Table of contents for No 462 in Speak Up

TOP BRITS In May 1765, while walking in a park in Glasgow, Scottish inventor James Watt had a revolutionary idea. He imagined a way to radically improve the primitive steam engines1 of the time. This idea would give birth to the Industrial Revolution and change the world forever. LARGELY SELF-TAUGHT Watt was born in Greenock in west Scotland in 1736. Often ill2, he was educated at home by his mother and began learning a trade3 with his shipwright4 father. Moving to London in 1755, he worked in a scientific instrument maker’s workshop5. On completing his apprenticeship6, and in fragile health, he returned to Scotland to set up his own business. WATT’S OBSESSION In 1764, Watt was given a steam engine to repair. These engines were used to pump7 water out…

On 4 February 2004, a social networking site was launched to students of Harvard University. Calling itself TheFacebook, it allowed them to connect with each other using their university emails and photos. It was founded by a psychology and computer science student called Mark Zuckerberg, along with other Harvard students. Zuckerberg had previously developed a site called “FaceMash1” on which visitors could compare the photos of two students and decide which one was more attractive. TAGGING AND LIKES Within twenty-four hours, 1,200 students had signed up2to TheFacebook. Within a month, more than half the university’s undergraduates3were members. The platform expanded to other US universities, high schools and tech companies like Apple and Microsoft. In 2005, the site changed its name to Facebook and introduced the idea of ‘tagging4’ people in…

CINEMA Known in Italy as “Il Commendatore” (the Knight1 Commander), Enzo Ferrari is one of the most outstanding2 characters of recent Italian history. Born in the Italian city of Modena in 1898, he was a motor racing driver and entrepreneur. Joining the racing department of Alfa Romeo as a driver, Ferrari won a motor race for the first time in 1923. After the birth of his first son, he went on to focus on working on race cars and teams for Alfa Romeo, to then become the entrepreneur behind one of the most successful, alluring3 and well-known motor racing teams in history. THE MAN AND THE MACHINE In 1929 he founded what would go on to become the most successful Formula 1 motor racing team ever, the Scuderia Ferrari, which…

MUSIC With all that has been written and said about The Beatles, you would think there was nothing new to share. More than five decades have passed since the Fab Four split up1 and countless2 documentaries and books have been released3 in that time. British author Craig Brown, however, surprises us with something fresh, in One Two Three Four: The Beatles in Time. MEMORIES “Think what we would have missed if we had never heard the Beatles,” said the late Queen Elizabeth II at her golden wedding anniversary in November 1997. There cannot be anyone alive and conscious today who has not heard of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. Everyone has memories attached to their songs, transcending age, class, culture and geography. Brown captures this nostalgia…

Elon Musk pretends to transform the atmosphere on the planet Mars into one more conducive to human life; Jeff Bezos’ space company Blue Origin will join NASA’s lunar lander program to develop spacecraft that will take astronauts to the Moon; Peter Thiel aims to create a floating city called a ‘seastead’ that would operate independently from existing nations. Billionaires, or their equivalents, have been around a long time, but there’s something different about today’s tech titans, as evidenced by a rash1 of recent books. Reading about their apocalypse bunkers, vampiric longevity strategies, outlandish2 social media pronouncements, private space programmes and virtual world-building ambitions, it’s hard to remember they’re not actors in a reality series or characters from a new Avengers3 movie. Unlike4 their forebears5, contemporary billionaires do not hope to…

Inspired by a true story, Beloved1 is a profound and disturbing2 novel set in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1873. Its protagonist is Sethe, a former3 slave, a mother and a murderer, who now lives alone with her eighteen-year-old daughter Denver. Sethe’s terrible secret is that she deliberately killed her firstborn4 while trying to escape from a cruel slave owner. INHERITED TRAUMA Each of Beloved’s three parts begins with a quote5 about Sethe and Denver’s home, 124 Bluestone Road, which is haunted6 by the malevolent spirit of Sethe’s dead daughter. Part one begins with: “124 was spiteful7. Full of a baby’s venom8”. While Sethe is now a free woman, she is imprisoned by her traumatic memories. She pictures9 the past as if it were a physical presence. Denver appears to encounter her…

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…

Did you start using any new words in 2023, or notice1 people using an old word in a new way? Every year since 2004, Oxford Languages (publishers of the Oxford English Dictionary) select their word of the year. The idea is to find a word or expression that became popular because it reflected the mood2 or concerns3 of that year. This time, Oxford Languages made a shortlist4 of eight words and asked the public to choose four of them. Their expert lexicographers then made the final decision. And for 2023, the winner was… ‘rizz’! Let’s take a look at what ‘rizz’ and the other words on the Oxford shortlist mean. 1. Rizz The winning term ‘rizz’ evolved out of social media and is short for ‘charisma’. It’s a teen slang5…

In the 1950s, researchers from across the globe embarked on a sweeping1 and ambitious study. For decades, they scrutinized the diets and lifestyles of thousands of middle-aged men living in the United States, Europe and Japan and then examined how those characteristics affected their risks of developing cardiovascular disease. The Seven Countries Study, as it later became known, famously found associations between saturated fats2, cholesterol levels and coronary heart disease. But the researchers also reported another notable result: those who lived in and around the Mediterranean — in countries like Italy, Greece and Croatia — had lower rates of cardiovascular disease than participants who lived elsewhere3. Their diets, rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains4, nuts5, seeds, lean proteins6 and healthy fats, seemed to have a protective effect. Since then,…

