Spotlight California Special (Vorschau)

Spotlight
EINFACH ENGLISCH
8 2014
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CALIFORNIA
SPECIAL
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EDITORIAL | August 2014
California: sun, surf
and great sights
Titelfoto: Getty Images; Thinkstock; Foto Editorial: iStock
Is California one of your must-see places?
It’s certainly one of mine. I want to surf the
waves at Malibu and stand before a towering
redwood tree. I’d like to drive along Hollywood
Boulevard and take a look at the Walk
Inez Sharp, editor-in-chief
of Fame. And that’s just the beginning of my list of wishes. This month, our
travel feature takes us to California. First on a tour of the Golden State’s most
famous sights and then, in the company of Spotlight author Talitha Linehan,
we explore sun-kissed San Diego. Our California special begins on page 14.
Jelly, that delightfully colourful and slightly old-fashioned dessert, has
been reinvented by two British entrepreneurs. Sam Bompas and Harry Parr
make buildings of jelly, lakes of jelly and even jelly jewellery as edible decoration
for special events. And they have not stopped at jelly — a chocolate climbing
wall and fireworks tasting of fruit also belong to the repertoire of Bompas
and Parr. Turn to page 26 to get a taste of their inventions.
Summertime is good for crime (stories). Are you still looking for a good
read for your holidays? The bestselling Canadian crime writer Linwood Barclay
talks to Spotlight about his books, his readers and the challenges of having his
work translated into a foreign language. Investigate Barclay and his books. The
feature begins on page 30.
A creative-writing class was
asked to write a short essay
containing the following elements:
religion, royalty, sex
and mystery. The prize-winning
essay read: “‘My God!’ said
the queen. ‘I’m pregnant.’”
A creative-writing class was
asked to write a short essay
containing the following elements:
religion, royalty, sex
and mystery. The prize-winning
essay read: “‘My God!’ said
the queen. ‘I’m pregnant.’”
A creative-writing class was
asked to write a short essay
containing the following elements:
religion, royalty, sex
and mystery. The prize-winning
essay read: “‘My God!’ said
the queen. ‘I’m pregnant.’”
ENGLISCH LERNEN IST EIN WITZ?
Ja, mit diesem Spiel, in dem die Spieler Witze,
Reime, Zungenbrecher und lustige Zitate zum
Besten geben. Und da Spielen ja eine ernste
Angelegenheit ist, versuchen alle sich das
Lachen zu verkneifen, denn das gibt Extrapunkte.
Für 3 – 8 Spieler ab 12 Jahren. Mit 400 Witzen,
Zungenbrechern und Reimen, 252 Kärtchen
mit 504 Vokabeln und 1 Spielanleitung mit
ausführlichem Vokabelteil.
In Zusammenarbeit mit:
i.sharp@spotlight-verlag.de
Wish you were here:
Sunset Beach
in San Diego
JETZT BESTELLEN!
www.sprachenshop.de/spiele
oder im Buch- und Spielwarenhandel
3 19,95 (UVP)
Mehr Informationen auf
www.grubbemedia.de

CONTENTS | August 2014
14
California dreaming
Ten pages on the Golden State: highlights for travellers
and a special focus on the city of San Diego.
24
Flip-flops for good
The Forkan brothers lost their parents in the 2004
tsunami. Their innovative business helps the victims.
6 People
Names and faces from around the world
8 A Day in My Life
A crossword specialist from Britain
10 World View
What’s news and what’s hot
13 Britain Today
Colin Beaven on memorials and warhorses
26 Food
Desserts that look like famous buildings
28 I Ask Myself
Amy Argetsinger on sex and guns
34 Around Oz
Peter Flynn on Australia‘s unpopular PM
36 Debate
Should Britain invest in fracking?
38 History
The Panama Canal opened 100 years ago
40 Press Gallery
A look at the English-language media
42 Arts
Films, apps, books, culture and a short story
66 The Lighter Side
Jokes and cartoons
67 American Life
Ginger Kuenzel on life’s many surprises
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
Cabaret artist and historian Sebastian Schnoy
Fotos: action press; Spencer Barclay; iStock
THE SPOTLIGHT FAMILY
Spotlight plus Spotlight Audio
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
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 on page 64 and at:
www.spotlight-online.de/audio
Spotlight
8 2014
AUDIO – EINFACH ENGLISCH
Crime fiction:
interview with
Linwood Barclay
Debate: Does
Britain need
fracking?
CALIFORNIA
SPECIAL
4
Spotlight 8|14

30
When crime pays
Author Linwood Barclay talks about his books and
the growing success of Canadian crime writers.
Easy English
Want to put more fun into learning English?
Give the Green Light booklet a try.
35
IN THIS MAGAZINE: 14 LANGUAGE PAGES
48 Vocabulary
All about cars
50 Travel Talk
Packing for your trip
53 Language Cards
Pull out and practise
55 Everyday English
Preparing to celebrate a birthday
57 The Grammar Page
Using the second conditional (if + past simple)
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
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.
59 English at Work
Ken Taylor answers your questions
60 Spoken English
How to soften what we say 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).
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.
8|14 Spotlight
5

PEOPLE | Names and Faces
The politician
Who exactly is…
Nigel
Farage?
The right-wing, Eurosceptic UK
Independence Party won 27.5
per cent of the British vote in
the European elections this May. It
was the first time for more than 100
years that the most votes in an election
did not go to either the Conservative
or the Labour Party.
A person who always says what
he thinks and has a colourful personality,
UKIP leader Nigel Farage
has become one of the most talkedabout
politicians in Britain. He is often
seen smoking and drinking, and
in 2010, a video in which he said the
president of the European Council
had “the charisma of a damp rag”
went viral on the internet.
Trickfilm-
Fahne, Transparent
feucht
Märchen
sich rasant verbreiten
etw. nachgeben, frönen
in Übergröße
Lappen
jmdn. beschimpfen
Heckflosse
animated [(ÄnImeItId]
banner [(bÄnE]
damp [dÄmp]
fairy tale [(feEri teI&l]
go viral [)gEU (vaI&rEl]
indulge sth. [In(dVldZ]
plus-size [(plVs saIz]
rag [rÄg]
revile sb. [ri(vaI&l]
tail fin [(teI&l fIn]
Farage was born to an uppermiddle-class
family in Kent in 1964.
Growing up, he enjoyed playing
cricket more than going to school. At
the age of 18, he decided to work in
finance in London rather than go to
university; and in 1993, he helped to
found UKIP. From the
beginning, the party’s
goal was to get the
UK out of the European
Union. The party’s
success is partly the result of
Farage’s leadership, combined with
people’s disappointment with the
political process and concern about
subjects like immigration.
Farage’s energy and personality
may have been shaped in part by
several near-death experiences. The
BBC writes that he was hit by a car
and almost lost a leg when he was in
his 20s. Shortly after that, he was diagnosed
with cancer. And in 2010,
he was injured in an aeroplane crash.
Ironically, the crash was caused by a
UKIP banner which got caught in
the plane’s tail fin.
Kirsten Mehr, whom Farage married
in 1999, is German. She has
told the press that her nationality is
proof that Farage is not racist. He
describes himself as anti-EU, but not
anti-Europe.
In the news
He doesn’t think you
should believe in God, but
Richard Dawkins
says there’s nothing
wrong with fairy tales.
Newspapers recently printed a comment
by the prominent British atheist,
which suggested that it was unhealthy
to indulge “the fantasies of childhood”.
Dawkins says his comments were misunderstood.
“Fairy tales can be wonderful,”
he told The Guardian. “They
are stretching the imagination of children.”
Dawkins believes that religion is
a kind of fairy tale. He says that, “After
children learn that there is no Santa
Claus, mysteriously they go on believing
that there is a God.”
After his role as Luke Skywalker
in the Star Wars
films, Mark Hamill
largely dropped out of
sight. Since the 1980s, he
has done mostly speaking
roles for animated TV series.
But in episode seven
of Star Wars, which will
come out in 2015, Luke is back. He told
the Orlando Sentinel that the movie
offer surprised him. “I don’t really do
a lot of on-camera [work] any more.
And I’m perfectly happy with that.”
But he knew fans would be unhappy
if he wasn’t in the movie: “I would be
the most reviled person on the planet.”
In Hollywood, talent counts for nothing
if you don’t have a perfect body.
Actress Melissa McCarthy was
reminded of this when she was looking
for something to wear to the Oscar
ceremony two years ago. “I couldn’t
find anybody to do a dress for me,”
she told Redbook. “I asked five or six
designers — very high-level ones who
make lots of dresses for people
— and they all said no.” So she
began working with designer
Daniella Pearl to create
“plus-size” clothing.
McCarthy once studied
at New York’s Fashion Institute
of Technology.
Fotos: Corbis; PR
6
Spotlight 8|14

Out of the ordinary
When Sanal Edamaruku was a child, a young woman who
lived near his home in Kerala, India, died because she believed in
faith healing and refused medical treatment. This experience made
a deep impression on Edamaruku. He has spent his life showing that
there are no such things as miracles. Two years ago, he explained
on TV that water dripping from a statue of Christ near Mumbai was
caused by a plumbing problem, not by God. This made some supporters
of the Roman Catholic Church very angry. The BBC explains
that India has laws against criticizing religion, and Edamaruku
could have gone to prison. He decided to leave India, and now lives
in Finland.
Over the past 25 years, businesswoman
Grace Amey-Obeng has helped
improve Ghanaian women’s health. CNN
explains that Amey-Obeng was the first
person to bring the beauty industry to
Ghana. She began by selling cosmetics
door to door and is now one of the country’s
top business persons, with a multimillion
dollar business and a beauty school that trains 500 people a
year. Amey-Obeng has also worked hard to stop the common practice
of skin-lightening. “We went to the markets with our vans and
spoke about the dangers of bleaching, especially in this climate,”
she said. “When you remove the protective layer of the skin, you
expose all of yourself to the sun and [can] eventually develop skin
cancer.”
The newcomer
• Name: Mayam Mahmoud
• Age: 18
• Profession: rapper (and economics student)
• Background: from Cairo, Egypt
• What she has done: Mahmoud gained attention last
autumn on the TV show Arabs Got Talent, where she
rapped about Egypt’s problem of sexual harassment
and went on to be honoured by the Index Freedom of
Expression awards.
• Why it’s important: Mahmoud is changing attitudes
— rap is still considered to be for men, even in the
Western world. She is also highlighting an important
topic. The Guardian reports that 99.3 per cent of Egyptian
women say they have been sexually harassed.
Mahmoud writes her own songs, and even if you don’t
understand Arabic, they’re great to listen to.
Henry Marsh, a leading brain surgeon in London, believes that
wearing a helmet does not make cyclists any safer. “I see lots of
people in bike accidents, and these little helmets don’t help,” he
said recently. Researchers from the University of Bath, he pointed
out, have also found that motorists drive closer to cyclists who
are wearing helmets, thinking that they are more responsible and
experienced. The Telegraph, which reported Marsh’s comments, reminded
readers that another study showed that wearing a helmet
could mean about 15 per cent fewer deaths for cyclists.
Preis, Auszeichnung
Bleichen
Fahrradfahrer(in)
Volkswirtschaft
irgendwann, schließlich
aussetzen
Gesundbeten, Geistheilung
Belästigung
Helm
Wunder
Wasserleitungs-, Installations-
betonen, anführen
Schutzschicht
award [E(wO:d]
bleaching [(bli:tSIN]
cyclist [(saIklIst]
economics [)i:kE(nQmIks]
eventually [I(ventSuEli]
expose [Ik(spEUz]
faith healing [(feIT )hi:&lIN]
harassment [(hÄrEsmEnt]
helmet [(helmIt]
miracle [(mIrEk&l]
plumbing [(plVmIN]
point out [pOInt (aUt]
protective layer
[prE)tektIv (leIE]
skin-lightening
[(skIn )laIt&nIN]
surgeon [(s§:dZEn]
Hautaufhellung
Chirurg(in)
CALIFORNIA
DREAMING!
Ob Los Angeles, San Francisco oder
Santa Barbara - Kaliforniens Großstädte
sind kulturell vielfältig, höchst lebendig
und äußerst sehenswert.
Verbessern Sie Ihre Sprachkenntnisse
innerhalb kürzester Zeit an unseren 3
Sprachschulen in Kalifornien oder an
einer unserer anderen 41 Destinationen.
EF Berlin
030 203 47 110
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0211 688 57 0
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089 23 11 90 10
EF Stuttgart
0711 25 99 64 0
KOSTENLOSER
SPRACHTEST
www.ef.com/test
Texts by RITA FORBES
Internationale Sprachschulen

A DAY IN MY LIFE | Britain
Der Kreuzworträtselverfasser Tim Moorey ist ein Mann vieler Worte, dem es Spaß macht, andere
auf den Holzweg zu führen. Von JULIAN EARWAKER
My name is Tim Moorey, and I’m a crossword setter.
I’m 73 and live in London. Solving or writing
cryptic crosswords is like learning a language. A
cryptic clue gives two ways of reaching the answer: one by
using a simple definition, and the other by wordplay —
things like moving letters around. Solving crosswords is a
form of code-breaking. You need a certain type of brain. If
people can’t understand the wordplay, then I have failed.
The challenge is to set a clue that people can solve in the
end, ideally with a smile.
I’m up by half past six and start by setting a crossword
or improving one I’ve completed. I think about some
clues all week. It takes me a morning to set a crossword.
I use a database and have checkers to make suggestions
and find errors. The computer can fit words into a grid in
microseconds. The complicated part is writing the clues,
which is what I enjoy.
When I was 15, my father explained how cryptic crosswords
work. The following year, I set my first one, which
was published in the London Evening News. It seems I may
have been better than my father, and he wasn’t too happy
with that. I was always solving crosswords. I’ve done the
Azed puzzle in The Observer for more than 50 years.
Crosswords were never a career option. My school
said that I could go to Oxford to study law, but I trained
as a chartered merchant accountant with BP. I took early
retirement and did some tests which showed that I wasn’t
very good with numbers. Then I joined the civil service,
where I was welcomed as a wordsmith. When the setter
for The Sunday Times died, I wrote a tribute crossword.
The editor liked it and asked me to join the team. Today,
I work for many magazines and papers.
Most lunchtimes, my wife and I go for a walk in London.
We retired to the city from the country. We love
classical music and opera. It’s strange how many musicians
enjoy crosswords. I like to have a sleep after lunch
and later sit down and watch TV, read or listen to music.
Crosswords were once a solitary occupation. Now they
are a social activity, with lunches, clubs and events.
There are two main schools of crossword setting:
Ximenean, using rules established in 1966 by crossword
setter Ximenes of The Observer, and the more idiosyncratic
form in The Guardian, of which Araucaria was the biggest
supporter until his recent death. I follow the Ximenean
school. I formed a crossword-setting group called the
“Gruntlings” 25 years ago, and we still meet monthly to
help each other with clues.
chartered merchant accountant
[)tSA:tEd )m§:tSEnt E(kaUntEnt] UK
checker [(tSekE]
civil service [)sIv&l (s§:vIs]
crossword setter
[(krQsw§:d )setE]
cryptic clue [)krIptIk (klu:]
early retirement ​[)§:li ri(taIEmEnt]
grid [grId]
idiosyncratic [)IdiEUsIN(krÄtIk]
solitary [(sQlEtEri]
tribute [(trIbju:t]
wordsmith [(w§:dsmIT]
zugelassene(r) Wirtschaftsprüfer(in)
hier: Prüfprogramm
Staats-, Verwaltungsdienst
Kreuzworträtselverfasser(in)
verschlüsselter Hinweis
vorgezogener Ruhestand
Raster
eigenwillig
allein, für sich
Hommage
Wortakrobat(in)
Fotos: Julian Earwaker; iStock
8
Spotlight 8|14

INFO TO GO
cryptic crossword
Do you have a cryptic-crossword brain? There are two
parts of the solution to a cryptic puzzle: the definitional
clue (in italics below) and the wordplay. For example, the
clue: “find record above” provides the definitional clue of
“find”; then there is the wordplay of “record” meaning
“disc”, and “above” meaning “over”. Both parts lead to the
solution “discover”. The number of letters of the answer is
given after the clue.
He enjoys deceiving you: Tim Moorey, crossword setter
I give talks about crosswords and about one of my
heroes, the 18th-century writer and lexicographer Dr
Sam uel Johnson. I’ve taught 220 schoolgirls how to do a
cryptic crossword in a day. I also run three or four courses
a year on how to solve cryptic crosswords. People show
crossword setters an unexpected amount of respect. When
I meet my solvers, they treat me as if I have some sort of
super brain, which is not true. My love of crosswords is
about the richness of the English language. I gave a talk in
America, and a lady told me that the English like cryptic
puzzles because they are more devious than Americans.
My intention is to deceive, but it’s only temporary — I
don’t want people to be permanently misled. That’s the
beauty of crosswords: there is always a solution.
abbreviation [E)bri:vi(eIS&n]
anagram [(ÄnEgrÄm]
deceive [di(si:v]
devious [(di:viEs]
in italics [In I(tÄlIks]
mislead [mIs(li:d]
priory [(praIEri]
Kurzform
Buchstabenrätsel
hier: in die Irre führen
( p. 61)
doppelzüngig
kursiv gesetzt
täuschen, irreleiten
Priorat
Clues
1. Church house in earlier years (6)
(According to cryptic-crossword rules, the word “years” is
normally abbreviated to the letter “y”.)
2. Mum, listen for a change (6)
(In cryptic crosswords, “change” usually means to use the
letters of a word or words to form an anagram.)
3. Is a departure so good? (11)
(In this cryptic definition, the last two words are the key.)
Solutions
1. Priory. In the wordplay of “earlier years”, one finds
the word “prior”, while the letter “y” is an accepted
abbreviation for “years”. These give the solution
“priory”, which is also a church house in the straight
definition.
2. Silent. “To keep mum” means “to remain silent”, and the
word “change” tells you that this is an anagram of the
six-letter word “listen”, which then gives you “silent”.
3. Exceptional. A departure is something away from the
normal, or something “exceptional”, which is also the
meaning of “so good”.
The clues above are from How to Master The Times
Crossword by Tim Moorey (HarperCollins, £12.99, hardback).
Moorey’s latest guide is The Times How to Crack
Cryptic Crosswords (HarperCollins, £7.99 paperback).
For more tips, visit Tim Moorey’s website:
www.timmoorey.info
Crossword puzzles: a standard feature of newspapers

