The English Blog

"Royals" by Lorde — Lesson Plan & Worksheets

Last Sunday, teenage New Zealand singer-songwriting prodigy Lorde won two Grammys (Song of the Year and Best Pop Solo Performance) for her song "Royals". In fact, "Royals" is not only a great pop song, it's perfect for teaching English (useful vocabulary, interesting lyrics which actually make sense, and plenty of discussion material), so I did a lesson on it. You can download the worksheets here.

LESSON PLAN
1. First, I showed this video from The Grammys award ceremony.
2. Next, I got the students to do the Lorde Biography Dictation activity in groups of 3.
3. I then took them to the multimedia lab to watch the above video of "Royals" and do the lyric gap-fill worksheet.
4. Finally, I went through the lyrics line by line using this PowerPoint, and got the students to discuss the meaning of the song.
5. Check out the links below for more "Royals" worksheets and discussion.

ALSO SEE
• Song Worksheet: Royals by Lorde (Busy Teacher)
• Lorde: Royals (worksheet)
• Song Review: "Royals" by Lorde (eslflow.com)
• Lorde Royals Lyrics Analysis (Popdust)
• Royals by Lorde (Songfacts)
• Lorde - Royals (Song Meanings)
• What Does the Song 'Royals' by Lorde Mean? (Quora)
• Lorde's song Royals deserves nuanced critique (The Guardian)

Related articles

Behind The Song: Lorde's 'Royals'

Lorde's 'Royals' Wins Grammy Song of the Year

Grammys: Lorde wins Song of the Year for Royals

Lorde wins two Grammys in Los Angeles

Lorde performing 'Royals' at The Grammy's 2014

Cartoon: Car Smoking Ban

BACKGROUND
A plan to ban smoking in cars carrying children in England has been backed by the House of Lords. It was put forward by the Labour party, the government's opposition, who said it was about "protecting children". Government ministers said they preferred to run awareness campaigns instead. If a ban becomes law, then it'll be a crime for a driver if he/she doesn't stop any smoking when children are inside the vehicle. Read more >>

THE CARTOON 
The cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail shows a police car in hot pursuit of a speeding car. A sign shows that the speed limit is 60 miles per hour (mph). The speeding driver's children are holding signs out of the car windows saying, "Help, my dad's smoking! - Also he's not wearing a seat-belt - And he's on the phone!" One of the following policemen comments, "And he's doing 75 miles an hour - not his day, is it?"

NOTE
A mile is equivalent to 1.6 kilometers so 75 miles per hour equates to just over 120 km per hour.

IDIOM
If you say that it's not someone's day, you mean that it's a bad day when everything goes wrong. • I missed my train and forgot my glasses - I guess it's just not my day.

COMMENT
The proposed ban on smoking in cars carrying children would make a good topic for discussion or debate. Get students to do some research on the internet to find arguments for and against (see articles below for a start).

ALSO SEE
• Matt cartoon (The Telegraph)

Related articles

Clegg 'won't back bid to ban smoking in cars with kids'

Smoking with children in car could be banned

Smoking in cars with children banned in some countries

Peers Back Ban On Smoking With Child In Car - Sky News

Lords debate smoking in cars ban

Reuters Video: Retrial in Florence finds Knox, Sollecito guilty of murder

A Florence court upholds guilty verdicts for U.S. student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito on charges of murdering British student Meredith Kercher. Nathan Frandino reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: In a packed Florence court, crowds of journalists await the ruling in a major international retrial. U.S. student Amanda Knox and her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito are found guilty in the 2007 murder of Briton Meredith Kercher. Kercher's family sat patiently waiting, hoping for justice after the original 2009 conviction was overturned by an acquittal. Here's Judicial Council President Alessandro Nencini. 
PRESIDENT OF JUDICIAL COUNCIL, ALESSANDRO NENCINI: "Having assessed the presence of aggravation as described in the article 61 number 2 of the criminal code in relation to the crime 368 second comma, it determines the punishment for Knox Amanda Marie to 28 years and six months of prison. It confirms in every other aspect the verdict that was appealed."
REPORTER: The verdict sentences Knox to 28 years and six months in jail. Sollecito was sentenced to 25 years. Knox is in the U.S., and would have to be extradited to serve the sentence. Sollecito is free pending a definitive confirmation of the verdict by Italy's highest court but he cannot travel out of the country.

