Hot English magazine

READING, LISTENING AND SPEAKING

I have found this website where you can read magazine articles and practise listening.
You can also watch videos with real conversations about topics similar to the ones in the speaking test.

http://www.hotenglishmagazine.com/newsletter-subscribers.php

The Butterfly Circus

A masterpiece of a film

The Doorpost Film Project:
http://www.thedoorpost.com/hope/film/?film=4dd298f102c77b625cf37a9e7744ac68

You tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtmC9ThcSpo (part 1-with subtitles)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs2S75PDuPw (part 2-with subtitles)

Never give up

Nick Vujicic

Nick Vujicic
Born	December 4, 1982 (1982-12-04) (age 27)[1] Melbourne, Australia
Occupation	Preacher, motivational speaker, director of Life Without Limbs

Nick Vujicic (born December 4, 1982) is a preacher, a motivational speaker and the director of Life Without Limbs, an organization for the physically disabled. He regularly gives speeches across subject of disability and hope.

Early life

The first-born child in his devout Serbian Christian family, Vujicic was born in Melbourne, Australia with the rare Tetra-amelia disorder: limbless, missing both arms at shoulder level, and legless but with two small feet, one of which has two toes. Initially, his parents were devastated. Vujicic was otherwise healthy.

Growing up

His life was filled with difficulties and hardships. One was being prohibited by Australian law from attending a mainstream school because of his physical disability, even though he was not mentally impaired. During his schooling, the laws were changed, and Vujicic was one of the first disabled students to be integrated into a mainstream school.^[2] He learned to write using the two toes on his left "foot", and a special device that slid onto his big toe which he uses to grip. He also learned to use a computer and type using the "heel and toe" method (as demonstrated in his speeches), throw tennis balls, answer the phone, shave and get himself a glass of water (also demonstrated in speeches).

Epiphany

Being bullied at his school, Vujicic grew extremely depressed, and by the age of 8, started contemplating suicide. After begging God to grow arms and legs, Nick eventually began to realize that his accomplishments were inspirational to many, and began to thank God for being alive. ^[3] A key turning point in his life was when his mother showed him a newspaper article about a man dealing with a severe disability. This led him to realize he wasn't the only one with major struggles.^[4] When he was seventeen, he started to give talks at his prayer group,^[5] and eventually started his non-profit organization, Life Without Limbs.

Career

Nick graduated from college at the age of 21 with a double major in Accounting and Financial Planning. He began his travels as a motivational speaker, focusing on the topics that today's teenagers face. He also speaks in the corporate sector, although his aim is to become an international inspirational speaker, in both Christian and non-Christian venues. He regularly travels internationally to speak to Christian congregations, schools, and corporate meetings. He has spoken to over two million people so far, in twelve countries on four continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, and North America).^[6]

By the age of 25, Nick hoped to become financially independent. He wishes to promote his words through television shows such as the The Oprah Winfrey Show, as well as by writing books. His first book, planned for completion by the end of 2009, is to be called No Arms, No Legs, No Worries!.^[1]

His motivational DVD, Life's Greater Purpose, is available on the Life Without Limbs website.^[7] Most of the DVD was filmed in 2005, featuring a brief documentary about his home life, and how he does regular things without limbs. The second part of the DVD was filmed at his local church in Brisbane, and was one of his first professional motivational speeches. His motivational speeches can be seen on the Premiere Speakers Bureau Website. Vujicic currently lives in California.

His secular DVD "No Arms, No Legs, No Worries" is available online through his corporate motivational speaking company "Attitude Is Altitude".

Vujicic's first worldwide television interview, featured on 20/20 (ABC) with Bob Cummings was aired on March 28, 2008.

Watch these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uG2kSdd-4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_XW6Y-K3QE (with subtitles)

The official Nick Vujicicwebsite:
http://www.lifewithoutlimbs.org/

Irena Sendler Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska, in Poland commonly referred to as Irena Sendlerowa, 15 February 1910 – 12 May 2008)[1] was a Polish Catholic social worker who served in the Polish Underground and the Żegota resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw during World War II. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto, providing them false documents, and sheltering them in individual and group children's homes outside the Ghetto. Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted. In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming. In Memoriam

http://www.auschwitz.dk/Sendler.htm

http://www.irenasendler.org/

The Sherlock Holmes Museum of Baker Street

Welcome to The Sherlock Holmes Museum-221b Baker Street, London, England.

www.sherlock-holmes.co.uk/

Address To A Haggis

Address to a Haggis

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face
Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

The groaning trencher there ye fill
Your hudies like a distant hill
Your pin wad help to mend a mill In time o' need
While thro' your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead.

His knife see rustic Labour dight,
An' cut ye up wi' ready slight
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reeking, rich!

Then horn for horn, they stretch an' strive:
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,
'Bethankit!' hums.

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi perfect scunner,
Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As fecl;ess as a wither'd rash,
His spindle shank a guid whip-lash
His nieve a nit;
Tho' bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit.

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread, Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He'll make it whistle;
An' legs, an' arms, an' heads will sned
Like taps o' thrissle.

Ye pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,
And dish them out their bill o' fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware,
That jaups in luggies;
But if ye wish her gratfu' prayer,
Gie her a Haggis!


