English Inspirations: Video clips

Page contents:

Make me a German
Bird and Fortune: Silly money financial crisis
IBM 5in5
The great global warming swindle
The Apprentice
Big fat Greek debt
The Impotence of Proofreading by Taylor Mali
Pretty woman shopping
A tale of two brains

Make me a German
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bTKSin4JN4

Britain and Germany go head to head on worklife, homelife, equality... and football

BBC Make me a German

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bTKSin4JN4

Justin Rowlatt, host of BBC2's Make Me a German, took his family to Germany to see how living there compares to life in Britain. Here's what he found out...

The British love to hate the Germans. It is part of an intense – and very one-sided-rivalry. But while Britain still boasts of “two world wars and one world cup”, by any sensible measure, Germany is now way ahead of Britain. Just look at the German economy, by far the largest in Europe. While Britain is closing factories down, German industry is booming. They make great cars and great washing machines; earn more money for fewer hours and get longer holidays. So how on earth do they do it?

Exercise 1: Match the words with their definitions

Cut backs disloyal obsessed decline saddle infamous complacent thrive

Act of not supporting someone you should support

Reductions, decreases

Well known for something bad

To load or burden

To deteriorate gradually; fail

To flourish and succeed

satisfied with how things are and not wanting to change them

To think excessively about something or someone

Exercise 2: Listening Comprehension

Eye-watering ___________.

Cameron: We need to have a more Germanic __________.

Employment is ________________________.

Germany is a world beating __________

Germans earn __________ than the British but work _________ hours.

There will be beer and sausages but it’s _________________.

British attitude to Germany:

Britain has suffered terrible industrial __________ since the second world war.

What is one of Bee’s Teutonic qualities?

Justin: I don’t want to be ____________.

What is Nuremberg famous for?

British attitude and German attitude to property?

The British are ____________ with ownership.

Germans don’t ____________ themselves with huge _________.

The checklist tells them everything from the amount of housework and our daily pork __________.

A VW Golf is ________________ of what the Germans would drive. It’s _________, it’s not ______ but it’s kind of well made.

In Germany, success certainly ____________.

Many of the ruined building in Nuremberg have been _____________

Nuremberg Castle was the centre of the Nazi regime and the Mayor called it _________________ and it was here that Hitler ________________________

Teacher’s copy

BBC Make me a German

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bTKSin4JN4

- Teaching suggestions:

Ø Pre-viewing clip: Matching exercise

Ø Watch clip till minute 9.3

Ø Play again. Students fill in gaps in exercise 2

Ø Cut up the article from Guardian newspaper into the different categories: work/ play/prejudice/stereotypes/ kinder

Give each student one or two or more depending on the number of students to read, report and discuss.

Ø Discussion questions: Are you a stereotypical German?

· Do you own or rent your home?

· How many children do you have?

· Do you do a lot of housework?

· What kind of car do you drive?

· Do you play in a team or sing in group or other similar activity?

Match the words with their definitions

Cut backs (n.) disloyal (adj) obsessed (adj) decline (v.) saddle(v.) infamous (adj) complacent (v.) thrive (v.)

Act of not supporting someone you should support ( disloyal)

Reductions, decreases (cut backs)

Well known for something bad (infamous)

To load or burden ( saddle)

To deteriorate gradually; fail (decline)

To flourish and succeed (thrive)

satisfied with how things are and not wanting to change them (complacent)

To think excessively about something or someone (obsessed)

Listening Comprehension

Eye-watering __debts_________.

Cameron: We need to have a more Germanic __approach________.

Employment is _____at record levels____.

Germany is a world beating __exporter________

Germans earn ____more______ than the British but work ___fewer______ hours.

There will be beer and sausages but it’s _____no holiday____________.

British attitude to Germany: 2 WWs and 1 world cup

Britain has suffered terrible industrial ____decline______ since the second world war.

Justin: I don’t want to be _____disloyal_______.

What is one of Bee’s Teutonic qualities? Sitting on the loo with the door open and chatting

What is Nuremberg famous for? Gingerbread, sausages, nazi history

British attitude and German attitude to property? More than half rent in Germany

The British are ___obsessed_________ with ownership.

Germans don’t ______saddle______ themselves with huge ___debts______.

The checklist tells them everything from the amount of housework and our daily pork __intake____.

A VW Golf is __bang in the middle___ of what the Germans would drive. It’s __rock solid__, it’s not --_flash_ but it’s kind of well made.

In Germany, success certainly ____starts at home________.

Many of the ruined building in Nuremberg have been ____restored_________

Nuremberg Castle was the centre of the Nazi regime and the Mayor called it ____Germany’s most German city___ and it was here that Hitler ______held his infamous speech___.

BBC Make me a German

Aren’t you just sick of hearing German success stories. They always win the football, they’re the first on the beach and while Britain faces cutbacks and eye-watering debts, just look at how well the Germans are doing.

Cameron: “We need, more frankly, to have a more Germanic approach.”

Employment is at record levels and it’s a world-beating exporter.

What’s more, Germans earn more than us and work fewer hours.

So, how do they do it?

I’m Justin Roland Rowlatt, a journalist.

And I’m Bee Rolatt, a writer.

And we’re on a mission to discover the secret of German success.

Bee “it’s like kid heaven”.

We’re taking the kids with us and we’re going in. Yes, there’ll be beer and sausages but this is no holiday.

We’re going to work, “ just one text.” “no, sorry” Live, “ you’re too loud” “what, we are too loud?”

And, play, just like average ordinary Germans. Because our challenge is…… to become German.

I live in North London with my wife Bee and our four children.

“They have socks in Germany, they probably have better socks than we have.”

There’s quite a kind of tradition of well, two world wars and one world cup, you know, that kind of attitude to Germany in Britain. And I think it could be quite interesting to see what the Germans think of us.

We’ve obviously suffered terrible industrial decline since the second world war. The Germans have done pretty well, they’re a major industrial nation and it would be quite interesting to see what they think of Britain.

Bee: I’m actually half German, but I never grew up there, I grew up in this country and my dad’s German but my parents separated when I was little.

Justin: I don’t want to be disloyal, there’s nothing wrong with being half German so it’s not a problem, but maybe there are a few kind of Teutonic qualities that she has.

