'Zat you, Santa Claus?

Merry Christmas to All of You with a not too traditional Christmas song!





Gifts I'm preparin'
For some Christmas sharin'
But I pause because
Hangin' my stockin'
I can hear a knockin'
'Zat you, Santa Claus

Sure is dark out
Ain't the slighest spark out
Pardon my clackin' jaws
Who's there
Who is it
Uh, stoppin' for a visit
'Zat you, Santa Claus

Are you bringin' a present for me
Something pleasantly pleasant for me
That's what I've been waitin' for
Would you mind slippin' it under the door

Four winds are howlin'
Or would that be growlin'
My legs feel like straws
Oh my, my, me, my
Kindly would you reply
'Zat you, Santa Claus
Yeah

Oh hangin' my stockin'
I can hear a knockin'
'Zat you, Santa Claus

Yeah, say now
Hey there, who is it
Stoppin' for a visit
'Zat you, Santa Claus

Whoa there Santa you gave me a scare
Now stop teasin' 'cause I know you're there
We don't believe in no goblins today
But I can't explain why I'm shakin' that way

Well I see old Santa in the keyhole
I'll give to the cause
One peek and I'll try there
Uh-oh there's an eye there
'Zat you, Santa Claus

Please, please
I pity my knees
Say that's you Santa Claus
That's him alright

The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles

This is gonna be weird stuff. The progressive rock band, Jethro Tull, made a song in 1973, titled 'The Story of the Hare Who Lost His Spectacles'. This is a strange little story of forest animals trying to help an unfortunate hare to find a pair of lost glasses (the word 'spectacles' means glasses, a fact that the other animals don't seem to know). The whole thing is bizarre, yet funny and fully comprehensible with a solid upper-intermediate knowledge of English (well, apart from a few words that you can easily look up in a dictionary; you can find the whole script under the video box). Try to concentrate on the play on words. The video in the youtube video box is an animated film made for the original piece of music. If you are brave enough to see the really crazy original clip, click here. Enjoy!




Owl loved to rest quietly whilst no one was watching. Sitting on a
fence one day, he was surprised when suddenly a kangaroo ran close
by.
Now this may not seem strange, but when Owl overheard Kangaroo whisper
to no one in particular, ``The hare has lost his spectacles,'' well, he
began to wonder.
Presently, the moon appeared from behind a cloud and there, lying on
the grass was hare. In the stream that flowed by the grass -- a
newt. And sitting astride a twig of a bush -- a bee.
Ostensibly motionless, the hare was trembling with excitement, for
without his spectacles he was completely helpless. Where were his
spectacles? Could someone have stolen them? Had he mislaid them? What
was he to do?
Bee wanted to help, and thinking he had the answer began: ``You
probably ate them thinking they were a carrot.''
``No!'' interrupted Owl, who was wise. ``I have good eye-sight, insight,
and foresight. How could an intelligent hare make such a silly
mistake?'' But all this time, Owl had been sitting on the fence,
scowling!
Kangaroo were hopping mad at this sort of talk. She thought herself
far superior in intelligence to the others. She was their leader;
their guru. She had the answer: ``Hare, you must go in search of the
optician.''
But then she realized that Hare was completely helpless without his
spectacles. And so, Kangaroo loudly proclaimed, ``I can't send Hare in
search of anything!''
``You can guru, you can!'' shouted Newt. ``You can send him with Owl.''
But Owl had gone to sleep. Newt knew too much to be stopped by so
small a problem -- ``You can take him in your pouch.'' But alas, Hare
was much too big to fit into Kangaroo's pouch.
All this time, it had been quite plain to hare that the others knew
nothing about spectacles.
As for all their tempting ideas, well Hare didn't care.
The lost spectacles were his own affair.
And after all, Hare did have a spare a-pair.
A-pair.