WORLD VIEW | News in Brief
Cowboy sport: the rodeo
in Writing-on-Stone
It’s a good month for a…
CANADA He was 16 years old when he took
part in his first rodeo. Now 72, Les O’Hara is still crazy
about the cowboy gathering in the pretty prairie of
southern Alberta. Compared to Canada’s far bigger and
more commercial Calgary Stampede, the tiny Writingon-Stone
rodeo to be held on 3–4 August is, for him,
the real thing — an experience that is as authentic as it
is up-close and personal. “Here, when a horse comes up
to the fence, he’s blowing dirt and snot on you,” O’Hara
told Maclean’s magazine.
rodeo
Nearly 300 Canadians enter events such as calf roping
and bull riding. The contest is classed at the amateur
level, and no prize money is awarded. “The top guys win
a saddle,” O’Hara said. Perhaps even more importantly,
the competing cowboys can tell their friends they’ve taken
part in “the most beautiful rodeo in North America”.
Next to the rodeo grounds is Writing-on-Stone Provincial
Park. Visitors come to this part of the prairie —
once home to native peoples — to photograph the First
Nations rock paintings. See www.albertaparks.ca
bull riding [(bUl )raIdIN]
calf roping [(kA:f )rEUpIN]
cash-strapped
[(kÄS )strÄpt] ifml.
fall victim to sth.
[fO:l (vIktIm tE]
flash [flÄS]
glowing [US (gloUIN]
Bullenreiten
Kälberfangen
notleidend, knapp bei Kasse
einer Sache zum Opfer fallen
hier: Streifen
leuchtend
kick up [kIk (Vp] ifml.
rigid [(rIdZId]
saddle [(sÄd&l]
snot [snQt] ifml.
space suit [(speIs su:t]
up-close and personal
[Vp )klEUs End (p§:s&nEl]
upper torso [US )Vp&r (tO:rsoU]
ankurbeln, aufleben lassen
starr
Sattel
Rotz
Raumanzug
aus nächster Nähe
hier: Oberteil
Staying stylish in space
UNITED STATES Everyone
remembers the space suits worn by the astronauts
who went to the moon in the
1960s. The design changed little over
the years, until NASA introduced a
new “Z” series of space clothing
in 2012, with modern aspects
intended to give astronauts
more flexibility. Now the design
has been updated once
again for a new generation of
NASA spacewear.
The public was asked to
vote on three different models for
the new “Z-2.” The winner, named
10 Spotlight 8|14
Top designs:
NASA’s new
space suits
“Technology,” is a gray suit with glowing blue flashes on
the front and sides. The design, which used 3-D
printing technology and includes a more
rigid upper torso, cost $4.4 million to
develop. Bloomberg Businessweek
reports that the “innovative
design can kick up interest in
space exploration at a time
when the cash-strapped organization’s
most high-profile
projects have fallen victim to
budget cuts.” Still in development,
the suit is being tested
for possible use on future space
missions.
Fotos: Getty Images; iStock; laif; NASA

No need to eat:
Rob Rhinehart and
his food substitute
The perfect food?
UNITED STATES An American businessman claims to
have invented the ultimate fast food. Rob Rhinehart, a 25-year-old electrical engineer,
has launched a food substitute called Soylent. The meals come in drink
form and combine carbohydrates, protein, and fatty acids, as well as essential
vitamins and minerals.
Named after the 1973 science-fiction film Soylent Green, starring Charlton
Heston, the food has been Rhinehart’s only source of nutrition for the past year, he says.
But critics question whether anyone can remain healthy consuming Soylent alone. They
also want to know if the product has been properly tested. Some say that nutrition is much
more complex than this “shortcut” suggests.
Professor Ashley Blackshaw, a UK food expert, told The Independent that he was concerned
that “all sorts of trace elements and phytochemicals, such as lycopene — which is
found in tomatoes — are missing” from the product. Soylent, however, is cheap and can be
prepared in a few minutes. Its neutral taste is already proving a big hit in the US, with orders
in the tens of thousands and plans for it to be tested by the military. For now, it looks as if
Soylent will make its inventor very rich.
bird of prey [)b§:d Ev (preI]
carbohydrate [US )kA:rboU(haIdreIt]
carbon fibre [(kA:bEn )faIbE]
drone [drEUn]
fatty acid [)fÄti (ÄsId]
lycopene [US (laIkoUpi:n]
nutrition [US nu(trIS&n]
oil-seed rape crop
[)OI&l si:d (reIp krQp]
Raubvogel
Kohlenhydrat
Carbonfaser
Drohne
Fettsäure
Lycopin
Ernährung
Rapssaat
parcel [(pA:s&l]
phytochemical
[US )faItoU(kemIk&l]
remote [ri(mEUt]
scarecrow [(skeEkrEU]
shortcut [US (SO:rtkVt]
trace element [(treIs )elImEnt]
warfare [(wO:feE]
Paket, Päckchen
sekundärer Pflanzenstoff
ferngesteuert
Vogelscheuche
Kurzform, Abkürzung
Spurenelement
Kriegsführung
Drones are coming to a farm near you
BRITAIN From parcel delivery to remote
warfare, unmanned drones are increasingly being used
around the world. Now a Suffolk farmer is using one of
the flying machines as a high-tech scarecrow.
Helicopter pilot Richard Maddever, 27, has started
flying a small drone to scare birds away from the oil-seed
rape crop on his family’s farm. His drone is constructed
of carbon fibre and plastic, and it weighs 2.5 kilos. Using
GPS navigation and a small battery, it can fly at speeds
of up to 65 kph and stays in the air for a full 20 minutes.
“At first, I tried it at a height of just five metres and
a speed of 50 kph,” Maddever told Farmers Weekly. “But
I quickly learned that the birds are more scared when it’s
higher, like a bird of prey. Now I use it at a height of 15
metres, which works well.”
Rules allow farmers to fly drones on their own land
at any height below 120 metres. Drones are efficient and
quiet and, at a cost of around €800 to €1,200, could be
cheaper than normal bird-scaring equipment. Maddever
is so impressed that he now plans to buy a larger drone.
Flying machines: a new way
to frighten away birds
8|14 Spotlight 11

WORLD VIEW | News in Brief
UNITED STATES
You’re at the beach. You lay
out your towel, arrange your
things — wallet, keys, phone
— and fall asleep in the sun. An hour later, your valuables are gone. Could
you have done anything to prevent them from being stolen?
To answer this question, Marcal DaCunha of New Jersey had the idea
of creating a personal “beach vault.” The vault, which looks like a large
plastic screw, can be sunk securely into the sand. It is big enough to hold
several small items and, when closed, it is also waterproof. The idea is to
place your towel over the top of the vault and relax: thieves would find it
nearly impossible to steal your things while you are lying on top of them.
“If you were to leave your stuff unattended, the beach vault would
remain out of sight,” DaCunha told the Daily Mail. “There is nothing to
stop thieves from picking the whole thing up and leaving if they knew
where it was, but this is the same risk as using a handbag.”
campaign for sth. [kÄm(peIn fE]
Cornish [(kO:nIS]
detect [di(tekt]
distinctiveness [dI(stINktIvnEs]
item [(aItEm]
patron saint [)peItrEn (seInt]
pot [pQt] ifml.
recognition [)rekEg(nIS&n]
screw [skru:]
street value [(stri:t )vÄlju:]
unattended [)VnE(tendId]
valuables [US (vÄljEb&lz]
vault [vO:lt]
wallet [US (wA:lEt]
All safe at
the beach
sich für etw. einsetzen, kämpfen
aus Cornwall
aufspüren
Besonderheit
Gegenstand
Schutzpatron
Marihuana, Gras
Anerkennung
Schraube
Straßenverkaufswert
unbeaufsichtigt
Wertsachen
Tresor
Brieftasche
WHAT’S HOT
Cannabis cat
NEW ZEALAND A pet
owner on New Zealand’s South Island
received an unexpected gift from her
cat: a five-gram bag of cannabis with
a street value of around NZ $125.
The woman, who remained unnamed
in newspaper reports, immediately
phoned the police. Sergeant
Reece Munro of the city of Dunedin
took the call and advised the cat’s
owner to wait for assistance. Police
arrived at her house and removed the
pot. They are still investigating.
“You hear of cats bringing dead
birds and rats home, but in my career,
I’ve certainly never seen anything
like this before,” Munro told the
Otego Daily Times. “I guess you never
really know who’s keeping you honest
these days, do you? We certainly
have police dogs trained to detect
drugs. This might be something police
could explore in the future.”
12
Cornwall’s minority report
BRITAIN After 15 years of campaigning, the Cornish
people have finally received official European and UK recognition
as a national minority. This ancient county in the south-west of Britain
is home to some of the oldest peoples on the island and a culture
with its own language and traditions. Today, more than half a million
citizens live in Cornwall, which has the sunniest weather in the UK.
The announcement means closer cultural, social and political ties
between Cornwall and the Celtic nations of Wales, Scotland and Ireland.
“This is a great day for the people of Cornwall, who have long
campaigned for their distinctiveness and identity to be recognized
officially,” Communities Minister Stephen Williams told the press. The
black-and-white flag of Saint Piran, patron saint of Cornwall, will be
flying high in celebration.
By JULIAN EARWAKER and CLAUDINE WEBER-HOF
Fotos: BeachVault/BNPS; Vario Images

Britain Today | COLIN BEAVEN
Chances
of returning
from the war
were poor
What they didn’t know
In Southampton gibt es Mahnmale für die Toten der Titanic
und die Gefallenen der beiden Weltkriege. Jetzt bemüht
man sich um ein Denkmal für die gefallenen Pferde.
A
hundred years ago this
month, Britain entered the
First World War. There’s been
a great deal in the media to mark this
centenary. But no matter how much
we hear or read about it, I’m not sure
it’s any easier to feel what people suffered
during that conflict.
One story about the Great War
that has become especially popular
in Britain is War Horse. Originally a
book, written by Michael Morpurgo,
the story has also been made into a
play, and Steven Spielberg even made
a film of it. Is the fact that it’s about
an animal the key to its success? Perhaps
that has helped us to identify
with the terrible events of a hundred
years ago.
Certainly, the version for the stage
is phenomenal; actors use puppets to
create horses. It’s a technique that
could easily be absurd, but it’s done
with sensitivity and respect, a sort of
tribute from humans to horses. And
that’s what the story is, too.
There are dangers, though. Is it
wise to turn our attention away from
the human suffering? And when
we see it in the theatre, is it wise to
make us hope there’ll be a happy
ending when it’s time for us to clap?
After all, the statistics are horrific:
whether you were a man or a horse,
your chances of returning from the
war were poor. That seems to be the
point we need to underline.
Amazingly, though, some horses
really did return. A famous one
called Warrior is buried in Southampton,
where I live.
As it happens, there were also
camps near Southampton where
huge numbers of horses were prepared
for war in France, and there
are now efforts in the area to set up a
memorial to the thousands less lucky
than Warrior.
In fact, in one of the places where
horses waited to join the war, there
is already a small memorial. It’s almost
forgotten, and it’s untypical —
it was built during the conflict, not
afterwards.
The memorial is situated in a
field near some stables that were
used for a number of these military
horses. Among the soldiers based
at the local farm was a stonemason,
perhaps more than one. When news
came through that comrades from
the base were dying in the fighting,
a memorial was started. But it was
abandoned with just a dozen or so
names on it. Presumably, as more
and more soldiers and horses went
off to fight in France, the stables ran
out of stonemasons.
I find it very moving when memorials
seem to say as much about
disasters that are still to come as
those that have already happened.
In a way, this is almost normal. How
many memorials to
the dead of World
War One had to
find space for extra
names after World
War Two?
clap [klÄp]
Southampton
has, I think, a
unique example of
horrific [hQ(rIfIk]
memorials to past
and future tragedies,
however. In
puppet [(pVpIt]
April 1912, the
stable [(steIb&l]
RMS Titanic sailed
from the city for
tribute [(trIbju:t]
North America and
unique [ju(ni:k]
sank in mid-Atlantic. warrior [(wQriE]
Exactly two years
abandon [E(bÄndEn]
after all [)A:ftE (O:l]
as it happens [)Ez It (hÄpEnz]
centenary [sen(ti:nEri]
comrade [(kQmreId]
engineer [)endZI(nIE]
memorial [mE(mO:riEl]
presumably [pri(zju:mEbli]
sensitivity [)sensE(tIvEti]
stonemason [(stEUn)meIs&n]
after the disaster,
Southampton
had a large memorial
to the engineers
who tried
to keep the engines
working for
as long as possible
before the ship
went down.
What could
possibly be worse,
people must have
Morpurgo’s epic
thought in April
war story
1914, as they stood in front of this
brand-new memorial, than the loss
of the “unsinkable” Titanic?
They did not have to wait long
for the answer. Later, if they had
turned and looked in the other direction,
they’d have seen the spot where
an even bigger memorial now stands
— to the war that would start four
months afterwards.
Colin Beaven is a freelance writer who
lives and works in Southampton on the south
coast of England.
aufgeben
jedenfalls
tatsächlich
hundertster Jahrestag
klatschen
Kamerad(in)
hier: Maschinist(in)
erschreckend
Mahnmal, Denkmal
vermutlich
Marionette, Puppe
Sensibilität, Feingefühl
Stall, Stallung
Steinmetz(in)
Anerkennung, Achtung
einzigartig, ganz besonders
Krieger
8|14 Spotlight 13

TRAVEL | United States
Along the Pacific Ocean:
the wild coastal
region of Big Sur
California,
the golden state
Kalifornien besticht durch seine atemberaubende Natur und seine spektakulären
Attraktionen. Entdecken Sie die Glanzlichter des „Goldenen Staates“ von Norden nach Süden.
Von CLAUDINE WEBER-HOF
Optimism: that’s what California is all about. America’s
most populous state — home to 38 million
people — has long been associated with the power
of positive thinking. In the 1500s, explorers arrived from
Europe, hoping to find wealth. Then came the Spanish
and Mexican colonists who created it with hard work on
immense ranches and farms. Sudden riches seemed possible
only when gold was found in California in the 19th
century, however. That gold-rush spirit lives on today in
the many Hollywood hopefuls and in Silicon Valley’s tech
titans. No wonder “Cali” is seen as the place where two
different kinds of freedom — creative and commercial —
met and got married.
Many things have contributed to the state’s sunny reputation.
One is the coast. More than 1,350 kilometers of
beaches and cliffs act as a magnet for surfers, sailors, and
photographers. Well-loved, too, are the protected parklands,
with trees that reach to heaven and deserts as hot
as hell. The houses of the rich and famous can be found
somewhere in between, and some are even open to the
public. But the perfect symbol of the state’s mix of sun
and kitsch is the fairy-tale castle close to LA, the Disneyland
home of Sleeping Beauty.
In the Spanish style:
Hearst Castle, near the
town of San Simeon
GETTING ORIENTED
Which route should you take to discover California? If you like,
you can start your journey in the north of the state at the famous
Redwood National and State Parks. From there, it’s a five-hour
drive south to San Francisco. Then visitors usually drive inland
towards Las Vegas, Nevada, stopping at the national parks of Yosemite
and Death Valley along the way; or they continue south,
along the Pacific on Highway One. The legendary coastal road
leads to the lovely city of Monterey, to a beautiful region called
Big Sur, to Hearst Castle, and then to LA. The last major stop
before the border with Mexico is San Diego, California’s birthplace
and the focus of the travel story that starts on page 18.
Märchen-
Goldrausch
bevölkerungsreichste(r, s)
fairy-tale [(feri teI&l]
gold rush [(goUld rVS]
most populous
[moUst (pA:pjElEs]
reputation [)repjE(teIS&n]
Sleeping Beauty
[)sli:pIN (bju:ti]
tech titan [(tek )taIt&n] ifml.
Ruf
Dornröschen
Technologiegigant, Elektronikriese
Fotos: iStock; Hemera; Redwood National Park; Napa Valley Wine Train
14
Spotlight 8|14

The journey begins at the location
of the tallest tree in the
world: the coast redwood. Sequoia
sempervirens grows in the
Redwood National and State
Parks of California’s north as
well as over the border in Oregon
— and nowhere else.
In the park’s Tall Trees Grove,
redwoods that grow to 115 meters or more stand like
time’s silent sentinels. They can live for more than 2,000
years thanks to the rich soil, heavy winter rains, and a
moist blanket of fog that rolls in from the Pacific Ocean.
For native Roosevelt elk and the rare marbled murrelet,
the forest provides a wonderful place to live.
Included in the enormous park are 65 kilometers of
coastline. From Gold Bluffs Beach, visitors can watch
gray whales at play and sea lions sleeping in the sun. The
park is a paradise for hikers and perfect for scenic drives,
too. One route, the coastal loop, combines panoramas of
the Pacific Ocean and the Klamath River with a visit to a
secret World War II radar station. For more information,
see www.nps.gov/redw and www.savetheredwoods.org
Hilly San Francisco is widely considered to be the
most European of US cities. Its lively Castro and Mission
districts still have the alternative flair that the hippies
brought with them in the 1960s, when everyone who
was not going to war in Vietnam was headed West “with
flowers in their hair.” Today, Twitter and other technology
firms pour money into the city’s buildings and expectation
onto its streets. Beyond its hills, shining with
cable-car tracks and the tall office towers of downtown,
is a masterpiece of engineering known around the world:
the Golden Gate Bridge.
“Frisco” is seen as Northern California’s main city,
even though the state capital, Sacramento, is just 90
minutes away. Nature is nearby, too. Walkers who like to
spend time on the beach go to the city’s own Crissy Field,
which is right on the water, or to Point Reyes National
Seashore, north of town. The Napa and Sonoma Valleys
are an hour away by car. Tours of the famous wineries
there, such as Grgich Hills Estate and Domaine Chandon,
can be enjoyed on board a special train. For more
information, see http://winetrain.com
Trees that reach to heaven
in the Redwood Parks;
right, a Roosevelt elk
Kabel(straßen)bahn-
Küstenmammutbaum
Wanderer, Wanderin
Marmelalk (kleiner Alkenvogel)
feucht
Roosevelt-Wapiti
landschaftlich schöne Fahrt
Wachposten
(Erd)Boden
Weingut, Weinkellerei
Textzeile aus dem Lied „San
Francisco” von Scott McKenzie
cable-car [(keIb&l kA:r]
coast redwood [koUst (redwUd]
hiker [(haIk&r]
marbled murrelet
[)mA:rb&ld (m§:ElEt]
moist [mOIst]
Roosevelt elk [(roUzEvelt elk]
scenic drive [)si:nIk (draIv]
sentinel [(sentIn&l]
soil [sOI&l]
winery [(waInEri]
with flowers in their hair
[wIT (flaU&rz In De&r )he&r]
All aboard the
Napa Valley wine train
For more about the San Francisco Bay Area,
see www.sanfrancisco.travel
San Francisco with the
Oakland Bay Bridge
8|14 Spotlight 15