Bee: I can’t believe I’m sharing this, but I quite like sitting on the toilet with the door open and I’ll have a merry exchange with anyone who passes by. Justin think that’s really German but I think that’s just the way I grew up.

What’s also really German is small families. German birth rate is low and falling. Just 1.4 children per couple. So the first step in making us German is two leave our eldest two, Eva and Zola at home with granny.

Eva: “ I’m going to miss them but it’s quite nice to have a break sometimes.”

Zola: “ I think it’s going to be brilliant and I’m not going to miss them at all.”

First off, we need somewhere to live. We’ve moved to Nuremberg in the heart of Bavaria. It’s famous for its gingerbread, its sausages and its Nazi history.

“Hello, are you Mrs. Holler?” We’ve rented a flat from Mrs. Holler

We Brits may be obsessed with buying property but Germans aren’t. More than half of them rent compared to just a third of us. And I can see why….. rents are cheap.

This two bedroom flat costs €135 a week. In Britain, I think we are obsessed with ownership and here in Germany they seem happy to rent and they rent for, like, a really long time. She was saying that people would stay for ten twenty years in a rented property. In Britain there’s real kind of pressure and expectation that if you can you’ll buy and do you know what, I should think it seems a lot healthier. It means the Germans don’t saddle themselves with huge debts.

In Britain the average family owes 53 thousand pounds including mortgages. In Germany it’s just under 30 thousand pounds.

The kids are making themselves at home and I’m expecting our first German visitor.

BJ is an advertising guru. His ad agency specializing in knowing exactly what the average German does every minute of every day.

BJ: “ We did quite a lot of research on how the typical German lives. I brought you some things to learn about typical Germans in this area.”

And according to the film, the typical German is called “Müller”, the nation’s most common surname, and lives in a 1970s apartment block. Müller lives in a flat just like ours.

Sabine is the most common female name, so that’s me.

And here’s me, Thomas Müller, is the most common male name. The Müllers have only one child unlike us.

Germans certainly get up early. 20 minutes earlier than the average Brit.

BJ “Let’s talk about tomorrow morning. Are you prepared to go a bit earlier than usual? 6:23, that’s when you have to get up. And then the good thing is, you can take a bit of time in the bathroom.”

The video goes into extraordinary detail. No surprise that I pee standing up but then I sit down and read the sports section of the newspaper. German men sit on the loo for twice as long as German women. And when it comes to loo paper, the Germans are folders, not crumblers.

In fact, I get 24.6 minutes in the bathroom.

I get to sleep a bit longer and spend 28.1 minutes in the bathroom.

BJ” With two little children being in the family and not in the school, the typical German wife would not go to work actually. Spend time at home with the kids doing housework. Also to teach the kids proper table manners.”

Bee: “That’s important to Germans?”

BJ” Yes, highly. There’s a certain amount of good behavior and how you do things in a certain structured order. So that’s very important.”

PJ gives us a German rule book which he want us to follow. A checklist telling us everything from the amount of housework and our daily pork intake.

Bee: I just don’t believe that most women want to do four hours and eleven minutes of cooking, washing and cleaning. I’ll give it a go, I’ll definitely try it. I’ll do my best.

Justin: it does look fair.

Bee: of course it doesn’t. You get to sleep and eat loads of potato, pork, white cheese, I get brown bread, you get white bread.

Justin: you get the same amount of pork, same amount of potatoes, same amount of beer as me.

Bee: Your life looks normal. To me, that just doesn’t look like a normal life. That could be that I’m not typical. Maybe I will love it.

We’ve rented a German average car.

Justin: A VW Golf is right there,bang in the middle of what the Germans would drive. It’s kind of rock solid, it’s not flash but it’s kind of well made and of course, they buy German which is quite interesting.

Germany has one of the most successful car industries in the world and here success certainly starts at home. Two thirds of all the cars on the road are German.

Bee: Girls, do you want to choose an egg? Which one is yours? Is this one yours Elsa?

http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2013/aug/07/make-me-german-tv-review

Work

Germans work shorter hours, but earn more. That's because they actually work when they're at work. We discuss the weekend – the one just gone, the one coming up, any weekend – or we're on Facebook. And Germany still makes things – cars, pencils – very well. Justin gets a job in a pencil factory, but he's late of course, because he's British. (Sometimes the situations are a little forced – oh, I'm late, because I'm British, and now I'm sending a text, that's not allowed?) German pencil-makers enjoy making pencils, and they feel a sense of belonging and community with the pencil company and their fellow workers. Shared bonus schemes help.

Play

Again, Germans are more community-minded than we are, they like to belong, to do something together with like-minded people. They meet up to sing after work, or they go to see their football team, which they part-own.

Stereotypes

Yeah, they're pretty much spot on, it appears (loads of rules, organised, efficient, even with loo paper, Germans are generally naked etc). And this film certainly doesn't shy away from stereotypes. But if they're broadly true, and broadly positive, why not? People will probably also moan about the war coming up. But it's so important to the story of modern Germany, the ashes (literally) from which it rose. Plus the Rowlatts are in Nuremberg, famous for its gingerbread, sausages and its Nazi history, as Justin says. Mention the war!

Prejudice

Yeah, also alive and well. There are many immigrants and different cultures in Nuremberg, says the Rowlatts' new neighbour, a police officer. Mainly Turkish, he thinks. It's not a problem (translation: it's a problem). The Rowlatts, being British, pretend not to notice that they're living next door to a racist. Later he comes round to tell them to keep the noise down. More rules. Oh, and if you are Turkish (or whateverish), even second or third generation, you don't have such a good job. And what do the Germans think of Britain? They don't really. It's rainy, and boring? Oi!

Women

Also not so good news, surprisingly. Booooo! Women are encouraged – by kindergarten timetables, by society, by language even (the German phrase for working women translates as raven mothers, because they abandon their children) – to stay at home to cook and clean, for more than four hours a day! The hausfrau is alive and well. And Bee's not happy about it. Go girl ... erm, go woman?

