Spotlight Going abroad - Travel, work and study (Vorschau)

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EDITORIAL | March 2014
Titelfoto: plainpicture; Foto Editorial: Mauritius
Reading this could
change your life
Working or studying abroad can be a lifechanging
experience. That is what Stephanie
Shellabear, a language editor at Spotlight, discovered
when she researched the feature “Get
Inez Sharp, editor-in-chief
ahead — go abroad!” “They all reacted in the
same way to their time abroad,” said Steph. “They expressed it differently, but
each person came back enriched by the experience.” Find out how you, too,
can work or study in an English-speaking country. Learn what’s on offer and
how you can prepare yourself to make the best of your stay. The story begins
on page 14.
Give your body and mind a workout in the Canadian Rockies. When
Spotlight correspondent Rita Forbes travelled to the province of Alberta for a
fitness holiday, she was not sure what to expect. She discovered — as she had
hoped — wild rivers, deep canyons and flower-covered alpine meadows, but
also how exercise and relaxation can create a deep and lasting connection to
an environment. Join Rita on her adventure in Alberta. It begins on page 28.
Guess who’s building Britain these days? You may be surprised to learn
that many German firms are moving into the British market to profit from the
country’s massive building boom. Rupert Neate of The Guardian reports on
how building professionals from Bavaria are busy learning about British understatement
and the “huge importance” of tea breaks. Read all about it on
pages 24–25.
Do you
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English?
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Paddle power:
getting fit in
the Canadian Rockies
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CONTENTS | March 2014
Travel and learn
Read people’s experiences of working and studying in
the English-speaking world and pack your bags!
14 24
Building Britain
Are we surprised? Skilled workers from Germany are
finding many new, well-paid opportunities in Britain.
6 People
Names and faces from around the world
8 A Day in My Life
A baker in Namibia
10 World View
What’s news and what’s hot
38 History
The historic miners’ strike in Britain 30 years ago
40 Press Gallery
A look at the English-language media
42 Arts
Films, apps, books, culture and a short story
13 Britain Today
Colin Beaven on second-hand shops
22 Food
Discovering Australian wine
26 I Ask Myself
Amy Argetsinger on not keeping up with the news
34 Around Oz
Peter Flynn on the Australian car industry
36 Debate
Is the US doing enough for its veterans?
People in Los Angeles have their say
66 The Lighter Side
Jokes and cartoons
67 American Life
Ginger Kuenzel on Obamacare
68 Feedback & Impressum
Your letters to Spotlight — and our responses
69 Next Month
What’s coming next month in Spotlight
70 My Life in English
Hendrik Otremba of the band Messer on vegan
food, The Smiths and author J. D. Salinger
Fotos: Alamy; Mauritius; H. Bauer/Sigma; Ron Chapple Studios
THE SPOTLIGHT FAMILY
Spotlight plus
Every month, you can explore
and practise the language and
grammar of Spotlight with the
exercise booklet plus.
Find out more at:
www.spotlight-online.de/plus
Spotlight Audio
This monthly 60-minute CD/download
brings the world of Spotlight
to your ears. Enjoy interviews and
travel stories and try the exercises.
Find out more at:
www.spotlight-online.de/audio
4 Spotlight 3|14

28
Getting fit in Canada
Yoga, canoeing, cycling: Rita Forbes takes us on an
action-filled holiday to Canada’s spectacular west.
Easy English
Green Light makes it easy to learn English.
Try our entertaining booklet for beginners.
35
Green Light
3 2014
ENGLISCH LEICHT GEMACHT!
Learn
words for
vegetables
Find out
how to write a
business
memo
Culture
Read all
about
John Deere
IN THIS MAGAZINE: 14 LANGUAGE PAGES
48 Vocabulary
Words and phrases used inside an aeroplane
50 Travel Talk
Taking your electronics on a trip
53 Language Cards
Pull out and practise
55 Everyday English
Language you would use in the gym
57 The Grammar Page
Talking about the future: timetables and schedules
58 Peggy’s Place: The Soap
The latest from a London pub
OUR LANGUAGE LEVELS
The levels of difficulty in Spotlight magazine correspond roughly to
The Common European Framework of Reference for Languages:
A2 B1– B2 C1– C2
To find your level, visit Sprachtest.de
59 English at Work
Ken Taylor answers your questions
60 Spoken English
Ways to agree and disagree in English
61 Word Builder
A focus on the words in Spotlight
62 Perfectionists Only!
Nuances of English
63 Crossword
Find the words and win a prize
IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH WITH SPOTLIGHT PRODUCTS
Spotlight Audio: hear texts and interviews on our CD or
download. See www.spotlight-online.de/hoeren
Spotlight plus: 24 pages of language exercises related
to the magazine. See www.spotlight-online.de/ueben
Spotlight in the classroom: free of charge to teachers who
subscribe to Spotlight. See www.spotlight-online.de/teachers
Readers’ service: abo@spotlight-verlag.de · www.spotlight-online.de
Tel.: +49 (0)89 / 85681-16 · Fax: +49 (0)89 / 85681-159
www.SprachenShop.de: order products
from our online shop (see page 46).
Spotlight
in the classroom
Teachers: if you use Spotlight in
your lessons, this six-page supplement
will provide great ideas for
classroom activities based on the
magazine. Free for all teachers
who subscribe to Spotlight.
www.spotlight-online.de
Spotlight Online will help you to improve
your English every day. Try our language
exercises or read about current events
and fascinating places to visit. Subscribers
will also find a list of all the glossed vocabulary
from each issue of the magazine.
3|14 Spotlight
5

PEOPLE | Names and Faces
The inventor
Who exactly is…
Ray Kurzweil?
Ray Kurzweil doesn’t want to
die — and he doesn’t think
he’s ever going to.
Normally, someone who says he
will live forever would not be taken
seriously. But Kurzweil is a famous
inventor who has already made things
happen that were thought impossible.
Born in 1948, Kurzweil grew up
in New York and studied computer
science at MIT. His inventing career
began while he was still a
teenager: at the age of 17, he
built a computer that could
compose music.
In the 1970s, he invented
the Kurzweil Reading Machine,
which converts
printed text into
speech for blind people.
Singer Stevie
Wonder heard about
the machine on tele -
vision and called
Kurzweil’s offices.
Wonder became
the first person to
own such a machine,
and the two
men became good
friends. Out of this
friendship came a
music synthesizer —
the first computerized keyboard with
the ability to sound like a grand
piano and other acoustic instruments.
Kurzweil also developed the
flatbed scanner that many people use
today. He has a long list of patents,
publications and honours from US
presidents (Clinton, Reagan and
Johnson).
All of these achievements are impressive
— but immortality?
Kurzweil believes that technology
may soon make ageing and
death a thing of the past. At
the age of 66, he just needs
to stay alive long enough to
see that day. He is said to
take 150 pills — vitamins
and minerals
— every day, and he
has written books
about healthy living.
When the magazine
Slate asked
him how long he
expects to live,
Kurzweil replied:
“I think I have a
good chance — I
would put it at 80 per
cent — of getting to
the point where it becomes
indefinite.”
In the news
Hey! It worked for Arnold Schwarz -
enegger. Steven Seagal told ABC
that he might run for governor of Arizona.
The 61-year-old action star may
be serious — or he may just be trying
to gain attention for his reality TV
show, Steven Seagal: Lawman. On the
show, he works as a deputy with an
Arizona sheriff known for being tough
on illegal immigration. “I think our
biggest problem is open borders,” Seagal
said. “I think that
across these borders,
any kind of terrorism
can come — and does
come.”
Walt Disney may have brought happiness
to millions, but Meryl Streep
does not think much of him. She recently
presented
actress Emma
Thompson with
an award for a
film about the
story of Disney’s
Mary Poppins.
Streep praised
Thompson, but
called Disney
sexist and racist. She read from a letter
sent to a woman in 1938: “Women do
not do any of the creative work in connection
with preparing the cartoons
for the screen, as that task is performed
entirely by young men.”
computerized [kEm(pju:tEraIzd]
computer science
[kEm(pju:tE )saIEns]
deputy [(depjUti]
entirely [In(taIEli]
eventually [I(ventSuEli]
flatbed scanner [(flÄtbed )skÄnE]
grand piano [)grÄnd pi(ÄnEU]
immortality [)ImO:(tÄlEti]
indefinite [In(defEnEt]
MIT (Massachusetts Institute
of Technology) [)em aI (ti:]
outer space [)aUtE (speIs]
racist [(reIsIst]
run for [(rVn fE]
computergesteuert
Informatik
Stellvertreter(in), Hilfssheriff
komplett
irgendwann
Flachbettscanner
Flügel
Unsterblichkeit
unbegrenzt
All, Weltraum
rassistisch
kandidieren für
In the future, we may have some interesting
options when we plan a holiday.
Sir Richard Branson can imagine building
hotels in outer space, The Huffington Post
reports. Branson plans to send tourists into
space in the next few months: 700 people,
including Ashton Kutcher and Stephen
Hawking, have booked tickets for
£130,000 each. “Only 500 people have
been up in space so far. We believe
we can do that in our first year,”
Branson said. He also thinks that
colonies on the moon or Mars “could eventually
happen”.
6
Spotlight 3|14

Fotos: action press; bradleymanning.org; Getty Images; laif; Reuters
Out of the ordinary
Lots of people have an opinion about the use of drones by
the military, but not many of them can speak from personal
experience. Heather Linebaugh, however, was in the
US Air Force from 2009 to 2012. In an editorial for the British
news paper The Guardian, she wrote about the pressures of operating
drones and making
decisions about whether
or not to fire on people.
According to Linebaugh,
many drone operators
experience depression
and other mental-health
problems: “We always
wonder if we killed the
right people.”
Heather Linebaugh:
talking about the
pressures of war
Canadian musician Boujemaa Razgui often travels with his
Middle Eastern flutes. When he flew to the US from Spain in December
last year, however, something went wrong: his luggage
did not arrive. Razgui was shocked to discover that a customs
official had mistaken the 13 instruments in his luggage for
pieces of raw bamboo — and destroyed them. “These instruments
are priceless
to me,” he told
The Globe and
Mail. “I make them
with my own
hands, and I can’t
make a living without
them.”
The flute man
in action:
Boujemaa Razgui
Would you put advertising on the side of your car if you were
paid €600 a month for doing so? John McLaughlan hopes
that people in Auckland, New Zealand, won’t be able to resist
this offer. His new company, CarAds, matches businesses with
people who drive and park in the same area. Although CarAds
is just getting started, McLaughlan says a lot of interest has already
been shown. “One guy has a brand-new Mercedes and
lives in Remuera [an expensive neighbourhood]. That surprised
me a bit,” he told The New Zealand Herald.
bamboo [)bÄm(bu:]
customs official [(kVstEmz E)fIS&l]
editorial [)edI(tO:riEl]
flute [flu:t]
make a living with sth.
[)meIk E (lIvIN wID]
Bambus
Zollbeamter, -beamtin
Leitartikel
Flöte
von etw. leben, mit
etw. seinen Lebensunterhalt
verdienen
Texts by RITA FORBES
The newcomer
• Name: Sasheer Zamata
• Age: 27
• Occupation: actress, writer and comedian
• Background: Zamata studied at the University of
Virginia before moving to New York in 2009.
She has performed in comedy shows at the
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, where stars like
Tina Fey and Will Ferrell got their start.
• You might have seen her: in the web series
Pursuit of Sexiness.
• You will see her: on Saturday Night Live. She was hired
this year and is the show’s first female African-American
to be on the team since 2007.
Der ideale Weg
ins Ausland
> Begleitete Schülersprachreisen (10 bis 18 Jahre)
> EF High School Exchange Year (14 bis 18 Jahre)
> Privatschulen und Internate im Ausland
(14 bis 19 Jahre)
> Sprachkurse im Ausland für Schüler, Studenten,
Erwachsene und Berufstätige (ab 16 Jahren)
> Studienjahr im Ausland (ab 16 Jahren)
EF Berlin
030 203 47 110
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World Leader in International Education
KOSTENLOSER
SPRACHTEST
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A DAY IN MY LIFE | Namibia
Baking in
the desert
Der Bäcker und Inhaber der Moose McGregor
Desert Bakery in der abgelegenen Siedlung Solitaire
in Namibia erzählt von seinen Spezialitäten.
Von CLAUDINE WEBER-HOF
Expecting visitors: baker Moose McGregor at his shop
Left: an old car and antique petrol pump in Solitaire
My name is Moose McGregor. I’m 56 years old.
I’ve been baking on and off for about 45 years. I
learned to do it on a wood stove in Zambia. I
used to watch my mother during my school holidays.
Then I visited my sister here on her farm, and we started
to bake together.
She asked, “What are we going to bake for tourists?”
“Let’s try a bit of this,” I said. We did marble cake and it
was nice. Then we tried apple pie. For three months, we
made different apple pies until we got one that people
liked. I worked on the recipe, and it became world famous
as “Moose McGregor’s apple pie”.
Here at the Desert Bakery in Solitaire, we bake fresh,
which means we bake on demand. We do shifts: if I start
at 7 a.m., I go home at 3 p.m.; if I start at 10 a.m., I go
home at 5 or 6 p.m. It takes between half an hour and 45
minutes to bake a product. First, I put the yeast into warm
water, then I mix the margarine into the cake flour and
add eggs and milk. If it’s very bedompig — that’s the
Afrikaans word to describe a lot of moisture in the air —
the mixture doesn’t rise so easily. If it’s dry, it’s quick.
We take a half-hour lunch break. If it’s very hot,
we’ll sit outside to get a bit of fresh air. It can be
50 °C in the kitchen, so I take quite a lot of Barack
Obama. I call it that for fun, but the name is actually
Berocca. It’s a tablet you put in water that has lots of
vitamins and minerals. You come up with funny
names: I’m Moose — or you can call me Happy Hippo.
You’ve got to have a sense of humour, you know?
At the bakery, we’ve worked out about ten products
that people like, and we stick to that. At certain
times of the year, we have people who come through in
Overlanders. We make New Zealand chocolate brownies
for them or Anzac biscuits — that’s with Jungle Oats and
coconut. Our apple pie, chocolate brownies and chocolate
muffins always sell very well.
Anzac biscuit [(ÄnzÄk )bIskIt]
(Anzac = Australian and
New Zealand Army Corps)
flour [(flaUE]
hippo(potamus) [(hIpEU]
Jungle Oats [(dZVNg&l EUts]
runder haltbarer Keks mit
Hafer- und Kokosflocken
Mehl
Nilpferd
südafrikanische
Haferflockenmarke
marble cake [(mA:b&l keIk] Marmorkuchen
moisture [(mOIstSE]
Feuchtigkeit
moose [mu:s]
(amerikanischer) Elch
on and off [)Qn End (Qf]
immer mal wieder
on demand [Qn di(mA:nd] auf Anfrage
Overlander [(EUvElÄndE] Touristen-Reisebus
rise [raIz]
hier: (Teig) gehen
stove [stEUv] Herd, Ofen (➝ p. 61)
yeast [ji:st]
Hefe
8 Spotlight 3|14

Fotos: David John Weber (3); iStock
I prefer to work my time and go home. I’ll take my
dog for a walk, work in my garden or have a rest on my
bed and listen to music. There’s a bat-eared fox that comes
to my house door at night. My little black dog, Susie, goes
out and puts down a bit of food for it and its babies. She
likes to play with them.
Each week, we have a day and a half off, so that’s when
I do my stamp collecting. I’m a philatelist. If you come to
my house, there are stamps everywhere. Some of the
tourists who drop by say: “Yeah, I’ve got a collection at
home that my grandmother left behind. I’ll put it in an
envelope and send it to you.” A lot of them just throw
stamps away, but they could be worth a lot of money.
I’ve been invited to work in America, in France, in
Canada — to go somewhere else and bake things. The
point is, if I’m doing what I’m doing here, that means you
have to come here to taste it. We’re not superstars, we’re
just people who do home-made, traditional baking, and
some of the stuff does taste fine.
I say to people, “The proof’s in the pudding.” Then
they say, “Look, you could make lots of money.” And I say,
“What’s lots of money? A heart attack at 60? What for?”
Here, we do things at our own
pace, and we make people
happy. It also
brings mon ey in
for Nami bia. If
there were more
people doing
things like this,
it would help.
bat-eared fox [)bÄt IEd (fQks]
dessert [di(z§:t]
heart attack [(hA:t E)tÄk]
pace: at one’s own ~ [peIs]
the proof of the pudding
is in the eating [DE )pru:f
Ev DE )pUdIN Iz In DE (i:tIN]
Löffelfuchs
Nachtisch, Süßspeise
Herzinfarkt
im eigenen Tempo
probieren geht über studieren
Answers: stick to something: a) stuck to / been sticking to;
b) going to stick to / sticking to; c) stick to (agreement: Vereinbarung)
INFO TO GO
Solitaire
Solitaire is an important commercial stop on the long
drive from Namibia’s capital city of Windhoek to the
famous red sand dunes of Sossusvlei. A small settlement,
Solitaire has a petrol station, a place to camp, a
shop, hotels and the bakery. The place was given its
name for two reasons: a solitaire is a beautiful diamond
set in a piece of jewellery all on its own; and the French
word solitaire means “lonely” or “isolated”. These meanings
combine to form a good description of this little
enclave near the Namib-Naukluft National Park.
stick to something
If you “stick to something”, you stay with what you
know works, and you don’t like to change it. Moose
McGregor says that at his bakery, they make ten products
that people really like — so they “stick to that”. In
other words, even if McGregor likes the idea of baking
a wider variety of products, he knows what sells well,
and he does not want to risk introducing too many new
things. Try using the expression in the sentences below:
a) Have you ______________ your plan?
b) I am still ______________ my diet. Only one more
kilo to lose!
c) I will ______________ the agreement.
the proof’s in the pudding
The full idiom is “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”.
People often shorten the expression simply to
“the proof of the pudding...”, or they change it a little,
like Moose McGregor, and say, “The proof’s in the pudding.”
The idiom in its complete form means that to
find out the real quality of something, you have to experience
it or try it yourself. “Pudding” is a British English
word, one of the meanings of which is a cooked,
sweet dessert. Since McGregor bakes mainly sweet
things, his comment is an extra play on words: he’s saying
that his baked products are of a very high quality
and that if you try them, you’ll agree.
An unusual bakery: tourists and
local people come here to eat cake

WORLD VIEW | News in Brief
On the road?
Send a toymail
to your child
It’s a good month to...
revolutionize toys
UNITED STATES Everywhere you look,
people are on their cell phones — making calls, sending
messages, and using apps. This obsessive behavior gave designer
Gauri Nanda an idea. Why not use the habit of constantly
being on the phone to help parents connect with
their little ones?
To answer this call, Nanda and her business partner
developed “toymail,” a voice message that can be sent from
a cell phone to a specially-made toy called a Mailman.
First, the boxy plastic creature is placed in a child’s room.
Then parents use a special phone app to send “post” to it.
When a message arrives, the Mailman makes a funny
sound, such
as an oink or
a growl. The
child can then play the message as
well as record and send a response.
“Toymail is like voicemail or e-mail, but a lot more
fun, because your messages are sent to toys,” Nanda said
in a statement to the press. “We didn’t want to create another
toy that puts a kid in front of a screen. We believe
there’s a better way of approaching technology for children,
and that’s by making toys social.” For more information,
see www.toymailco.com
approach [US E(proUtS]
call [kO:l]
growl [graUl]
obsessive [Eb(sesIv]
hier: behandeln
hier: Bedarf, Nachfrage
Knurren
zwanghaft
How may I help you?
10 Spotlight 3|14
South Africa’s call
centres are booming
oink [OINk]
promote [prE(mEUt]
Trade and Industry Minister
[)treId End (IndEstri )mInIstE]
Grunzen
fördern, unterstützen
Wirtschaftsminister(in)
SOUTH AFRICA Question: what do you get when you combine a
vaguely English-sounding accent, financial help from the government and a time
zone close to that of England? Answer: a rapidly growing call-centre industry — in
South Africa.
While the majority of call centres are located in India and the Philippines, South
Africa has become a popular choice, too. The industry is growing there by 30 to
35 per cent a year. More than 200,000 South Africans now work for call centres. Gershwin
Osman, a 23-year-old in Cape Town, is one of them. “Most customers think I’m in
Britain and that I’m actually British,” Osman told the Mail & Guardian. He explained
that he listens to English radio and television programmes to improve his accent.
South Africa has an unemployment rate of about 25 per cent. Trade and Industry
Minister Rob Davies said that although working in a call centre is not “a lifetime career”,
it gives young people an opportunity and is “worth promoting”.
Fotos: Alamy; pixland; PR

Scanning for heart risk
SCOTLAND A medical scanner that is already
in use at many hospitals to diagnose cancer can also be used to prevent
heart attacks, according to new research at Edinburgh University
in Scotland.
Scientists injected a radioactive “tracer” chemical into people
who had had a heart attack in the past and then did a PET-CT scan
of their bodies. In more than 90 per cent of the cases, the specific
area that caused their heart attack was lit up on the scan.
The experiment was then repeated using a group of people who
were known to be at risk of having a heart attack. About half of
those patients also had areas that lit up on the scan, a clear indication
that they would soon suffer from blocked arteries and experience
a heart attack.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Dr Marc Dweck explained the significance
of the study: “If we could know how close a person is to having
a heart attack, we could step in with medication or surgery
before the damage is done.”
Blindtext:
butlers go to the
Middle East
Seeing results:
Dr Dweck’s scan finds
heart problems early
animal tracker [(ÄnIm&l )trÄkE]
claim [kleIm]
extinct [Ik(stINkt]
forestry worker [(fQrIstri )w§:kE]
marsupial [mA:(su:piEl]
PET-CT scan [(pet si: )ti: skÄn]
Tierfährtensucher
Behauptung
ausgestorben
Waldarbeiter
Beuteltier
PET/CT-Aufnahme
reliable [ri(laIEb&l]
Tasmanian tiger
[tÄz)meIniEn (taIgE]
thylacine (cynocephalus)
[(TaIlEsi:n]
tracer chemical [(treIsE )kemIk&l]
hier: glaubwürdig
Beutelwolf
(lat.) wissenschaftliche Bezeichnung
des Beutelwolfs
Markierungssubstanz
Is the Tasmanian tiger back?
AUSTRALIA Some know it as the Tasmanian
tiger. Others call it the Tasmanian wolf. But the
striped animal that scientists refer to as the thylacine is
neither. It was once the largest meat-eating marsupial on
the planet. The effects of human settlement greatly reduced
its numbers, however, leaving the
last one to die in a zoo in 1936.
Some say that the thylacine is not
extinct, though. Reports of sightings are
nothing new, but a group of British researchers
now think that some claims
are true. Richard Freeman of the Centre
for Fortean Zoology believes that the
animal once native to all of Australia
and New Guinea can still be found in
the wild forests of Tasmania. He told
The Guardian that the thylacine would
have plenty to eat, “...and we have so
many reliable witnesses who know the
bush that I’d say there is a reasonable
population of [the animals] left.”
Is this beautiful beast out
there somewhere?
Freeman cites reports from a forestry worker, a government
animal tracker and several local people, all of
whom say they recognized the thylacine from its stripes
and its stiff manner of walking. A historical video of the
beautiful animal can be seen at www.arkive.org
3|14 Spotlight
11