TRAVEL | United States
In Yosemite, El Capitan (left) and the Merced River; Ansel Adams (top) and John Muir
Yosemite leads the way: in 1890 it was declared a
national park, one of America’s first. Today, the wilderness
— a five-hour drive from San Francisco — remains among
the country’s most popular places to visit. To climbers, it
is synonymous with steep, high rock formations. One of
them, Half Dome, draws athletes from around the world;
so does El Capitan, a notorious challenge. Both are in
Yosemite Valley, known for its sensational views and incredible
waterfalls.
Not surprisingly perhaps, photographer Ansel Adams
produced some of his finest black-and-white images at
Yosemite. Another famous name associated with the park
is John Muir, a Scottish-born naturalist. Living and working
in the area in the 1870s, he fell in love with the Sierra
Nevada mountains. Years later, he started the Sierra Club
with the motto “take only photographs, leave only footprints.”
In its early days, the organization worked with
President Theodore Roosevelt to gain legal protections
for parks. It has since become a model for environmental
groups all over the globe. For more information, see
www.nps.gov/yose and http://sierraclub.org
Driving from Yosemite to Las Vegas means passing
through Death Valley, the hottest, driest place
in North America. The valley
is completely surrounded
by mountains, so that when
the air within it heats up, it
can hardly cool down. The
great walls of rock also help
to keep out the rain. Part of
the northern Mojave Desert,
Death Valley National Park
includes Badwater Basin. At
86 meters below sea level, it
is the second-lowest place in
the Western Hemisphere.
Despite its name, given
to it by pioneers lost here in
1849, Death Valley is full of
life. Home to animals such
as the speedy roadrunner
and the clever coyote, plus
more than a thousand species of plants, it is also a place
of extraordinary contrasts: salt flats shine bright white
against the blues, oranges, and browns of the mountains.
The badlands of Zabriskie Point and the area’s Sahara-like
sand dunes have long attracted filmmakers. In the 1970s,
scenes for the original Star Wars movie of Luke Skywalker’s
home planet of Tatooine were shot here. And while
landscape drama is what brings people to the valley, many
consider the food at Stovepipe Wells rest stop worthy
competition. For more information, see www.nps.gov/deva
and www.escapetodeathvalley.com
For those who choose to drive south along the coastal
route from San Francisco, a fine place to enjoy views of
badlands [(bÄdlÄndz] Ödland
naturalist [(nÄtS&rElIst] Naturforscher(in)
notorious [noU(tO:riEs] allgemein bekannt ( p. 61)
roadrunner [(roUd)rVn&r] Wegekuckuck
salt flat [(sO:lt flÄt] Salzwüste
wilderness [(wIld&rnEs] Wildnis
Fotos: iStock; J. M. Greany; www.seemonterey.com; Disneyland; iStock Editorial
Hot as hell:
extreme 16 Spotlight conditions in 8|14
Death Valley
Blindtextle: a colourful
house in the
Fotos: xxxxxxxxx

Highway One passes
over Bixby Bridge on
its way through Big Sur
the Pacific
is the city of
Monterey. To breathe its
ocean air is to inhale the essence of a great American book,
Cannery Row. Published in 1945, it was Californian John
Steinbeck’s 14th novel — a Depression-era story about
the people of the peninsula city. Today’s Cannery Row, an
avenue filled with old fish factories, is where visitors find
the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Inside are “flying” pelagic
rays, sharks, and penguins. Outside, from the terrace,
pods of orcas can be seen. The aquarium also organizes
sleepovers for children. For more information, go to
www.seemonterey.com and www.montereybayaquarium.org
It’s not the
Hotel California — it’s the
famous Carmel Mission
This building is Hearst Castle, the 165-
room holiday home of media giant William Randolph
Hearst. Tours take visitors to see the extravagant
gardens, Hearst’s opulent Gothic Suite, the Casa del Mar
guesthouse, a private cinema, and the massive volume of
artworks that the family collected from around the world.
For more information, see www.hearstcastle.org
After Hearst Castle, Los Angeles is the next major
stop. “La-La Land” is home to the vast Getty art museum,
Frank Gehry’s curvaceous Walt Disney Concert Hall, and
numerous fine shops and restaurants, like those on Rodeo
Drive in Beverly Hills. Just as much fun are LA’s down-toearth
attractions, such as Pink’s hot-dog stand in Hollywood
and the view of the metropolis from the observatory
in Griffith Park — a place
that played a famous role
in the 1950s’ James Dean
film Rebel Without a Cause.
For a dose of pure fantasy,
visit the Disneyland castle
in Anaheim, a short drive
from LA. For more information,
see www.discover
losangeles.com
Hollywood’s Walk of Fame;
Mickey Mouse in Disneyland
Carmel Mission, a historic church complex, adds
Spanish colonial flair to the journey along Highway One
on the way out of Monterey. Continuing south, the route
passes through the beautiful coastal region of Big Sur.
Two hours later, California’s Old-World flair makes a further
appearance. On a hill above the highway is another
big church that looks as if it belonged in Spain. The impression,
while stylistically correct, is completely wrong:
Cannery Row [(kÄnEri roU]
curvaceous [k&r(veISEs]
Depression-era
[di(preS&n )IrE]
down-to-earth [)daUn tE (§:T]
La-La Land [(lA: lA: lÄnd]
observatory [Eb(z§:vEtO:ri]
„Die Straße der Ölsardinen“
hier: geschwungen
aus der Zeit der (Welt)
Wirtschaftskrise von 1929
bodenständig
Land der Märchen und Fantasien;
Spitzname für Los Angeles
und Hollywood
Observatorium
orca [(O:rkE]
pelagic ray [pE)lÄdZIk (reI]
peninsula [pE(nInsjElE]
pod [pA:d]
Rebel Without a Cause
[)reb&l wID)aUt E (kO:z]
shark [SA:rk]
sleepover [(sli:p)oUv&r]
Schwertwal
Pelagischer Stechrochen
Halbinsel
hier: Schule (Gruppe von
Meeressäugern)
„... denn sie wissen nicht, was
sie tun“
Hai
Pyjamaparty
8|14 Spotlight 17

TRAVELOGS | United States
Dreaming of
San Diego
San Diego ist eine geschichtsträchtige amerikanische Stadt mit spanischem
Flair direkt am Pazifischen Ozean, die in ihrer Vielfalt keine Wünsche offenlässt.
TALITHA LINEHAN berichtet.
San Diego is turning to gold. The sun is setting over
the coast of California as I arrive in this city of cultural
charm and natural beauty. Road signs in both
English and Spanish direct me through colorful streets
lined with palm trees. A flamenco dancer performs on
a street corner, stamping her feet in time to the music.
Hungry tourists gather around a food truck that says it
sells the best tacos in town. And as I look for parking at
the harbor, a sailing ship heads out across the bay on an
evening cruise.
Fotos: iStock; Jill Simpson
18
Spotlight 8|14

Excellent light: sunset at
La Jolla Cove Beach
The city’s sights, sounds, and smells bring to life its
past, when it was claimed first by Spain and later by
Mexico. In 1542, explorer Juan Cabrillo became the first
European to reach what would become the west coast
of the US when he sailed into San Diego Bay and took
possession of California for Spain. The early settlers lived
in harmony with the native Kumeyaay people, but this
changed in 1769, when Father Junípero Serra and Gaspar
de Portolà arrived from Spain to Christianize them. The
two men set up a military outpost as well as California’s
first permanent European settlement.
After winning independence from Spain in 1821,
Mexico took control of San Diego, only to lose it in the
Mexican-American War of 1846–48. San Diego officially
became a US city in 1850 and grew over the next century,
thanks to property development and a nearby gold rush.
But it was the US Navy that made San Diego what it is
now by establishing it as an important naval base.
Today, the city celebrates its origins with Spanish- and
Mexican-themed bars, restaurants, and festivals, as well
as numerous maritime attractions. These, combined with
a mild climate year-round, a lively beach culture, and a
relaxed lifestyle, make California’s birthplace a top destination
to live, work, and play.
Mariachi dancers:
a colorful painting
in Old Town
Christianize [(krIstSEnaIz]
claim [kleIm]
gold rush [(goUld rVS]
head out [hed (aUt]
line [laIn]
naval base [(neIv&l beIs]
outpost [(aUtpoUst]
property development
[(prA:p&rti di)velEpmEnt]
zum Christentum bekehren
Anspruch erheben auf
Goldrausch
aufbrechen
hier: säumen
Marinestützpunkt
Außenposten
Grundstückserschließung
8|14 Spotlight 19

TRAVELOGS | United States
A blacksmith
at Old Town
State Historic Park
At the Maritime
Museum:
the Star of India
Day one
10 a.m.
What better way to start
my visit to San Diego
than to take a walk
through the city’s past? I
head to Old Town State
Historic Park, home to
the first Spanish colonial
settlers and now a museum
that re-creates their
lives. I wander through
original and restored
19th-century buildings,
including a restaurant
and a school. Costumed
actors bring the scene
to life, and I watch as a
blacksmith gives a dramatic
demonstration of
iron and fire.
View through
the periscope
1 p.m.
A 15-minute drive takes me to
the Embarcadero, the maritime
soul of the city. From there, I
take a one-hour cruise across San
Diego Bay. I sit on the top deck
with the wind in my hair and the
sun on my back, as our guide, Rusty, explains the sights.
We pass by boats of every description, including massive
military ships and million-dollar yachts. A group of kayakers
takes to the water off the island of Coronado, and a
sea lion climbs out of the water to catch the afternoon sun.
20
11:30 a.m.
Leaving the park, I continue along San Diego Avenue,
which is lined with art galleries, restaurants, gift shops,
and stands selling Mexican handicrafts. A man in a top
hat invites me to explore the beautiful Whaley House
museum. The house is said to be
home to quite a few ghosts.
One of them was that of
Yankee James Robinson,
who was hanged here in
1852 for stealing a boat.
I go back outside and
find my way to Coyote
Café. There, the “tortilla
ladies” easily persuade
me to try the local Mexican
cuisine.
Spotlight 8|14
A “tortilla lady” at Coyote Café
2 p.m.
Back on land, I visit the Maritime Museum, a collection
of sailing ships and submarines in the harbor. I go down
into the USS Dolphin submarine. It’s amazing to see the
small spaces inside where people had to live and work. I
look through a periscope and spy on other visitors walking
by. The highlight of the collection is the Star of India,
a ship that was built in 1863 and made 21 trips around
the world. It has cabins peopled with mannequins that
look so real, they give me a fright. The visit provides a true
insight into life at sea. Afterwards, I walk south along the
harbor to see the aircraft carrier USS Midway and then
go on to the shopping and restaurant district of Seaport
Village.
aircraft carrier [(erkrÄft )kÄri&r]
blacksmith [(blÄksmIT]
handicraft [(hÄndikrÄft]
mannequin [(mÄnIkIn]
top hat [)tA:p (hÄt]
Old Town: the grave
of James Robinson
Flugzeugträger
Schmied(in)
Kunsthandwerk
Schaufensterpuppe
Zylinder(hut)
Alle Fotos: Jill Simpson

5 p.m.
Leaving the harbor, I walk to the
chic and historic Gaslamp Quarter,
which became the city’s new center
after a fire destroyed much of Old
Town in 1872. The area was soon
filled with bordellos, bars, and gambling
halls, but it was restored in the
late 1900s and is today the heart of
downtown nightlife. I walk along
Fourth and Fifth Avenues and am
impressed by the Victorian buildings
that now house shops, restaurants,
and nightclubs on their lower levels.
As darkness falls, the lamps light up
and the streets begin to fill. It’s time
to party!
Day two
10 a.m.
I wake up to another sunny day and
head to the city’s most famous attraction,
Balboa Park. Its 1,200 acres
contain beautiful gardens, fantastic
museums, historic theaters, and one
of the country’s top zoos. I park off
the main street, El Prado, and walk
to the dramatic Cabrillo Bridge for a
view of the city’s skyline. Then I take
the Balboa Park tram to see some of
the top attractions.
11:30 a.m.
Balboa Park has about 15 museums,
including the San Diego Museum of
Art, the Natural History Museum,
and the Air & Space Museum. In the
San Diego Museum of Man, with a
collection of more than 100,000
artifacts, I make a beeline for the
Ancient Egyptian section to see the
mummies, burial masks, and coffins.
It’s surreal to stand so close to the remains
of people who lived thousands
of years ago.
1 p.m.
I enter San Diego Zoo, which houses
3,800 animals of 660 species, and
board the Skyfari, an aerial tram that
takes me over the treetops to the opposite
side of the zoo. Disembarking
there, I follow the signs to the Giant
Panda Research Station. A female
panda called Bai Yun is sitting up
chewing on bamboo stalks, while her
one-year-old cub, Xiao Liwu, sleeps
in the branches of a nearby tree. The
pandas are so close I want to reach
out and touch them.
2 p.m.
Another path takes me through the
Elephant Odyssey, where I see elephants,
lions and condors. Then I
continue on to the Australian Outback,
where koalas are sleeping in
trees. I get something to eat at Sydney’s
Grill, one of many restaurants
around the park. From there, I head
up to the Lost Forest, where there are
hippo, tiger, and monkey trails. Unfortunately,
all the big cats are sleeping,
but the gorillas are very playful.
One of them comes over to make
faces at us, then turns around and
shows us his bottom.
5 p.m.
The Reptile House is where I go to
face my worst fears. It is home to
mostly snakes such as pythons, cobras,
and rattlesnakes. You have to
look really hard to find the animals
there, which are often hiding under
a rock or behind a tree. If I move
my hand a certain way, some of the
snakes respond. A deadly king cobra
follows my hand into the air, then
strikes at it, making me scream. I’m
just glad there’s glass between us.
Evening in the historic Gaslamp Quarter
At the zoo: a panda bear lunch
acre [(eIk&r]
aerial tram [(eriEl trÄm]
Ancient Egyptian
[)eInSEnt i(dZIpS&n]
artifact [(A:rtIfÄkt]
bamboo stalk [)bÄm(bu: stO:k]
branch [brÄntS]
burial mask [(beriEl mÄsk]
chew [tSu:]
Morgen (Flächenmaß,
ca. 4.047 m 2 )
Gondelbahn
altägyptisch
(von Menschen gemachter)
Gegenstand
Bambusstängel
Ast, Zweig
Totenmaske
kauen
coffin [(kO:f&n]
cub [kVb]
disembark [)dIsIm(bA:rk]
gambling hall [(gÄmblIN hO:l]
hippo(potamus)
[(hIpoU] ifml.
make a beeline for sth.
[)meIk E (bi:laIn f&r]
mummy [(mVmi]
rattlesnake [(rÄt&lsneIk]
treetop [(tri:tA:p]
Sarg
Junges
aussteigen
Spielhalle
Nilpferd
schnurstracks auf etw. zugehen
Mumie
Klapperschlange
Baumkrone
8|14 Spotlight 21

TRAVELOGS | United States
Day three
10 a.m.
San Diego’s 112 kilometers of coastline
make it a top spot for sunbathers,
surfers, and wildlife enthusiasts.
I drive to the wealthy district of La
Jolla, known as “The Jewel” for its
glittering waters and shining sands.
A German called Gustav Schultz
gave La Jolla one of its most famous
attractions, the Sunny Jim Cave. In
1902, he hired two workers to build
a tunnel to the cave, making it the
only one on California’s coastline
that can be reached from land. I
enter the tunnel through The Cave
Store and climb down 145 steps to a
rocky platform, where I stand looking
out at the ocean.
Author Talitha
Linehan in the
Sunny Jim Cave
11 a.m.
I exit the store and walk to La Jolla’s
Cove. This small bay is part of the
San Diego-La Jolla Underwater Park,
which includes 6,000 acres of ocean
floor and tidelands, two artificial
reefs, kelp forests, and deep canyons.
Its waters are filled with marine life,
making it a popular spot for snorkelers
and scuba divers. I continue
along the coast to Children’s Pool
Beach, where I join others who are
staring at the dozens of seals and sea
lions lying on a rock about 100 meters
out. A walkway on top of a sea
wall allows an even better view of the
bathing beauties.
1 p.m.
My next stop is just a few kilometers
away, at Torrey Pines Gliderport.
People have been coming here since
1930 to jump off a cliff — safely,
of course. The Gliderport is a glider
airport, where you can go hang
gliding, paragliding, and fly a sailplane.
I decide to go on a tandem
Paragliding: the author and her instructor, Jeremy Bishop
paraglide. A few minutes later, my
instructor, Jeremy Bishop, is attaching
me to a giant pink canopy, which
lifts into the air. We run off the edge
of the cliff, and we’re flying — past
multimillion-dollar villas, over sandy
beaches, and along the edge of the
ocean. It’s an exciting experience.
2 p.m.
My feet may be back on the ground,
but my head is still in the clouds as
I drive to Torrey Pines State Natural
Reserve, a wild stretch of land along
the coast. I stop at the beach for a
picnic. Then I walk along one of the
reserve’s many hiking trails, looking
up at the tall trees that give it its
name. Torrey pines are the country’s
rarest pine trees and grow in only
two places in the world: here and
nearly 300 kilometers away on California’s
Santa Rosa Island. Another
trail takes me to the cliff edge, where
I look down at the ocean 100 meters
below.
artificial [)A:rtI(fIS&l]
canopy [(kÄnEpi]
cave [keIv]
cove [koUv]
glider [(glaId&r]
glittering [(glItErIN]
hang gliding [(hÄN )glaIdIN]
hiking trail [(haIkIN treI&l]
kelp [kelp]
La Jolla [lA: (hOIjE]
künstlich
Baldachin; hier: Gleitschirm
Höhle
kleine Bucht
Segelflugzeug; Gleitsegler
glitzernd, funkelnd
Drachenfliegen
Wanderweg
Kelp (Seetang)
(ein Stadtteil von San Diego)
paragliding [(pÄrE)glaIdIN]
reef [ri:f]
reserve [ri(z§:v]
sailplane [(seI&lpleIn]
scuba diver [(sku:bE )daIv&r]
seal [si:&l]
sea wall [)si: (wO:l]
snorkeler [(snO:rk&l&r]
tideland [(taIdlÄnd]
Torrey pine [(tO:ri paIn]
Gleitschirmfliegen
Riff
Schutzgebiet
Segelflugzeug
Gerätetaucher(in)
Seehund
Damm, Ufermauer
Schnorchler(in)
Watt
Soledad-Kiefer
Fotos: iStock; Jill Simpson; Jeff Folk
22
Spotlight 8|14

