Bletchley Park and codebreaking

Husbands, sons and boyfriends are impossible to buy presents for but I had a brainwave when I was thinking of a present for my husband this year. I decided to get him the Bletchley Park Brainteasers book to challenge him in a different way from his daily work! I don't think he appreciated the challenge as it has been sitting on the coffee table since his birthday in April! So, this week, I decided to have a go at the first problem which is the crossword that secretly tested people in 1942. If they could do it in less than 12 minutes, then they received a letter asking them to join the war effort at Bletchley Park and become a Codebreaker.

So far, I have got about 4 clues correct and taken 3 days....I don't think I am a very good codebreaker!

However, playing word games is fun so I have found some interactive sites where you can try your codebreaking skills in English!

1. gamestolearnenglish.com
This game is for Phrasal Verbs which you probably know make up a huge part of the English vocabulary and are tricky things to learn

https://www.gamestolearnenglish.com/phrasal-verbs/

An explanation of Phrasal Verbs in French if you happen to be a French speaker:

https://www.anglaiscours.fr/phrasal-verbs.html​

There are other games on that website too so have a look around.

2. British Council learnenglishteens

A lot of games here need Flash Player but this one worked fine for me without. It was challenging though!

https://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org/study-break/games/wordshake

3. Brain Pages

This is generally code-breaking related but as codes and words are related then it's a good place to challenge the language part of your brain!

http://brainpages.org/code-breaking/

Can you do this puzzle based on one from the Bletchley Park Brainteasers book?

A king of a land far away was planning a day out in the hills. He wanted to bring some guests and after looking through his contacts list chose his father's brother-in-law, his brother's father-in-law, his father-in-law's brother, and his brother-in-law's father. How many people do you think will join him as a guest?

Post your answers in comments!

And finally, have you seen The Imitation Game?

It is about Bletchley Park and Alan Turing played by actor Benedict Cumberbatch. Watch in the Original Version for some beautiful English accents - there is a link to the trailer below.

Summertime Tutoring

Back to blogging...

I've started to tutor some young French students recently who are between 2nd and 3rd year of their Bachelor degree. After the upheaval of the Confinement in France and the change to all online lessons, there is definitely a great opportunity to keep up the online presence with help and links. In tandem with my teaching resources and a pseudo-blog through school, I have decided to dust off this old blog, rename it and get it going again too.

A film to match the weather today

I actually found it hard to write the word 'summertime' in the title as it has been raining for 9,5 hours as I write and is forecast to rain all next week too. The heating is back on and I'm drinking hot drinks rather than cold ones. So much for the summer...!

However, I guess we need the rain because the fact that this area was already close to drought conditions has been in the news recently. So while we wait for warmer days, it's always a good plan to watch an entertaining movie...

There's a trailer for a film called "A Rainy Day in New York" here. The film has not had top reviews so it may be a "washout" - better to check the reviews first. Still, the long trailer, in itself, is useful for English!

Do you know about Shadow Speaking?

You could also try to Shadow speak while you watch the trailer. You listen to a bit of the audio, practise saying it yourself then go back, play it again and speak along with the person on the audio. That way, your skills in listening will improve - try it with this one!

Vocabulary from the trailer

scoop - an exciting news story or a portion of ice-cream

a squeeze - a girlfriend/boyfriend or a tight fit

imbibe- to drink alcohol

copiously - in large quantities

absurd - ridiculous

funny business - idiom for something that is happening but is not normal

lousy - terrible, rubbish, awful

The Triune Brain

The TOEFL often features talks with a science theme so today I decided to find one that is also an IELTS Academic theme (in the reading section) because listening to an explanation can often help to explain a Reading exercise that's based on the same subject. Please note, I am not a Psychologist so this is new to me too and only intended as a practice listening!

Photo by jesse orrico on Unsplash

This video explains the Triune Brain and gives you the opportunity to learn some very specific vocabulary which is listed below.

The questions are under the video. Read the questions then watch and take notes. See if you can answer some questions without listening again.

1. What will the Triune Brain Theory most likely explain? 
2. What do we have high and low levels of when we feel "hijacked"?
3. What is the front part of the brain called?
4. What is its purpose?
5. What is the blue part of the brain called?
6. What is controlled by this part?
7. What is the red part associated with?
8. Do they share the same blood supply,
9. What does a SPEC scan show us?
10. What happens to the blood flow when we are faced with adversity and what is the corresponding change to our behaviour?
11. He talks about seeing a tiger footprint in the jungle. What were the two speeds mentioned in reference to the brain?
12. Give another term for the yellow, blue and red parts of the brain (the 4 F's is a not quite as it seems!)
13. What happens to the social inhibitions part of the brain when we get emotional?

In other videos, the red part of the brain is called the Reptillian part and is considered to be the oldest part of the brain.

This information is used by therapists to help people manage their reacions to situations and stress. It could be useful to know in an exam!

