ChangeUp_Intermediate_11_12_1 by ELI Publishing

Your English Monthly

1-2011/2012

TEEN

速

for

Change Up! INTERMEDIATE Waynee Rooney

Culture and Society

The Premier Glossario

Aaaaaaaa: cccccccccc

League

There’s a Party… in the House

La Smala

But, Dad, it’s the holidays!

Right, that’s it*! YOU are NOT going out tonight!

Nel 1864 Jules Verne scrisse il suo romanzo fantastico Viaggio al centro della Terra. Oggi quel viaggio di fantasia diventa realdon’t care*. di 24 Paesi del tà!I Gli scienziati Phone themprogettando una mondo stanno up andchiamata tell missione, Ecord, per them your attraversare la crosta terrestre dad won’t let scendendo di 6 km. L’obiettiyou go out. vo è quello di arrivare per la prima volta al mantello, dove la temperatura è di 300°. Lo scavo della trivella* sarà effettuato da un’enorme nave giapponese in un punto del Pacifico e riporterà preziosi campioni di rocce. Sotto al mare, infatti, la crosta terrestre è più sottile,I don’t ha uno care. She’s spessore dionly 6 km, mentre nella She is not going young. She terraferma la just crosta èout di tonight! 30-60 wants to go out km!and have fun

As a parent, it is very important that they understand who is …

You’ve already been out two nights in a row*, you are not going out again tonight.

But, I’ve been invited to a party and all my friends will be there.

I phoned my friends and told them my father wouldn’t let me go out.

… boss*!

Glossary Pages 2 - 3

ambitious: (here) difficult boss: person in charge core: centre

drill: machine for cutting into something (makes a cylindrical hole) I don’t care: I’m not interested

in a row: one after the other that’s it: expression meaning something has to stop

Around the World

Journey to the Centre of the Earth

info@elimagazines.com

In 1864 Jules Verne wrote one of the first science fiction stories – Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Today, fiction is about to turn into reality! Scientists from 24 countries are planning an ambitious* project called Ecord. The scientists will drill 6 km through the Earth’s crust, reaching the mantle, or molten core*, of our planet where temperatures are estimated to be around 1700°C. This will be the first time we have explored this deep into our planet. Using a drill* fixed to an enormous Japanese ship in the Pacific, the team will bring back rare rock samples. The Earth’s crust is thinner under the sea, around 6 km thick, while on land the crust can be up to 30-60 km thick!

Welcome Hello and welcome to TEEN. Through the coming year we will take you on a journey through a world of English; we will be finding out about inspiring people and ideas, uncovering some surprising facts, and having some fun along the way! In this first issue we have a report on the digital generation, ask about the future of English, get to know an iconic British fashion item, and lots more…

Liz

Contents 4 UK Today

The Future of English

6 Report

Generation D – It’s Digital Evolution!

Jules Verne

Wordsearch Humans have been into space, but we have never got further than 2km into the Earth’s crust! Do you know the name of the space mission which took three men to the moon in 1969? Find ten words in the wordsearch and discover what it was!

E M A N T L E

A C V O C M D

R R E L E O R

T U R 6 N L I

H S N L T T L

K T E O R E L

M A A 1 E N 1

P A C I F I C

Answers on page 14. TEEN: Common European Framework - Intermediate Advanced (B2-C1) This is ‘Grammy’ - he will tell you which parts of English grammar to look out for.

Coverphoto: © Getty Images

Dr Martens Boots

10 Sustainable Living Europe’s Last Primeval Forest

12 Culture and Society

The Premier League

14 Playstation

In this issue look out for: • reported speech • forms of the future • comparative constructions • passive constructions

8 Made in Britain

• present simple and continous • the possessive • contrast between present perfect and simple past • used to and used

16 TEEN People Adele

UK Today

In a period of economic stagnation*, there is one sector of the UK economy which is growing fast â&#x20AC;&#x201C; English language teaching. In the first decade of the new millennium, the teaching of English as a foreign language is big business,

estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds to the UK economy. This is hardly surprising with English dominating the world of business and, above all*, the internet, but will this always be so?