Hubble - Looking even deeper

Hubble's Deepest View of the Universe (from here)


I have already written about the Hubble Deep Field in an earlier post. This is a deep visible-light image of the early universe. On 8th December 2009, NASA released an image of an even deeper view of the early universe. The new image, which was taken in near-infrared light, reveals galaxies that were formed 600 million years after the Big Bang. This is the first time we have gained insight into such an early time in the formation of the universe. The light from the distant and expanding galaxies stretches out into the near-infrared wavelengths, this is why this new image can go deeper than the images that were taken in the wavelengths of the visible light.

Read the scientific data and watch the zoomable image together with a short a narrated video here.

While you are busy making other plans

The Braking Puzzle

The new puzzle is short and (hopefully) clear. It goes like this:

A man dressed all in black is walking down a deserted country lane. Suddenly, a large black car without any lights on comes down the road. A few seconds before it would run over the walker, the car brakes with a screech and stops just in time. How does the driver, who is not a psychic, know that there is a man in the road?



And a short trick question (this week's special bonus):

You are running a race. You manage to overtake the runner who is in the second place. At which place are you now in the race?

Think, think:)

Incredible Amazing Awesome Fantastic Super Great

One of the most challenging things in teaching a foreign language is to widen a student's vocabulary, especially to get them to use a bigger variety of adjectives. Once they have learned 'good', 'nice' and 'interesting' they seem to be absolutely satisfied with the choice of adjectives they have. Sometimes I 'ban' these words for one or two lessons to make my students leave the comfort and ease of the 'nice-good-interesting' territory. An advanced student of mine (no doubt remembering this struggle for synonyms) has recently showed me a video and asked me if this was what I had meant by using as many synonyms as possible. What could I have said? Well, it seems overdoing it a bit, but yes, the message gets delivered here. You could even say that it gets hammered in, I suppose. Especially if you use each of them ten times.

What is the punch line?

Autumn tree (picture from here)

November. The crows are gathering on the yellow-leaved or barren trees. There is still a bit of sunshine occasionally but the days are getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. It is easier to be depressed at this time of year so a good joke can come in handy . I came across this one in a collection of Scottish Jokes. Read the joke and find out a good punch line for it. Feel free to post it as a comment if you want to share your ideas. The original punch line will be published among the comments of this entry, early next week.













A dram of whisky (picture from here)

The joke: Duncan McSporran, the barman in a small village, had a new customer who was very regular in his habits. Every day he would come into the pub and order three drams of whisky. After a while, Duncan asked him why he did it that way.
The man said: -"I have two brothers. One of them lives in Canada, the other in Australia. We never see each other so we have a special way of drinking: we each have one for ourselves and one for each of the other two. That way we feel that we are still in touch."
One day, the man came in and ordered only two whiskies. He drank them in the usual way and was about to go when Duncan stopped him with the words: -"I hope nothing has happened to one of your brothers."
The man turned and said: -"No, no. They are both fine."
-"But you only had two whiskies," said Duncan.
-"Oh, that! ( --- PUNCH LINE HERE --- ) " said the man.

Strange and Beautiful Pictures of Mars

This might as well be taken as another picture puzzle, if you wish. Only this time the solution will be given instantly.













( picture from here )

At first glance, I thought this was a tattoo on somebody's ...well... something. Then the more I looked at it the less I knew what I was actually looking at. I was quite relieved to find out that I was actually staring at another planet. That should explain this feeling of uncertainty and bewilderment, shouldn't it?
The picture shows a Martian dune and the dark lines (which I took for the tattoo) were left by the passages of dust devils.

So, who took this picture and why? In 2005, the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) was sent to Mars to study the history of water on the planet. According to NASA's overview of the MRO, the orbiter has a camera which can identify objects as big as a dinner table from the orbiting distance of 300 kilometers. Last week, a photography site called 'The Big Picture' published 35 spellbinding pictures that the HiRISE (MRO's high resolution camera) had taken of the Martian surface. Below the pictures you can see the explanations of the different formations and a direct link to Google Mars in case you feel like tagging the location for your next holiday. If you would like to see how the boundaries of art and science are washed away by these superb pictures visit their picture series here.