VOCABULARY
Plenty of legal vocabulary in this report: uphold, guilty, verdict, sentence, court, acquittal, extradite, justice, overturn, charge, jail, punishment, prison, crime, retrial. See here for an online Legal English vocabulary trainer from Cambridge, and here for a free unit from The Lawyer's English Languge Coursebook.

Related articles

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito found guilty

Amanda Knox convicted again of Briton's murder - Reuters

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito await verdict in Meredith Kercher murder retrial

Italy Court Says Knox, Sollecito Guilty of Murdering Meredith Kercher

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito found guilty of the murder of British student Meredith Kercher as judges in Italy uphold original verdict

Words in the News: Conviction

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito have had their convictions for the murder of the British student Meredith Kercher reinstated, a dramatic development in the long-running legal saga which paves the way for a possible extradition tussle between Italy and the United States. Full story >>

VOCABULARY
Conviction: the fact of officially being found to be guilty of a particular crime, or the act of officially finding someone guilty. • As it was her first conviction for stealing, she was given a less severe sentence. • He has a long record of previous convictions for similar offences. • The conviction of the three demonstrators has caused public outrage locally.

COMMENT
Having followed this case for some time, my feeling is that Knox and Sollecito are innocent, but judging from some of the comments at Mail Online, many people disagree. Of course, we will probably never know for sure, but The Guardian has a well-balanced opinion piece which is well worth reading.

Related articles

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito await verdict in Meredith Kercher murder retrial

Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito convicted again of Meredith Kercher's murder

Amanda Knox: Why She Wouldn't Have Been Convicted In The U.S.

Knox murder conviction upheld

Amanda Knox Convicted Of Murder By Italian Court Again

Learn Business English With Newsmart

I came across Newsmart by chance a few days ago and was really impressed. The site is very well designed and the content is perfect for business English students like mine. However, there's absolutely no information on the site about who's behind it, or even how it works. I sent them an email asking for more info, but have not yet received a reply. However, I did find this description on LinkedIn:

Newsmart is a mobile application that lets you read the Wall Street Journal and learn Business English at the same time! Newsmart began as an idea to change the way the world learns Business English, by combining today’s Wall Street Journal with great educational content. We started in July 2013 to build a Teaching Engine that would identify opportunities for language exercises in live feeds of Wall Street Journal content, and worked with a team of world-class educational writers to develop thousands of exercises triggered by live content. In addition to the Teaching Engine, Newsmart has a team of educators around the world who apply new exercises to Wall Street Journal content every day. Our beta product uses the top Wall Street Journal content, and applies an educational layer, allowing users to earn points, badges and rewards for their activity within the app. Users can earn special badges and rewards tied to their accomplishments within the app, while competing with language learners worldwide for big prizes and Newsmart glory.

COMMENT
Although they talk about a "mobile application", I couldn't find any app. It seems to be a browser-based application at the moment. Even so, it's strange that there hasn't been more buzz surrounding this service. I couldn't find any articles on the web. I think the key words are 'beta product'. I wonder whether they're keeping a low profile deliberately before some sort of official launch. Perhaps there's a subscription-based version or iOS/Android app in the pipeline.

