The ‘Brummie’ accent is considered to be the ugliest accent in the British Isles, according to a new poll from YouGov. The UK and Ireland has a massive range of accents for such small islands – we have the same amount of dialects as the whole of North America- including Canada, Bermuda and Native American dialects.

The Brummie accent is the least attractive, followed by the Scouse (Liverpool) accent, then the Mancunian (Manchester). The top three most attractive accents are the Southern Irish, then Received Pronounciation (RP), then Welsh. Yorkshire comes in at fourth. RP is known as ‘BBC English’ and is the standard accent of the Southern areas of Britain.

Older people like West Country accents

Different age groups find different accents attractive. 63% of the over 60s find it attractive, compared to 22% of the 18-24 year olds. The youth just don’t like that West Country (South West England) voice.

Young people like Northern Irish accents

If you’re Northern Irish and into 18-24 year olds, you’re in luck. They’re the age group most likely to find your accent attractive (54%) compared to only 37% of over-60s.

We like our own accents

People in London don’t find the cockney accent too offensive, scoring it an attractiveness rating of -16, whereas the rest of the UK dislike it by -30. Scottish people also quite like Glaswegian accents, scoring it at net 7, but the British don’t like it, rating it -29.

www.mirror.co.uk

Where from?

answers: 1-d 2-e 3-a 4-b 5-c

Burgled Family Receive UK’s Best Christmas Tree

A family whose Christmas was ruined last year by a devastating burglary have this year been given the UK’s best Christmas tree. The staggering 7.5 m tall tree – so tall it goes through the roof – took 24 hours to install in the Penniston’s home and contains more than 100 metres of Christmas lights.

It’s a startling contrast to this time last year when the family, from Maulden, lost items of both financial and sentimental value. Parents Nicola, 35, and Christopher, 38, told of the emotional impact the burglary had as thieves ran off with their children’s first teeth and Christmas presents. However, the smiles returned to kids Finlay, 7, and Jasmine, 12, who were surprised with the giant installation when they returned home today. The family had been out getting into the festive spirit by sledging at the nearby Milton Keynes Snozone – an indoor ski and snow centre.

Adorned with a hundred decorations created by school children from around the UK, the giant tree also contains details of kind deeds. The surprise, organised by Marks & Spencer, was part of their Two Fairies Christmas campaign.

On December 13 2013, after returning home from a last-minute shopping trip, the Penniston family found the front door wide open and the house raided by burglars. Yet it was the sentimental items and the emotional impact that had the biggest effect. Nicola, an HR consultant, said: “Last Christmas was a tough time for us – we just didn’t have a Christmas at all in the end. The most upsetting part was losing all the irreplaceable items.” Family photo albums were taken as well as items of jewellery and cash.

Finlay, seven, said: “This is the most epic Christmas we’ve ever had. I couldn’t believe it when I saw the tree! I don’t know how the fairies did it. Last Christmas I was scared to even go in my bedroom, now it’s the best room ever!”

Match the words with the definitions.

answers: 1-b 2-d 3-e 4-a 5-c

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Most towns and cities in Great Britain have a public bonfire and fireworks display on or around the 5th of November. The fireworks symbolise the barrels of gunpowder Guy Fawkes tried to explode in the cellars of the Parliament to murder King James I. Traditionally, models of Fawkes, made of old clothes and newspapers, were burned on the fire, but this custom is not as widespread as it used to be. Edenbridge in Kent has the most remarkable fireworks display and it is there that the biggest Guy is burned: their model is 9 metres tall. Traditional Bonfire Night food is hot baked potatoes, called jacket potatoes, cooked on the bonfire and filled with butter and cheese. Toffee apples on a stick are a big hit with children, along with the opportunity to toast marshmallows on the bonfire.