In the educational realm1, the South African English accent often encounters initial resistance. Students, particularly those exposed to a range of English accents, may be prejudiced against South African English. However, Iboux Academy takes pride in2its diverse team of educators, including a significant number of South African teachers that have witnessed a shift in perspective among students. A RICH HISTORY English, as one of South Africa’s official languages, has a complex history. Intricately woven into3the tapestry4of the nation, the journey of the English language in South Africa has been marked by colonial and historical encounters that have shaped5its prominence. Initially, Dutch6dominated in the country until 1806 when British control increased the prominence of English. 19th-century colonial expansion led to English-speaking communities, and conflicts like the Anglo-Boer Wars intensified linguistic tensions.…

Esther implored her brother, Todd, to reconsider. It was her last chance to convince him to do the right thing. She would leave Earth for Mars that night, and if Todd didn’t come with her, she would never see him again. “Go to Mars and live in servitude and misery?” responded Todd. “No, thanks.” Todd had a point. Esther knew her new life on Mars would be difficult. All humans would be obliged to work hard to make the planet habitable. They would have to live in a confined space and in restrictive conditions, but it was either that or remain on Earth and die. “There is another option,” said Todd, “a better option.” It was the same argument that she and Todd had had a hundred times before. The…

Durante la segunda posguerra mundial, la música popular conquistó las ondas radiofónicas impulsada por la emergencia de un nuevo grupo demográfico y de consumo: los adolescentes. Las listas de éxitos se convirtieron en fábricas de superestrellas. Topping1 the charts2 is the holy grail3 for most recording artists, an indication of their popularity with the music-buying public. The first music chart appeared in 1913 in the US entertainment magazine Variety. At a time when recorded music was not yet available for sale and even radios were scarce4, this weekly chart was based on sales of sheet music5 in New York City. That same year, Billboard6 magazine published its own similar chart, and in 1936 it released7 the first pop chart based on record sales. SCANDAL Early Billboard charts also incorporated radio…

We all know that adolescence is a difficult phase of life, when our hormones fluctuate, our bodies change and we form a new sense of identity. But what about new parenthood1? The term ‘matrescence’ was coined2 in the 1970s by medical anthropologist Dana Raphael and it refers to the developmental phase of new motherhood3. Just like adolescence, matrescence is a phase when women go through intense physical, psychological and emotional changes. More recent research shows that the brains of new fathers experience similar changes. A GLOBAL MOVEMENT While adolescence has been widely studied and discussed for decades, new parenthood is only now getting the attention it deserves4 in the medical community and society. This is thanks to a global movement that recognises it as an equally difficult and important phase…

So, let’s take a look at your blood test results. Oh, doctor, how bad is it? Hmm, actually, it’s looking quite good, but your cholesterol is on the high side. I knew it! I’m going to have a heart attack, aren’t I1? Or diabetes? Please, calm yourself! You just need to improve2 your diet. Right, wholemeal everything and nothing nice, I guess3. Not at all. Just follow the Mediterranean diet. It’s low in saturated fats4 and very tasty5, too. Mediterranean diet? What’s that, sardines and olive oil? Yes, but lots of other things, too. Basically, try to choose whole foods6 that aren’t processed, like fruit, vegetables, nuts7, lean meat and fish. What about alcohol? There’s nothing wrong with a glass of wine with your dinner or the occasional beer at…

Thousands of screaming fans were waiting at the airport when The Beatles first landed1 in America on 7 February 1964. After a string2 of unsuccessful singles, I Want To Hold Your Hand was the country’s number one, and the English band would soon hold the top five places on the chart3. Beatlemania had arrived! I Want To Hold Your Hand is still The Beatles’ best-selling US single. John Lennon said he and Paul McCartney wrote it “one on one, eyeball to eyeball4” in Paul’s girlfriend’s basement5. In a notorious6 case of misheard7 lyrics, the US folk singer Bob Dylan believed them to be singing “I get high8!” rather than “I can’t hide!” and offered them marijuana! Lennon later told Rolling Stone magazine “We’ve got a lot to thank him [Dylan]…

Based on the 1992 novel by Scottish author Alasdair Gray, Poor Things is the new movie by Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos. The black-comic horror film, with a retro-futurist or steampunk Victorian setting1, won the Golden Lion award at the Venice International Film Festival in 2023. US actor Emma Stone, who also featured2in Lanthimos’ Oscar-nominated movie The Favourite, stars as Bella Baxter, a Glaswegian woman who is revived from an attempted suicide by a scientist, Dr. Godwin Baxter, played by Willem Defoe. She then goes on a sex-fuelled3quest4for equality and liberation, which takes her around Europe, to Northern Africa and Central Asia. The cast also includes comedians Ramy Youssef and Jerrod Carmichael, plus actors Margaret Qualley and Mark Ruffalo. ABSURDIST Filmed in Lanthimos’s signature5absurdist style, the movie features strange hybrid animals…