Table of contents for No 461 in Speak Up

Elizabeth I was Queen of England from 1558 to 1603, a period subsequently called The Golden Age or the Elizabethan Age. This was a time when England became a major European power in politics, commerce and the arts. It was also a period of great danger at home and abroad, but Elizabeth’s mixture of courage, astuteness and majestic self-display1 inspired a powerful loyalty and unity from her subjects. MOTHER BEHEADED Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife, Anne Boleyn. Henry had Boleyn executed before Elizabeth was three. Elizabeth’s own position was precarious for many years, but she finally came to the throne on 17 November 1558, aged twenty-five. A woman ruler2 in a patriarchal world, Elizabeth had to create a new model of governing, in which…

The images are joltingly1 familiar, even after all these years. In one, reproduced with eerie2 accuracy in the new season of The Crown, Diana, the Princess of Wales sits on a diving board3 off the deck4 of a yacht, her long legs dangling5 above the water. In another, she embraces her new boyfriend, Dodi Fayed. And in a third, taken from a security camera, the couple rides in an elevator at the Ritz Hotel in Paris, en route to their car late one August night. We know too well what happened next. The sixth and final season of The Crown begins here, in 1997, on the cusp of6 one of the strangest and most bewildering7 periods in recent British history. That is when Diana (played here by Elizabeth Debicki) and…

I love doing my grocery shopping at the market. Me, too! And Borough Market is my favourite. So what’s on your list? I need meat, fish and vegetables. Fruit and veg for me. And perhaps a ready meal or two. OK, let’s start at the fishmonger’s. I’m a regular here. Oh, those plaice1 are a bargain! I’ll get a couple, too. Right, what’s next? Ah, there’s a good fruit & veg stall2. Let’s see, I need 3lbs of potatoes and some carrots, broccoli and onions. I’ll get some tomatoes and lettuce3 for tonight’s salad. And some of those lovely strawberries. Excellent! I just need to pick up4 a couple of steaks5 at the butcher’s and then I’m done. Right. Let’s go to Borough Market Kitchen for some street food. You…

CURRENT AFFAIRS The relationship between language and power is a close one. While complicated language was once used to confuse and intimidate, more recently, simpler language is assumed to be the key component in capturing voters. Political scientists, for example, have long believed that populists, from Donald Trump to Marine Le Pen, use easier language to appeal to ordinary people and distance themselves from elites. HOW SIMPLE IS IT However, a study published in Cambridge University Press in 2020 has come to an unexpected conclusion. It compared the language of right-wing populists active in recent years in the United States, France, United Kingdom and Italy to that of their main opponents. Approximately one million words from leaders’ speeches were analysed using a series of linguistic measures for evaluating simplicity that…

Fresh from his hugely1-successful collaborations as a musician with Daft Punk and as a producer with Madonna, American record producer, songwriter and rapper Pharrell Williams was asked to write a song for the animated film Despicable2 Me 2. After the movie’s producers rejected3 several4 versions, Pharrell says he asked himself “What does a good mood5 feel like?” The result was Happy and it became the biggest-selling single of 2014, winning two Grammys. It is the UK’s best-selling song of the 21st century (so far). Written completely in the present simple, the upbeat6 song opens with the singer warning7 listeners that some people might8 find it crazy that he is so happy. The chorus9 then kicks in10, consisting of four imperatives and if-clauses. In the second verse, Pharrell hears some bad news but…

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…

Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay is infamous1 for being a former maximum-security prison. Between 1934 and 1963 the federal penitentiary nicknamed2 “the Rock” was occupied by America’s most notorious criminals. The twenty-two-acre island is located two kilometres off the coast of California. The bay opens out onto3 the Pacific Ocean and the waters are freezing and the tides4 treacherous5. BRIEF HISTORY In 1775, Spanish naval officer Juan Manuel de Ayala named the island “Isla de los Alcatraces” (Isle of the Gannets6), because of the many seabirds that lived there. It became a military fort during the American Civil War in the 1860s, holding military deserters, insubordinates and Confederate sympathisers. At one time, indigenous people the Hopi were imprisoned there, too, for passively resisting government attempts to assimilate them. NOTORIOUS INMATES…

Borough Market in South London is a foodie paradise. Over a hundred traders sell high-quality produce1 and serve up dishes from all over the world. They range from typical British fare2 and gourmet foods such as oysters, to Mexican tacos, Spanish tapas, Chinese baos and Italian gelato. Famous for their excellent street food, some traders have appeared on MasterChef, while others have won BBC Food and Farming Awards. The market’s small artisan producers are known for their sustainable practices and their products often cannot be found anywhere else. ONE THOUSAND YEARS Borough Market’s history dates back a millennium. When London Bridge was built in the year 990, traders sold their wares3 on the route into the City. Southwark, on the south side of the River Thames, was considered an undesirable…

