Reading #07: Do Hollywood stars guarantee a film’s success?

Reading Day: #07: 

Do Hollywood Stars Guarantee A film’s Success?

         Big stars. Big money. Big films? What is the formula for success when it comes to films? No one is sure. Is it the stars? Maybe. Or maybe not.

There are certainly benefits to using a star in a film. It makes the film easier to market. Stars also help sell more tickets and drive DVD sales, which are a big part of studio revenue. For example, the announcement in 2002 that Tom Cruise was not going to star in the film Cold Mountain reduced the movie’s expected revenue by $10 million. Then, later, the announcement that he was in talks to play a leading role in the film The Last Samurai increased the film’s expected revenue by $28 million.

However, a star does not guarantee success. Bewitched (starring Nicole Kidman) cost an estimated $85 million but only made about $62 million at the American box office. Waterworld (1995) had Kevin Costner in it and cost $175 million to make but only grossed $88 million at the US box office. The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002) starred Eddie Murphy and cost $100 million to make, but only earned about $8.9 million worldwide. The Island (2005) had a production budget of $126 million and had stars Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson in it, but only made about $35 million. And Jim Carrey’s A Christmas Carol took just $30 million after costs of more than $170 million. And there are plenty of examples of films without stars that have made a lot of money.

ET: The Extra-Terrestrial and the original Star Wars series did not need stars to make them successful. Many low-budget films with unknown actors also make a lot of money. The Blair Witch Project had a budget of about $500,000, but made more than $248,639,099 worldwide. The comedy The Hangover had a little-known cast but made $459 million at global box office. The adolescent vampire romance Twilight took $186 million in the US despite starring unknown English actor Robert Pattinson. Then there was Slumdog Millionaire which has no stars in it at all but which made a lot of money and won a few Oscars as well.

 In the end, if it is a bad film with a good star, it will not make much difference. “Movies with stars are successful not because of the star, but because the star chooses projects that people tend to like,” said Arthur S. De Vany, a professor of economics at the University of California. And as Sidney Sheinberg, the former president of MCA Universal, has said, “The simple fact is that if you pay a star a great deal of money for a film that people don’t want to see, then it

GLOSSARY

To drive v: if something "drives" sales, it causes sales to increase.

Revenue n: money that is produced.

An announcement n: something that is said in public or to the media.

To reduce vb: to decrease.

In talks exp: if someone is “in talks”, they are discussing something.

A leading role n: the main part in a film.

The box office n: the money made at “the box office” represents all the money made from people going to the cinema.

To gross vb: to make an amount of money before tax.

To earn vb: to make an amount of money.

BOOK #12: How to Speak English Fluently in 1 Week

BOOK OF THE DAY : #12

How to Speak English Fluently in 1 Week

There are four components essential to learning English:

1.Phonetics

Phonetics is a branch related to sound. Phonology is a branch related to the systematic organization of sounds in the English language. Phoneme is the smallest unit making up a language. The English language consists of 41 phonemes. Phonemes combine to make up words and syllables. According to Wikipedia, a phoneme can be described as "The smallest contrastive linguistic unit that may bring about a change of meaning". Phonics is themethod oft eaching people to recognize different sounds.

2. Reading

Reading fluency is the ability to read and speak without stopping. This means not looking at each word and trying to figure out how to read it. It should be accurate and precise.

3. Vocabulary

Development Vocabulary is the body of words in any language. It is also the individual knowledge of words and their meanings and pronunciations. It is important to develop your vocabulary skills while learning a language. Of course, you are not expected to go through a dictionary in one day; it is as low process.

4. Oral skills

Oral skills are is your ability to speak a language fluently. This requires correct pronunciations and the use of Grammar. Without development oral skills, learning a language would be utterly useless.

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how to use the verb to be in english

1-1 - NOUN + IS + NOUN : SINGULAR

1-2 NOUN + ARE + NOUN : PLURAL

1-3 PRONOUN + BE + NOUN

1-4 CONTRACTIONS WITH BE

1-5 NEGATIVE WITH BE

1-6 BE + ADJECTIVE

1-7 BE + A PLACE

1-8 SUMMARY : BASIC SENTENCE PATTERNS WITH BE

Reading #06: How To Speak English Fluently

Reading Day: #06

How to... speak English

There are basically two types of speaking: spoken production (simply producing words) and spoken interaction (speaking/conversing with other people). Both are important, but this month we are looking at spoken production.

