A Common Language?

English- a truly international language, understood by millions across the world, and now by your mobile phone. Google recently launched a voice recognition application for the Apple iPhone which allows users to access the huge might of the its search engine by speaking into their phones.

A fantastic development, you might think, except for the fact that it doesn't recognize British accents. An article in the Daily Telegraph explores this problem. They asked people with a variety of regional accents to say the word "iphone"and the voice recognition returned a variety of results, none however, were to do with the iphone!

A user with a Scottish accent found his phone opted to search for the term "sex" instead, and suggested a link to an adult web site. On a second attempt, the search engine looked for "sledding".Asked in a Kentish accent to search for "iPhone", it came up with "my sister" and "Einstein", while a Surrey user was offered "myspace" as well as "Einstein".A Yorkshireman was offered "bonfire" before managing to get "iPhone" - the only time the voice-recognition worked.The most unusual responses were to a Welsh accent, when the device interpreted "iPhone" as "gorillas" and "kitchen sink".

You can watch the video here

New Games

If you look on the top right hand corner of this blog, you will see a two new games.

The first one is designed to build your vocabulary. You have to match the words which are similar. The words change daily, and playing this game will improve your vocabulary.

Below it is the Hangman game. Try to guess the word by typing letters in the box. Each letter which is in the Garbage Pile adds another section of the hanged man and his gallows. This will help with vocabulary, reading and spelling.

Jekyll and Hyde

Recently, I've been noticing how often the phrase Jekyll and Hyde is used by newspapers to describe someone or something that can appear both good and evil.

This is from the Sun newspaper, about the Shannon Matthew's case which has gone to trial. Karen Matthews was accused of being sad one minute and cheerful the next.

It is used in another murder trial where a man is accused of killing his whole family. This article comes from the Telegraph





But it's not just murderers who can be described in this way. Football teams also earn this moniker.
Worcester City's manager is unhappy with the inconsistent and wildly differing nature of his team's performance:Finally,in a nod to pathetic fallacy, the city of Norwich is described as a Jekyll and Hyde place. A taxi driver was assaulted, he claims that the character of his town changes after nine at night.

Twilight Film

The Twilight film is released in the UK on the 19th of December, 2008- a great activity for the last day of term, perhaps?
This is the US trailer- they've changed a few things, but it seems quite true to the book.

Young Minds 2008 Shortlist Competition

Books have a certain magic about them. We can look to them to help us understand the world, our friends and our own feelings. The Young Minds charity aims to improve the mental health and well being of children and young people. They have launched a book award which will celebrate books (either fiction or biography) for young people aged 12+ which helps them to cope with the stresses and challenges of growing up. You can see the shortlist of books here.

If you want a chance to win them, all you have to do is enter a competition on the National Year of Reading site. Just describe a time when reading a book helped you to feel better.
The competition closes on the 14th of November, 2008

Twilight fans in need of a new fix

WARNING! THESE LINKS CONTAIN SPOILERS. ONLY CLICK ON THEM IF YOU HAVE READ ALL FOUR BOOKS IN THE SERIES.

If, like me, you have finished all of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series and feel bereft, there is hope.

Stephenie has been working on Midnight Sun, which tells the story of Edward and Bella from Edward's point of view. Unfortunately the draft was illegally leaked on the internet, and so she has put the book on hold for a while.

However, all is not lost. Stephanie decided to release this draft online for all fans to see, knowing that they would otherwise be torn between reading it and obeying the law. She is anxious that people don't view it in the same light as her work:

I'd rather my fans not read this version of Midnight Sun. It was only an incomplete draft; the writing is messy and flawed and full of mistakes. But how do I comment on this violation without driving more people to look for the illegal posting? It has taken me a while to decide how and if I could respond. But to end the confusion, I've decided to make the draft available . This way, my readers don't have to feel they have to make a sacrifice to stay honest. I hope this fragment gives you further insight into Edward's head and adds a new dimension to the Twilight story. That's what inspired me to write it in the first place.

To read the draft click here. It is a pdf file, if it doesn't work look for the Midnight Sun Partial Draft link on Stephenie Meyer's page here.

Only love can break your heart: The Twilight saga

Isabella Swan
Edward Cullen
Jacob Black

To the initiated these names will spark a rush of enthusiasm and outpouring of emotion; to the unknowing they are still just names.

Until this September they were just names I'd vaguely heard about, it was only when term started and 6 different people urged me to read the books that I began to take notice.

I read Twilight last month and immediately fell in love: with the characters, the concept, the setting, the DRAMA. There is something so overblown and luscious about these books that perfectly captures the exquisit feeling of falling in love for the first time.
Except in Bella Swan's case, this first love is more complicated than most, because Edward Cullen, her heart's desire, is in fact. a vampire.

17 year old Bella has moved to the rainy and gloomy tiny town of Forks in Washington State to live with her father Charlie, the town cop. Self conscious and missing the heat of her hometown, Phoenix, Bella is drawn to the other wordly Edward Cullen who is passing as 17 year old student at the high school.
This is the preface from the book:

I'd never given much thought to how I would die -- though I'd had reason enough in the last few months -- but even if I had, I would not have imagined it like this.

I stared without breathing across the long room, into the dark eyes of the hunter, and he looked pleasantly back at me.

Surely it was a good way to die, in the place of someone else, someone I loved. Noble, even. That ought to count for something.

I knew that if I'd never gone to Forks, I wouldn't be facing death now. But, terrified as I was, I couldn't bring myself to regret the decision. When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end.

The hunter smiled in a friendly way as he sauntered forward to kill me.

A larger extract can be found at the Twilight saga fan site


To say much more would spoil the plot, all I can do is urge you to read Twilight and the other books in the quartet:












Eclipse












Breaking Dawn