The Future of

A Global Language

comparative constructions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the future

Millions of people around the world use English as a foreign language, more people learn English than any other foreign language and words on the internet are much more likely to be in English. This is the current situation, but what about the future? Will English always be as important as it is now? Will your children or grandchildren study English? If history teaches us anything, it is that the only constant* is change.

Threats to English At the moment about half a billion people speak English as their first language, but that is only half the number who speak Mandarin Chinese as their first language, and there are almost as many Hindi and Spanish speakers as there are native speakers of English. The English-speaking economic giants

of the past, such as the UK and the USA, are getting left behind* by China, India and many other Asian countries, as well as Brazil. This change in economic power is reflected in which languages people are learning.

Mandarin In parts of Europe, the USA and Asia, language students are beginning to choose Mandarin Chinese. Many of them are learning at the new Confucius Institutes which are appearing across the world at incredible speed. The first Confucius Institute opened in Uzbekistan in 2004, now there are hundreds of them in over 90 countries or regions round the world. The Chinese National Office

for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, known as Han Ban, says there will be over 1,000 of these institutes by 2020. Hanban estimates that over 100 million people will be learning Chinese by that time, although few of them will be Britishâ&#x20AC;Ś

What do you think? Do you think English will still be the most important global language in twenty years?

Will it still be as important in fifty years?

............................................................................. Are you learning English because you think you will get a better job or are there other reasons?

.............................................................................

The Monoglot* English While many young people in Europe and across the world know one or more languages, this is not the case in the UK. People are often astonished* to discover that at the moment it is not compulsory* for British school students to learn a foreign language. Given the choice, few do! Many English people see learning a foreign language as ‘too difficult’ or are simply not interested in learning one when ‘everyone speaks English’.

Planning Ahead It could be argued that people in the UK are being complacent*. If British children don’t learn any languages, then they will become less competitive than their polyglot contemporaries and, overall, the British economy will be less able to adapt to changes in the global economy. Perhaps because they can

Why do you think it is important to learn English?

see the dangers ahead*, the current UK government is trying to get more British kids to study a foreign language. As you know, it takes a long time to get good at a foreign language, so we will have to wait and see what happens.

English 1 Chinese 0 But don’t panic! For the foreseeable future, English will still be the international language of business, sport, diplomacy*, science, the music industry, the internet and so on, even with the increasing importance of Mandarin (The Disney Company has started opening English-language schools in China and English is still very popular in China). However, you may like to think about this… Two thousand years ago, Latin speakers could not have imagined their language would die and who speaks Latin now!?

Glossary above all: more than anything else ahead: in the future astonished: extremely surprised complacent: (here) not expecting problems because you are in a position of superiority compulsory: something you have to do constant: something which does not change diplomacy: international relations between countries get left behind: be less good than, not make as much progress as monoglot: (formal) person who only speaks one language stagnation: not growing or developing

Report

‘Generation D’

It’s Digital Evolution! What is it like being the first generation to grow up with mobile phones, social networking and interactive computer games? According to experts, the effects of the digital age are so dramatic that we could be seeing a new stage in the evolution of our species. Could homo sapiens be turning into* homo digitalis? After Generation X – the name given to people born in the 60s and 70s – comes ‘Generation D’! This generation of ‘digital natives’ was born during or after the general introduction of digital technology and is different from previous generations in a number of ways.

passive constructions; present simple and continuous; the possessive

A New Type of Intelligence? Kids growing up in the digital age have developed skills that their parents or grandparents don’t have. From only a few months old, children pick up the remote controls* and mobile phones that are in their home, and some can even use them from a very early age. Once they start nursery children can ‘read’ icons on a tv or computer screen before they can read books. All of this means that their brains are developing differently from their parents’. Above all it is in multitasking – the ability to do several different things with several different technologies all at the same time – where these differences are most obvious. That’s the good news, but this ability to think quickly has a less positive side. Digital kids sometimes show a certain superficiality in the

way they think about things. Research and experience show that they don’t really enjoy routine* or repetitive tasks, they get bored quickly and they have shorter attention spans* than people who are older than them. To a generation used to instant gratification*, it can be a shock to find out that as you get older you often need to be very patient to get what you want.

