Table of contents for No 453 in Speak Up

The dodo was a large1 plump2 bird with a friendly temperament that through evolution had lost the ability to fly. According to historical accounts3, it was bigger than a turkey4 and could reach a body weight of more than twenty kilograms. It had blue-grey plumage, a long hooked5 beak6 and tiny7 wings. EXTINCTION Dodos became extinct nearly four hundred years ago. They were once endemic to Mauritius, an island in the Indian Ocean where no natural predators threatened8 their existence. However, in the late 16th century Dutch9 sailors10 arrived on the island. They hunted11 the docile bird, and brought animals with them, including dogs, cats, pigs and monkeys as well as rats from the ships, which destroyed the ground nests12 and ate the eggs. By the late 17th century dodos…

It’s probably the world’s most polarising haircut: the mullet is a style in which the hair is cut short at the front and sides, and left long at the back. But whether you love it or1 hate it, you have to accept that it’s here to stay. It exploded in popularity in the 1980s, was subsequently embraced2 by specific subcultures and has experienced a global resurgence in recent years. WHAT’S IN A NAME There is evidence to suggest that the mullet is not a modern invention. Some historians claim3 that it was popular in Ancient Greece and Rome. It was also a traditional hairstyle worn by some Native American tribes. However, the cut didn’t become known as ‘the mullet’ until 1994, when the American rap-rock band the Beastie Boys released…

If you buy fresh cherries1 while in2 England, there’s a strong possibility that they were grown3 in Kent. This beautiful South East county4 is known as ‘the Garden of England’. It has the warmest climate in Britain, and its fertile agricultural land and country estates5 grow a variety of fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs and other plants. 2.4 MILLION BOTTLES OF WINE Kent is a big producer of English wine, beer and spirits6 such as gin and vodka. The county has many award-winning wineries7 and vineyards8, including the country’s largest, Chapel Down. Based in the picturesque market town of Tenterden, Chapel Down has over 950 acres dedicated to grape9 growing and produces up to 2.4 million bottles of white, sparkling10 and rosé wine11 a year. Like many other vineyards in Kent,…

Why are we magnetically drawn1 to the goriest2 details of real-life criminal activity? With its expanding presence on streaming platforms, in best-selling books and on serial podcasts, the true crime genre is reaching new heights of popularity. Many people find this worrying, and think that true crime makes unhealthy3 viewing or reading. But is the experience it offers really just one of morbid entertainment? There are some experts that argue that the reasons for true crime’s success go beyond macabre fun. One psychological explanation is that watching such stories helps the viewers strategise how to act if they were to find themselves in similar circumstances. This may explain why more women are fans of the genre than men: women generally feel more threatened4 in the world, and may have more…

Iboux is no ordinary academy of English. Dedicated to meeting the needs1 of each individual student, online business English lessons are divided into competencies to match2 the specific English language goals students want to achieve3. Students have extremely diverse needs: from giving a professional presentation to preparing for a job interview, from ordering in a restaurant to speaking to customer service, from making small talk to settling down4 in a new country. Iboux offers lessons tailored5 to any and all of these requirements. At Iboux, assessment6 is gradual, which allows students to test their knowledge as they go7. Students are taught by professionals who know it is a priority that they speak as much as possible. Lessons are a comfortable space in which the students can acquire a fluidity which…

Is often used in a situation where one has work to do and feels the obligation to get on with it, despite reluctance. The expression has its origins in the Bible’s Old Testament, where it reads (depending on the version of the Bible): “The Lord God said, peace is not to wicked men”. The implication is that bad men experience inner turmoil for the rest of their lives because of what they have done. The idiom first appeared in English in its current form in a 1574 translation of a sermon by the French Protestant theologian John Calvin. Calvin taught that all men must work because it is the will of God. Unrepentant sinners (the wicked, the lazy) would be punished after death. Understandably, these days ‘No rest for the…

