Gail Rebuck

Back in April, Penguin Random House UK Chair Gail Rebuck gave a 20-minute talk at the London Book Fair’s Quantum conference, during which she shared her views on the effect technology has on books today. According to Rebuck, books will forever remain the “DNA of our civilisation”, despite the technological changes that have already happened or will happen in the future.

That is not to say, of course, that technology hasn’t changed anything. To the contrary, Rebuck believes that publishers’ jobs are made easier by the huge amount of online research tools, since they can learn more about the world’s tastes in literature. It’s not all positive, however. Rebuck also thinks that technology has its dangers. In her speech, Rebuck noted a “concerning decline in authors’ revenues”, as only one out of ten writers live on the money they make from writing. She believes that modern problems such as price deflation and more competition from other media forms could be responsible for this situation.

That being said, Rebuck urged publishers to not think of digital and physical media as “enemies”. After all, books are books, no matter how or where they’re read. She hopes for a balanced future, one which will allow the possibility of giving young writers more options for getting published, but also one in which “the uniqueness of the author” is never put under risk.

For more than 20 years, Gail Rebuck has been the most important publisher in the UK. As the head of Random House, she’s been responsible for many literacy projects and industry promotions, achieving success in a very difficult industry. Surprisingly, no one could’ve predicted this when she was appointed back in 1991; she had a reputation as a publisher of lifestyle titles rather than “serious” books. However, in the years that followed, she has become the dominant force in UK publishing.

For Rebuck, this success has come as a result of her approach to work. Failure is not an option. She wants only the best efforts from all of her employees. However, she’s not arrogant, despite her success; she believes it’s always the authors that are responsible for a publisher’s success.

Source : Albanese, Andrew “Rebuck: technology ‘cuts two ways’.” London Show Daily, April 2016, 1

Clee, Nicholas “Gail Rebuck: making things work.” London Show Daily, April 2016, 24

Some of the phrases, like “in someone’s good books,” are associated with positive feelings or actions. However, the word “book” can be also used to describe things in negative light. The example is “to bring someone to book.”

There is probably only one idiom on the list that most people know and use – “don’t judge the book by it’s cover.” What about the other nine? Your knowledge of idioms about books is not a closed book, is it?

a closed book

1. something that you accept has completely ended
Example: As far as she is concerned, her marriage is a closed book.

2. something or someone that is very difficult to understand
Example: I’m afraid accountancy is a closed book to me.

an open book

something or someone that is easy to know about because nothing is kept secret
Example: Her life is an open book.

read someone like a book

to be able to understand easily what someone is thinking or feeling
Example: I know what you’re thinking – I can read you like a book.

the oldest trick in the book

a dishonest method of doing something that you know about because it has been used many times before
Example: Flattery is the oldest trick in the book, so don’t fall for it!

in someone’s good books

used for saying that someone is pleased with you
Example: I’m trying to get back in her good books.

by the book

correctly, following all the rules or systems for doing something in a strict way
Example: He always tried to do everything by the book.

bring someone to book

to punish someone, or to make them explain their behavior publicly when they have done something wrong
Example: If policemen have lied, then they must be brought to book.

take a leaf out of someone’s book

to copy what someone else does because they are successful at doing it
Example: They should take a leaf out of industry’s book and pay both management and staff on results.

don’t judge a book by its cover

used for saying that you should not form an opinion about someone or something only from their appearance

cook the books

to change accounts and figures dishonestly, usually in order to get money

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ზემოთხსენებული ადგილები და ქვეყნები:

Indonesia (ინდონეზია)

Colombia (კოლომბია)

Cuba (კუბა)

Myanmar (მაინმარი)

Romania (რომინეთი)

Ethiopia (ითიოპია)

Baltic Sea (ბალტიიც ზღვა)

New Zealand (ახალი ზელანდია)

Australia (ავსტრალია)

Peru (პერუ)

Chile (ჩილე)

Ecuador (ეკვადორი)

New York city, USA (ქალაქი ნიუ იორკი, უსა)

Amazon Rainforest (ამაზონიის წვიმიანი ტყა)

United Kingdom (გაერთიანებული სამეფო)

Brazil (ბრაზილია)

China (ჩინეთი)

Latvia (ლატვია)

Georgia (საქართველო)

Tibet (ტიბეტი)

Iran (ირანი)

What does Incandescence mean?

It’s a noun that is light produced by high temperatures.

How do you pronounce it?

/ĭn′kən-dĕs′əns/

or

[in-kuh n-des-uh ns]

How do you use it?

They fly closer to the sun than the rest of us, and there is an incandescence about them.

Candles made from whale oil were once highly prized because they burned with an incandescence superior to that of other candles.

Working memory involves the conscious processing and managing of information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning, and comprehension. It has been described as the brain’s conductor. Memory has long been viewed as a key aspect of learning, but as the emphasis in educational standards has shifted away from rote memorization and toward the knowledge and skills needed to process new information, working memory is increasingly taking center stage.