The Speed of Change ‘Generation D’ is never without some form of digital communication. At home, at school or when out with friends, young people are posting millions and millions of messages about themselves every day, telling the world their thoughts on Facebook and Twitter, on blogs and YouTube. They send texts, use instant messaging and chat rooms, creating messages with incredible speed on their ‘smartphones’. Today, when the transfer of information is almost instantaneous and is updated* second by second, schools are having to adapt. In the UK, for example, they have invested £13 billion in digital technology for schools, such as interactive whiteboards which are connected up to the teacher’s or students’ computers.

A Hunger for Novelty* Young people are computer geniuses compared to people from the predigital age! ‘Generation D’ is hungry for novelty and they are experts at using new technology from the moment it appears. For them, the TV is simply on in the background while they chat to their friends online and surf the net. The computer, which began life simply as a tool to be used by individuals, has become a way to communicate your ideas and your creativity with your friends or even the rest of the world.

The Social Networking Revolution The amount of online chat is growing exponentially. Everyone is talking about everything and anything! The future of ‘digital natives’ is being written in blogs and on social networking sites, in a world where the distances between people are getting smaller every day. Learning how to socialise is an important stage in the development of every human being. Digital technology is certainly making this easier than ever, but take note – don’t let all this digital chit chat* stop you from being amazed at what a complex, unpredictable creature you are. After all, you are a person, not just an extension* of your computer!

Do you see yourself as a digital native? Why/why not? ............................................................. ............................................................. Would you like to go to a digital school? What would be the advantages and disadvantages?

Digital Learning ‘Quest to Learn’ is a high school for digital kids. Based in New York, the school gets its students to use computer technology instead of text books. Students are still taught traditional subjects but the approach is much more interdisciplinary* than in most schools. For example at Quest to Learn you could study ‘Mathematics and Science’ or ‘Social studies with literature and art’. The idea is to get students to develop their thinking skills and make connections between things. It is hoped that this new way of learning will get students more involved in and excited about what they study.

Just a Typical Digital Kid In 2004, Harvard University student Mark Zuckerberg, future inventor of Facebook, was revising for an exam in art history. The problem was he only had 24 hours to do it in. Instead of burying himself in books he took the radical decision to set up a website, filled it with images from the course and invited his fellow students to comment on the images. The site soon filled up with their ideas and thoughts and Mark passed his exam by talking about his site and what the other students had written!

............................................................. ............................................................. Do you agree with what this article says about the good and bad qualities of the digital generation? ............................................................. .............................................................

In his book, Grown Up Digital, Don Tapscott admires the digital generation. He says they are quite different from the TV generation and have a much less passive relationship with technology. He thinks that the digital generation is innovative* and freethinking and says that they are not simply consumers, but are sophisticated ‘prosumers’ who have a strong ability to interact with the market.

Glossary attention span: amount of time you are able to concentrate on one thing chit chat: (negative) unimportant talk extension: (here) an additional part of something innovative: thinking in new ways instant gratification: wanting results immediately interdisciplinary: using two or more academic subjects novelty: new things remote controls: devices used to change channels on your tv for example routine: something you do often or every day turning into: becoming updated: made modern or current

Made in Britain

present perfect; simple past (and the contrast between them)

Dr Martens

Boots For over fifty years, Dr Martens shoes and boots have been worn by workers and a whole variety of ‘underground’ subcultures*. They are affectionately known by people who wear them as ‘Doc Martens’ or simply ‘Docs’. But now the UK’s most instantly recognisable boot is getting a fashion make over*. Has the brand ‘gone soft’*?