Kinder

Ah, this is better. Germans have fewer children but they have a brilliant time. They go to school in the forest (well, some do), where they climb trees and learn to love nature. They pick up all their litter of course. They poo in the woods too, like lovely little German bears. It makes the trees grow tall and strong.

I'm wondering if bathroom habits are the key to everything. Oh go on then, since we're sharing, and Bee came clean about leaving the door open, in order to natter … Well, I'm actually a quarter German, so I suppose I should leave just a crack open, so to speak, so to speak. Do I? No I bloody don't!

Bird and Fortune Financial Crisis Vocabulary
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWDdcD-1xoo

Turmoil(n) engulf(v) suspicion(n) nitpick(v) a silver lining consolation (n) moan(v) pathetic(adj) backwater(n) sophisticated(adj) compassionate(adj) conservatory(n) desperate(adj) dribble(n) parcel(v)

1. Feeling pity and sympathy

2. Having lost all hope

3. To swallow up

4. Complain

5. Having acquired worldly knowledge or refinement;

6. Arousing pity or sadness

7. To be concerned with or find fault with insignificant details

8. A hopeful or comforting prospect in the midst of difficulty.

9. A state of extreme confusion or agitation

10. Package

11. A state of uncertainty; doubt. the feeling of mistrust

12. A green house.

13. A place or situation regarded as isolated, stagnant, or backward

14. A week unsteady stream

15. Comfort

1. A state of extreme confusion or agitation Turmoil(n)

2. To swallow up engulf(v)

3. A state of uncertainty; doubt. the feeling of mistrust suspicion(n)

4. To be concerned with or find fault with insignificant details nitpick(v)

5. A hopeful or comforting prospect in the midst of difficulty. a silver lining

6. Comfort consolation (n)

7. Complain moan(v)

8. Arousing pity or sadness pathetic(adj)

9. A place or situation regarded as isolated, stagnant, or backward backwater(n)

10. Having acquired worldly knowledge or refinement; sophisticated(adj)

11. A green house. conservatory(n)

12. Having lost all hope. desperate(adj)

13. A week unsteady stream dribble(n)

14. Package parcel(v)

15. Feeling pity or sympathy compassionate (adj)

If you look hard enough	there’s a silver lining to the financial crisis.
If other people had done what I did	they wouldn’t be moaning about their food going up.
If it hadn’t been for us	the city of London would be a pathetic backwater instead of the financial centre of the world.
Think how much tax it would be	if people like me paid.
If you were a partner in a private equity firm making millions out of deals	these millions would be taxed at %10.
If an office cleaner threatened to clean an office in the Cayman Islands	the government would say “ well, p++++ off then.”
A risky loan is not risky	If you parcel it up with a lot of other loans and some other ventures of good quality.
If you do that	the bad loans get better.
If one risky loan which is put in with a whole lot of other loans which are the same	it increases the risk
If one loan goes bad,	the others are very likely to.

If you look hard enough	If you parcel it up with a lot of other loans and some other ventures of good quality.
If other people had done what I did	the government would say “ well, p++++ off then.”
If it hadn’t been for us	the bad loans get better.
Think how much tax it would be	there’s a silver lining to the financial crisis.
If you were a partner in a private equity fir making millions out of deals	it increases the risk.
If an office cleaner threatened to clean an office in the Cayman Islands	they wouldn’t be moaning about their food going up.
A risky loan is not risky	the city of London would be a pathetic backwater instead of the financial centre of the world.
If you do that	The others are very likely to
If one risky loan which is put in with the a whole lot of other loans which are the same	these millions would be taxes at %10.
If one loan goes bad,	if people like me paid.

Comprehension questions:

1. What is John Bird’s reaction to being called “an investment banker”? (an insult/name calling)

2. How does Bird describe the “Golden Age” of banking? (The world was a simpler place with a sense of certainty and order and the word of a banker was gospel.)

3. How has the attitude changed towards bankers after the crisis? ( nitpicking, finger pointing and asking difficult questions like: Where’s the money gone?)

4. How are investment bankers responsible for the financial crisis? ( They gave too much credit, paid too much, were stupidly greedy.)

5. What are they going to do about it? ( continue as before then go to the government and say they’ve been terribly stupid and get 15 billion.)

6. What is the “ silver lining” for Bird? ( he lost other people’s money and he’s still rich.)

7. In which way are the people ungrateful?

8. What was Gordon Brown’s generous tax cuts?

9. How does the business cycle work? (up and down/ greed and fear)

10. How did the banks show their “public spiritedness”? ( lending money to the poor)

11. Why is securitization “absolute magic”? ( The bad loans disappear with the good loans)

The Long Johns: Silly Money- The Financial Crisis

John Fortune: George Parr, you are an investment banker…….

John Bird: Well, I don’t think there is any call for insults or name calling.

Fortune: Sorry, I was just…

Bird: We have after all just been through a very difficult situation.

Fortune: Well, but let’s face it, you are an investment banker, and I just wanted to get your view of the turmoil that is now engulfing the financial world.

Bird: Well, I’m of a certain age, there aren’t many of us left from my generation, and I can look back at a time when the world seemed a simpler place, with some sense of certainty and order. I think of this as a golden age of banking.

Fortune: You’re thinking of the 60′s perhaps or even the 50′s.

Bird: No, I was thinking more of June last year. Why can’t we go back to the time when people took the word of a banker as gospel? Now we get suspicion, finger pointing, people arguing, and all sorts of difficult questions.

Fortune: What sort of questions?

Bird: Oh well, I don’t know. Nit-picking pointless sorts of things like, I don’t know… Where’s the money gone? As if I’m supposed to know.

Fortune: But it is generally thought that it is people like you who are generally responsible for this crisis.

Bird: Yes, well I think that’s broadly true. We’ve given far too much credit, we’ve been paid far too much, and we’ve been stupidly greedy.

Fortune: And so, what are you going to do about it? I mean, where do you go from here?

Bird: I’ve given this a great deal of thought. And what I’ve decided to do is to go on doing the same things as long as I possibly can.

Fortune: Surely that is an extraordinarily irresponsible attitude.

Bird: Well, yeah, you might say so, but I’ve considered all the options, and what seems to be the way it works is that I go to the government and I say, “I’m sorry, but I’ve done something exceptionally foolish which will cause enormous damage to the economy.”And they say, “have you? Oh. Well, then, here’s 15 billion pounds.”