5 p.m.
After driving back down the coast to Pacific Beach, I walk
along the boardwalk to Crystal Pier, on which there is a
hotel where guests can sleep right above the water. I walk
to the end of the pier and watch surfers catching the last
waves before night falls. Then I drive a few blocks inland
to the authentic Spanish restaurant Costa Brava. Here, I
celebrate the city’s first Europeans with a meal of tapas
and sangria. Buenas noches, San Diego!
boardwalk [(bO:rdwO:k] N. Am.
pier [pI&r]
Strandpromenade
Kai
IF YOU GO
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve
Getting there
Fly in to San Diego International Airport and rent a car to
get around the city, because public transport is limited.
Where to stay
Hotel Solamar is at 435 Sixth Avenue in the Gaslamp
Quarter and has double rooms from around $200 a night.
www.hotelsolamar.com
Where to eat
Costa Brava, 1653 Garnet Avenue for Spanish food. It’s a
good idea to make a reservation; tel. (001) 858-273 1218.
www.costabravasd.com
In the city
Old Town: All the museums in Old Town State Historic
Park are free. www.oldtownsandiegoguide.com
Flagship harbor tour: A one-hour tour costs $22 for
adults and $11 for children. www.flagshipsd.com
Maritime Museum: Tickets cost $16 for adults and $8 for
children. www.sdmaritime.org
Gaslamp Quarter: www.gaslamp.org
At the park
Balboa Park: Entrance to the park is free, but entrance to
most of the museums is not. www.balboapark.org
San Diego Museum of Man: Tickets cost $12.50 for adults
and $5 for children. www.museumofman.org
San Diego Zoo: A one-day pass costs $44 for adults and
$34 for children. www.sandiegozoo.org
On the coast
La Jolla: www.lajollabythesea.com
Sunny Jim Cave: Entrance is $4 for adults and $3 for
children.
www.cavestore.com
Torrey Pines Gliderport: A tandem paraglide costs $150.
http://sandiegofreeflight.com/jm170
Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve: Entrance is free, but
parking costs $12.
www.torreypine.org
Pacific Beach: www.pacificbeach.org
More information
See http://sandiego.org
Where the pier ends
at Pacific Beach
8|14 Spotlight 23

BUSINESS | Britain
How do you build an orphanage out of flip-flops?
That’s the task brothers Rob and Paul Forkan have
set themselves. It’s to be completed by the end of
the year, in time to mark the tenth anniversary of the
26 December tsunami, in which they lost both their parents
while travelling in Sri Lanka.
The brothers, who lost almost everything in the 2004
disaster, have set up Gandys, a new “brand for good” selling
flip-flops. It promises to give 10 per cent of the profits
from every pair sold to help other orphans around the
world.
Starting out from a small flat in Brixton, south London,
about three years ago, the Forkans have built a brand
that can be found in 400 stores, including Selfridges and
Topman. The brothers have also won the support of famous
fans like Virgin billionaire Richard Branson and
pop star Jessie J. Late last year, they collected an award
for accessories and footwear design at the WGSN Global
Fashion Awards in London alongside
big name award-winners like Acne,
Erdem and Net-a-Porter.
Rob and Paul Forkan were 13
and 11 years old when their parents,
Kevin and Sandra, pulled
them out of school in Croydon,
south London, to work
on humanitarian proj ects
in south Asia. In
2001, the family
— including
Rob and
Going forward
after the tsunami
Zwei Brüder verloren durch den Tsunami 2004 beide Eltern. Jetzt haben sie ein
Flipflop-Unternehmen gegründet, um Waisenkindern zu helfen. Von SARAH BUTLER
bar [bA:]
billionaire [)bIljE(neE]
Boxing Day [(bQksIN deI] UK
devastated [(devEsteItId]
hitchhike [(hItShaIk]
orphanage [(O:fEnIdZ]
upbringing [(Vp)brININ]
Paul’s younger brother and sister — packed a rucksack
and moved to Goa. They were on holiday in Sri Lanka,
when the hotel where the family was staying was hit by
the tsunami wave on Boxing Day 2004. Rob and Paul
saved themselves by holding on to a metal bar high up in
the building, but their parents lost their lives to the water
after managing to get their younger children to safety.
Devastated by their loss and with no money or passports,
the children managed to hitchhike 320 kilometres
to the airport and get back to Britain, where they were
supported by friends and family. Rob and Paul finished
their education and went off
Good business:
Rob and Paul
Forkan share
their profits
with the poor
Stange
Milliardär(in)
zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag
völlig verzweifelt
per Anhalter fahren
Waisenhaus
Erziehung
travelling the world again,
getting jobs here and there
to pay their way. But they
had bigger ambitions.
“We wanted to build a
brand based on our own
beliefs from our upbringing
and alternative lifestyle,”
says Rob.
Fotos: action press; Gandys
24
Spotlight 8|14

chief executive [)tSi:f Ig(zekjUtIv]
entrepreneur [)QntrEprE(n§:]
expertise [)eksp§:(ti:z]
on to: be ~ sth. [(Qn tE] ifml.
recruitment [ri(kru:tmEnt]
relentless [ri(lentlEs]
rock up [rQk (Vp] UK ifml.
take sth. for granted [)teIk fE (grA:ntId]
wholesale [(hEUlseI&l]
Gandys flip-flops: footwear that is as
comfortable as it is colourful
Having spent years wandering the world in flip-flops,
that simple form of footwear seemed a good starting
point. When Rob woke up after a night of partying at a
music festival, saying his “mouth felt like one of Gandhi’s
flip-flops”, the brand was born.
The two brothers had no idea how to launch a brand
or set up a company, but they didn’t let that stop them.
“Our parents had a fearless approach. When we were children,
nothing was ever a drama. We just rocked up in India
with no plans. A lot of people wouldn’t
be able to live with that situation, but
that has helped us with what we are
doing now,” says Rob, 26, whose dyed
black hair and trendy jeans make him
more student than chief executive.
The Forkans spent time on the internet working out
how to get their flip-flops made, eventually finding a supplier
via Alibaba.com, the online wholesale search engine.
With boxes of footwear piled up in the flat, the brothers
set up a website and tried selling flip-flops on the beach.
With sales going nowhere, the next step was to approach
stores. On their first outing, an independent shop
in Spitalfields, east London, placed an order, and the
Forkans realized they were on to something. Throughout
2011, they built up to about 40 small outlets. Their next
target was major retailers, and the duo began using some
serious south London cheek as well as branded cupcakes
to get their flip-flop in the door. They sent a pair of Gandys
to Philip Green, the boss of Topshop owner Arcadia,
hoping that their shared Croydon roots might help.
When they couldn’t get an appointment, the Forkans
hung around in the lobby of Arcadia’s head office until
someone agreed to see them.
They persuaded Richard Branson to wear a pair of
Gandys by promising to name their red flip-flops after
Necker Island in the British Virgin Islands, which Branson
owns, and by inviting his press representatives to one
of their launch parties.
“We are quite relentless in our approach. We have seen
how quickly circumstances can change
in life, and we don’t for a moment take cheek [tSi:k]
for granted ... what we are doing,” says
Rob. When it came to finding investment
to help secure supplies for larger
dye [daI]
retailers last year, the brothers found
wealthy entrepreneurs in newspaper
articles and on TV shows. “We wrote
outing [(aUtIN]
to them and asked:
‘Why should we
let you get involved
in what
retailer [(ri:teI&lE]
we are doing?’”
secure [sI(kjUE]
Rob said.
The plan resulted
in a £250,000 investment
from Dominic List, a successful young IT entrepreneur
who had been on the TV show Secret Millionaire and
is now finance director of the company. The rest of Gandys’
now 20-strong team, based in south-west London,
are mostly young people with enthusiasm but little expertise,
according to Rob. Sales have increased from 70,000
in 2011 to 250,000 by late 2013, and the business is in
profit. Sales are forecast to reach levels of around 400,000
to 500,000 in 2014.
The flip-flops cost about £20 with a “buy two pairs,
get one free” discount. Sales have paid for medical supplies
and the recruitment of a teacher in Goa where the
Forkans once lived. Now they are selling globally via their
website www.gandysflipflops.com and trying to get listed
by large retailers outside Britain. The aim is to put together
enough money to build the planned orphanage in
Goa. Beyond that, projects will be voted for by customers
and staff.
“The brand is creating a community and getting people
involved. It’s how we are growing so quickly, using
the power of people,” says Rob. “If we build it to the level
we think we can, like Havaianas [the Brazilian flip-flop
brand], the impact could be huge.”
© Guardian News & Media 2014
hier: freches Auftreten
Geschäftsführer(in)
färben
Unternehmer(in)
Fachkenntnis
auf etw. gestoßen sein, etw. ausfindig
gemacht haben
Ausflug, öffentlicher Auftritt
Einstellung
unermüdlich
Einzelhändler
auftauchen, eintrudeln
hier: beschaffen, erwerben
etw. als selbstverständlich erachten
Großhandels-
8|14 Spotlight 25

FOOD | Jelly
Sticky fun: the chocolate climbing wall
(left); St Paul’s Cathedral in miniature
Shaking
all over
Ein Meer aus Götterspeise, in dem ein historisches Schiff versinkt, oder eine Kletterwand
ganz aus Schokolade? CHRISTINE MADDEN berichtet von zwei kulinarischen Künstlern, für die
Lebensmittel weit mehr sind als nur Nährstoffe.
Do you remember when you were a kid and your
mum told you not to play with your food? Did
you do what you were told? Or did you continue
to shoot peas with your fork and build volcanoes out of
your mashed potatoes and gravy when she wasn’t looking?
If you did, then you have a bit of the spirit of Sam
Bompas and Harry Parr in you. These two extreme food
artists are the culinary world’s version of rock ’n’ roll.
Whether they’re creating a gin-and-tonic mist — a kind
of spray cocktail — or setting ships in lime jelly, their
installations-to-eat speak to all your senses.
Although Bompas and Parr met during their school
years, they weren’t close friends. But they stayed in touch
and, after university, continued to meet. Parr had studied
architecture, Bompas trained as a geographer. Ambition,
imagination and an interest in the traditional English jelly
made them decide to give up their steady, solid careers.
They began to experiment with making moulds — this
was where Parr’s architectural training was useful — and
they created moulds with 3-D printing. The moulds also
inspired them to invite leading architects to create gelatine
sculptures for an Architectural Jelly Banquet at the
London Festival of Architecture in 2008. More than
100 individually lit jellies of famous buildings were on
display. Afterwards, the exhibition turned into the first
of many hedonistic Bompas-and-Parr parties. “When the
whole thing ended with an all-out food fight and architects
wrestling in jelly,” Bompas told W magazine, “we
knew we were on to something.”
Since their jiggly beginning, Bompas and Parr have
explored the wide world of edible art with the enthusiasm
of two boys locked in a sweet factory. One of their
favourite projects involved the SS Great Britain, the historic
ship designed by revolutionary British engineer Isambard
Kingdom Brunel. Bompas and Parr floated
the original ship in a sea of lime jelly.
The Merchant Shipping
Act of 1867
required all British
ships to provide a
daily lime ration for
total, Groß-
Bankett
essbar
Soße
genussvoll
wacklig, glibberig
Limette
Kartoffelbrei
all-out [)O:l (aUt]
banquet [(bÄNkwIt]
edible [(edEb&l]
gravy [(greIvi]
hedonistic [)hi:dE(nIstIk]
jiggly [(dZIg&li]
lime [laIm]
mashed potatoes
[)mÄSt pE(teItEUz]
Merchant Shipping Act
[)m§:tSEnt (SIpIN Äkt]
mist [mIst]
mould [mEUld]
on display: be ~
[Qn dI(spleI]
on to: be ~ sth. [(Qn tE]
pea [pi:]
wrestle [(res&l]
26
Spotlight 8|14
Handelsschifffahrtsgesetz
feiner Nebel
Gießform
gezeigt werden
etw. entdeckt haben
Erbse
ringen, kämpfen
A sea of green:
a jelly installation
at Selfridges
Fotos: Mother; Nathan Pask; Selfridges

Dynamic duo: Sam Bompas (left) and Harry Parr
sailors to prevent scurvy (which is where the English
got the name “Limey”). So Bompas and Parr created the
largest gelatine mass in the world to hold the ship. The
55,000 litres of fruity jelly filled the length of two Olympic
swimming pools.
Bompas-and-Parr installations typically involve enormous
culinary shows that take advantage of their settings.
In 2011, they flooded the roof of Selfridges to create a
glowing green lake, where visitors could paddle about
in boats and enjoy the view. The roof had been closed
since the shop’s elegant roof gardens and golf course were
bombed during the Second World War. The lake “required
40 men working through the night for three days
to carry up 10 tons of steel” to support the building, says
Bompas. “If we hadn’t laid it down, there was a real risk
that Selfridges would have collapsed under the weight of
the water.” Apart from the lake, Bompas and Parr also
created a new installation for the roof area the following
year: a golf course that looked like a giant cake display,
with fondant icing and sugary waterfalls.
The two designers have had “a couple of chocolate
emergencies” in their time. They built an enormous
climbing wall — Mt Rocky — in Alton Towers theme
park in Staffordshire out of tons of chocolate. Along with
a chocolate grotto and seating that smelled of chocolate,
the climbing wall featured a chocolate waterfall.
“Our four-ton chocolate tank split, and a thick chocolate
flow began to ooze in the direction of a protected lake,”
Bompas remembers. Happily, they stopped the liquidchocolate
flow at the very last minute.
At present, they are creating “an edible epic”: a British
menu archive. Their collection already includes a
mid-winter menu from the Halley VI, the British Antarctic
Survey’s research station; the final menu served on
Concorde; menus from Red Cross parcels sent to British
prisoners in Colditz; and menus from the White Star
Line, the company that owned RMS Titanic.
If you can imagine a culinary spectacle, Bompas
and Parr will have done it, or will do it sometime soon.
They’ve made glow-in-the-dark jellies and ice cream.
They’ve worked together with a jewellery designer to create
wearable art: jewellery made with Pollia condensata
berries, native to West African forests (price £9,800). They
shot a gin-and-tonic mist into the air for a new kind of
intoxicating experience. And New Year’s Eve in London
2013–14 featured their Multisensory Fireworks, which
included peach snow, orange-flavoured smoke, clouds
smelling and tasting of apple, cherry and strawberry, and
edible banana confetti.
Bompas and Parr aim to amaze with the size and opulence
of their work. “We try to design for all the senses,”
says Bompas, “for a total assault that leaves diners exhilarated.”
The evening dinner need never be the same.
A CLOSER LOOK
When the British talk about jelly, they usually mean a
sweet and clear, often highly colourful, dessert made
with gelatine. Americans use the word “jello” for this
food. Jelly has been around for hundreds of years. In
1520, a jelly flavoured with rose water was served at a
dinner in Windsor Castle for King Henry VIII. In those
days, it would have been made using extracts from
meat rich in collagen such as calf’s foot. Gelatine as a
dried product has been around since the 1840s. Many
of the dishes made by Bompas and Parr use gelatine.
They love “the joy of jelly”, says Bompas. “Slap a jelly on
the table, and everyone’s face lights up.”
assault [E(sO:lt]
diner [(daInE]
epic [(epIk]
exhilarated [Ig(zIlEreItId]
fondant icing [)fQndEnt (aIsIN]
glowing [(glEUIN]
grotto [(grQtEU]
ooze [u:z]
paddle about [)pÄd&l E(baUt]
peach [pi:tS]
Pollia condensata berry
[)pQliE kQnden(sA:tE )beri]
scurvy [(sk§:vi]
slap [slÄp]
theme park [(Ti:m pA:k]
Angriff, Überfall
(Restaurant)Gast
Epos
erheitert, beschwingt
(Fondant)Glasur
leuchtend, strahlend
Grotte, Höhle
hier: heraussickern lassen
herumpaddeln
Pfirsich
Pollia-Beere
Skorbut
(hin)klatschen
Freizeitpark
8|14 Spotlight 27

AMY ARGETSINGER | I Ask Myself
Why can’t we fix this?
Nach einem Massaker wird wieder heftig darüber
debattiert, wie Männer Frauen behandeln – und wie leicht
Geisteskranke an Waffen herankommen.
Are we
failing to see
the bigger
problem?
On May 23, a disturbed young
man named Elliot Rodger
carried out a gun-and-knife
rampage near a California university,
killing six people before taking his
own life — a terrible event that provoked
an unexpected debate about
gender politics.
Rodger had managed to buy
three powerful handguns — legally
— despite displaying such angry and
erratic behavior that his own family
asked police to check on him. Normally,
such a disaster would lead to
calls for tighter gun laws or better
treatment for the mentally ill. Yes, I
A prayer gathering after the massacre
said “normally,” for such massacres
happen all too often in the US.
Normally, though, we find no
motives for mass killings. Rodger left
YouTube monologues and a detailed
biographical description explaining
his reasons: A socially awkward,
22-year-old virgin, he blamed women
— all women — for his loveless
condition and promised to take a bizarre
kind of revenge.
Crazy, right? But Rodger’s attack
was not so targeted. Of his six victims,
only two were women. (Three
were male roommates, whom he
killed with a knife at the start of his
rampage; a fourth was a man he shot
in a store.)
For many young women, though,
Rodger’s strange philosophy sounded
familiar, an echo of a culture of male
entitlement where women are viewed
only as objects of men’s desires. On
Twitter and Facebook, women rose
up to complain about this mentality
under the banner of “#yesallwomen”
— meaning, “Yes, this is something
all women have experienced.”
One wrote, “#yesallwomen because
‘I have a boyfriend’ is more
likely to get a guy to back off than
‘no,’ because they respect other men
more than women.” Said another:
“#yesallwomen because I was taught
to scream ‘fire’ instead of ‘rape’ because
it increases the chances of
someone helping me.” And another:
“As a teen I was taught to cover my
swimsuit so as to ‘not tempt men,’
because I’m responsible for their sinful
thoughts.”
The reactions have led to an interesting
debate, and some men say
it has opened their eyes to the challenges
their female friends have long
faced. Yet I can’t help but wonder
if we are failing to see the bigger
problem. In December 2012, another
disturbed young man killed
20 children and six adults at a school
in Connecti cut. Many thought this
assault weapon [E(sO:lt )wepEn]
awkward [(O:kw&rd]
background check [(bÄkgraUnd tSek]
disturbed [dI(st§:bd]
entitlement [In(taIt&lmEnt]
erratic [I(rÄtIk]
infringement of sth. [In(frIndZmEnt Ev]
mentally ill [)ment&li (Il]
outdoorsman [aUt(dO:rzmEn]
rampage [(rÄmpeIdZ]
rape [reIp]
revenge [ri(vendZ]
roommate [(ru:mmeIt]
submit to sth. [sEb(mIt tE]
tempt [tempt]
virgin [(v§:dZEn]
would bring new laws to make it
harder to buy assault weapons. But
nothing changed. The National Rifle
Association used the issue to motivate
gun enthusiasts to push against
any proposed legislation. Even minor
gun restrictions are viewed by
this powerful group as intolerable.
What is the logic? I recently
spoke with a friend, an outdoorsman
who is moving to Wyoming because
he thinks that the gun laws in New
York State are too restrictive. Every
time he needs to buy more bullets, he
must submit to a background check.
Oh, I asked, does that take long? No,
he said, it takes just a second, right
there in the store. But still, he found
that minor issue an unacceptable
infringement of his rights.
You see what I mean? Instead of
talking about the culture of sexual
entitlement, maybe we need to discuss
the culture of gun entitlement.
Amy Argetsinger is a co-author of
“The Reliable Source,” a column in
The Washington Post about personalities.
(Sturm)Waffe
unbeholfen
Zuverlässigkeitsüberprüfung
verhaltensgestört
Anspruch
unberechenbar
Verletzung von etw., Eingriff in etw.
Geisteskranke(r)
Naturbursche
Amoklauf
Vergewaltigung
Rache
Mitbewohner(in)
sich etw. unterziehen
reizen, in Versuchung führen
Jungfrau; hier: männliche Jungfrau
Foto: Corbis
28
Spotlight 8|14