Related articles

The Business of English

Blair English - Business and Social English Exercises

Business English - An Essential Tool in Today’S World

3 Reasons International Corporations are Investing in Language Training

Espresso English

Cartoon: Applying for College

BACKGROUND
Washington state and Colorado have become the first U.S. states to legalize recreational marijuana use following voter referendums in 2012, capitalizing on rapidly-changing public opinion about the drug, which remains illegal under federal law. Read more >>

THE CARTOON
The cartoon by Steve Breen from the San Diego Union-Tribune shows a boy sitting at the kitchen table. The table is covered with documents and he is writing on one of them. His mother comments to his father, "Have you noticed the only colleges he's applying to are in Washington and Colorado?"

COMMENTARY
The couple's son is applying to colleges in Washington and Colorado because those are the only two states where recreational marijuana use is now legal. The fact that he's wearing a Bob Marley T-shirt gives us a clue. Bob Marley was known for his habitual usage of marijuana (aka cannabis, weed, pot, herb, ganja, etc.) and claimed that it helped him perform his music better and write his lyrics.

VOCABULARY
If you apply to a college, school or university, you to make a formal request, usually in writing, for a place as a student.

Related articles

Aspen greenlights first recreational marijuana shop

[NEWS] Colorado's Recreational Marijuana Dispensaries Net $1 Million In Sales On First Day Of Legalization

Colorado pot law called springboard for other states

Washington state, Colorado rush to ready pot sales rules

Colorado plans to launch world's 1st legal recreational marijuana market

Reuters Video: Mobile mojo lifts Facebook earnings

Facebook's mobile ad business is surging, helping to lift its quarterly earnings, sending its stock higher in after-hours trading. Bobbi Rebell reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: Calling all Facebook doubters — the social network handily beat earnings targets, thanks in large part to its hundreds of millions of mobile-device-toting devoted users. Fourth quarter revenue jumped 63 percent. Mobile ads represented a whopping 53 percent of total ad revenue. Morningstar's Rick Summer ...
RICK SUMMER, EQUITY ANALYST, MORNINGSTAR: "Here we have a very big milestone for Facebook. About more than half of the quarterly revenues they actually generated came from mobile. So not only proving that you can make money in mobile, but Facebook is uniquely positioned to really monopolize a lot of that spending."
REPORTER: Facebook now has 1.23 billion monthly users, with 945 million accessing the service on a smartphone or tablet. Facebook says they have seen increasing demand from marketers for those mobile ads, and that their improved tools show the effectiveness of those ads. Shares of Facebook jumped in after hours trading on the news as investors applauded the better than expected report.
RICK SUMMER, EQUITY ANALYST, MORNINGSTAR: "Their ability to monetize is strictly being driven by the fact that users want to go and use that application and that is very compelling as long as we think users are going to continue to use that application 5 and 10 years from now and ultimately that ends up being the largest question on the stock."
REPORTER: The move in mobile all the more remarkable considering Facebook had virtually no revenue from mobile as recently as 2012.

VOCABULARY
1. Your mojo is a quality that attracts people to you and makes you successful and full of energy. • He's definitely lost his mojo. • He needs to get his mojo working if he's going to win the election.
2. A milestone is an important event in the development or history of something or in someone's life. • He felt that moving out from his parents' home was a real milestone in his life.

Related articles

Facebook fourth-quarter revenue rises more than expected

Facebook Earnings: Mobile Momentum And Massive Mojo

Facebook Q4 2013 earnings beat expectations, mobile now makes up more than half of revenues

Facebook Beats the Street; Shares Jump

Facebook Surges on New Earnings

Words in the News: Suspect

Police probing the disappearance of Madeleine McCann were closing in on three suspects last night. Hopes of a breakthrough in the form of arrests were raised after a Scotland Yard team arrived in Portugal. Police were preparing to swoop on burglars pinpointed as being very close to the holiday apartment where the girl was staying with her family in Praia da Luz in May 2007. Read more >>

VOCABULARY
A suspect is someone who may have committed a crime. • He's the prime suspect (= the most likely suspect) in the murder case. Note the verb to suspect has the stress on the second syllable. • The police suspect him of having carried out a series of burglaries. 

