This cartoon by Paul Thomas from The Express relates to the 'Occupy London' anti-capitalist protest that has closed St Paul’s Cathedral. A bishop is shown in front of the protestors' tents saying, "I've ordered a lightning bolt and a plague of locusts in case the water cannon doesn't turn up".
COMMENTARY The cathedral's closure is costing £20,000 a day in lost revenues, and officials from St Paul's and the wider City district are considering legal action to force protesters to remove the camp. In these situations, the police often use water cannons to disperse protesters, but the bishop has requested help from God, 'just in case'. The plague of locusts was one of the ten plagues of Egypt that, according to the biblical Book of Exodus, Israel's God, Yahweh, inflicted upon Egypt to persuade Pharaoh to release the ill-treated Israelites from slavery. And, of course, lightning bolts are often the weapon of choice for gods such as Zeus.
There are fears of a fresh global slump as Europe's leaders were still at loggerheads over a plan to save the single currency, reports The Guardian. Full story >>
VOCABULARY A wrangle is a noisy or angry argument, often about small details, which goes on quite a long time. • Starbucks' legal wrangles with a union that wants to organize its baristas is tarnishing the coffee chain's reputation for social responsibility.
This cartoon by Dave Brown from The Independent shows UK prime minister David Cameron slipping on a banana skin while giving a double V for victory sign. The banana skins on the blue floor are meant to resemble the European Union flag.
COMMENTARY In idiomatic English, a banana skin is something that is an embarrassment or causes problems. In Cameron's case this would be yesterday's House of Commons vote on whether to have a referendum on EU membership. Although the motion was defeated by 483 votes to 111, 79 Tories voted in favour of a referendum making it the biggest ever Conservative revolt over Europe.
David Cameron was shocked last night by the biggest ever Conservative revolt over Europe as more than 80 Conservative MPs defied his orders and backed a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. Full story >>
VOCABULARY A revolt by a person or group against someone or something is a refusal to accept the authority of that person or thing. • In 1964, sexual liberation and revolt against authority were in the air.
This cartoon by Adams from The Telegraph uses a seasonal metaphor to contrast the so-called Arab Spring with the financial crisis in the euro zone. The ballot box at the top of the green shoot on the left symbolizes burgeoning democracy (Tunisia held elections yesterday), while the withered euro sign flower in the snow represents the dying common currency.
One of the most talked about features of Apple's new iPhone 4S is Siri (pronounced /ˈsɪri/), a personal assistant which uses natural language processing to answer questions, make recommendations, and perform actions. Siri adapts to the user's individual preferences over time and personalizes results, as well as accomplishing tasks such as making dinner reservations and reserving a cab. (Adapted from Wikipedia)
COMMENTS 1. Pretty impressive, you have to admit. I'm not sure what the implications are, if any, for language teachers and learners, but if natural language processing continues to improve at the current rate—and there's no reason why it shouldn't—then personal translation devices will soon become a reality. 2. The voice of Siri is female in the US and male in the UK (and France). Apple has declined to comment on the reasoning behind this, but theories abound. Read more here.
The Guardian reports that David Cameron has started a week of intense political infighting over Europe by becoming embroiled in a furious row with Nicolas Sarkozy over Britain's role in talks to solve the crisis enveloping the euro. Full story >>
VOCABULARY If someone shuts up or if someone shuts them up, they stop talking. You can say 'shut up' as an impolite way to tell a person to stop talking. • Sarkozy bluntly told Cameron: "You have lost a good opportunity to shut up." He added: "We are sick of you criticising us and telling us what to do. You say you hate the euro and now you want to interfere in our meetings."
This cartoon by Schrank from The Independent on Sunday shows a Libyan man putting up a 'Wanted' poster for a 'peaceful and democratic Libya', having just removed one with a picture of Colonel Gaddafi, who was killed on Thursday after an assault on his birthplace of Sirte. The wall on which the poster is being stuck is riddled with bullet holes and stained with blood. Spent cartridges are strewn all over the floor. In the background, a group of men are firing their weapons into the air.
COMMENT Now that Gaddafi is dead, the question is what does the future hold in store for Libya? Will there be a peaceful transition to democracy, or will the deep-rooted rifts between regions and tribes result in further conflict? The cartoonist leaves the question open, though the behaviour of the gun-toting rebels is not exactly reassuring.
The Sunday Telegraph reports that European Union chiefs are drawing up plans for a single "Treasury" to oversee tax and spending across the eurozone. Full story >>
VOCABULARY An empire is a number of individual nations that are all controlled by the government or ruler of one particular country. • There seems to be no end of books about the British empire, and the fascination it holds for historians of all descriptions is inexhaustible.
This cartoon by Patrick Blower from The Telegraph is a spoof of the poster for the movie Contagion, a medical thriller which follows the rapid progress of a lethal airborne virus that kills within days. In Blower's version, it is fear over the global economic crisis which is spreading, and the 'stars' are world leaders including Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy, who will be the leading players at this weekend's eurozone debt crisis summit.
