Penélope Cruz

Escucha el audio en

http://www.revistahabla.com.br/

Con valor añadido

Por Gabriela Cañas

Muchos y muy buenos narradores han utilizado alguna vez como fuente de inspiración las noticias de la prensa para tejer las tramas de sus relatos. No es de extrañar. Basta leer con cierto detenimiento los artículos periodísticos para encontrar el latido de seres humanos de excepción. A veces son los protagonistas de la actualidad que brillan con titulares de neón. A veces son los ciudadanos desconocidos que aparecen, si lo hacen, muy detrás de la noticia, aunque luzcan invisibles gestas en la solapa.

Éste es un homenaje a un centenar de personajes buscados y hallados en todos los rincones del planeta, si bien, fieles a la vocación de EL PAÍS como periódico global en español, se han centrado las pesquisas en los personajes de origen iberoamericano, lo que, aunque parezca contradictorio, no ha sido limitante. El criterio aplicado, lejos de reducir opciones, ha sido una útil herramienta para abrir el espectro frente a una actualidad que idealiza y jalea hasta la extenuación todo lo anglosajón eclipsando otros mundos.
Y así es como este periódico ha confeccionado una lista redonda, pero incompleta por definición, con todos aquellos que, objetivamente, han destacado este año y los que, sin ser apenas conocidos, son dignos de destacar. Unos y otros responden, seguramente, a los anhelos de los lectores de EL PAÍS porque han demostrado poseer una cualidad (o varias) por la que ser admirados.
En esta tarea de homenajear a un centenar de personajes, EL PAÍS ha contado con la colaboración de lujo de decenas de firmas que, como un caleidoscopio, han multiplicado el valor de la galería. Porque junto a periodistas de EL PAÍS o de otros medios, los hay que han hablado de personajes a los que les une la afinidad política, la adversidad común o la entrañable amistad, cuando no los lazos de sangre.

Durante la elaboración de este número especial, El País Semanal ha descubierto dotes literarias allá donde no las esperaba, la generosidad de personas muy relevantes dispuestas a adaptarse al personaje y al espacio elegidos para ellos, y se ha encontrado con la sorpresa de haber seleccionado a dos hermanos sin saberlo: un ingeniero aeronáutico de Airbus y el director del centro de investigación de la malaria de Manhiça (Mozambique). Ambos han sido colocados en la misma página, por si su familia quiere enmarcarla, por si algún lector quiere guardarla como ejemplo de los caprichos de la genética.

Los personajes seleccionados han añadido durante 2008 un nuevo mérito a su palmarés. Algunas causas propias de este tiempo han puesto a EL PAÍS sobre sus pistas. La recuperación de la memoria histórica reúne a un lado y otro del Atlántico a una legión de ciudadanos dispuestos a desenterrar la verdad y que casi siempre trabajan a contracorriente, enfrentándose a los que creen que barrer bajo la alfombra evita los efectos secundarios de una meticulosa higiene social.
La crisis financiera y económica ha puesto a flote a muchos profesionales que supieron prever y laborar en tiempos de bonanza. Y así es como en 2008 todos los expertos han vuelto su mirada hacia un gobernador del Banco de España ya jubilado o como causan renovada admiración empresarios que sobreviven con éxito.
La violencia que sacude a países como México y Colombia y la represión que persiste en Cuba han conocido también luces y sombras que pasan por liberaciones de película y por gestos de infinito coraje frente a unos poderes públicos incapaces de entender la libertad o de proteger a sus propios ciudadanos.

La expansión del mundo hispano en Estados Unidos es, por último, el otro gran rasgo característico del año 2008. La comunidad hispana de la primera potencia mundial conformaría ya el segundo país de habla española del mundo, después de México, según un reciente informe del Instituto Cervantes, que la sitúa en 45 millones de personas, sin contar a los inmigrantes irregulares. Su voto ha sido, además, determinante para la victoria del demócrata Barack Obama.

Los 100 iberoamericanos aquí seleccionados desarrollan sus conocimientos y cualidades en todas las partes del mundo: de Nueva Delhi a París, de Ginebra al Congo. Pero fuera de nuestras fronteras es en Estados Unidos donde se concentra el mayor número de iberoamericanos de prestigio. Ahí es donde han conquistado las universidades, las pasarelas de la moda, los teatros de Broadway, los platós de cine o la sede central de la Organización de las Naciones Unidas.

