Conditional Type 3 with Keith Whitley: Interactive Cloze Activity

 

Here's a simple fun activity for you to practise listening and conditionals.

First, listen to the song, and you can follow the lyrics if you want (there are some minor errors).

Then, click on the image below the lyrics, and this will direct you to an interactive cloze activity, prepared using Lucy Georges' Cloze Creator. Try to fill in the gap (with or without listening to the song again).

Tip: You can use the TAB key to move from one gap to the next.

When you've finished, answer these questions:

1.  Under which genre would you classify this song?

2.  What's your opinion of the song?

3.  Did the singer love his lover 'all night long'? How do you know? How does he express this?

4.  Is the singer still with his lover? How do you know?

5.  Construct three sentences with a similar grammatical structure.

Keith Whitley - I Would Have Loved You All Night Long

Thanks to Nik Peachey for telling us about Batlyrics.

Setting Goals

For most people, running to catch the bus will leave them panting, struggling to catch their breath.

Then, there are dedicated joggers who run regularly to maintain their fitness, or to keep themselves slim.

Some of these get hooked to running to the extent that they start running marathons, which cover a distance of 42.195km. These are normally run on roads, and the world record of 2h 03:59 is currently held by Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia).

Well, I thought that was the maximum. 40km is a lot of distance to walk, let alone run, and I admire these 'marathoners' greatly. Running just one marathon in your life would have been seen as a fantastic achievement, don't you think?

But, for some people, running is like an addiction; they just can't stop running. They compete in several marathons annually, and they train whenever they can, covering enormous distances. Stefaan Engels recently became the first man ever to run a marathon every single day of the year! He almost didnt make it, suffering a swollen foot after 21 days of running. But, what did he do?

For two weeks, he 'ran' the marathons on a wheelchair! After that, he never stopped until he crossed the finish line in Barcelona last Saturday, 5th February, using up 25 pairs of shoes!

Then, I had a student who competed in triathlons, swimming 3.86km, cycling 180.25km, and, for dessert, throwing in a casual marathon! That was when I first heard of Ironman triathlons.

Our dear friend, Stefaan, by the way, holds the world record for competing in 20 triathlons in a year!

So, what's the limit, right?

Now, I have a student who runs ultra marathons! What's that? And I thought a marathon distance was almost superhuman! These ultra marathoners run marathons as part of their training!

"What are ultra marathons?" you may very well ask. Well, basically, they are anything more than 42.195km. But, that isn't the end of it. Most of these ultra marathons are run over treks, not roads, covering beaches, mountains, deserts, and what have you. Distance? Well, they speak of 50km as a piece of cake!

Takahiro Sunada (Japan) is the official world record holder of the 100km ultramarathon distance, with a time of 6:13:33.

This student of mine participated in the recent 'Maraton del Meridiano' in El Hierro, a gruelling run through varying altitudes, reaching the summit of Pico Malpaso at 1500m, and then running back down again. The winner, Francisco José Rodríguez de Paz (La Palma), completed it in 4:17:45.

This very same student will attempt to run the Transgrancanaria Ultratrail, starting in Playa del Inglés on Saturday midnight (5th March), running along the beach to Maspalomas, then crossing the mountains, finishing on Las Canteras Beach some time on Sunday evening. Distance? Ahem... 123 kms.

So, what makes these people tick? Why do they punish their bodies so? Most of them, when asked, say it's to test themselves, to see what their limits are, so to speak. It's a question of setting goals, and to work at achieving them.

Stefaan Engels, who, incidentally, was an asthmatic when he was a young boy and who was actually discouraged by doctors to participate in sports, said, "if I can get somebody to run five or 10 kilometres, or get involved in any sport, I will have succeeded – because I know how good sports makes me feel, how important it is to a person’s life.”

What is your next goal?

Google Fast Flip - for fast browsers

Google has just introduced its latest tool, the Google Fast Flip. It allows you to flip through pages quickly, much in the style of flipping through magazines, to find items you would like to read more  about in detail. My initial reaction to it was 'Fantastic!' It's especially useful for my searches for vocabulary items which I think are appropriate for the words/phrasal verbs/idioms of the day sections in this blog. For most of us who have little time to keep ourselves informed of what's happening in the world, it is indeed an online blessing. You can search for items, and you can choose contents, subjects or sources. Tell me what you think of it!