WORLD VIEW | News in Brief
CANADA Have you ever
wondered what’s really in those bottles of
herbal products you take? Echinacea, used
to treat the common cold, and St John’s
wort, used to fight depression, are among the most popular. But if you
bought your pills in North America, they might have some surprising
— and dangerous — ingredients.
Using a test known as “DNA barcoding”, researchers from Ontario’s
University of Guelph examined 44 popular herbal products from 12
different companies. As The New York Times reports, about a third of
the products did not contain any of the herb advertised on the label.
Instead, they consisted of harmless substances, such as rice, but also
weeds and other plants that can cause people to become ill. Black walnut
was also identified, a substance that could cause a serious reaction in
people who are allergic to nuts.
Many of the products did contain the herb listed on the label, but
mixed (at times heavily) with similar substances. Herbal supplements
are big business, especially in the US. Americans spend $5 billion
(€3.6 billion) a year on such products, which are very poorly regulated.
Buying health products:
what’s really in those bottles?
BRITAIN It’s hard to keep children’s attention
under normal circumstances. Teachers at Hounslow Heath Infant
and Nursery School near
Ears are safe: Heathrow Airport have an
under the
additional challenge: the
adobe domes
constant, loud noise of
low-flying aeroplanes.
The New York Times
reports that at peak
times, aeroplanes fly
over the school every 60
seconds. When children
are outside, the noise beadobe
structure [E(dEUbi )strVktSE]
barcoding [(bA:kEUdIN]
black walnut [blÄk (wO:lnVt]
charity [(tSÄrEti]
circumstance [(s§:kEmstÄns]
dirty [(d§:ti]
donation [US doU(neIS&n]
echinacea [)ekI(neISE]
herbal [(h§:b&l]
homeless [US (hoUmlEs]
infant and nursery school
[)InfEnt End (n§:s&ri sku:l]
peak time [(pi:k taIm]
relief [ri(li:f]
St John’s wort [sent (dZQnz w§:t]
time-lapse [(taIm lÄps]
weed [wi:d]
Fake pills
Lehmziegelhaus
Strichcodierung
Schwarznuss
wohltätige Organisation
Umstand
schmutzig
Spende
Echinacea, Sonnenhut
Kräuter-
obdachlos
Kindergarten und Vorschule
Hauptbelastungszeit, Stoßzeit
Entlastung, Abhilfe
Johanniskraut
Zeitraffer-
Unkraut
WHAT’S HOT
Charity videos
UNITED STATES
Americans like to say that “presentation
is everything.” The expression
is especially true in the case of
Jim Wolf, a homeless man who recently
caused an internet sensation.
Wolf was living on the streets
when he was asked to play a role in
a video project for a Michigan charity.
The resulting time-lapse film
shows stylists cutting his long hair
and getting him to change his dirty
clothes for a suit. Two minutes later,
Wolf has been transformed into a
picture of respectability.
The BBC reports that the video
was viewed 13 million times in just
one week on YouTube, and that it
brought the charity $50,000 in donations.
Afterwards, Wolf began to go
to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings
and to live with his sister. His future
is still uncertain, but the video has
helped change how people view the
homeless. See it at www.degage
ministries.org/successstories.html
Jim Wolf, charity
video sensation
Can you hear me now?
comes so loud that they cannot hear themselves speak. “When
you’re talking to somebody and an aeroplane comes, you forget
what you were saying, and the other person walks away,” said sixyear-old
pupil Hamze Ali. “It makes me confused and sad.”
Hounslow Heath tried something unusual to protect its pupils’
hearing. The school built four large adobe structures in the playground.
Designed by an Iranian architect, the igloo-shaped buildings
have previously been used as housing in Nepal.
The 580 pupils, all between three and seven years old, are happy
to have some relief from the noise. The solution has worked so well
that Heathrow Airport has announced it will pay around €2 million
to build similar structures at 21 other schools near the airport.
Fotos: Reuters; Thinkstock/Getty Images
12 Spotlight 3|14
By RITA FORBES and CLAUDINE WEBER-HOF

“
It’s
a shame
we’re such
snobs
”
Britain Today | COLIN BEAVEN
The future is
second-hand
Auf jeder Einkaufsstraße schießen Second-Hand-Läden wie Pilze
aus dem Boden. Was sagt das über die Gesellschaft aus?
Foto: iStock
Every town centre in Britain
seems to have several charity
shops. They’re shops that sell
unwanted clothes, old books and all
the bric-a-brac people give them.
Their prices are low, and the money
they raise goes to good causes —
charities like Oxfam or Cancer Research
UK.
Most of the staff in these shops are
volunteers. Fortunately, thousands of
people are willing to give up some
spare time to work there. If they
weren’t, the shops couldn’t function,
and the high street would look rather
empty. Now that everyone buys
things from Amazon, traditional
shops really struggle.
after all [)A:ftE (O:l]
bow tie [)bEU (taI]
bric-a-brac [(brIk E brÄk]
charge [tSA:dZ]
charity shop [(tSÄrEti SQp] UK
clear a debt [)klIE E (det]
decline: be in ~ [di(klaIn]
for next to nothing
[fE )nekst tE (nVTIN]
fortunately [(fO:tSEnEtli]
good cause [gUd (kO:z]
high street [(haI stri:t] UK
pay-day lender [(peIdeI )lendE]
spare time [speE (taIm]
unless [En(les]
volunteer [)vQlEn(tIE]
yet [jet]
Charity shops seem such a good
idea, yet you still hear complaints.
What is there not to like about them?
They’re an excellent way of recycling
things and creating much-needed income
for deserving organizations.
Yes, but are there too many? If you
reach the point where there are almost
more charity shops than normal
ones, isn’t that a sign that your town
is in decline? Some of us seem to feel
that shops ought just to sell new
things, and that second-hand goods
are not to be taken seriously — unless
they’re Van Goghs and Picassos.
Even the term “second-hand” is
disliked. The second-hand cars you see
in showrooms are generally called
“used” cars; it makes them sound better
quality. Or, especially if they’re expensive
ones, they’re “pre-owned”,
which simply means that you wouldn’t
be the first person to buy them.
It’s a shame we’re such snobs. After
all, we could just as easily call new
things “pre-used”, meaning: they
haven’t been used yet, but, in theory,
soon will be. To put it another way,
traditional shops are
pre-charity shops,
full of things that
haven’t been thrown
away yet, but no
doubt soon will be.
If you had a
time machine, you
would have the best
of both worlds: you
could shop for next
to nothing in the
charity shop, then
travel back in time
to the day when the
stuff you’d bought
was new.
im Grunde genommen
Fliege
Krimskrams, Nippes
hier: erheben, verlangen
karitativer Second-
Hand-Laden
eine Schuld begleichen
im Niedergang begriffen sein
für einen Apfel und ein Ei
glücklicherweise
hier: gute Sache
Haupt(einkaufs)straße
Kleinkreditgeber
Freizeit
außer
ehrenamtliche(r) Helfer(in)
dennoch, trotzdem
I’m sure this is what Britain’s most
famous time traveller does: Doctor
Who, the central character in a
science-fiction series that recently celebrated
50 years on television. Since
the 1960s, a dozen actors have taken
on the role of Doctor Who, and
many of them have worn some very
strange clothes.
Matt Smith, who played the Doctor
from 2010 until last year, liked to
wear bow ties. I think I know the
charity shop they came from.
If the high street had no charity
shops, would there be an alternative?
When internet shopping’s the norm,
it seems the only other areas that are
booming are coffee shops, betting
shops and pay-day lenders.
These are companies where it’s
easy to get a loan — easier than from
banks. The general idea is that you
don’t need the money for long, and
pay it back when you get paid. But
the interest rates these firms charge
are absolutely scandalous. It’s easy to
get money from a pay-day lender, but
it can be hard to pay it back. So how
can you possibly clear your debt?
Well, Doctor, here again, we need
to borrow your time machine. This
time, though, perhaps you could
travel into the future to find out next
week’s lottery numbers. Winning the
jackpot when you get back is the only
way to pay the interest we’re charged
by these lenders.
If you’re quick, there might even
be enough left over to buy you another
bow tie from the charity shop
as a thank you.
Colin Beaven is a freelance writer who lives
and works in Southampton on the south
coast of England.
3|14 Spotlight
13

LANGUAGE | Work and Study Abroad
Get ahead! —
Go abroad!
Ein Jahr im Ausland tut nicht nur den Sprachkenntnissen
gut, sondern erweitert auch den persönlichen Horizont.
Um das Beste daraus zu machen, helfen Agenturen bei
der Organisation von Sprach- oder Arbeitsaufenthalten.
STEPHANIE SHELLABEAR berichtet.
14 Spotlight 3|14

The most effective way to improve your English is by
spending time in an English-speaking country. Your
language skills will progress faster than you can
imagine when you listen, talk, write and speak the language
from morning till night. And the longer you stay,
the bigger the improvement will be.
While borders are coming down across Europe, making
it easier to live and work in some countries, popular
English-speaking destinations further away, such as
Canada and the US, have specific and often complex entrance
requirements for anyone planning to stay for more
than a short holiday.
Fortunately, there are companies and institutes that
specialize in navigating their way round these obstacles.
They will arrange work and study trips to the UK, the US,
Ireland, South Africa, Malta, Singapore, Canada, Aus-
tralia, New Zealand and India — anywhere English is
spoken on a day-to-day basis. They offer a huge selection
of programmes, in many cases to students, but also to
other age groups.
Over the next few pages, we follow five young people
who have been motivated to go abroad and work, study
or do a combination of both for a few months. They tell
us about the experiences they’ve had with language, people
and culture — and also describe the long-term effect
the trips are having on their lives. We offer you tips on
how to arrange your very own “language sabbatical” and
give you the names and internet addresses of organizations
that can help (see page 21).
navigate [(nÄvIgeIt]
sabbatical [sE(bÄtIk&l]
hier: bewältigen, erfüllen
Sabbatjahr
Fotos: Flickr/Getty Images; Masterfile; plainpicture
15

LANGUAGE | Work and Study Abroad
Combining work and study
If you wish to combine work and study abroad, many opportunities
exist, especially if your English is at an intermediate
level or above. For example, looking after children
as an au pair, as Nele (below) did, can be combined with
a few hours a week at college as a visiting student. This option
could be attractive if you are a school-leaver. You can
The Manhattan skyline
experience everyday life in the country of your choice, earn
a little money and get your first taste of student life. This
can be useful if you want to go on to higher education,
but aren’t sure which subject to choose. During your time
abroad, you can attend lectures on topics that interest you
and decide if you want to pursue them at home.
Nele Falldorf taking time
out in Times Square
Nele Falldorf, 21,
from Bremen recently
took part in the Educare
programme offered by
the American Institute
for Foreign Study (AIFS).
She spent six months in
New Jersey, followed by
six months in Connecticut.
Spotlight asked her
what had attracted her to
going abroad and what
she hoped to gain from
her time in the US.
“I wanted to become
more independent, and I
was also interested in
finding out about the cultures
of English-speaking
countries. I’d already
spent time in England, so
I decided to go somewhere
outside Europe.
I wanted to find out what
I was capable of doing, to
travel around and get
some cultural impressions.
More than anything, I wanted to gain practical working
experience in an area completely different from what
I’d probably do in the future.
“The special attraction of this programme for me was
the combination of studying and being an au pair. I had 30
hours of work with the kids, which was nice, because I
wanted to see how people actually live in the States — not
just from a tourist’s perspective. And as far as my studies
were concerned, I’d seen all these cliché movies and was
curious to experience what student life is really like.”
Being an au pair has particular benefits. Although the
contact organization charges a fee for arranging everything,
the flights are paid by the host family. Au pairs also receive
a small amount of pocket money. “The host family pays the
au pair’s study fees, too, so I attended classes at a local college
for about six hours a week. I was able to try out different
kinds of classes, and that was really enriching.”
Nele enjoyed the programme she’d chosen and her experience
in the US in general. She explained how she felt
before she left for the States.
“I saw the whole thing as an adventure, a dream. When
I first arrived at my host family, I opened the door to my
room, and it was then that I realized this was going to be a
whole year. I definitely grew in terms of life experience during
that year. It also changed my attitude to cultural and
global thinking. It helped me a lot, for example, in politics,
to see issues from the American perspective.”
What about the effect of the year abroad on her English
and the influence of her experience on what she’s doing
now? “My vocabulary has certainly expanded, especially
the day-to-day vocabulary. I can talk now without having
to think so much about the language beforehand. I’m
studying Spanish and history, nothing to do with English,
funnily enough, but I definitely want to have a profession
that deals with global issues.”
beforehand [bi(fO:hÄnd]
benefit [(benIfIt]
curious [(kjUEriEs]
enriching [In(rItSIN]
fee [fi:]
host family [(hEUst )fÄmli]
intermediate level
[)IntE(mi:diEt )lev&l]
in terms of... [In (t§:mz Ev]
lecture [(lektSE]
pursue [pE(sju:]
vorher
Vorteil
neugierig
bereichernd
Gebühr
Gastfamilie
mittleres Sprachniveau
was ... angeht
Vorlesung
weiter verfolgen
Fotos: privat
16 Spotlight 3|14

Doing volunteer work — giving something back
How about using your energy and your English to help
others — without payment? A stint of volunteer work
might appeal to you (see Spotlight 12/2013). Doing unpaid
work for a short time abroad is becoming increasingly
popular, especially when contact organizations make the
arrangements for you. You need to apply, give them good
reasons to take you on, prove that your English is good
enough and that you are in good health — and pay the
fee, of course. There are many job choices, such as working
on hiking trails in the US as Sebastian (below) did, helping
out on a ranch in Canada or looking after endangered
species in South Africa. Your contribution will be welcome.
Sebastian Heinker, 25, from
Hamburg, graduated in business administration
/ economics and then
went on a TravelWorks volunteer programme
in April 2013 to Falstaff, Arizona.
He spent 10 weeks working
outdoors on an environmental-conservation
project in Grand Canyon National
Park. He had visited national
parks in the past and was keen to make
some kind of personal contribution.
“I especially wanted to spend some time outside, after
studying for six months in a university library,” Sebastian
said. “When we arrived, there were some introductory seminars
on how to behave in the wilderness. You’re living outdoors
for eight days straight, and not on a campsite. Some
projects were even backcountry, so there was no road or
petrol station — nothing — nearby. You need to be
aware of potential hazards, and you get an introduction
to the tools you’ll be using for the trail work or whatever
you’re doing.”
A good working knowledge of English, says Sebastian,
was essential for this programme.
“You didn’t need perfect English, but you did need
more than the basics, because you’re sometimes in dangerous
situations. If somebody yells that a rock is about
to fall close to you, you need to be able to understand
that.”
Culture shock may be a concern for anyone going
to a very different environment. In fact, for Sebastian
— and for everyone else interviewed for this feature —
the opposite happened. It was getting back into a routine
at home that was difficult.
Sebastian told us: “I really began to miss being outdoors
all the time. You realize how tiny your own environment
is, and how regulated it is, especially in
Germany. I’m still in contact with a lot of people I met
in Arizona. When I look back at the experience, it’s really
changed me a lot. As I’d hoped, I was away from technology.
I had no cell phone, and I wasn’t listening to the
news constantly. I was able to concentrate on just being
there, on the task and on being with a nice bunch of
people. Now I’m more aware of the environment, and
it’s made me think about my career choices, about
helping to build a sustainable way of life or giving
something back through a career.”
Sebastian Heinker enjoying
the Grand Canyon
backcountry [(bÄk)kVntri] N. Am.
bunch [bVntS] N. Am. ifml.
business administration
[)bIznEs Ed)mInI(streIS&n]
economics [)i:kE(nQmIks]
endangered species
[In)deIndZEd (spi:Si:z]
environmental conservation
[InvaI&rEn)ment&l )kQnsE(veIS&n]
graduate [(grÄdZueIt]
hazard [(hÄzEd]
hiking trail [(haIkIN treI&l]
keen: be ~ to do sth. [ki:n] UK
stint [stInt]
sustainable [sE(steInEb&l]
take sb. on [teIk Qn]
wilderness [(wIldEnEs]
yell [jel]
(entlegenes) Hinterland
Haufen
Betriebswirtschaftslehre
(Volks)Wirtschaftslehre
vom Aussterben bedrohte
Tierart
Umweltschutz-
einen (Schul-, Hochschul-)
Abschluss machen
Gefahr
Wanderweg
sehr daran interessiert sein,
etw. zu tun
Arbeitsperiode
nachhaltig, umweltfreundlich
jmdn. einstellen
Wildnis
schreien
. .
www.travelworks.de

LANGUAGE | Work and Study Abroad
Teaching — getting close to people
Being an au pair or volunteer are examples of work experience
that gives you an inside view of a foreign culture.
Another option is to do community work.
Hanna from Dormagen did this through Stepin, an organization
with which she had previous experience. This
time, she went to China, teaching English to primaryschool
children, something that she enjoyed and that has
clearly influenced her career plans. She recorded her experiences
regularly on her blog:
www.stepin-on-tour.de/hanna-in-china
to go to China. Some of us had a phone interview with the
partner organization as well, and there was a long English
test on the internet. Your English had to be really good to
teach English in China, of course.”
What did Hanna gain from this trip? “I think the main
thing is that I’m more easy-going now, and I have a lot more
self-confidence.” She puts her more laid-back attitude down
to some of the situations that she experienced in China.
“Our contracts said we’d get a pillowcase, sheets, desk,
all that kind of stuff — but when I arrived at my apartment,
there was nothing, not even a shower, just a bare floor
and a toaster. I had to really fight to get a better place to
stay, but it all worked out. The most important thing is to
laugh about it and not take it too seriously, just accept it.
That’s China.”
Hanna Dreßen experiencing
China up close
Hanna Dreßen, 21, who is
now studying Chinese and management
back in Germany, told Spotlight
why she chose a more unusual programme
for putting her knowledge
of English to use. “I left school in
spring, and I just didn’t know what to
do. I didn’t know what to study at
university. I knew that I wanted an
adventure abroad, so I decided to go
to China. I’d seen Stepin’s programme
called Teach & Travel China
in their brochure, and it sounded interesting.
Being at a school, teaching and having social connections
sounded good to me.”
Hanna stayed for six months in total and taught during
most of that time. All the programme participants spent
their first month together in Beijing, learning how to teach.
“We learned some more grammar and how to teach it.
We learned a little Chinese and got to know the Chinese culture
a bit. There were 80 of us from all over the world. After
that, we were split up around the country and went to different
schools,” she said.
Hanna explained how she was accepted for the programme:
“The partner organization in Beijing wanted to
know a lot about us — personal stuff — so we had to
fill in interview sheets. And then we had to write a long
essay about ourselves and the reasons we had for wanting
bare [beE]
community work
[kE(mju:nEti w§:k]
down to: put sth. ~ sth. [(daUn tE]
easy-going [)i:zi (gEUIN]
essay [(eseI]
fill in [fIl (In]
laid-back [)leId (bÄk] ifml.
participant [pA:(tIsIpEnt]
pillowcase [(pIlEUkeIs]
primary-school child
[(praImEri )sku:l tSaI&ld] UK
self-confidence [)self (kQnfIdEns]
sheet [Si:t]
split up [splIt (Vp]
work out [w§:k (aUt]
nackt, kahl
Gemeindearbeit
etw. auf etw. zurückführen
unkompliziert
Aufsatz
ausfüllen
locker, entspannt
Teilnehmer(in)
Kissenüberzug
Grundschüler(in)
Selbstbewusstsein
Laken
aufteilen, verteilen
hier: klappen
Fotos: iStock; privat
18 Spotlight 3|14

Studying English — learning for the future
Do you plan to enrol on a course of academic study that
is taught in English or in an English-speaking country?
Do you want to work on your career prospects by improving
your English? Or are you planning a new life in an
English-speaking country? Whichever of these it is, you’ll
probably need proof of how good your English is.
William (below) has career plans for which he needs to
be proficient in English. Originally from Hattingen in the
Ruhr region, he’s currently doing an intensive examination
preparation course run by Education First (EF). The highlight
of his six-month investment in his future is the location
of his course: Miami Beach.
William Quach, 20, says that the
service, the facilities and the networking
possibilities he is experiencing through
this programme are exactly what he had
hoped for.
“I wanted to do something different
after leaving school, to see the world a bit.
My sister travelled around for a year and
said it was the best thing ever. There are
two reasons why I’m here now: one is
that it’s always been my dream to
come to Miami Beach, but the more
important reason — and it’s the same
for everybody who’s here — is that I
really want to improve my English.”
When he arrives back in Germany, he intends to
study Asian politics and economics, a course in which
many of the lectures are held in English. After that, he
plans to go to a renowned university in China. A prerequisite
for that is passing the Cambridge exams if he’s
to keep pace with the other students.
William was keen to take this opportunity: “If I don’t
do it now, there won’t be any time later, because of
studies, then work, then family and so on. I love Miami
Beach. It’s wonderful here, and I’m having the best time
of my life. I’ve met so many great people and made a
lot of friends.”
What does he hope to gain by doing the course?
“It’s a big step, going out in the world for six months
without my family. I hope I’m becoming more mature.
I know I’m learning how to deal with things more independently.
I also hope that my English will have improved
a lot. I’m getting a lot of life experience here.
Everyone should try it. I can’t recommend it enough.”
What is it that made this location in Florida so attractive
to William? If you’d like to find out, you can watch
a short film at www.youtube.com Simply type in “EF
Miami Beach 2013”.
William Quach living his
dream in Miami Beach
enrol [In(rEUl]
facilities [fE(sIlEtiz]
keep pace with sb.
[ki:p (peIs wID]
prerequisite [pri:(rekwEzIt]
proficient: be ~ in sth. [prE(fIS&nt]
prospect [(prQspekt]
renowned [ri(naUnd]
Auslandsaufenthalte weltweit.
Stepin · Beethovenallee 21 · 53173 Bonn
sich einschreiben
Anlagen, Einrichtungen
mit jmdm. Schritt halten
Voraussetzung, Bedingung
etw. beherrschen
Aussicht, Perspektive
angesehen
Entdecke die Welt mit uns!
High School
Work & Travel
Auslandspraktika
Welcome
Freiwilligenarbeit
to Miami!
Au-pair
Sprachreisen
www.stepin.de
facebook.com/mystepin