Related articles

Madeleine McCann detectives fly to Portugal to make possible arrests

British police target 3 men in Portugal in disappearance of Madeleine McCann

Madeleine McCann: Police prepare to arrest three men who 'made numerous calls' after child's disappearance

Words in the News: Breakthrough

The disappearance of Madeleine McCann: British police travel to Portugal to interview three suspects

Cartoon: No Photography in the Royal Bathrooms

BACKGROUND
Buckingham Palace should be opened to more paying visitors when the Queen is not in residence to fund improvements to the royal estate, MPs have said. The Public Accounts Committee criticised the Royal Household for mismanaging its finances. Chairwoman Margaret Hodge said there was "huge scope for savings" on the annual £31m of taxpayer funds given to the Queen to spend on official duties. Read more >>

THE CARTOON
The cartoon by Mac from the Daily Mail shows the Queen's husband Prince Philip having a bath in Buckingham Palace. A group of visitors on a tour of the palace have just entered the bathroom. Some of them are taking photos, and the official guide tells them, "At this point I must remind visitors, no photography in the royal bathrooms.

COMMENTARY
No explanation necessary, but note some nice touches like the 'Hers' towel (belonging, one assumes, to the Queen), and the unimpressed expression on Philip's face.

VOCABULARY
Photography is the activity or job of taking photographs (or photos). • Her hobbies include hiking and photography. A person who takes photographs, especially as their job, is a photographer. Photograph also a verb. • Rihanna was photographed topless with a girlfriend this week.

ACTIVITY
See how many of the following things you can spot in the cartoon: sign, guide, steam, shower, towel, slippers, camera, tap, plastic duck, washbasin, yacht, shoelaces, bath mat, knees, bathtub, toothpaste.

ALSO SEE
• Paul Thomas cartoon (Daily Express)
• Matt cartoon (The Telegraph)

Related articles

Open up palace 'when Queen out' call

Royal Estate: Overspend Leaves £500m Repair Bill

George Osborne insists royal family have tightened their belts

Cartoon: Queen Charles

Royal family down to last million in reserves

Reuters Video: Queen's royal household warned to rein in spending

British lawmakers tell Queen Elizabeth's royal household to cut costs as its cash reserves dwindle. Linda So reports.

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: Buckingham Palace, a symbol of royalty. But what's happening behind these gates has British lawmakers issuing a stern warning to the Queen and her royal household. It's time to rein in spending.
MARGARET HODGE, MP AND CHAIR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE IN HOUSE OF COMMONS: "It is really important that the royal household, working with the Treasury supporting them, should get better value for money for the 31 million pounds of taxpayers' money they received last year, and then use that money to make sure that they really are proper guardians of the heritage properties under their wing."
REPORTER: A government report reveals the royal family has overspent by millions, and has had to dip into reserve funds, leaving only one million pounds. All this as Buckingham Palace and the monarch's other royal residences are in desperate need of repair. Boilers are 60 years old, there's asbestos in the basement, and water from a leaky roof is collected in a bucket. British lawmakers have recommended opening the doors of the Queen's residence more often to raise money.
MARGARET HODGE, MP AND CHAIR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS SELECT COMMITTEE IN HOUSE OF COMMONS: "The Queen is not there all of the time, and I think more income could be generated if smarter use was made of the availability of the palace when the Queen is not in residence."
REPORTER: A special exhibit in 2011 displaying the Duchess of Cambridge's wedding dress generated 620,000 pounds.

VOCABULARY
If you rein something in (or rein in something), you start to control it more strictly. • The government has announced plans to rein in public spending. The literal meaning is to stop a horse or make it go more slowly by pulling back the reins.