And now I wanted to embed the David Bowie song, 'Life on Mars?' here. However, the best version is not possible to embed. You can still listen to it and watch it following the link. What I am going to put up here instead is the (in my opinion:) best cover of that song by Seu Jorge. It is in Portuguese but writing of Mars and other strange things I thought once I can make an exception. You can find an English translation here.

Two Sisters in the Shed

Here is the new puzzle for you to think about:

On a nice spring day, two sisters decided to clean out the old shed in their garden. It was full of old, unused bikes, yellow newspapers, big, wooden boxes, roller skates, ragged clothes, worn-out shoes, rubber boots, dried bats, spider webs... so when they had finished the work they were totally exhausted. However, one of the sisters had been more willing to do the dusty and dirty jobs than the other one so she ended up with a dirty face while the other's face remained more or less clean. The sister with the clean face went and washed her face but the girl with the dirty face did not go to have a wash. Why?















The shed after the cleaning (picture from here)




------- Don't read on if you don't need help with the puzzle ------


Clue: How can you tell normally that your face needs washing if nobody tells you so? What if the two girls couldn't find the everyday tool for that? What would they think if they looked at each other?

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Quiz

Hardcore Guide fans celebrating the anniversary in London (picture from here)


Remember the flying lesson with the 'Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy' a few months ago? There is news about it: on 11 October, hundreds of people celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Guide in London. Look at the picture to see what they were carrying. And do you know why? No??? Go to the end of the post and do the quiz immediately and then get hold of the book as fast as you can. If you have heard about this book and the craze that it stirred up but you haven't actually read it you might wonder why it became so popular. The success of the series probably lies in the strange philosophy and in the abstract humour. It is quite irrational and bizarre. It is dark. At times, it is even cynical but just manages to stay away from pessimism. It's adventure. Fans of Monty Python are often fans of the Guide and vice versa.

The other great news is that Arthur Dent has returned! Although the author, Douglas Adams died in 2001, the literary agency that manages his estate proposed an Irish writer, Eoin Colfer (best known for the Artemis Fowl series), to continue the Guide. The proposal was accepted and now the sixth part of the Hitchhiker's Guide series, titled And Another Thing... , is out on the shelves of bookshops. It is probably a different thing, it may be quite different in fact, but who knows? It might as well be good so why not give it a try and read it? Before you run to the bookshop do this quiz below to freshen up your memory about the characters and the places. If you are a newbie to the Guide you might try it all the same. But whatever you do...Don't panic!

» Free Online Quizzes

What are these?

The puzzle story was popular and some of you said that they would like to see some more. Soon, there will be a new one and in the future there will be puzzle stories to train the brain every now and again. (in a rhyming mood I am:) However, it takes time to come up with quality puzzle stories, so this post's puzzle is going to be different: a picture puzzle. (Or to be precise, three picture puzzles.)

The task is the following: Find out what you can see in the following three pictures as precisely as possible. The third picture is a bit more difficult than the first two. Partly, because I took that one, and my pictures are always puzzles even for me. And partly, because it is only a fraction of the whole picture. Nevertheless, I hope you will be able to solve this new puzzle. Again, I am not only interested in the 'real' solution, but in any other interesting and imaginative solution as well.


Here they go.
Picture 1:















Picture 2:















Picture 3:












You have one week to think. You don't need to have guesses for all the three to comment. If you have ideas for one or two, that's fine too. Next Wednesday, I'll give the 'real' solution and a link for the originals in the comments of this post.