Greater London can boast of a large number of fireworks displays, but the most impressive one is the Lord Mayor’s Firework Show, which starts with a spectacular three-mile-long procession in the historic area of the City. This parade dates back to 1215 and it welcomes every year the new Lord Mayor of the City, who rides in the 254-year-old, gold Lord Mayor’s State Coach, normally on display in the Museum of London, followed by marching bands and floats. The fireworks are held in a prime location: more than half a million people watch them go up from a barge moored between Waterloo and Blackfriars bridges. While this event is free, the other famous display in Legoland, Windsor costs quite a lot, but their firework shows with a Super Heroes theme is unique: if viewed through a pair of 3D glasses, the fireworks are transformed into exploding 3D Lego bricks!

If Shubham Banerjee cannot lay claim to being the world’s youngest venture capital-backed entrepreneur, he comes very close. Banerjee was 12 years old when he closed an early-stage funding round with Intel last month for his prototype for a low-cost Braille printer. Since then, the San Jose, California middle-schooler has turned 13.

After reading a fundraising flyer about the blind, Banerjee felt inspired to turn a high-tech version of Legos, the toy building blocks, into a device that could print in Braille. One day, he wants to mass-produce the printers and sell them for about $350, far less than Braille printers cost now.

This past summer, he worked on incorporating an Intel Edison chip, a processor aimed at hobbyists, into the printer. In September, Intel invited him to a conference in India to highlight uses for Edison. 

There, he got a big surprise. Intel executive Mike Bell announced from the conference stage that the giant chipmaker would invest in his company, Braigo Labs. Until then, his funding consisted of the $35,000 his parents gave him. He plans to use it to build a better prototype of the printer and test it with more groups for the blind.

Banerjee says he gets mostly As and Bs as a student at the Champion School in San Jose, California. Teachers have given him time off to attend events like the conference in India and the Intel Global Capital summit this week in Huntington Beach, California. He catches up on school work on weekends, he says. While many young entrepreneurs who win venture-capital cash end up ditching their education to focus on their businesses full time, Banerjee says he won’t take that path. ‘It’s an after-school thing,’ he says.

Source: Dailymail

Match the words with the definitions.

answers: 1-d 2-a 3-e 4-b 5-c

Complete the lyrics with the missing lines in the table below.

1. Sit and listen, sit and listen

2. Are the best I’ve ever had

3. I find it kinda sad

4. Worn out places, worn out faces

5. When people run in circles

6. Hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson

7. Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow

———————————————————————————————-

Gary Jules: Mad World

All around me are familiar faces

……………….
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
……………….
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kinda funny
……………….
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
……………….
It’s a very, very mad world, mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
……………….

Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
……………….
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
……………….
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very mad world, mad world

Enlarging your world
Mad world

———————————————————————–

Gary Jules: Mad World

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places, worn out faces
Bright and early for their daily races
Going nowhere, going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression, no expression
Hide my head, I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow, no tomorrow

And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very mad world, mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday
And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen, sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me, no one knew me
Hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson
Look right through me, look right through me

And I find it kinda funny
I find it kinda sad
The dreams in which I’m dying
Are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles
It’s a very, very mad world, mad world

Enlarging your world
Mad world

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Robin Williams (1951 – 2014)

“You’re only given one little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.”

The Chicago-born actor known for his fast-paced, improvisational performances will be remembered both for his dramatic and comic roles. After three Oscar nominations for Best Actor in Good Morning, Vietnam (1988), Dead Poets Society (1989) and The Fisher King (1992), he received the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in Good Will Hunting (1997).

Williams first made a career as a stand-up comedian, which influenced his acting throughout his life. After a successful TV debut with the series Mork & Mindy in 1978, his big-screen debut in a lead role was the 1981 feature film Popeye. He stole the heart of both children and adults with his comic roles, such as the grown-up Peter Pan in Hook (1991), the desperate father dressed in drag to be around his kids in Mrs Doubtfire (1993), and the boy trapped in a board game in Jumanji (1995).

Although he was brilliant in comedies, his personal life was not all blue skies. He developed an alcohol and drug addiction in the late 1970s, which affected his life for the next two decades. In 2006 he again suffered a relapse and underwent rehab. He was a ladies’ man, marrying three times and was involved in several tumultuous romances besides.

