Comprehension: South Korea's Home of the Future

A stove that recommends recipes, wallpaper that changes colour at the touch of a finger and a table that may just be the world's largest iPod- it's not science fiction, just the first wave of futuristic homes in South Korea.

Watch the video and answer the questions below.  Decide if the statements are True or False.

1. The chip on the plate can recommend recipes.
a. True
b. False

2. The designers created the house based on what people want.
a. True
b. False

3. The bath can be filled to the depth and the temperature that you like best.
a. True
b. False

For transcript and answers see below.

Transcript and Answers:

Welcome to the home of the future at least in South Korea, a place where the fridge tells you what's in it as well as the expiry dates. Where the ergonomic kitchen bench automatically adjusts to your height then detects what has been placed on it.  All thanks to one handy piece of technology central to all of this.

“I am holding this plate of food but there is a chip attached to the bottom of the plate. This chip contains all the information on the food and then after reading the information it can give the best recommendation on a recipe for cooking it.”

Then there is the entertainment room centered around the e-table, a sort of giant iPod that controls the entire room.  Swipe your mobile phone for messages, music, and photographs.  Actual pictures
then send them straight to frames on the wall then watch the entire wall change to suit the mood of the music you just selected.  This technology extends to the children's bedroom; there are even widgets, the world's flattest flat screen television, and on ballgames and language lessons.  Its creators say futuristic thinking had little to do with the design.

“This display centre is about listening to the voice of customers and about proposing future technologies and developing new technologies in such a direction as the customers actually want.”

It maybe what customers want but if you want to check your text messages in the bath or even have run itself automatically to a favorite depth and temperature you'll have to wait until 2015, that's when the future becomes the present.

Answers:

1. a
2. a
3. a

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Idioms: Pots with answers

This week 'pots' are the theme of our idioms. Do you know what they mean?

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Comprehension: Happiness for Some in Pakistan's Gated Communities

Gated communities - offering secure living in a sometimes volatile country - are growing in popularity in Pakistan with some 100,000 people living in one of them near Rawalpindi. 

Watch the video and answer the questions below.  Decide if the statements are True or False.

1.Arif’s house is worth ten times as much as it was when he bought it.
a. True
b. False

2. They’ve stopped building any more houses in Bahria town.
a. True
b. False

3. A majority of the house owners in Bahria are owned by the middle-class.
a. True
b. False

For transcript and answers see below.

Transcript and Answers:

Row upon row of neat suburban houses on neat suburban streets – this is Pakistan’s biggest gated community.
Arif’s house – once on a patch of wasteland - has quadrupled in value since he bought it 10 years ago.
"The thing for middle class family, the most preferable thing for them is a sense of security so having your own house brings a lot of the security to you, for you, for your children, so it was dream of theirs."
The entrances to the town, near the capital Islamabad, are monitored carefully and guards patrol its streets. 
Closed-circuit cameras watch every inch in an attempt to prevent crime in this community.
A lifestyle that's a big draw in a country riddled with problems – like frequent power outages or ‘load-shedding’.
"The main thing is the load shedding they are no load shedding in Bahria town and they have high security alert."
"Bahria Town is a little Town and a big town as well, so it's limited and it’s secure.
With a population already 100,000 strong, the gated community is still expanding. 
You don’t need to be very wealthy to get your spot here either, as the developers are mainly targeting Pakistan’s middle classes. 
 “Bahria Town has given everybody impetus, a standard to follow. We have given everybody a standard to follow. And they try to match it, which is a good thing because the country will progress."
Just outside the walls of the compound, the bustling streets of Rawalpindi provide a stark contrast. 
For the people who live here, a life away from grime and frequent electricity blackouts is a world away. 
"It’s not like Pakistan, it like a new country it seems so good. You can get everything. It’s a very clean environment.”
A new country offering escapism, complete with its own wildlife – and even some sights from further afield.

Answers:

1. b
2. b
3. a

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Comprehension: Mandela's Homeland: a Microcosm of South Africa

It's the place that Nelson Mandela called home. The village of Qunu, where the South African leader grew up, was also the place he retired to after leaving politics.

Watch the video and answer the questions below.  Decide if the statements are True or False.