Robert Burns


Watch this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJSjAGVV6Zg

Learn more about Robert Burns and his poems: http://www.worldburnsclub.com/begin/address_to_a_haggis.htm

Robert Burns

Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 21 July 1796) (also known as Rabbie Burns, Scotland's favourite son, the Ploughman Poet, the Bard of Ayrshire and in Scotland as simply The Bard^[1][2]) was a Scottish poet and a lyricist. He is widely regarded as the national poet of Scotland, and is celebrated worldwide. He is the best known of the poets who have written in the Scots language, although much of his writing is also in English and a "light" Scots dialect, accessible to an audience beyond Scotland. He also wrote in standard English, and in these pieces, his political or civil commentary is often at its most blunt.

He is regarded as a pioneer of the Romantic movement and after his death became a great source of inspiration to the founders of both liberalism and socialism. A cultural icon in Scotland and among the Scottish Diaspora around the world, celebration of his life and work became almost a national charismatic cult during the 19th and 20th centuries, and his influence has long been strong on Scottish literature. In 2009 he was voted by the Scottish public as being the Greatest Scot, through a vote run by Scottish television channel STV.

As well as making original compositions, Burns also collected folk songs from across Scotland, often revising or adapting them. His poem (and song) Auld Lang Syne is often sung at Hogmanay (the last day of the year), and Scots Wha Hae served for a long time as an unofficial national anthem of the country. Other poems and songs of Burns that remain well-known across the world today, include A Red, Red Rose, A Man's A Man for A' That, To a Louse, To a Mouse, The Battle of Sherramuir, Tam o' Shanter and Ae Fond Kiss.

Try this interactive website about Robert Burns:

http://www.scotland.org/burns-night/interactive/

Severn Culli-Suzuki: a biography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severn_Cullis-Suzuki

The Green Century

RISING STAR: Cullis-Suzuki

Read a report by Severn Cullis-Suzuki
http://www.time.com/time/2002/greencentury/engeneration.html

Save the planet

What are we doing with our planet? Is there any way of saving it? Watch a girl's speech on a conference to protect the environment (Rio de Janeiro)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLV6jaZFLro

The Three Wise Men's story

Adoration of the Magi

The story of the Three Wise Men of the East has been popular among Christians for many centuries. Also known as the Three Kings or the Three Magi, they have been depicted in countless works of art. However, only one of the 4 gospels in the Bible mentions the story.

The story

The original story can be found in Matthew 2. After Jesus was born, "behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem". They had seen a star that they considered indicative of the birth of the King of the Jews and had come to Jerusalem to find the child. When king Herod heard of their search, he wanted to know more about this possible competitor. His priests and scribes told him that such a king was to be born in Bethlehem, according to Micah's prophecy. Herod now sent for the three wise men and told them to go to Bethlehem and report their findings to him.

This Herod was in fact King Herod I, a.k.a. Herod the Great, tetrarch of Judea, who lived approx. from BC 73 to 4, and who governed the Judea region under Roman rule. He was not very popular among the Jewish population, mostly due to his attempts to enforce a Hellenistic culture. Traces of these attempts can be found in the ruins of Caesarea, the harbour city that Herod had built. Herod considered himself King of the Jews as well, although according to Jewish law he was not even Jewish.

The star guided the three men to Bethlehem where they discovered the child in the house the star stood over. The men offered the child their gifts: gold, incense and myrrh (a resin with a pleasant smell). This event is known as the Adoration of the Magi. That night, God told them in their dreams to ignore Herod's orders. The next day the Magi departed, avoiding Jerusalem on their way home.

When Herod learned that the wise men had deceived him, he saw no other option than to have all Bethlehem children under the age of three murdered. Jesus and his parents had already escaped to Egypt: Joseph had been warned by an angel, also in a dream.

So the three kings not only brought gifts, but also helped to save the child. In addition to the mysterious guiding star the subject matter couldn't fail but to inspire numerous painters.

The Bible does not mention the number of wise men, nor does it give their names or their colour: Balthasar, the black Caspar and Melchior. In the gospels of Mark, Luke and John, the wise men are not mentioned at all. In the Middle Ages, the number three was concluded from the number of the gifts. They were also given symbolic identities, representing all three biblical races, which meant that one of them had to be black.

The Old Testament considers Noah's three sons — Shem, Ham en Japheth — as the ancestors of three nations: the Semitic, Hamitic and Japhetic peoples. Ham had seen his drunken father naked and told his brothers; Noah cursed him for that. He is supposed to be the ancestor of the Canaanites and the African peoples. So a descendant of Ham could be black.

Epiphany ("the appearance") still is a Christian holiday, celebrated on 6 January. It not only celebrates the visit of the three wise men, but generally the Revelation of God to Man in the person of Jesus.

The word magus, the singular form of magi, is probably derived from an ancient Persian word for priest.

The three wise men in art

A glance at the many paintings with The Three Magi as subject matter reveals them all showing the three kings in adoration before the Child and Mary. Joseph is not always shown, and neither are the ox and the ass. What varies most is the number of figures: paintings tend to get more baroque as the number of figures increases. There is much variation in background matter, which can be any sort of shelter, ranging from a cave, a stable or an inn, to a house.

Happy New Year 2010

As our world grows another year older ...
Here's wishing that you get

The biggest slice of happiness and good luck
to fill your heart and home ...

Today and the whole year through!

HAPPY
NEW YEAR!
2010