Slang II (British English and American English)

Despite the differences in vocabulary and pronunciation, American and British people tend to understand each other without major difficulties. I do remember getting a few raised eyebrows when I inadvertently spoke of 'rented flats' or 'pissed blokes' to my American friends who were not familiar with the British dialect (In Am. English these would be 'rented apartment' and 'drunk guy'). Yet, these misunderstandings don't seem to be paralyzing. What about slang? How much do they understand of the other nation's slang? From this video it seems that not too much. Ellen invited Hugh Laurie to her show and they had a slang knowledge contest. The expressions they present are not very widely used and the 'contestants' seem to be having good fun trying to find out their meanings. If you are not a native speaker of English this script may help you a lot but I suggest that you listen to the video first to see how much of it you can understand without the text.





Now check your slang knowledge with this simple quiz based on the video:

British and American slang quiz » Free Online Quizzes

And if you are still here you surely deserve another video where Hugh Laurie has an 'unspoilt' British accent, a funny surname and hidden tapdancing abilities.

The puzzle has been solved

Yes, you have done it. I'm proud of you. You have given amazing answers, all of them quite plausible. The real point of these puzzle stories is not only to come up with the 'one and only' good solution but to think. However, if you are still interested in the 'official' solution go to the comments of the puzzle post. (the official solution is the fifth)

Check back on Friday for the new post on slang, which will feature two celebrity figures.

A puzzle story

A few days ago I visited my mum for lunch and she told me this story. It is a puzzle story, which means that you will have to think and find out how something could possibly happen in the story. At first, I had all sorts of clever answers but, honestly, the one my mum gave me in the end was so good that I'd like to share it with you on the blog. So, here goes the story and if you have any good solutions you can post them as comments. In next week's post, the "original" solution will be revealed. But who knows? You may come up with equally good or even better ones.

The Puzzle:

There is a two-meter long tube which is made of plastic. It is straight and has a diameter of 45 centimeters. There are no holes on the surface of the tube anywhere and there is absolutely nothing inside it but air. The tube is located in somebody's garden. It is lying on the ground and it isn't covered or housed in anything special. Two cats (perfectly healthy young tabbies:) look into the tube from the opposite ends. The two cats cannot see each other. How is it possible???











It's time to think (picture from here)

Scientists with long hair

Do you have luxuriant and flowing hair? Are you a scientist? If the answer is yes to both of these questions you might want to be a member of a special club: The Luxuriant Flowing Hair Club for Scientists™. This can be found at Improbable Research, an organization that deals with "research that makes people LAUGH and then THINK". On glancing through the profiles and photos I was happy to find rock guitarist Brian May, one of my childhood heroes, among the members. I don't have long hair and I am not a scientist of any kind so I wouldn't qualify as a member. I still like the club a lot (besides, as Woody Allen said: "I'd never join a club that would allow a person like me to become a member"). Here is a nice photo of a scientist demonstrating her hair that so clearly qualifies her as a member:
















Dr, Diane DiMassa, club member (from here)


And now a song to get you even more into the "luxuriant flowing hair" mood:





Click here for the lyrics of the song.

Eddie Izzard's long run

It comes with a bit of a delay, I am well aware of that. But I have just got to know about it so here it goes: crossdresser stand-up comedian Eddie Izzard, author and performer of such classics as the Death Star Canteen, ran 43 (yep, four times ten plus three) marathons in 51 days. Now, you probably either don't believe this or think: "Well, he probably just jogged or walked briskly for a few ours every day." But just try to walk 30-40 kilometers a day (at the pace you want) for one week and you will know better what you are speaking about.
Besides, he had a purpose to all this. His mega-run was organized to raise funds for Sport Relief, a charity organization that helps poor and disadvantaged people. Watch the youtube video that was taken after his destination at Trafalgar Square, London and read more about the details of the run here.

Hubble back in business

NGC 6302 or Butterfly Nebula (from Hubblesite)


The Hubble space telescope underwent its fourth servicing mission in May 2009. During the mission, the astronauts performed numerous repairs and installed new instruments that have enabled the telescope to look even deeper into space and to make various new observations. You can read about the details of Hubble's new abilities and watch snapshots and a video that showcase the new vision here.