LANGUAGE | Work and Study Abroad
Before you go
Here are six tips if you are considering a work or study trip
abroad.
• Define what it is you want
Say this phrase to yourself: “I’ve always wanted to go to...”
Which country automatically comes to mind? This could
be a good starting point for your decision on where to go
and what to do in the English-speaking world.
• Consider your limitations and be realistic
Research your dream destination carefully. If you know
you don’t like hot weather, for example, then the Grand
Canyon might not be the place for you. Are you a town
or city person? What do you define as essential comforts?
Tips
• Think about your motives
An important part of the application process for certain
programmes is saying why you want to participate. Why
should you be accepted? Even though you are the one paying
to take part, you might be required to write an essay
and be interviewed to check your suitability.
• Make sure your CV is up to date
You will always be accepted on a language course. But if
you want to do an internship, be a volunteer, get a job as
an au pair, or a temporary job as part of a work-and-travel
programme, you’ll have to apply just as you would on the
regular job market.
• Be prepared for lots of paperwork...
...if you’re travelling to somewhere outside Europe. Most
of our interviewees went through a lengthy visa application
process, but they received excellent assistance from their
contact organizations.
• Read the small print
Find out what help is provided by the organization you
are travelling with, in case of an emergency. Good, reliable
organizations will give you contact numbers and possibly
even access to a 24-hour helpline.
approval: gain ~ [E(pru:v&l]
come to mind [)kVm tE (maInd]
CV (curriculum vitae) [)si: (vi:]
exhausted [Ig(zO:stId]
facilitate [fE(sIlEteIt]
gap year: take a ~ [(gÄp jIE] UK
internship [(Int§:nSIp]
lengthy [(leNTi]
paper [(peIpE]
post-traumatic stress disorder
[pEUst trO:)mÄtIk (stres dIs)O:dE]
small print [(smO:l )prInt]
angenommen werden
in den Sinn kommen
Lebenslauf
erschöpft
ermöglichen
ein Jahr aussetzen
Praktikum
langwierig
Klausurarbeit, Hausarbeit,
Fachartikel
posttraumatische
Belastungsstörung
das Kleingedruckte
Miriam Thiel: research in California
Internships —
putting theory into practice
Miriam from Trier (above) gained her master’s degree in
psychology in England and became involved in research
on the subject. She found the perfect internship on a university
website: working in a team of researchers from
Stanford University Medical School at the veteran’s hospital
in Palo Alto, California, observing army veterans for
post-traumatic stress disorder. She applied and gained
approval for the internship, but needed a J-1 visa. This is
required of participants in cultural and educational exchange
programmes in order to enter the US. It was this
situation that led her to TravelWorks. They facilitated the
visa and helped her to arrange her trip to California.
Miriam Thiel, 25, was asked how she got the idea of
doing an internship, and why she wished to do one outside
Europe. “During my master’s, I had already started looking
into internships because I wanted to take a gap year. I’d
studied for four years, writing papers and so on, and I
really wanted to do something with normal working hours
and actually learn what research involves. I’d already been
to the UK, and the US was my childhood dream. I wanted
to go and see if everything I’d heard was true — as in the
movies.”
Miriam also saw her time in the US as an adventure. Her
expectations of improving her language skills and meeting
interesting people, as well as getting some valuable work
experience, have been fulfilled. And, of course, some special
moments have stayed with her. Her supervisor on the
programme was keen to correct her English in every situation:
“I’d just come out of a really stressful interview, and
he asked‚ ‘So how did it go?’ I was exhausted and ready to
cry, but I said, ‘Oh, it went good.’ And he said, ‘No! It went
well !’ I’ll never forget that.”
20 Spotlight 3|14

Is your English up to the challenge?
Whichever programme you choose, a reputable organization
must be certain before it sends you abroad that you
are equipped to deal with the challenges you are likely to
face on your trip.
Clearly, if you want to work or study in an Englishspeaking
country, your language skills must be at a certain
level. Check with the organization you have chosen — it
may offer to test your language skills, and may also then
provide courses to help you improve them before you get
on that plane.
If, like Nele, Sebastian, Hanna, William and Miriam,
you love English and dream of visiting a particular country,
you now know that there’s nothing to stop you going
on an adventure — and turning it to your advantage.
Organizations to contact
The following are a few of the organizations through which
you can book a language course located abroad, or to
which you can apply to participate in a variety of shortterm
study, work or internship programmes. All these
organizations have many years of experience in their field
and offer comprehensive advice. Some members of their
staff may even have first-hand knowledge of the programmes,
having personally taken part in them.
• AIFS, American Institute for Foreign Study, www.aifs.de
• Carl Duisberg Centren, www.cdc.de
• EF, Education First, www.ef.de
• F+U Academy of Languages Heidelberg, www.fuu-heidelberg-languages.com
• iST – Internationale Sprach- und Studienreisen, www.sprachreisen.de
• Kaplan International English, www.kaplaninternational.com
• Panke Sprachreisen, www.panke-sprachreisen.de
• Stepin – Student Travel and Education Programmes International, www.stepin.de
• Team! Sprachen & Reisen, www.team-sprachreisen.de
• TravelWorks, www.travelworks.de
For a brief overview of the
types of programme these
organizations offer, go to
www.spotlight-online.de
/downloads
comprehensive
[)kQmprI(hensIv]
first-hand
[)f§:st (hÄnd]
reputable
[(repjUtEb&l]
umfassend
aus eigener
Erfahrung
angesehen
Fotos: iStock; privat

FOOD | Wine
We’ll drink to that!
Vor gut hundertsiebzig Jahren haben europäische Siedler ein paar ihrer Weinreben mit nach
Australien gebracht. Seit damals hat sich die australische Weinproduktion zu einem
angesehenen und lukrativen Geschäft gemausert. VASSIL MALANDRIS berichtet.
At one of the world’s largest and most respected
wineries, Jacob’s Creek in South Australia’s Barossa
Valley, chief winemaker Bernard Hickin is looking
around at the peaceful landscape.
“It’s a beautiful afternoon — mid to high 20s (°C) and
we’re surrounded by Shiraz and Riesling vineyards, with
rolling hills in the background and beautiful red gums
growing between. It’s just a very pretty place.”
Bernard has the great task of tasting grapes from more
than 20 varieties to help create the next batch of delicious
whites and reds.
“When we taste the fruit, we can determine whether
the grape is ripe and the flavours are coming through before
we harvest it. The young Riesling wine tastes of lemon
or citrus. If you go to the Coonawarra (region) and try
Cabernet, you should be able to identify cassis or blackcurrant
flavours.”
In the background, there’s a large, modern visitor centre
with a gourmet restaurant and nearby luxury accommodation.
Enormous glass panels allow a panoramic view of the
region, no matter where you stand. It’s a complete contrast
to the smaller, rustic cellar-door wineries in the region.
“We get between one hundred and sixty and one hundred
and eighty thousand visitors here each year. It’s one
of the most popular regional tourist destinations in South
Australia.”
It’s hard to imagine that 170 years ago, there was little
more in this area than a few vines on the banks of Jacob’s
Creek. They were planted by Johann Gramp, a German
settler who came to South Australia in the mid-19th
century.
Sunny days: vineyards
around Jacob’s Creek
“We are definitely seen as one of the old wine making
fraternities here — not by European standards, but certainly
by Australian standards. One of the first wines was
a Riesling.”
Over time, the Barossa Valley’s reputation grew, and in
the 1970s, Bernard Hickin left the city to take up a position
with emerging wine producer Orlando, which was
trying to launch a new wine for the domestic market.
“It was just one wine, a Shiraz Cabernet Malbec, a fullbodied
red that had soft tannins. You could buy it, take it
home and drink it the same evening with your partner for
dinner — and boy, did the consumer jump on that!”
The Jacob’s Creek label quickly became the most popular
wine sold in Australia. In fact, the original blend still
exists to this day.
Nachwuchs-
Bruderschaft; hier: Gemeinschaft
vollmundig
sich auf etw. stürzen
einführen, auf den Markt bringen
ganz egal
Roter Eukalyptusbaum
Ansehen, Ruf
reif
Hügellandschaft
rustikal, ländlich
Siedler
Weinrebe, Weinstock
Weinberg, Weingut
Weingut
batch [bÄtS]
blackcurrant [)blÄk(kVrEnt]
blend [blend]
domestic market
[dE)mestIk (mA:kIt]
emerging [i(m§:dZIN]
fraternity [frE(t§:nEti]
full-bodied [)fUl (bQdid]
jump on sth. [(dZVmp Qn] ifml.
launch [lO:ntS]
no matter [nEU (mÄtE]
red gum [)red (gVm]
reputation [)repju(teIS&n]
ripe [raIp]
rolling hills [)rEUlIN (hIlz]
rustic [(rVstIk]
settler [(set&lE]
vine [vaIn]
vineyard [(vInjEd]
winery [(waInEri]
Charge, Schwung
schwarze Johannisbeere
Verschnitt, Mischung
Inlandsmarkt

The eye of an expert:
winemaker Bernard Hickin
Fotos: Getty Images; Vassil Malandris
It also helped establish Hickin’s name as an innovative
winemaker. The pressure was now on delivering quality
wines — a challenge he rose to and that earned him respect
within the industry.
“There’s a degree of risk, but also it’s very exciting, and
the brand was growing so rapidly. Our big focus was to
keep the image fresh and contemporary.”
However, the warm, Mediterranean climate in the
Barossa suited only a few types of grapes. The answer to
that problem was to create and take over vineyards in other
South Australian wine regions and then later across the
country. Suddenly, there were dry whites emerging from
the Adelaide Hills, light reds from Victoria’s Yarra Valley
and Chardonnays from Western Australia’s Margaret River.
Jacob’s Creek also established a reputation for having
good quality wines without a hefty price tag. The prices
begin at approximately A$ 12, and the top end premium
range costs only around A$ 18 a bottle. It’s also one of the
reasons why the brand has been successful on the international
market — first in Europe and then in more recent
years among Australia’s Asian neighbours.
“Globally, we sell 6.6 million cases of wine per financial
year. It’s now the number one Australian brand sold
in China and the number two imported brand in China.”
Ever the innovator, Hickin has focused his attention in
the past six years on producing wines exclusively for countries
like Japan, catering to their taste and type of cuisine.
But how would they get the balance right? Simple,
Bernard says: recruit a famous Japanese chef to fly over to
South Australia and create a signature wine.
A CLOSER LOOK
Johann Gramp (1819–1903) was just 18 years old when he
sailed to Australia to start a new life. Originally from near Kulmbach
in Bavaria, he arrived in Adelaide on 16 October 1837. He
began by working at a local
baker’s, before moving to the
Barossa Valley, where he started
his own vineyard at Jacob’s
Creek. His first wine was a
hock. Gramp was soon running
a successful business
and became stalwart of the
local community.
Johann Gramp:
the grandfather of
Australian wine
“The Jacob’s Creek ‘Wah’ was released in March 2013,
and the way the wine was made? We brought Mamoru
Sugiyama, a star Michelin chef, from Tokyo, on the basis
that he would prepare some of his classic sushi dishes and
we would prepare a whole series of blends or wine options
to try. On the second day, we came up with a final wine.
I don’t think anyone else has done that before.”
Since then, other countries outside Asia are demanding
the “Wah”, in particular, Sweden, where sushi bars are very
popular.
Just two months ago, Jacob’s Creek targeted the Thai
market with “Lamoon”, a red designed to soften the hot,
spicy dishes of the South-East Asian country.
It’s that ability to expand, develop and innovate which,
according to Bernard Hickin, is the key to Jacob’s Creek
success.
“People who have grown up
with Jacob’s Creek will like to try
wines outside of Jacob’s Creek.
They’ll want to try wines of the
world, but what we want to do is
say: ‘Hey, we’ve got a brand there
that you can rely on, a brand that
delivers consistent quality and value
that you can come back to.’”
On the vine: wine for the
international market
approximately [E(prQksImEtli]
brand [brÄnd]
case of wine [)keIs Ev (waIn]
cater to sth. [(keItE tE]
ever [(evE]
hefty price tag
[)hefti (praIs )tÄg] ifml.
hock [hQk]
recruit [ri(kru:t]
rise to: ~ a challenge [(raIz tE]
signature wine [(sIgnEtSE waIn]
spicy [(spaIsi]
stalwart [(stO:lwEt]
take over [teIk (EUvE]
ungefähr
Marke
Weinkiste
auf etw. ausrichten
hier: ganz der/die
happige, saftige Preise
(trockener) weißer Rheinwein
anwerben; hier: einladen
sich einer Herausforderung
stellen
Autorenwein
scharf, würzig
getreue(r) Anhänger(in)
übernehmen
3|14 Spotlight
23

BUSINESS | Mobility
Look who’s
Deutsche Bauunternehmer
und Handwerker werden ermutigt,
nach Großbritannien
zu ziehen und am Häuser-
Boom teilzuhaben.
RUPERT NEATE berichtet.
In an office block in
Nuremberg, southern
Germany, Bavarian
builders and tradespeople
are being lectured on the
“huge importance” of tea
breaks to British brickies,
on the difficulty of interpreting
British understatement
and on how to work with
“crazy” UK health and safety laws.
This is one of a series of confe -
rences being held across the country
to persuade German builders, carpenters,
window makers, plumbers and
electricians to move to Britain to exploit
its “phenomenal housing
boom”.
Ewald Gilbert Denzler, export
manager of Bayern Handwerk International
— the trade association of
853,000 Bavarians — said he decided
to hold the conference after reading
about the extreme lack of homes in
Britain and the Help to Buy and
24 Spotlight 3|14
building Britain
Green Deal schemes introduced by
the government to push the construction
of energy-efficient housing.
“There is something quite big
going on in the UK ... and German
builders with their training and expertise
are well placed to exploit the
opportunity,” Denzler said. He was
heading a series of talks designed to
introduce Bavarian builders to the
British building industry, including a
lecture on “teatime” and other cultural
differences.
Denzler said requests for information
from tradesmen wanting to
ambitious [Äm(bISEs]
brickie [(brIki] UK ifml.
carpenter [(kA:pEntE]
expertise [)eksp§:(ti:z]
exploit sth. [Ik(splOIt]
Green Deal scheme [gri:n (di:&l ski:m] UK
Help to Buy scheme [)help tE (baI ski:m] UK
plumber [(plVmE]
trade association [(treId EsEUsi)eIS&n]
tradespeople [(treIdz)pi:p&l]
upfront cost [Vp)frVnt (kQst]
move into the British market had
more than doubled in the past five
years, but there are no official records
of the number of German building
workers — nor companies — who
have moved to Britain.
German building firms are particularly
attracted by the Green Deal
initiative, which the UK government
describes as “the most ambitious
home-improvement programme
since the Second World War”. The
scheme allows households to pay for
improvements in energy efficiency
with no upfront cost.
ehrgeizig, anspruchsvoll
Maurer
Zimmermann
Kompetenz, Fachkenntnis
etw. (aus)nutzen
staatliche Darlehen für Hausbesitzer für
Energiesparmaßnahmen an bestehenden
Häusern bzw. für energiesparende
Bauweise bei Neubauten
staatliches Unterstützungsprogramm
zum Hauskauf für Privatpersonen
Installateur
Handwerkskammer
Handwerker
Vorlaufkosten
Fotos: Alamy

Rainer Wolf,
the director of the
Handwerkskammer
für Mittelfranken
(the
Chamber of Commerce
for Skilled
Crafts in Middle Franconia — Nuremberg and the surrounding
area), said: “We are one step ahead of the UK
on the road to environmental energy. Germany plans to
make all buildings carbon-neutral by 2050. We have more
experience, and exporting our energy-efficiency experience
is going to become big business for Germany.”
Most of the firms at the Nuremberg conference are
Mittelstand — small- and medium-sized companies —
that are focusing on energy-efficient construction. Joachim
Russ is sales manager of Haga, a 400-employee facadeand-window
company based in Nuremberg. He said: “We
have a lot of competition in Germany for energy-efficient
construction; there is less competition in the UK, and we
could make a lot of money.”
Russ added that Britain had a “very long way to go” to
reach the standards of German window technology. There,
“triple glazing is common, and no one would think of having
single glazing as in so many British homes”.
Windows are important to people in southern Germany,
where daytime winter temperatures are typically
around 3 °C and often fall to well below zero. When
Chancellor Angela Merkel was asked what defined Germany
for her, she replied: “Airtight windows. No other
country can build such airtight and beautiful windows.”
Roman Zubiks, a technical draughtsman at the
Schindler Roding window company, has already worked
on a project in London’s St James’s Park. He said that he
wanted his company to employ a permanent team in London,
because “it’s much more fun than Bavaria” and will
save money spent on hiring local contractors.
Margit Kachler, head of exports for the underfloorheating
company IVT, said she was “really excited” about
the energy-efficiency subsidies on offer, which could be
“really good for us”. But she’s not keen to head a UK office
for her company, because “London is far too expensive”.
Markus Seifermann, a German architect working in London
who lectured the group on the differences between
acting [(ÄktIN]
hier: amtierend
airtight [(eEtaIt]
luftundurchlässig, dicht
carbon-neutral [)kA:bEn (nju:trEl]
CO 2 -neutral
contractor [kEn(trÄktE] Bauunternehmer (➝ p. 61)
German Confederation of Skilled Crafts Zentralverband des
[)dZ§:mEn kEnfedE)reIS&n Ev skIld (krA:fts] Deutschen Handwerks
literally [(lIt&rEli]
wörtlich
subsidy [(sVbsEdi]
Fördermittel
technical draughtsman [)teknIk&l (drA:ftsmEn] technische(r) Zeichner(in)
triple glazing [)trip&l (gleIzIN]
Dreifachverglasung
working in Germany and the
UK, said Britain was attractive
because “obviously at the
moment, there is a big opportunity”.
And, he added: “The
atmosphere is a lot more
friendly and more relaxed.”
Seifermann, whose company UberRaum was given the
job of renovating the German embassy in Belgrave Square,
said one of the biggest challenges for Germans in Britain
was understanding British understatement: “Brits say there
is ‘a little bit of an issue’ here, which the Germans may
take literally, when it’s actually
a big problem.”
The initiative to encourage
Germany’s craftsmen,
who study for at least
five years to gain mastercraftsman
certification, is
supported by Rudolf
Adam, acting German ambassador
to the UK, who
has privately complained
of the difficulty of finding
highly skilled tradespeople
in London. “More cooperation
between British and
German craftsmen is welcome.
Building closer ties
between young skilled
workers would be of benefit
to both our countries,”
he said.
Adam is also understood
to be keen to encourage
British tradespeople to
study for German mastercraftsman
qualifications.
Inside the
German embassy
in London
Time for new windows:
German technology could help
The German Confederation of Skilled Crafts, which has
previously trained Chinese workers in the latest electronics
for cars, is considering similar schemes for Britain.
“We had a project with China, where Chinese students
were trained at university and in the workplace for a year
and then went back to China,” Wolf said. “That was like
a guarantee never to be unemployed and to be
very well paid for the rest of your life in China
because you’ve got this German degree.”
Wolf said Britons could, of course, join a
similar scheme, but they would have to learn
German first.
© Guardian News
& Media 2013

AMY ARGETSINGER | I Ask Myself
Is it OK to take a
break from the news?
Wenn ein bekennender Nachrichtenjunkie seiner Sucht nicht mehr
frönen kann, hat das manchmal interessante Folgen.
“
I’ve always
been a news
junkie — just not
right now
”
Why don’t you write about the
NSA scandal?” my editor at
Spotlight asked as we brainstormed
topics for this month’s column.
Good question. The revelations
about the National Security Agency’s
mass surveillance programs have been
the big story in Washington lately.
But how can I write something about
the NSA, when I’ve barely read anything
about it lately?
A few months ago, I had a baby.
As you might expect, this has temporarily
taken me away from my job
as a newspaper journalist. What I
didn’t expect was
that it would take
me away from news
altogether.
I’ve always been
a news junkie. As a
child, my mornings
began by reading
the newspaper from
beginning to end.
When I first got a
newspaper job, in
the early 1990s, I
was in love with my
access to 24/7 news
via wire services like Associated Press.
Even on weekends, I would look into
these databases just to see what was
going on. Later, when my most recent
job required a broad knowledge
of celebrity and political culture
around the world, I decided that it
was important to watch TV news or
listen to radio news in the morning.
I even started reaching for my smartphone
as soon as I woke up, so that I
could read the headlines from a variety
of news sites while I was still in bed.
Although I didn’t intend to go on
a news sabbatical, I recently decided
to break myself of some of these
habits. I removed myself from a few
news groups so that I wouldn’t be
bombarded by unnecessary e-mail. I
also stopped scrolling through the
headlines in the morning so I could
spend those precious moments with
my husband and baby instead.
Still, every morning, my husband
brings me the newspaper before he
leaves for work. And yet somehow, I
don’t get around to reading it. I
haven’t turned on the TV news in
weeks. Theoretically, I should have
time to do this, right? Our baby,
Eliza, sleeps most of the day. And yet,
once I pick her up to change her diaper,
nurse her, and then hold her for
a while, easily an hour has gone by
before I put her back down for another
nap. Then it’s just a matter of
time before she wakes up, and I need
to use that period when she is sleeping
to get dressed or feed myself.
So I’ve missed most of the news
this month. But what exactly have I
missed? As a journalist, I’m troubled
that I can’t say my life is poorer for
the lack of knowledge. If readers felt
the same way, well, no one would buy
our product anymore.
Not keeping up with the news can
be socially awkward in a city like
Washington. I recently went to a
party filled with political operatives.
They were talking about a prominent
lobbyist who might run for Senate,
and for a minute, I feared that my
total ignorance of the news story
would make me look silly. Then I rea -
lized I had the perfect excuse lying
right there in my arms.
“I’ll be honest: I haven’t had a lot
of time to follow the story closely,” I
said to one of the men at the party.
“Tell me, what are his chances?” The
man’s face lit up as he showered me
with his political knowledge. So I
caught up on the day’s big story, and
my new friend was flattered that I
treated him like a political-news authority.
I was quite the social success.
Perhaps, once I go back to reading
the news, I should occasionally make
a point of pretending that I have
not.
24/7 [)twenti fO:r (sev&n] ifml. rund um die Uhr, 7 Tage die Woche
barely [(berli]
kaum
diaper [(daIp&r] N. Am.
Windel
flattered [(flÄt&rd]
geschmeichelt
get around to doing sth. [)get E(raUnd tE] dazu kommen, etw. zu tun
lately [(leItli]
in letzter Zeit
nap [nÄp]
Schläfchen
nurse [n§:s]
stillen
point: make a ~ of doing sth. [pOInt] darauf achten, Wert darauf legen, etw. zu tun
political operative [pE)lItIk&l (A:pErEtIv] politische(r) Mitarbeiter(in)
precious [(preSEs] kostbar (➝ p. 61)
revelation [)revE(leIS&n]
Enthüllung
run for [(rVn f&r]
kandidieren
surveillance [s&r(veIlEns]
Überwachung
wire service [(waI&r )s§:vEs] N. Am.
Presseagentur
Amy Argetsinger is a co-author of “The Reliable Source,” a column in The Washington Post about personalities.
Foto: Creatas
26
Spotlight 3|14

Gut für
den Kopf!
Besser mit Sprachen. Land und Leute
verstehen – und nebenbei die Sprache
lernen. Jeden Monat neu.
4
Ausgaben
zum Preis
von 3!*
Bestellen Sie jetzt Ihr Lieblingsmagazin!
www.spotlight-verlag.de/4fuer3 +49 (0)89/8 56 81-16
* Kennenlern-Angebot für Neu-Abonnenten: 4 Ausgaben eines Magazins Ihrer Wahl zum Preis von 3
(€ 18,60 / SFR 27,90 – Business Spotlight € 34,50 / SFR 51,75).

