Speaking: Language and Communication

Ideas for the Monologue task

1. What do you find easiest/most difficult about learning English?

2. Which are the least/most effective forms of learning a language? Give reasons.

3. Which is the most enjoyable form of learning a language? Give reasons.

4. Which languages should be taught at schools in your region? Give reasons.

5. What advice would you give to somebody who wants to learn a language quickly?

Film: Cinema Paradiso

This week you will have the opportunity to watch an Italian movie in the School...

Wednesday 23rd at 16:00

Thursday 24th at 18:30

in

Room 1.12

Nuovo Cinema Paradiso (Italian pronunciation: [ˈnwɔːvo ˈtʃiːnema paraˈdiːzo] New Paradise Cinema), internationally released as Cinema Paradiso, is a 1988 Italian drama film written and directed by Giuseppe Tornatore. The film stars Jacques Perrin, Philippe Noiret, Leopoldo Trieste, Marco Leonardi, Agnese Nano and Salvatore Cascio, and was produced by Franco Cristaldi and Giovanna Romagnoli, while the music score was composed by Ennio Morricone along with his son, Andrea.

PLOT
In Rome during the 1980s, famous Italian film director Salvatore Di Vita, returns home late one evening, where his girlfriend sleepily tells him that his mother called to say that someone named Alfredo has died. Salvatore obviously shies away from committed relationships, and he has not been back to his home village of Giancaldo, Sicily in 30 years. As she asks him who Alfredo is, Salvatore flashes back to his childhood.

RECEPTION
Cinema Paradiso was a critical and box-office success and is regarded by many as a classic. It is particularly renowned for the 'kissing scenes' montage near the end of the film. Winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 1989, the film is often credited with reviving Italy's film industry which later produced Mediterraneo and Life Is Beautiful.

Books to read before you die

Here is a list of the 100 best novels of all time according TIME MAGAZINE. Critics Lev Grossman’s and Richard Lacayo’s picks of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present.

Also 100 best novels from the editorial board of Modern Library with links to their New York Times reviews.

From the UK the Top 200 - BBC’s Big Read as nominated by 750k readers (in a survey carried out in 2003).

The international (all languages) Top 100 books of all time by the Guardian - determined from the vote by 100 noted writers from 54 countries.

And finally, the 10 Best Books of 2012 according to the New York Times.

How many have you read? Any surprises? Any novel you suddenly want to read?

Armstrong's confession

Here you have the famous interview and shocking confession of Lance Armstrong...


More videos, the highlights, the comments and reactions HERE.

About "The Descendants"

 The result of her wise disposition of her property, 

you young people all know too well. 

It is yours - you who live it each day of your lives.

Without it, where would many of you be today?

Mrs. Pierre Jones
On the Use of Hawaiian Land
Owned by Princess Bernice Pauahi Paki

The wealthy Princess had to make a decision about her property.  The last surviving descendant of Kamehameha I - a warrior chief who united all the Hawaiian Islands in 1810 - Bernice Pauahi Paki owned about 375,500 acres of gorgeous Hawaiian land. 

She could have done anything she wanted with her treasure.  Inheriting about nine percent of the entire Kingdom of Hawaii, Pauahi Paki wasn’t just land-rich.  Her status as a Princess meant that she was highly respected by all Hawaiians. 

Yet ... she was bothered by her wealth.  What had she done to deserve it?  What if she had been born into a poor family instead of a rich one?  What if she were a descendant of land workers instead of land owners?

Feeling "responsible and accountable" for the inheritance she'd received from her ancestors, Pauahi Paki made a profound decision.  She would place all of her land in trust for the benefit of Hawaiian children.

It is against this backdrop that we meet Matt King and his dying wife, Joanie (called "Elizabeth" in the film based on Kaui Hart Hemmings’s book, The Descendants).

ISSUES and QUESTIONS to PONDER:  Pauahi Paki was a Princess of the Hawaiian royal family.  As a descendant of King Kamehameha I, she was wealthy, just like the rest of her relatives.  Do wealthy people have a responsibility to help others?  If riches are inherited, does that make a person more (or less) likely to share?


Learn more about "The Descendants" with this:
1. Interviews on the set
2. Visual glossary
3. Radio broadcast on the story behind the movie

Film: The Descendants

Next week you will have the opportunity to watch a movie in the School...

Wednesday 16th at 16:30

Thursday 17th at 18:30

in

Room 1.12

Plot

Matt King (George Clooney) is a Honolulu-based lawyer and the sole trustee of a family trust that controls 25,000 acres of pristine land on the island of Kaua'i. Though he has been able to manage his money, most of Matt's cousins are broke from squandering their share of the inheritance. The trust will expire in seven years because of the rule against perpetuities, so the King family has decided to sell the land to Kaua'i native Don Holitzer for development. Just before family members are ready to formally endorse the deal, a boating accident near Waikīkī renders Matt's wife, Elizabeth, comatose.

You can watch the trailer here.

Famous last words

Taken from TODAY, a BBB Radio 4 programme...

 

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

The opening lines of great novels have achieved a literary status all of their own.
Whether 'It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen' (1984) or 'Call me Ishmael.' (Moby Dick), their resonances have seduced readers down the years.
But what of the last lines of great works of literature? Writer and broadcaster Tom Sutcliffe recently argued that first lines can make an impression without the reader having had read the whole novel - whereas the impression of last lines rests on the preceding pages.
The first line has to arrest the reader, seduce them so they continue with the book - but by the final line the author already has them.

Today has asked our erudite listeners for their thoughts on the best endings from novels. Here is just a sample of your thoughts. Tell us your favourite last words using the form at the bottom of the page. 
 

Has to be the brilliant Great Expectations: "I took her hand in mine, and we went out of the ruined place; and, as the morning mists had risen long ago when I first left the forge, so, the evening mists were rising now, and in all the broad expanse of tranquil light they showed to me, I saw no shadow of another parting from her." David Stanley, Twickenham 
 
I nominate F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby - "So we beat on, boats against the current, drawn back ceaselessly into the past." Mick Chandler, Kenilworth, UK

For me, the greatest finale, although maybe you have to have read the book to quite appreciate its significance, is the ending of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World:
"Just under the crown of the arch dangled a pair of feet.
'Mr Savage'
Slowly, very slowly, like two unhurried compass needles, the feet turned towards the right; north, north-east, east, south-east, south, south-west; the paused, and after a few seconds, turned as unhurriedly back towards the left. South-south-west, south, south-east, east ..." Simon Hunter, London

"and yes I said yes I will Yes" James Joyce's Ulysses Florence Minnis, York, UK

"He drew a deep breath. 'Well, I'm back' he said"... so Sam Gamgee ends Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. In understated relief, quintessentially English! Debby Plummer, Manchester UK

... more endings here.

Finally, after reading, listen to the podcast of the radio programme about last lines in a novel.
How are they important?
What do you learn about first and last lines?
Why do people remember them?