Table of contents for No 482 in Speak Up

Situated in the affluent Russian Hill neighbourhood of San Francisco is one of the city’s biggest attractions: a section of Lombard Street known as “the crookedest1 street in the world.” Every year, about two million visitors traverse this six hundred-foot [182.8 metres] section of the street, which has eight sharp turns2 and a sign that recommends a maximum speed of just five miles per hour [8 kph]. MAKING IT SAFER This famous section of Lombard Street is on a hill3 with a natural 27 per cent grade. In the early 1900s, this grade was too steep4 for most cars. So a property owner called Carl Henry suggested making it easier and safer to navigate by adding the eight turns. The turns were added in 1922, and in the late 1930s,…

Great Scott! Back to the Future is forty years old this year. The iconic movie is beloved1 by generations past, present and, no doubt, future, for its mix of science fiction, comedy and 1950s’ nostalgia and for exploring the consequences of altering the past and the importance of accepting one’s destiny. THE STORY AND CHARACTERS Released2 in July 1985, Back to the Future stars3 young-looking twenty-threeyear-old actor Michael J. Fox as teenager Marty McFly. McFly accidentally travels back to 1955 in a DeLorean, a fictional time-travelling vehicle built by eccentric scientist Emmett ‘Doc’ Brown (played by Christopher Lloyd.) While there, McFly inadvertently4 prevents his teenage parents from falling in love, risking his own existence. And so he has to reconcile his parents and return to the future. REJECTED 40+ TIMES Robert Zemeckis…

Downton Abbey is a cultural phenomenon. With over 120 million viewers worldwide, the period drama1 is one of the most popular series in the history of British television. The two feature films — Downton Abbey (2019) and Downton Abbey: A New Era (2022) — together grossed2 around €250 million at the box office3. Now, fans are eagerly4 awaiting the third and final instalment5, Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale. Scheduled for release6 on 12 September, little is known about the plot7, although it will likely offer a heartfelt and emotional conclusion. THE CRAWLEYS Created by Julian Fellowes, Downton Abbey premiered on UK TV channel ITV in 2010. It quickly became a global sensation. Over the course of six seasons and two films, audiences were engrossed8 by the lives and loves of…

London’s Caledonian Road, known as the ‘Cally’ by locals, runs north-south through Islington, a residential borough1 in the north of the inner city2. The street is the setting and name of Andrew O’Hagan’s latest novel, an ambitious social satire that’s more than six hundred pages long and includes nearly sixty characters. Inspired by the work of Charles Dickens, as well as Tom Wolfe’s more recent New York City-set epic Bonfire3 of the Vanities, O’Hagan gives voice to a diverse cast of characters who live on or around Caledonian Road. He reveals how people from very different social backgrounds can be interconnected by hidden networks of power. BETWEEN WORLDS O’Hagan has published nine novels since his debut, Mayflies4, in 2000, and has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times. He has…

Hello, it’s Olivia here. I’m calling to confirm the details of my visit next week. Oh, yes! I’m looking forward to meeting you in person! Same here1! My flight lands2 at 10.30, so I should be at your offices around noon. Are you sure you don’t want me to pick you up? No, that’s alright. It’s easy to take a taxi. OK. We’re on a big industrial estate. Tell the taxi to take the entrance on the south side. OK, I will. I can’t wait to see the new production plant! You’ll love it – it’s state of the art! We’ll do a tour of the facilities and then break for lunch. Will the whole team be there? Sarah and I will join you for lunch, but all of us…

Goodbye’ is a common, simple word but an important part of communication. It’s used when ending or concluding a conversation (in person or on the phone,) when leaving other people (for example at the end of a workday) or when somebody is leaving. The remark1 dates back to2 the second half of the 16th century, and originated as a contraction of ‘God be with ye3’ (‘ye’ is Old English for ‘you’) that later became ‘godbwye’. Over time4, ‘God’ evolved into ‘good’, probably influenced by expressions like ‘good day’ or ‘good evening’. The original meaning of asking for divine protection was eventually5 completely lost. APPROPRIATE USE The word ‘goodbye’, however, can sound a bit formal, and there are many other ways to say goodbye to someone. The most common, especially in everyday…

One of the leading intellectuals of the Age of Enlightenment1, Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was a trailblazing2 advocate3 for the equality of women, laying the foundation4 for modern feminism. In the 18th century, women had very few rights. They were barred5 from politics, higher education and most professions. They were considered the property of their husbands or fathers and were even considered incapable of rational thought! Wollstonecraft was born during the Enlightenment, a European movement which critiqued traditional authority in religion and politics. The rights of men were widely debated, but not those of women. Wollstonecraft would fill this gap6. DIFFICULT CHILDHOOD Born into a farming family, she experienced brutality in her childhood. Her father was often drunk and violent, and little Mary slept in front of her mother’s room to protect…

The New Forest is a national park like no other in Britain. Located in the south of England, it boasts1 140,000 acres [566.5 sq km] of ancient woodlands, heathland2, bogs3 and mires4, reaching down towards the rugged5 Hampshire coastline. Wild ponies roam6 free, while local farmers take their animals there to graze7, thanks to the park’s rights of common pasture. Its natural beauty and varied fauna have attracted countless visitors and inspired some of the greatest British literature, such as Alice in Wonderland and the works of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. ROYAL HUNTING GROUND The New Forest’s history goes back to the time of the Norman conquest. Originally called Ytene — Land of the Jutes — it was established by William the Conqueror as Nova Foresta in 1079. He declared…