Spoken production is all about producing language. It is about speaking clearly and correctly. It is your ability to pronounce words, use the correct stress and intonation and select words that are appropriate for your purpose. Spoken production activities include reading a written text aloud, speaking from notes, acting in a play, talking about your life, singing a song and telling a story. It may also include giving presentations, expressing arguments in a debate, giving a speech or making a sport commentary.

First, let us put speaking into perspective. Speaking in any language is difficult... even in your own language. In fact, if you listen to recordings of native English speakers, you will be surprised at how “badly” many people speak spontaneously: there are examples of hesitation, false starts, mumbling, unclear language and even errors. Very few people can speak really well, and those who can, usually spend hours preparing and practising their speeches. The thing is that speaking “well” depends on a lot of factors: your motivation, your physical and mental state at the time of speaking, who you’re speaking to, how well you know the topic, where you are, the time of day, and a hundred other things.

The way to improve your speaking is to practise. You could do some “shadowing”. This involves copying native speakers who are speaking on audio or video recordings. Just get access to an audio file, put on your headphones, press play and start speaking at the same time as the native English speakers. This is a great way to improve your pronunciation. You could also do the same with songs, by singing along to your favourite songs. Another good technique is to read aloud. This will help you practise saying the words and expressions. Just get a copy of a text or book that you find interesting, and read parts of it out loud.

Repetition is also important. Repeat key sentences and expressions over and over again until they become automatic. Do some language fluency drills with your teacher to build up fluency. Memorise chunks of language or entire paragraphs. This will really help. A lot of the language we use when speaking consists of set expressions and chunks of language that are repeated. Also, practise telling your favourite stories or anecdotes. Write them out first. Then, make notes and practise saying them to yourself... and then in public. The more you practise them, the better you will get at telling them, and soon you will be a story-telling expert.

 Speaking well requires practice, and a lot of time and effort. Are you ready?

BOOK #11: How to Write a Love Song By William Brooks

BOOK OF THE DAY : #11

 How to Write a Love Song

William Brooks was born and raised in southern Oklahoma between the cool shade of the Arbuckle Mountains and the endless turns of the promiscuous Red River. While friends honed their rodeo and football skills, young William diligently nailed down his television viewing and music listening abilities. 

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Reading #05: SECRETS TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH LISTENING SKILLS

HOW TO... LISTEN TO ENGLISH

Listening to English is difficult. There might be noise, you might be tired, the other person might not be speaking clearly... there are a thousand things that could influence the way you listen. It isn’t a precise science, and it never will be. But the good news is that you don’t need to understand every word in order to follow things. Experts have shown that we only actually hear/understand about 40% of the words during a conversation – our brain fills in the rest for us. Take this as an example. Imagine you’re in the street. All of a sudden, someone stops you and starts to say something to you. At the same time they pull back their sleeve and point to their wrist. Without even listening to the words, your brain tells you that they’re asking you for the time.

Before listening, you need to activate your existing knowledge of the topic. You can do this by thinking about the context and the general theme. Once your existing knowledge has been activated, you can predict what people are going to say. For example, if you know that everyone is talking about global warming, you can be more or less sure that they are going to mention things such as “CO2, carbon, Kyoto, Copenhagen” and “scientists”. And if they’re talking about tax, then you can be fairly sure that they’ll talk about “money, payments, the government, increases” and “decreases”. The fact is that 90% of the people in the world say the same things as you and I – they just do it in different languages. Remember that! This means that 90% of the time you can probably guess what someone is going to say – you just have to trust your intuition.

 In order to listen effectively, you need to learn about English pronunciation. As we explained last month, English is a stresstimed language. As such, English pronunciation focuses on specific stressed words and glides over other non-stressed words such as prepositions, articles and auxiliaries. The key is to listen out for these stressed words. And if you can capture these, you’ll understand what the other person is trying to say. Just read this: “Pub. Last night. Great time. Afterwards. Cinema. Saw Film.” Did you understand the story? Even though lots of words are missing, you can still capture the general meaning. So, when you listen, use your intuition and let your instincts guide you. And never try to understand everything – it isn’t natural. You don’t even do that in your own language. You get the general gist and your brain fills in the details. That’s why there are often misunderstandings (even in our own languages) – it’s all part of being a human.