Fortune: So like nearly everybody else, you lost a great deal of money on property and derivatives.

Bird: A colossal amount of money. But there is a silver lining to it all, if you look hard enough.

Fortune: Is there?

Bird: Yes. Luckily, I lost other people’s money and not my own… that’s something of a consolation.

Fortune: It must be. So, you’re all right personally.

Bird: Well, you know over the last decade it’s been up and down, sometimes I’ve had good years. Sometimes I’ve had incredibly good years. But with the best job in the world, it’s been impossible to spend the amounts I’ve earned, so I’ve still got quite a lot of it left. If other people had done what I did, they wouldn’t be moaning about their food going up.

Fortune: Many people would say that it is those who could least afford it who will suffer most from your mistakes. Those with mortgages and credit card debt, and the lower paid.

Bird: Well, I think it shows extraordinary lack of gratitude by these people for what we’ve done. I mean if it hadn’t been for us, the city of London would be just a pathetic backwater instead of the financial center of the world. Think of the billions which flow into London every day, or used to. Think of the enormous amount of tax revenue that generates.

Fortune: But people like you hardly pay any taxes.

Bird: Yes, but think of how much it would be if we did!

Fortune: But haven’t people in your world insisted on light regulation by the government? And a generous tax regime. In 2002, the Gordon Brown cut the capital gains tax on business assets held for two years from 40% to 10%. If you were a partner in a private equity firm making millions out of deals, these millions would be taxed at 10%. In effect, they would be paying income tax at 10% while their office cleaners were paying 20%.

Bird: Yes, as is often said, but it’s quite simplistic a lot of private equity partners weren’t paying anything like 10%.

Fortune: No?

Bird: No, a lot of them were paying 5%. Some of them were paying nothing. In 2006 there were 52 billionaires in this country, 32 of them didn’t pay any income tax at all.

Fortune: Well, why did the government go along with this?

Bird: Because the private equity firms went to them and threatened to move their businesses abroad, and the government said, “Please don’t do that. We want you to stay here.” If an office cleaner went to the government and threatened to go and clean an office in the Cayman Islands, the government would say, “Well, piss off then.”

Fortune: George Parr, as an investment banker, why are we so poor when last year we were so rich?

Bird: Well of course, I still am rich. But I take your general point. It’s to do with the business cycle.

Fortune:The business cycle. How does that work?

Bird: It is a very sophisticated mechanism. Sometimes it goes up and sometimes it goes down. When there’s more greed than fear, it goes up and when there’s more fear than greed it goes down.

Fortune: So, you’re saying that the banks have been too greedy?

Bird: No, no. Not at all. Not at all. The opposite is the case. The banks have always been noted for their public spiritedness, for having the interest of the poorest in mind.

Fortune: Have they? I must have missed that.

Bird: Over the last few years, the banks have been saying to themselves, “ We’ve lent all the money we can to people who’ve got some assets and some prospects , how can we start lending to people who haven’t got any money or prospects or any hope of paying it back?”

Fortune: The banks were being compassionate, were they?

Bird: Oh, very, very much so, very much so. Of course we can charge much higher interest from those sort of people. A commercial bank will go to one of their poorest customers, say a single mother who hasn’t worked for five years, whose constantly going over her credit limit, is behind on her credit card payments, who can’t keep up the mortgage and then somebody’ll ring her up and say “ How would you like us to lend you the money for a new conservatory?”

Fortune: And what does she say?

Bird: She says she’s not sure about it.

Fortune:Why not?

Bird: Because she lives on the tenth floor of a tower block. But the man at the bank goes on trying. What you have to remember is that these people are really desperate.

Fortune:The people in the tower block?

Bird: No, the people at the bank. They’re not paid very well so they need their sales bonus just to make a decent living. So this woman gets a second mortgage.

Fortune:But isn’t that terribly risky for the bank?

Bird: Well, you would think so, wouldn’t you. So would I but then I’m not very good with figures. But I have some very clever chaps working for me and they found a way around this risk. They came up with what’s called “Securitization”.

Fortune:And how does that work?

Bird: It’s absolute magic. The first thing is, it’s no good for the bank just to hold onto a mortgage on its own. All it means is that we get some pathetic dribble of interest a every month for the next 30 years which does absolutely nothing for our bonuses.

Fortune: You might not live that long.

Bird: That’s slightly unnecessary, if I may say so.

Fortune: I’m sorry.

Bird: No, no. But you’re quite right. So what we do is, we take this mortgage, put it together with a lot of other mortgages and a bit of debt, parcel it up into what is called a Structured Investment Vehicle or a Collaterized Debt Obligation and we sell it.

Fortune: The advantage of that being……..

Bird: Being that we can book the whole lot straight away as being a profit and that does wonders for our bonuses.

Fortune: And you don’t have to wait 30 years for the money.

Bird: Precisely.

Fortune: But a risky loan is still a risky loan. Isn’t it?

Bird: Not if you parcel it up with a lot of other loans and some other ventures of good quality. It you do that, the bad loans somehow get better.

Fortune: All on their own?

Bird: Sort of all on their own. Yes, because I mean we’re in very deep waters here, mathematically and the people who devise these financial instruments are incredibly clever. You see, one of the things which makes loans risky when you mix them all up together is what is called “correlation”. If one very risky loan is put in with a whole lot of other loans that are very much the same, it increases the risk.

Fortune: So if one loan goes bad, the others are very likely to.

Bird: Exactly, so we had to be sure there was very little correlation in the loans in the CDO (Collaterized Debt Obligation).

Fortune: Such as their being a lot of subprime loans to American house buyers with no chance of paying them back.

IBM 5in5
http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/us/en/ibm_predictions_for_future/ideas/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tuisda1q6ns

IBM 5in5 2011

IBM is bridging the gap between what?

Between science fiction and science fact

How will we be able to power our houses in 5 years?

We will be able to power our houses with the energy we create ourselves.

How?

Anything that moves has the potential to create energy eg. Running shoes,Water in the pipes, riding bicycle. We will be able to collect this energy and use it to power our homes workplace and cities. E.g collecting untapped energy on the spokes of our bicycles, in Ireland/ the waves

Why will we never need a password again in the future?