1.Nelson Mandela used to return to the village of Qunu every December.
a. True
b. False

2. Nelson Mandela believed that young people should learn skills.
a. True
b. False

3. In the rural parts of South Africa two thirds of people earn under two dollars a day.
a. True
b. False

For transcript and answers see below.

Transcript and Answers:

"I was born free, free to run in the fields near my mother's hut, free to swim in the clear stream which ran through my village."

Nelson Mandela was born free here, amid the green hills of the Transkei, in 1918.
And though he came to realise that his freedom, as a black man under apartheid, was just an illusion, his love for his home region never left him.
One of the first things he did after getting out of prison in 1990 was build a home in Qunu, the village where he grew up.
Locals like Nozolile remember seeing him around the village.

"He is a loving person. He doesn't care if you have dirty hands coming from the fields. He will still greet you."

It was Mandela's custom, for years, to return to Qunu in South Africa’s Eastern Cape every December.
After missing the company of children during his long years in prison, he liked the chance to play Father Christmas.

"I know Tata Mandela is a person who loves children. Every Christmas, he would call us and give us toys, things for school, uniforms, shirts, books..."

After his health deteriorated, he gradually withdrew from public life.
When he was still in power, he used to warn them that they wouldn't be getting any special treatment just because one of their own had become president.

"He said to us, 'Yes, I am back, my brothers, but whatever I do cannot start here in this village, now that I'm president.  I want the whole country to know that a person is just a human being. People must be educated so that they could become president too.' "

Despite its famous resident, Qunu has remained a traditional village.
The only sign of something special is the village museum, which runs social and artistic projects for local people.

"One of his greatest passions is the development of the youth through their being given education or skills, rather than being given grants and stuff, but given skills, so that they can earn their own living."

In rural South Africa, two in three black people live on less than two dollars a day and Qunu's no exception.

It's not just the home of the country's greatest hero, it’s a living symbol of the challenges still left to overcome.

Answers:

1. a
2. a
3. a

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Phrasal Verbs with Answers: to hit

This week,'to hit' is the verb used to make our phrasal verbs. Do you know what they mean?

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Comprehension: Riding High with Ivory Coast's Elephant Bikers

The iconic Harley-Davidson motorbike is typically associated with road trips across America, but bikers in the West African nation of Ivory Coast are also embracing the free spirit that comes with life on the open road.

Watch the video and answer the questions below.  Decide if the statements are True or False.

1.The Ivory Coast Elephant Bikers started fifty years ago.
a. True
b. False

2. The Bikers are very careful when they ride through villages.
a. True
b. False

3. According to Raïssa N’gom the villagers are not very welcoming.
a. True
b. False

For transcript and answers see below.

Transcript and Answers:

Miriam and Margaret have Alzheimer's and struggle to remember what happened last week let alone ten minutes ago.
But when they hear a few lines from a poem learnt decades ago at school, the memories come flooding back.

 “We did talk a certain amount of poetry at home always. I think my aunts knew that when I was small, and my mother you know, they all knew it, and so I can't remember life without it.”

For four years, the organisation 'Kissing it Better' has used poetry as a means of fighting memory loss.  Young people from local schools, here in Stratford-upon-Avon in central England, visit the elderly in nursing homes, giving poetry recitals and singing songs. 

 “When they’re feeling sad or lonely or they can’t connect very easily, if somebody says a poem that they knew so well 60-70 years ago, they suddenly smile because they found something that they remember and when they have that memory, along with it comes the school days, the war time, the family, the countryside.  So it’s that important anchor in what is a very bewildering world if you have dementia.”

And these recitals don't just benefit those on the receiving end.

“I feel like I can give something to the community, and they've given stuff to us and I want to give it back to them, and I hope, in a few years' time, when I'm old, people will come and visit me, and read to me, and sing to me!”

Stratford-upon-Avon is the birthplace of Shakespeare, and even former actors from the Royal Shakespeare Company take part reciting sonnets by the Bard.

 “You get something back from them, you see that glimmer in their eye and it’s wonderful when suddenly they join in with a line.”

Experts say that the use of poetry cannot cure Alzheimer's, but there's no doubt it brings sufferers comfort and with it confidence from a bygone era. 

Answers:

1. b
2. a
3. b

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