Related articles

Queen told to rein in spending as she 'reaches final million'

Queen's Household Down To Its Last $1.6M

Royal family down to last million

Report says Queen's household and finances are a wreck - Hamilton Spectator

Buckingham Palace Going Broke, Queen Elizabeth Cries Out

Words in the News: Drown

Furious flood victims last night accused officials of gross incompetence and abandoning them to the elements. They said they feared the ‘worst was yet to come’ in the Somerset Levels, huge stretches of which have been under water since Christmas. Experts backed up their claim that the Environment Agency’s decision to stop dredging key rivers had created a ‘disaster area’ covering 25 square miles. Read more >>

VOCABULARY
If you are drowning in something, you have more of something than you are able to deal with. • I'm drowning in unpaid bills. The Mail's headline plays on the literal meaning of the verb to drown: to die from being under water for too long.

Related articles

Dredging will ease flooding in Somerset Levels, admits Environment Agency boss

Millions of tons of filthy water - and everyone here knows who's to blame: ROBERT HARDMAN visits families hit by Somerset floods

UK floods: council declares major incident on Somerset Levels

VIDEO: Aerial view of Somerset Levels floods

Cartoon: Flooded Britain

Cartoon: Gift From God

BACKGROUND
Pope Francis has declared the internet is a ‘gift from God’ because it brings people from different cultures together. In a statement about Catholic Church communications, Pope Francis said the web offers ‘immense possibilities’ for differing points of view to be heard, including those that oppose or question the Catholic religion. Read more >>

THE CARTOON
The cartoon by Nate Beeler, editorial cartoonist for The Columbus Dispatch, shows the Pope on the left saying that the internet is a gift from God. On the right, the devil, who is sitting in front of a computer screen in hell, adds, "but you can thank me for spam!"

VOCABULARY
Spam [U] is unwanted e-mail that is sent to large numbers of people and that consists mostly of advertising. See Wikipedia's article on spam.

COMMENTARY
If the internet is a gift from God, then spam is a gift from hell since it is incredibly annoying and costs businesses huge amounts of money in lost productivity. You could also say that spam is the 'work of the devil'.

Related articles

Pope: Internet Is a 'Gift From God'

Pope Calls Internet a 'Gift from God'

Pope Francis Declares the Internet a 'Gift From God'

Pope Francis Offered The Internet Some Advice: Why It's Useful

Pope Francis says the internet is 'a gift from God'

Reuters Video: Record iPhone sales disappoint

Apple posted record iPhone sales, but not enough to top market forecasts thanks to competition from Samsung in the U.S., leaving investors wondering when will Apple come up with something innovative to re-energize the stock. Conway G. Gittens reports.  

TRANSCRIPT
REPORTER: When you're the world's most valuable tech company, sometimes even a record just won't do. Apple beat earnings and revenue forecasts with sales of nearly $58 billion - but it's where those sales came from that's disappointing. iPhone shipments came in at 51 million during the key holiday season; that, however, was millions less than Wall Street was looking for. And despite a new China Mobile deal that is supposed to have waves of Chinese customers flocking to its stores, Apple's sales forecast for the current quarter left analysts on the other end of the phone saying - huh? The results show stepped up competition in the high-end smartphone market is making sales harder to come by, says Ross Rubin of Reticle Research.
ROSS RUBIN, PRINCIPAL ANALYST, RETICLE RESEARCH: "Clearly we are moving into a period of higher smartphone penetration here in the U.S. We saw that 68 percent of Apple's revenue was made outside the U.S. this quarter and in addition many more of those smartphones are being sold to less affluent consumers - really not Apple's forte. So, the challenge for them is to build upon the installed base that they have with new products, new services."
REPORTER: But Apple has yet to do that - leaving the stock to languish and tumbling after-hours. Shares were up only 5 percent last year, compared with a near 30 percent rally for the S&P 500. That's left the door open for much speculation about wearables… And an entry into the mobile payments business since Apple already has access to millions of credit card accounts through iTunes. Apple, however, is leaving consumers waiting for the next new big thing in gadgets.
ROSS RUBIN, PRINCIPAL ANALYST, RETICLE RESEARCH: "I think we are on the cusp of a number of new technologies right now that are in a similar place to where music players were before the iPod or where smartphones were before the iPhone and in some respects the industry is looking to Apple for validation of these spaces to excite a user base to, to excite the industry."
REPORTER: And so that leaves consumers with just a tweak here and there on the iPhone and that is clearly not enough.