With just a five-week break in late 1997, every day, from 2 October 1950 to the day he retired on 14 December 1999, US cartoonist Charles M. Schulz published a comic strip1 that became one of the most influential and beloved in history. It centred on a social group of school-age children, an anthropomorphic black and white beagle called Snoopy, and a cute2 yellow bird called Woodstock. The comic strip appeared under the title Peanuts, though very much against the wishes of its creator! With its quirky3 sense of humour and cast4 of relatable characters5, Peanuts quickly grew in global popularity. It had emotional depth, contained gentle social commentary and resonated with6 readers of all backgrounds7 and ages. CHARLIE BROWN Peanuts evolved from a weekly cartoon strip named Li’l Folks8,…

Ken Kesey grew up in Oregon, the son of a dairy farmer1. A star wrestler2 in high school, he went on to study drama at the University of Oregon and then won a fellowship3 which allowed him to study creative writing at the University of Stanford in California. While there, Kesey volunteered to take part in a government-sponsored research program that investigated the use of psychoactive drugs on patients. He began to sympathise with the mental patients at the hospital, and see their treatment as a way of forcing people to fit in4 with society’s idea of normalcy. THE NIGHT-AIDE Kesey subsequently got a job as a night aide5 on the same ward6 at the hospital. He worked there for nine months, during which time he wrote almost all of…

UNIT 1 Page 8 A2LEVEL Goodbye SOLUTIONS PAGE 74 1.1 SONG ► So Long, Marianne is a goodbye song by Leonard Cohen, released in 1967. It’s about saying farewell to someone you once loved, with kindness and emotion. Look it up on YouTube and fill in the missing words. SO LONG, MARIANNE Come over to the (1) ................... , my little darling, I’d like to (2) ................... to read your palm. I used to think I (3) ............... some kind of Gypsy boy (4) ................... I let you take me home. Now so long, Marianne, it’s (5) ...................that we began to laugh and (6) ...................and cry and laugh about it all (7) ................... . Well you (8) ................... that I love to live with you, but you make me…

The idiom ‘a bad workman blames his tools’ is used to criticise someone who blames their tools or resources for their poor performance, a form of ‘scapegoating’. Derived from a 13th-century French proverb, the idiom was popularly used in English by the 16th century. While it warns that unskilled individuals may use inadequate tools as an excuse for failure, it also implies, more optimistically, that skilled individuals can find success with whatever resources they have. In our technologically-driven age, this may seem debatable. But the fact that we rely so heavily on technology makes the meaning behind the idiom all the more important. Over time, the idiom has broadened in scope, with the word ‘tools’ now serving as a metaphor for anything used to complete a task. Consequently, any incompetent…

Britain’s largest voluntary women-only organisation, the Women’s Institute, known simply as the WI, has been inspiring and enabling1 women for 110 years. In that time, the WI has campaigned2 on many important issues3 and has produced huge quantities of cakes and jam4. RURAL LIFE Why does jam matter? When World War One began in 1914, many farms, food producers and rural communities suffered shortages5 of labour. The foundation of the Women’s Institute (WI) aimed6 to boost morale7 and, importantly, to secure8 food supplies9. Jam production and the pickling10 of fruit and vegetables was an important part of the war effort. The movement was founded in 1897 in Canada, and the first British WI group was inaugurated on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, in 1915. LIFELONG LEARNING Today, there are…

By all accounts1, Brian Wilson was a genius. His fellow greats2 Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney both used the word in their tributes to the creative force behind The Beach Boys, who died last June aged eighty-two. So did John Cale, Mick Fleetwood and Elton John. And so did Wilson’s bandmates, who wrote in a joint statement3: “The world mourns4 a genius today.” You may imagine Wilson gradually accrued5 such a vaunted standing6. Artistic legacy is largely dependent on the longevity of mass appeal, and the fact that The Beach Boys’ opus7 Pet Sounds remains one of the most celebrated and beloved records of all time almost sixty years since its release is proof enough of his incredible talent. Wilson’s claim to genius status8 began with a 1966 PR9 campaign masterminded10…

The search is on for some of the flimsiest1 lumps of matter2 and energy ever dreamed up by physicists. They are darker than night, barely3 more substantial than a thought, and named after a laundry4 detergent. But axions, as they are called, could constitute most of the matter in our universe, forming the unseen skeletons of galaxies and chains of light that adorn the skies of astronomers. Confirmation of their existence would upset5 some of the deepest theories of nature. “For nearly ten years we’ve been operating in a search mode, and any day we could make a discovery,” said Gray Rybka, a physicist at the University of Washington who is a spokesperson6 for the Axion Dark Matter eXperiment, or ADMX, in Seattle, which is trying to conjure7 axions with powerful…

Melissa left the laboratory on the campus, where she was doing a PhD1 in Biology, blinking2 rapidly. “So, how was it?” asked her boyfriend, Ricky, who was waiting for her outside. “It was… indescribable.” She had just participated in an experiment conducted by one of her professors, Dr. Peterson. The professor had directed laser pulses into her eyes, causing her to see a new colour. Melissa found herself struggling3 to describe the colour as she could only compare it to other colours. “It was like… a very vibrant blue-ish4, green-ish...” “And you feel okay?” “Sure. I feel fine.” Ricky, an assistant professor, had not wanted her to participate in the experiment in case the lasers damaged her vision. And in reality, Melissa wasn’t completely fine. She was still blinking, trying…