Made in Britain… Well, almost. Actually, the original idea for this boot came from a German, Doktor Klaus Maertens. After an injury to one of his feet, Dr Maertens invented a sole* which was light, filled with air and felt like a cushion under your feet. At the time, the world’s leading shoe industry was based in the UK, so Dr Maertens advertised his fantastic invention in the British press*. He was answered by Griggs, a traditional English shoe manufacturer.

Together, Griggs and Maertens created a boot which was designed to be comfortable, practical and above all, would last* a long time. They also changed the name to Martens to make the boot seem more English. On April 1st 1960 the company launched its first Airwair boot. It was tall with eight lace holes, had long laces*, was coloured red and had that distinctive yellow stitching*.

True or False

A Working Boot for Working Men? Initially, the Dr Martens boot was bought by manual workers, who liked the fact that they could have a comfortable working boot which they could wear for years. Then, when Pete Townshend of legendary rock band The Who began wearing them in 1966, they suddenly became very fashionable. Since that time, the Doc Marten boot has become part of the ‘look’ for a huge variety of subcultures. From skinheads (who originally were not the violent extremists they later became), to mods and punks, and right up to Goths and grunge in the nineties, Doc Martens were an essential part of what these groups chose to wear. They were almost as popular with ‘alternative’ young women as they were with men.

The New Boot Now, Dr Martens are launching* a whole new range of shoes and boots. Those slightly aggressive black and red boots worn by rebellious young people have been transformed. You can have Doc Martens with leopard spots, flowers or zebra stripes, in colours from pink to green and everything inbetween. You can have high heels or mary janes*, tall boots or shoes. The ultimate transformation? Doc Martens has gone all Kitty! Yes, to celebrate the fiftieth anniversaries of Dr Martens and Hello Kitty, you can now buy… Hello Kitty Doc Martens. Though they are unlikely to be worn by punks, Goths or fans of nu-metal, they are likely to be a big hit anywhere there are Hello Kitty fans.

www.drmartens.com

1. Some Dr Martens

2. 3.

Jessica Alba

boots have a lifetime guarantee. The company will repair them or replace them for the rest of your life. Doc Martens are also known as DMs. Dr Martens won two fashion awards at the New York Fashion Show last year. Prince Charles has been wearing Doc Martens for years.

There are many different types of shoes and boots. Which of the following is NOT something you would wear on your feet?

If you are interested in finding out more about the skinheads, punks or goths that wore Doc Martens, then go to www.dmusastore.com/ t-about.aspx (Did you know that Lady Gaga wears Doc Martens?)

a b c d

Doc Martens industrial shoes and boots are still worn by British workers – though not the fashion ones! They have a large number of safety features. They can have a metal toe cap to protect the toes, they are slip* resistant and heat resistant, waterproof and above all, have that famous air-filled sole!

gone soft: (informal, here) become silly laces: long strings used to close up a boot or shoe at the front last: not break for a long time launching: putting out for sale for the first time make over: (here) completely change the way something looks mary janes: type of flat shoe for girls and women press: newspapers slip: slide unexpectedly, eg on ice, water sole: part of a shoe which touches the ground stitching: what keeps the different parts of a shoe or trousers etc together subcultures: alternative fashions and groups

sneakers loafers Trilby Oxfords Answers on page 14.

Glossary

Sustainable Living

In this new series from TEEN, we look at some projects and ideas which find ways to protect the environment and the natural world, while supporting economic and social development.

Europe’s Last

Primeval Forest of Russia, who were the last private owners of the forest and then, during the Second World War, it became the refuge of Russian and Polish partisans*. For thousands of years, the forest has survived fires and destruction by man because it has been jealously* guarded by local royal families like the Jagiello and the Vasa. This is what stopped this forest gradually disappearing during the agricultural and industrial revolutions of the last 300 years, unlike Europe’s other great forests, which at one time stretched from Spain and Portugal in the south to Russia’s Ural Mountains in the north.

