Innehållsförteckning för No 469 från Speak Up

It’s hard to believe, given the wide choice of music available today, that the BBC held a monopoly on UK radio broadcasting until 1973. Celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this year, Radio Caroline was the first of a new wave of pirate radio stations to challenge and disrupt the state-owned service READY TO ROCK In the early 1960s, as rock music exploded across the airwaves1, the BBC allocated2 just six hours a week to popular music on its UK network. The only competition came from Radio Luxembourg, which played hits from the major record labels3. But how could anyone hear new, independent artists? OFFSHORE In 1961, Ronan O’Rahilly, an Irish entrepreneur, arrived in London full of ideas for music promotion. He decided to set up his own radio station, on a…

A radical change of direction for The Cranberries, Zombie was the lead single1 from the group’s second album, No Need to Argue, released in 1994. A protest song defined by vocalist Dolores O’Riordan’s emotive voice and its use of distorted grunge guitar, it has been described as “a masterpiece of alternative rock.” The band, from Limerick in western Ireland, was already world-famous for their dreamy indie-pop introspective sound. O’Riordan attributed the change in musical direction to the experience of touring, explaining that “on the road we started to rock out a bit more.” In 1993, paramilitary republican group the Irish Republican Army (IRA) bombed Warrington, England, killing two children. This caused international outrage2 and inspired The Cranberries to write a “song for peace, peace among England and Ireland.” The song…

On the Shetland Islands, an archipelago in the far north of Scotland, Shetland sheep have been roaming1 the hills for thousands of years. These sheep have a type of wool that is ideal for creating quality textiles, now internationally renowned. Every year, people come from all over the world for Shetland Wool Week, a celebration of sheep, wool and the local textile industry. SHEEP, AND MORE Shetland Wool Week began in 2010. It takes place throughout the Shetland Islands, which comprises2 around one hundred islands, sixteen of which are inhabited. It includes a variety of exhibitions, classes, and events on things like weaving3, spinning4, dyeing5, and the famous Fair Isle knitting6 technique which originated there. It offers visitors an opportunity to experience this remote and rugged7 region through an industry…

LANGUAGE British and American slang1 proliferates in today’s interconnected world. Social media platforms are where slang Brit and slang Yankee compete to win young users over through the exchange of memes, tweets or videos. Rapid and viral sharing turns language into a shared asset2 among cultures and continents. Through their distinctive vernacular3, British and American English merge4 into a global linguistic fabric, creating a dynamic and ever-evolving5 landscape that reflects the fluid nature of modern communication. HISTORIC EVOLUTION Some famously vulgar four-letter swear words originate from Old or Middle English and are commonly used by both British people and Americans. Other expressions simply refuse to cross the Atlantic. For centuries, the British have used terms like ‘blimey6’ (God blind me) or ‘bloody hell’ to show surprise or irritation, which Americans…

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. A2 PRE-INTERMEDIATEB1 LOWER INTERMEDIATEB2 UPPER INTERMEDIATEC1 ADVANCEDC2 PROFICIENCY 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…

LANGUAGE Well, shiver me timbers and blow me down! It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day, savvy?* The unofficial annual holiday on 19 September is a whimsical1 event that celebrates an idealised vision of pirates and piratical life. People dress up2 — in private or in public, if they dare3 — and speak exclusively in pirate language all day HAVING A BALL Originating in the United States in 1995, the idea came from two friends playing racquetball at the YMCA in Oregon. John Baur and Mark Summers goaded4 each other by shouting pirate phrases. They had so much fun doing it, they proclaimed 19 September Talk Like a Pirate Day. The date was chosen simply because there were no other holidays and it was John’s ex-wife’s birthday, so it would be…

TOP BRITS SPEAK UP IN CLASS British ethologist Jane Goodall transformed the world’s understanding of the relationship between humans and animals through her long-term observation of the behaviour of chimpanzees, man’s closest relative. She spent more than fifty years in the African jungle and her work there forced scientists to accept that humans were part of, and not separate from, the rest of the animal kingdom. OBSESSED WITH ANIMALS Goodall was born in London, England in April 1934. Captivated by animals almost from birth, she took earthworms1 from the garden into her bed aged just eighteen months. Rejecting dolls2, Jane only wanted toy animals, and later dreamt of travelling to Africa throughout her teenage years. Leaving school at eighteen, she worked until she had enough money to realise her dream.…

Britain’s voters handed1 the Labour Party a landslide2 election victory, but one laden3 with asterisks. Prime Minister Keir Starmer took office4 with a commanding5 majority in the British Parliament, yet in terms of the total number of ballots6 cast7, his party won only one-third of the vote, less than what it got in 2017 when it lost to the Conservatives. Labour made inroads8 across Britain, yet its wins were often eclipsed by the Tory losses, including that of Liz Truss, the unpopular former prime minister who was evicted9 from her seat10. The thundering11 mutiny12 of the voters may have been the biggest message of Britain’s election. It has ushered13 in a new era of Labour government, left the Conservatives to nurse14 the worst defeat in their history and stands as a warning…

SPEAK UP IN CLASS Born in India in 1903, the son of a minor British official, George Orwell served in the imperial police in Burma before establishing himself as a journalist and author. In December 1936, he arrived in Barcelona. He soon joined the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, becoming one of fifty thousand militia that formed the International Brigades. INSPIRED BY THE WORKERS In Spain, the Republicans were fighting the Nationalists, led by General Francisco Franco, who had led a coup1 against a democratically-elected government. However, the Republican side was divided into many left-wing2 factions — Liberals, Anarchists, Communists, and Socialists among others— that quarrelled3 among themselves. Orwell records his experiences with the communist POUM (Partido Obrero de Unificación Marxista). He describes the elation4 he initially felt…