NEW VOCABULARY

Triune
Adversity
Freeze
Neocortex
Limbic
Cortisol
Oxytocin
Injection
Wisdom

ANSWERS

1. What will the Triune Brain Theory most likely explain? Our reaction to stress and adversity.
2. What do we have high and low levels of when we feel "hijacked"? High levels of cortisol and adrenalin, low levels of oxytocin.
3. What is the front part of the brain called? The Neocortex
4. What is its purpose? It is for rational, creative, analytic, linguistic thought and for deciding between socially appropriate or inappropriate behaviours.
5. What is the blue part of the brain called? The Limbic part
6. What is controlled by this part? Emotions
7. What is the red part associated with? Fight or flight and reproduction
8. Do they share the same blood supply, No, there are 3 blood supplies.
9. What does a specscan show us? It shows the way our brains process situations  by monitoring blood flow and producing a "movie" of the patterns.
10. What happens to the blood flow when we are faced with adversity and what is the corresponding change to our behaviour? The blood flow is reduced in the Neocortex and increased in the Limbic and back part.
11. He talks about seeing a tiger footprint in the jungle. What were the two speeds mentioned in reference to the brain? The Neocortex works slowly at 1.3 seconds and the other part works at 0.09 seconds.
12. Give another term for the yellow, blue and red parts of the brain (the 4 F's is a not quite as it seems!) Yellow = intelligence, Blue = wisdom, Red is the 4 F's - fight, flight, freeze and....Reproduction 
13. What happens to the social inhibitions part of the brain when we get emotional? It shuts down and we lose an understanding of time.

Supermassive Black Holes

Supermassive Black Holes

A You-Tube video from Newsy

Level B1+

This latest post is a long time coming! No reason except other distractions kept me away from blogger!

While I have your attention, if anyone notices any links missing in previous posts, then send me a message via the message box at the end of the post that has the problem - thank you!

Supermassive black holes.....you may know the song by Muse with the same title - sorry, I'm not posting about that today but instead, listen to a very short, pretty easy, clip about supermassive black holes. 

The questions are below:

1.What size can supermassive black holes reach?

2. What is the rate at which a normal black hole grows?

3. Why is it impossible for supermassive black holes to have grown at the same rate as normal black holes?

4. How are normal black holes made?

5. What may have helped supermassive black holes form and how?

6. What is being built for us to find the oldest light in the universe?

The mystery of Supermassive Black Holes

Scroll down for the answers.


That's all for today, but if you want to listen to a TOEFL talking exercise on Black Holes which is much more challenging, here is a link:

TOEFL Black Holes Talk

This talk is difficult due to the vocabulary used. Here is a list of some of the words you should know before listening:
nuclear fusion reactor
core
mass
upper-hand
implodes
stellar material
supernova
dense
singularity and event horizon
perimeter
radius
squared
lens
prism

Answers to The mystery of Supermassive Black Holes

1.  Supermassive black holes can reach masses of more than ten billion times that of our sun.
2. Normal black holes grow at a certain rate, usually taking a million years or more to reach a substantial size.

3. Black holes were already around about a billion years after the Big Bang which is not enough time for them to reach their enormous sizes at anything like the normal rate.

4. Normally, gas clouds collapse into stars which collapse into black holes.

5. Powerful forces like supersonic streams of gas and dark matter kept the clouds from collapsing, so they grew larger until their gravity became powerful enough to overcome those obstacles, jumpstarting an enormous blackhole seed that’s bigger than any new black hole today.

6. Ground and space-based telescopes are being built to enable us to see the oldest light in the universe.

Robert Capa: The Soldier in the Water

Photographer: Robert Capa

A listening practice about this picture taken by Robert Capa during the D-Day Landings

I have chosen to do a listening about Robert Capa as he has been the subject of a TOEFL reading in the past so it would be useful to know a bit about him in case his work comes up again in a future TOEFL test.

First though, some camera vocabulary could be handy! In a TOEFL reading about Robert Capa, the text will focus on how he worked and the results he achieved. However, it would be good to learn photography vocabulary especially in relation to the history of photography and early camera equipment as these wider subjects can also be TOEFL topics.

Here's some to start you off:

Camera-angle - position of the camera relative to the subject
Lens --  a piece of optical glass used to form an image of a subject on sensitive material
Wide-angle -  a lens that includes a wider subject area than normal
Zoom - a lens that allows the focal range to be adjusted
Composition - the arrangement of the subject matter in the photograph 
Depth of field - points nearest to and farthest from the camera that are exceptionally sharp
Exposure - the length of time light of a given intensity is allowed to act on a sensitive emulsion

Now listen to this short video clip about the picture shown above and answer the questions below.

The Soldier in the Water

1 Complete this sentence:

« If your pictures aren't __________ enough, you weren't ___________ enough. »

2  Why are Robert Capa's pictures of D-Day particularly important?

3 How does the narrator describe the conditions Capa experienced while taking his photographs?

4 What is the name of the soldier in the photo? How old was he and how much did he weigh?

5 How was Ed feeling when the photo was taken?

6 Where did he find protection?

7 Why doesn't he want to forget?

8 What is the photograph taken to represent now?

I hope you found this interesting and don't forget to subscribe for more updates!