VOCABULARY
A tweak is a slight change that you make to a machine, system, etc. to improve it. • With a few tweaks this device will be perfect.

IDIOM
If someone is on the cusp of something, they are in a period of transition between two different states. • The United States is on the cusp of energy self-sufficiency.

Related articles

Apple posts record revenue in 1st quarter, but iPhone sales disappoint

Record iPhone Sales Disappoint

Apple's iPhone sales disappoint

Apple's iPhone sales lag Wall Street expectations

Apple Sells Record Number Of iPhones, Still Disappoints People

Words in the News: Rent Out

The Queen should open up Buckingham Palace for longer and rent it out for commercial events, MPs will say today. Commons watchdogs insist the royals need more money-spinning ventures to stop their palaces crumbling after years of complacency. Read more >>

VOCABULARY
If you rent out a house, room, office etc. that you own, you allow it to be used by someone who pays you regularly for using it. • All the rooms are rented out to students.

Related articles

Open up palace 'when Queen out' call

Buckingham Palace: 'We are generating more money'

The Queen down to her last million

Cartoon: Palace Raid Sparks New Security Review

Cartoon: Buckingham Palace Break-In

Cartoon: The Fab Two

BACKGROUND
This cartoon by Adams from The Telegraph links two news stories: Labour's pledge to raise the top rate of tax to 50p and the reunion of the two surviving Beatles Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr for a special performance at the Grammys. Senior business figures have launched a strong and united attack on Labour’s tax plan, warning that Ed Miliband’s policy would threaten the recovery and cost jobs. Read more >>

COMMENTARY
The cartoon is a spoof of the cover of The Beatles 1965 Help! album. However, instead of Paul and Ringo, we have Labour leader Ed Miliband and shadow chancellor Ed Balls. And instead of The Fab Four (a popular nickname for The Beatles), it's The Fab Two (John and George being dead, of course). The cartoonist is being ironic — The Telegraph is a right-wing, business-friendly paper and in its leader, Tory Mayor of London Boris Johnson writes that "Ed Balls’s insistence on restoring the 50p rate shows his ignorance of how the economy works". Note too that the record company name Parlophone has been changed to Taxophone. 

TRIVIA NOTE
The original Help! album cover features the group with their arms positioned to spell out a word in flag semaphore, leading most people to assume that the band is spelling out the word HELP. However, this is not so. According to cover photographer Robert Freeman: “I had the idea of semaphore spelling out the letters H.E.L.P. but when we came to do the shot the arrangement of the arms with those letters didn’t look good. So we decided to improvise and ended up with the best graphic positioning other arms.” The best graphic positioning of The Beatles ended up spelling out out NUJV (see here for detailed graphics and more info). So in fact Miliband and Balls are spelling UJ. What's more, on the original album cover John, not Paul, did the 'U', but I'm not sure whether that's supposed to be significant. In any case, as we all know, Paul is dead.

AFTERTHOUGHT
One possible interpretation is that Miliband (like a traffic policeman) is holding up his hands to say stop, and Balls is directing traffic (i.e., taxation policy) to the (political) left. This would explain why Miliband is playing John not Paul. 

Related articles

Bash the rich and you deprive us of what their taxes pay for

Paul and Ringo Rock the Grammys

Rumored McCartney-Starr reunion expected to rock Grammy stage

Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr Grammys Performances: Beatles Reunite For 'Queenie Eye'

Cartoon: Tilting at Windmills