You also need to learn about connected speech. Many sounds in English combine. For example, we don’t say, “Look / out” with two separate sounds. We say, “Loo kout” with the final consonant “k” combining with the vowel sound “ow” of the second word, “Loo kout”. This happens all the time in English and you need to be aware of it.

So, what can you do to improve your listening skills? It’s simple: Listen, listen and listen again. You need to do two types of listening: 

(1) listening to recordings that are specifically targeted at your level; 

(2) listening holistically to native speaker conversations and recordings (this is essential for developing an ear for the language). It can take a while to become accustomed to a native speaker’s speech patterns, but keep at it! Start listening in small amounts and build up more time as you go. After a while, you will start to understand the sounds and to distinguish words. Then, once you’ve mastered that, your learning will start to increase rapidly. 

Listening is extremely important and is THE KEY to language learning.

Good luck, and remember, listening is not a science – it’s a vague form of capturing information. And if you can do it in one language, you can do it

By LearnHotEnglish

Street Style : HOW TO FIND YOUR PERSONAL STYLE

How to find the style that suits you ?

How would you describe your style? Formal? Classical? Casual? Smart? Find out how you can discover your very own style.

First of all, what is style? Let’s hear a few words of wisdom from the wise and witty. “Style is knowing who you are and what you want to say,” (Gore Vidal); “Style is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma,” (John Fairchild); “Style is the perfection of a point of view,” (Robert Eberhart); “Style is a simple way of saying complicated things,” (Jean Cocteau); “Style is the dress of thoughts,” (Lord Chesterfield).

So, now you know what style is, you’ll need to buy some clothes. But where? In the UK, you can get really cheap, stylish, second-hand clothes at charity shops. They’re great if you want exclusive labels but don’t want to pay the price. The only difficulty is discovering where the really good bargains are. But don’t worry; Leila Gray can help you here. She’s the proud owner of a vintage Hardy Amies coat, picked up at a charity shop for £20 - a good deal when you realise it cost more than £800 new. “You have to go to the richer areas of a city,” she says. “That’s where all the labels are. It can take a bit of hunting around, but that’s half the fun, and there’s a lot of buried treasure just waiting to be discovered.”

So, now you know where to buy your new, stylish clothes, how do you acquire your style? Experts say that mixing and matching from charity shops can help you find your own style – something that’s really you. That’s what Scottish musician Momus did. “My fashion tip is this,” he says, “look at yourself with the eye of a graphic designer. If you can’t be attractive, aim for ‘interesting’ or ‘original’.” Momus’ unique style could even make him happier, too. As psychologist Marilyn Elias explains, the happiest people “judge themselves by their own yardsticks, never against what others do or have”.

Shoichi Aoki, the founder of Japanese street style magazine FRUiTS, agrees. “I think real fashion is what people wear on the streets, the clothes that they wear, the way that they wear them,” he says. “What you see in fashion magazines and on models has been styled and it’s more commercial.” He says that his inspiration for FRUiTS came from people combining traditional Japanese clothing such as the kimono and “geta” (Japanese wooden clogs) with Western fashion. “This really caught my eye,” Aoki adds. These styles may seem wild, but Aoki’s idea is not: be bold, be creative and find something that suits you.

Maybe it’s time to create your own look. There are many online guides to help you. Perhaps the best advice comes from a website called WikiHow, “If you see something you like,” it says, “feel free to copy, but don’t make yourself a clone... mix it up and make it yours.” Think about it!

GLOSSARY

Casual adj “casual” clothes are ones you normally wear at home or while on holiday

Smart adj clothes that are neat and clean in appearance

Words of wisdom exp clever/intelligent thoughts and words

Witty adj someone who is “witty” can say clever/intelligent things very quickly

Charisma n someone who has “charisma” can attract, influence and inspire people

A charity shop n a shop that sells second-hand goods. The money is used to fund charities

A label n clothing produced by a top fashion company

A deal n a bargain; something that is good value for money

To hunt around phr vb to look for something carefully and in a number of places

Buried treasure exp metaphorically = great clothes that are very cheap (in this case)

To judge yourself by your own yardstick exp to form an opinion about yourself without comparing yourself to others

Commercial adj a “commercial” product is one that is made in order to be sold to the public

To catch your eye exp if something “catches your eye”, you notice it

To suit vb if something “suits” you, it looks good on you a

Clone n an exact copy/replica of something

Learning Techniques #01: How To Learn on Your Own

How To Learn on Your Own     

Do you want to learn something? There are a number of options.