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den Meister!
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Die Extra-Dosis Sprachtraining – flexibel & e≤zient!
Ihr
Magazin-
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LANGUAGE | Crime Writing
Crime does, in fact, pay
Der kanadisch-amerikanische Schriftsteller Linwood Barclay erfreut sich international
zunehmender Beliebtheit. STEPHANIE SHELLABEAR hat sich mit ihm über sein Schreiben
unterhalten und Interessantes erfahren.
You haven’t always been a crime writer. Before you
turned to that, you were a newspaper editor and
wrote humorous newspaper columns and books.
What motivated you to change to the darker side of
literature?
In many ways, I was really just returning to something I
had always wanted to do. I was writing novels in my late
teens and twenties, except I probably wasn’t very good
at it back then. I asked myself, “Where can I get paid
money to write every day?”, so I went to newspapers. I
got my first job at the age of 22 and spent more than 30
years working in newspapers. For the last 14 of those,
I was doing three columns a week for the Toronto Star.
Once I’d got back into the groove of that, I started thinking
about what I’d always wanted to do. So I wrote five
novels while I was still a columnist. The fifth one was
successful enough to allow me to write novels full-time.
Linwood Barclay: it’s a
crime not to read him
Linwood Barclay lives in Oakville in Ontario, Canada.
It’s 9 a.m. his time when he answers the telephone
call from Spotlight. He’s sitting in his study, the room
in which he does his work, with a cup of coffee in his
hand. Barclay is surrounded by bookshelves packed with
literature and also what he calls “ridiculously childish
toys, cars and Batmobiles”. On the walls, there is artwork
from the animated Batman series.
A dozen of Barclay’s crime novels have already been
published, the first four of which feature a detective
named Zack Walker. The novels that followed are all
stand alone thrillers and have been translated into as many
as 30 languages. His latest book, No Safe House, is on sale
in the US as of this month and will be available in the UK
from late September.
What happens in your typical week?
Well, if I’m writing — and that’s a big part of this year,
because I’m trying to get two books done instead of just
one — and I’m in the thick of a book, I start writing at
around 8.30 and go until 2.30 or 3, with lots of wandering
around the house in between. And I do that Monday
to Friday. I don’t usually work at the weekends, although
I will sometimes if I know I’m going to lose a day through
something else. The first draft of a book takes me two
to three months, so I’m pretty committed to getting that
done. When that’s over, I have time to do all the other
things that have to be done, which may be travelling to
promote the books — or else just collapsing.
Trickfilm-
Kunstwerk, Grafik, Illustrationen
ab
engagiert, beschäftigt
Entwurf
wieder in Schwung kommen
animated [(ÄnImeItId]
artwork [(A:tw§:k]
as of [(Äz Ev]
committed [kE(mItId]
draft [drA:ft]
groove: get back into the ~
[(gru:v]
novel [(nQv&l]
ridiculously [rI(dIkjUlEsli]
standalone thriller
[)stÄndElEUn (TrIlE]
study [(stVdi]
thick: in the ~ of sth. [TIk]
Roman
lächerlich
Einzelthriller
hier: Arbeitszimmer
mittendrin
Fotos: Bill Taylor; Spencer Barclay
30
Spotlight 8|14

CRIME FICTION BY LINWOOD BARCLAY
Bad Move (1st Zack Walker novel)
Bad Guys (2nd Zack Walker novel)
Lone Wolf (3rd Zack Walker novel)
Stone Rain (4th Zack Walker novel)
No Time for Goodbye (Ohne ein Wort)
Too Close to Home (Dem Tode nah)
Fear the Worst (In Todesangst)
Never Look Away (Kein Entkommen)
Clouded Vision (a novella)
The Accident (Weil ich euch liebte)
Trust Your Eyes (original title: 360: A Novel)
(Fenster zum Tod)
Never Saw It Coming (based on Clouded Vision)
(Frag die Toten)
A Tap on the Window (Nachts kommt der Tod)
Barclay’s passion: transportation in miniature
Two books in a year sounds like quite a challenge.
I’m doing that this year because I’m now writing a trilogy.
The first book in the trilogy will come out in a little over a
year from now. Normally, I could take off several months
and then start the next one. But because the books are
all linked, I’m rather eager to get them all written close
together, so that if I get to the third one and think “Oh, I
have this great idea, and it has to be put into book one”,
I’ll have time to do that. I’m almost halfway through writing
the first draft of the second one. Then I have a lot
of book-touring duties in August. I’m hoping to take a
holiday in September, so I might start the third book in
October.
What type of questions are you asked by fans when
you’re touring?
People always wonder how you go about doing what you
do, what’s your routine and how you craft a plot, how
you do this and that. I find those are the questions people
ask most. Of course there’s the standard one which every
writer gets: “Where do you get your ideas?” Like we go to
a shop somewhere.
Crime novels are so popular these days. Why do you
think the genre is so successful?
I think there’s a number of reasons why it’s so popular.
First of all, it’s very entertaining. And crime novels more
than a lot of other kinds of fiction are very plot-driven. A
plot that moves quickly and has lots of twists and turns is
just naturally fun. It’s like being on an invigorating roller
coaster: you don’t know what’s coming next.
There are also weightier topics and explanations as to
why crime fiction is popular. I think people like a hero,
they like seeing justice done. There may be some comfort
in reading about bad things that are resolved, and that
there are these white knights out there who solve these
crimes, bringing bad people to justice. It’s comforting to
read about some kind of order out there amidst the chaos.
You were born in the US, but you grew up in Canada,
and you live in Canada. Where do your loyalties lie
and why?
My parents moved to Canada just as I was turning four,
so I’ve lived virtually my whole life here. I have dual citizenship;
I became Canadian several years ago. I feel 70 or
80 per cent Canadian, because I’ve grown up here, this
amidst [E(mIdst]
comfort [(kVmfEt]
craft sth. [krA:ft]
dual citizenship
[)dju:El (sItIzEnSIp]
eager: be ~ to do sth. [(i:gE]
invigorating [In(vIgEreItIN]
knight [naIt]
like [laIk]
loyalties [(lOIEltiz]
plot [plQt]
plot-driven [(plQt )drIv&n]
roller coaster [(rEUlE )kEUstE]
twists and turns
[)twIsts End (t§:nz]
weighty [(weIti]
inmitten
Trost
etw. fertigen; hier: entwerfen
doppelte Staatsbürgerschaft
eifrig dabei sein, etw. zu tun
erfrischend, belebend
Ritter
hier: als ob
hier: Zugehörigkeitsgefühl
Handlung
handlungsgestützt
Achterbahn
Drehungen (Rätsel) und
Wendungen
gewichtig, bedeutsam
Book covers
that hint at the
suspense waiting
within
8|14 Spotlight 31

LANGUAGE | Crime Writing
is the only place I’ve ever worked, and I’m married to a
Canadian. Any success that I had prior to my books I owe
to being in Canada.
Recently, you tweeted about an article that reported
on the growing success of Canadian crime writers.
You wrote that it was “proof that you could mention
‘Canada’ and ‘thriller’ in the same sentence”. Can you
explain that?
I think Canada is thought of as a gentle, polite, wonderful
kind of country, and so the idea of the Canadian crime
writers’ scene producing gritty, edgy thrillers might not
be the first thing that would occur to someone. But you
can be Canadian and still write excellent crime thrillers ...
even though we’re very polite. That reminds me of a great
Canadian joke: “How do you get 20 Canadians out of
your swimming pool? You say, ‘Please would you get out
of the swimming pool?’”
What distinguishes your writing from that of other
writers?
When you’re writing crime fiction — or any kind of fiction
— everything’s been done, the stories have all been
told. So you have to think: “What can I bring to a convention
or a genre that’s just different enough that it gets
people’s attention?” Maybe it’ll be the plot or maybe just
a voice. I’m a person who believes in writing very simply.
I’m not a flowery, overly descriptive kind of writer. I write
simply, because that’s the way I was taught. I’m not trying
to impress readers; I’m trying to communicate information.
I just want to tell you a really great story, and I try
to do that through the action and what people say. I love
THE TRANSLATOR’S PERSPECTIVE
acquaintance
[E(kweIntEns]
crisp [krIsp]
descriptive [di(skrIptIv]
distinguish [dI(stINgwIS]
edgy [(edZi]
flowery [(flaUEri]
gritty [(grIti]
overly [(EUvEli]
prior to [(praIE tE]
setting [(setIN]
tweet [twi:t]
Bekannte(r), Bekanntschaft
knapp und klar
beschreibend
unterscheiden
ausgefallen, mit Ecken und Kanten
blumig, romantisch
hier: hart, brutal
übermäßig
vor
Schauplatz
zwitschern; hier: auf Twitter
schreiben
schlicht, ungekünstelt, locker
Silvia Visintini translates Linwood Barclay’s
novels into German for Knaur Verlag. Spotlight
asked her what she feels is the essence of his
writing.
“What I find so special about Linwood’s stories is
that, even if he takes us back to familiar settings, he
takes us by surprise because we never know who
will be the protagonist(s) this time. We revisit towns
and people we know from Linwood’s earlier books,
but they have varying degrees of importance.
This is part of what makes his stories so lively. It’s
a bit like bumping into acquaintances in your own
neighbourhood. And where there are people, naturally,
there are conversations. Translating Linwood’s
crisp, unpretentious dialogues is quite a challenge.
I see myself as a ‘thought-miner’, digging into a
character’s mind to come up with something that
sounds equally natural in German.”
unpretentious
[)Vnpri(tenSEs]
Fotos: Spencer Barclay; PR
All aboard the Barclay
express for a thrilling ride
Fotos: xxxxxxxxx
32
Spotlight 8|14

to write dialogue, to write conversations and be able to
move a story forward by what people are saying. When I
get to a part where I feel I have to describe in detail what
somebody looks like or what the house looks like, it slows
me down. You won’t remember any of that ten pages later.
But you’ll remember how the characters talk, how they
act and if they’re a nice person or a complete idiot.
Your books have been translated into German,
French, Russian and many other languages. Do you
have a lot of contact with the translators?
I have occasionally, and this has been an interesting
thing. They don’t do a word-for-word translation, of
course; they take a sense of the story or the paragraph
and then make it work in the language they’re writing
in. And because they’re editing it in a way, their approach
is so different to anybody else’s. Sometimes they
catch mistakes in the book that nobody else has spotted,
even though the book has been proofread by lots of
people. Here’s one example: there’s a book I did called
Never Saw It Coming, and when it was being translated
into Hebrew, I was hearing from the translator in Israel.
There’s a reference to a handbag that was zipped up, then
there was an incident, and later in the book some blood
was found in the handbag. The translator asked, “Is that
a clue? You know, you had the handbag closed earlier in
the book.” It was really just an error, so I rewrote that
part.
Do the translators ever contact you to ask the meaning
of certain sentences?
Sometimes, yes — usually if it’s some sort of phrase
that’s very peculiar to North America. Just off the top of
my head, there’s an expression to mean that something
doesn’t work. They say: “That dog don’t hunt.” Now, imagine
you’re trying to translate this, let’s say into German
or into Spanish, and you get as far as “the dog doesn’t
hunt”. Suddenly you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, what
dog?” Things like that do come up occasionally, and the
translator will ask, “What does that expression mean?”
FILM POTENTIAL?
The bestseller Trust Your Eyes begins with a man exploring
a street in New York. By chance, he looks up at the
very moment that a murder is being committed near a
window of one of the buildings. Getting the police to believe
him would normally not be a problem, except that
they know about his psychological problems — and the
fact that he was not physically but only virtually in that
street at the time. Author Stephen King described this
book as “riveting, frequently scary, occasionally funny,
and surprisingly, wonderfully tender. [...] Great entertainment
from a suspense master.”
Trust Your Eyes is currently in development for the
big screen at Warner Bros. You can watch a teaser-trailer
for the book and find out more about Linwood Barclay
on his website http://linwoodbarclay.com/home
What book are you reading at the moment?
There was a wonderful American crime writer, Robert
B. Parker, who wrote a series of novels about a detective
named Spenser. Well, Parker died about four years ago,
and they hired another guy to continue writing the series,
a guy named Ace Atkins. And he’s done an astonishingly
good job of catching that other author’s voice and the
characters. Right now I’m reading his latest book called
Cheap Shot.
What hobbies do you pursue on a regular basis?
My wife and I are big movie fans, and I love model trains.
We also like travelling. I do a lot of reading, too, when I
can finally get the chance.
The main picture of you on your website is quite sinister.
You look every bit the crime writer. But in your
gallery photos, you look like someone who wouldn’t
hurt a fly.
Oh, yeah, we had to shoot a lot of pictures to make me
look mean.
approach [E(prEUtS]
astonishingly [E(stQnISINli]
big screen [)bIg (skri:n] ifml.
by chance [baI (tSA:ns]
character [(kÄrEktE]
clue [klu:]
commit: ~ a murder [kE(mIt]
edit [(edIt]
every bit [)evri (bIt]
Hebrew [(hi:bru:]
hire [(haIE]
incident [(InsIdEnt]
mean [mi:n] N. Am.
Ansatz
erstaunlich
Kinoleinwand
zufälligerweise
hier: Person, Romanfigur
Hinweis, Spur
einen Mord begehen
bearbeiten
ganz genau wie
hebräisch
engagieren
Vorfall, Ereignis
grimmig, gemein
off the top of one’s head
[)Qf DE )tQp Ev wVnz (hed]
peculiar to [pI(kju:liE tE]
proofread [(pru:fri:d]
pursue [pE(sju:]
riveting [(rIvItIN]
scary [(skeEri]
sinister [(sInIstE]
spot [spQt]
suspense [sE(spens]
teaser-trailer [(ti:zE )treIlE]
tender [(tendE]
zip up [zIp (Vp]
spontan, aus dem Stegreif
eigen, typisch für
lektorieren, Korrektur lesen
verfolgen, nachgehen
fesselnd
unheimlich
unheimlich, finster
hier: entdecken
Spannung
kurze Filmvorschau
liebevoll, zärtlich
mit Reißverschluss zumachen
8|14 Spotlight 33

PETER FLYNN | Around Oz
No new taxes?
Seit seiner Wahl zum australischen Premierminister vor
einem Jahr verliert Tony Abbott bei Parlamentariern und
Wählern zunehmend an Glaubwürdigkeit.
There will be little for Australia’s
prime minister, Tony Abbott,
to celebrate when his
conservative government finishes its
first year in power. Before last September’s
election, the minority Labor
government had hoped that Abbott,
a polarizing figure, was unelectable.
Instead, the voters gave Abbott a
good working majority in the lower
house, although they left him with a
hostile senate.
Now, as The Washington Post
writes, Abbott is “fast becoming the
most hated prime minister in the
Western world”, and his 2014–15
budget is the most unpopular in
Australia for more than 20 years.
Whatever good side there may be
to the budget, the government has
done a very bad job of selling its economic
rationalist message. Abbott
went into last year’s election promising
“no new taxes”. He now joins
American President George Bush,
Sr, who said “read my lips”, and Abbott’s
own mentor, former Australian
Prime Minister John Howard, who
famously tried to split his promises
between “core” and “non-core”.
Many people in the conservative
Liberal and National Parties, which
make up the coalition government,
are as angry as the ordinary voters.
The attempt to create a new set of
taxes and fees led one government
backbencher to describe the budget
as a “stinking carcass”. He meant that
it was worse than the usual “lipstick
on a pig” description of hard-to-sell
political decisions.
For voters, though, the biggest issue
may be Abbott’s loss of credibility.
He’d campaigned on the promise
that there would be “no surprises”.
He had said that in his view, the biggest
problem in Australia was “not
the budget deficit, but the deficit
of trust”.
He correctly made fun of Labor’s
changing leadership: “In 2007,
you voted for Kevin [Rudd] and got
Julia [Gillard]; in 2010, you voted
for Julia and got Kevin back.” In his
three years as opposition leader, he
attacked Gillard — who had promised
“there will be no carbon tax under
my leadership” — for introducing
such a tax in order to get support
from the Greens.
Now voters are seeing the same
backflips from Abbott: in his plans to
increase taxes on high-income earners,
to raise
the petrol tax,
to have people
pay to see
a doctor even
under the uni ­
versal Medicare
scheme,
to throw uni ­
versity fees
open to the
market, to increase
the re­
backbencher [(bÄkbentSE] Aus., UK
backflip [(bÄkflIp]
carbon tax [(kA:bEn tÄks]
carcass [(kA:kEs]
core [kO:]
credibility [)kredE(bIlEti]
economic rationalist
[i:kE)nQmIk (rÄS&nElIst] Aus.
focus group [(fEUkEs gru:p]
hostile [(hQstaI&l]
Medicare scheme
[(medikeE ski:m] Aus.
read my lips [)ri:d maI (lIps] N. Am. ifml.
shortfall [(SO:tfO:l]
sneaky [(sni:ki]
value added tax [)vÄlju: (ÄdId tÄks]
The new
budget is the
most unpopular
in Australia for
20 years
tirement age to 70 and to cancel,
over a period of ten years, A$ 80 billion
(€55 billion) in funding to the
states for schools and hospitals.
Measures like this — tearing up
agreements negotiated by the previous
government — makes voters in
focus groups use words like “unfair”
and “sneaky”.
Apparently, the new government
thought this measure would cause
the states to demand an increase
in the Goods and Services Tax —
equivalent to Europe’s value
added tax — to make
up for the shortfall. Instead,
it has created only
problems.
There are still two
years until the next election,
but Abbott’s credibility
is in question. He
may indeed be unelectable
the second time round.
Unpopular savings plans
can cost political careers
einfache(r) Abgeordnete(r), Hinterbänkler(in)
180-Grad-Drehung
CO 2
-Steuer
Kadaver
hier: zentral, wichtig
Glaubwürdigkeit
etwa: neoliberal
Gesprächsgruppe
ablehnend
staatliche Krankenversicherung
in etwa: hören Sie mir jetzt genau zu
Defizit
hinterlistig
Mehrwertsteuer
Peter Flynn is a public-relations consultant and social commentator who lives in Perth,
Western Australia.
Foto: iStock
34
Spotlight 8|14

