Dexway English Magazine: B1 – Edition 7

Finding a job

Laurent Le Bret from France decided to try to find a job in a very unusual way. He put his CV on a billboard next to a very busy road. It is a sign that was four meters long and three meters high. He put his picture on the sign with him wearing a red Santa Claus hat. He wrote on the sign “All I want for Christmas is a job.” He is an operation manager looking for a job in a hotel, restaurant, tourism and leisure. He was contacted by a holiday resort. It took only 10 days to get his new job.

The advertising company, which rented the space to him, gave it to him for free. The CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of the company said it was a very interesting idea. They were very keen to see what would happen.

They were happy to see that advertising works. Many people have called Mr Le Bret asking him to help them get a job.

The Internet

INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

 The Internet was first developed in the late 1980’s by the United States, United Kingdom and France. The Internet is thousands of networks all joined together, each network containing hundreds of computers that all linked together by cable or WI-FI.

The Internet has changed the way we work and relax, it has also brought new vocabulary or changed words such as “to surf” which means to spend time on the Internet looking at webpages or “to download” which means to take content from the Internet and keep it on your computer.

The Internet is sometimes called the Information Superhighway because of the massive amount of information stored within the network. `Ask Google´ has now become a common phrase. Typing in a search term such as “Treatment for a common cold” can produce many thousands of results which often leave us worried and confused about what is the right course of action. But the Internet has brought us benefits like better shopping, e-books, up to the minute news and social networks.

The Internet has helped to make the world smaller and we are connected to it like never before.

Bacon and egg muffin

Ingredients

  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 3/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 pound thick-cut bacon, cooked crisp and finely chopped
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
  • 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 7 large eggs
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted


Preparation

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease 6 jumbo muffin tins (or 1-cup ramekins) with non-stick spray and set aside.

Whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, sugar, bacon, chives and cheese in a large bowl. Combine the milk and one egg in a small bowl, and add to the dry ingredients, along with the melted butter. Fold the ingredients together gently until no dry spots remain.

Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into each of the muffin tins. Using a soft spatula, spread the batter up the sides of the tins a bit, leaving a depression in the middle of the batter. Crack an egg into the center of each cup, and divide the remaining batter between the cups making sure you cover the yolk. It’s easiest if you work with small dollops of batter. When you cover the yolk, it will spread out when it bakes.

Bake the muffins for 20 to 25 minutes, until the visible egg white is set and the muffins are just barely beginning to crack. (They won’t be very brown.) Cool 5 minutes, then run a small knife around the edges of each muffin to release. Serve hot. Makes 6 muffins.

Entertainment

PRIME TIME

Our daily television can be divided into two areas: non-prime time and prime time. Prime time is the time of the day when most people watch TV normally, we have the most popular shows and TV series or soap operas on at this time. Non-prime time is the kind of TV you find if you happen to be watching TV at 4am, in other words: teleshopping channel and horoscopes.

The UK has the longest prime time of any European countries. We can watch up to 5 hours of prime time between the afternoon, evening and night. Spain has one of the latest prime time slots showing late at night and continuing to the early morning. The most interesting thing about prime-time is it normally starts with the news.

I have often sat down to watch a film and, because of the late start and the commercial breaks, I have had to give up and go to bed. Can you imagine never watching a film to the end? Even on Fridays, I find the films end too late!

There are many culture factors for the length of prime time. The main one is that in the UK in the winter people do things earlier: eat early, watch TV early and go to bed early. Whereas in Spain, due in part to being an hour ahead of the UK, things are done later, including eating, watching TV and sleeping.

The problem for a foreigner in Spain is that everything follows this timetable: cinema films end at 1am, discos close at 3am even bars and restaurants stay open until the small hours. Going to bed late and getting up early is called “burning the candle at both ends”, which result in you feeling very tired.

Of course entertainment does not only need to be television, cinema or pubs and clubs. Entertainment can also be football matches, baseball games, and basketball games, music concerts, outside music festivals or rodeos.

Blue Monday

A global travel agency called Sky Travel recently got themselves in a lot of trouble for deciding that the most depressing day of the year was the 18th of January 2016.

The company says that the date was found using complicated mathematics, they say, with the help of Cardiff University that they have invented a formula to work out the most depressing day.

The formula is this:

Where W=weather,

D=debt,

d=monthly salary,

T=time since Christmas,

Q=time since failing our new year’s resolutions,

M=low motivational levels,

and Na=the feeling of a need to take action.

That explanation is well-accepted, but how do you measure the weather or the feeling of needing to take action? This is the main criticism of the Blue Monday theory, it doesn’t exist. That hasn´t stopped other companies “cashing in” on Blue Monday and trying to sell us items that might make us feel better. I suppose we have a Black Friday why not a Blue Monday?

Sure January is a hard (and long) month and will most likely look back in February and see that we didn’t keep to our New Year’s Resolutions, but that’s okay. We don´t need a new year to make changes we have 12 full months!

Brain Games

LEARN ENGLISH AND KEEP YOUR BRAIN HEALTHY

Recent studies say that your brain is stronger and more powerful at 22 (twenty two). In your late 20s (twenties), your brain starts to get weaker.

By age 27 (twenty seven), old age starts.

Scientists did a study where people had to solve puzzles, remember spoken words and re-tell a story.

Nine (9) out of twelve (12) test subjects got the best results at the age of 22 (twenty two).

They found that memory stayed good until about age 37 (thirty seven).

General information and long-term knowledge increases until the age of 60 (sixty). The study shows that our brain ages much earlier than we thought.

People who learn more than one language have more mental exercise by remembering what word belongs to which language.

It helps to keep your cognitive reserve (brain functions) up.

It will not only help delay Alzheimer’s but also normal ageing effects.

A psychologist said that there are evidences that prove that learning a language can protect our brains at any age.