There is an explosion of research today with the aim of understanding how this important function works and how to enhance it. However, the term working memory was first used more than 50 years ago to describe the role of recall in planning and carrying out behavior. In the 1970s and ’80s, British psychologist Alan Baddeley and colleagues developed a model of working memory that brings together how the brain accepts sensory input, processes both visual-spatial and verbal data, and accesses long-term memory; and how all of that input is processed by a function they referred to as central executive.

Working Memory in the Brain

Central executive monitors and coordinates input and decides which information we will focus our attention on. As with other cognitive processes that power executive function, the home base of working memory is in the prefrontal cortex. Researchers have detected increased activation in this area at the front of the brain when people are involved in thinking and problem solving that engages working memory.

Other areas of the brain that support working memory are the hippocampus, which is involved in long-term memory storage and spatial orientation, and Broca’s area, located on the left side of the frontal lobes and involved in language processing and verbal fluency.

Working memory is involved in a variety of learning and daily living tasks, such as reading, problem solving, and navigation. As such, it is sometimes referred to as the “brain’s workhorse.” In fact, brin-training authors, Tracy and Ross Alloway, contend that working memory is a better predictor than IQ of how well students will perform academically: “IQ is what you know. Working memory is what you can do with what you know”.

Thus, working memory is a key cognitive skill for students and their teachers. As an educator, you know well how you must to be able to maintain the mental skillfulness and agility to process many variables in everyday teaching practice, such as students’ prior knowledge, the primary purpose and goal of a lesson, sequence of learning activities, time constraints, interruptions throughout the school day, and on and on.

Students activate their working memory as they figure out the meaning of new words they encounter while reading, and as they decide which mathematical functions they will need to apply to a problem that their teacher has just jotted on the whiteboard.

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Workouts for Working Memory

The good news for teachers and students is that it is possible to improve our working memory. These strategies can help activate and, over time, enhance the central executive function of working memory:

• Repeat after me.

Asking students to repeat what you have said or to paraphrase it in their own words is a simple way to both assess and increase their working memory. The acts of listening and speaking what they have heard focus their attention on the lesson content and activate several components of the working memory model.

• Make a game of it.

Children and youth love to play games, and card games like Concentration, Crazy Eights, and Uno can help to build working memory. Better yet, design learning activities based on memory games to help reinforce key content.

• Emphasize relevance.

Lead a class discussion on the importance of identifying and focusing on relevant data in learning. Life is full of irrelevant information and distractions. When researching a topic online, for example, it’s easy to get sidetracked by entries that are interesting but not relevant to the task at hand. A key aspect of improving working memory is developing your ability to attend to what’s important now.

• Hone short-term recall through practice.

Provide plenty of learning activities that involve working with bits of information. Word problems in math require students to identify, remember, and process data.

• Visualize it.

Learning to picture the components of a math reading problem (as just one example) in their minds is another strategy that engages and enhances multiple components of working memory.

• Teach it to learn it.

The act of teaching also engages working memory. Through activities that involve peer teaching or learning in pairs and small groups, students can enhance learning by applying their working memory to the task of explaining and teaching new content to others.

Finally, as you teach students about working memory and how they can improve it, pair these lessons with explicit instruction on another cognitive skill — attention. Attention helps us focus on information so that we can work with it in working memory.[/box]

It is one of the oldest plastic toys in the world. Its manufacturing was started in Denmark, but was eventually replaced by factories throughout the world. Today it is one of the most successful toys and has remained an iconic brand with a loyal and continuing following.

The traditional date for the first Lego blocks was 1947, and the toys have continued to be produced with little interruption since around that time. Continue reading for more fun and interesting facts.

Note: The teacher’s notes for this webquest can be found at the bottom of the page by clicking the button marked “Teacher’s Notes”. We have also included a link to a student-facing page which does not have any links to the answers. You’ll find it by clicking the button marked “Student’s Page” at the bottom of this page. We suggest that you send students the link to the student page to prevent them from finding the answers too easily!

New Year is an exciting time and many cultures celebrate it in a special way. This may include special foods and drinks, parties, religious festivals and other traditions. Answer these questions in pairs or small groups:

1. How is New Year celebrated in your country?
2. Do you know of any similarities or differences in New Year celebrations in other countries?
3. How do you and your family celebrate New Year?

Visit http://www.history.com/topics/new-years and read the sections titled ‘Early New Year’s Celebrations’ and ‘January 1 becomes New Year’s day’. Look for the answers to these questions:

1. When were the earliest New Year celebrations and where did they take place?
2. What name was given to the religious festivity, and where did the name come from?
3. How long did the original celebration last?
4. When people began to develop their own calendars, to what events did they tie the beginning of a new year?
5. What event marked the beginning of the New Year in Egypt?
6. When was the city of Rome established?
7. Who included the first two months of the year to the calendar, and what were the names of the first two months?
8. Who introduced January 1 as the start of the New Year?
9. What changes did Christian leaders make in the middle ages?
10. When was January 1 reintroduced as the beginning of the calendar year?

