Table of contents for No 472 in Speak Up

CULTURE Most of us associate Christmas with the festive celebrations in films and TV shows, which typically revolve around1 traditions that are common in the Western world: Christmas trees, Santa Claus and elaborate turkey dinners. However, many families, regions and countries also have their own traditions, whether modernor2 historical, that celebrate everything from ugly sweaters to nefarious3 beings4. Here are ten weird5 and wonderful Christmas traditions from around the world: 1. Ugly Christmas Imagine a red, white and green sweater. It is decorated with exaggerated Christmas motifs, perhaps of a Christmas tree, presents or reindeer6. But that’s not all. It also has pom-poms, glitter7 and… wait for it… Christmas lights that light up! While many people compete to have the most beautiful Christmas decorations, those who participate in this tradition compete…

London’s favourite place to shop is a mixture of international and British high-street brands, and small, independent retailers1. Hungry shoppers can re-charge their batteries by eating at a wide variety of restaurants, ranging from Michelin-starred establishments to simple sandwich shops and delicatessens. 1. Paul Smith The English fashion icon has his flagship store2 in Covent Garden, selling men’s and women’s clothing and accessories with a background of art and furniture collections. Shoppers can also drink English sparkling3 wine, craft beer4 or Fortnum and Mason teas. There is an in-house5 monogramming6 service, perfect for gifts. 2. Dr. Martens Once the favourite footwear of skinheads (featured in the film A Clockwork Orange), Doc Martens are now a global brand. The yellow and black classic boot is matched by the shop’s interior decoration. The…

It was the opening day of the Richard Elliott House and Terrence stood outside with other fans of the author, waiting to enter. Well, Terrence wasn’t so much of a fan of Richard Elliott. He’d always had a love-hate relationship with the author. You see, Terrence was an aspiring author too, and he’d always resented1 Richard Elliott, who wrote the type of speculative fiction that Terrence wanted to write, that Terrence knew he could write, if he could just find the right words… Terrence had just received the first of many rejections for his first novel when Elliott had published his first book, titled The Pen Is Mightier2 than the Sword. It was the type of book Terrence had been trying to publish, and it soon became a bestseller. As Terrence…

ARTÍCULOS POR NIVELES 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. GLOSARIO 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. A towering1 figure in British history, Queen Victoria was actually a diminutive figure, just one metre fifty EXPLAINS Los textos subrayados en amarillo indican que la frase requiere de una explicación más extensa, como referencias históricas o culturales, frases hechas, proverbios o argot. Encontrarás la explicación al final del artículo. SPEAK UP IN CLASS Cada mes Speak Up ofrece también ejercicios para profesores, elaborados para trabajar en clase.…

TOP BRITS Detective writer Agatha Christie wrote sixty-six novels, fourteen short-story collections and twenty stage plays1 in her long life. She sold over two billion copies in one hundred languages, making her both the world’s top-selling novelist and the most-translated author in history. The Queen of Crime built her success on our fascination with discovering evil in ordinary people, as well as her ability to create plots2 which have fooled3 millions of readers. Her novels weren’t appealing4 to everyone, though. Before her death, many of them were criticised for expressing racist and anti-semitic sentiments. SELF-TAUGHT Agatha Miller (her real name) was born on 15 September 1890, in Torquay, Devon, into an upper-middle-class family. Her mother did not want her to read until she was eight, but a bored Christie taught…

CURRENT AFFAIRS In his global best-seller, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, the Israeli academic Yuval Noah Harari guided his readers through some 75,000 years of human history. He described human development1, including the development of cognition, agriculture and science, as a series of accidental revolutions. In his subsequent book, Homo Deus, Harari looked to the present and potential future, explaining how our ability to control the world around us is turning us into something new. CONNECTION Harari’s most recent book Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks From the Stone Age to AI is another ambitious work. In it, he attempts to explain why people can’t seem to communicate with each other, despite our having such sophisticated information technology. The development of AI is fundamental to this story, Harari…

CLASSIC BOOKS PUBLICATION DATE: 1674GENRE: EPIC POETRY, CHRISTIAN MYTHOLOGY *Traducción de Cayetano Rosell, Montaner y Simón Editores, Barcelona, 1873 After he went blind1 in 1654, the poet John Milton produced his masterpiece Paradise Lost by dictating the verses to his daughters, friends and assistants. An epic poem in blank verse2 or iambic pentameter, the verses came to him each night in his sleep. Milton had a tragic life; as well as losing his sight, he also lost two wives, two daughters and a son. Paradise Lost, published in its final twelve-book form in 1674, established him on a par with William Shakespeare, as one of the most important writers in the English language. INFLUENTIAL WORK Milton wrote his ten-thousand-line poem to debunk3 Classical heroism and extol4 Christian heroism, exemplified by…

Good afternoon, you’ve reached The Tech Company. How can I help? Oh, hi! Yes, I was wondering1 about your opening hours2 over the holiday period. Sure. We’re open normal business hours until Christmas Eve, when we close at lunchtime. We’re closed all day on Christmas Day and Boxing Day. And what about New Year? The same: open till3 lunch on New Year’s Eve, then shut4 on the 1st of January. And when is lunchtime for you? One o’clock, of course! Well, I don’t stop for lunch until 2pm… But is it business as usual between Christmas and New Year? Oh, yes! Same hours, same service. Great! Well, thanks for letting me know. Happy holidays! You, too. Enjoy the Christmas break! NOW LET’S REVIEW THE VOCABULARY! You’ve reached… (followed by your…

PLACES From Christmas markets to festive shopping, from ice skating rinks1 to carol2 singing in the streets, London is packed with magical things to do and see in the Yuletide season. Not surprisingly, Covent Garden is one of the most important locations for festive activities. A MILLION PLANTS Visitors to the city’s most famous market will arrive to see hundreds of thousands of glittering3 lights illuminating the three daily markets which are bursting with4 clothes, antiques and arts and crafts goods5. The highlight is The Winter Warmer Festival, with warming food and mulled wine6. In 2023, the authorities launched a new decoration scheme7, which returns this year, with forty gigantic balls with bows8, twelve giant baubles9, and eight spinning mirror balls10, all in the iconic Market Building. The Christmas tree,…

SPEAK UP IN CLASS This year is the 50th anniversary of the move of England’s most famous market, Covent Garden, from its 350-year-old site in Central London to its new home in Vauxhall, south of the river Thames. In autumn 1974, the market metaphorically closed its doors forever, its traders1 taking their fruit, flowers and vegetables to the new site, leaving the central piazza empty of life, with its future worryingly unclear. MEDIEVAL ORIGINS The name Covent Garden comes from the medieval market garden of the Benedictine Convent of St. Peter’s, Westminster, dating back to2 around 1200. Henry VIII took possession of the land in 1536 and granted3 it to John Russell, 1st Earl4 of Bedford. In 1630, the 4th Earl was licensed to develop the area of Covent Garden “with…

Adark and brooding1 gothic rock track by Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, 1994’s Red Right Hand has become one of the Australian rock band’s more recognisable songs. Opening with a menacing tubular bell, a creepy2 bassline and organ riff accompany the listener on an uneasy3 walk across town to meet a shadowy4 stranger. This ominous figure with his vengeful red right hand was inspired by a line from John Milton’s 17th-century epic poem Paradise Lost. Perhaps songwriter Nick Cave sought5 to justify his lifestyle just as Milton attempted to justify God’s ways: struggling with drug abuse at the time, yet regularly attending church, he filled an entire notebook with ideas for lyrics. The first two verses of the song set the foreboding6 scene and introduce the protagonist, described by…