Scroll down for the answers!






























































1 « If your pictures aren't good enough, you weren't close enough. »

2 No other photographer landed with the troops. Robert Capa was the only 

photographer that captured that initial landing on the beach.The first

confrontation with the enemy.

3 It's hard to imagine worse conditions for taking photographs. The unimaginable horror, confusion and fear - aside from just trying to survive.

4 Ed Regan, 22 years old and 120 pounds

5 Physically and emotionally spent (exhausted).

6 He got to the seawall after about 15 minutes in that position.

7 He sees his picture as representing all the GIs who landed on D-Day.

8  It symbolises the plight of any soldier in any water. One soldier against the enemy and the very real possibility of death. It's a powerful image of the experience of war.

Economics - The Invisible Hand

 Economics - The Invisible Hand

Here is a short Economics listening exercise I did my students a while back. Read through the list of words and guess where they go in the text first, then listen to the video and see if you were correct! If there are any words you don't know then look them up in www.reverso.net - this is a pretty good online dictionary and translation site.

Extra: Spot the phrasal verb that always comes up in a TOEFL exam!

Here is a link to the video clip:  The Invisible Hand

Use the words below to complete the text of the video clip.

economist	hands-off	stall	tricky	leave	free- marketeers	freely
positive	central	reach	traders	lower	enough	meantime
case	figure	compete	spoilt	charges	visible	equilibrium

An economy is a ______________________ thing to control and governments are always 

_______________________ out how to do it. Back in 1776, ____________________ 

Adam  Smith shocked everyone by saying that what governments should actually do is just 

leave everyone alone to buy and sell _________________ among themselves. He 

suggested that if they just _______________________  self-interested 

______________________ to ______________ with one another, markets are guided to 

_____________________ outcomes as if by an Invisible Hand. If someone 

_____________________ less than you, customers will buy from them instead so you'll 

have to ____________________ the price or offer something better. Whenever 

_____________________people demand something, they'll be supplied by the market like 

_____________________ children only in this _________________ everyone's happy. 

Later ____________________ like Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek argued that this 

"________________" approach actually works better than any _______________________

 plan. But the problem is, economies can take a long time to ____________________ their 

_____________________________ and may even ______________ along the way and in 

the ______________________ people can get a little frustrated which is why governments 

usually end up taking things into their own more __________________ hands instead.

Answers below - scroll down!












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 Answers

An economy is a tricky thing to control and governments are always trying to figure out how to do it. Back in 1776, economist, Adam Smith shocked everyone by saying that what governments should actually do is leave just everyone alone to buy and sell freely among themselves. He suggested that if they just leave self-interested traders to compete with one another, markets are guided to positive outcomes as if by an Invisible Hand. If someone charges less than you, customers will buy from them instead so you'll have to lower the price or offer something better. Whenever enough people demand something, they'll be supplied by the market like spoilt children only in this case, everyone's happy. Later free-marketeers like Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek argued that this « hands-off » approach actually works better than any central plan. But the problem is, economies can take a long time to reach their equilibrium, and may even stall along the way and in the meantime, people can get a little frustrated which is why governments usually end up taking things into their own more visible hands instead.

And the phrasal verb?

to figure out - it's often in TOEFL conversations so a good one to learn! 

I appreciate feedback so let me know what else you want to see re TOEFL stuff!

Thanks and bye for now!

 

Simple Essay Structure and You Tube videos

If you are doing TOEFL IBT then you know you have speaking and writing sections to do along with all the listening and reading sections. Did you know that great speeches, pieces of writing and You Tube "talky" videos all have something in common - structure! There's other stuff too like vocabulary and interesting sentence construction but the main thing I am going to focus on here is the common structure you can use for the speaking and writing sections.

You may have seen this simple essay structure in the past but if you haven't, I will explain it for you. It is what I use to help my students with their writing.

Source: www.onlineteaching.humanities.curtin.edu.au

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction

Having decided on the main theme of your work (the thesis),the introduction is where you state what you are going to talk about. It is an inverted triangle because you should go from a general opening that may include a bit of history and background, to the actual point you are going to argue. 

Middle Paragraphs

Each paragraph represents one argument to back up the point you are making. It should begin with a topic sentence, should develop that topic and at the end, should restate strongly the topic of the paragraph and link to the next paragraph.

Conclusion

The triangle is the opposite of the introduction triangle because the opening of this paragraph is a restatement  of the thesis, followed by a summary of the arguments used, and speculation on whether different approaches to the question may be taken in the future due to future developments, for example.


If you follow this simple structure for your TOEFL writing and speaking exercises, it should help you to be more organised and to focus on the question you have been asked to answer. Of course, using this structure for other work such as speeches and You Tube videos is another possibility.


And to see great speech/essay structure in action, watch this TED Talk (or read the transcript)!

A historic moment in the Arab world

I hope this helps!