COMMENTS 1. I love the movie-critic-style quotes "You couldn't make it up" (IMF) and "Chillingly believable" (Mervyn King). 2. Note the euro sign replacing the 'e' in the word 'fear'.
The Guardian reports how Labour leader Ed Miliband has attacked UK PM David Cameron for not seeking a place at next week's eurozone summit. Full story >>
VOCABULARY If you hit out at someone or something, you criticize them strongly because you do not agree with them. • Social Development Minister Nelson McCausland has hit out at Rihanna for suggesting that north Belfast is "a hopeless place".
Sainsbury's is one of the 'big three' supermarkets in the UK, the others being Tesco and Asda. This video from the Sainsbury's Careers website provides a rather idealized view of what goes on behind the scenes in a typical Sainsbury's supermarket during the course of a day. I wish my local Auchan were like this!
COMMENT Excellent video for using with business English classes as it contains a lot of useful business vocabulary (see transcript below), and covers a number of business areas (retailing, online shopping, teamwork, customer relations, etc.). You can find more videos about Sainsbury's on the Sainsbury's Careers YouTube channel.
TRANSCRIPT With millions of customers to serve every week, Sainsbury’s never stops. Every store is like a small town in itself. Today we’re looking at one store. Starting before dawn, bakery and confectionery are hard at work, preparing in-house fresh bread and pastries. It’s a skilled job but every year we train hundreds of individuals up to the task. The home delivery team is busy taking and making up the orders that are picked and packed by our shopping team and delivered to your door. Every aisle has to be clean and ready, every bunch of flowers looking their best. Our picking team are now finishing collecting the online shopping orders ready for our delivery team to start their rounds. Home deliveries are a growth area and our delivery network now covers most of the country. Back in store, things start to get busy mid-morning as shoppers flood into the store and all that preparation gives way to top service, helping people find their way round the store to their favourite foods, providing the best in personal help and advice. What might surprise you is that Sainsbury’s is now the UK’s seventh largest clothing retailer. Our own brand of clothing Tu offers ranges in menswear, women’s and children’s, and the racks need displaying and replenishing throughout the day as much as our food. It’s now mid-morning and we go to the delicatessen, where the team are responsible for preparing ready-made foods and offering a huge range of meats, cheeses, and other delicatessen items. We make a large number of our meals in-store, prepared to the highest standards. We’re now well into the day, and you’ve seen the huge team effort it takes to prepare, stock, and support and manage a store. It’s lunchtime, so what better time to into the café and see this busy part of the store serve meals and beverages to hungry customers. Stock rotates all the time in a store, and none more so than fresh produce. We’re the world’s largest retailer for fair trade. As for our meat, one of our key values is sourcing with integrity. Like bakery, we train up hundreds of butchers and fishmongers every year, providing skills and qualifications to preserve the quality and standards of our fresh meat and fish delivery. Most large stores now have a pharmacy, with qualified staff making a big difference to the healthcare advice and support for our customers. We’re linked to local doctors and care homes, another extension of our service to each and every community you’ll find our supermarkets in. From opening to closing time, our checkout teams are the face of the business. No wonder we reward so well. And from fuel for the body to fuel for the car. Nearly all our large superstores have a petrol station, with its own selection of retail items, manager, supervisors, and teams. Back in store it’s late afternoon, and it’s time to stock up on low items, so our team is out in full replenishing shelves ready for the evening rush. From frozen items to wines and spirits, even the latest electrical items, TVs, DVDs, even laptops, you’d be surprised just how much we put into a store. It’s now late evening, and at the end of the day we’re still going as strong as we were when we started. Soon, most customers will have finished, but we haven’t. There’s a store to get ready for tomorrow, a team that love what they do, and space for you to be part of it all.
Gaddafi's lifeless body is shown in the grip of the Libyan dictator's own 'gold fist' statue, which originally depicted a US warplane being crushed, before it was brought down by rebel forces in August. msnbc.com cartoonist Daryl Cagle has a very similar cartoon.
Nearly all the UK dailies lead with the death of Colonel Gaddafi. The Independent's front page shows a sequence of photos of the last moments of the Libyan dictator's life. Full story >>
VOCABULARY A tyrant is someone who treats the people they have authority over in a cruel and unfair way. • Often regarded as a clown in the West, Colonel Gadhafi was a brutal tyrant.
This brilliant video is based on the work of Ji Lee, a NYC designer who works for Facebook. The challenge was to create images from words, using only the letters contained in the word itself—and using only the shapes of the letters, without adding extra parts. For more examples, check out Ji Lee's brand new Word as Image book.
COMMENT These remind me of the rebus puzzles which were very popular a few years ago.
LESSON IDEAS 1. Show selected images to students and see if they can explain the connection between the word and the image. Van Gogh is a good one! 2. Get students to create their own 'word as image' and show them to the class.