NOW LET’S REVIEW THE VOCABULARY! What’s up? is a colloquial way of asking, “How are you?” Chillax is an amalgamation of ‘chill out’ and ‘relax’. A gig is a concert. OMG is short for ‘Oh, my God’. Lit is slang for ‘amazing’ or ‘excellent’. Cut and run means to leave quickly. To blag is to persuade someone to let you do something in a slightly10 dishonest way. Well posh is slang for ‘very upper-class’. Jelly is short for ‘jealous’. Boujee means ‘high-class’, derived from the French ‘ bourgeois’. Savage AF means ‘extremely brilliant’; ‘AF’ is short for ‘as fuck’. Smashed means drunk. To crash is to spend the night. Mos def is short for ‘most definitely11’. SCAN, READ & LISTEN 16 UPPER INTERMEDIATE B2 GLOSSARY 1 dude: tronco2 mate: colega3…

When you find yourself stuck1 in a conversation and you have no idea what to say, ‘indeed’ is the best word to imply that you acknowledge2 the point made3 but neither agree nor disagree. It’s a diplomat’s dream, the verbal equivalent of nodding4. IN TRUTH According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word ‘indeed’ dates back to around 1330 and was first used by Robert Mannyng, an English poet and historian. The word comes from the prepositional phrase ‘in + dede’, an Old English noun for ‘a doing, an action, an event’ that later formed the related word ‘deed5’. The meaning of ‘in deed’ was ‘in fact, in truth, in reality’. Over time, the two words merged6 into one, becoming ‘indeed’ while retaining their meaning of affirming or stressing7 a…

Microsoft, Apple, Google, Meta… we’re all familiar with the big names in the tech industry, but now a new company is making the headlines1: US company Nvidia produces the chips used to train2 and operate generative AI. The company has soared3 in value: in June, it became the most valuable company in the world, worth $3.34 trillion4. RAPID ASCENSION Founded in 1993, Nvidia Corporation is headquartered in Santa Clara in California. Originally, it produced chips that process computer graphics, particularly for computer games. However, it then changed focus, becoming a dominant player in the AI chip market. It produced the ten thousand chips needed to program OpenAI’s mega-successful chatbot and virtual assistant ChatGPT, which is credited with starting what’s known as the AI Boom. This so-called boom has generated enormous…

CURRENT AFFAIRS SPEAK UP IN CLASS Depending on where you live, food that you usually pay for can be readily available1 for free. It is all around: on trees, in fields or in forests. If you know what you are doing, you can pick it, prepare it and consume it safely. This is called ‘foraging2’, which refers to the harvesting3 of wild4 organic material from herbs and berries5 to edible6 flowers and fungi7. Many foraged foods are tastier8 and more nutritious than their cultivated equivalents, and as people become more interested in where their food comes from, foraging is becoming more popular. IN THE STATES In the US, foraging has become so popular that there are regional guides to common wild edible foods available online. In most places, however, foraging…

When my husband brought me a cup of tea in bed the other morning, I could barely muster1 a “Thank you”. I was furious that he’d spent the night blatantly2 cavorting3 with another woman (a friend of ours, no less.) Never mind4 that it only happened in a dream. The emotions — betrayal5, outrage, rejection — felt real. My next words —“I had a dream last night” — echoed what Oscar Wilde is said to have deemed6 the most frightening sentence in the English language. My husband would probably agree. He rolled his eyes7 as I told him what he’d been up to. It’s not my mind’s first screening8 of this particular dream, though the exact cast9 and plot vary. Do such dreams reveal anything? A generalised anxiety? A deep-seated10 mistrust11? A…

BOOKS Born in a rural area in Saskatchewan, Canada, Maria Campbell is an Indigenous Métis elder, teacher, writer and filmmaker. Now eighty-four years old, her memoir Halfbreed1 (1973) is regarded as a foundational piece of Indigenous literature. Published when she was in her early 30s, it describes the discrimination, oppression and poverty that Indigenous and Métis people experience. INDIGENOUS PEOPLES Around 4.9 per cent of Canadians identify as Indigenous. They belong2 to three main peoples: First Nations, Inuit or Métis. The name Métis derives from the 1700s, when French and Scottish fur traders3 married Indigenous women. Their descendants were called ‘half-breeds’, but the term is both derogatory4 and inaccurate5, says Campbell, as the Métis formed their own distinct nation and collective culture. THE STRUGGLE In her memoir, Campbell describes how…

Katya refreshed the browser1 on her laptop and read the most recent comments on her vlog2. “Wow! You look incredible.” “Beautiful girl. Beautiful place!” “Inspirational.” “Living the dream, Katya!”… The comments were in reaction to her final video from Joshua Tree National Park, where she had spent a week exploring the desert landscape and documenting every moment for her travel vlog, Global Adventures. The name of her vlog wasn’t very accurate3. Until now, she’d visited destinations only in the US. But her plan was to visit every national park in the country to attract more subscribers — and advertisers4. She wanted to use the money generated by advertisements on her vlog to begin living her dream of visiting every country in the world. She refreshed her browser again and more…