This document aims to allow you to work on the trailer of the upcoming movie Downton Abbey at a B1 level. Downton Abbey was originally a British historical period drama television series that aired from 2010 to 2015. It was set as a fiction based in a historical landscape between 1912 and 1926, in the … Continue reading “Downton Abbey: Masters and Servants”
The literary event of the year in the Anglophone world is Margaret Atwood’s sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale 34 years after the original. The Testaments was released worldwide on 10 September to scenes reminiscent of Harry Potter book launches. Fans queued up at bookshops to buy the book at midnight and enjoy themed events. The … Continue reading “Sequel to “The Handmaid’s Tale””
Students at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, have voted to pay reparations to the descendants of 272 slaves sold by the Jesuit university in 1838. A long-running campaign by students has identified descendants of the 272, who were sold to plantations in Louisiana. A student referendum voted for each student to pay a small amount … Continue reading “Payback for Slavery”
To accompany Shine Bright 1re Advanced File 4: “On the Road, you can download this Route 66 poster illustrated with lots of interesting landmarks to be found along the Mother Road. To download the poster, just click on the link below.
The Great Hack is a new documentary made for Netflix on the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal over the use of social-media users’ data to potentially manipulate the outcome of elections including the 2016 U.S. Presidential election and the UK Brexit referendum. This B1-level resource based on an interview with the two directors of the documentary is … Continue reading “The Great Hack”
Are you teaching LLCER this year? We can help! Shine Bright 1e has four sequences covering both themes. Look out for LLCER resources on Speakeasy-news. And in November we’ll be publishing reading guides to four of the literary works on the curriculum. Watch our video to find out more! You can find up-to-date resources … Continue reading “Language and Literature: English Speciality”
Keith Haring grew up in small town Pennsylvania reading, watching and drawing cartoons. When the 20-year-old arrived in New York City to study art in 1978, his fast, cartoonish style was soon recognisable all over the city. A retrospective at Tate Liverpool, then going onto Brussels, shows the astonishing output of his short life. Haring … Continue reading “Keith Haring: Fast Art”
South African singer, musician, dancer and activist Johnny Clegg has died at the age of 66. His music was an influential part of his participation in the anti-Apartheid campaign. His songs “Asimbonanga” and “Scatterlings of Africa” took his message of protest but also of unity around the world. Johnny Clegg was born in England. His … Continue reading “Singing for Freedom”
Hong Kong citizens have been protesting for weeks against a law they say would stifle political opposition by allowing activists to be extradited to mainland China for trial. In the face of surveillance, activists in the former British colony are turning to web apps to anonymously organise protests, or even vote on their next actions. … Continue reading “Digital Democracy in Hong Kong Protests”
To mark the centenary of the end of the First World War, Peter Jackson has restored old black-and-white archive footage of British servicemen’s life in the trenches. “They Shall Not Grow Old” takes its title from a 1914 poem and this resource fits perfectly into Shine Bright 1re Advanced File 2: “War will Not Tear … Continue reading “WWI: They Shall Not Grow Old”