Our biological make up is the key to our identity and soon it will be the key to safeguarding it.

Retinol scan and voice files will be composited through software to build our unique DNA online password. We will be able to walk up to an ATM machine and be able to withdraw money by simply speaking our name or looking into the camera.

We will be able to opt in or out of any information we choose to provide.

How will we see the application of mind reading technology?

Within 5 years we will see the application of this technology beyond PC games. Doctors can use the technology to test brain patterns possibly even assist in rehabilitation and help in understanding brain disorders such as autism.

IBM scientist are researching how to link your brain to your electronic devices such as your PC or smart phone. So you just need think about calling someone and it happens.

What is the IBM motto?

“Just think”

How will mind reading technology echo this motto?

In the future if you want to type something you don’t need to hit a button or say a word you just need to think it.

How are mobile devices decreasing the information-accessibility gap?

Growing communities will be able to use mobile technology to provide access to essential information

Lesson plan suggestions:

Print out each article for the 5 predictions. Divide the article among the students and then each one informs the group about the information in their article.

Hand out the comprehension question for the video and then play the video. Students answer the questions and then discuss the potential of each prediction.

Great Global Warming Swindle

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVLBnhSu4TY

Prof. Paul Reiter: “Imagine that we live in an age of reason and the global warming alarm is dressed up as science, but it is not science; it’s propaganda.”

Prof. Nir Shaviv: There is no direct evidence which links 20^th century global warming with anthropogenic greenhouse gasses.

Nigel Calder: “We’re just being told lies, that’s what it comes down to.”

Prof. Ian Clark: “We can’t say that CO2 will drive climate, it certainly never did in the past.”

Prof. Tim Ball: “If the Co2 increases in the atmosphere as a greenhouse gas, then the temperature will go up but the ice core record shows exactly the opposite. So, the fundamental assumption, the most fundamental assumption of the whole theory of climate change, due to humans, is shown to be wrong.”

Nigel Calder: “The whole thing stinks.”

Man made global warming is no longer just a theory about climate, it is the defining moral and political cause of our age.

Campaigners say the time for debate is over. Any criticism, no matter how scientifically rigorous, is illegitimate. Even worse, dangerous.

But in this film, it will be shown that the earth’s climate is always changing and that there is nothing unusual about the current temperature and that the scientific evidence does not support the notion that climate is driven by carbon dioxide, man-made or otherwise.

Everywhere you are being told that man made climate change is proved beyond doubt but you are being told lies.

Prof. Tim Ball: When people say “ I don’t believe in global warming”, I say, no I believe in global warming, I don’t believe that human CO2 is causing that warming.”

Prof. Nir Shaviv: “ A few years ago if you would ask me I would tell you “It’s Co2”. Why? Because just like everyone else in the public, I listened to what the media had to say.”

Each day the media reports grow more fantastically apocalyptic. Politicians no longer dare to express any doubt about climate change.

Lord Lawson of Blaby : There is such intolerance about any dissenting voice. This is the most politically incorrect thing possible, is to doubt this climate change orthodoxy.

Global warming has gone beyond politics. It is a new kind of morality.

TV presenter: “ Now the prime minister is back from his holiday and is unrepentant and unembarrassed about yet another long haul destination.”

Yet, as the frenzy of the man made global warming grows shriller, many senior climate scientists say the actual scientific basis for the theory is crumbling.

Prof. Nir Shaviv: There were periods for example in earth’s history when we had three times as much CO2 as we have today or periods when we had ten times as much as we have today. And if CO2 has a large effect on climate then you should see it in the temperature reconstruction.”

Prof. Ian Clark: “If we look at the climate in the geological time frame, we would never suspect CO2 as a major climate driver.”

Dr. Piers Corbyn: “None of the major climate changes in the last thousand years can be explained by CO2.”

Prof. Ian Clark: “We can’t say that CO2 will drive climate. It certainly never did in the past.”

Prof. John Christy: “I’ve often heard it said that there is a consensus of thousands of scientists on the global warming issue. That humans are causing a catastrophic change to the climate system. Well, I am one scientist and there are many who think that is simply not true.

Man made global warming is no ordinary scientific theory. It is presented in the media as having the stanmp of authority of an impressive international organization. United Nations Intergovenmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC.

Prof. Philip Stott : “The IPCC, like any UN body, is political. The final conclusions are politically driven.”

Prof. Paul Reiter : “ This claim that the IPCC is the world’s top 1500 or 2500 scientists. You look at the bibliographies of the people and it’s simply not true. There are quite a number of non scientists”

Prof. Robert Linden: “and to build the number up to 2500, they have to start taking reviewers and government people and so on… anyone who ever came close to them and none of them are asked to agree. Many of them disagree.”

Prof: Paul Reiter: “ Those people who are specialists but don’t agree with the polemic and resign, and there have been a number that I know of, they are simply put on the author list and become part of this “2500, the world’s top scientists”.

Prof. Richard Lindzen: “ People have decided you have to convince other people that since no scientist disagrees you shouldn’t disagree either. But whenever you hear that in science that’s pure propaganda.”

This is a story about how a theory about climate turned into a political ideology.

Patrick Moore: “You see, I don’t even like to call the environmental movement anymore because really it is a political activist movement and they have become hugely influential at a global level.”

It is the story of a distortion of a whole area of science.

Dr. Roy Spencer : “Climate scientists need for there to be a problem in order to get funding.”

Prof. John Christy: “We have a vested interest in creating panic because then money will flow to climate science.”

Prof. Richard Lindzen: “There’s one thing you shouldn’t say and that is: “This might not be a problem.”

It is the story of how a political campaign turned into a bureaucratic bandwagon

Prof. Patrick Michaels: “Fact of the matter is that tens of thousands of jobs depend on the global warming right now. It’s big business.”

Prof. Philip Stott : “It’s become a great industry in itself and if the whole global warming forrago were to collapse, there would be an awful lot of people out of jobs and looking for work.”

This is the story of censorship and intimidation.

Nigel Calder: I have seen and heard them spitting fury at anybody who might disagree with them which is not the scientific way.”