TRAVEL | Canada

Getting fit
in Alberta
Kanada hat weite Strecken unberührter Natur, die sich ganz
vorzüglich für einen Fitnessurlaub eignen. RITA FORBES
berichtet über eine Reise, die Körper und Seele anspricht.
Have you ever heard the call of the
wild — that magnetic attraction to
places where civilization has yet to
leave its mark? I felt this in a powerful way
when I visited Canada’s west not long ago
for a winter adventure (see Spotlight
12/12). Since then, the mountains of
Alberta haven’t been far from my mind —
or my heart — and now, I’m back.
I’m here with a group of women looking
to get fit in one of the most beautiful
places in the world. We’ll get our heart
rates up with structured workouts, yoga
and a variety of outdoor activities. Along
the way, we’ll explore rivers, mountains
and lakes that have long attracted adventurers.
Jasper is the perfect place to begin
the journey. The little town of 5,000 people
is located inside Jasper National Park
in the Canadian Rocky Mountains.
Mountain
panoramas
and wildlife,
such as elk
Easy start: stretching outdoors
heart rate [(hA:t reIt]
natural gas [)nÄtS&rEl (gÄs]
unemployment rate
[)VnIm(plOImEnt reIt]
Herzfrequenz
Erdgas
Arbeitslosenquote
A CLOSER LOOK
Alberta, one of Canada’s ten provinces, lies between British
Columbia and Saskatchewan. With an area of 650,000 square
kilometres, Alberta is a little larger than France, but has
fewer than four million people. Its natural resources include
oil, minerals and natural gas. Alberta has one of the
lowest unemployment rates in the country and has seen
a lot of immigration in recent years from Canada’s other
provinces, as well as from China, the Philippines and India.
3|14 Spotlight
Fotos: Mauritius; H. Bauer/Sigma
29

TRAVEL | Canada
Morning workout:
near beautiful
Whistler’s Mountain
We start our first day with an early-morning
aerobic workout in the great outdoors. Whistler’s
Mountain watches over us, as an enthusiastic
personal trainer pushes us to get our bodies moving.
Cardio training at six in the morning is the
best cure for jet lag that I’ve ever experienced.
After a quick shower and a good breakfast,
we’re wide awake and ready for our first adventure: whitewater
rafting on the Sunwapta River. During the 45-
minute drive to our starting point near the Columbia
Icefield, our guides describe the area and answer our questions.
They tell us the river is high, and that we’ll experience
some very wild water — including rapids that are
rated class III, or difficult, on an international scale.
approach [E(prEUtS]
buffalo berry [(bVfElEU )beri]
churning [(tS§:nIN]
class [klA:s]
drop [drQp]
float [flEUt]
furiously [(fjUEriEsli]
great outdoors [)greIt aUt(dO:z]
keep up with sb. [ki:p (Vp wID]
park warden [(pA:k )wO:d&n]
raft [rA:ft]
range [reIndZ]
rapid [(rÄpId]
rate [reIt]
soaked [sEUkt]
suck one’s thumb [)sVk wVnz (TVm]
tricky [(trIki]
white-water rafting
[(waIt )wO:tE )rA:ftIN]
sich nähern
Kanadische Büffelbeere
schäumend
Kategorie
Abhang
treiben
wie wild
freie Natur
mit jmdm. mithalten
Parkwächter(in)
Floß;
hier: großes Schlauchboot
hier: Gebirgskette
Stromschnelle
einstufen
durchnässt
am Daumen lutschen
schwierig
Wildwasser-Schlauchboot-
Tour
The water is calm at first. I
enjoy the view of the mountains
rising on both sides of
the river as we float along.
British Columbia, Canada’s
westernmost province, is just
over the range on our left. I
am soon able to see why the Stoney Indians chose the
name “Sunwapta”, meaning “turbulent waters”, for the
river. Following our guide’s shouted instructions, we paddle
furiously, leaning in and out to navigate around rocks
and tree branches. I’m sharing a raft with a group of muscular
Canadian men, and I really want to keep up with
them. When my arms start to hurt, I paddle even harder.
As we approach a tricky bit of water, I hear one of the guys
say, “I just want to sit in the middle of the raft and suck
my thumb.” We’re laughing out loud as we get completely
soaked by the churning water.
Later in the day, we meet Wes Bradford from Jasper
Adventure Centre, who takes us on a tour through Maligne
Canyon. The canyon is full of waterfalls and sharp,
50-metre drops. Bradford worked as a park warden and
wildlife specialist for nearly 40 years before “retiring” to
be a guide. As he leads us through the canyon, he points
out buffalo berries, an important source of food for bears,
Battling the wild waters:
on the Sunwapta River
Fotos: H. Bauer/Sigma; Travel Alberta
30 Spotlight 3|14

Maligne Canyon:
an inspiring setting
as well as wild roses, Alberta’s official flower. From time to
time, he bends down to show us fossils in the limestone.
They are 450 million years old, he tells us. I’m extremely
impressed by this number — and by the dimensions of
the mountains towering above us.
After a satisfying hike around the canyon, Bradford
drives us the 20 kilometres to Medicine Lake. He slows to
a stop, and we see two elk, one on each side of the road.
We get out of the van and quietly walk closer to the big
animals. They are so busy eating grass that they hardly notice
our presence. Once we’ve taken enough photos, we
drive a little further and are thrilled to see a black bear and
her cub. This time, we watch the animals from inside the
van. The baby bear, just a few months old, clowns around
for us, reaching up to test its tiny claws on a tree.
Creative solution: using a wilderness trail as a fitness studio
Bradford tells us that Jasper National Park is home to
between 70 and 90 black bears and 80 to 100 grizzlies.
They spend the summer filling up on berries and other food.
By November, they’ll be settling in for their winter sleep.
In April and May, they wake up and start eating again.
When we get back to town after the tour, I follow the
bears’ example and have a big dinner followed by bed. I
think I’ve earned it.
Terry Olsen, a personal trainer, joins us in the morning.
She used to work for Parks Canada as a fitness instructor
for the park wardens. She leads us on a jog up a
zigzagging path, carrying bear spray at her hip in case of
an emergency. At the top, we discover how the wilderness
can be used as a fitness studio: we use rocks as free weights,
lifting them above our heads, and do chin-ups from a tree
branch.
Left: the rough beauty of Athabasca Falls
Right: Wes Bradford guides visitors through the
parks; author Rita Forbes admires the view
Below: a black bear in the wild
chin-up [(tSIn Vp] N. Am.
claw [klO:]
clown around [klaUn E(raUnd]
cub [kVb]
elk [elk]
fill up on sth. [fIl (Vp Qn]
hike [haIk]
hip [hIp]
jog [dZQg]
limestone [(laImstEUn]
thrilled: be ~ [TrIld]
wilderness [(wIldEnEs]
Klimmzug
Kralle
herumalbern
Junges
Rothirsch, Wapiti
sich an etw. satt (fr)essen
Wanderung
Hüfte
lockerer Lauf
Kalkstein
begeistert sein
Wildnis
3|14 Spotlight
31

TRAVEL | Canada
A few hours later, it’s time to wave goodbye to Jasper
and set off for our next destination: Banff National Park.
The Banff and Jasper parks are adjacent to each other, and
a spectacular road connects them: the famous Icefields
Parkway. This 232-km highway takes us past superb alpine
landscapes. Our driver puts on a CD, and I smile as Bryan
Adams sings “Alberta Bound”: “I’m out here in the middle
of nowhere, somewhere between lost and found...”
We make several stops along the way. One is at the majestic
Athabasca Falls, where mist sprays high into the air.
I lean into it, eyes shut, and feel the light veil of water fall
on my face and hair. Opening my eyes, I’m greeted by
rainbows all around me that look as if they were close
enough to touch.
Further down the road, we walk to Bow Summit and
look down at Peyto Lake. The water is an intensely bright
shade of blue. I’ve never seen anything like it. The colour,
I learn, comes from rock flour, a dust created as glaciers
move across rocky surfaces. The rock flour is so fine that it
floats in the water, and as the sunlight hits it, this unusual
colour meets our eyes. Sometimes it’s the fine details, like
rock flour, that make all
the difference. Ronna
Schneberger, a hiking
guide and yoga instructor,
meets us near Lake Louise
to lead us on a “meditation
walk”. She will teach
us how to become more
aware of nature’s small
things — to “go much
deeper into the postcard
picture”, as she says.
Canoes on Moraine Lake:
an alpine idyll
FAMOUS LAKE LOUISE
The hamlet of Lake Louise (population less than 1,000) is known
for its ski hill and its lake. The place was named after one of
Queen Victoria’s daughters, Princess Louise Caroline Alberta,
who also lent her name to the province of Alberta itself.
Located within Banff National Park, Lake Louise is a popular
tourist destination in summer and winter. A famous highlight
is the Fairmont Chateau, a grand hotel on the lake’s edge that
was built at the start of the 20th century by the Canadian Pacific
Railway.
The first recorded fatal climbing accident in North America
occurred near Lake Louise in 1896. After that, the Canadian Pacific
Railway decided to hire Swiss guides to promote tourism
and to help keep their guests safe. From 1899 to 1954, these
alpine experts led thousands of people on tours of the Canadian
Rockies. The Swiss influence is still evident in the area
today, in everything from architecture to food.
Glacier stop:
along Icefields
Parkway
“When we
take the time
to tune in to
our senses and
really see, to
slow the mind
down and be quiet, it allows us to see in a new way,” she
explains. “People see the colours, the detail, the big picture.
And they see inside themselves, too. It’s as if they could
take what they’re seeing and absorb it inside of themselves,
experiencing it on a completely different level.”
The idea of the walk is to go along quietly, remaining
present in the moment and paying attention to our senses.
To help us focus, Schneberger suggests that we choose
something ahead of us, like a flower or tree, and “smile at
it with our minds” as we walk towards it.
Walking silently along the edge of the lake, I see mist
around the tops of the mountains and notice how this
beautiful landscape is reflected in the water. After about
an hour, I feel relaxed in a way that is very new to me.
Thankful for her calm instruction, we say goodbye to
Schneberger and drive on to our next stop, Moraine Lake,
one of the most photographed places in Canada. A picture
of the lake was shown on the Canadian twenty-dollar bill
printed in the 1960s and 70s, so this is now known as the
“twenty-dollar view”. A sign on the walking trail above the
lake asks, “What do you see that inspires you?” Looking
adjacent [E(dZeIs&nt]
bill [bIl] N. Am.
fatal [(feIt&l]
glacier [(glÄsiE]
hamlet [(hÄmlEt]
mist [mIst]
rock flour [(rQk )flaUE]
set off for... [set (Qf fE]
surface [(s§:fIs]
tune in to sth. [tju:n (In tE]
veil [veI&l]
walking trail [(wO:kIN treI&l]
angrenzend
hier: (Geld)Schein
tödlich
Gletscher
kleine Ortschaft
Sprühnebel
(geol.) Steinmehl, Gesteinsmehl
nach ... aufbrechen
Oberfläche
sich auf etw. einstimmen
Schleier
Wanderpfad
Finding balance: a stretch with a view on Lake Louise
32
Spotlight 3|14

Enjoying the
meditation walk
Fotos: H. Bauer/Sigma; R. Forbes; Karte: Nic Murphy
closely at the world around me, I see little ripples in the
bright blue water of the lake below. Spots of light-green
lichen brighten the boulders by the path, and tiny pine
cones can be seen on the evergreen trees.
The next day, we travel on to our final stop: the town
of Banff. After renting bicycles, we ride to the base of Sulphur
Mountain and then follow an easy trail to Sundance
Canyon. The Bow River flows parallel to the path, and it’s
a glorious day. After a picnic lunch, we stop at a gift shop
in Banff. I choose a card with a First Nations design representing
a black bear.
Our time in the Rockies is almost over. Ronna
Schneberger meets us once more, this time, for an outdoor
yoga session. On a plateau with views of Mount Rundle,
Tunnel Mountain and Cascade Mountain, she asks us to
take off our shoes and socks. She wants us to have as much
IF YOU GO...
Getting there and around
Fly to either Calgary or Edmonton and rent a car.
Where to stay
There are plenty of hotels for a wide range of budgets in
the towns of Jasper and Banff, as well as in the resort
area of Lake Louise.
The Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge offers luxury accommodation
from about C$ 240 (€162); tel. (001) 866-540
4454. www.fairmont.com/jasper
At Lake Louise, Deer Lodge is recommended. Rooms
from C$ 114; tel. (001) 403-522 3747. www.crmr.com
Activities
White-water rafting: Rocky Mountain River Guides,
Jasper; tel. (001) 780-852 3777. www.jasperrafting.com
Jasper Adventure Centre offers a variety of wildlife and
nature tours; tel. (001) 780-852 5595.
www.jasperadventurecentre.com
Yoga classes and other workouts in Jasper: River Stone
Yoga Studio; tel. (001) 780-931 9642.
www.riverstoneyogajasper.ca
Ronna Schneberger offers fantastic yoga experiences in
the area around Banff; tel. (001) 403-678 0101.
www.ecoyoga.ca
contact with the earth as possible. “Breathe out, and notice
where your breath goes,” she says. “We share breath with
the trees — as we breathe in, the trees breathe out.”
Resting in the downward dog pose, I see the hoofprint
of an elk in the grass below me. I feel grounded, rooted in
the earth. The wind blows through my hair. As I breathe
out, I feel my breath
merge with the
breeze. I’ve come
from halfway round
the world, and I’ll
be leaving again all
too soon. But for
now, I am part of
this strong, wild, inspiring
place.
Connected to nature:
yoga in the grass
boulder [(bEUldE]
downward dog pose
[)daUnwEd (dQg pEUz]
evergreen [(evEgri:n]
First Nations [)f§:st (neIS&nz]
hoofprint [(hu:fprInt]
lichen [(laIkEn]
merge [m§:dZ]
pine cone [(paIn kEUn]
ripple [(rIp&l]
Rodeo extravaganza
The Calgary Stampede, to be held this year from 4 to 13
July, is one of the largest rodeos in the world. For more
information, see www.calgarystampede.com
More information
See www.travelalberta.de
DERTOUR offers a nine-day fitness holiday called “Alberta
für Körper und Seele”. See the “DERTOUR USA Kanada
Sommer 2014” catalogue, available from 1 May.
0
N
Jasper
National
Park
Jasper
Athabasca Falls
Sunwapta River
Peyto Lake
Maligne
Canyon
Canadian Rocky Mountains
100 km
Felsbrocken
(Yogahaltung) der
herabschauende Hund
immergrün
indianische Ureinwohner Kanadas
Hufabdruck
Flechte
eins werden
Kiefernzapfen
Kräuselung, kleine Welle
16
Moraine Lake
British
Columbia
Alberta
Saskatchewan
USA
Medicine
Lake
Icefields Parkway
Columbia Icefield
Bow River
Lake Louise
Banff
Banff
National
Park
Edmonton
Canada
Calgary
1

PETER FLYNN | Around Oz
Goodbye to local brands
Die lokale Autoproduktion in Australien wird über die
nächsten Jahre eingestellt. Der Grund hierfür liegt bei den
viel zu hohen Produktionskosten.
The recent release of sales figures
for cars in 2013 confirms the
death of the automobile manufacturing
industry in Australia.
Ford and Holden (a subsidiary of
General Motors in Michigan) have
already announced that they will stop
making cars in Australia within two
to three years. The pre-Christmas
news from Holden may have been
terrible for its 2,500 employees in
Adelaide, but it was also sad for many
older Australians, who have a long,
sentimental bond with this brand.
Since production began with
great fanfare in 1948, Holden has
been seen as a symbol of our country’s
manufacturing independence and design
skill. In Australian motor sport,
there has been a 50-year rivalry between
Holden and Ford. The latter is
also the sponsor of the highly successful
Geelong Football Club in the national
competition.
Indeed, Ford’s manufacturing
plant in Geelong, dating back to
1925, and the football team were sy -
nonymous — even down to the
royal-blue and white colours shared
by the company and the team.
In motor sports, both Holden and
Ford are committed to the local V8
Supercar series for only a couple more
years. As with brand
loyalty in
car sales, Australian motor enthusiasts
were equally passionate about
their support for the two companies.
The cold, hard facts, though, are
that the average Australian does not
particularly like buying any of the
cars made here. The third player in
this market, Toyota, is not performing
any better and is not expected to
continue for more than a few years.
While Toyota’s small-to-mediumsized
Corolla was 2013’s top-selling
car in Australia, that particular model
is imported wholly from Japan.
The next three most popular cars,
the Mazda 3, Toyota Hilux and
Hyundai i30, are made in Japan, Thailand
and South Korea respectively.
Best-performing of locally made cars
was Holden’s flagship model, the
Commodore, at number five.
However, all locally built cars
have been in drastic sales decline for
the past ten years, with annual falls
in figures ranging from 5 to 25 per
cent. Today, Australian-made Fords,
Holdens and Toyotas make up less
than 10 per cent
of the 1.2 million bond [bQnd]
new cars sold annually
in this
corpse [kO:ps]
country. That’s
half their market
share of just 10
years ago.
parent company
“
bottom line [)bQtEm (laIn] ifml.
component [kEm(pEUnEnt]
Australia’s
three local
carmakers are
in the red
”
fanfare: with great ~ [(fÄnfeE]
flagship model [(flÄgSIp )mQd&l]
in the red: be ~ [In DE (red]
leidenschaftlich, begeistert
hier: Fabrik, Anlage
vor-
finanziell unterstützen
beziehungsweise
Absatzrückgang
Tochterunternehmen
Steuermittel
[(peErEnt )kVmpEni]
passionate [(pÄS&nEt]
plant [plA:nt]
pre- [pri:]
prop up [prQp (Vp]
respectively [ri(spektIvli]
sales decline [(seI&lz di)klaIn]
subsidiary [sEb(sIdiEri]
taxpayer subsidies
[)tÄkspeIE (sVbsEdiz]
Worse still, the industry has been
propped up by taxpayer subsidies,
which have avera ged A$ 550 million
(€360 million) per annum for the past
five years. That’s about A$ 50,000 annually
for every job involved in the
direct manufacture of a car.
High costs for labour and local
components are blamed for many of
the industry’s troubles. It is estimated
that the Australian cost structure is
double that of car manufacturing in
Europe and the US, and four times as
expensive as in Asia. The bottom line
is that the three local carmakers are
about A$ 3,500 in the red for every
car they produce.
The maths are clear. When the
new government said it would not increase
industry support, the American
and Japanese parent companies
walked out, effectively leaving Australia’s
car industry as a corpse, just
waiting to be buried.
Bindung
Resultat
Werkstück, Zubehörteil
Leiche
mit großem Tamtam
Vorzeigemodell
rote Zahlen schreiben
Mutterkonzern
Peter Flynn is a public-relations consultant and social commentator
who lives in Perth, Western Australia.
Foto: Alamy
34
Spotlight 3|14

GET STARTED NOW!
Spotlight’s easy-English
booklet
Green Light
3 2014
ENGLISCH LEICHT GEMACHT!
Learn
words for
vegetables
Culture
Read all
about
John Deere
Find out
how to write a
business
memo
Einfaches Englisch
für Alltagssituationen
Green Light

DEBATE | United States
Bringing the war home
Die Folgen eines Kriegseinsatzes für den einzelnen Soldaten reichen von körperlichen bis zu
seelischen Verletzungen. Doch wie weit reichen die Folgen für die Gesellschaft?
An American teenager
of treating these injured veterans
has been calculated at
joins the military
because he is proud
more than $1 trillion.
of his country. He is deployed
to Iraq, where he
leave veterans at a high risk
Such serious injuries
steps on a mine and loses a
of experiencing a range of
leg. He returns home, but
social and psychological
doesn’t get the help he
problems — among them,
needs to cope with his injuries.
He becomes one of
employment, homelessness,
depression, alcoholism, un-
the hundreds of thousands
crime, and suicide. In fact,
of veterans in the US who
the suicide rate among veterans
is three times the na-
end up homeless, in prison,
or dead, as a result of going
tional average. At least 22
to war.
US veterans take their own
The wars in Iraq and
lives every day.
Afghanistan have left the US
The US government provides
financial benefits to in-
struggling to provide for the
needs of growing numbers
jured veterans through the
of injured veterans who seek
United States Department
treatment for physical and
of Veterans Affairs (VA).
The cost of war: a young veteran from the conflict in Iraq
mental injuries. Since 2001,
The VA is the government’s
more than 2.6 million Americans, mostly aged 18 to 32, second-largest department and has requested a budget of
have gone to war overseas. More than a third have been more than $150 billion for 2014. The VA gives veterans
deployed more than once, with around 40,000 serving up money to help with everything from rehabilitation to education.
It also provides free and low-cost health care
to five times.
The wars following 9/11 have produced more disability through hundreds of medical services across the country.
claims per US veteran than the conflicts in Vietnam, or However, many veterans say the government, and
Korea, or in World War II. That’s because today’s soldiers specifically the VA, is not doing enough. The Iraq and
are more likely than veterans from older generations to Afghanistan Veterans of America organization represents
apply for benefits, to be deployed more than once and, more than 200,000 of them. It says that almost half a million
veterans have been waiting more than a year for their
thanks to medical advances, to survive serious injuries.
It has been estimated that one in five veterans of the benefits. While they wait, their mental and physical health
“War on Terror” is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder,
while nearly 270,000 have a traumatic brain injury. enough to receive the benefits they were promised. They
continues to get worse. Many of them won’t survive long
In addition, almost 2,000 of these veterans have had amputations,
some losing more than one limb. The total cost country that they risked their lives to
will die from their injuries, not in a war zone, but in the
protect.
apply for sth. [E(plaI f&r]
benefit [(benIfIt]
billion [(bIljEn]
deploy [di(plOI]
disability claim
[)dIsE(bIlEti kleIm]
health care [(helT ke&r]
homeless [(hoUmlEs]
etw. beantragen
hier: Sozialhilfe
Milliarde(n)
einsetzen
Invaliditätsanspruch
Gesundheitsfürsorge
obdachlos
likely: be ~ to do sth. [(laIkli]
limb [lIm]
medical advances
[)medIk&l Ed(vÄnsIz]
mental [(ment&l]
post-traumatic stress disorder
[)poUst trO:)mÄtIk (stres dIs)O:rd&r]
trillion [(trIljEn]
etw. wahrscheinlich tun
Körperglied
medizinischer Fortschritt
psychisch
posttraumatische
Belastungsstörung
Billion(en)
Fotos: N. Berman/Noor/laif; T. Linehan
36 Spotlight 3|14