Slang (Part I) - Rhyming Slang

A couple of days ago I came across this news article:

"A cash machine operator has introduced Cockney rhyming slang to a number of its ATMs in east London.

People using Bank Machine's ATMs can opt to have their prompts and options given to them in rhyming slang.

As a result they will be asked to enter their Huckleberry Finn, rather than their Pin, and will have to select how much sausage and mash (cash) they want.

The rhyming slang prompts will be available from five cash machines in east London for three months.

Other rhyming slang prompts people can expect include a speckled hen (£10), while the machine may inform users that it is contacting their rattle and tank, rather than bank." (read the whole story and listen to locals' opinion here)

So, what is Cockney rhyming slang? This is a special encryption that makes it possible for the speakers to completely confuse outsiders. Instead of saying, for instance, "Let's go up the stairs" the user of rhyming slang would say "Let's go up the apples." This comes from 'apples and pears' where you drop the second (the actual rhyming) word. The exact origins of the phrase are unknown. Probably, the shape of the apple and pear stalls at the market reminded somebody of stairs. Despite the nice image, once you have dropped the rhyming part it gets really difficult to find out the meaning. (Note for foreign learners of English: The word 'pear' rhymes with 'stair' or 'wear' and not with 'hear'!)

My personal favourite is 'Dog and Bone' used for a telephone. The classical telephone's receiver really had a bone-like look to it and the 'dog' really seemed to be clinging onto it.














'Dog and Bone' (from here)

Sometimes, especially with longer words, the whole expression is used. So, if someone asks you: "Would you Adam and Eve this?" you should encode it as "Would you believe it?". Although this slang originated from the East End of London, some of the expressions have become quite widespread in other parts of Britain, too. For example, the expression 'use your loaf' comes from 'loaf of bread' ( which means 'head' in rhyming slang).

Do this quiz to check and improve your rhyming slang knowledge:

Cockney Rhyming Slang » Test maker

A new way to look at success

Sometimes you find yourself trying hard but somehow not making much headway. Or you believe that you are making good progress but later realize that you have been going round in circles. Usually it is with jobs but can be in all other arenas of life as well. Others seem to have it a lot easier or perhaps they get along better because they deserve it more? If you have ever felt this way then this video will feel like a balm for the bruises. The speaker, Alain de Botton, encourages us to find the meaning of "success" for ourselves. No big secrets are revealed but I like the very rational yet humane way he gets his point across to the audience. There is also a bit of clever humour in some of his ironic remarks.






Do this simple exercise to practice the vocabulary of the speech.

Watching the night sky from home

A couple of weeks ago I spent half a night awake trying to catch sight of some meteors in the Perseid Meteor Shower. The sky remained cloudy the whole night long so I didn't manage to observe any meteors. It was a nice night though, and I really wouldn't like to sound complaining. However, if you - like me - enjoy guided astronomy tours where clouds don't matter here is a chance to see one. The Hubble Site has a cool feature: Tonight's Sky. It is a short flash video with menu and English subtitles. The pictures are great, the audio is absolutely clear both regarding the content and the pronunciation.(you could even say it is lucid:) Go and watch it if you haven't done it so far. After all, 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy.

When you have watched the video for September 2009 you will be able to answer the following questions:

- What is the other name of the constellation Sygnus?

- What is Deneb?

- What can you see halfway between the stars Altair and Alberio?

- Which planet dominates the September sky?

- When is the Autumnal Equinox this year? Where does the sun rise on this day?

(You can find short answers to the questions here.)




















Altair

An afternoon at the river

There is a place near my home that I like a lot. It is called Hárosi-öböl in Hungarian. 'Háros' is the name of a suburb of Budapest and 'öböl' means bay, which is misleading as it is an oxbow lake of the River Danube, only it is not closed because the lower(downstream) end of it is open so it has a live connection with the river. Anyway, the place is beautiful and has a varied vegetation and wildlife; part of the area (the island within the lake and the peninsula that divides it from the river) is a nature reserve. I usually go fishing to the bay but last Saturday I borrowed a good camera and went there to take some pictures.




