When you’ve finished, discuss what you found out with your partner.

Discussion:

Discuss one other significant festival in your country – do you know how long it has been celebrated, and why it became important?

Now go to http://www.history.com/topics/new-years and read the final section of the page titled ‘New Year’s Traditions’. Answer the following questions and then compare your answers with your partner.

1. What do Spanish people eat 12 of at midnight on New Year’s Eve and what do they symbolize?
2. Which countries eat legumes and what do they represent?
3. What do pigs represent in some cultures and where is pork eaten?
4. Which countries eat ring-shaped cakes and why?
5. What is hidden inside the rice pudding eaten in Sweden and Norway at New Year? What will happen to the person who finds it?
6. Which people first made New Year’s resolutions?
7. What did they promise to do?
8. What’s the most famous symbol of the beginning of the New Year in America?
9. How long has the event taken place?
10. What alternative objects are dropped in other American cities?

New Year is celebrated on different dates in different places, and often involves very different traditions. In this activity you and a partner will find out all about two countries and their New Year celebrations.

Student 1 – Scottish New Year

Before you look at the weblink, decide whether the following statements are true or false:

1. ‘Hogmanay’ means the first day of the year.
2. Scottish people used to celebrate Hogmanay more than Christmas.
3. Strangers are not allowed inside people’s houses during Hogmanay.
4. It is considered very unlucky to enter a household without any gifts.
5. A lump of coal is a traditional gift.

Now visit http://www.scotland.org/features/hogmanay-top-facts/ to check your answers.

Student 2 – Jewish New Year

Before you look at the weblink, decide whether the following statements are true or false:

1. Jewish New Year is a celebration of the creation of the world.
2. The celebration lasts a whole week.
3. Jews believe that God will decide what the next year will be like for someone.
4. A special song called the ‘Shofar’ is sung in the synagogue.
5. A round loaf is eaten to symbolize the circle of life.

Now visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/religion/judaism/rosh_hashanah.shtml to check your answers.

Compare your answers with your partner. Then together, copy the table below and fill it in using the information on the websites:

Use the following website to access this quiz based on New Year’s Eve customs around the world. In pairs, discuss each question and decide which option you think is correct. When you have finished, you can check your answers on the screen.

http://www.topics-mag.com/internatl/holidays/new-year/quiz/new-years.htm

Post-quiz discussion:

How many of the customs are also practised in your own country?

Imagine that you have friends from another country coming to celebrate New Year with you and your family. In pairs, plan the evening, considering the following points:

• What kind of food are you going to serve?
• Which local traditions are you going to show them?
• Will you visit any special people or places?
• What are you going to do at midnight?
• Will you make any resolutions?

When you have finished, compare the plans you have made with another pair.

Optional activity

Make your own list of New Year’s resolutions. Compare your list to your classmates to see if any are similar.

We wish you a happy New Year!

[button color=”red” size=”small” link=”http://www.onestopenglish.com/webquest-new-year-teachers-notes/553260.article” target=”blank” ]Teacher’s Notes[/button]    [button color=”green” size=”small” link=”http://www.onestopenglish.com/webquest-new-year-student-page/553450.article” target=”blank” ]Student’s Page[/button]

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The Secret Agent

Set in early twentieth-century London and inspired by an actual attempt to blow up the Greenwich Observatory, The Secret Agent is a complex exploration of motivation and morality. The title character, Adolf Verloc, is obviously no James Bond. In fact, he and his circle of misfit saboteurs are not spies but terrorists, driven less by political ideals than by their unruly emotions and irrational hatreds.

Verloc has settled into an apparent marriage of convenience. Family life gives him a respectable cover, while his wife hopes to get help in handling her halfwit brother, Stevie. Instead Verloc involves Stevie in one of his explosive schemes, an act that leads to violence, murder, and revenge.

Darkly comic, the novel is also obliquely autobiographical: Joseph Conrad’s parents were involved in the radical politics of their time, and their early deaths left him profoundly distrustful of any sort of political action.

14,9 GEL

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Eyeless in Gaza

Written at the height of his powers, Aldous Huxley’s highly acclaimed Eyeless in Gaza is his most personal novel. Huxley’s bold, nontraditional narrative tells the loosely autobiographical story of Anthony Beavis, a cynical libertine Oxford graduate who comes of age in the vacuum left by World War I. Unfulfilled by his life, loves, and adventures, Anthony is persuaded by a charismatic friend to become a Marxist and take up arms with Mexican revolutionaries. But when their disastrous embrace of violence nearly kills them, Anthony is left shattered—and is forced to find an alternative to the moral disillusionment of the modern world.

A young man growing into manhood during war and economic turmoil is beset by doubts about politics and people. But in his blind wanderings to find an acceptable way of life, he is seduced by them for pacifist motives.

10,9 GEL

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