It is the story about westerners invoking the threat of climatic disaster to hinder vital industrial progress in the developing world.

James Shikwati. “One clear thing that emerges from the whole environmental debate is the point that there’s somebody keen to kill the African dream. And the African dream is to develop.”

Patrick Moore: “ The environmental movement has evolved into the strongest force there is to preventing development in the developing countries.”

The global warming story is a cautionary tale of how the media scare became the defining idea of a generation.

Nigel Calder: “The whole global warming business had become like a religion and people who disagree are called “heretics”.I’m a heretic. The makers of this programme are all heretics.”

The Apprentice Season 4 Episode 1 Clip 1

THE APPRENTICE

Series 4, episode 1, clip 1

www.youtube.com : The Apprentice UK S04E01 P01

Age group : Teenagers/ adults

Level : intermediate +

First give student the vocabulary worksheet. Ask if they are familiar with any words and then help them match the meanings to the words.

Next give students the worksheet with the pictures. Explain that they are going to watch a clip of a very popular reality show in Britain and they should listen for the vocabulary in worksheet 1 and fill in the information next to the photos in

worksheet 2.

Play the clip to the end of the introduction. Discuss the vocabulary and the answers to the exercises.

Listening comprehension: Give them worksheet 3 and play the clip again so they can fill in the missing words.

Play the clip to the end and use the discussion questions to guide listening.

The discussion questions can be done either before or after the listening exercise.

Follow up:

Students watch the clips at home and discuss in class. Watch last episode together and discuss.

This lesson can be made part of a lesson on writing CVs and doing interviews for business English classes.

Predicting: Who do you think wins the first task?

Additional links:

http://www.businessenglishonline.net/e-lessons/July2008/IC0213S-apprentice.pdf

www.averusa.com/presentation/uploads/apprentice-doccamera-lesson.doc

THE APPRENTICE

Series 4, episode 1, clip 1

www.youtube.com : The Apprentice UK S04E01 P01

Worksheet 1

Tycoon(n) thrash(v) outrageous(adj) inherent(adj) adviser(n)

roam(v) tough(adj) apprehensive(adj) aerial(n) win favour(v) rate(v)

common sense(n) poser(n) unique(adj) vast(adj) mortals(n)

suited and booted(adj) close- knit (adj) quake(v) not have a clue (idiom)

to feel anxious and fearful about the future. Nervous and uneasy.
well-dressed.
a wealthy and powerful business person.
held tightly together by social or cultural ties.
to defeat completely and utterly.
special. One of a kind.
gain approval.
an expert who gives advice.
a person who likes to be seen in trendy clothes in fashionable places.
inborn; forming a natural and inseparable part or quality.
know nothing.
to be ranked in a particular class.
human.
difficult.
huge. Very big
to moved about without purpose.
shake or tremble as if with fear.
shockingly unacceptable.
Plain ordinary good judgment; sound practical sense.
A radio antenna

Worksheet 2

Sir Alan Sugar	Who is he? When did he leave school? What did he do? How much is he worth now? What is he famous for? Whose ear does he have?
Margaret Mountford	How does Sir Alan describe her?
Nick Hewer	What is his job in the programme?

Ian Stringer	What kind of people are there in life?
Sara Dhada	What is her strategy? What is business about?
Raef Bjayou	What is his tool? How is he in situations where mere mortals quake?
Jennifer Maguire	How does she rate herself?
Nicholas de Lacy - Brown	Why does he think he has to get to the top?
Michael Sophocles	What is he happy to do? How does he describe himself?

Worksheet 3

It’s the job interview from ____________.

From across the country, Britain’s ______________ of tomorrow are heading for London.

Ian: In life there are two types of people: There are _____________ and the second one….. I can’t say it and I won’t say it.

Sara: I’m ready for the biggest, __________ challenge of my life. My strategy is very aggressive. Play to win. Not only beat the other candidates, but ____________ them.

Raef: I’m a natural born salesman. It’s what I do. The _________ __________ is my tool.

_______ candidates have been chosen from ___________ applicants.

Jennifer: As a salesperson, I __________ myself as probably the best in Europe.

Nicholas: In my law degree I got a first class honour’s, in my master’s I got a distinction. There is something ____________ within me which means I have to get to the top.

They’re here to fight it out for a dream job worth ________________ pounds.

Michael: I’m quite happy to _______ people _____ of my life if I think it’s going to help me be a success…..be a winner.

But to succeed, they will have to ______ __________with the boss…… Sir Alan Sugar.

Sir Alan: It ‘s up to you. You open your bloody mouth or I’ll fire the bloody five of you if I have to. I don’t give a shit.

___________ and to the point, Sir Alan left school at sixteen selling car aerials from the back of a van.

Sir Alan: This stuff is so simple. Just ____________ ___________.

These days he’s worth more than _________ million pounds. Famous for computer giant Amstrad, recently sold for __________ million pounds, Sir Alan now controls a ______ business empire.

As a government adviser, he has the ear of the Prime Minister and today once again, he’s on the hunt for an apprentice.

Sir Alan: Don’t start telling me that you’re just like me. No one’s like me. I’m ___________.

He’ll put these young business ____________ through his punishing selection process.

______ candidates, _________ weeks, ______ job.

Sir Alan: You haven ‘t got a bloody ________. Not a bloody clue. This was a total disaster. You’re fired.

Jenny

Celerier

Claire

Young

Lindi

Mnganza

Shazia

Wahab

Simon

Smith

Hélène

Speight

Lucinda

Ledgerwood

Alex

Wotherspoon

Kevin

Shaw

Lee

Mcqueen

Comprehension questions

How is the interview described?

What is the programme about?

How many candidates are there?

Who is Sir Alan Sugar?

When did he leave school?

What did he do after he left school?

How much is he worth now.

Whose ear does he have?

How is the selection process?

What tasks do the candidates have to do.

What is the criteria for winning?

What do you think of Sir Alan as a boss?

How does he describe the process?

How does he describe Margaret Mountford and Nick Hewer?

What is their role?

Where will the candidates live?

How are the teams divided?

What is their first task after their boardroom meeting with Sir Alan?