El texto completo está en el enlace

http://www.elpais.com/especial/protagonistas/

LdeLengua 15 con Mario Rinvolucri y Rosana Acquaroni

En este programa de LdeLengua, el que hace el número quince, vamos a dejar aparcadas por el momento las sesiones habituales del podcast para centrarnos en dos jugosas entrevistas.

La primera, realizada por Agustín Garmendia, de Difusión, a Mario Rinvolucri, aprovechando su presencia en el Rencontre FLE de Barcelona que organizó recientemente la misma editorial. Rinvolucri es, sin duda, uno de los máximos exponentes del enfoque humanista en la enseñanza de lenguas extranjeras y es, al mismo tiempo, un estupendo comunicador con una innegable aptitud evangelizadora. Si queréis saber más sobre este investigador, os recomendamos que sigáis su blog. Dejamos este y todos los enlaces al final del post.

La segunda entrevista es la que Emilia Conejo y Victoria Castrillejo grabaron en Madrid con Rosana Acquaroni como protagonista. Rosana nos hablará sobre la competencia metafórica y su desarrollo en el aula español como lengua extranjera. De alguna manera, esta conversación viene a ser un estupendo aperitivo antes de el taller que la autora nos dará en el Encuentro Práctico International House - Difusión de Barcelona.

Además de estas dos charlas, comentamos dos iniciativas ya en marcha: el Congreso Internacional Virtual de ELE, que tendrá lugar entre el 1 y e 14 de diciembre próximos y la salida del podcast que acompaña a la revista Foco, la publicación de los profesores de español en Holanda. Como ya viene siendo habitual, aquí tenéis todos los enlaces relacionados o citados en este programa.

Datos técnicos: este podcast está disponible en una única versión en estéreo de 128 kbps en formato mp3 con una duración de 59 minutos y un peso de 54 MB. Ha sido grabado con Behringer Podcast Studio y M-Audio Podcast Factory. Para las entrevistas vía Skype contamos con Audio Hijack Pro y Pamela y para la edición del podcast se ha utilizado Audacity.

LdeLengua15: Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download
http://eledelengua.com/

The Festive Season in a Part of Africa

Two days after Christmas a Zulu woman and her schoolboy son sat waiting for me to finish my morning's clinic in Ondini. She wanted me to visit her old mother's cow, which had a calf waiting to be born. But for two days now the calf would not come out, and the poor cow was getting very tired. 'We have heard that you are a good vet,' the woman said to me.

So off we went. The schoolboy in the front of my pick-up, to show me the way, and the woman and my assistant Mbambo in the back.

Download this story

http://www.oup-bookworms.com/teachers-only.cfm

Activity

Use the lesson plan provided with last month's free story. Once students have listened to the Audio Hook, ask them how many of these things they think will happen in the story:

http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/elt/promo/bookworms/teaching_notes1.pdf

The cow dies	The cow has a calf
The vet is very expensive	The vet agrees a good price

After your students have read the story, put them in pairs and ask them to discuss why the vet said that half of 2,000 rands was 750, not 1,000. When they have finished their discussion, ask them to look at these two ideas, and decide which one they agree with:

1. He made a mistake because he was not good at numbers.
2. He did not really make a mistake; he wanted to give Granny a good price because it was the festive season.

Your students can also read an interview with the Author of this story on our website.

Reading tip

Include DEAR time in your lesson plans (Drop Everything And Read). Make sure that students always have a book with them in class, and from time to time announce 15 or 20 minutes DEAR time. Everybody reads, including the teacher, which demonstrates the value of reading and helps to establish a reading community. Oxford Bookworms Series Editor Jennifer Bassett For more tips visit our ask the experts web page.

Don't miss next month's free story at oup.com/bookworms
http://elt-marketing.oup.com/q/12hMXEFcSrOo7/wv

Blind Masseurs

This week, we find out about an interesting challenge to an employment law in South Korea. The law was passed in 1963 and stops people who aren't blind from taking jobs as massage therapists. Is this law absolutely crucial to one group of people whilst being unfair to others? Yvonne Archer is joined by William Kremer as she looks at a very difficult issue.

This week's question: Approximately how many people in the world are living with a disability of some kind?

a) 2%
b) 10%
c) 12%

You'll hear the answer at the end of the programme!