ARTÍCULOS POR NIVELES DE DIFICULTAD Todos nuestros artículos se presentan con un código de color para indicar el nivel de dificultad del inglés empleado de acuerdo con la Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. A2 PRE-INTERMEDIATE B1 LOWER INTERMEDIATE B2 UPPER INTERMEDIATE C1 ADVANCED C2 PROFICIENCY GLOSARIO ADAPTADO Encontrarás el vocabulario más relevante de cada artículo indicado con un número en el color correspondiente a su nivel de dificultad y su traducción en el glosario adjunto. G in and tonic is arguably1 Britain’s favourite drink GLOSSARY 1 arguably: posiblemente 2 to skyrocket: dispararse VERSIÓN DIGITAL Adicionalmente, puedes suscribirte a Speak Up Digital, la versión digital de la revista Speak Up. Con ella podrás acceder a todos los artículos, audios y ejercicios directamente en nuestra app, disponible para Android y…

Frank Sinatra’s signature song1 My Way began life as European hit Comme d’habitude ( As Usual), a 1967 break-up2 song by French superstar Claude François, to music by Jacques Revaux. Canadian singer-songwriter Paul Anka heard the song while holidaying3 in Paris and acquired its rights. A few months on he had dinner with Sinatra in Florida. The music legend, then in his early fifties4, announced that he was considering retirement5, reportedly6 telling Anka: “I’m quitting7 the business. I’m sick8 of it, I’m getting the hell out9.” This inspired Anka to stay up10 all night adapting François’ track about the death of love through routine into a celebratory swan song11 for Sinatra. He did so by asking himself, “If Frank were writing this, what would he say?”. The result was recorded…

GLASS OF WINE, SIR! Celebrated author Charles Dickens had a love-hate relationship with the English county of Kent. In his 1837 novel The Pickwick Papers characters alternate between genuinely admiring the county’s history and landscape, and savagely satirising its inhabitants. “Kent, Sir — everybody knows Kent — apples, cherries, hops, and women. Glass of wine, Sir!”. Known as the Garden of England, this historic county in the South East boasts1 picturesque countryside, quaint2 rural villages, a dramatic3 coastline and a rich heritage4. To find out more, we spoke to Yvonne Leach. A longtime resident, Leach gives private tours in which she shares her expertise on Kent’s history and present. We began by asking Leach what it was that so fascinated Dickens and herself about the county. Yvonne Leach (English accent):…

Playing games is as old as humanity. Throughout1 history, people have used games to compete with and relate2 to each other in one way or another. Late3 Canadian philosopher Bernard Suits defined it as “the voluntary attempt to overcome4 unnecessary obstacles.” However, if the obstacles are unnecessary, then why would we want to overcome them? Author Oliver Roeder studied artificial intelligence at Harvard University and holds degrees in economics and game theory. In his recent book Seven Games: A Human History, he delves into5 the background of some of the world’s most enduring6 games — checkers7, chess, Go, backgammon, Scrabble, poker and bridge. To find out more, Speak Up contacted Roeder. We began by asking him why we play games. Oliver Roeder (American accent): I think the obvious reason is…

In 1821 one of the most authoritative and eloquent accounts1 of drug addiction in English history was published anonymously in The London Magazine. Thomas De Quincey’s Confessions of an English Opium-Eater describes the author’s dependence on laudanum2 , an alcoholic solution containing opium, and its effects on his physical and mental states. DEAR READER… De Quincey wrote the autobiographical Confessions in the backroom3 of a London pub, where he was hiding from debt collectors4. The text, of around one-hundred pages, was sent off to the magazine in a rush5; stains6 on the paper were later revealed to be coffee, and not opium as popularly believed! Confessions was initially published in two instalments7. It was an instant hit8, and a book version appeared the following year. De Quincey begins the book…