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DEBATE | Britain
Energy from the earth
Durch das Hydraulic Fracturing, auch Fracking genannt, könnte sich Großbritannien enorme
Energievorkommen erschließen. Doch wie sicher ist das Verfahren?
Britain is facing an energy crisis.
The UK already imports more
energy than it produces, and its
remaining supplies of oil, coal and
gas will be used up in the next five
years. New nuclear power stations
will not be ready until the 2020s,
and renewables currently supply less
than 15 per cent of the UK’s total energy.
Could hydraulic fracturing, or
“fracking”, be the answer?
The technology involves drilling
wells around 3,000 metres deep into
shale below ground and pumping in
a mixture of water, sand and chemicals
at high pressure to break the rock
and release what the energy companies
are after: natural gas. Supporters
say that fracking can provide longterm
energy and create jobs. But
many people believe it is a dangerous
technology. They are concerned
about the size of the operations, pollution
and long-term environmental
damage. In 2011, test drilling in the
north-west of England was stopped
after causing minor earthquakes.
business rate [(bIznEs reIt] UK
council [(kaUns&l] UK
drill [drIl]
Environment Agency [In(vaI&rEnmEnt )eIdZEnsi] UK
extraction [Ik(strÄkS&n]
fluid [(flu:Id]
go all out for sth. [gEU )O:l (aUt fE]
greenhouse gas [(gri:nhaUs gÄs]
hydraulic fracturing [haI)drO:lIk (frÄktSErIN]
lasting [(lA:stIN]
lawsuit [(lO:su:t]
natural gas [)nÄtS&rEl (gÄs]
nuclear power station [)nju:kliE (paUE )steIS&n]
renewables [ri(nju:Eb&lz]
shale [SeI&l]
so far [sEU (fA:]
well [wel]
Fracking is used worldwide, especially
in the US, where there are
numerous lawsuits about its harmful
effects. In Britain, the water industry
association Water UK is concerned
that fracking could pollute drinking
brit. Gewerbesteuer
hier: Kommune
bohren
etwa: Umweltbundesamt
Abbau, Förderung
Flüssigkeit
voll auf etw. setzen
Treibhausgas
Hydraulisches Aufbrechen,
Fracking (Förderung von bisher
nicht zugänglichen Gas- und Ölvorräten,
die in Gesteinsschichten
gebunden sind)
dauerhaft, nachhaltig
Klage, Prozess
Erdgas
Kernkraftwerk
erneuerbare Energien
(geol.) Schiefer; hier: Schiefergas
bislang
Bohrloch, Schacht
water and that the fracking industry’s
demand for water could be too great
for the country’s current resources.
Research by some of Britain’s biggest
countryside organizations suggests
that pollution from the process could
cause lasting damage to wildlife.
Fracking uses millions of litres
of water. Around 40 per cent of the
fracturing fluid comes back to the
surface as “returned water”. Cuadrilla,
the UK’s biggest fracking operator,
says that its work is well regulated
and that only a small number
of chemicals will be used, all permitted
by the Environment Agency.
In the US, fracking companies use
around 750 different chemicals.
Prime Minister David Cameron
has said that the government is “going
all out for shale”, and that homeowners
living near fracking sites
could receive cash payments. He has
also suggested that councils which
allow fracking could keep 100 per
cent of the business rates received,
worth an average of £1.7 million a
year each.
A government report shows
that the extraction and burning of
shale gas produces large amounts of
methane and CO 2
. Yet the UK has
agreed to an 80 per cent reduction in
greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050.
Proposals to allow drilling from wells
under urban areas or on private land
without the owner’s permission are
also highly unpopular.
So far, more than 45,000 people
have supported a lawsuit to stop
fracking under their property. A
House of Lords committee reported
that well-regulated fracking should
be an “urgent national priority”, but
only with the agreement of the public.
Public support for fracking has
now fallen below 50 per cent.
Fotos: iStock Editorial; Julian Earwaker
36
Spotlight 8|14

Listen to Stephen, Caroline, Sinéad and Leslie
Julian Earwaker asked people in Cambridge:
Does Britain need fracking?
Stephen Chittenden, 46,
radio journalist
Renewables aren’t going to
fill the gap once all the big
coal stations and the nuclear
stations go off line. So
[fracking] should certainly be
explored for its potential...
Simply to deny the exploration
seems very unfair.
Caroline Lloyd, 58,
teacher
I don’t think we know
enough about it... I can’t see
that it’s a good thing, really.
There are no assurances. I
don’t think, 10 [or] 20 years
down the line, anybody can
say what effects there are
going to be with that.
Sinéad O’Neill, 32,
opera director
The United States has
reduced its carbon emissions
since taking up fracking and
is now exporting coal, for
example, to Germany... For
people concerned about
carbon emissions, fracking
could be a positive thing.
Leslie Thomas, 80,
retired
I read recently [that] there’s
enough coal underground to
last us for about 10 million
years, so why don’t people
do something about making
it easily accessible? ... There
must be some way of cutting
down the emissions.
Mark Hall, 40,
housekeeper
We need to find more energy
resources and new kinds
of fuel. But there are risks
and problems attached to
fracking that could cause
problems later on. I’d be all
for it if it didn’t damage the
environment.
Clare Buckingham, 52,
education officer
There are other methods
of creating energy that we
should be exploring, like
wind and wave power. This
is an island; surely we must
be able to make use of things
like that. I’d prefer if those
options were explored first.
Emily Powell, 24,
student
We’re running out of crude
oil, so we need another
way to get energy. We’ve all
come to rely on using a lot
of electricity in the modern
world. It would be difficult to
cut down that usage without
causing complete chaos.
David Biggins, 51,
electronics engineer
Probably not, because we’re
planning to reduce carbon
emissions, so it does seem
a bit daft to start exploiting
something that produces
more carbon. I also think
fracking will end up ruining
the countryside.
assurance [E(SO:rEns]
carbon emission [(kA:bEn i)mIS&n]
coal station [(kEUl )steIS&n]
crude oil [kru:d (OI&l]
daft [dA:ft] ifml.
down the line [)daUn DE (laIn]
Sicherheit, Garantie
CO 2
-Ausstoß
Kohlekraftwerk
Rohöl
bescheuert
hier: später
education officer [)edju(keIS&n )QfIsE]
exploit [Ik(splOIt]
go off line [)gEU Qf (laIn]
housekeeper [(haUs)ki:pE]
wave power [(weIv )paUE]
Bildungsreferent(in)
ausbeuten
abgeschaltet werden,
vom Netz gehen
Haushälter(in)
Wellenkraft
8|14 Spotlight 37

HISTORY | 100 Years Ago
Building the
Panama Canal
The highest point: the Panama
Canal at Culebra Cut
A
man, a plan, a canal:
Panama! If only things
had been as simple
as that famous palindrome.
Here, just 80 kilometers separate
the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, but getting from
the man — Christopher Columbus
— to the canal would take 500 years and
the biggest engineering effort the world had yet seen.
Columbus had arrived in the Americas in search of a
direct sea route to Asia and had left disappointed that he
could not find one. During the 1500s, dozens of explorers
confirmed that the only way westward by ship was to go
completely around South America in a dangerous voyage
lasting months. To reduce the travel time, the Spaniards
carved out trails across Panama which they would use to
carry goods on foot and on horseback from a ship on the
Atlantic side to another on the Pacific side.
In 1819, when Colombia, whose territory included
Panama, became independent from Spain, the idea of a
canal was nothing more than the dream of far-off European
intellectuals. But a new invention, the railroad, offered
to make the portage much easier. As expeditions set
out to study the terrain, foreign governments began to
show an interest as well. Foremost among them was that
of the United States.
Vor 100 Jahren, am 15. August 1914, wurde der
Panamakanal eröffnet. MIKE PILEWSKI berichtet,
wie aus einem Plan trotz aller Schwierigkeiten
und Kosten eine grandiose
Ingenieurleistung wurde.
A dangerous job:
digging the canal at
Culebra Cut
Why the United States? Significant
numbers of American
settlers, encouraged by their government,
were moving from the
eastern states to what is now Washington
state and Oregon. Rather
than make the difficult crossing of
the prairie and the Rocky Mountains,
those who could afford it
preferred to travel by ship to Panama, cross the jungle,
and go the rest of the way by ship again.
In 1848, the United States won a short war against
Mexico and gained what is now the American Southwest.
With more settlers on the way, the US negotiated the
right to build a railroad across Panama. The California
gold rush of 1849 made the railroad an absolute priority,
leading to its completion in just five years.
Meanwhile, the idea of a canal was becoming less and
less unrealistic. From 1859 to 1869, a French team of
engineers built the Suez Canal in Egypt, connecting the
Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea. The investors who
had financed the project earned a significant profit, and
Ferdinand de Lesseps, who had overseen the construction,
was looking for another project that would earn him
as much fame and fortune. What he finally found in the
1880s, however,
was a tragedy.
carve out [)kA:rv (aUt]
construction [kEn(strVkS&n]
far-off [)fA:r (O:f]
foremost [(fO:rmoUst]
fortune [(fO:rtSEn]
jungle [(dZVNg&l]
oversee [)oUv&r(si:]
palindrome [(pÄlIndroUm]
portage [(pO:rtIdZ]
ausheben, -graben
Bau
weit entfernt
führend, an erster Stelle
Vermögen
Dschungel
beaufsichtigen
eine Zeichenkette, die sowohl vorwärts als auch rückwärts
gelesen werden kann
Beförderung
Fotos: Library of Congress; Wikipedia
38 Spotlight 8|14
Ferdinand de Lesseps:
defeated by the climate

The shortest distance:
the ideal place for a canal
The jungle and steep mountain passes of Panama
were the opposite of the flat, dry desert of Egypt, and
de Lesseps had no practical way of removing such large
amounts of earth. The little progress he made was reversed
by months of heavy rain. The Chagres River, the course
of which he was following, flooded a wide area each year,
filling the hole he had dug. After ten years, his canal had
advanced only a few kilometers. Worse still, more than
20,000 of the workers he had recruited from the West
Indies had died in accidents and of tropical diseases.
Another ten years went by. The 20th century began,
and Theodore Roosevelt became president of the United
States. Hawaii had just been annexed by the US, and victory
in the Spanish-American War had given the United
States all of Spain’s territories in the Pacific. The US had
become a global power. The French failure no longer mattered;
another attempt would be made to build the canal.
This time, however, Colombia said no. Building the
canal the way it needed to be built would mean allowing
American control of a large piece of land that would cut
the country in two. Every member of the Colombian parliament
voted against the proposal.
Fortunately for Roosevelt, there were revolutionaries
in Panama who had been fighting for independence
from Colombia. The US gave them its support, parked a
warship nearby and paid the Colombian soldiers to leave.
Almost overnight, Panama became an independent country.
It quickly adopted a constitution the US had written
for it and a treaty giving the US exclusive control of the
Canal Zone.
US Army engineers got to work with modern
earth-moving equipment. They modernized the railway,
which they found rusted and dilapidated, and used it to
transport the many tons of earth that were excavated.
The tropical rains were still a huge problem. Hillsides
turned into mudslides that, without warning, often buried
men and equipment. The jungle was a hot, frightening
and dangerous place, and many of those who had
come to work in it left as soon as they could. It was time
to abandon the French plan of building the canal at sea
level. A dam would create a large artificial lake 25 meters
above sea level, reducing the length of the canal that had
to be dug. A series of locks — the largest yet built —
would raise the water level in the canal to that of the lake.
Even the remaining problem had a solution: Army
Colonel William Gorgas had heard a new theory that yellow
fever was spread by mosquitoes. He had men go door
to door through the towns of Panama, putting up screens,
covering water canisters, and fumigating houses.
When the canal was finished after 10 years of work,
the United States had spent more than $350 million
(equivalent to $8 billion today) in the most expensive
single project it had yet funded. The effort had also cost
more than 5,000 lives, mostly at the beginning. However,
the access to two oceans and the prestige of having succeeded
where Europeans had failed were priceless.
Ironically, though, the opening of the canal 100 years
ago this month, on August 15, 1914, did not receive
much attention in Europe, because World War I had just
started (see Spotlight 7/14).
Although the 1903 treaty gave the United States the
Canal Zone “in perpetuity,” Panama renegotiated the
agreement in 1977. Under the new treaty, the US returned
the Canal Zone to Panama in 1999.
Today, the canal is operating with the maximum number
of ships that can pass through. The largest of them
pass only centimeters from the sides of the canal as they
enter the locks. Chinese investors are the new global power
interested in building a canal — either a parallel one
through Panama or a new one through Nicaragua.
abandon [E(bÄndEn]
adopt [E(dA:pt]
billion [(bIljEn]
dilapidated [dI(lÄpIdeItId]
fumigate [(fju:mIgeIt]
in perpetuity [In )p§:pE(tu:Eti]
lock [lA:k]
mudslide [(mVdslaId]
priceless [(praIslEs]
recruit [ri(kru:t]
renegotiate [)ri:nI(goUSieIt]
screen [skri:n]
West Indies [west (Indiz]
aufgeben
billigen, übernehmen
Milliarde(n)
marode, verfallen
ausräuchern
für alle Zeiten
hier: Schleuse
Schlammlawine
unbezahlbar
anwerben
erneut verhandeln
hier: Fliegengitter
Westindische Inseln
An international highway: the Panama Canal today
X|14 Spotlight 39

PRESS GALLERY | Comment
The supermarkets’
slave-labour problem
Für die Herstellung unserer Wohlstandsartikel müssen in weniger entwickelten Ländern oft billige
Arbeitskräfte zu unmenschlichen Bedingungen arbeiten und wertvolle Ressourcen werden
rücksichtslos ausgebeutet. Wie kann diese Kette unterbrochen werden?
What could be more innocent than a prawn cocktail?
Or a prawn on the barbie in the back yard?
Just Sunday treats which everyone enjoys. Yet
underneath the Marie Rose sauce lurks a tale of exploitation,
environmental degradation, and ... in certain cases
something even worse. The slave labour used in parts of
the Thai prawn industry marks a new low point in the
abuse of workers in poorer countries, and an even more
urgent reminder to the better off in all countries that
when we decide we do not care about how the things we
use and consume are produced, we risk consigning vast
numbers of people to harsh and dismal lives, and sometimes
to sad and unnecessary deaths.
The way we live in the rich world, which includes the
affluent classes in less developed countries, imposes terrible
costs on many of those who grow our food, make our
clothes, mine our metals, cut our timber and otherwise
sustain our generally comfortable existence. ...
The International Labour Organisation calculates that
21 million [people] are in forced labour, trafficking, and
modern slavery worldwide, bringing $150bn in illegal
profits to those who organise it. Among the victims are
the poor Cambodians and Burmese whose plight we describe
today. Forced to crew Thai boats scouring the ocean
for fish to feed the country’s voracious prawn farms, they
are treated as if they are almost as disposable as the fish
they catch. ...
What of us, the prawn eaters? The history of consumer
boycotts is a spotty one, yet concerned customers can
act to wake up their supermarkets. Let the big chains in
turn use their considerable power to wake up their Asian
suppliers...
© Guardian News & Media 2014
Prawn farming in
Thailand: more
than problematic
affluent [(ÄfluEnt]
back yard [)bÄk (jA:d]
barbie [(bA:bi] Aus. ifml.
better off [)betE (Qf]
bn = billion [(bIljEn]
consign sb. to sth.
[kEn(saIn tE]
crew [kru:]
dismal [(dIzmEl]
environmental degradation
[InvaI&rEn)ment&l )degrE(deIS&n]
exploitation [)eksplOI(teIS&n]
forced labour [fO:st (leIbE]
harsh [hA:S]
reich, wohlhabend
Garten, Hof
Grill
Wohlhabende, Bessergestellte
Milliarde(n)
jmdn. einer Sache überlassen
hier: bemannen
trostlos
Zerstörung der Umwelt
Ausbeutung
Zwangsarbeit
hart, rau
lurk [l§:k]
Marie Rose sauce
[mE(ri: )rEUz sO:s]
plight [plaIt]
prawn cocktail [)prO:n (kQkteI&l]
scour [(skaUE]
sustain [sE(steIn]
timber [(tImbE]
trafficking [(trÄfIkIN]
treat [tri:t]
vast [vA:st]
voracious [vE(reISEs]
yet [jet]
lauern, sich verbergen
Cocktailsoße aus
Mayonnaise und Ketchup
Notlage
Krabbencocktail
absuchen, durchkämmen
aufrechterhalten
(Bau)Holz
illegaler (Drogen-, Menschen-)
Handel
hier: Genuss
enorm, groß
unersättlich
hier: dennoch, jedoch
Foto: Corbis
40
Spotlight 8|14

