English Lessons that Speak. Self-access learning and development. Lesson B7. QT

Click and listen to each sentence as many times as you like

Say each sentence as many times as you like

Practise saying each sentence until it sounds right

	Practise saying the different music styles listed below:
		Jazz
		Soul
		Salsa
		Classical music
		Folk
		Pop
		World music
		New age
		Blues
		Traditional
		Choral
		Operatic

Interview with Ms X

	Now listen to this interview with a singer.
Paulo:	So, Ms X, what was your childhood like?
Ms X:	Well, I grew up in quite a poor area of London. I remember having to share a bed with two of my sisters and we never had any of the expensive high-tech trainers or games that kids have today. We were lucky if we had a ball to play with and a few pence for sweets once a week. Friday and Saturday nights were mostly spent hanging around outside the various night spots in the town where they would always be playing some great jazz or blues, the drums and bass carrying right through the neighbourhood, sort of calling you out to go and see what was going on, you know? Those singers had some serious lungpower - it made me decide that I'd like to make a lot of noise myself one day!
Paulo:	They obviously made an impression on you! What other music has influenced you?
Ms X:	We did lots of traditional choral singing in school, lots of classical stuff like Verdi's Requiem and Hyden's Creation but I always preferred more earthy sounds - drums and percussion - African, Latin and Egyptian, electric and double bass, piano and electric keyboards and rhythm guitar like the guy in Chic played or like African artist Hugh Masekela would play. I decided I would go with the groove, and abandon classical music! I do still listen to opera; the amount of power and control they get on their vocals is amazing, it's almost not human! Mostly though I listen to soul singers like Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder, although I like boy bands and I think that pop done commercially by bands like The Spice Girls is a pure art form in itself.

Grammar revision: use of gerund (doing) and full infinitive (to do)

	Look at these two sentences from the interview:
		I remember having to share a bed with two of my sisters.
		Saturday nights were spent hanging around.
		Many verbs in English are followed by a gerund (verb +ing). Here are just a few examples of useful verbs which need a gerund :-
		They're used to listening to loud music!
		She's finished practising the piano for today.
		I gave up playing the violin when I was ten.
		He keeps buying old jazz records.

	Other verbs need to be followed by a second verb in the full infinitive.
	For example:
	It made me decide that I'd like to make a lot of noise.
	I decided to go with the groove

	Other verbs are followed by a gerund OR infinitive, according to the meaning.
	For example:
	Remember to go shopping after work tonight. = a reminder for the future.
	I remember having to share a bed with two of my sisters. = remembering the past.
	I'd love to come to the concert with you. = something you want to do in the future.
	I love playing the guitar. = to generally take pleasure in something.

	The verbs below are in three groups. Which group of verbs are followed by a gerund, which the full infinitive and which group are verbs that can be followed by either the gerund OR the full infinitive?
	Group A
	begin
	hate
	start
	need
	Group B
	ask
	warn
	persuade
	Group C
	admit
	dislike
	Click 'Answers ' to see if you were right!

A Visit to a Fashion Gallery.

	Listen to these visitors as they are shown round a museum by their guide.
Guide:	Welcome to the museum's Fashion Gallery where you will be guided through our collection of nineteenth and twentieth century garments, as well as our collection of European and Ceremonial Dress. Here you see an array of wedding gowns...
Safir:	Excuse me, I notice that some of these designs are a bit similar to some of today's wedding dresses.
Guide:	Yes, that's true. Fashion always seems to have a way of fading in and out of favour depending on the mood of the times. Some periods have designs that are very understated and subtle, reflecting a more contemplative age and others have a lot of detail and intricacy, in times of greater wealth and vanity! As social trends swing backward and forward, so fashion follows!
Karl:	I was reading an article the other day that related fashion to moments of social and religious significance, not day to day clothes, but things like wedding garments.
Guide:	Absolutely. Most cultures have specific garments for things like coming of age, birth and death - however, fashion also has a very fickle side, which is what we would normally think of when we think of fashion.
Karl:	D'you mean like short skirts or blue hair?
Safir:	My mum used to wear all that stuff in the seventies!
Guide:	As I said, fashion does have an uncanny way of disappearing and reappearing, especially when it's been gone long enough to be missed! Most generations think they're creating new fashions but you can nearly always find their influences somewhere in the past! For example, different trends today have elements of style from the 19th century, right through to the eighties. We have long Victorian style straight skirts, sixties mini-skirts, seventies flared trousers and coloured patterns, eighties glitter, and eco-clothes from the nineties. All these ideas are being combined with 21st century high tech fabrics and accessories to form the new fashions. Anyway, let's move on to the next room...