Listen to Lemont, Paige, Akram, and Rosalie
Talitha Linehan asked people in Los Angeles, California:
Should the government be doing more for veterans?
Lemont Yeakey, 52,
teacher
Paige Adams, 20,
student
Akram Awad, 47,
lawyer
Rosalie Rodriguez, 49,
retired
Jonathan Morales, 34,
nurse
Robyn Reagan, 52,
unemployed
Kurt Graf, 53,
sales representative
Kacey Gonzalez, 18,
student
accountable: be ~ for sth.
[E(kaUntEb&l]
allocation of resources
[ÄlE)keIS&n Ev (ri:sO:rsIz]
exploit [Ik(splOIt]
für etw. Verantwortung
übernehmen
Mittelgewährung
ausbeuten
nearly: not ~ [(nIrli]
resort [ri(zO:rt]
sales representative
[)seI&lz repri(zentEtIv]
take care of sb. [)teIk (ke&r Ev]
bei weitem nicht, nicht annähernd
Zuflucht, Rückgriff
Vertriebsbeauftragte(r)
sich um jmdn. kümmern
3|14 Spotlight
37

HISTORY | 30 Years Ago
The
miners’
strike
In Sheffield,
the miners look
for support
Vor dreißig Jahren spaltete ein Streik der
Bergarbeiter die britische Gesellschaft so tief,
dass er bis heute seine Spuren hinterlassen
hat. MIKE PILEWSKI berichtet.
Should the government own a country’s key industries?
This was the question that defined Margaret
Thatcher’s time as prime minister of Britain — and
her answer was a clear “no”. After privatizing the country’s
state-owned telecommunications monopoly, British Telecom,
in 1982, she focused her attention on the coal industry
Britain had nationalized in 1947.
Closing 20 unprofitable coalmines would save the UK
£2 billion a year in subsidies, but it would leave 20,000 or
more miners in Scotland, Wales, northern England and
Kent without jobs. Represented by one of the most powerful
trade unions in Britain, the miners fought to stay employed,
while Thatcher refused to compromise. The
12-month miners’ strike that began 30 years ago this
month, in March 1984, was a long and bitter confrontation
that changed the face of Britain.
The country had already seen plenty of change up to that
point. The Second World War had left the UK bankrupt,
with nothing it could export in exchange for foreign capital.
38 Spotlight 3|14
In Britain, it’s the end
of the day for mining
Partly for ideological reasons, partly out of necessity, the
Labour government of Clement Attlee brought the country’s
railways, coalmines, road and river transport and electric-power
generation under state control and established
the National Health Service (see Spotlight 9/13).
A $3.75 billion loan from the United States and aid
from the Marshall Plan helped Britain to get back slowly
on its feet. As the UK imported goods during the 1950s,
the value of the pound went down. This caused inflation
to rise faster than wages in many of the state-run industries.
Strikes were the result.
Striking workers were not productive, however, and
productivity was the key to increased exports, a highervalued
pound and better economic times.
In the 1960s and 70s, strikes that went on for months
were a common occurrence. The Post Office, the ferries,
the steel industry and car manufacturers were all affected.
A coalminers’ strike in the winter of 1973–74 — during
the Arab oil embargo — crippled the transport, power and
other industries that depended on coal. Factories were reduced
to a three-day production week, and the lights in
homes sometimes went out, while the country worried
that its coal would run out. By not agreeing to the miners’
demands, the Conservative government of Edward Heath
was voted out of office. The incoming Labour government
ended that strike, but was powerless to prevent others as
inflation continued.
affect [E(fekt]
bankrupt [(bÄNkrVpt]
billion [(bIljEn]
cripple [(krIp&l]
goods [gUdz]
National Health Service (NHS)
[)nÄS&nEl (helT )s§:vIs] UK
nationalize [(nÄS&nElaIz]
run out [rVn (aUt]
subsidy [(sVbsEdi]
trade union
[treId (ju:niEn]
vote out of office
[vEUt )aUt Ev (QfIs]
wage [weIdZ]
in Mitleidenschaft ziehen
bankrott
Milliarde(n)
lähmen
Waren, Güter
staatlicher Gesundheitsdienst
verstaatlichen
ausgehen, sich dem Ende neigen
Subvention
Gewerkschaft
abwählen
Lohn
Fotos: Alamy

When they returned to government in 1979, the Conservatives,
now led by Thatcher, decided that the unions
had too much power and needed to be stopped once and
for all. New laws made sympathy strikes and boycotts illegal,
while further steps were taken to end arrangements
under which certain industries hired only union members.
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) remained
one of the most powerful political forces in Britain, however.
When Thatcher’s government announced that it was
going to close 20 of Britain’s 170 mines, there was no question
that a confrontation would occur.
On 5 March 1984, miners at the Cortonwood
coalmine in Yorkshire protested against the planned closure.
Within a week, 100,000 miners — more than half
of those employed around the country — had either
joined them or had not crossed picket lines to go to work.
NUM leader Arthur Scargill, however, made a major
strategic error by refusing to have a vote on whether to go
on strike. Some mines remained open; others were not
quite closed. Miners choosing not to take part in the strike
got into violent clashes with other miners as they tried to
go to work, as well as with the thousands of police who
had been sent out to maintain order. One particular day
in May saw an all-day battle between 5,000 miners and
5,000 police at the Orgreave coking plant in Yorkshire.
Bricks and stones were thrown, hitting people on the head.
At one point, mounted police charged into a crowd of
striking miners.
“We’ve had riot shields. We’ve had riot gear. We’ve had
police on horseback charging into our people. We’ve had
people hit with truncheons and people kicked to the
ground. The intimidation and the brutality that have been
displayed are something reminiscent of a Latin American
state,” Scargill said.
By July, the strike was in its 19th week. Thatcher considered
declaring a state of emergency and sending in the
military. Speaking to a committee of Conservative backbenchers,
she drew a comparison between the war Britain
had fought two years earlier to take back the Falkland Islands
from Argentina and the war she was fighting against
the striking miners. “We had to fight the enemy without
in the Falklands,” she said. “We always have to be aware
of the enemy within, which is much more difficult to fight
and more dangerous to liberty.”
The strike continued into the autumn and winter, with
neither side willing to compromise.
Remembering that striking workers had brought down
the two previous governments, Thatcher’s energy secretary
had done something before the strike which his predecessors
had not thought of doing: he had stockpiled massive
amounts of coal to feed the country’s power stations. In
the ten years since the 1974 strike, Britain had also been
moving away from coal as an energy source, replacing it
with natural gas. Overall, therefore, the strike was less
threatening to the average Briton, who simply grew tired
of it. Slowly, the pickets began to return to work, and in
March 1985, the strike was formally ended.
The 12 months of the miners’ strike left a deep wound
in the coalmining regions of Britain, which had been so
important in earlier industrial times. Further mine closures
came in 1992, effectively ending the coal industry. Today,
only three coal mines remain active in Britain, employing
3,000 workers.
Thatcher’s programme of privatization continued, as
two-thirds of Britain’s state-owned industries, from electricity
to the railways, were sold off. Although Thatcher is
remembered as a polarizing figure, her policies are still followed
to some degree by both major parties.
At Orgreave, mounted police are ready
backbencher
[)bÄk(bentSE] UK
brick [brIk]
charge into sth. [(tSA:dZ )Intu]
clash [klÄS]
coking plant [(kEUkIN plA:nt]
energy secretary
[(enEdZi )sekrEtEri] UK
intimidation [In)tImI(deIS&n]
liberty [(lIbEti]
maintain order
[meIn)teIn (O:dE]
mounted police [)maUntId pE(li:s]
natural gas [)nÄtS&rEl (gÄs]
once and for all [)wVns End fE (O:l]
(einfache(r)) Abgeordnete(r)
im britischen Unterhaus
Ziegelstein
in etw. hineinstürmen
Zusammenstoß
Kokerei
Energieminister(in)
Einschüchterung
Freiheit
Ordnung aufrechterhalten
berittene Polizei
Erdgas
ein für alle Mal
picket [(pIkIt]
picket line [(pIkIt laIn]
predecessor [(pri:dIsesE]
reminiscent: be ~ of sth.
[)remI(nIs&nt]
riot gear [(raIEt gIE]
riot shield [(raIEt Si:&ld]
Streikposten
Streikpostenkette
Vorgänger(in)
an etw. erinnern
Schutzausrüstung (der Polizei)
Schutzschild, Einsatzschild
(der Polizei)
ausverkaufen, verscherbeln
Vorräte anlegen
Solidaritätsstreik
sell off [sel (Qf]
stockpile [(stQkpaI&l]
sympathy strike
[(sImpETi )straIk]
truncheon [(trVntSEn] UK Schlagstock
without / within hier: im Ausland /
[wID(aUt / wID(In]
im eigenen Land
3|14 Spotlight
39

PRESS GALLERY | Comment
The problem of
electronic waste
Elektrogeräte haben eine immer kürzere Lebensspanne, womit immer mehr elektronischer Müll
anfällt. Die akkurate Entsorgung dieses Sondermülls ist jedoch problematisch.
Processing old
electronics in
Guiyu, China, the
world’s largest
e-waste site
Record sales of tablets, laptops and smart phones.
Ever smaller computers, and thinner televisions,
brighter screens and sharper cameras. What could
possibly be wrong with the worldwide explosion in sales
of electrical and digital equipment...?
[T]here is a downside to the revolution that governments
and companies have so far ignored. In the drive to
generate fast turnover and new sales, companies have deliberately
made it impossible to repair their goods and have
shortened the lifespan of equipment.
Hardware is designed not to keep up with software, a
computer’s life is now under two years and mobile phones
are upgraded every few months. Many electronic devices
now have parts that cannot be removed or replaced. ...
The result is that much electronic equipment is impossible
to recycle. As devices are miniaturised, they become
increasingly complex. A single laptop may contain hundreds
of different substances, dozens of metals, plastics and
components which are expensive to dispose of. ... [V]ast
quantities of this dangerous “e-waste” [are] being dumped
on developing countries where it is left to some of the
poorest people to try to extract what they can in dangerous
conditions. ...
From under 10m tonnes of e-waste generated in 2000,
it has now reached nearly 50m tonnes, with every sign that
this will increase by 33% in the next five years. ...
Designing goods so they can be easily recycled is now
critical. Companies must be challenged to rethink the way
they make and source their materials to ensure there is no
waste from start to finish. Gadgets must be reusable and
repairable, and built-in obsolescence discouraged. Companies,
too, must become responsible for the entire life -
cycle of their products, especially when they become
obsolete. ...
© Guardian News & Media 2013
challenge: ~ sb. to do sth.
[(tSÄlIndZ]
dispose of sth. [dI(spEUz Ev]
downside [(daUnsaId]
drive [draIv]
dump [dVmp]
gadget [(gÄdZIt]
jmdn. zu etw. auffordern
etw. entsorgen
Nachteil
hier: Drang
verfrachten, verkippen
Gerät, technische Spielerei
lifespan [(laIfspÄn]
obsolescence [)QbsE(les&ns]
so far [(sEU fA:]
source sth. [sO:s]
turnover [(t§:n)EUvE]
vast [vA:st]
Lebensspanne
Veralterung eines
Gebrauchsgegenstandes
bislang
etw. beschaffen
Umsatz
gewaltig, riesig
Foto: K. Loeffelbein/laif
40 Spotlight 3|14

INFO TO GO
re-
The prefix re- [ri:] comes from Latin. It means “again”,
“back” or “in return”. There are six words in the article
on the opposite page that begin with the prefix re-.
We are told that parts of many electronic devices cannot
be removed (taken out again) or replaced (substituted).
It should be possible to recycle goods (use
again in a different form). Companies ought to
rethink (think about again and in a fresh way) the
things they manufacture, while gadgets should be
reusable and repairable (able to be used again in
their present form and repaired).
Which of the following words beginning with
re- means “get something back for oneself that
has previously been lost, given away or sold”?
a) reclaim
b) readjust
c) reconsider
Answer: a) reclaim
Listen to more news
items in Replay
IN THE HEADLINES The Wall Street Journal
This headline refers to an article about a real-life version
of a Japanese online video game that has become very
popular in the Chinese capital. At more than 120 locations
in Beijing, people are paying to be trapped in rooms from
which they must find their way out. They do this by solving
maths problems, doing word puzzles or answering
questions about science. For the right answers, they are
given clues that help them get to the next room. The
headline suggests the players are like escape artists — magicians,
like Harry Houdini, who specialize in getting out
of locked boxes and other containers. The headline is a
play on words referring to the expression “think outside
the box”, meaning to “think unconventionally”.
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ARTS | What’s New
| Drama
An inspiring story:
Judi Dench as the
hopeful Philomena Lee
Searching for Anthony
The work of British director Stephen Frears deals with
tensions among small groups of people. His films
often feature families — including the British royal
family in The Queen — in difficult situations. Inspired by
real events, Philomena tells the story of an older woman,
Philomena Lee (Judi Dench), who makes the difficult decision
to try to find Anthony, the son who was taken from
her nearly 50 years earlier by the nuns of an Irish convent
where “shamed”, unmarried girls were sent to give birth.
Anthony was given up for adoption. Finding him becomes
a mission for Philomena and journalist Martin Sixsmith
(Steve Coogan), a political commentator who is out
of work and hopes to earn some money with a humaninterest
story. As this strange couple travels from England
to Ireland and on to the US, Sixsmith’s irritation with the
friendly Irish lady turns to admiration. Of course, the rest
of us have been admiring her since the film’s opening shot
of Dench sitting thoughtfully in a small church.
The movie succeeds in keeping sentimentality at a distance
and exploring issues of anger and forgiveness with gentle
humour and great wisdom. It is Dench we must thank
for this heart-warming experience. Starts 27 February.
| Drama
Based on a bestselling novel, The Book Thief starts in
1938, when young Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) is adopted by the Hubermanns
(Geoffrey Rush and Emily
Watson), who live in a small German
town. Passionate about books, Liesel
and her foster-parents defend their belief
in learning and tolerance against a
repressive Nazi regime and hide a
young Jewish man, Max, in their cellar.
Director Brian Percival shows how essential
stories are to human existence
by keeping history alive and memories
sacred. Starts 13 March.
Liesel saves people — and books
| Thriller
Henry Whipple (Dennis Quaid) is a farmer from Iowa. He has
dedicated his life to expanding his family business and preparing
his son Dean (Zac Efron) to follow in his footsteps and take
over the farm one day. Henry’s ambition, though, has its price.
Driven to ever greater success, he makes deals that
will return to haunt him. And the pressure he puts
on his son has alienated young Dean, who plans a
life far away from farms and tractors. Fierce family
conflicts and hints at the corruption of modern
agri-business make for an explosive mix in the film
At Any Price. The New York Times calls it a movie
that “sticks to your ribs and stays in your head”.
Available on DVD from 27 March.
Zac Efron as young Dean
admiration [)ÄdmE(reIS&n]
alienated [(eIliEneItId]
convent [(kQnvEnt]
dedicate [(dedIkeIt]
fierce [fIEs]
foster-parents [(fQstE )peErEnts]
haunt [hO:nt]
Bewunderung
entfremdet
Frauenkloster
widmen
heftig, erbittert
Pflegeeltern
verfolgen, heimsuchen
nun [nVn]
opening shot [)EUpEnIN (SQt]
passionate: be ~ about sth.
[(pÄS&nEt]
sacred [(seIkrId]
stick to sb.’s ribs [)stIk tE (rIbz]
tension [(tenS&n]
Nonne
erste Szene
eine Leidenschaft für etw.
haben
heilig, ehrwürdig
jmdm. unter die Haut gehen
Spannung
Fotos: PR
42 Spotlight 3|14

| Language
| Society
Spotlight is, of course, a magazine
for people who want to improve
their English. But when we
recently discovered the app
Cat Spanish, we were so excited
about its effectiveness that
we decided to share it with you. This language app, developed
by the British memory expert Ed Cooke, could not be simpler.
Words and phrases in Spanish are presented with different images
of cats. The learner listens to each expression and repeats
it, before moving on to the next cat picture. After a series of
words has been presented, the learner is tested with questions
and more images. Cooke’s theories on remembering language
are a combination of science — how the brain encodes words
— and fun elements. “Cat Spanish” is available free from iTunes.
Other languages will be available soon.
Since it was founded in 1934, the British Council has been organizing
educational and cultural programmes around the
world that have to do with Britain. Among its many services is
a series of podcasts with
the title I wanna talk
about... Each listening
segment is between two
and five minutes long
and covers topics as varied
as the Coventry City
football team and losing
weight. Generally, the
material is presented as
a simple monologue.
Each segment comes
Listening to English culture
with a transcript, and if you go to the British Council website
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/talk-about, you’ll
find a preparatory task and exercises for each podcast. Some
interviewees are non-native speakers of English, providing an
extra challenge for learners. “I wanna talk about” is available
from iTunes and on the British Council website.
The purr...fect way to learn the language
| Music
British singer James Blunt’s first major success was
the bestselling 2005 single “You’re Beautiful”, taken
from his equally popular CD Back to Bedlam. Since then,
Blunt’s special variety of soft-rock electronic songs, in
which he typically mixes clear solos with rich, rhythmic
backing vocals, have led to three further CDs. The most recent of these is
Moon Landing, released in late 2013 and now doing well in Britain, the
US and most of Europe. Blunt spent parts of his childhood in Germany,
where his father was stationed with the British Army. Maybe that’s why
he has chosen to promote his new CD with 11 concerts in Germany from
3 to 16 March. For tickets to see (and hear) this icon of contemporary
pop, go to www.jamesblunt.com
Always singing a new song:
James Blunt
backing vocal [(bÄkIN )vEUk&l]
encode [In(kEUd]
Background-Sänger(in)
verschlüsseln
icon [(aIkQn]
promote [prE(mEUt]
Idol
hier: bewerben
Reviews by EVE LUCAS
3|14 Spotlight
43

ARTS | Short Story and Books
Coming home
Ein Mann kehrt nach langer Abwesenheit in sein Heimatdorf zurück. Mit ihm kommt,
nach einem langen Winter, die erste Schwalbe. NIGEL MARSH erzählt.
An early-morning heron rose from the shadows as
Frank climbed over the wooden stile into the next
field. The bird flapped its large wings slowly and
flew in the direction of a church tower in the distance. The
red-brick tower was the only part of Tilbury village that
could be seen from here.
“You will be going to the village pond,” thought Frank
as he watched the heron disappear, “or the lake on the
other side of Harding Woods.” Like the people of Tilbury,
the local herons didn’t travel very far. They were born here,
and they died here, without ever seeing much of the world
in between those two events.
Frank walked straight across the field. Ahead, he could
see the old gate that would bring him out on to the road.
Beneath his old, brown, leather boots, the ground was
mostly soft, but it crunched in those places where the mud
was still frozen.
As the spring sun rose higher, the land around him was
emerging from what he had been told was Britain’s worstever
winter. Beyond these fields, there was still snow on
the higher hills that surrounded the valley, but yesterday’s
biting north wind had gone now and had been replaced
by warmer air flowing in gently from the west.
Once through the gate and on to the road, he stopped
to rest for a moment, putting down his khaki rucksack on
the wall and taking the weight off his bad leg. As the
months went by, it was getting better, but sometimes the
pain made him close his eyes and breathe hard for a few
seconds. Mostly, though, he just ignored it and got on with
the job, did his duty.
He heard a vehicle coming closer from the direction of
the village. As it came round the corner and over the Millstream
bridge, he could see that it was a post van driven
by a young woman. She stopped the van and stared at the
weather-beaten face and sun-bleached hair of the stranger
for a few seconds, a questioning look on her own face, as
though she were trying to remember something. Then she
opened the van window, smiled and called out to Frank,
“Are you all right?”
He nodded. “Yes, fine. Just resting.”
She nodded in return and drove off down the road.
He lifted the heavy rucksack back on to his shoulders
and crossed the bridge, following the road into Tilbury. As
he entered the village, he looked up at the sign hanging
outside the Rising Sun pub. Although the paint had peeled
slightly here and there, the cheerful face of the yellow sun
smiled down on him as it always had.
Across the road from the pub, though, the village shop
was gone. The old building remained, but the shop itself
had become The Village Tea Rooms. He stopped to look
through the window. Inside, a man and a young girl were
cleaning and polishing.
Frank stopped again outside old Mrs Westcott’s cottage,
leaning on the wall of the prettiest garden in the village.
The curtains were different: bright and modern, not
the rose pattern he remembered. On the lawn were a toy
car and a football. And there, a movement of black and
orange, a butterfly and then another one, its twin, coming
out of their winter hideaway.
beyond [bi(jQnd]
crunch [krVntS]
emerge [i(m§:dZ]
flap [flÄp]
heron [(herEn]
hideaway [(haIdE)weI]
oberhalb, jenseits
knirschen
hervorkommen, zum Vorschein kommen
(Flügel) schlagen
Fischreiher
Versteck, Zufluchtsort
pattern [(pÄt&n]
Muster
peel [pi:&l] schälen; hier: abblättern (➝ p. 61)
pond [pQnd]
Weiher
stile [staI&l]
Zaunübertritt
sun-bleached [(sVn bli:tSt] von der Sonne ausgebleicht
weather-beaten [(weDE )bi:t&n] wettergegerbt
Fotos: Ingram Publishing; iStock; PR
44 Spotlight 3|14

Short Story
He carried on down the high street until he reached
Arden Lane. As he took in the two rows of old stone
houses, he felt a mixture of excitement and fear.
The telegraph pole at the far end of the street marked
his destination. Its lines stretched out from the tip, connecting
all the houses to each other and to the whole
world. Frank stopped when he reached the pole and stared
at the quiet house across the road, its curtains still closed
and the faded blue door with the brass knocker waiting
for him to make himself known.
A noise caught his attention, a twitter that made him
look away from the house and up into the sky. Something
moved fast, circling and diving. The little blue-and-cream
Novel
More than 25 years ago, American writer Fannie Flagg wrote
Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Her latest
novel, The All-Girl Filling Station’s Last Reunion,
looks at similar themes of strong female friendships over several
generations. This time, her women are four American sisters
from Wisconsin who earn
their pilots’ licences during
the Second World War, keeping
flags and cargo planes
flying with courage and
good looks. Flagg’s style is
easy to read, but these are
still complex characters at a
turning point in their lives —
and that of their country: a
powerful combination which
Flagg nails with sympathy
and humour. Random
House, ISBN 978-0-7011-
8892-4, €17.20.
feathered bird had elegantly curved wings and a long tail
that split into two: a swallow, back home after the winter.
It had flown up from southern Africa, crossing the Sahara
Desert back into Europe, then north to France, making
its final journey across the Channel in the last day or two.
Resting for a moment, the swallow landed on the telegraph
lines to sing to all who might hear it, a fellow traveller
safely back home, up on the wires, singing a song of
welcome.
Frank raised his hand in greeting to the bird, calling a
soft “Welcome home!” before crossing the road and opening
the little gate. He walked along the path to the door
and raised the knocker for a gentle a-rat-a-tat-tat.
Easy reader
Two people who can’t be apart, but
who can’t quite be together either:
this is the story of Emma and Dexter.
We first meet them as students
on their last day at university in
Edinburgh, both ready to begin a
new life. Each considers for a moment
if the other will be part of
that life, but they say goodbye just
as friends. In this adaptation of
David Nicholls’s bestselling story
One Day, we follow the lives of
Emma and Dexter. On 15 July every
year, the reader discovers where
loves and careers have taken them
and where their paths have crossed. Will they ever become a
couple? And, if they do, will it work? One Day is a modern love
story with an unexpected ending. This easy-reader adaptation
at intermediate level comes with a glossary of difficult words
and an audio CD. Macmillan Reader, ISBN 978-3-197-52958-5,
€ 12.99.
adaptation [)ÄdÄp(teIS&n]
brass knocker [(brA:s )nQkE]
cargo plane [(kA:gEU pleIn]
carry on [)kÄri (Qn]
intermediate level
[)IntE(mi:diEt )lev&l]
nail sth. [neI&l] ifml.
Bearbeitung
Messingtürklopfer
Frachtflugzeug
hier: weitergehen
mittleres Sprachniveau
etw. schaffen
pilot’s licence [(paIlEts )laIs&ns]
split [splIt]
swallow [(swQlEU]
sympathy [(sImpETi]
take in [teIk (In]
telegraph pole [(telIgrA:f pEUl]
twitter [(twItE]
Pilotenschein
hier: sich gabeln
Schwalbe
Mitgefühl
in sich aufnehmen
Telegrafenmast
Zwitschern
Reviews by EVE LUCAS
3|14 Spotlight
45