Listen to more news items on Replay
INFO TO GO
disposable
This adjective has two common meanings. Most often,
it describes things that are designed to be used only
once and then thrown away. Disposable razors and disposable
nappies fall into this category. Used in its other
main sense, “disposable” means “available for use as
required”. Disposable income, for example, is the part
of your earnings that remains after you have paid your
taxes and other required contributions.
The authors of the article on the left use the first
meaning of “disposable” when referring to the way the
Cambodian and Burmese fishermen are treated. By this,
they mean that the fishermen are easy to replace, without
anyone caring, if they become ill or die on the job.
Which meaning of the word “disposable” is used in
each of these sentences?
1. Disposable cameras are often given to wedding
guests to take photos whenever they like.
2. If you want extra insurance, you’ll have to pay for it
out of your disposable income.
IN THE HEADLINES The Wall Street Journal
This headline and others like it are a way of directing attention
back to an ongoing story. The expression “meanwhile,
(back) in...” goes all the way back to the days of silent films,
when words appeared on screen to introduce a change of
scene. Some expressions, such as “That night” and “A year
has passed”, became standard, as did “Meanwhile, back at
the ranch...”. These expressions were later used in radio dramas
and comic books, where scene changes had to be explained.
“Meanwhile, back at the ranch...” was used so often
that it became a cliché and is still often said in a humorous
way. In contexts like the above, however, it is used to mean:
“Here’s an update on a story we’ve been telling you about,
but had turned away from for a short time.”
nappy [(nÄpi] UK
razor [(reIzE]
silent film [)saIlEnt (fIlm]
Windel
Rasierer
Stummfilm
Answers: 1. designed to be thrown away; 2. available for use when needed
Klasse
Unterricht!
Vielfalt für Ihr Klassenzimmer!
Exklusiv für Lehrer: Begleitmaterial, Kopiervorlagen
und Tipps in der Unterrichtsbeilage.
Gratis
zum
Lehrer-
Abo!
Bestellen Sie jetzt!
+49 (0)89/8 56 81-150 www.spotlight-verlag.de/lehrerzimmer

ARTS | What’s New
Films | Drama
Family matters:
Belle and Elizabeth in
an opulent drama
The outsider
Films | Comedy
Uberto Pasolini has worked mainly as a producer (The Full Monty).
He follows the success of his directorial debut (Machan) with
a second, highly unusual movie. In Still Life, Eddie Marsan
plays Mr May, who works for a north London borough
council, trying to find the relatives of people who
have died alone. May organizes funerals to which
nobody comes and finds burial spots for people
whose graves nobody visits. The council
is ending his employment, but just as he’s
about to leave his job, Mr May finally finds
someone who cares. Pasolini’s movie is a
meditation on the comedy of loneliness, and
a very special film. Starts 21 August.
Mr May: a grave man
Directed by British film-maker Amma Asante, Belle
tells the story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate,
mixed-race daughter of an officer in the
Royal Navy and an African slave. Belle (played by Gugu
Mbatha-Raw) is brought to England by her father in the
late 18th century and left with the Earl of Mansfield,
Belle’s uncle and England’s Lord Chief Justice. Although
she is dark-skinned, she grows up enjoying a privileged
education and the friendship of her half-cousin Elizabeth.
Although the film is based on the fact that Belle was
a real-life figure, Asante also makes the most of historical
distance. It is only possible (and not certain) that her
presence in the household of her uncle, the Lord Chief
Justice, influenced his rulings on two important cases that
helped lead to the end of slavery in Britain. Asante makes
the most of this connection, emphasizing Belle’s strong
intellect and her love for a young lawyer and abolitionist
John Davinier. Opulently filmed with beautiful costumes,
Belle’s story is expanded to involve not only slavery, but
also issues such as money, status and the marriage market.
All this may be alternative history, but it’s certainly entertaining.
Starts 14 August.
DVDs | Animation
A surprise:
The Lego Movie
Instead of being an extra-long commercial
for the Danish toy, The Lego
Movie has been celebrated by critics
for being smart, cool and funny. In this
digitally animated film, a brick man
called Emmet (the voice of Chris Pratt)
is told by a rebel group that only he can
save the Lego universe from the evil Lord
Business (voiced by Will Ferrell). Emmet
is helped in his mission by famous people,
from Batman to Shakespeare. Packed with pop-culture references
and satire, The Lego Movie keeps the jokes coming, as well
as presenting a message about the importance of creativity and
the refusal to conform. Available in Germany from 22 August.
abolitionist [)ÄbE(lIS&nIst]
borough council
[)bVrE (kaUns&l] UK
brick man [(brIk mÄn]
burial spot [(beriEl spQt]
connection [kE(nekS&n]
digitally animated
[)dIdZIt&li (ÄnImeItId]
Sklavereigegner(in), Abolitionist(in)
Stadtrat
hier: Legofigur
Grabstätte
Verbindung
computeranimiert
earl [§:l]
funeral [(fju:n&rEl]
illegitimate
[)IlE(dZItEmEt]
Lord Chief Justice
[)lO:d tSi:f (dZVstIs] UK
Royal Navy [)rOIEl (neIvi] UK
ruling [(ru:lIN]
Graf
Begräbnis
unehelich
Lordoberrichter
britische Kriegsmarine
(richterliche) Entscheidung
Fotos: PR
42
Spotlight 8|14

Apps | Learning
Podcasts | Language
Spelling is a challenge in a foreign language — can you spell
your name and address in English? — so it’s good to know that
there is a fun app to help learners improve this skill. The fact that
the Letter Monster is actually designed for children makes
it even more enjoyable to use. The creature in the title is a big
green sea monster who likes to eat letters. Tap on him, and he’ll
ask for one of the letters floating at the bottom of the screen
— both big and small. Drop the correct letter into the monster’s
mouth and he’ll swallow it and ask for the next one. Get it wrong
and he’ll spit it out. The app works best with headphones because
the voice can be hard to understand. The Letter Monster is
available for both Apple and android tablets and phones.
Luke’s English Podcast
started in 2009. The qualified
English teacher gives listeners
an insight into the language
as it is spoken today (mostly
in the UK). To find out about
Luke’s interests and qualifications,
listen to his first podcast
“Episode 1 – Introduction”. Later podcasts include learning
how to use tenses and how to avoid common mistakes. Every
episode comes with a transcript of the most important elements.
Luke also gives useful tips on how to improve different skills, so
listeners are invited to try transcribing sections of what he says
during a podcast. He then corrects the transcription and puts it
online. As his language is modern and natural, it might include
explicit wording. Luke’s English Podcast is free and can be downloaded
from his website: http://teacherluke.wordpress.com
George II: a ruler
in both Britain
and Germany
Culture close by | Exhibition
In 1714, the Prince Elector of Hanover became George I,
King of Great Britain and Ireland. For 123 years,
George and his descendants ruled both the Duchy and
Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg (Hanover) and the
United Kingdom. Only when Victoria became queen
in 1837 did the House of Hanover lose its claim to the
British throne. Celebrating those 123 years, the state of
Lower Saxony has put together five exhibitions. Showing
at the State Museum in Hanover, The Hanoverians
on Britain’s Throne 1714–1837 explores the rich historical
context of Hanoverian rule and court life in both
London and Hanover, with special focus on the art and
literature of the time. For all the pomp and circumstance,
check www.royals-aus-hannover.de/en/exhibitions
both: both... and... [bEUT End] sowohl ... als auch ...
claim [kleIm]
Anspruch
court life [)kO:t (laIf]
Leben am Hof
descendant [di(sendEnt] Nachkomme
duchy [(dVtSi]
Herzogtum
electorate [i(lektErEt]
Kurfürstentum
explicit [Ik(splIsIt]
hier: freizügig
float [flEUt]
treiben, herumschwimmen
insight [(InsaIt]
Lower Saxony [)lEUE (sÄksEni]
only when [(EUnli )wen]
pomp and circumstance
[)pQmp End (s§:kEmstÄns]
prince elector [)prIns i(lektE]
spit sth. out [spIt (aUt]
tense [tens]
Einblick
Niedersachsen
erst als
etwa: Glanz und Gloria,
königliche Pracht
Kurfürst
etw. ausspucken
Zeitform
Reviews by OWEN CONNORS and EVE LUCAS
8|14 Spotlight
43

ARTS | Short Story and Books
Guess the weight of the cake
Wie kann es sein, dass jedes Mal dieselbe Person das Gewicht des Kuchens, den es auf dem
alljährlichen Sommerfest zu gewinnen gibt, richtig errät? Von VANESSA CLARK
What a magnificent cake, Christine!” said the
vicar. It was indeed a beautiful cake, a rich fruit
cake, made to a traditional English recipe, glistening
with fruit and nuts. And it was very large.
The cake was sitting on a pretty plate on a table at the
Little Trimmington village fete. Visitors to the fete could
pay a pound to guess the weight of the cake, and the person
whose guess was nearest to the actual weight would
win the cake.
Every year, Little Trimmington held its summer fete
on the village green on the first weekend in August. Visitors
came from miles around: to win prizes in games of
chance, to buy tickets for raffle prizes, to buy plants, to
eat cake, to listen to the local brass band, to drink tea in
the tea tent, to drink beer in the beer tent — and to make
money for local good causes. Every year, Christine baked
an enormous cake and ran the “guess the weight of the
cake” stall. Every year, people made their guesses. And
every year, the same person won it.
The vicar was the first competitor at Christine’s stall.
“Are you hoping for divine inspiration?” she asked
him with a smile.
“I’m not sure about that,” he replied, “but I’m going
to guess two and a half pounds and hope for the best. Or
should I give it in kilos?”
“Ounces, grams, biblical talents — whatever’s easiest
for you. And you’re the first, so you’re guaranteed to be
the nearest — until the next person, anyway.”
The next person to try her luck was the teacher from
the village school. She had a historical perspective of the
problem: “When Prince William and Kate got married,
we did a class project about royal weddings, and we found
out that Queen Victoria’s wedding cake weighed about
300 pounds. Your cake doesn’t look quite that big. I’m
going to say four pounds.”
Next came Abbie, one of the pupils of the village
school, with her mother. Abbie was five years old, and she
guessed the cake was “five”, too — whether five pounds
or five kilos, she wasn’t sure, but it was definitely “five”.
Christine wrote both possibilities — pounds and kilos —
on her list. It made little difference, as Christine knew
that Abbie wouldn’t win the cake with either weight.
During the afternoon, most people at the fete came to
Christine’s stall. The list of guesses got longer, and the box
of money got fuller.
One of Christine’s customers was a retired engineer.
He looked at the cake with a critical eye, estimated its
height, its depth, its circumference. Christine could hear
him muttering to himself, “Two multiplied by pi, multiplied
by...” He asked about the quantities of fruit and
sugar and butter in the recipe. He chewed the end of his
pencil. “Three kilos,” he announced, “though I’m not sure
about loss of water during the baking process.”
Another person who had a go was a man in his thirties
who worked in IT. He searched on his phone to see if
he could find an app for guessing the weight of a cake,
but couldn’t find anything. “Perhaps I should design one,”
he suggested. He then found an app that allowed people
to calculate their ideal weight from their height. He entered
the height of the cake, and the app calculated that
a person of that height should weigh 300 grams, so that
biblical talent
[)bIblIk&l (tÄlEnt]
brass band [)brA:s (bÄnd]
chew sth. [tSu:]
circumference [sE(kVmf&rEns]
competitor [kEm(petItE]
divine inspiration
[dI)vaIn InspE(reIS&n]
fete [feIt] UK
biblisches Talent
(Maßeinheit in der Bibel)
Blaskapelle
an etw. kauen
Umfang
(Wettbewerbs)Teilnehmer(in)
göttliche Eingebung
Fest
game of chance [)geIm Ev (tSA:ns] Glücksspiel
glisten [(glIs&n]
schimmern
have a go [)hÄv E (gEU]
versuchen
mutter [(mVtE]
murmeln
ounce [aUns] Unze (ca. 30 g)
raffle [(rÄf&l]
Gewinnspiel; Tombola
stall [stO:l]
(Verkaufs)Stand
village green [)vIlIdZ (gri:n] Dorfanger
Fotos: Alamy
44
Spotlight 8|14

Short Story
was his guess. Christine added that answer to her list, although
she knew it was pointless, because the same person
won every year.
Where was that person, though? There were only ten
minutes left before the end of the fete, when the vicar
would announce the winners of the different competitions.
Then Christine saw her, hurrying towards the stall:
Maggie Barnes, a friendly-looking woman in her fifties.
“I thought I was going to be too late,” she said, as she
took a pair of latex gloves from her pocket. She lifted the
cake from the plate, weighed it in her hands, smiled at
it, thought for a moment and announced with certainty,
“Six pounds and two and a half ounces, or two point eight
kilograms.”
At that moment, the public address system sprang
to life. “The winner of the cake this year,” announced
the vicar, “is someone who has used her many years of
professional experience to good effect. Yes, of course, it’s
Maggie Barnes.” Everyone clapped and cheered as Maggie
claimed her prize. No one minded that Maggie won it
every time, because over the years, most of the families
standing on the village green had used her services, and
she had weighed many of the younger ones in her experienced
hands. She was the local midwife.
Books | Novel
American writer Michael
Cunningham is known for
his exceptional narratives
and lyrical prose. These
skills are evident in The
Snow Queen, which
takes elements of a Hans
Christian Andersen fairy
tale and rewrites them as
a story set in 21st-century
Brooklyn. Tyler and Barrett
are brothers in early middle
age. Tyler is a songwriter
whose girlfriend is dying:
he relies on cocaine to be the person people expect him to be.
Barrett is gay and single again: he thinks he may have had a
vision in the sky above Central Park. Cunningham brings these
lives together with a writer’s magic, taking readers into unexpected
corners of the human heart and turning themes of love,
creativity and illness into a story as fresh and soft as new snow.
Fourth Estate, €13.70.
Books | Easy reader
Cook and Kill is the title
of the new easy reader in
the Lernkrimi Englisch series
from Compact Verlag,
and, as the title suggests, it
combines food and crime.
Malcolm Chatham is a star in
the London restaurant scene.
Every Saturday morning, he
appears in the BBC series
Cooking with the Professionals.
One weekend, however,
after a successful start to his
show, Malcolm tries a sauce
and falls over dead in the studio. Is this a tragic accident, or is
it perhaps much worse: a case of murder? As the police begin
their investigations, Malcolm’s assistant Lesley starts uncovering
dark secrets about the chef’s friends and family. The story
is set at level B1, and every chapter has useful comprehension
and vocabulary exercises. There is also a glossary and final test.
Compact Verlag, €7.99.
jubeln
klatschen
Verständnis-
Märchen
Gummihandschuhe
Zauber
cheer [tSIE]
clap [klÄp]
comprehension
[)kQmprI(henS&n]
fairy tale [(feEri teI&l]
latex gloves [)leIteks (glVvz]
magic [(mÄdZIk]
midwife [(mIdwaIf]
narrative [(nÄrEtIv]
pointless [(pOIntlEs]
public address system
[)pVblIk E(dres )sIstEm]
try [traI]
uncover [Vn(kVvE]
Hebamme
Erzählung
zwecklos
Lautsprecheranlage
kosten, probieren
entdecken
Reviews by EVE LUCAS
8|14 Spotlight
45

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LANGUAGE | Vocabulary
Outside the car
In her 100th edition of the vocabulary page, ANNA HOCHSIEDER focuses on words to talk about
cars — in both British English (in black) and North American English (in red).
6
4
5
8
7
3
2
1
10
9
11
12
13
19
14
18
17
15
16
1. number plate, license plate
2. indicator, turn signal
3. headlight
4. wing mirror, side mirror
5. windscreen, windshield
6. sunroof
7. brake light
8. petrol cap, gas cap
9. hubcap
10. bumper
11. boot, trunk
12. rear window [)rIE (wIndEU]
13. windscreen wipers,
windshield wipers
14. bonnet, hood
15. radiator grille [grIl]
16. tyre [(taIE], tire
17. wing, fender
18. passenger door
19. door handle
We’ve rented a wreck!
Paula and Rod are renting a car for the weekend from a car-hire company.
Employee: Right, sir. If you’d sign here, please... Thanks.
Your vehicle is ready for you in the car park.
Have a great weekend!
Paula: We’d better check if there are any dents.
Rod: Yes. And can you see if there’s a spare tyre in the
boot?
Paula: Yes, there is. But the tread looks badly worn.
Rod: Really? Hey, what’s this? There’s a big scratch
on the driver’s door. It looks as if someone has
tried to force open the lock. We’d better let
them know.
Paula: You’re right. And the paintwork on the bonnet
is really scratched as well.
Rod: Let’s get in and try the windscreen wipers and
the lights to make sure they work properly.
Paula: And the switch to put down the roof? That’s
why we hired a convertible, isn’t it?
Rod: Don’t be too optimistic. We’ve rented a wreck!
Illustrationen: Bernhard Förth
48
Spotlight 8|14

Möchten Sie noch mehr Tipps und Übungen? Abonnieren Sie Spotlight plus ! www.spotlight-online.de/ueben
Practice
Now try the exercises below to practise talking about cars.
1. Find out the meaning of the words from the text (a– g) by matching them to their definitions (1–7).
a) A vehicle...
b) A convertible...
c) A dent...
d) Paintwork...
e) A scratch...
f) A switch...
g) A wreck...
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
1. is a car or other vehicle that has been badly damaged.
2. is a hollow mark in a surface, usually made by something hitting it.
3. is a thin mark in the surface of something.
4. is a small device that you press or turn to control a piece of electrical equipment.
5. is a car with a roof that can be folded back or removed.
6. is a machine in which you travel; for example, a car.
7. is a layer of paint on a surface such as the body of a car.
2. Complete the table below with the British
English and North American English terms. You
can find all the answers on the opposite page.
UK
N. Am.
a) ___________________ trunk
b) bonnet ___________________
c) ___________________ gas cap
d) number plate ___________________
e) ___________________ fender
f) wing mirror ___________________
g) ___________________ turn signal
h) windscreen ___________________
i) ___________________ tire
3. Underline the correct word in bold to complete
each sentence below.
a) This tyre needs replacing. The trunk / tread is so
worn it’s unsafe.
b) I think we have to refill the oil. Can you open the
bonnet / bumper, please?
c) Hey! Why can’t he use his headlight / indicator if
he’s turning left?
d) We can’t fit more than two suitcases in the boot /
brake. We’ll have to put this one on the back seat.
e) Is that a grille / hubcap lying in the road? It must
have fallen off someone’s wheel.
f) We don’t have a garage, so in winter, the car key
sometimes won’t turn in the handle / lock.
4. Complete the sentences below with further
parts of a car by filling in the missing letters.
a) The m _ d g_ _ r d s help keep the car clean.
b) The a _ r i _ l allows you to receive radio signals.
c) The _ x h _ u s t p _ p _ carries gas out of the engine.
d) The r _ v _ r s _ n g l _ g _ ts warn other road users
that you are moving backwards.
The noun “bumper” comes from the verb bump, which
means to “hit against something”. Bumpers used to be
separate metal bars attached to the front and rear of a
car, but today they are usually integrated into the car
body.
A bumper sticker is a sign that you can stick on the
back of your car. Bumper stickers are very popular in the
US. They are used for political or religious messages, to
show support for a sports team, for advertising purposes
or to make humorous comments.
A bumper car, also called a “ dodgem” car in British
English, is a small electric car at a funfair that people
drive to chase and hit (“bump against”) other dodgems.
If traffic is bumper to bumper, it is very slow, with
cars driving so close to each other that they are almost
touching.
Answers
1. a–6; b–5; c–2 (hollow: hohl; hier: eingedrückt; surface: Oberfläche); d–7
(body of a car: Karosserie); e–3; f–4; g–1
2. a) boot; b) hood; c) petrol cap; d) license plate; e) wing; f) side mirror;
g) indicator; h) windshield; i) tyre
3. a) tread; b) bonnet; c) indicator; d) boot; e) hubcap; f) lock
4. a) mudguards; b) aerial (N. Am. antenna); c) exhaust pipe (N. Am. tailpipe);
d) reversing lights (N. Am. back-up lights)
Tips
At
www.spotlight-online.de/teachers/picture-it
you’ll find translations and the complete Vocabulary archive.
8|14 Spotlight 49

