Moon Day - words and idioms about the Moon

The "giant leap" for mankind (from here)


This Tuesday was an important anniversary and a very special day for everybody who is interested in science and space exploration. 40 years ago, on 20 July 1969, American astronauts, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the surface of the Moon for the first time in history. Here is a short extract from the BBC's commentary of the event:

"American Neil Armstrong has become the first man to walk on the Moon.

The astronaut stepped onto the Moon's surface, in the Sea of Tranquility, at 0256 GMT, nearly 20 minutes after first opening the hatch on the Eagle landing craft.

Armstrong had earlier reported the lunar module's safe landing at 2017 GMT with the words: "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed."

As he put his left foot down first Armstrong declared: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."

He described the surface as being like powdered charcoal and the landing craft left a crater about a foot deep." (you can read on here )

To commemorate the anniversary of the first Moon landing the BBC made a great audio slideshow with the use of archive photos, US and UK number one records of that week and a very clear commentary by the BBC's aerospace correspondent at the time.

The first Moon landing was later followed by five other successful landings between 1969 and 1972. All together, twelve astronauts stepped on the Moon. The missions were then stopped, mainly because of the immense costs.



Now, let's get back to the virtual classroom. There are several words and idioms in English that are connected to the Moon. Here is a short list of some of the most commonly used ones:

Words:

lunar - adj; relating to the moon
The astronauts took some pictures of the footprints they had left on the lunar surface. They had boots on because the lunar atmosphere doesn't allow you to take off your boots.

lunatic - noun; somebody who is mad
Jack likes driving opposite the traffic. He is a very dangerous lunatic. And he thinks that the other drivers are the ones who are crazy.

honeymoon - noun; a holiday or trip taken by a newly married couple
After the wedding they traveled to Rome for a honeymoon in their Fiat500. It wasn't easy to pack all their luggage in it.

moonlight - noun; light reflected from the surface of the moon
The old lady with the nightcap on her head looked very scary in the moonlight. I didn't take a room in her inn and decided to sleep in my car instead.

moonbeam - noun; a ray of moonlight
A moonbeam cut through the clouds and we could see the top of the castle glimmering with a dim silver light.

moon - verb (slang); show the bare buttocks to express protest or disrespect
Jimmy turned around, and mooned the angry teachers after breaking the window of the school.



















Ocean in moonlight (from here)



Idioms:

be over the moon - be very happy, absolutely thrilled
She was over the moon when she saw the birthday present: a huge boa.

ask for the moon - ask for something (nearly) impossible
How could I get up at 7 am on my honeymoon? You're asking for the moon, honey.

once in a blue moon - extremely rarely
How often does Jack shave? Well, once in a blue moon. Usually when he trips on his beard.

promise somebody the moon - promise everything
They promised me the moon just to stay with the company but I already knew them too well.






















This happy cow is over the moon (from here)


Click here if you would like to do some vocabulary exercises about these words and idioms.

Happy Birthday Big Ben!

Big Ben (from here)

While the London Eye is the modern face of London, Big Ben remains to be the traditional icon of the city. In the olden days, whenever directors wanted to make it clear that a film was set in London they just put in a brief cut with the clock tower and there was no doubt about the location any more. (Well, occasionally a black cab or a double-decker bus is also added but it is a bit overdoing it, isn't it?) Strictly speaking, Big Ben is not the tower or the clock but the great bell in the clock tower. However, nowadays it is quite common to refer to all the three with the same name. The famous bell celebrated its 150th birthday last Saturday. Happy Birthday!

A very brief history: A fire destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster in 1834. A new clock tower was constructed between 1843 and 1859; this is the tower that we can see today. The clock started ticking in May 1859 and the great bell first chimed on 11 July of the same year. The nickname Big Ben was probably given to the bell after Sir Benjamin Hall, who supervised the installation of the bell and whose name is inscribed on it.

Do this short quiz about Big Ben to learn some more facts about it:

1. How tall is the clock tower?
a, 65 meters
b, 96 meters
c, 112 meters

2. How much does the Great Bell weigh in tonnes?
a, 6.9 tonnes
b, 10.2 tonnes
c, 13,7 tonnes

3. What is the length of the hour hands?
a, 1.4 meters
b, 2.7 meters
c, 4.2 meters

4. What is the length of the minute hands?
a, 1.4 meters
b, 2.7 meters
c, 4.2 meters

5. How many clock dials are there on the tower?
a, only 1
b, 2
c, 4

You can check your quiz results here.

If you would like more information about Big Ben go to the official site.
(Wanna listen to the chime of the clock at noon? Click here)

Below is a list of scenes that feature Big Ben. If you know about some others just let me know and I will add them. (If possible give the link to the scene)


The 39 Steps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoxmOdC6c5c

Peter Pan, Return to Neverland
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7Dk4X2C13I

Doctor Who (the link below is for a video on how the scene was shot)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQNZO-OE8VU

Trainspotting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtWj6SUhYPk

The Great Mouse Detective
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzsm068R3RA

Watch videos with subtitles - Einstein the parrot

There are tons of video sharing sites on the web. Some of them are even designed for language learning and sometimes they provide subtitles too. I have tried and become slightly disappointed with most of them for one reason or the other. Some have bad quality videos, some have only 'funny' vids with people falling flat on their faces, on others the subtitles don't really match the actual script and so on. The best that I have found so far - is Ted . (many thanks to Learn English Online for the info)

Ted has more than 450 videos of talks and performances in many different topics. Both the sound and the picture quality are excellent and ALL videos come with at least an English subtitle that matches the video script as closely as possible. Some of them have subtitles in several other languages as well.
If you take the plunge I suggest that you pick from one of these categories first:

Most favorited all time
Rated jaw-dropping (meaning that you will be so amazed that your jaw will 'drop')
... funny

You can select the category from the left side bar next to the videos. Once you have made your choice and have started to watch your first video try to resist the temptation to click on the subtitle box. Keep that for later so you can check how much of it you can understand without the subtitles. The video I have chosen as a sample is 'Talking and Squaking with Einstein and Stephanie White'.

Danger - Crocodiles!

(Words in purple are linked to language notes)

Last week while I was looking for pictures for the Dreamtime post I found a warning sign that I liked a lot but had to leave out because it wouldn't have fitted that topic at all. I'll post it now. Would you ever go for a swim in a lake or river if you saw this sign next to it?
























No swimming sign in the Kakadu National Park (picture from here)

I'm sure I wouldn't. In fact, I don't think I would go anywhere near the water there. Despite the straightforwardness and obvious usefulness of these signs some people thought that they could be replaced by less sinister warnings. At FreakingNews.com a photoshop contest was organized for the most creative 'Croc-sign' makers. While I don't think it is a good idea to make the danger seem trivial, I had a really good laugh watching some of the ideas the contestants came up with. Take a look at these.
























Attention! Rock-Crocks ahead! Drive carefully.








If you throw things in 'you will be asked to retrieve them' , meaning you will have to swim in to take those things out. I no longer wonder why Australia has so many excellent swimmers and so many gold winners at the Olympics.





This last one is a bit of an odd-one-out. It warns you that there is actually no danger of crocs. (Mind you, that huge frozen 'shark-fin' does look a bit alarming, though:)
Are there any signs that warn you about dangerous animals where you live? Are any of those remarkable or even funny?