What did Sir Alan do before he became a tycoon?

What team names do the boys propose?

What is the chosen name?

What team names do the girls propose?

What do they decide on?

What is the next task after choosing a name?

Script for the teacher

It’s the job interview from hell.

From across the country, Britain’s tycoons of tomorrow are heading for London.

Ian: In life there are two types of people: There are winners and the second one….. I can’t say it and I won’t say it.

Sara: I’m ready for the biggest, toughest challenge of my life. My strategy is very aggressive. Play to win. Not only beat the other candidates, but thrash them.

Raef: I’m a natural born salesman. It’s what I do. The spoken word is my tool.

16 candidates have been chosen from 20,000 applicants.

Jennifer: As a salesperson, I rate myself as probably the best in Europe.

Nicholas: In my law degree I got a first class honour’s, in my master’s I got a distinction. There is something inherently within me which means I have to get to the top.

They’re here to fight it out for a dream job worth 100,000 pounds.

Michael: I’m quite happy to cut people out of my life if I think it’s going to help me be a success…..be a winner.

But to succeed, they will have to win favour with the boss…… Sir Alan Sugar.

Sir Alan: It ‘s up to you. You open your bloody mouth or I’ll fire the bloody lot of if I have to. I don’t give a shit.

Tough and to the point, Sir Alan left school at sixteen selling car aerials from the back of a van.

Sir Alan: This stuff is so simple. Just common sense.

These days he’s worth more than 800 million pounds. Famous for computer giant Amstrad, recently sold for 125 million pounds, Sir Alan now controls a vast business empire.

As a government adviser, he has the ear of the Prime Minister and today once again, he’s on the hunt for an apprentice.

Sir Alan: Don’t start telling me that your’re just like me. No one’s like me. I’m unique.

He’ll put these young business prospects through his punishing selection process.

16 candidates, 12 weeks, one job.

Sir Alan: You haven ‘t got a bloody clue. Not a bloody clue. This was a total disaster. You’re fired.

Question for second half of first clip:

1. How do the candidates feel?	Apprehensive, nervous.
2. What is the “ Apprentice about?	One of the candidates is going to work for Sir Alan Sugar on a six figure salary.
3. How long has Sir Alan been in business?	40 years
4. What is the winner’s prize?	Working for Sir Alan
5. Describe the what they have to do.	Sugar is going to set business tasks every week. Two teams execute the task. One team wins and one person in the losing team will get fired.
6. How does Sugar describe the programme?	- Business boot camp.
7. Where are the candidates going to live?	In a converted glass factory. .
8. What is the first task?	Sir Alan has given them a vanload of fish and permission to roam the streets of London and trade. The team with the most amount of money wins.
9. How are the teams divided?	Boys against girls.
10. How many hours do they have to sell?	10
11. What do they have to do first?	Turn themselves from total strangers into a close-knit team.
12. What professions do some of them have?	_ Jennifer is in sales. _ Nicholas is a barrister. _ Michael is a telesales recruitment training manger
13. What does selling fish require?	Find the customer, get a good price, make a profit.
14. What did Sir Alan do when he first started his business?	Packed boxes. Drove vans. Loaded and unloaded vans.
15. What’s the first job for the teams?	To choose a name. Boys: Alchemy – magic Dynamic Impetus – drive Renaissance – rebirth Gravitas- pompous- weighty. Girls: Strike- strong- complete success- complete knock out Alpha- dominant- brightest star in the constellation- the beginning of the Greek alphabet – looks like a fish.

Question for second half of first clip:

1. How do the candidates feel?
2. What is the “ Apprentice about?
3. How long has Sir Alan been in business?
4. What is the winner’s prize?
5. Describe the what they have to do.
6. How does Sugar describe the programme?
7. Where are the candidates going to live?	.
8. What is the first task?
9. How are the teams divided?
10. How many hours do they have to sell?
11. What do they have to do first?
12. What professions do some of them have?
13. What does selling fish require?
14. What did Sir Alan do when he first started his business?
15. What’s the first job for the teams?

Greece Youtube clip: Big Fat Greek Debt

Greece

made the mistake in earlier government back in the early part of this last decade. They made the mistake of taking advice from Wall Street’s investment bank Goldman Sachs in ways to use exotic derivatives to literally hide their public debt from the European Commission in Brussels.

Of course, the joining of Greece into the Eurozone requires that Greece adhere to strict principles of deficit to the annual GDP of public debt to GDP and so forth. And by using these Goldman Sachs derivative instruments, the Greek government was able to hide literally billions of dollars worth of debt off of the books.

That began to come to light late last year when a new government, the Papndreao government begin to make a clean breast of things and reveal that the public deficit in spending was up to

13% in GDP, a staggering level that we have not seen except in some third world countries during the 1980,s debt crisis.

Let’s talk about the role of the EU. Should the EU drop struggling members to stay afloat?

No, I don’t think that’s going to happen, it’s not politically realistic once you begin to do that it would be like the United States after the constitution was signed by the various colonies and you had a central union it would be like that states dropping off one by one because they have a bad economy and the rest of them don’t want to carry it.

No, the Eurozone and the European Central Bank are here to stay and the fact that the Merckel government in Germany backed down on its hard line stance against a bailout indicates that when push comes to shove they will bailout it out.

I think what we’ll see now are very strict conditions on all Eurozone member countries going forward that will prevent this kind of thing happening in the future. I think a very healthy step would be for the governments of the Eurozone, including the Greek government which still uses Goldman Sachs as their now principal financial adviser on their debt issuance and that ‘s like letting the fox guard the henhouse . So, I think the European Union governments would do very well to take Goldman Sachs which is under federal investigation charged with fraudulent practice in the US and make sure these large banks like Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and so forth are not in the position to use these over the counter derivatives to manipulate public debt and weaken the finances of Euroland.

By the way Goldman Sachs makes a profit on both ends of the bargain; they make a profit on shorting the Euro in the last months because of the public fears of the Greek deficit, and that’s insider information that they had to an extent that nobody outside the Greek government had because of their special position so, I think this augean stable of Wall Street and City of London financial practices simply have to be cleaned out for once and for all and these banks we call to big to fall have to be closed down, nationalized, chopped into small bite size pieces that can function as normal business banking, industrial banking.

