Quiz 14 Feb

Star-Crossed Love
This American Life

Well, I’m not one prone to being enthusiastic about Valentine’s Day. It’s not really my “cup of tea,” if you will. However, I found this week’s edition of This American Life interesting (actually, I enjoy every single episode and am a subscriber to their weekly podcast through iTunes). This story here drew my attention due to the unlikelihood of such a romance, that actually being the point of this edition of the programme, which saw fit to highlight three rather unorthodox relationships.

You need to click on the link above and go to the 10 February episode called "Star-Crossed Love." Personally, I recommend listening to the whole episode, though I only have questions written about the first story, which starts around minute 7 and ends at minute 33 or thereabouts. Yes, it’s a bit longer than I like the listening to be, but you have a long weekend coming up, so what the heck! So enjoy listening to an Armenian, Shant Kenderian, in the Iraqi army, who was caught and held as a prisoner, talking about how he fell in love with an American soldier.

1. What is “drafted”?
2. What was the soldiers’ greatest hope while on the boat and why?
3. What was Shant most impressed about when seeing the American soldiers?
4. What was assumed about Shant?
5. What were Shant’s friends baffled about with regard to the American’s interactions with Monica?
6. How did Monica contrast with her surroundings?
7. When did Shant realize he had feelings for Monica?
8. What gave him some tenuous hope that she might like him back?
9. What did he mean by “the stakes were very high”?
10. After she gave him a hug, he said “I let _____ _______ _______.” What did he mean by that?
11. How many days left before his transfer did Shant have when he saw Monica again?
12. What did he say about their relationship in the end?


Article: A Veteran’s Love Story: Valentine’s Day 2007
by Shepherd Bliss

Here is another soldier, but from a different war and a slightly different perspective. Read his "love story" and answer the following questions.

1. What word in paragraph one is used to mean “to appear or come into view / to come to the surface”?
2. A mole is a small animal which digs and lives underground. Why did the author describe himself that way in the story?
3. What’s the significance of the phrase “now a seasoned veteran at the age of nineteen”?
4. Explain his question “Is she the enemy?”.
5. In your own words, why do these war veterans join together to write?
6. In your own words, explain why Shepherd calls this a love story.
7. What words does he use to say that he took various stories and made them into one?
8. What word does he use to mean “personal faults or failures”?

Quiz 31 Jan

BOYS WILL BE BOYS. . . Don't ask how I ended up choosing this topic for the contest this week. I stumbled across the interview while searching through the latest episodes of "The Tubridy Show", hoping to find something of interest for you complete with Irish accent and all. Lo and behold, there was this little treasure: an interview with Conn Igulden (had never heard of him), author of "The Dangerous Book for Boys", which sounded tantalizing, even to a girl like me. Here's the book description from the publisher, Harper Collins' website:

"How many other books will help you thrash someone at conkers, race your own go-cart, and identify the best quotations from Shakespeare? The Dangerous Book for Boys gives you facts and figures at your fingertips – swot up on the solar system, learn about famous battles and read inspiring stories of incredible courage and bravery. Teach your old dog new tricks. Make a pinhole camera. Understand the laws of cricket. There's a whole world out there: with this book, anyone can get out and explore it. The Dangerous Book for Boys is written with the verve and passion that readers of Conn Iggulden's number one bestselling novels have come to expect. This book, his first non-fiction work, has been written with his brother as a celebration of the long summers of their youth and as a compendium of information so vital to men of all ages. Lavishly designed and fully illustrated in colour and black and white throughout, it's set to be a perfect gift for Father's Day and beyond. "

Well, that was it. I thought I'd throw this one out to y'all! So click here and scroll down on the webpage until you find the 16 January show. Once downloaded (just click on the date) you can fast foward through until about the 30:00 mark where the 20-minute interview starts. Oops, I forgot to say that he also talks about his latest book about Genghis Khan. I was so enamored with the boys' book. :)

As you'll notice, you've got quite a lot of questions this time. I hope it doesn't make it too hard. My idea was to just catch a lot of little phrases used. You can see that sometimes my questions for you are simply quotes. You just need to fill in the missing words. As always, the questions follow the order of the podcast. Enjoy!

1. How old is the author?
2. What’s the most old-fashioned thing about the book?
3. What did he set out to do when he wrote the book?
4. What did he do at one point for 7 years?
5. What’s the last image in the book?
6. “Children will go to places that we _____ _____”
7. What was rule #1?
8. What is conkers?
9. What did he get great enjoyment out of making?
10. “You can’t be excellent, but you can be ___________”
11. “Life is about getting __________”
12. “Boys are different to girls when it ________ _______ ________ the basic ________”
13. What’s the word used for the girls’ book?
14. “I’ve put you _____ _____ ______”
15. “People just seem to ______ _____ _______ the same idea at the same time.”
16. “ ______-______ _______ or _______-to-_________ story”
17. What did Khan achieve?
18. What was the “thing you did” at Genghis Khan’s time?
19. What was Conn’s first main impression of Mongolia?
20. The ponies there are bred for _________
21. What country does Mongolia look a lot like?
22. What DON’T you ask for (because it’s wooden)?
23. Why is he so interested in the great history makers?
24. What new things will he try to learn this year?


Article: Boys will be boys…or will they? By Linda Schrock Taylor

So then for your, ahem, reading. It’s just ever so slightly longer than I like to make it but it does have the advantage of being interesting, in my humble opinion of course, about a subject that maybe all of you (boys and girls alike) can relate to. . . if you think about what most teachers require from their students and what the nature of little kids (especially boys) is. Anyway, I will refrain from giving my opinion but I do want yours. So, for this portion of the quiz you just need to:

1. Identify what you think are the 4-5 main points the author of the article is trying to get across.
2. Identify at least (you’re welcome to do more) 5 phrases (not just the words in isolation because at this stage of your learning you need to focus on COLLOCATIONS, not random vocabulary words) that you find useful when discussing this or related topics. Quote the expression and explain its meaning.
3. Write a short paragraph (3-5 sentences—COMPLEX ones, you ARE, after all, advanced learners, might I remind you) stating your opinion. Try to use a couple of the phrases you learned! I’m quite interested to hear what you have to say!

Some Follow-up on Darfur and the Lost Boys

Maybe you've heard but there was a show put on to raise money for the relief fund to aid the refugees from Sudan. I listened to an interview with orchestra conductor, George Matthew, about the benefit concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. They performed Verdi's Requiem and chose that piece for some specific reasons. It's a short interview and a good one to listen to, not only to see what some people are doing to help (if our governemnts do nothing, the people must, right?), but also to catch some great turns of phrase that he uses.