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LANGUAGE | Vocabulary
Inside an aeroplane
You have probably been on a plane before, but can you describe the things you can find inside
one? ANNA HOCHSIEDER presents language to talk about flying.
7
8
6
9
10
11
4
3
5
12
2
16
13
1
17
15
14
1. aisle [aI&l]
2. galley
3. flight attendant
4. (back) row of seats
5. passenger
6. cabin
7. hand luggage, carry-on luggage
8. overhead locker (N. Am.: overhead compartment/bin)
9. emergency exit
10. cockpit, flight deck
11. co-pilot
12. pilot
13. tray table
14. buckle
15. seat belt
16. oxygen mask
[(QksIdZEn mA:sk]
17. life vest
Fear of flying
Alf:
Bev:
Alf:
Bev:
Alf:
Don’t you want to sit next to the window, Bev?
I’d prefer the aisle seat, if that’s OK. I want to be
able to get to the lavatory quickly if I’m sick.
Well, there’s a sick bag in the seat pocket in front
of you, just in case. But don’t worry. You’ll be fine.
There’s not much legroom, is there? Do you
mind if I put the armrest up? That’ll give us a bit
more room.
Go ahead. You’d better fasten your seat belt. Are
you OK with the buckle? ... Hmm! I’m hungry.
Bev:
Alf:
Bev:
I’m sure they’ll be serving refreshments soon.
It’s a nine-hour flight, so they’ll have to give us
more than just a snack.
I won’t be able to eat a thing anyway. I wish I
could just sleep through the whole flight.
Voice: Good afternoon, and welcome on board our
flight BA 0207 to Miami. Our cabin crew will
now demonstrate the safety features of this
aircraft. There are six emergency exits. Please
take a moment to locate your nearest exit...
Illustration: Bernhard Förth
48
Spotlight 3|14

Möchten Sie noch mehr Tipps und Übungen?
Practice
1. Search the opposite page to find the words described below.
Abonnieren Sie Spotlight plus! www.spotlight-online.de/ueben
Try the exercises below to practise talking about what you’ll find inside
an aeroplane.
a) Five kinds of people on a plane: _______________, _______________, _______________, _______________, _______________
b) Four safety features on a plane: _______________, _______________, _______________, _______________
c) Four areas inside a plane: _______________, _______________, _______________, _______________
d) Two words for food or drink: _______________, _______________
e) Three terms that contain parts of the body: _______________, _______________, _______________
f) Two synonyms for “aeroplane”: _______________, _______________
2. Match the words below to form compound
nouns referring to things inside a plane.
a) aisle
b) carry-on
c) emergency
d) overhead
e) seat
f) tray
a ➯
b ➯
c ➯
d ➯
e ➯
f ➯
1. exit
2. locker
3. table
4. seat
5. pocket
6. luggage
4. Complete the report of a tourist’s trip home
below with words from the opposite page.
We had a great time in Miami, but our (a) f__________
back to London was a nightmare. First, we were delayed
because of a technical problem. The plane was horribly
full, and there was hardly any (b) l__________. Worst of
all, we hit extreme turbulence. The (c) f__________
a__________ had just served (d) r__________, when suddenly
there was a bump, and the plane seemed to fall
through the air. The (e) o__________ m__________
dropped down, and we were told to (f) f__________ our
(g) s__________ b__________ immediately. Some luggage
fell out of one of the (h) o__________ l__________ and
went sailing through the (i) c__________. There was lots
of screaming. All this went on for about ten minutes. We
landed safely in the end, but I don’t think I’ll ever fly again.
3. Use compound nouns from exercise 2 to complete
the flying tips and instructions below.
a) Choose a(n) __________ __________ so you can get up
more easily.
b) Read the safety card. You’ll find it in the __________
__________ in front you.
c) Fold away your __________ __________ before landing.
d) Put small items of __________ __________ under the
seat in front of you.
e) Locate your nearest __________ __________.
f) When you leave the plane, make sure you don’t leave
any belongings in the __________ __________.
What’s the difference?
An aeroplane is an airplane in American English.
Both words can be shortened to plane. Aircraft is a
technical word for any flying vehicle that can carry
people or goods, such as a fighter plane, a helicopter or
an airship (Zeppelin).
Tips
Answers
1. a) cabin crew, co-pilot, flight attendant, passenger, pilot
b) emergency exit, life vest, oxygen mask, seat belt
c) cabin, cockpit/flight deck, galley, lavatory (WC)
d) refreshments, snack
e) armrest, hand luggage, legroom; f) aircraft, plane
2. a–4; b–6; c–1; d–2; e–5; f–3
3. a) aisle seat; b) seat pocket; c) tray table; d) carry-on luggage (item: Artikel,
Gegenstand ); e) emergency exit; f) overhead locker (belongings: hier: Sachen)
4. a) flight (nightmare: Albtraum); b) legroom; c) flight attendant;
d) refreshments; e) oxygen masks; f) fasten; g) seat belts;
h) overhead lockers; i) cabin
At
www.spotlight-online.de/teachers/picture-it you’ll find translations and the complete archive of these pages.
3|14 Spotlight
49

LANGUAGE | Travel Talk
Travelling with
electronics
RITA FORBES suggests going digital
on your next holiday.
Taking your phone
Hi! I’d like some information about using my mobile
while travelling, please.
Well, we have a travel plan that includes all European
countries. Outgoing calls cost 25p a minute
and incoming calls 7p a minute. If you want to use
the internet on your smartphone, you can pay £2
per day to get 15 megabytes of data usage.
And if I go to the US?
Well, there, our standard rate is £1 a minute for
calls, and data is £6 per megabyte. There’s an automatic
spending limit of £40 per month for data
usage abroad — if you want to use more data than
that, you’ll need to opt out of the limit. There’s a
bolt on that gives you 200 megabytes of data for
about £100.
Hmm... Could I buy a SIM card in the US instead?
Yes, as long as your phone is unlocked.
Packing
So, I was just making a packing list.
What electronic stuff are you planning to take?
My tablet for sure, and the camera, and my
smartphone...
OK. I’m taking my e-book reader as well. Can you
find the cables and chargers for everything?
No problem. I’ll look for the adaptor, too. Electricity
in the US is 120 volts, but we don’t need a
converter. Everything we’re taking is dual-voltage.
Getting ready to go
Well, I’ve set my auto-reply message for work.
I need to do that, too. Thanks for reminding me.
And I bought an extra memory card for the camera
as well.
Great! And I’ve already
packed a flash drive,
so we can back
up all our
photos.
• An outgoing call is one that you make from your
phone to another person; an incoming call is one
you receive.
• A megabyte, often written MB, is an amount of data:
15 megabytes are enough to send only a few photos
by e-mail. A gigabyte, or GB, is made up of about 1,000
megabytes.
• To opt out of something is to decide not to use it.
• A bolt on (UK) is a set of services that can be added to
a plan.
• A SIM card is the small piece of plastic — a chip —
that you put in a mobile phone or tablet computer. It
contains information such as your telephone number.
“SIM” was introduced in the 1980s and is short for
“subscriber identification module”.
• Some mobile phones are “locked”, which means that
they can be used only with a certain network. If a
phone is unlocked, you can use services from any
provider.
• Electronic is an adjective, as in “electronic device”
(Elektrogerät). The plural noun “electronics” means
equipment that uses electricity. This noun cannot be
used in the singular.
• A charger is what you use to recharge (wiederaufladen)
the battery of your device.
• To “adapt” is to change in a way that helps you deal
with a new environment or situation. An adaptor lets
you plug (einstecken) a device into the electrical supply
in other countries, where the outlets (Steckdosen)
have different shapes.
• In Europe, electricity is 230 volts. If you go to a
country with a different voltage, you’ll need both an
adaptor and a converter. Many devices, however,
are dual-voltage, meaning that they operate on
either 230 or 120 volts.
• Memory cards are used in cameras, laptops, etc. for
storing (speichern) information.
• A flash drive is a small storage device (Speichergerät).
You usually plug it into the USB port on your computer.
auto-reply message
[)O:tEU ri(plaI )mesIdZ]
data usage [(deItE )ju:sIdZ]
automatische
Abwesenheitsmeldung
Datennutzung
Tips
Fotos: iStock
50
Spotlight 3|14

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Cards | LANGUAGE
twerk
NEW WORDS
Our dancing lesson was so funny this week.
We learned how to twerk.
GLOBAL ENGLISH
What would a speaker of British
English say?
Indian speaker: “I’m meeting a few old
batchmates of mine in a lunch home
tomorrow.”
Spotlight 3|14
Spotlight 3|14
(IN)FORMAL ENGLISH
Make these colloquial statements sound
more formal:
1. He’s built up a nice little nest egg.
2. Wall Street bankers consider a million-dollar
bonus to be chicken feed.
Translate:
TRANSLATION
1. Wurde sein neuester Film schon synchronisiert?
2. Ich kenne nur die Synchronfassung von
„Spiel mir das Lied vom Tod“.
Spotlight 3|14 Spotlight 3|14
PRONUNCIATION
IDIOM MAGIC
Read these words aloud:
geese
gelatine
Ching Yee Smithback
geriatric
give
giraffe
Giselle
turn someone off
Spotlight 3|14 Spotlight 3|14
FALSE FRIENDS
spend / spenden
Translate the following sentences:
1. I spent €200 on petrol last month.
2. Ich habe €200 und einige Decken für die Opfer
des Erdbebens gespendet.
GRAMMAR
Complete these sentences with “less”
or “fewer”:
1. He’s got ________ friends than she has.
2. I have ________ money now than I had a year
ago.
Spotlight 3|14 Spotlight 3|14

LANGUAGE | Cards
GLOBAL ENGLISH
British speaker: “I’m meeting a few old
classmates of mine in a restaurant tomorrow.”
In Indian English, the word “batchmate” can refer
to a classmate from either school or college —
someone who was in the same “batch” (Gruppe,
Stapel).
NEW WORDS
To twerk means to dance in a sexually
provocative way by rotating and moving your rear
(Hintern) up and down. This dance movement
became well known in 2013 when the US singer
Miley Cyrus performed it at the MTV Europe Music
Awards ceremony.
Spotlight 3|14
Spotlight 3|14
TRANSLATION
1. Has his latest film been dubbed yet?
2. I know only the dubbed version of
Once Upon a Time in the West.
Only in the area of film is synchronisieren
translated as “dub”. Elsewhere, “synchronize” is
generally an accurate translation. Both words
come from the same source (Quelle): Greek
synchronos, meaning “happening at the same time”.
(IN)FORMAL ENGLISH
1. He has saved a large amount of money for
the future.
2. Wall Street bankers consider a million-dollar
bonus to be a very small amount of money.
In example (2), “chicken feed” — a ridiculously
small amount of money — can be replaced by the
informal synonym “peanuts”.
Spotlight 3|14 Spotlight 3|14
IDIOM MAGIC
PRONUNCIATION
When something or someone causes you to feel
bored or disgusted (angewidert), you can say that
it turns you off.
[gi:s]
[)dZeri(ÄtrIk]
[gIv]
[(dZelEti:n]
[dZE(rA:f]
[ZI(zel]
“Can you play a different CD? Folk music really
turns me off.”
We can view [g] as the standard pronunciation
of “g”, but in words of Latin or French origin, it is
typically pronounced [dZ] (or less often [Z])
when it is followed by “i” or “e”.
Spotlight 3|14 Spotlight 3|14
GRAMMAR
1. He’s got fewer friends than she has.
2. I have less money now than I had a year ago.
In standard English, “fewer” is used with plural
nouns and “less” with uncountable nouns. In
informal style, however, you will hear many
speakers use “less” in place of “fewer” with plural
nouns (“He’s got less friends...”).
FALSE FRIENDS
1. Ich habe letzten Monat €200 für Benzin
ausgegeben.
2. I donated €200 and some blankets for the
victims of the earthquake.
Spenden can also be translated as “give” or
“contribute”, depending on the context.
Spotlight 3|14 Spotlight 3|14

At the gym
Listen to dialogues 2 and 3
This month, DAGMAR TAYLOR looks at the
words and phrases people use when they talk
about getting fit.
Everyday English | LANGUAGE
1. Making a start
Natalie has just joined a gym. She is telling John, her
husband, all about it.
Fotos: iStock
John: Hello, love! What are we having for dinner?
Natalie: I was going to cook some salmon and make a
nice salad.
John: Sounds healthy. No pasta today, then?
Natalie: No. I’m really serious about getting fit. I even
joined the gym today.
John: Did you? Which one?
Natalie: The Air Active gym at Fountainhill.
John: Is that the really swanky one with its own
swimming pool?
Natalie: Yes, that’s the one.
John: How much is the membership?
Natalie: We get reduced rates through work, so I’m
only paying £28 a month.
John: I hope you didn’t get a 12-month contract —
you can never get out of them.
Natalie: Yes. That’s why I got the rolling month-bymonth
option.
• A fit person is healthy and strong because he or
she does regular physical exercise (Bewegung, Sport).
• Gym is short for “gymnasium” [dZIm(neIziEm] — a
room or hall with exercise equipment, where people
go to do sport. In Britain and the US, people call a
fitness centre or health club a “gym”.
• If a place is described as swanky, it is luxurious and
expensive in a way that is meant to impress people.
• To join a club or an organization, you usually have to
apply or pay for membership.
• Companies who want to have healthy employees can
arrange special conditions, such as reduced rates,
with a gym nearby. Getting something through work
means getting it because of your job or company.
• Contracts with fitness clubs or gyms are sometimes
difficult to get out of or terminate (kündigen).
• A rolling contract continues on a month-to-month
basis until either party wishes to end
the agreement.
gym [dZIm]
salmon [(sÄmEn]
Fitness
studio
Lachs
Tips
2. First time
Natalie arrives at the gym for her first workout.
Natalie: Hello!
Colin: Hi! How can I help?
Natalie: I’m here for my induction session.
Colin: OK. Have you got your membership card?
Natalie: No, I was told I could pick it up when I came
for my first session.
Colin: Oh, no problem. I’ll see if it’s ready. What’s
your name?
Natalie: Natalie Singh.
Colin: Ah, here it is. Right, do you have any ID?
Natalie: Just my driving licence.
Colin: That’s fine. OK, your induction session is with
Roger. When you’ve changed, come back
down to reception and Roger will pick you up.
Natalie: Sorry, where are the changing rooms again?
Colin: You just go up the stairs over there, and
they’re straight ahead of you.
Natalie: Thanks!
• A workout is a period of physical exercise that
you do to keep fit. The verb is work out: “You can
see from his muscles that he works out.”
• The process of introducing someone to something
new, such as a new job or skill, is called induction, and
a session is the period of time spent doing something
such as sport.
• ID [)aI (di:] (short for “identification”) is an official document
with your name, date of birth and a photograph.
• The official document that shows you are qualified to
drive is your driving licence (N. Am.: driver’s license).
In the UK and the US, people do not carry identity
cards.
• Here, change means to put on different clothes.
• The room in which you change your clothes,
especially before and after doing sport, is the
changing room (N. Am.: locker room).
Tips
3|14 Spotlight
55

LANGUAGE | Everyday English
3. This is how you do it 4. How was it?
Roger is showing Natalie how to use the gym
equipment.
When John arrives home,
Natalie tells him about her experience at the gym.
Natalie: And have you got a machine to give me arms
like Michelle Obama?
Roger: (laughs) You mean you’d like to tone up your
upper arms? We’ve got a triceps blaster and a
biceps workout programme for that — a series
of different exercises, including bench dips
and repetitions with dumb-bells.
Natalie: OK. And the best way to lose weight is by
doing cardio, right?
Roger: That’s right. If you do 45 minutes of cardio three
times a week, you’ll soon notice a difference.
Natalie: OK. Can you show me the cardio machine
that hurts the least?
Roger: Are you sure? Remember, no pain, no gain!
Natalie: Hi, there!
John: Have you been to the gym?
Natalie: Oh, can you tell already?
John: Only because I nearly tripped over a big bag
of smelly sports stuff when I came in.
Natalie: Oh! Sorry about that.
John: Well? How was it? Have you got a six-pack yet?
Natalie: No, but I’m sore all over.
John: What did you do?
Natalie: I did circuit training for half an hour, then 45
minutes on the cross-trainer, and after that I
went to a spin class.
John: Aren’t you overdoing it a bit?
Natalie: No! It was brilliant. You should try it.
EXERCISES
• When you tone up your muscles and skin, you
make them firmer and stronger.
• Here, blast means “destroy”. Gyms like to give their
classes and programmes names like “fat burner” or
“flab blaster” (Speckabsprenger).
• A dumb-bell [(dVm bel] is a short bar (Stange) with a
weight at each end. It is used in exercises to make
muscles stronger.
• When you become less fat and less heavy, you lose
weight. To “gain” or “put on” weight is the opposite.
• Here, cardio is short for “cardiovascular exercise”,
which is good for the heart. Swimming, cycling,
running and rowing (Rudern) are all examples of this.
• No pain, no gain! is a phrase that means you have to
suffer if you want to achieve something.
bench dip [(bentS dIp]
repetition [)repE(tIS&n]
1. Add the missing word.
Dip an der Bank, Arnold-Dip
Wiederholung
a) I’m really serious _____ getting fit.
b) Roger will pick you _____ at reception.
c) The best way to lose weight is _____ doing cardio.
d) I did circuit training _____ half an hour.
2. Find the words defined below.
a) luxurious and expensive (ifml.) _____________
b) a period of physical exercise _____________
c) a short bar with weights _____________
d) defined stomach muscles (ifml.) _____________
Tips
• Here, tell means “see something”: “I can tell you’re
not very happy.”
• Stuff can be used to refer informally to a collection of
objects. Sports clothes and equipment can also be
called “sports kit” (UK) or “sports gear”.
• After a lot of exercise, you might feel sore or have
“sore muscles” [sO: (mVs&lz] (Muskelkater).
• A cross-trainer or “elliptical trainer” is a stationary
(feststehend) exercise machine used for cardiovascular
workouts.
• In a spin class, special stationary exercise bicycles are
used to improve strength and endurance (Ausdauer).
• If you do something too much, you overdo it.
circuit training [(s§:kIt )treInIN]
trip over sth. [trIp (EUvE]
3. What did they say?
4. True or false?
Zirkeltraining
über etw. fallen, stolpern
(➝ p. 61)
a) Natalie got a 12-month contract. _____
b) Natalie needs to get changed before she meets
Roger. _____
c) Natalie says the phrase: “No pain, no gain!” _____
d) Natalie used an elliptical trainer. _____
Tips
a) How much is the m__________?
b) Right, do you have any I__________?
c) You mean you’d like to t__________ your upper arms?
d) Aren’t you o__________ it a bit?
56 Spotlight 3|14
Answers: 1. a) about; b) up; c) by; d) for; 2. a) swanky; b) workout; c) dumb-bell; d) six-pack;
3. a) membership; b) ID; c) tone up; d) overdoing; 4. a) false; b) true; c) false; d) true

The Grammar Page | LANGUAGE
Talking about future plans
and times
ADRIAN DOFF writes notes on a short dialogue to present and
explain a key point of grammar.
Phil asks his friend Tessa about her plans for her birthday.
Phil: What are you doing 1 for your birthday, Tessa?
Tessa: I’m going 1 to the opera.
Phil: Really? At Covent Garden?
Tessa: Yes. A few friends are coming. 1 Do you want to
come, too? I’ve got one ticket left.
Phil: I don’t know. What are you seeing? 1
Tessa: Strauss. Die Frau ohne Schatten. It starts 2 at six, but
we’re meeting 3 for a drink first.
Phil: How long does it go 4 on for?
Tessa: It finishes 4 at about 10.30, I think.
Phil: Four and a half hours? Are you going to 5 do anything
afterwards?
Tessa: We’re probably going to 5 have a drink somewhere.
I don’t know where.
Phil: OK, fine. I’ll just come 6 for the drink, all right?
I’ll meet 6 you outside at 10.30.
1 Phil and Tessa use the present continuous to talk about
the future. They’re talking about something Tessa has
arranged. (She’s fixed the date and bought the tickets.)
2 Here, Tessa uses the present simple to talk about a time
in the future. The opera follows a fixed programme.
(Tessa didn’t arrange it.)
3 In contrast to the present simple, the present continuous is
used again to talk about Tessa’s private arrangements.
4 Phil and Tessa use the present simple again to discuss the
programme’s timing.
5 Now the form be going to is used to discuss Tessa’s idea,
which has not yet been fixed (if and where they might go
for a drink afterwards).
6 Here, Phil uses will to talk about the future. He is
deciding what he will do as he speaks. (He hasn’t already
decided this.)
Remember!
The present simple is used to talk about...
events happening at a fixed time in the future:
• The meeting starts at 7.30.
regular schedules and timetables:
• My plane gets in at 4.10. Can you meet me at the
airport?
The present continuous is used to talk about things
people have arranged for the future:
• I’m going to London next week. (not: I go...)
• We’re meeting at the opera house at 5.30.
1. Rewrite the following sentences in the present
continuous where necessary.
a) Hurry up! The bus leaves at two o’clock.
b) How many people do they invite on Friday?
c) When does the film start?
d) Excuse me. What time do we get to Berlin?
e) I can’t meet you tomorrow. I get my hair cut.
Answers: 1. b) are they inviting; e) I’m getting. All the others are correct.
2. a) I‘m not; b) I’ll talk; c) Are you going; d) does the film; e) going to do
Beyond the basics
There are many ways to talk about future time in English.
They depend on several factors: whether the discussion
is about personal plans or arrangements, or
facts and external events, and how probable or fixed
these are. In general, these factors are more important
than whether the event will take place in the near or distant
future:
• I think I’ll go for a walk later. (spontaneous decision)
• I’m going to go for a walk later, if the weather stays
nice. (plan)
• I’m going for a walk later. Sue’s coming, too.
(fixed arrangement)
2. Correct each sentence below by adding
one word to it.
a) I not going to celebrate my birthday this year.
b) OK, I talk to you later.
c) You going to Turkey this summer?
d) What time the film start?
e) What are you going do at the weekend?
EXERCISES
3|14 Spotlight
57