This is the island within the bay. It is rumoured that there are some ruins of a medieval monastery on it. The island is home to many wild birds: pheasants, starks, herons, ducks, woodpeckers and lots of other species. The vegetation is also very unique: the native trees that are typical of these flooded areas are totally overgrown with fox grape and sometimes the tree looks as if it wore a veil of grapes.




















Something similar to this only much much denser. I took this picture from the 'mainland' where the grapes are not nearly as lush and dense as on the island.




















Having approached the water I took about ten pictures of this unlucky moth, hoping to catch the moment when a fish swallows it. The fish were probably watching from below and only attacked the prey when I had stopped clicking like mad.




















The duck is swimming home. (that's my impression, anyway) They were grazing in the shallows during the early afternoon and took to the deeper parts towards sundown.



















The bushes are home to other animals too. This pup and its mum, who turned up a second later (only to kick over my most important work tool - the beer can), are probably stray dogs and should not have been there at all. But they were really cute.




















Just before I left there I noticed this heron standing by the water. It was too far away and a real photographer could have captured it much better but I still like this picture because of its atmosphere and the late afternoon colours. Next time I should rent a boat, maybe.




















The last "person" I met in the bay was one of the cats who live there and hang around the anglers in hope of getting a few small fish for dinner (usually not in vain). Whiskers' eyes seem to be saying: "Ok, you can go home now, but if I see you around without the fish bucket again there will be trouble."

Always look on the bright side of life with a tattoo

Last Friday we went to a local karaoke bar. Although I like singing, it was that first time for me in an actual karaoke place with strangers watching the "performance". What do you do to feel more at ease under this kind of pressure? Reassure yourself that you are the best, repeat positive thinking mantras, take deep breaths? All of these may help but this time I went for the good old traditional confidence-maker: drink everything near you that seems to contain alcohol. It worked for me and the other folks in the place didn't take their courage from yoga breathing either. (or used it simultaneously with the boozing technique, which is cheating, anyway) One of my chosen songs was 'Always look on the bright side of life' from the M.P. film 'Life of Brian'. It went pretty well and it was a relief to find that the whistling is included on the backing track. I even tried to imitate Eric Idle's thick British accent, which surprisingly made me feel more secure. I must have felt that if I sing with an accent the people will overlook my own random variations of the tune. So, here is the song with subtitles in case you wanna have a go at it too. (vocals included)






The monologue at the end isn't included in the video but you can find a complementary script here.
If you are not a native speaker of English you may find these language notes useful.


As the night progressed, the shows got stronger and stronger and the place got higher and higher. Is it normal to feel that the songs in the karaoke are getting longer after midnight? That was my feeling - things slowed down a lot but in a good way. In this pleasantly numb state, I somehow received a little surprise: tattoos on both my arms drawn with a ball-point pen. The next day it took quite a bit of watching and scraping to get rid of them. I quite liked the rabbit, actually. If that is what it was meant to be. Does anybody have any ideas about the identity of the secret artist?
























left arm art
























right arm art

Gone on holiday

Cheese from space

The anniversary of the Moon landing prompted some wild advertising events as well. A group of Somerset-based cheesemakers decided to launch a piece of Cheddar to the edge of space by a weather balloon. According to chairman Philip Crawford, the aim of the bizarre mission was to "mark the anniversary of the first moon landing with a giant leap for cheesekind". The balloon, which had taken off from Wiltshire, burst at 30 kilometers above the ground and the "cheese astronaut" floated back to Earth by parachute. The 300 gr piece of Cheddar was found two days later in Buckinghamshire and it was taken to the local police. The cheesemakers consider the safe landfall to be a great success.















The "cheese astronaut before the launch" (from here)

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?