Vocabulary and pronunciation: useful words.

	Listen to the pronunciation of these words and find out their meaning.
		Collection
		Twentieth century
		An array
		Mood
		Understated
		Subtle
		Contemplative
		Intricacy
		Vanity
		Social trends
		Significance
		Garments
		Fickle
		Influence
		Smart
		Casual
		Leisure
		Sporty
		Traditional
		Formal

Vocabulary: word building

	You can build up your vocabulary by looking at the different forms a word can take and the phrases a word is used with.
	For example:
	Fashion / fashionable / the latest fashion / unfashionable / old-fashioned.
	A trend / trendy
	Style / styled / hairstyle / stylish
	How many different words and phrases can you make using the word 'society'?
Click 'Answers ' to see if you were right!

The Media

	Listen to this written text about the media
	The Media, newspapers, journals, television, films, advertising, have played an increasingly important part in people's lives over the last hundred or so years. News now comes to us instantaneously from all over the world and enables us to keep informed about global events.
	There are 2 main styles of newspaper in the UK: tabloid papers, such as the Daily Mirror and larger broadsheet newspapers, such as The Times. Other countries also have other types of newspapers, and there are thousands of different types of journals and magazines world-wide.
	Advertising is promoted through all forms of the media and we are surrounded every day by adverts on posters, in the papers, on the television and in films. Most advertisements or 'ads' show the product name and have a slogan, which when put with music is called a jingle.
	The media of course uses satellite and other technology, and it is now sometimes difficult to know what is 'real' in a film, TV programme or advert, and what has been altered or generated by computer technology!

	Pronunciation: key words.
	Listen to the text again and listen to how some of the key words (underlined) are pronounced in the sentences.

T.V and film violence.

	Listen to this conversation between two friends.
Jan:	Frank, do you think being exposed to all this gratuitous violence on the TV is going to effect our kids? I mean this is the third programme tonight when someone's either been killed or been beaten up!
Frank:	I don't know really, I don't think they're even watching it.
Jan:	Well, last week Patrick was running round shouting "put 'em up, put 'em up" and pretending to shoot people going by - my mother nearly had a heart attack!
Frank:	Maybe you've got a point. I suppose I'm just so used to it that I don't really notice, but actually it must have some effect - I mean, there probably isn't a day that goes by without seeing some criminal act of violence or other. Perhaps we shouldn't let them watch so much T.V.
Jan:	Yeah, I've thought about that, but my friend Mary tried to keep her little boy from seeing or playing with guns and one day he bit a piece of toast into the shape of a gun and held it up shouting "bang, bang"!
Frank:	So much for careful parenting! Actually, the kids were watching some cartoons the other day and I thought that they were really violent, I mean every few seconds there was some character getting squashed or falling off a cliff or something and they just thought it was hilarious!
Jan:	Oh well, I suppose violence is part of human nature. Anyway, let's turn over and watch the news.

Vocabulary and Pronunciation: types of programmes and films.

	Listen to how these words are pronounced. Notice how some need the word 'film' after them, while others do not.
		A Comedy
		A serial
		A soap-opera
		A sequel
		An action film
		A thriller
		A romance
		A documentary
		A drama
		An adventure film
		A tragedy

Answers

Group A answer =either gerund or infinitive.
Group B answer = infinitive
Group C answer = gerund

Click BACK to get back to where you were in the lesson.

Answer to using the word 'society'

social - sociable - unsociable - social trend - high society - . . .

Click BACK to get back to where you were in the lesson.

Ta i l p i e c e
As one door closes another one opens.

Course B
End of Lesson B7

(Play the Song)

Link to Introduction
Links to other Lessons in Course B : 1 2 3 4 5 6 * 8 9 10

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