You can go to class, you can find a private teacher, you can do an online distance learning course or you can teach yourself with a self-study book.

Self-study courses have a lot of advantages. You can study when you want. You can go as quickly or as slowly as you need. You can study at home. You can focus on the bits you are most interested-in and, of course, you can save money – selfstudy is cheap. All you have to do is buy the book and start learning.

Every year, thousands of people choose this method. The popular British series Teach Yourself has sold over 60 million copies. For Dummies, another best-selling self-help series, has over 150 million books in print. The US market for self-help books was estimated to be $9 billion in 2006. Yes, $9 BILLION! and that’s just the USA.

Clearly, lots of people are now choosing self-study. However, it is not a new phenomenon. Experts believe that the first self-help book was “The Maxims of Ptahhotep”. This book was written in Egypt in about 2400 BC by Ptahhotep. He wanted to give his son advice on the best way to live his life. Ptahhotep’s idea remained popular for hundreds of years. The first self-study books were in fact self-improvement books – books to help the reader become a better person. Examples include Xenophon’s The Education of Cyrus, Pliny the Younger’s Letters to Trajan, and, most famously, Machiavelli’s Il Principe (published in 1542). These works were written primarily for kings and princes, giving them advice about how to rule.

However, from the eighteenth century onwards, self-improvement books were written for ordinary people. The most influential of these books was Self-Help (1859) by Samuel Smiles, whose opening sentence is, “Heaven helps those who help themselves”. His ideas remain popular today and he was greatly admired by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

 One of the most popular self-help books was How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936) by Dale Carnegie. This book teaches people how to develop their self-confidence in order to become more successful. Carnegie’s book has sold over 15 million copies around the world. The 1937 parody, How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, by Irving Tressler, was not so successful.

It was also in the late 1930s that the Teach Yourself series began publishing. Many of the early guidebooks were written to help British people survive during the Second World War, and included titles like Teach Yourself to Cook (which included a recipe for curried pigeon), and, rather worryingly, Teach Yourself to Fly. Since then the books have been encouraging people to ‘teach themselves’ just about everything you can imagine from beginner’s Polish to art history, and Buddhism.

These days, you can find self-study books on just about anything you can imagine. So, how many self-study language books do you have on your bookshelves? And how many of those things do you know how to do? 

.....

Tell us about your techniques of self-study in comment 

Video Learning: #01 Sam Houston Memorial Museum

Learning Video : #01 

Sam Houston & The Sam Houston Memorial Museum

Located in Huntsville, Texas, the Sam Houston Memorial Museum and attached grounds are spread across eighteen acres of the original two hundred-plus acres once owned by Sam Houston and family from 1847 to 1858. Preservation of this historic site started in the first decade of the twentieth century, when Bertha Kirkley, a history professor at Sam Houston Normal Institute, worked with her students to revive the property and return the “Woodland Home” and Sam Houston’s law office to their original site. The initial stage of this work was completed in 1911, but a lack of funds and public indifference meant that the property was poorly maintained. Indeed, as journalist Gregory Curtis has pointed out, various “inauthentic embellishments were added” to the Woodland Home during this period, and local “agricultural students were using it as a hay barn.”

In the late 1920s, Joseph Lynn Clark, another history professor at Sam Houston State Teachers College, wrote to every member of the Texas legislature seeking financial assistance to properly preserve the Woodland Home and surrounding buildings. In 1927, the legislature approved a $15,000 appropriation for restoration of the home and the construction and development of a museum at the site. A formal dedication for the museum was held on May 3, 1929. While this appeared to an unmitigated success, Clark soon complained that the Museum’s renovations at the Woodland Home changed the structure “in the interest of attractiveness and permanency,” without due regard to the historic appearance of the building.

In 1936, as Texans prepared to celebrate the centennial of the state’s independence from Mexico, Clark again lobbied officials for funds to commemorate the life and legacy of Sam Houston. This time, the Centennial Commission appropriated $35,000 to construct a new rotunda for the museum and to modernize the building. Between 1936 and 1960, construction occurred in installments, and in 1995 the Katy and E. Don Walker, Sr. Education Center was also constructed. The center, resting in the back of the museum grounds, holds a gift shop, auditorium, exhibit gallery, and activity rooms.

