Idioms in popular songs

IDIOMS IN POPULAR SONGS AND BANDS

Students should connect the meanings of idioms with song titles and names of singers/ bands. When they guess the meaning, they can hear the song.

·         DARK HORSE                                                extremely enthusiastic about something

·         WRITING’S ON THE WALL                           do something that spoils someone’s plans

·         ALL THAT JAZZ                                          learn of something informally and unofficially

·         RING MY BELLS                                     people who are adventurers and like to move around

·         ROLLING STONES                                       the likelihood that something bad will happen

·         RAIN ON YOUR PARADE                                all other things

·         LADY GAGA                                                      you're being a drama queen

·         CRY ME A RIVER                                             remind me of something

·         ROLLING IN THE DEEP                                   not the main favourite candidate

·         I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE     Pure, passionate, unconditional and ethereal love or pain

Links to songs:

Dark horse (Katy Perry): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSOMA3QBU0

Writing’s on the wall (Sam Smith): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jzDnsjYv9A

All that jazz (from the movie ‘Chicago’): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcGsGfvVrWo

Ring my bells (Enrique Iglesias): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqZTm5n9xHw

Rain on your parade (Duffy): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQJj4w9-WuQ

Cry me a river (Justin Timberlake): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DksSPZTZES0

Rolling in the deep (Adele): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw

I heard it through the grapevine (Marvin Gaye):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7dGdrP3pms

Writing postcards

Students are given postcards from various destinations. Their task is to gather in groups and write a postcard to their imaginary friend. Some examples of postcards can be found below ( all of them are downloaded from various websites)

New Year Quiz

NEW YEAR QUIZ

1.      New Year has always been celebrated on 31^st December. True or false?

2.      Why are certain months named the way they are?

3.      What is the name of the person who named 31^st December/ 1^st January New Year?

4.      When was 1^st January abolished and why?

5.      Why is Rudolph’s nose red?

6.      Which three colours are the symbol of Christmas tree?

7.       Couples break up less before Christmas time than at other times of the year. True or false?

8.      What is the written abbreviation for Christmas in English?

     ANSWERS:

    Answers:

1.      The earliest recording of a New Year celebration is believed to have been in Mesopotamia, c. 2000 B.C. and was celebrated in mid-March. The early Roman calendar designated March 1 as the New Year.

2.      The calendar had just ten months, beginning with March. That the new year once began with the month of March is still reflected in some of the names of the months. September through December, our ninth through twelfth months, were originally positioned as the seventh through tenth months (septem is Latin for "seven," octo is "eight," novem is "nine," and decem is "ten."

3.      In 46 B.C. Julius Caesar introduced a new, solar-based calendar that was a vast improvement on the ancient Roman calendar, which was a lunar system that had become wildly inaccurate over the years. The Julian calendar decreed that the new year would occur with January 1, and within the Roman world, January 1 became the consistently observed start of the new year.

4.      In medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the new year were considered pagan and unchristian like, and in 567 the Council of Tours abolished January 1 as the beginning of the year. At various times and in various places throughout medieval Christian Europe, the new year was celebrated on Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus; March 1; March 25, the Feast of the Annunciation; and Easter.

5.      Norwegian scientists have hypothesized that Rudolph’s red nose is probably the result of a parasitic infection of his respiratory system.

6.      The traditional three colors of Christmas are green, red, and gold. Green has long been a symbol of life and rebirth; red symbolizes the blood of Christ, and gold represents light as well as wealth and royalty.

7.      According to data analyzed from Facebook posts, two weeks before Christmas is one of the two most popular times for couples to break up. However, Christmas Day is the least favorite day for breakups.

8.      Xmas

Guess the celebrity

This short activity is useful as an ice- breaker. Students should guess the name of the hidden personality.

1)   ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­________________ is the archetypal kooky scientist who was clearly more than a little bit off and yet was brilliant as brilliant could be. ??????????? although a seemingly friendly, intelligent guy had quite a few skeletons in the closet. In 1901, ________________ and his first girlfriend, Mileva Maric, were on holiday in Italy. It ended when Mileva found herself with child and ________________ found himself with no money to support her and the new baby. The child, Lieserl, was born in 1902 and disappeared from ________________ letters to Mileva around 1903. It’s unknown what happened to the child, but she probably died of scarlet fever. Later in life, ________________ left Mileva in 1912 (and divorced her in 1919) and married his cousin Elsa Lowenthal soon after. In the latter marriage, ________________had numerous affairs during the marriage and well after Elsa’s death in 1936. Genius? Yes. Playboy? Definitely. (A. Einstein)

2)   Sir ________________is perhaps best known for his comedic films of the Roaring Twenties, and he certainly has tales to tell. ________________parents weren’t exactly role models–his mother had two illegitimate children from affairs and his father left the family when he was young. His mother eventually died of liver issues after becoming psychotic due to syphilis and malnutrition.His adult life was no less fascinating–________________ was once forced to pay child support for a child that wasn’t even his. When a young woman claimed that her child was ________________, blood testing determined that the child was not ________________, but the judge refused to have the test admitted into court, so he made ________________pay a substantial sum. Even after death, his story didn’t quite end. In 1977, ________________body was stolen for ransom, but it was recovered about two months later. (Charlie Chaplin)

3)   ________________ had just gotten a divorce, was on government aid, and could barely afford to feed her baby in 1994, just three years before the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone, was published. When she was shopping it out, she was so poor she couldn’t afford a computer or even the cost of photocopying the 90,000-word novel, so she manually typed out each version to send to publishers. It was rejected dozens of times until finally Bloomsbury, a small London publisher, gave it a second chance after the CEO’s eight year-old daughter fell in love with it. (J. K. Rowling)

4)   ________________ of Great Britain was crowned in 1953. Her 60 years on the throne was celebrated in June 2012 with the Diamond Jubilee. She later became the longest-reigning monarch in British history. ________________ was born Princess Elizabeth Alexandra Mary on April 21, 1926, in London, England. At the time of her birth, most did not realize ________________ would someday become queen of Great Britain. Her father, Prince Albert, was the second son of King George V and Queen Mary. ________________ got to enjoy the first decade of her life with all the privileges of being a royal without the pressures of being the heir apparent. (Queen Elizabeth II)

5)   Born on October 28, 1955, in Seattle, Washington, famed entrepreneur ________________ began to show an interest in computer programming at age 13. Through technological innovation, keen business strategy and aggressive business tactics, he and partner Paul Allen built the world's largest software business, Microsoft. In the process, ________________became one of the richest men in the world. In February 2014, Gates announced that he was stepping down as Microsoft's chairman. (Bill Gates)

Word search (intermediate)

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ANXIOUS	CAMPING	COMFORTABLE
CROWD	DISTRACT	LETTUCE
MATURE	STRICT	SUCCESS
TRIVIALITY	VEGETABLE