Vocabulary from the programme

a massage therapist
someone who uses his or her hands and fingers to rub different areas of the head, limbs and body to help stop pain or increase movement

masseurs
male massage therapists, but also used for females

masseuses
female massage therapists, never used for males

decades
tens of years ? a decade is ten years

cannot cope with demand
is unable to manage and complete all the work there is to do on time

awash with
literally, covered in water, but here, used as an adjective to describe a place where there are lots of people

Example sentence:
"During the summer months, the streets are awash with people."

barbers' shops
a place where people, usually men, pay to have their hair cut

sighted
able to see

practitioners
people who do something that's practical

non-visually impaired
able to see, having no problems with eyesight

constitutional court
a legal court where laws are made or changed

a monopoly
an exclusive right to do something

patronising
treating people as though they are children, have little intelligence or are of little importance

---

Extras
Download this programme (mp3 - 2.8 MB)
Programme script (pdf - 40K)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/144_6minute/

This month's Free Story

She watched him pack his clothes and his wedding suit into his old suitcase. She could smell his cologne. When did he last wear cologne? Ah, at their wedding. It smelt strange then too. She never wore perfume. What use was perfume to a working woman like her? And married women who wear perfume are looking for lovers, trying to catch other men. That’s what people say. She already had a good, hardworking husband with a shop of his own. What more can a woman want? Download this story Use the lesson plan provided with last month's free story. This time, as you play the Audio Hook, give your students a copy of the picture on page 3 of the free story. Then ask them these questions about the picture: How do the people in the picture feel? Whose wedding is the husband going to? Can you guess? Ask your students: Why do you think the author wrote this story? How long did she take to write it? Encourage students to find out by reading the interview with the author. http://www.oup-bookworms.com/teachers-only.cfm

Millions tune in to find out who shot J.R.

On this day in 1980, 350 million people around the world tune in to television's popular primetime drama "Dallas" to find out who shot J.R. Ewing, the character fans loved to hate. J.R. had been shot on the season-ending episode the previous March 21, which now stands as one of television's most famous cliffhangers. The plot twist inspired widespread media coverage and left America wondering "Who shot J.R.?" for the next eight months. The November 21 episode solved the mystery, identifying Kristin Shepard, J.R.'s wife's sister and his former mistress, as the culprit.

The CBS television network debuted the first five-episode pilot season of "Dallas" in 1978; it went on to run for another 12 full-length seasons. The first show of its kind, "Dallas" was dubbed a "primetime soap opera" for its serial plots and dramatic tales of moral excess. The show revolved around the relations of two Texas oil families: the wealthy, successful Ewing family and the perpetually down-on-their-luck Barnes family. The families' patriarchs, Jock Ewing and Digger Barnes, were former partners locked in a years-long feud over oil fields Barnes claimed had been stolen by Ewing. Ewing's youngest son Bobby (Patrick Duffy) and Barnes' daughter Pam (Victoria Principal) had married, linking the battling clans even more closely. The character of J.R. Ewing, Bobby's oldest brother and a greedy, conniving, womanizing scoundrel, was played by Larry Hagman.

As J.R. had many enemies, audiences were hard-pressed to guess who was responsible for his attempted murder. That summer, the question "Who Shot J.R.?" entered the national lexicon, becoming a popular t-shirt slogan, and heightening anticipation of the soap's third season, which was to air in the fall. After a much-talked-about contract dispute with Hagman was finally settled, the season was delayed because of a Screen Actors Guild strike, much to the dismay of "Dallas" fans. When it finally aired, the episode revealing J.R.'s shooter became one of television's most watched shows, with an audience of 83 million people in the U.S. alone--a full 76 percent of all U.S. televisions on that night were tuned in--and helped put "Dallas" into greater worldwide circulation. It also popularized the use of the cliffhanger by television writers.

The shooting of J.R. wasn't "Dallas'" only notorious plot twist. In September 1986, fans learned that the entire previous season, in which main character Bobby Ewing had died, was merely a dream of Pam's. The show's writers had killed the Bobby character off because Duffy had decided to leave the show. When he agreed to return, they featured him stepping out of the shower on the season-ending cliffhanger, and then were forced the next season to explain his sudden reappearance.

The last premiere episode of "Dallas" aired on May 3, 1991. A spin-off, "Knots Landing," aired from December 27, 1979 until May 13, 1993. "Dallas" remains in syndication around the world.

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history.do?action=VideoArticle&id=52279