PEOPLE The Guardian On a chilly1 day back in January, one of the most recognisable women in the world plunged into2 a surprised crowd of shoppers in Leeds’s Victorian market. The Princess of Wales obligingly3 fielded4 requests for selfies, including with a man so flustered5 by encountering royalty he could barely get the words out. (She reassured6 him gently that “We all get nervous”, though if she still does after more than a decade of this, it doesn’t show.) But after shaking some hands and chatting to traders7, she moved on to the University of Leeds for what was arguably8 the heart of the day. The princess, promoting her new project on how the first five years affect children’s life chances9, attended a lecture10 on child psychology and afterwards talked to…

BOOKS Born in 1948, the accomplished British author and screenwriter Ian McEwan has been prominent on the literary scene since his debut short story collection First Love, Last Rites back in 1975. His novel Amsterdam, about a euthanasia pact between two friends, won the Booker Prize in 1998. Atonement1, a love story set against a backdrop2 of the Second World War, was made into a film in 2007 which was nominated for various Oscars, winning one for Best Original Score3. TOPICAL THEMES Complex characters and compelling4 storytelling make McEwan’s work popular. He also broaches5 topical subject matter6 on scientific and technological themes. The novel Solar (2010), for example, explores climate change from the perspective of a depressed physicist, and in the more recent Machines Like Me (2019), McEwan imagines a…

Mmm, these croissants are delicious,” said Tess. “I wish I knew the recipe.” She and her new neighbour, Bethany, were having brunch at a local café. “Well, you know,” said Bethany, a beautiful woman in her early thirties, “I used to bake1 all the time for my old neighbours, and I have a fantastic recipe for chocolate croissants. Actually, I’d been meaning to2 ask…” “Go on,” said Tess, encouragingly3. “Well, would it be okay if I used your kitchen to bake sometimes? I know it’s a strange request but Kevin doesn’t like it when I make a mess in the kitchen – even if I clean up4 afterwards.” “Of course you can use my kitchen, just as long as I get to sample5 your bakes,” she joked. “But why doesn’t…

It’s one of the world’s most famous legends: a huge primate species that lives in the mountainous region of the northwestern United States and parts of western Canada. A similar creature has also been sighted1 in other remote areas of the world. MANY NAMES, ONE MYSTERY The name of the mysterious beast is Bigfoot, or Sasquatch, as it is also referred to. The nickname2 ‘Bigfoot’ was first used in a newspaper column in California in the late 1950s, which reported that giant footprints had been discovered at a local construction site3. The name Sasquatch means ‘wild men’ in the language of the Salish peoples, indigenous to the area. The elusive4 beast is comparable to the Yeti, an ape-like5 creature, also known as the Abominable Snowman, that allegedly6 inhabits the Himalayan…

Among the astonishing1 variety of feats included in this book, some are exceptionally inspiring and surprising. Here are just a few of them. 1 Tommy: the tallest ox Tommy is a 6 foot 10 (just over 2 metres), 1,360kg thirteen-year-old Brown Swiss ox2. His story is extremely touching3: when he was only two days old, he was rescued by his now owner, Fred Balawender. Balawender bought him for $10 dollars from a dairy farm4, saving him from being auctioned5, and has taken care of him ever since. Their bond6 has always been special. What’s more, Tommy is also a social media star, with TikTok videos reaching over fourteen million views. 2 Simeon Graham: the most juggling catches This fifteen-year-old from the UK is a record-breaker for the most juggling7 catches8 in…

Borough Market offers a host1 of places to eat and drink. Besides indoor restaurants, bars, cafés and pubs, there are stalls selling street food, many around the Borough Market Kitchen, which is an outdoor, covered food court2. Here is a selection of the best. 1 Richard Haward Oysters For eight generations, the Haward family has been cultivating oysters in the River Blackwater, purifying them with sea water, which gives them a unique flavour. They can be enjoyed with a glass of chilled3 wine on its permanent stall on Stoney Street. 2 The Ginger Pig The Ginger4 Pig butcher’s5 specialise in the art of sausage making. The meat is sourced6 from small farmers who practise good animal husbandry7 and all sausages and burgers are made by hand. Its sausage rolls8 now…

Born in 1932 in Boston, Massachusetts, Sylvia Plath had her first poem published when she was eight years old. Her first poetry collection, The Colossus and Other Poems, was published in 1960, and the collection Ariel in 1965. In 1981, she received the Pulitzer Prize for poetry, becoming the first person to receive the honour posthumously. SEMI-AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL The Bell Jar1 is Plath’s only novel. It was first published in 1963 under the pseudonym Victoria Lucas, and then again in 1967 under her real name. While it is fiction, the book is inspired by Plath’s own experience at women’s magazine Mademoiselle in New York City. The Bell Jar describes a difficult six months in the life of college girl Esther Greenwood, who is chosen for a monthlong summer internship2 at Ladies’…