture was on the brink of a momentous change.” How did writers lead this change?
Why did the censor not allow Fedotov to publish his pictures in the form of engravings or lithographs?
What were some of the Wanderers’ favorite subjects?
What made the Wanderers, as landscape painters, different from the Impressionists of western Europe?
What was Repin's childhood like? Did it affect his art?
In the painting “Religious Procession in Kursk,” is there something--other than his disability--that makes the boy on crutches stand out from the crowd? Is that a clue about Repin himself?
Which of his own pictures did Repin not allow the public to see?
What was the “intensely political purpose” of Repin’s house?
What meaningful detail does Graham-Dixon point out in Repin’s painting of the barge-haulers? Why is it meaningful, according to the narrator?
Graham-Dixon says that the chapel at Abramtsevo represents a “moment of reconnection with Orthodox Christianity”. Is “reconnection” an accurate way to describe it?
What do you think of Graham-Dixon’s portrayal of Vrubel as a kind of “dark prophet”? Was Vrubel’s final Demon truly prophetic?
What questions did Graham-Dixon say were key at the beginning of the 20th century? At the beginning of the 21st century, do you think these questions are less important, more important, or just as important?
Graham-Dixon states that “ancient structures of power had not changed since Peter the Great.” By saying this, he is dismissing Tsar Alexander II’s reforms. In your opinion, was he misleading by leaving that out, or did Alexander II’s reforms leave the power structures essentially unchanged? (hint: I don’t know)
What was the “Hippopotamus”?
In what ways did the city of Moscow inspire Kandinsky? Do you think Pavel Tretyakov had any role in this?
What is Kandinsky’s “Composition No. 7” foretelling his audience?
Speaking of his “Black Square,” how did Malevich respond to his critics? What could he do that they could not?
… I got another good grade on my last biology lab report. My lab partner, Sam, says that I’m fun to work with. He got a good grade, too! But he invited another girl to the school dance. I was not pleased—I thought he might ask me this time. In your country, do girls with top grades get dates? What do boys think about smart girls? Do girls sometimes pretend they are not as smart as they really are?
Anyway, my teacher promised to write me a good recommendation letter for my university applications.
While I was away in Thailand, Judy played this song for the EGE classes. It's one of my favorite songs, even though its performer became world-famous only after her death. (Read here about Eva Cassidy; here in Russian.) Here is an amateur video of her performing the song at Washington, DC's Blues Alley club, later broadcast on television in several countries (Norwegian television capture below). Below the video and the audio track are the words to the song.
“Time After Time” (Rob Hyman, Cyndi Lauper)
performed by Eva Cassidy, 1963-1996 (1995)
Lying in my bed I hear the clock tick,
And think of you
Turning in circles, confusion—Is nothing new
Flashback to warm nights—Almost left behind
Suitcases of memories,
Time after—
Sometimes you picture me—
I'm walking too far ahead
You're calling to me, I can't hear
What you've said—
Then you say—go slow—I fall behind—
The second hand unwinds
Chorus: If you're lost you can look—and you will find me
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you—I'll be waiting
Time after time
If you fall I will catch you—I'll be waiting
Time after time
Time after time
After your picture fades and darkness has
turned to gray
Watching through windows—I'm wondering
if you're OK
And you say—go slow, I fall behind.
The drum beats out of time— Chorus
Time after time
Time after time
... and here's my transcription of the song, written by Melissa Ferrick:
I let you in, I gave you my word
The best gift I ever got
was you telling me you were sure now about us
I like rising up in your eyes
I hold on to our trust, forever I will stand
So I will back you up, even when you're wrong
I will back you up, baby,
Until the end of the world
Even when you've had enough
I'll be the one who backs you up
So when all the rain is gone
and everything is breathing full, breathing full
And all our troubles go soft, I like sitting still with you
'Cause you are my home, yeah, you are my home
So I will back you up, even when you're wrong
I will back you up, baby,
Until the end of the world
Even when you've had enough I'll be the one...
'Cause it took this long, I needed to be done
No more running, no more halfway...
Now, I've traveled far enough to know
you are where I wanna stay, yeah, baby,
You are where I wanna stay.
So I will back you up, even when you're wrong
I will back you up, baby,
Until the end of the world
I will back you up, even when you're wrong
I will back you up
Until the end of the world
Even when you've had enough
I'll be the one who backs you up
An unofficial English-language