LANGUAGE | The Soap
Helen
Phil
Peggy
A pub to go
Join us at Peggy’s Place — Spotlight ’s very
own London pub. By INEZ SHARP
George
Sean
FOCUS
Peggy: Look at this, Phil! Another business is opening up
in Earl Street.
Phil: Have there been any others? I never seem to get
round to reading the paper any more.
Peggy: Yeah, don’t you remember that article? They’re calling
the area London’s new Silicon Street.
Helen: You mean like Silicon Roundabout?
Peggy: Hello, Helen! That’s right. It might be the start of
something big for us. Or at least business might pick
up a bit. Stop hogging the bar, George.
George: Sorry, Helen. Here, let me take your coat.
Phil: If you ask me, new companies in the area have never
made much difference to our takings. It’s the evening
crowd that really brings in the big bucks, but most people
want to go straight home after work.
Sean: I agree. The people who come in here of an evening
are those who live round here.
Peggy: Perhaps that’s where we’re getting it wrong.
Helen: Ooh! Does anyone else feel a plan coming on?
Peggy: It’s just that I’ve been thinking.
Sean: I know: we should expand the lunch menu.
George: In my experience, the techie people have no
money and just eat something at their desks.
Helen: What makes you such an expert?
George: I happen to have a 20-year-old techie son. Believe
me, à la carte dining is not on Ian’s agenda.
Helen: Yes, but these aren’t small start-ups. At least two
companies have more than 50 people on their payroll.
Phil: Where did you find that out?
Helen: There was a guy who came into A & E last week.
He’d had a bike accident. He works for one of those
places, and we got chatting.
Phil: I don’t think a bigger lunch menu would work.
Peggy: Actually, that wasn’t my idea. I thought we could
start serving breakfasts.
Sean: Not with a two-man kitchen crew, Peggy! Aamir
and I are pretty stressed as it is.
Peggy: Look, I haven’t had time to work this through, but
here are the facts: we need more custom, and there are
Over the past five years, a number of web businesses have
opened in the area around London’s Old Street Roundabout.
The area has been given the nickname (Spitzname)
Silicon Roundabout, a play on Silicon Valley in northern
California, where many high-tech companies have their
headquarters. Peggy says the area around the pub is now
being called Silicon Street because a number of web businesses
have moved there.
“ ”
What makes you such an expert?
Jane
new people coming into the area who need to be fed
and watered.
Helen: She’s right, guys. If you don’t snap up the new business,
someone else will.
George: That’s assuming there are actually new customers
out there and they’re here to stay.
Phil: The breakfast idea makes sense at one level — everyone
who comes here by Tube has to walk past this place
to get to work.
Helen: Good point!
George: I still say that sit-down meals aren’t going to work.
Peggy: We could offer takeaway sandwiches and coffee.
Helen: I think you’ll find we now call that “coffee to go”.
Peggy: Same difference. It’s all about being at the heart of
the community. If we open at eight on weekdays...
Sean: ...over my dead body!
Helen: Don’t be so negative! Peggy’s trying to keep this
place going — and your job, by the way — and I, for
one, think it’s a great idea.
George: At the supermarket, we’d do a lot of customer research
before implementing a new idea.
Peggy: We don’t have those kinds of resources. I think we
should just start small and see how things go.
Sean: Well, I vote no.
Phil: Sorry, love. Me, too.
Peggy: Yes, but I’m the owner, and what I say goes.
A & E (accident and emergency Notaufnahme
department) [)eI End (i:] UK
assuming [E(sju:mIN] vorausgesetzt (➝ p. 61)
big bucks [bIg (bVks] ifml.
das große Geld
custom [(kVstEm] UK
hier: Kundschaft
get round to sth. [get (raUnd tE] UK zu etw. kommen
hog sth. [hQg] ifml.
etw. in Beschlag nehmen,
für sich allein beanspruchen
I, for one [)aI fE (wVn] ich jedenfalls
implement [(ImplIment]
einführen, umsetzen
payroll [(peIrEUl]
Gehaltsliste
pick up [pIk (Vp]
sich erholen
snap sth. up [snÄp (Vp]
etw. schnell annehmen,
an sich reißen
start-up [(stA:t Vp]
junges Unternehmen,
Firmenneugründung
takings [(teIkINz]
Einnahmen
techie [(teki] ifml.
Technikfreak
Tube [tju:b] UK
Londoner U-Bahn
58 Spotlight 3|14
Meet all the characters from Peggy’s Place at
www.spotlight-online.de/peggy

English at Work | LANGUAGE
Dear Ken: What makes a good
negotiator?
Dear Ken
In my new job, I have to negotiate in English with people
from different cultural backgrounds, and I’m not sure how
good I am. What qualities do I need to be a competent international
negotiator?
Regards
Jens T.
Dear Jens
Negotiating is hard enough in your own language and
with people of the same cultural background. Negotiating
internationally requires additional qualities. For a start,
you must have the relevant professional knowledge and be
well prepared. Besides that, I think you need the following
ten attributes:
1. Cross-cultural sensitivity You need to know where cultural
differences might cause misunderstandings.
2. Good communication skills You should be able to get
your message across clearly in English. You also need
good questioning and listening skills.
3. Analytical skills Complex negotiation requires you to
analyse the statements of others while they are speaking
and to think quickly under pressure.
4. Calmness In order not to take things personally, you
need to stay calm and detached.
5. Patience Giving your business partners time to explain
their positions enables you to understand them better
and to resolve issues without arguing.
6. Objectivity You should continually try to put yourself
in your business partner’s shoes so that you can evaluate
his or her position more effectively.
7. Politeness Using diplomatic, tactful language can help
you create the right atmosphere for compromise.
8. Good knowledge of human nature The more quickly
you can recognize a suitable approach for a particular
business partner, the more quickly you will be able to
build a basis for agreement.
9. Moral courage You need a clear set of ethical guidelines
and the courage to stand by them.
10. A sense of humour You can’t win every point in negotiations.
The ability to make a concession and to
continue to display good humour helps create the positive
atmosphere that you need for agreements to be
reached.
I’m sure that you could add other skills and attributes to
this list but, for me, these are the most important. Good
luck in your next international negotiation!
Best wishes
Ken
Send your questions
about business English
by e-mail with “Dear
Ken” in the subject line to
language@spotlight-verlag.de
Each month, I answer two questions
Spotlight readers have sent in. If one of
them is your question, you’ll receive a
copy of my book: Fifty Ways to Improve
Your Business English. So don’t forget
to add your mailing address!
Dear Ken
Some colleagues and I were recently discussing letter openings
and endings. We wondered why “Ladies and Gentlemen”
was not included in the list of greetings in your
article in Spotlight 9/13. We look forward to your reply.
Kind regards
Hannelore B.
Dear Hannelore
Thank you for your mail concerning the phrase “Ladies
and Gentlemen”.
This salutation sounds very strange in written communication.
It is commonly used in spoken English, though,
for example, to open a formal speech or presentation.
If you do not know the names of the people to whom you
are writing, I would suggest you use either “Dear Sir or
Madam” or “To whom it may concern” in more formal
letters. When composing an e-mail, you usually know the
name of the person to whom you are writing.
Hope this is of help.
Regards
Ken
attribute [(ÄtrIbju:t]
sensitivity [)sensE(tIvEti]
detached [di(tÄtSt]
resolve [ri(zQlv]
argue [(A:gju:]
evaluate [i(vÄljueIt]
approach [E(prEUtS]
stand by sth. [stÄnd (baI]
concession [kEn(seS&n]
salutation [)sÄlju(teIS&n]
compose [kEm(pEUz]
Eigenschaft
Einfühlungsvermögen
abgeklärt, sachlich
lösen
hier: streiten
einschätzen
Ansatz, Herangehensweise
etw. vertreten, zu etw. stehen
Zugeständnis
Grußformel
hier: verfassen
Ken Taylor is a communication skills consultant based in London.
Follow his “Hot Tips” on Twitter @DearKen101. You can buy his book
Dear Ken... 101 answers to your questions about business English
from
3|14 Spotlight
59

LANGUAGE | Spoken English
I don’t know
about that…
This month, ADRIAN DOFF looks at ways to
agree and disagree in English.
Foto: iStockphoto
Read these two conversations.
Vera: I thought The Hobbit was a really good film.
It was well made, and the acting was excellent.
Tom: I agree. I thought it was a great film.
Vera: I thought The Hobbit was a really good film.
It was well made, and the acting was excellent.
Tom: I disagree. I thought it was a boring film.
Both the conversations above are possible, but you will
rarely hear the second, as Tom’s disagreement sounds impolite
and aggressive. In English (as in other languages),
people agree quite openly but are usually more careful
about how they disagree, even in informal conversation.
Let’s look at ways to agree and disagree carefully in English.
Me, too
The simplest way to agree with someone’s opinion is to say
Me, too (to agree with positive remarks) or Me, neither (to
agree with negative ones):
• I thought it was a great film. — Me, too.
• I didn’t like it much. — Me, neither.
You can also use So... or say Neither / Nor... and repeat the
auxiliary verb (Hilfsverb):
• I thought it was a great film. — So did I.
• I didn’t like it much. — Neither did I.
• I was bored. — So was I.
To disagree, you can use a question or short response,
repeating the auxiliary verb:
• I thought it was a great film. — Did you? I didn’t.
• I didn’t like it much. — Oh, I did. I thought it was great.
There are two ways to pronounce the ei sound in neither:
as [i:] (as in “easy”) or as [aI] (as in “white”).
Agreeing more strongly
In the first conversation in the box above, Tom agrees with
Vera. To agree more strongly, he could have used adverbs
like absolutely, totally or dead:
• Absolutely. I agree totally.
• I think you’re dead right.
Other expressions include:
• I couldn’t agree more. (= I strongly agree.)
• You’ve hit the nail on the head. (= That’s exactly right.)
• You’re spot on.
Disagreeing carefully
There are ways of disagreeing without sounding as aggressive
as Tom does in the second conversation in the box.
One way to do this is to express doubt:
• Hmm, I’m not sure...
• I don’t know about that...
Or you can express surprise:
• Did you really think so?
• I’m surprised to hear you say that.
Tom could also have softened what he said with words like
actually, a bit or rather:
• Hmm! Actually, I thought it was a bit / rather boring.
He could also have used that or all that, putting stress on
the word “that”:
• I didn’t think it was all that good.
• I don’t know. The acting wasn’t that great.
EXERCISE
Complete the responses below, using words from the list.
about | absolutely | did | don’t | know | more | that
a) I didn’t vote in the election. — No, neither _____ I.
b) The food here is terrible. — Oh, I don’t _____ about that.
c) I love cats. — Do you really? I _____.
d) This coat looks awful on me. — Hmm, it’s not _____ bad. I quite like it.
e) I think bankers should give back their bonuses. — Yes, I couldn’t agree _____.
f) I’ve had enough. I’m going to emigrate. — What? What are you on _____?
60 Spotlight 3|14
Answers: a) did; b) know; c) don’t; d) that; e) more; f) about
Strong disagreement
Sometimes, we do want to disagree
more strongly. Here are some common
ways to do that. Be very careful
about when you use them:
• That’s absolute rubbish /
nonsense / garbage (N. Am.)!
• That’s ridiculous!
• What on earth are you talking
about? (= What you’re saying
makes no sense to me.)
• What are you on about?

Word Builder | LANGUAGE
Build your vocabulary
JOANNA WESTCOMBE presents useful words and phrases from
this issue of Spotlight and their collocations. The words may
also have other meanings that are not listed here.
contractor [kEn(trÄktE] noun p. 25
stove [stEUv] noun p. 8
a person or firm working on a building site
Bauunternehmer
an apparatus for cooking or for heating a room
Herd, Ofen
Most of the work on the site has been given
to outside contractors.
The kitchen contained nothing but a sink and a
rusty old stove.
Note the change in stress in British English between
contract [(kQntrÄkt] and contractor [kEn(trÄktE].
In British English, the word stove is unusual. Many
modern kitchens have a separate oven and hob (UK).
peel [pi:&l] verb p. 44
trip over sth. [trIp (EUvE] verb p. 56
(of paint, skin, etc.) come off in small pieces
schälen; hier: abblättern
catch your foot on something so that you (almost) fall
über etw. fallen, stolpern
The wallpaper in the bedroom is peeling.
Can we redecorate in there, please?
German Peeling is a facial or body scrub.
potato peelings = Kartoffelschalen
Who put that box there? I nearly tripped over it.
See a dictionary for how to use trip over, trip up
and stumble.
precious [(preSEs] adjective p. 26
valuable, important or worth something to somebody
kostbar
The photographs we took on our last holiday
together are very precious to me.
See the extra notes below on how to use this word.
assuming [E(sju:mIN] conjunction p. 58
if; if something is taken to be true
vorausgesetzt
Our guests should arrive around 7 p.m.,
assuming they don’t get stuck in traffic.
Always assuming is used in the same way with the
same meaning.
Foto: iStock
How to use the word precious
Here’s a valuable word. What is precious? What do you
treasure — a particular person, time alone or with
friends or family, memories, or certain possessions?
Other precious things are worth a lot of money, like
precious jewels, precious stones such as diamonds
or precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum.
Water and trees are precious resources, as are skills
or knowledge. A person whose speech or behaviour is
affected (not very natural) can be called precious, too.
In the following phrases, precious is an adverb:
I’ve had precious little free time recently.
There are precious few places to walk a dog here.
Complete the following sentences with words
from this page in their correct form.
a) Be careful you don’t trip __________ those cables.
b) Put some suncream on, or your skin will __________.
c) Time is a __________ commodity (Gut) these days.
d) Lots of people are installing wood-burning _________
in their living rooms.
e) She loves rubies (Rubin) and has a collection of
__________ stones.
f) __________ you get the job, will you move house?
g) Several __________ are responsible for the building
work.
OVER TO YOU!
Answers: a) over; b) peel; c) precious; d) stoves; e) precious; f) Assuming; g) contractors
3|14 Spotlight
61

LANGUAGE | Perfectionists Only!
WILL O’RYAN explains developments in the English language and
examines some of the finer points of grammar.
Prepositional passives (2)
Grammar
Back to the roots
A non-initial “v” or “f” in native English
words often corresponds to a “b”
in High German; for example,
“seven”— sieben, “life”— Leben. So it
should be no surprise that “starve”
(meaning “die or force to die from
hunger”) and sterben are etymologically
related. The English verb goes
back to Old English steorfan (past:
stearf, past participle: storfen), which
simply meant “die”. The Germanic
root of both verbs goes back to Proto-
Indo-European ster-, which meant
“rigid, stiff”, so the original meaning
was clearly “become stiff”. Ster- is also
the source of the verbs “stare” and
German starren. But certain other
words with less direct semantic correspondence
derive from this same root:
“stereo” (via Greek stereos (“solid”)),
“sterile” (via Latin sterilis), Sanskrit
sthirah (“hard, firm”), Russian, Polish,
etc., stary (“old”). The expansion and
contraction in meaning of this Indo-
European root is typical of historical
language development. “Being stiff”
gets extended to “become dead” and
then narrowed down to “die of
hunger”. But that’s not the end of the
story. The meaning of “starve” was
later expanded to include “feel very
hungry”; for example, “When’s dinner?
I’m starving.” To differentiate between
these two senses, the
collocation “starve to death” arose.
Had it not been for this latter expansion
in meaning, the usage would be
redundant, and even sound ridiculous.
It would be as if one said bis zum
Tode sterben in German.
62 Spotlight 3|14
Last month, we looked at prepositional passives of the type “This bed has
already been slept in”, in which an adverbial prepositional phrase of location
accompanies an intransitive verb. In that case, the prepositional
phrase is not specified by the verb. For one thing, a corresponding active
sentence could occur without a prepositional phrase (“Someone slept
(here)”). Secondly, a different preposition is possible (“Someone slept near /
beside this bed”). A “loose relationship” exists between verb and prepositional
phrase. There are other types of prepositional passive, however:
a) This book has often been referred to (by experts).
These high standards have never been lived up to (by anyone).
The first sentence contains the prepositional verb “refer to”. The preposition
“to” is specified by the verb “refer”. It is obligatory. No other preposition
is possible. In the second sentence, we have “verb + preposition +
preposition”, both of which are specified by “live”. Verbal idioms consisting
of “verb + noun (phrase) + preposition” also leave a stranded preposition
in the passive form, as in (b):
b) Their original goal has been lost sight of.
Your old map has been made good use of.
This sort of passive is allowed only when there is a “strong relationship”
between verb and preposition, making it a fixed phrase (idiom). Sentence
(c) cannot be formed from “They accused John of the killing”:
c) The killing was accused John of.
To clarify this further, let’s compare idiomatic and non-idiomatic interpretations
of the same occurrence of “verb + preposition”. For example, in the
sentence “Experts are looking into the problem”, “look into” is used idiomatically
— the preposition is specified by the verb. In “Some children
looked into the box”, “look into” is used literally — “into” is not specified
by “look”. The passive is only possible in the former case:
d) The problem is being looked into (by experts).
The box was looked into (by some children).
When a preposition is specified by a verb, it is likely that one can form a
prepositional passive, but there are plenty of exceptions. There is unfortunately
no logical reason why the examples of passives we have provided
so far are acceptable and others are not. “Look after” and “take after” are
both prepositional verbs with a fixed idiomatic meaning, but only one can
be made passive:
e) My father is well looked after (by my daughter).
My father is taken after (by my daughter).
There is no fixed rule that determines whether a specified preposition can
be stranded in a passive. It’s just something you have to learn.
Form a passive with a stranded preposition if possible.
1. The team has lost sight of its original goal.
2. They had a lot of patience with Mary.
Answers: 1. The original goal has been lost sight of by the team. 2. not possible
Foto: Hemera

Crossword | LANGUAGE
On strike!
The words in this puzzle are taken from our article about the British miners’
strike of 1984. You may find it helpful to refer to the text on pages 38–39.
1 2 3 4 5 6
7 8
9 10
11 12
13 14
15
16 17 18
19 20
21 22 23
24
Mike Pilewski
Solution to puzzle 2/14:
EXTERIOR
I N D U S T R I A L
F I E R OWN
R P H A S E U E
S E E A A R T W
P C A R R I E S N
E T A X O N E
A L T T E
K E Y E V E R Y B O D Y
I T E I
N O H A T M A L L S
G E H E L O F
M I R A C L E S A
R N Y F O R
Across
1. On horseback: “Look! It’s the ______ police.”
4. Margaret Thatcher was ______ minister of Britain.
7. A plural form of “person”.
8. Mrs Thatcher (feminine pronoun).
9. An automobile.
11. Not closed; ready for business.
12. At which time.
13. A policy of selling off state-owned businesses.
15. An indefinite article.
16. Going: “Britain had been ______ away from coal as an
energy source.”
19. A final phase.
21. Actions or measures: “What ______ will we need to
take?”
22. Had someone go somewhere: “They ______ him there.”
24. Also.
Competition!
How to take part
Form a single word from the letters in the
coloured squares.
Send it on a postcard to:
Redaktion Spotlight, “March Prize Puzzle”,
Postfach 1565, 82144 Planegg, Deutsch land.
Ten winners will be chosen from the entries we receive by
20 March 2014. By courtesy of Reclam, each winner will
be sent a copy of Contem porary Canadian Short Stories.
The answer to our January puzzle was sportsman.
Down
2. Unable to make a profit.
3. Plural of “that”: “Who are ______ people over there?”
5. Referring to a thing: “By July, the strike was in ______ 19th
week.”
6. A dangerous situation: “Thatcher considered declaring a
state of ______ and sending in the military.”
9. Take steps towards the position of someone with whom
one disagrees: “Neither side was willing to ______.”
10. Particular: “This rule affects only ______ industries.”
14. Him and her.
17. Representing an alternative.
18. To obtain or receive.
20. A 24-hour period.
22. Very: “Britain’s coalmining regions had been ______
important in earlier times.”
23. A negative answer.
Congratulations to:
Ernst Gradert (Herzogenaurach)
Erika Roesler (Mettmann)
Ursula Bloch (Niestetal)
Claudia Becker (Berlin)
Felix Goosmann (Hamburg)
Dieter Nentwig (Netphen)
Sieglinde Schuster (Stadtbergen)
Max Freundorfer (Fürstenfeldbruck)
Ingrid Brinckmann (Altdorf)
Jürgen Kohlmorgen (Hamburg)
3|14 Spotlight
63

SPRACHKURSE UND SPRACHFERIEN
Rubrikanzeigen / Classified ads
Englisch in
London
Einzelunterricht für Schule,
Freizeit, Beruf
Halbpension in Gastf amilien
Exkursionen mit dem Lehrer
Auch als
Bildungsurlaub buchbar
Tel: +49 (0) 6181 42 48 30 • www.reichardt.eu
Email: brigitte.sherlock@reichardt.eu
www.spotlightonline.de
THEmEnvorScHAu
Ausgabe 05/14:
• Die nützlichsten Wörter in der
englischen Sprache
• Glasgow – Schottland
Themenvorschau
Anzeigenschluss: 26.03.14, Erstverkaufstag: 30.04.14
Ausgabe 06/14:
• Alabama, Tennessee und Kentucky
• Bonnae Gokson
• Englisch global – Wo wird überall Englisch
gesprochen?
Anzeigenschluss: 23.04.14, Erstverkaufstag: 28.05.14
Ausgabe 07/14:
• Großes Grammatikspiel – Präpositionen
• Karibikinsel St. Lucia
• Britisches Bier
Anzeigenschluss: 21.05.14, Erstverkaufstag: 25.06.14
Änderungen vorbehalten.
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THE LIGHTER SIDE | Wit and Wisdom
“
I’ve
learned from
my mistakes,
and I’m
sure I can
repeat them
exactly.
”
© Bulls
Doctor’s appointment
Oliver isn’t feeling very well, so he goes to the doctor. When
the doctor has finished looking at him, he tells Oliver what
he believes is wrong. Oliver responds, “The last time I felt like
this, I went to another doctor, but he had a different opinion
as to what was wrong with me.” “Oh, well,” says the doctor,
“the post-mortem will show which of us was right.”
Boom!
As a girl, Ellie gets some advice from her grandpa, a Texan
cowboy. “The secret to a long life is to put a little gunpowder
on your toast in the morning,” he tells her.
Ellie does this every day until she dies at the age of 103. She
leaves behind 14 children, 30 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren,
25 great-great-grandchildren and a 20-metre hole
where the crematorium used to be.
follow in sb.’s footsteps
[)fQlEU In )sVmbEdiz (fUtsteps]
gunpowder [(gVn)paUdE]
lights and darks
[)laIts End (dA:ks]
post-mortem [)pEUst (mO:tEm]
ridiculous [rI(dIkjUlEs]
splash [splÄS]
in jmds. Fußstapfen treten;
hier auch: jmdn. verfolgen
Schießpulver
Kleidung mit hellen bzw.
dunklen Farben
Obduktion
hier: unglaublich
Platschen
THE ARGYLE SWEATER
Peter Cook
(1937–95),
British actor, writer
and comedian
Pool party
A rich man is having a party. Once his guests have arrived,
the man asks them to walk over to his swimming pool, which
is full of crocodiles, snakes and piranhas. “I will give anything
to the person who is brave enough to jump in and swim
across,” says the man. For a long time, nobody says or does
anything. Suddenly, there’s a big splash, and they see a man
fighting his way through the animals and fish. Incredibly, he
gets to the other side and pulls himself out of the water.
The rich man shakes the swimmer by the hand and says,
“What do you want? Money, houses, cars?”
The guest has to struggle to speak: “The only thing I want is
the name of the idiot who pushed me into the pool.”
Police fun
The police stop a man who has been driving too fast down a
country road.
“I’ve been waiting for you all day,” says the policeman.
“I know,” replies the driver. “I got here as fast as I could.”
A teacher asks the children in his class what they want to be
when they grow up. “I’m going to follow in my father’s footsteps,”
says Will. “I’m going to be a policeman.”
“I didn’t know your father was a policeman,” says the teacher.
“He’s not,” replies Will. “He’s a criminal.”
PEANUTS
66 Spotlight 3|14