Young people in Britain eat more snacks than people of the same age in other European countries. According to a recent survey1 , 64 per cent of under twenty-year-olds snack between meals. How does this compare with other countries? In Germany, 58.7 per cent of young people snack, 53 per cent in France and only 40.7 per cent in Spain. What are these young Brits eating? Savoury2 snacks, especially crisps3, are the favourite snack in the UK. CRISPS British people are mad4 for crisps and they like them in a huge5 variety of flavours. Some of the most popular flavours include cheese and onion, salt and vinegar, roast6 chicken, and bacon. One crisp company held7 a competition to find new flavours for their crisps. The competition received more than a…

One of the most significant figures in world history, Winston Churchill was born in November 1874 into a wealthy, aristocratic family in Oxfordshire. A statesman1, soldier and Nobel Prize-winning writer, he had a powerful personality and was a brilliant orator. Wartime Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945, when he rallied2 the country against Nazi Germany, and then after the war from 1951 to 1955, he was a Member of Parliament for more than sixty years, mostly in the Conservative Party. FROM WAR TO POLITICS As a young man, Churchill fought in the British army against the Boers in South Africa in the 1890s. He returned to Britain a hero and went into politics. Some years later, as Home Secretary3, he supported prison reform and workers’ social security. In the First…

Britain will see its first coronation in nearly seventy years this month with the crowning of His Majesty King Charles III. The ceremony will be held1 on Saturday 6 May at Westminster Abbey2 in London and Charles will be crowned alongside3 his wife Camilla, the Queen Consort. The coronation will be part of a three-day celebratory weekend, with a special Bank Holiday on Monday 8th. Charles actually acceded to the throne on 8 September 2022, on the death of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II. The period of time between her death and the coronation is considered normal in terms of the necessary mourning4 process and the need for preparations. OPERATION GOLDEN ORB Preparations for the coronation, under the code name Operation Golden Orb, have been going on for many years.…

For a surprising number of people, a typical evening in1 might involve gruesome2 killings, violent kidnappings3, extreme cults4 and cold-blooded acts of embezzlement5… That’s right, true crime is all the rage6. The genre represents an expansive section of mainstream nightly viewing: it is prominent on streaming channels such as Netflix, and ubiquitous on YouTube. But evidence of the dark side of human nature was not invented for cyberspace: legacy media7, books and podcasts have been crawling with8 macabre stories of crime, deceit9 and doom10 for a while now, inherited from an era when stories based on real horrible events were told in the form of oral ballads. THE POPULAR PRESS It was, in fact, the parallel development of both the criminal justice system and the printing press11 in the 16th…

I’m looking forward to1 games night! It will be nice to catch up with the gang. Yes! But can we do something else? I always lose at poker and I’m broke2. Sure, what did you have in mind? I don’t know. What about an old-fashioned3 board game? What, like Trivial Pursuit4 or Monopoly? Exactly! Or something even more traditional, like chess5 or checkers. Oh, I haven’t played those for years. Do you think the others would be up for it? For sure! But I’m not sure if everyone knows how to play. Also, they’re one-onone. It might be best to stick to a game we can all play together. Yes, that makes sense. It doesn’t need to be a board game6, either. We could play charades! Nooooo, that’s so lame!…

Meet your new best friend,” Leonard Crane says to the TV presenters, Jessica and John. “We call our latest invention Pristine.” “Ooooh,” says Jessica, one of the presenters of Sunrise1, America’s most popular morning talk show, “What does your little friend do?” “Pristine cleans your home and office so you don’t have to.” At that2, Crane, the CEO3 of the US corporation Misa AI4, has Pristine demonstrate its capability to clean, dust5 and vacuum6 with precision. “We are introducing Pristine to all our offices globally by the end of the year.” “That’s only a month from now,” says Jessica. “You move fast, Mr. Crane.” “No rest for the wicked7!” he says. “Wicked indeed8,” said John. “Because I have to ask, what happens to Misa AI’s cleaning staff when Pristine arrives?”…