Clear and Present Danger

This year is the International Year of Forests, but the ancient forest of Bialowieza, which is more than 2000 years old, is facing the worst crisis in its entire history.

used to and used; comparatives and superlatives

It is the most ancient forest in Europe and is the last remaining piece of the treefilled wilderness* that used to cover the entire continent of Europe. Let’s visit the green forest of Bialowieza, once the favourite hunting* forest of the Tsars of Russia.

A European Treasure

The forest of Bialowieza runs along the border* between Poland and Belarus. The Polish section was declared a national forest in 1921 and is situated 200 km north of Warsaw. The largest part of the forest, however, is in Belarus and covers 1,700 square kilometres, which is bigger than the entire area of Greater London. No vehicle of any kind is allowed into the heart of the forest. This untouched* wilderness looks more like something you would find on the equator than in northern Europe, with ancient trees as tall as skyscrapers. In 1992 the forest was named a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve as part of UNESCO’s MAB (Man and the Biosphere) Programme.

A Trip into the Past

In the Middle Ages, Europe was almost entirely covered in forest. At that time, the forest of Bialowieza, the grandmother of all European forests, was used as a hunting forest for the kings of Poland. After that it passed into the ownership of the Tsars

Changes to our climate are having a devastating effect on the trees in the forest; it is raining less in this area and average temperatures are increasing. All this means that the ground is drying out and the trees are finding it hard to draw enough water into their top branches. But people are trying to save the forest. The first stage of this process is to find out as much as possible about the health of the trees. Expert ‘tree doctors’ are being sent in to find out what state the trees are in. By taking core* samples* from a number of trees, which are then analysed in a laboratory using techniques such as ultrasound, they are building up a picture of what is happening beneath the bark*.

The Great Oaks Of the many ancient oaks in the forest, the biggest is called Great Mamamuszi. Its trunk has a circumference of 7 metres and it is 34 metres tall. It was named after a character in The Bourgeois Gentleman, a play by French playwright Molière. The most famous is the Jagiello Oak, said to be the favourite resting place of King Wladislaw II Jagiello of Poland.

The European Bison

The Forest’s official symbol is the wisent, or European bison. The last wild bison died in the forest in 1919 but only a few years later a new group of bison was re-established in its home forest using animals from zoos and private collections. Today the park is home to over 300 European bison – the last remaining European Bison living in the wild anywhere on Earth. The wisent is an unofficial national symbol of Belarus and is used on the flag of Brest Voblast, a district in south-west Belarus.

The forest of Bialowieza is the setting for one of Russia’s most famous ballets, composed in 1975 by Aleksandra Pakhmutova.

Biosphere Reserve The Forest is a UNESCO World Heritage site and Biosphere Reserve. The biosphere reserve designation is given to places on Earth where people live sustainably and in harmony with nature, preserving and protecting biodiversity. There are currently almost 600 Biosphere Reserves in 109 countries. One of the sixty biosphere reserves in the USA is a famous national park. Do you know what it is called? Use the code below to find out!

E = a L = b N = c

O = i S = o T = s

W = l Y = v

v a b b i l o s i c a ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... Answer on page 14.

In the Bielorus part of the forest there is a zoo which has a laboratory facilities, where you can see wisent, a wild horse called a konik, and other native animals such as wild boar* and elk*. In the Belarus side of the forest there is a small but very popular museum, called the New Year Museum, which is dedicated to Ded Maroz, or Grandfather Frost, a Russian version of Father Christmas!