All the while, Williams kept acting in a variety of films: he was the doctor who treated his patients with humour in Patch Adams (1998), the android who develops human emotions in Bicentennial Man (1999), followed by his role as a writer of pulp novels in Insomnia (2002) and a reverend in the comedy License to Wed (2007). He also lent his voice to cartoon characters: who wouldn’t remember the hilarious Genie in Aladdin (1992) or Ramon of Happy Feet (2006 and 2011)?

In September 2008, Robin Williams went on tour with his one-man stand-up comedy show, Weapons of Self Destruction, which focussed on social and political absurdities. However, half a year into the tour health problems landed him in hospital and he underwent heart surgery. After his recovery, he appeared in the Broadway production Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo, and last year he had two supporting roles: in The Big Wedding with Robert De Niro and The Butler.

According to his publicist, Williams had been suffering from severe depression prior to his death. Earlier this summer he had been to preventive treatment, committed to stay sober. The coroner’s report states suicide due to asphyxiation as a likely cause, but investigation continues. His last leading role was in The Angriest Man in Brooklyn, released in May 2014, in which he plays a man mistakenly told by his doctor he had only 90 minutes to live, so he tries to make up with his family.

fast-paced – pörgős
nomination – jelölés
stand-up comedian – stand-up humorista
feature film – játékfilm
to be dressed in drag – nőnek/férfinak öltözni
board game – társasjáték
it’s not all blue skies – nem felhőtlen
addiction – függőség
relapse – visszaesés
ladies’ man – nőbolond
tumultuous – viharos
reverend – tiszteletes
recovery – felépülés
supporting role – mellékszerep
publicist – szóvivő
severe – súlyos
preventive treatment – megelőző kezelés
sober – józan
coroner’s report – halottkém jelentése
asphyxiation – fulladás
to make up with – kibékülni valakivel

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Zoo worker in gorilla suit shot with tranquiliser dart

A vet shot a tranquiliser dart at a zoo employee dressed as a gorilla after mistaking him for a primate. The 35-year-old zoo employee was shot on Monday at Loro Parque Zoo on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Staff at the zoo were taking part in a drill designed to ensure they had an emergency plan in place in case one of the gorillas escaped its enclosure. But the vet had not been informed of the training exercise, and fearing that there was a gorilla on the loose he sprang into action. The vet fired the shot – designed for a 400lb (181 kg) gorilla – at the man and hit him in the leg. According to the newspaper when the man was located he was in his underwear. He was taken to the University Hospital of the Canary Islands.

The zoo said in a statement to MailOnline: Last Monday, Loro Parque simulated the escape of an animal from its enclosure in the gorilla park.

‘He was quickly seen by paramedics and immediately taken to Hospital Universitario Canarias, where he was treated and then discharged. He has recovered well and is now in good health and is grateful for all the messages of concern he has received. As a matter of course, Loro Parque, like all zoos and animal parks, regularly carries out this kind of emergency drill.’

Zoos around the world carry out animal escape drills – and in the past they used a human dressed in a gorilla suit. In a Tokyo zoo they practice surrounding the escapee with nets before pretending to shoot it with a tranquilising dart and returning it to its enclosure.

source: www.dailymail.co.uk

tranquiliser dart – nyugtatólövedék
employee – alkalmazott
primate – főemlős
to take part in – részt venni valamiben
drill – gyakorlat
emergency plan – vészhelyzeti terv
enclosure – elkerített terület
to be on the loose – szabadon van
underwear – alsónemű
to attend – részt venni valamilyen eseményen
paramedic – mentős
to be discharged – kiengedik kórházból
to recover – felgyógyulni
message of concern – aggódó üzenetek
regularly – rendszeresen
to surround – körbevenni
to pretend to – úgy tenni, mintha 

Match the verbs with the definitions.

answers: 1-c 2-d 3-a 4-b 5-d

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