An American in Asturias: Football and the SuperBowl Sunday

General

This article is the first of a series that my colleague Beth Reddish is going to publish about some cultural aspects of The United States.
The first one is about Football and the Superbowl Sunday, which is going to take place this Sunday.I hope you enjoy it!!

Football: Go Team!!

One of the most important and well-followed sports in the United States is football, which is known in other countries as American football, and is often compared to rugby. The first form of football was created in the 18th century, but over the years the rules, players, and positions have changed and evolved into what we know as football today. Every year, people watch anxiously as their beloved teams play against each other between the months of September and January. When the regular season ends, the best teams go to the playoffs, or elimination games. The winners from the playoffs are the teams that go to the Super Bowl, the championship game, which always takes place on the first Sunday of February. The 2011 Super Bowl is on February 6th, and the teams that are playing are the Green Bay Packers from Wisconsin and the Pittsburgh Steelers from Pennsylvania.

The (simplified)Rules!

>> There are 11 players on each team.

>> The point of the game is to reach the opposite side of the field and score a touchdown. A touchdown is worth 6 points.

>> After a player makes a touchdown, he can kick the ball through the goal post to score an extra point.

>> Another way to score points is a field goal. If the player is close to the end zone, he can kick the ball through the goal posts to score field goal.

>> A field goal is worth 3 points. If a player makes a field goal, he can’t try to score a touchdown.

>> The team with possession of  the football has 4 tries, or “downs,” to go 10 or more yards.

>> If the team goes 10 or more yards, they can continue to try for another 10 or more yards.

>> If the team does not go 10 yards within 4 downs, they have to kick the ball to the other team or they can try to score a field goal.

Super Bowl Sunday

Super Bowl Sunday is the day that the two winning teams from the play-offs play in the Super Bowl, the game that determines the champion of the season. Many people have Super Bowl parties, where friends unite to watch the game, eat, drink, and enjoy each other’s company.
There are two reasons why Super Bowl Sunday is very popular, and they have nothing to do with the sport! Of the 80 million people who watch the game, many of them watch only the Super Bowl, and not the rest of the season. Why do they watch? One reason has to do with the entertainment. A football game is split into two parts, or halves, separated by halftime. This break between the halves usually has a halftime show. The show often consists of the team’s cheerleaders, who try to get others excited about the game, and a marching band, a musical group associated with the team that marches as they play. On Super Bowl Sunday, the halftime show is a much larger show, with famous singers, dancers, and performers, and draws the attention of many non-football fans watching the Super Bowl.
The second reason people love to watch the Super Bowl is the commercials. The commercials during the breaks in the game are some of the best commercials of the year. Advertisers pay up to $3,000,000 for a 30 second advertisement – millions of people watch the Super Bowl, so they can reach a large audience. The ads are very funny, and they are made so that people will remember them for days, weeks, or years to come.

Text2Phonetics: a useful tool

In the Computer Room, Phonetics, ,

Text2Phonetics is a wonderful tool that can save a lot of time if you need to transcribe something. I have tried it with small texts (two or three lines) and it’s incredible!
Just paste the text you want to transcribe and click the Transcribe Button to get the transcription.

 

Why don’t you try some words to see how they are pronounced?

Type , for instance, since, cold, danger, aunt, parents … were there any words you usually mispronounced?

Remember :
Since | sɪns |
Cold | kəʊld |
Danger | deɪndʒə |
aunt | ɑːnt |
parents | peərənts |

English Phlegm

Funny Stuff,

A few years ago an English family, holidaying in Scotland, came upon a small country house while they were walking one day, and they thought that it would be an enchanting place to spend the following summer. They inquired who the owner was, and it turned out to be the local vicar, who they asked to show them the property. Having looked it over, they were so impressed by its situation that they agreed to rent it.

Once back in England, they sat down to go through the details one by one, and suddenly realised that they haven’t seen the WC. They decided to write to the vicar and inquire about this fixture in these terms:

“Dear Vicar,
A few weeks ago we decided to rent your property in the coming holidays. However, we omitted to ask you about one particular detail. Would you be so kind as to let us know exactly where the W.C is situated since we didn’t notice it during our visit”.

They closed the letter in the usual way and posted it. When the vicar read it, he didn’t recognise the abbreviation “W.C”, but thought it must refer to a chapel of his religion called WELLS CHAPEL, and so answered as follows:

“Dear Madam,
I am delighted to inform you about the place you refer to. It is a mere seven miles from the house, rather a nuisance if you go on foot. Some of the locals go by bus and they usually arrive in time. There is room for 200 people comfortably seated and a further 1oo standing. There is air-conditioning to prevent suffocation. The children all sit together and sing during the ceremony. A sheet of paper is given to each person as he or she enters, but if these run out people can share them. The sheets should, however be given in as one leaves, so that they may be used in other ceremonies. Photographers frequently capture different moments of the event and their work is published in the “Society Page” of the local paper, so that the readers may see their neighbours at such natural function”.

The English family decided to spend the summer elsewhere, because the property didn’t come up to the required standard.

Alejandro – Lady Gaga

In the Computer Room, Listening, Music,

It’s not like me to pick this singer for one of my posts. I normally go for R&B or ballads but ,as the old saying goes, “when in Rome , do as the Romans do” and I cannot certainly choose Sade or The Beatles to get to my 12-year-old students. They adore Lady Gaga and this is just what I’m going to give them . Having said this, I have to admit that Lady Gaga is in my MP3 and I usually listen to her when I am running on the treadmill and if I have to be honest and make a clean breast of it  I find her songs quite funny and full of rhythm .
Well, here it is ! The popular ALEJANDRO with its catchy chorus. As I said it’s for elementary students , so it shouldn’t be too difficult.

Click on the image and it’ll take you to the exercise. I haven’t , so far, found a way to embed a Hot Potatoes exercise in a WordPress blog. (please, dear reader, if you know how , kindly let me know)

 

A Word on Grammar:Collective nouns

A word on Grammar, , ,

Only last week I had to deal with this issue in class when one of my students asked me.
“Does the word “team” take a singular or a plural verb?” and my answer was: “Both”.

There are some singular words in British English that can take both singular or plural verbs and pronouns depending on what you want to say about them.

Singular forms are used when we see the “team” as one thing, as an impersonal unit.

The team is going to lose

Plural forms are used when the group is considered as a collection of people doing personal things like taking decisions, hoping or wanting .

The team are full of enthusiasm (referring to every member of the team)

Group nouns which can be used with both singular and plural are:
party   school    staff    team   government   jury  family
public     club     class     firm     the BBC    comittee

“police”, on the other hand, is normally used with a plural verb

The police were not able to find anything