Glossary bark: the hard outer skin of a tree border: frontier between countries core: central part elk: large deer hunting: catching animals such as deer using horses and/or dogs jealously: possessively partisans: people

who fight against a dominant military power samples: specimens, examples of something untouched: (here) completely natural, undisturbed by humans wild boar: wild pig wilderness: large undeveloped natural area not used for farming

Culture and Society

The Premier future in the past; present perfect

League

The British Premier League is the most watched football league in the world. From the shanty towns* of Kenya to the tiniest village in China, or the biggest cities of South America, wherever there is a tv and a satellite, millions of people follow England’s top 20 football teams. We take a look at the history of the world’s most lucrative* league. Bad Times for English Football During the 1908s a combination of social and economic problems in England, poor standards* of policing and construction of football stadiums led to a series of terrible disasters in English football. Hooliganism was a big problem. Some of the most serious incidents led to the deaths of many people and as a result all English teams were banned* from Europe. Then in 1986, nearly 100 fans were killed during a match because of bad stadium design. The government ordered an enquiry. Football teams were forced to build safer, all-seater* stadiums (before people stood where they liked on terraces) and tighter security, with bans for the most violent fans, to reduce hooliganism. It worked, but all of this cost the clubs a huge amount of money.

The Birth of the League In 1991, a few of England’s top teams thought they could earn a lot more money by selling television rights*. In 1992, they signed a fiveyear deal with commercial television giant, Sky, for £191 million (€220 million). This seems like a lot of money, but during 2007-2010, Sky and Setanta, paid £1.7 billion (€2 billion) to be able to show Premier League matches. At the beginning people were worried about having to pay to watch matches that before had been shown for free by the BBC or ITV. Most football fans seem to have accepted this now.

Foreign Players At the start of the Premier League only eleven of the players were not from the UK or Ireland. By 2009, less than 40% of players in the Premier

about €1.3 million!). Unfortunately, with the millionaire lifestyle has come some ‘millionaire’ behaviour and a number of footballers have become involved in personal, financial and even criminal scandals*. From the clubs’ point of view, the staggering* amount of money they pay to their players has left them in serious financial trouble – perhaps a wage cut for Drogba or Rooney…?

www.premierleague.com What is the name of Manchester United’s home ground?

League were English and each team had an average of 13 foreign players! Foreign players have breathed new life and brought new ways of playing into the English game, but there have been concerns that not enough young English players are being given a chance. Some people believe that this is why the national team has not done very well in recent tournaments such as the World Cup. The clubs are looking at ways to encourage more young English players.

a b c

Best-paid Job in the World?

1. The first football

Many premier-league footballers have become incredibly rich, with cars and houses most us can only dream of. In 1992 the average wage for a player was £75,000 per year, during the 2008-9 season that had gone up to £1.1 million per year (that’s

Anfield Old Trafford Stamford Bridge

True or False

2. 3. 4.

Last season’s top goal scorers were Dimitar Berbatov (Man Utd), Carlos Tevez (Man City) and Robin van Persie (Arsenal).

Glossary

“Some people believe that football is a matter of life or death...it is much, much more important than that.” Bill Shankley

game on the radio was Arsenal v. Sheffield United in January 1927. The first live match on TV was shown in 1957. Numbered shirts were first used in 1933. The people who help the referee at the edge of the pitch are called flagmen. Footballs were first made from animal intestines. Football is known as ‘the beautiful game’.

Premier League Champions for the 2010-2011 season were Manchester United (also known as Man United or Man U), followed by Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal. Manchester United are the League’s most successful club – they have been league champions 12 times!

Answers on page 14.

all-seater: stadium which only has fixed seats in it banned: offically stopped or not allowed to do something lucrative: something which makes a lot of money rights: permission scandals: shocking or bad behaviour shanty towns: places where very poor people live, not in proper houses staggering: (here) unbelievable standards: levels

Playstation

Crossword Do you know the name of the world’s biggest online encyclopedia, published free in 270 languages? Fill in the crossword and find out!

1 2 3 4 5 6

1. 2. 3. 4.

Quest to Learn is in which American city? British schools now have interactive … Doing several things at once is called multi... Kids who have grown up in the digital age

are digital...

5. Author of the book Grown up Digital. 6. The world’s most famous social

networking site.