The museum is owned and managed by Sam Houston State University, which sits across the street from the museum and grounds. Inside the museum there are three wings holding permanent exhibits detailing the life of Sam Houston, the Texas Revolution, and other collections and exhibits housed year round. Periodic demonstrations, such as blacksmithing, pottery, and hearth cooking, occur during various times of the year including at the annual General Sam Houston Folk Festival every spring. 

Quote of The Day: Go Easy On yourself

Quote of The Day: #01

By Lori Deschene

"Have patience with yourself. Growth takes time and effort." – Unknown

. This quote reminds us to be patient with ourselves as we navigate through life, understanding that growth and self-improvement often come from facing challenges and learning from our experiences. Embracing our imperfections and treating ourselves with kindness can help us bloom and become the best version of ourselves.

"There is no path to happiness. Happiness is the path." – Buddha

"Be patient with yourself. Remember, this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure." – Eckhart Tolle

"Have compassion for all beings, rich and poor alike; each has their suffering. Some suffer too much, others too little." – Dalai Lama

"When I look at the planet on which I live, I see the beauty, the wonder, the horror, and the ugliness – and I am filled with compassion for every living thing." – Julianne Banns

"If you’re not willing to be a fool, you can’t become a master." – Kung Fu Panda

"The only way out of the labyrinth of suffering is to forgive." – Buddha

"When you realize how perfect everything is, you will tilt your head back and laugh at the sky." – Hui-Neng

"Compassion is the foundation of all spiritual life." – Jack Kornfield

"If you propose to speak always ask yourself, is it true, is it necessary, is it kind." – Pythagoras

"Imagine that every person in the world is enlightened but you. They are all your teachers, each doing just the right things to help you." – Shunryu Suzuki.

BOOK #10: 8 SONGS IN ENGLISH TO MOTIVATE YOU AND INSPIRE YOU!

BOOK OF THE DAY : #10

8 SONGS IN ENGLISH TO MOTIVATE YOU AND INSPIRE YOU!

Hi, everybody and welcome to another issue of Learn Hot English magazine – the fun magazine for learning English. This month, we’re looking at 8 songs in English to motivate, inspire and energise you. Listen to the songs, learn lots of new vocabulary and start to feel good. Of course, that’s not all and we’ve lots more fun things for you to read and listen to so you can learn lots of useful English. We’ll be looking at dieting, sports vocabulary, charities, good versus evil, James Bond, idioms, phrasal verbs, useful vocabulary and lots, lots more! Well, we hope you enjoy reading and listening to this issue of Learn Hot English. Have fun, learn lots of English and see you all next month!

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BOOK #09: Act Word Games

BOOK OF THE DAY : #09

Act Word Games

If you’ve picked up this book, you’re interested in increasing your ACT score. That means you’re already aware of the effect this exam can have on your future, and that’s great. But you’ve also got homework to do, football games to attend, musical instruments and Spanish verbs to practice, chores to do, maybe an after-school job and other responsibilities, and—oh yeah—a social life to maintain. You don’t have time to spend on more stuff related to school, much less exams that are probably months away at this point, right?

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BOOK #08: How To End A presentation in English

BOOK OF THE DAY : #08

The Most Powerful Ways to End a Presentation

Hi, and welcome to another issue of Learn Hot English – the fun magazine for learning English. This month, we’re looking at how to end a presentation. If you haven’t already given a presentation, we’re sure you’ll need to at some point in your life. And these days, more and more people are doing them in English. The presentation ending is really important – in fact it’s just as important as the opening part and the middle bit. So, what’s the best way to end your presentation? We’ll be looking at some standard endings, as well as some other more unusual ways to finish with a flourish! Listen to our audio files on this and really improve your listening and communication skills. Of course, that’s not  all, and we’ll also be looking at South Africa, vegetables, YouTube videos, free-time activities, fashion, health and safety, the southern US accent, and lots, lots more! Well, we hope you enjoy reading and listening to this issue of Learn Hot English.

Have fun ❤️

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BOOK #07: The Best Americain Short Stories

BOOK OF THE DAY : #07

The Best Americain Short Stories

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BOOK #06: Royale Women

BOOK OF THE DAY : #06

Royale Women

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