American Life | GINGER KUENZEL
Foto: Getty Images
“
Now
Americans
have access to
affordable
health care,
too
”
Until recently, the United States
was practically the only industrialized
nation that did not
provide some type of universal health
care for its citizens. That changed
when the health insurance available
under the Affordable Care Act, also
known as Obamacare, took effect on
January 1 this year.
Now Americans have access to affordable
health care, too. Of course,
many people already have health insurance
— for example, through
group plans offered by employers. In
addition, many of the poor are provided
with health care by Medicaid,
a government program that is now
being expanded in many states to
cover even more people.
A huge number of people, however,
were simply uninsured. Either
they couldn’t afford it, or they just
didn’t see it as a priority. That included
a lot of healthy young people.
This is where one of the key concepts
behind Obamacare comes into play:
by making insurance mandatory for
attempt [E(tempt]
charge [tSA:rdZ]
coverage [(kVvErIdZ] US
funding [(fVndIN]
go bankrupt [goU (bÄNkrVpt]
implement [(ImplIment]
launch [lO:ntS]
mandatory [(mÄndEtO:ri]
on the books: get sth. ~ [)A:n DE )bUks]
pre-existing condition
[pri: Ig)zIstIN kEn(dIS&n]
pursuit of happiness [p&r)su:t Ev (hÄpinEs]
repeal [ri(pi:&l]
unalienable right [Vn)eIliEnEb&l (raIt]
universal health care
[ju:nI)v§:s&l (helT ke&r]
The era of Obamacare
everyone, the pool of insured people
becomes bigger and more diverse,
ranging from the healthy to
those with serious medical problems,
and everyone in between. With more
people paying into the system, there
is a better chance of keeping the price
of health insurance under control.
Here’s another key concept: under
Obamacare, it is now illegal for
health-insurance companies to refuse
people coverage or charge them
higher rates because they have a “preexisting
condition.” In the past, if
people with a medical condition had
lost their coverage — for example, by
changing or losing their job — they
often couldn’t get new insurance.
People went bankrupt trying to pay
their medical bills, and many could
not afford to get the treatment they
needed. In a 2009 study, researchers
from Harvard Medical School found
that about 45,000 Americans were
dying each year because they could
not afford health insurance.
Getting the new health-care law
on the books has not been easy. Even
after the Affordable Care Act became
Versuch
berechnen
Versicherungsschutz
Finanzierung
Bankrott gehen
einführen, umsetzen
starten, (comp.) online stellen
(gesetzlich) verpflichtend
etw. unter Dach und Fach
bekommen
(chronische) Vorerkrankung,
gesundheitliche Beeinträchtigung
Streben nach Glück
(Gesetz) aufheben
unabdingbares Recht
allgemeine
Gesundheitsversorgung
Ginger Kuenzel is a freelance writer who lived in Munich for 20 years.
She now calls a small town in upstate New York home.
Die Gesundheitsversorgung war für US-Bürger lange Zeit
Privatsache. Mit Obamacare kommt jetzt die allgemeine
Krankenversicherung. Nicht alle freuen sich.
law in 2010, it faced legal battles,
many attempts in the US Congress to
repeal it or block funding, and efforts
in many states to prevent it from
being implemented there. The Republicans
tried everything to keep the
law from taking effect; and to some
extent, the Democrats who supported
the law were their own worst
enemies.
What’s more, the information
that came from the government
about the new health-care system was
confusing, leading to misunderstandings
and uncertainty. The website
that people use to sign up for Obamacare,
www.healthcare.gov, broke
down as soon as it was launched.
Weeks passed before it was working
again. Opponents of Obamacare
used every opportunity to let people
know that the new law would be a
disaster.
Obamacare has survived, though,
and that’s a good thing, especially if
you consider our country’s Declaration
of Independence. It says that all
people are created equal and have certain
unalienable rights — such as the
right to “life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.” Under Obama care,
Americans will have a better chance
of being healthy enough
to exercise these rights.
Isn’t that something
we should all be
happy about?

Better English:
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Extreme sport:
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The Editor
Very interesting
Your magazine is great. The articles are not too difficult to
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Geschätztes Alltagsenglisch
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Ich unterrichte Englisch an einer Sprachenschule. Eine
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man z. B. für „groß“ big, large, tall, für „klein“ small, little,
short, für „schön“ beautiful, nice, good-looking, handsome,
pretty sagt. Wurde dieses Thema schon einmal in einer
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issues.
The Editor
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April 2014 | NEXT MONTH
Features
Getting to
know London:
the top tours
Do you want to visit Big
Ben, take an interactive
look at London’s art
scene, discover fashion
in Mayfair or try the
coolest new restaurants?
We present the
city tours that give you
a variety of very British
experiences.
Happy
birthday,
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare’s
birthday is widely be -
lieved to be 23 April
1564, making 2014 the
450th anniversary of his
birth. We celebrate with
a look at his language,
and show that “all the
world’s a stage” — at
least as far as Shakespeare
is concerned.
Gourmet Ireland
The country house of Ballymaloe in
County Cork is home to one of Ireland’s
top restaurants and a fine
cookery school. As the restaurant cel -
ebrates 50 years in business, we visit
Ballymaloe and get a taste of Irish
food — and hospitality — at its best.
Language
Vocabulary
Do you have a loft in your home? Is
your attic an area you love? Come
upstairs to explore that secret
space under the roof of a house.
Everyday English
Where better to practise every day
English than in the home? Learn
the language you need when you
stay abroad with a host family.
Eight extra pages
Grammar Special!
The magazine contains eight extra
pages to pull out and keep, focus -
ing on English verb tenses, with
examples
and
timelines.
Fotos: Alamy; iStock; laif
Spotlight 4/14 is on sale from
26 March
3|14 Spotlight
69

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | My Life in English
Hendrik Otremba
Hendrik Otremba ist Leadsänger der Band Messer und lebt in Münster.
Das neueste Album der Band heißt Die Unsichtbaren.
What makes English important to you?
It’s the language of global communication. But
this is complex: why isn’t it Chinese or another language?
Have you worked in an English-speaking environment?
No, that has not happened yet. I’ve done some interviews
with English-speaking bands. Does that count?
When was your first English lesson, and what can you
remember about it?
It was at school, and I was scared of my teacher. In fact, I
was scared of everything.
Who is your favourite English-language author, actor or
musician, and why?
Favourite musician? It used to be myself, because as a kid,
I sang in a kind of fantasy English. Favourite author? I
tried to read William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch) in the
original but failed, so I guess it would be J. D. Salinger.
Which song could you sing a few lines of in English?
Probably an old song by the English rock band The Smiths.
What food from the English-speaking world do you like?
I’m totally into vegan Hawaiian burgers. There are some
nice places to have vegan burgers in Berlin and Hamburg,
and a really good one in Bochum. But the best
place for vegan food is New York.
Which person from the English-speaking world (living or
dead) would you most like to meet?
The English performance artist Genesis Breyer P-Orridge.
If you could be anywhere in the English-speaking world
right now, where would it be?
I was in New York recently, and it was mind-blowing, so
I’d really like to go back.
Which is your favourite English-speaking city, and why?
New York (see above). And why? I don’t know if this is
really true, but society there seems so modern.
desert island [)dezEt (aIlEnd]
Godspeed [)gQd(spi:d]
interzone [(IntEzEUn]
into: be ~ sth. [(Intu:] ifml.
lyrics [(lIrIks]
mind-blowing
[(maInd )blEUIN] ifml.
novel [(nQv&l]
salutation [)sÄlju(teIS&n]
turtle [(t§:t&l]
70 Spotlight 3|14
verlassene Insel
(veralt.) viel Glück, gute Reise
etwa: Zwischenreich
voll auf etw. stehen
Songtext
irre, überwältigend
Roman
Gruß(formel); hier: Abschiedsgruß
Wasserschildkröte
When did you last use English (before this interview)?
I talked to Meredith Graves, singer of the rising American
rock band Perfect Pussy. We did an interview for the
German pop-culture magazine Spex.
What is your favourite English word, and why?
“Interzone”, because it sounds really good. It’s a fictional
place in the William S. Burroughs novel Naked Lunch, a
kind of other world. I like the idea of escapism in this
word. And it’s the only English word in the lyrics of my
band, Messer, so far. I also really like the salutation
“Godspeed”, which I heard in a Wes Anderson movie.
Which phrase do you use most in English?
Trying to be cool, it’s something like: “Yeah, I guess...”
Which English word was hardest for you to learn to say?
“Tomorrow”.
Which person from the English-speaking world would
you choose to be alone with on a desert island, and why?
It must be Patrick McGoohan, the star of the 1960s
British TV series The Prisoner. Somehow, he would help
to get us back to civilization.
How do you improve your English?
I like learning by doing, so talking is important.
Sometimes, I also watch episodes of
the US comedy show Curb Your
Enthusiasm.
If you found yourself with a
free afternoon in New York,
what would you do?
Eat falafel over rice in Central
Park and watch the turtles
swimming.
Is there anything in your home
from the English-speaking
world?
Oh, yes — tons of
records.
Foto: Jan Wagner - Van Der Straten

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Green Light
3 2014
ENGLISCH LEICHT GEMACHT!
Learn
words for
vegetables
Culture
Read all
about
John Deere
Find out
how to write a
business
memo

GREEN LIGHT | News
This month…
Was beschäftigt die englischsprachige
Welt im März? VANESSA CLARK
spürt die heißen Storys für Sie auf.
A sport for farmers
Sport New Zealand is a country with four
million people and 40 million sheep.
Every March, the town of Masterton
holds the Golden Shears competition to find
the best sheep-shearers. Sheep-shearing has
always been a physically hard farm activity,
but now, it’s also a sport. The best shearers
can cut the wool off 20 sheep in less than 16
minutes.
How do you say that name?
As well as sheep-shearing, there’s
wool pressing, where the wool is pressed into
packs. On a farm, this is done by a machine,
but at the Golden Shears championship, the
competitors use the power of their muscles.
You can watch clips of sheep-shearers in
action at www.goldenshears.co.nz
Films The new movie The Grand Budapest Hotel (from 13 March in
cinemas) has a long list of big stars: Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Bill
Murray, Jude Law and the young Irish-American actress Saoirse Ronan.
Saoirse (pronounced “sir-sha”) Ronan is 19 years old. She started
her film career at the age of 13 with a role in Atonement (German title:
Abbitte) and was the youngest actress to be nominated for an Oscar, a
BAFTA and a Golden Globe.
Ronan now lives in Dublin. What is her dream? “I really want to
go to college,” she says. “I was born in New York, so I’d love to study
at New York University.”
80 years ago
1934
Britain On 26 March 1934, the driving test was introduced in the United
Kingdom. In those days, it was just a test of driving practice, not theory.
In fact, there was no written test in Britain until 1998.
actress [(ÄktrEs]
driving test [(draIvIN test]
introduce [)IntrE(dju:s]
nominate [(nQmIneIt]
physically [(fIzIk&li]
role [rEUl]
sheep-shearer [(Si:p )SIErE]
Schauspielerin
Führerscheinprüfung
etw. einführen
nominieren
körperlich
Rolle
Schafscherer(in)
2
Spotlight 3|14

Vegetables
8 pictures | GREEN LIGHT
STEPHANIE SHELLABEAR presents words for eight common vegetables.
1
8
2
3
7
4
6
Titel: iStock; Fotos Doppelseite: Corbis; Fox Film; goldenshears.co.nz; Illustrationen: B. Förth
Write the words
below next to
the pictures.
1. carrot [(kÄrEt]
2. pea [pi:]
3. sweetcorn
[(swi:tkO:n]
4. onion [(VnjEn]
5. cabbage
[(kÄbIdZ]
6. potato
[pE(teItEU]
7. mushroom
[(mVSrUm]
8. green bean
[)gri:n (bi:n]
1. Underline the vegetable that
doesn’t belong in each group.
a) carrot / mushroom / onion / potato
b) cabbage / green bean / onion / pea
c) carrot / mushroom / onion / potato
2. Which vegetable is it?
a) People say that if you eat this vegetable,
you see better in the dark. ____________
b) This vegetable can make you cry when
you cut it. _____________
c) This is the vegetable used to make
sauerkraut. ___________
5
In British English,
there is a short,
informal name
for vegetables:
veg [vedZ]:
• Come on! Eat
up your veg!
Some people use
the informal word
veggie [(vedZi]
for dish es with no
meat:
• Would you like
some more
veggie
lasagne?
Tips
Answers: 1. a) mushroom (the others are root vegetables that grow below ground); b) onion (the
others are green); c) potato (the others can be eaten uncooked); 2. a) carrot; b) onion; c) cabbage
3|14 Spotlight
3

GREEN LIGHT | Grammar elements
“Was” and “were”
STEPHANIE SHELLABEAR presents basic grammar.
This month: using “was” and “were” to talk about the past.
The past simple forms of the verb “be” are was and were. The past simple is used
when talking (or thinking) about a point of time in the past:
singular
plural
I was we were
you were you were
he / she / it was they were
• I was ill yesterday.
• We were happy to hear from you.
• It was very cold last night.
To make the negative form, “not” is added. When speaking, the short form is used:
singular
plural
I was not (wasn’t) we were not (weren’t)
you were not (weren’t) you were not (weren’t)
he / she / it was not (wasn’t) they were not (weren’t)
• The boys weren’t at school last week.
• The meal wasn’t good.
• I wasn’t late for the meeting yesterday.
To form a question, the verb needs to be placed at the beginning of the sentence:
singular
Was I...?
Were you...?
Was he / she / it...?
plural
Were we...?
Were you...?
Were they...?
• Were you there?
• Was Marion happy?
• Were your parents at home?
Underline the correct verb form in the
following sentences.
a) This book wasn’t / weren’t very interesting.
b) Was / Were your friends at the party?
c) My last job was / were in Scotland.
d) We was / were in New Zealand last summer.
e) No, it wasn’t / weren’t my idea.
When somebody asks you a
question, a short answer is often
given:
• Were you at home all day?
— Yes, we were. /
— No, we weren’t.
• Was the film good?
— Yes, it was. / No, it wasn’t.
Tips
Answers
a) wasn’t; b) Were; c) was;
d) were; e) wasn’t
Fotos: iStock
4
Spotlight 3|14

What’s new?
Andrew comes home from work to find Donna in the kitchen.
By DAGMAR TAYLOR
Donna: Hello, love! Did you have a good
day at work?
Andrew: Not bad. How about you?
Donna: Fine, thanks. I spoke to both of our
children — so that was nice.
Andrew: Did you call them, or did they call
you?
Donna: Well, I called Paula, and about five
minutes later, Stephen called me.
Andrew: And? Are they both OK? Any
news?
Donna: Yes. Stephen got that job he applied
for.
Andrew: Oh, brilliant! Is he happy?
Donna: Yes. He certainly sounded pleased.
And Paula is engaged!
Andrew: Oh! To Matt?
Donna: Yes, of course to Matt.
Andrew: Well, good! When’s the wedding,
then?
The Greens | GREEN LIGHT
• If someone asks you how you are or
how your day was, you can say: not
bad (ifml.), which means “quite good”.
• It’s polite (höflich) to ask the other
person how he or she is as well. You can
say: How about you?
• Both of is used with plural nouns and
means “the two of”. It is also possible to
leave out “of” and say: “I spoke to both
our children.”
• Fresh information about something
that has happened recently is news.
Remember that “news” is uncountable
(unzählbar). Don’t say: “That’s a good
news”, but instead: “That’s good news!”
• Another way of saying “very good” is
brilliant (UK ifml.).
• If you sound pleased, it’s possible to
tell from your voice (Stimme) that you
are happy about something.
Tips
Underline the correct word to
complete the sentences below.
a) Did you have a good day at / in work?
b) Donna spoke to / with both of her
children.
c) Stephen applied for / to a job.
d) Paula is engaged to / with Matt.
Donna
Andrew
Listen to the dialogue at
www.spotlight-online.de/products/green-light
apply for sth. [E(plaI fE]
engaged [In(geIdZd]
wedding [(wedIN]
sich um etw.
bewerben
verlobt
Hochzeit
Answers: a) at; b) to; c) for; d) to

GREEN LIGHT | Get writing
A business memo
VANESSA CLARK helps you to write letters,
e-mails and more in English.
This month: how to write a business memo.
First-aid training day
To:
Cc:
Subject:
a.connor@sharpobjects.co.uk
First-aid training day
Dear colleagues
I’d like to remind everyone about our first-aid training day on Monday, 24 March.
Full details can be found online under “training”. It’s important that everyone attends.
Please note that we will meet in the Norton Room at 9 a.m. Please be prompt.
If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Sue Lucas
Health and Safety Officer
• A memo is an e-mail that one person in a company sends to a lot of employees
(Angestellte(r)) all together. It can remind people about an event (Veranstaltung);
it can ask them to do something; or it can thank them for good work.
• You don’t need to be very formal in a memo, because it is an internal e-mail (inside the
company). It shouldn’t be too informal either, since it is being sent to a large group of
people, often people who work under you. It’s OK to use short forms such as I’d and it’s.
• Many memos end with Thank you for your cooperation or “Thank you for your help”.
Tips
attend [E(tend]
be prompt [bi (prQmpt]
first-aid training
[)f§:st (eId )treInIN]
teilnehmen
pünktlich sein
Erste-Hilfe-Kurs
get in touch [)get In (tVtS]
Health and Safety Officer
[)helT End (seIfti )QfIsE]
sich in Verbindung
setzen, sich melden
Beauftragte(r) für
Arbeitssicherheit
Use
it!
Highlight the key
words and phrases that you
would use if you needed to write a
memo like this yourself.
Fotos: John Deere; iStock
6 Spotlight 3|14

Culture corner | GREEN LIGHT
I like…John Deere
Jeden Monat stellt ein Redakteur etwas Besonderes aus der
englischsprachigen Welt vor. Diesen Monat präsentiert RITA FORBES
einen bekannten Hersteller landwirtschaftlicher Maschinen.
What it is
John Deere is the biggest producer of farming
equipment in the world. The company
was started in 1837, after a blacksmith
named John Deere had moved across the
US, from Vermont to Illinois. Pioneers were
trying to start farms in the area. But the
heavy dirt of the Midwest stuck to the
blades of the plows. Deere made a plow of
sharp, polished metal that worked much
better. By 1850, his company was producing
more than 1,500 plows each year. In 1918,
they began making tractors, too.
• John Deere’s original plow is on
Fun
facts
display at the Smithsonian. It’s one
of the “101 objects that made America.”
• The company’s slogan — “Nothing runs
like a Deere” — is a play on words.
• John Deere clothing has become
quite fashionable —
for people from the
country, but also for
people who aren’t.
Why I like it
For me, John Deere is a symbol of the Midwest.
The company’s history also symbolizes
Midwestern values, such as hard work
and helping other people. During the Great
Depression of the 1930s, many people who
had bought farming equipment on credit
could not pay back what they owed. John
Deere gave the farmers more time to pay off
their debts. Today, more than 60,000 people
around the world work for John Deere.
The green tractor and the logo showing a
jumping deer are immediately recognizable.
blacksmith [(blÄksmIT]
blade [bleId]
debt [det]
deer [dI&r]
display: be on ~
[dI(spleI]
farming equipment
[(fA:rmIN I)kwIpmEnt]
Great Depression
[)greIt di(preS&n]
plow [plaU]
recognizable
[(rekEgnaIzEb&l]
stick to sth. [(stIk tE]
value [(vÄlju:]
(Huf)Schmied
Schneide; hier:
(Pflug)Schar
Schuld
Hirsch
ausgestellt sein
landwirtschaftliche
Geräte und Maschinen
Weltwirtschaftskrise
Pflug
erkennbar
an etw. festkleben
Wert
3|14 Spotlight
7

GREEN LIGHT | Notes and numbers
A person’s
age
Your notes
Use this space for your own notes.
It is not always necessary (notwendig) to say
someone’s exact age, and often, we don’t
even know it. If you think someone is between
the ages of 20 and 29, you can say:
“He’s in his twenties.” If someone is between
the ages of 30 and 39, you can say: “She’s in
her thirties”, and so on.
Write the following age groups as
you would say them.
in his / her teens
a) 13–19 ________________________________
b) 30–39 _______________________________
c) 40–49 _______________________________
d) 60–69 _______________________________
e) 80–89 ______________________________
Look your age
If you look your age, you look as old as
you really are, not older or younger:
• Joan Collins is in her eighties?
Wow! She really doesn’t look her age.
Answers: b) in his / her thirties; c) in his / her forties;
d) in his / her sixties; e) in his / her eighties
Fotos: iStock
IMPRESSUM
Herausgeber und Verlagsleiter: Dr. Wolfgang Stock
Chefredakteurin: Inez Sharp
Stellvertretende Chefredakteurin: Claudine Weber-Hof
Chefin vom Dienst: Susanne Pfeifer
Autoren: Vanessa Clark, Stephanie Shellabear,
Dagmar Taylor
Redaktion: Owen Connors, Elisabeth Erpf, Anja Giese,
Peter Green, Reinhild Luk, Michael Pilewski (Online),
Michele Tilgner, Joanna Westcombe
Bildredaktion: Sarah Gough (Leitung), Thorsten Mansch
Gestaltung: Marion Sauer/Johannes Reiner
www.vor-zeichen.de
Anzeigenleitung: Axel Zettler
Marketingleitung: Holger Hofmann
Produktionsleitung: Ingrid Sturm
Vertriebsleitung: Monika Wohlgemuth
Verlag und Redaktion: Spotlight Verlag GmbH
Postanschrift: Postfach 1565, 82144 Planegg, Deutschland
Telefon +49(0)89/8 56 81-0, Fax +49(0)89/8 56 81-105
Internet: www.spotlight-online.de
Litho: Mohn Media Mohndruck GmbH, 33311 Gütersloh
Druck: Medienhaus Ortmeier, 48369 Saerbeck
© 2014 Spotlight Verlag, auch für alle genannten Autoren,
Fotografen und Mitarbeiter.
UNSER SPRACHNIVEAU: Das Sprachniveau in Green Light entspricht ungefähr Stufe A2 des
Gemeinsamen Europäischen Referenzrahmens für Sprachen.