7. When change comes, you have to ... 8. When you are on the internet, you are ... 9. Mark Zuckerberg’s university.

Odd One Out

Each of these words has several different meanings. Find the definition below that isn’t right… 1. bank a edge of a river b place where you go to save or take c d e

your money

company who keeps and lends money a kind of fish place where information or data is stored electronically

2. figure a synonym of number b to fail to understand c shape of the human body d sculpture in the shape of e

a person

to imagine/work something out

3. heart a spirit b organ in the body c kindness d centre e the most important

part of something Answers below

Answers P 3: Wordsearch: centre, crust, drill, Earth, km, mantle, molten, Pacific, 6, Verne: Apollo 11. P 8-9 Dr Martens Boots. True or False: 1. T, 2. T, 3.T, 4. Err probably not… Odd one out: c).. P 10-11 Secret Code: Yellowstone. P 12-13 Man Utd’s Ground is: b), the others are a) Liverpool, and c) Chelsea; True or False: 1. T, 2. F (1937), 3. T, 4. F (linesmen), 5. T, 6. T. P 14 Crossword: 1. New York, 2.whiteboards , 3. tasking , 4. natives, 5. Tapscott, 6. Facebook, 7. adapt, 8. online, 9. Harvard: Wikipedia. Odd one out: 1. d; 2. b; 3. c.

TEEN People

Who is Adele

Adele

Adele is one of the most talented young stars of the music world. She is only 22 years old, but she has dominated the British charts* since she released* her first songs three years. Fortunately, all this success doesn’t seem to have gone to her head*. Let’s find out a bit more about Adele and what makes her music so special.

She is known simply as Adele, but her real name is Adele Laurie Blue Adkins. She was born in London on 5th May 1988 and is a singer songwriter. She puts her success down to the fact that she has been listening to great soul* and jazz singers, like Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James, since she was a child. She left school in 2006 and went to study at the UK’s ‘Fame Academy’, the BRIT School in Croydon (Amy Winehouse and Kate Nash also studied there). While still at school she put some of her songs onto Myspace. It was the first step towards her dream of becoming a pop star.

The Road to Fame

She signed a recording contract when she was 18 and was awarded the prestigious Critics Choice at the Brit Awards (other winners include Ellie Goulding and Florence and the Machine). Then she was awarded a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. It was in the following year, 2009, that she released her first single Chasing Pavements, followed soon after by her album called simply 19, – the age Adele was when she recorded the album

passives

“21” Adele’s second album has been as big a success as her first. Her songs talk of love and disappointment, friendship and the complex emotions of a girl of her age. Young people love her because her songs are about the things they care about, older people love her music because with her rich, soulful voice, she sounds like one of the great soul singers of the past. When Rolling Stone Magazine (a US-

based magazine devoted to music, politics and popular culture) had a picture of her on its front cover, she knew she had arrived right at the top of the music world.

The Adele Phenomenon You have to go all the way back to the Beatles in the Sixties to find anyone else who has had four records in the UK charts at the same time (Adele has had two albums and two hit singles in the charts at the same time). She is known as the Diva of Soul of the new millennium. She has sold millions of records, and has pushed artists like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber out of the charts. She has a lot of famous fans too, Jay Z, Kayne West and Lady Gaga who called her ‘simply wonderful’.

A girl like any other Adele says she is just a normal girl and is proud to be a little overweight, so

unlike many of pop divas of today. She keeps her feet firmly on the ground and tries to lead as normal a life as possible. She says: I love Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, but my music isn’t anything like theirs. I don’t write music to look at, I write music to be listened to. I hate going to the gym and I love good food!” Adele is shy and she admits, “I am always terrified before going on stage and I feel quite uncomfortable having so many adoring fans. Beyoncé once saw me shaking with nerves before a concert and she said to me, ‘Oh you shouldn’t be afraid, you have the voice of an angel!’ I really couldn’t believe she said that.”

Glossary charts: list of best-selling songs and albums gone to her head: become arrogant released: published (for music) soul: type of music with roots in Black America

Newspapers, the radio and TV soon began to talk about Adele even though she hadn’t yet released any of her music officially. They praised her very individual and instantly recognisable voice. She appeared on a number of British chat shows and her fame grew rapidly.