The Impotence of Proofreading by Taylor Mali

The the impotence of proofreading
By Taylor Mali
www.taylormali.com

Has this ever happened to you?
You work very horde on a paper for English clash
And then get a very glow raid (like a D or even a D=)
and all because you are the word¹s liverwurst spoiler.
Proofreading your peppers is a matter of the the utmost impotence.

This is a problem that affects manly, manly students.
I myself was such a bed spiller once upon a term
that my English teacher in my sophomoric year,
Mrs. Myth, said I would never get into a good colleague.
And that¹s all I wanted, just to get into a good colleague.
Not just anal community colleague,
because I wouldn¹t be happy at anal community colleague.
I needed a place that would offer me intellectual simulation,
I really need to be challenged, challenged menstrually.
I know this makes me sound like a stereo,
but I really wanted to go to an ivory legal colleague.
So I needed to improvement
or gone would be my dream of going to Harvard, Jail, or Prison
(in Prison, New Jersey).

So I got myself a spell checker
and figured I was on Sleazy Street.

But there are several missed aches
that a spell chukker can¹t can¹t catch catch.
For instant, if you accidentally leave a word
your spell exchequer won¹t put it in you.
And God for billing purposes only
you should have serial problems with Tori Spelling
your spell Chekhov might replace a word
with one you had absolutely no detention of using.
Because what do you want it to douch?
It only does what you tell it to douche.
You¹re the one with your hand on the mouth going clit, clit, clit.
It just goes to show you how embargo
one careless clit of the mouth can be.

Which reminds me of this one time during my Junior Mint.
The teacher read my entire paper on A Sale of Two Titties
out loud to all of my assmates.
I¹m not joking, I¹m totally cereal.
It was the most humidifying experience of my life,
being laughed at pubically.

So do yourself a flavor and follow these two Pisces of advice:
One: There is no prostitute for careful editing.
And three: When it comes to proofreading,
the red penis your friend.

Papandreo made a clean breast of things

Staggering

To drop struggling members to stay afloat

Struggling

Hard line stance

When push comes to shove

Letting the fox guard the henhouse

Bite sized pieces

Amid

Augean stables - (Greek mythology) the extremely dirty stables that were finally cleaned by Hercules who diverted two rivers through them

Shorting is the process of borrowing a security, then selling it in the hopes it will fall in value so you can buy it back at a lower price before returning the security to its rightful owner.
In theory, losses from shorting are limitless, since the price of a security can theoretically rise forever. Practically, this does not happen since no stock rises to infinity. However, a shorted stock price can rise enough to wipe you out.

Exotic derivatives

The types of derivative financial instrument which have been described in this section, both exchange traded and over the counter, are commonly and widely used by large companies and financial institutions to hedge risk (or sometimes to speculate). Such products are sometimes referred to as ‘vanilla’ or ‘plain vanilla’.

More innovative and less usual derivative products are often called ‘exotic’. The term has no precise meaning.

Pretty Woman Shopping
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgZ5zM0e-iU

Pretty Woman Shopping vocabulary

Fidgeting

Divine

Obscene

Profane

Offensive

Suck up

Reckon with

To wait on someone

Commission

A tale of two brains

I start with men's brains. I explain that men's brains are made up of little boxes and we have a box for everything. We have a box for the car. We have a box for the money. We have a box for the job, a box for the kids, a box for you, a box for your mother somewhere in the basement.
And the rule is the boxes do not touch. All right? When a man discusses a particular subject, he goes to the appropriate box, slides it out, opens it up, will discuss only the content of that particular box and then when he is done, he puts it away hoping not to touch or disturb any of the other boxes.
Now a woman's brain is made up of a big ball of wire. It is like the Internet super highway where everything is connected to everything. And the car is, kids -- [mumbling] -- and she will start talking about one thing. "And I thought about this and my mom told me this and I -- la la la la."
And of course, the guy is going --." [looking confused] "What box are you in, man?" Because he can't follow her because men don't do that. We start with the one subject.

But to women, everything is game because everything is connected to everything. Now all of this is driven by energy that we call emotion. It is one of the reasons why women tend to remember everything. Because it is a scientific fact if you take an event and connect it to an emotion, it will burn into your memory and you can remember it forever. The same thing happens for men, it just doesn't happen very often because quite frankly, we don't care. Women tend to care about everything!
Now we men have a box in our brains that most women are completely unaware of. This particular box has nothing in it. It is true.
In fact, we call it the "nothing box." And of all the boxes a man has in his brain, our nothing box is our favorite box! If a man has the opportunity, he will go to his nothing box every time. That's why a man can do something seemingly completely brain dead for hours on end. You know, like fishing.
And women don't understand this and it drives them crazy because nothing irritates a woman more than to witness a man doing nothing. Correct? Then she gets mad at him and quits talking to him.
It is the process of just doing nothing, thinking about nothing, reflecting about nothing. Women don't understand it.
She will see her husband in that glorious vegetative state -- and she will come up to him and say, "What are you thinking about?"
And he'll go, "Nothing!"
And she gets mad! "Well, you've got to be thinking about something!"
"No, I'm thinking about nothing. In fact, I was on a roll 'til you showed up!"
And women get really, really mad at their husbands because they're convinced, James, they're convinced we're withholding from them some deep emotional thought.
Nope, nothing! There ain't nothing there, man!
Now, a few years ago the University of Pennsylvania did a study with men's brains and women's brains and discovered that men, in fact, have the ability to think about absolutely nothing and still breathe.
In fact, they say, up to 70% of a man's brain activity just goes --(flatline noise on heart machine) -- and we love it

But women, they can't stop, their brains are constantly going [ddjt-ddjt-ddjt-ddjt]. They don't understand it. They can't relate to it. "How can you sit there and do nothing? What's the matter with you? What are you thinking about? What do you mean nothing? Come on!" And they get really bitter because they're convinced we're holding out on them.
When women understand that this is normal for men, he is not withholding from you, he is not robbing from you some great, deep, emotional truth, he is just a man, then they quit feeling so threatened by the behavior.

English Inspirations

Seiten

Video clips

Exotic derivatives

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