Cockney Rhyming Slang, Game for a Steffi? Time for a Bubble? (Includes Arcade Game)

This was first published on 7th Aug.

I remember how, as a little boy, I used to devour all the books I could get my hands on, so it was hardly suprising that I developed a love for words. As a young lad, I succumbed to youth arrogance and thought myself as a better-than-average poet. Then, much later on, when I had the fortune to be hanging around with some Cockneys, I became fascinated with their rhyming slang. I didn't have a clue as to what they were saying most of the time, but it didn't matter - it sounded great! LoL

So, who or what are Cockneys and rhyming slang?

Cockneys, traditionally, refer to people born and raised in the East End of London, especially if they are of the working class, but these days you'll probably find more Cockneys out of London than you do within!

Rhyming slang refers to the way the Cockneys speak whereby they replace a normal word with another word or phrase which rhymes with it, e.g. they may say plates of meat to refer to their feet.

Sometimes, there's some kind of connection, however remote or bizarre, between the word and the slang. In the above example, I don't really see the connection (unless they were thinking of plates of bad meat and sweaty feet), but 'Spanish waiter' which is the slang for 'see 'ya later' might have stemmed from the frequency with which the Spanish waiters say 'Hasta luego!'

The other complication is, just like how we so often use only part of common idioms in our daily speech instead of the full expression (e.g. Well, I did warn you about a stitch in time...), so the Cockneys often drop part of the slang, and what's worse, they tend to drop the part that rhymes!

'Cor! Don't my plates 'alf hurt!' Imagine trying to decipher that!
Or 'All right then, I'll have just a couple of Holies with a little talk'. What??? Right. Hint: Holy ghost: toast; Talk and mutter: butter

A lot of rhyming slang is very traditional, but just as the English language evolves, so does the Cockney slang. This, of course, makes it extremely difficult to learn it if you aren't embedded in their culture.

Examples of new slang:
Barack Obama: charmer (I tell you, mate, all them girls think he's a right ol' Barack.)
Jenson Button: mutton as in mutton dressed as lamb (Yikes, she's such a Jenson!)

Of course, just like new English words, some may survive while others simply fade away. Whether it makes it easier is debatable, but most of the new slang tend to rhyme with names of famous personalities with a few exceptions, such as wind and kite (web site).

So, are you all ready now to learn some rhyming slang and have some bubbles (bubble bath: laugh)? It's easy - all you need to do is to look for the word that rhymes! Have fun learning!

Click here for full screen version

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Singapore rocks F1 again! Reading comprehension

Read the short text and answer the questions that follow.

Last year, we saw the first Formula 1 night race being inaugurated amidst the bright Singapore night, and we saw how fortune smiled on Alonso making him the surprise winner in spite of having a lacklustre Renault under his control.While it's doubtful whether Alonso can turn the wheel of fortune to his favour again, we can be sure of yet another fascinating inauguration. Formula 1 now wants to present not just a grand sporting event, but a grand entertainment package: this year, the sounds of the engines roaring at more than 300 km/hour will not be the only noise that cuts across the Singapore night skyline, but spectators will also be rocking to music from the likes of people like ZZ Top, Simple Minds and Beyoncé.

F1 ROCKS™, stretching from 24-26 Sep, will be broadcast around the globe. Would we see Schumi trying to sweat excess baggage off, or Alonso bopping with Hamilton to Beyoncé?

Now, answer the following questions.

1. The English language has quite a few idioms with the word 'fortune', two of which were used in this post. What are their equivalents in your language?

2. Very often, we don't say what we mean directly, but we used metaphors and other means, and you'd need to read between the lines to see the hidden meaning. Could you explain what I was trying to say or refer to when I wrote the following?

a. 'the noise ... cuts across the ... night'
b. 'Schumi trying to sweat excess baggage off' and
c. 'Alonso bopping with Hamilton...'
d. '... the bright Singapore night'