LANGUAGE | Travel Talk
Packing
RITA FORBES helps you to pack
your bags for a trip.
Shopping for luggage
I’d like to buy a new suitcase. The wheels on my
old one keep jamming.
Would you prefer a hard-shell or a soft-sided case?
A hard shell would probably offer more protection
for the fragile things, right?
Yes, it would. And these days, hard-shell luggage is
both durable and lightweight. This upright model
is very popular. It has four spinner wheels and
a retractable handle. It’s made of polycarbonate
and comes with a ten-year guarantee.There’s also a
matching carry-on bag.
That’s nice. Is it available in any other colour than
grey?
Packing the bag
Hey! Could you sit on my suitcase for me, please,
while I zip it up?
Er, OK. But are you really sure you need to take all
this stuff?
Yes. I made a packing list: changes of clothes for
six days, one nice dress, a swimsuit, two pairs of
shoes, flip-flops, toiletries, earplugs, a travel pillow,
chargers for all our electronics, a guidebook,
gifts for Meg and Brian and the kids... This is all
important. And I think I’m still under the weight
limit. We should check that, though. I’ll go and
get the scales from the bathroom.
I’m not sure if you’re going to get this bag closed,
actually. Maybe we should get several of those
compression bags to create some more space.
One last check
Let’s just make sure we haven’t forgotten any of the
essentials. Passport? Plane tickets? Credit cards?
All present and correct.
Is all your medication in your carry-on bag? Have
we got enough see-through plastic bags for liquids?
More than enough. I think we’ve got everything
now. Let’s hit the road!
• If something jams, it becomes locked in position and
doesn’t move.
• A hard-shell suitcase is made of a hard, non-flexible
material.
• If a thing is fragile, it can be easily broken.
• Something that is durable is not easily damaged and
will last a long time.
• An upright suitcase is one that stands vertically rather
than horizontally.
• Spinner wheels can turn 360 degrees, not just backwards
and forwards. This makes it easier to manoeuvre
(bewegen, lenken) a suitcase.
• A retractable handle can be pushed inside the suitcase
when it is not in use.
• If there is a guarantee on something you buy, you can
return it or have it replaced if it is faulty (defekt).
• A carry-on bag is one that you can take with you when
you get on an aeroplane.
• To zip something up means to close it using a zip
(N. Am.: zipper), a long fastener with plastic or metal teeth.
• A change of clothes is a complete set of clothes; for
example, a pair of jeans, a top and underwear.
• Toiletries are the products you use to clean your body;
for example, toothpaste, soap, shampoo.
• Scales are used to weigh things. You step on bathroom
scales (Badezimmerwaage) to find out your weight,
and you use kitchen scales (Küchenwaage) to measure
ingredients for cooking and baking. The word is used
in the plural, even though it describes a single piece of
equipment.
• You can use compression bags to fit more clothes into
a suitcase. The air can be pressed out of them, which
flattens (flach zusammenpressen) the clothes inside.
• Essentials are the most important things.
• All present and correct is an expression that means
“not a single thing or person is missing”.
• Liquids are things that are not solid; for example,
water, lotion and shampoo.
• Hit the road is an informal expression meaning “to
begin a journey”.
charger [(tSA:dZE] Ladegerät
earplug [(IEplVg] Ohrstöpsel
pillow [(pIlEU] Kopfkissen ( p. 61)
Tips
Fotos: iStock
50 Spotlight 8|14

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Cards | LANGUAGE
shapewear
NEW WORDS
Because shapewear needs to be tight, it can affect the
health of your inner organs.
GLOBAL ENGLISH
What would a speaker of British English say?
Australian: “Fair go, John! You don’t really expect me to
answer that, do you?”
Spotlight 8|14
Spotlight 8|14
(IN)FORMAL ENGLISH
Make the following request and statement
sound less formal:
1. Might I have the pleasure of your company this
evening?
TRANSLATION
Translate:
1. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
2. to kill two birds with one stone
2. I had the pleasure of meeting the president last
night.
Spotlight 8|14 Spotlight 8|14
PRONUNCIATION
IDIOM MAGIC
Read these nouns aloud as they
are pronounced in both British and
North American English:
Ching Yee Smithback
chauffeur
contractor
curator
headquarters
massage
narrator
on the up and up
Spotlight 8|14
Spotlight 8|14
Austrennung an der Perforierung
guilty / gültig
FALSE FRIENDS
Translate the following sentences:
1. Everyone in the courtroom knew he wasn’t guilty.
2. Fahrscheine der Deutschen Bahn sind in diesem Zug
nicht gültig.
GRAMMAR
Add a question tag to each of these statements
corresponding to German nicht wahr? :
1. John hadn’t seen that film before, ________?
2. You like that sort of book, ________?
Spotlight 8|14 Spotlight 8|14

LANGUAGE | Cards
GLOBAL ENGLISH
British speaker: “Be fair / reasonable, John! You don’t
really expect me to answer that, do you?”
“Fair go” is used in Australia and New Zealand as a
request for someone to be fair or reasonable. In
standard English, the expression “Come on!” is used in
the same way.
NEW WORDS
This new buzzword (Modewort) refers to any kind of
tight-fitting underwear that is intended to make you
look slimmer. Modern shapewear replaces traditional
“girdles”, “bodices” and “corsets” (Miederwaren). Other
modern alternative expressions are “body shapers” and
“controlwear”.
Spotlight 8|14
Spotlight 8|14
TRANSLATION
1. Besser den Spatz in der Hand als die Taube auf dem
Dach.
2. zwei Fliegen mit einer Klappe schlagen
Idioms in German and English often share similar images
without being identical in wording.
(IN)FORMAL ENGLISH
1. Can I take you out / Would you like to go out
with me this evening?
2. I got to meet the president last night.
The expression “have the pleasure of (doing) sth.” is
used in formal requests and descriptions, as well as
ironically: “We had the pleasure of a long talk with
Sammy’s teacher this evening.”
Spotlight 8|14 Spotlight 8|14
IDIOM MAGIC
In British English, when you talk about something being
on the up and up, it means that a person’s career,
chances, finances and so on are getting better and
better: “Sales are on the up and up.”
In North American English, the same expression has
a completely different meaning — honest, legal or
truthful: “That special offer must be a trick. I can’t
believe it’s on the up and up.”
Spotlight 8|14
BRITISH ENGLISH
[(SEUfE]
[kEn(trÄktE]
[kju&(reItE]
[)hed(kwO:tEz]
[(mÄsA:Z]
[nE(reItE]
PRONUNCIATION
NORTH AMERICAN
ENGLISH
[SoU(f§:]
[(kA:ntrÄkt&r]
[(kjUreIt&r]
[(hed)kwO:rt&rz]
[mE(sA:Z]
[(nÄreIt&r]
Words of foreign origin are sometimes stressed
differently in British and North American English.
Spotlight 8|14
GRAMMAR
1. John hadn’t seen that film before, had he?
2. You like that sort of book, don’t you?
Question tags consist of an auxiliary verb (Hilfsverb) and
the subject in pronoun form. An affirmative (bejahend)
statement takes a negated tag (verneintes Frageanhängsel)
and vice versa (umgekehrt). Here, the tags are
statements, not questions, so falling intonation is used.
FALSE FRIENDS
1. Jeder im Gerichtssaal wusste, dass er nicht schuldig
war.
2. Deutsche Bahn tickets are not valid on this train.
One does indeed sometimes hear the false friend
“guilty” used in place of “valid” over the loudspeaker
system in German trains.
Spotlight 8|14 Spotlight 8|14

LANGUAGE | Everyday English
Listen to dialogues 1 and 3
A birthday party
This month, DAGMAR TAYLOR looks at the
words and phrases people use when they talk
about preparing to celebrate a birthday.
1. Ten years old 2. Making the call
Fotos: iStock; Stockbyte
Finn will be ten years old in a few weeks. His mother,
Marie, is talking to Finn’s older sister, Amy, about
his birthday.
Marie: I can’t believe he’s going to be ten.
Amy: I know! I remember when he was born. Does
he want to have a birthday party?
Marie: Of course! He wants to invite ten friends. I
must admit the thought of 11 ten-year-old
boys running in and out of the house makes
me break out in a cold sweat.
Amy: Can’t they party somewhere else?
Marie: That’s the only option if we’re to remain sane.
A friend at work was telling me about a place
where you can book football parties. They
have indoor and outdoor pitches, and there’s
a party host to keep the boys under control.
Amy: Fantastic! Take them there. Please!
• You can use the “going to” future when something
is certain to happen: he’s going to be ten.
• Use the verb invite to ask people to join you at a
social event. Unlike (im Gegensatz zu) einladen, it
doesn’t always include the idea of it being paid for.
• People sometimes talk about breaking out in a cold
sweat when they feel frightened or worried.
• Party (ifml.) is also a verb: “They partied all night.”
• Use the verb book to have or use something in the
future; for example, to reserve a table or a room in a
restaurant.
• Normally, the (party) host is the person who holds
(or “throws”) the party. Here, it is the person whose
job is to organize the football party.
• When you keep somebody or something under
control, you deal with the person or thing so that it
does not cause damage or injury.
Tips
Marie phones the football centre to find out more
about holding a party there.
Ben: Football Crazy, Ben speaking.
Marie: Yes. Hi! I’m calling to find out a bit more about
your football parties for kids. I’d like to know
how much they cost, what’s included and that
sort of thing.
Ben: OK, right. Can I ask which date you are interested
in booking?
Marie: Yes. It’s for my son. He’s going to be ten on
the 31st of August.
Ben: The 31st? That’s a Sunday. There’s a pitch available
at 10 a.m. or in the afternoon at 3 p.m.
Marie: That’s great, but I’d like to know what’s included
and how much it costs before I go
ahead and book.
Ben: Oh, yeah, sorry. It’s £14.50 per child, for a
minimum of ten children. That includes...
• To identify yourself when answering the telephone,
say your name followed by the word speaking.
• When you have called someone with a request or
to find out information, you can start by saying
I’m calling to...
• Even if a date is written in a different form, such as
31. 8. 2014, or 31 August, the usual way to say the
date in the UK is: “the thirty-first of August”.
• To say that something is available means you can
get, buy or find it.
• Because Marie didn’t get the information she asked
for, she tries again by starting her request with:
That’s great, but...
• To go ahead with something means “to start to do it”
or “carry it out”.
• The correct way to say £14.50 is “fourteen pounds
fifty”.
pitch [pItS] UK
sane [seIn]
(Sport) Spielfeld
bei Verstand, normal
Tips
8|14 Spotlight 55

LANGUAGE | Everyday English
3. Cake 4. Party time!
Marie is talking to Amy about
plans for Finn’s birthday.
Amy: Look, Mum — a recipe for a birthday cake in
the shape of a football.
Marie: That’s lovely, but I’ve only got an oblong cake
tin. How about a football pitch?
Amy: Just a sec. (types on tablet computer) There’s
this one, look!
Marie: Oh, he’d like that. As long as you don’t kill him
with all that green food colouring. Will you
have time to make it before Sunday?
Amy: Yes, if you give me a hand with the fiddly bits.
Marie: Of course, no problem.
Amy: What sort of food will there be at the party?
Marie: Sandwiches, sausage rolls, cocktail sausages
and other delicacies.
Amy: No fruit or veg? Finn’ll be delighted.
Marie and Amy are watching Finn and his friends
playing football at his party.
Marie: The party host’s fantastic! The boys seem to be
having a great time. Have you got some good
photos, Amy?
Amy: Yes. Look at this one. Finn looks so cheeky.
Marie: Oh, that’s a good one! Can you take some
more when they come up for cake, please? The
match is over by the look of things. Oh, oh!
Here they come.
Finn: Mum! My team won!
Marie: We saw you, love. Well done! Was it fun?
Finn: It was brilliant. Can we come back next year?
Marie: We’ll see. Have you seen your birthday cake?
Finn: A football pitch! Did you make it, Mum?
Marie: Amy made it. I helped a little. Happy birthday,
Finn!
EXERCISES
• Novelty birthday cakes (Motivtorte) in the shape
of almost anything are very popular.
• Oblong is another word for “rectangular” (rechteckig).
• Just a sec (second) means “wait a moment”.
• Something that is difficult to do, because small parts
are involved, can be described as fiddly.
• Sausage rolls (tubes of pastry (Teigrolle) filled with
sausage meat) and cocktail sausages (served cold on
a small stick) are examples of party food in the UK.
• A delicacy is a type of food considered to be very
special. Marie is being sarcastic.
• Veg [vedZ] is short for vegetable(s) in British English.
cake tin [(keIk tIn] UK
Kuchenform
delighted [di(laItId] erfreut, begeistert ( p. 61)
give sb. a hand [)gIv E (hÄnd] jmdm. zur Hand gehen, helfen
1. Add the missing word.
a) A friend at work was telling me _____ a place...
b) Can I ask which date you are interested _____
booking?
c) Look! A cake _____ the shape of a football.
d) Can we come _____ next year?
Tips
• In English, you take photographs or pictures.
• You can say by the look(s) of things when you interpret
something from looking at a person or thing:
“He doesn’t care about clothes by the look of things.”
• “Here” and “there” can be put at the beginning of a
sentence. If the subject is a pronoun, you say, for
example: “Here they come.” If the subject is a noun,
the verb comes before the subject: “Here come the
boys.”
• Love (UK ifml.) is a friendly way of addressing
someone.
• Say brilliant (UK ifml.) to show how enthusiastic you
feel about something.
• When Marie says we’ll see, she means “I’ll decide
later”.
cheeky [(tSi:ki]
frech
3. What did they say?
a) Does he want to have a b______ p______?
b) It’s £14.50 per child, for a m ______ of ten children.
c) Sandwiches, sausage rolls and c______ s______.
d) The p______ h ______’s fantastic!
Tips
2. What words did they actually use?
4. True or false?
a) Would he like a birthday party?_____________
b) There’s a pitch free at 10 a.m. _____________
c) Yes, if you help me with the fiddly bits. ____________
d) It looks as if the match is over. _____________
a) Finn is going to be ten. ________
b) Finn’s birthday is on a Saturday. ________
c) Finn’s cake is in the shape of a football. ________
d) Finn doesn’t want to have a party next year. ________
Foto: iStock
56
Spotlight 8|14
Answers: 1. a) about; b) in; c) in; d) back; 2. a) Does he want to have; b) available; c) give me a hand; d) By the look(s) of things;
3. a) birthday party; b) minimum; c) cocktail sausages; d) party host; 4. a) true; b) false (Finn’s birthday is on a Sunday.);
c) false (Finn’s cake is in the shape of a football pitch.); d) false (Finn would like to have a party in the same place next year.)

The Grammar Page | LANGUAGE
Using the
second conditional
ADRIAN DOFF presents and explains this key point of grammar,
with notes on a short dialogue.
Alan is talking to his friend Mara.
Alan: Did you read about that island in Scotland? It’s for
sale for £500,000. That’s what a small flat in London
costs. I’d buy 1 it if I had 2 the money.
Mara: Why would 3 you buy a tiny Scottish island? It hasn’t
even got a house on it.
Alan: Well, I could 4 build one — just a small cottage.
That wouldn’t 5 cost much.
Mara: What would you do there? Keep sheep?
Alan: No, I’d just live there. Maybe I’d write a book or
something.
Mara: Well, if someone gave me £500,000, I certainly
wouldn’t 6 spend it on an empty island. I’d buy a
nice flat in London and rent it out. Then I’d make
even more money.
Alan: And what would you do with it?
Mara: I could go on holiday every year, let’s say to Scotland...
Then I could stay on your island, maybe.
1 Alan uses I’d (= I would) because he’s imagining something
hypothetical or unreal. (= He won’t really buy it.)
2 After if, he uses the past simple tense to talk about
something unreal. (In reality, he hasn’t got the money,
so he won’t buy the island.) The two elements of this
sentence make up a typical statement in the second
conditional form.
3 This is a question with would, continuing the unreal
theme.
4 Could can also be used to talk about unreal things.
(= I would be able to.)
5 The negative form of “would” is wouldn’t (= would not).
6 This is a further example of if + past simple ... would /
wouldn’t to imagine something unreal.
Remember!
If + past simple … would / wouldn’t...
The “if”-clause can begin the sentence:
• If I had the money, I’d buy an island in Scotland.
... or it can appear after the main clause (Hauptsatz):
• I’d buy an island in Scotland if I had the money.
Beyond the basics
In second conditional sentences, it is correct to say
If I / he / she / it were...
• If I were rich, I’d buy an island in Scotland.
However, you will also hear “If I was...”, which is used
more often in conversation.
EXERCISE
Write the verbs in brackets in the correct form, using the past simple or “would”.
a) If you __________ (go) out more, you’d make a few f) She’d do better at school if she __________ (not / go)
friends.
out so much.
b) He could get a reduction if he __________ (have) his g) If the shops __________ (be) open on Sunday, we could
student card with him.
buy some food.
c) I __________ (take) some photos if I had my phone with h) The children __________ (feel) much better if they had
me.
something to eat.
d) If I had my car here, I __________ (give) you a lift home. i) Would you marry me if I __________ (be) younger?
e) (We / pay) __________ less tax if we were married? j) If we __________ (not eat) fish, we’d go hungry.
Answers: a) went; b) had; c) ’d take (would take); d) ’d give (would give); e) Would we pay; f) didn’t go; g) were; h) ’d feel (would feel); i) were / was; j) didn’t eat
8|14 Spotlight 57

LANGUAGE | The Soap
Phil & Peggy
Holiday time?
Helen is on her way to Spain via Spotlight ’s
very own London pub. By INEZ SHARP
FOCUS
Peggy: Helen is coming by on her way to the airport.
Phil: Right. Now where did I leave the charger cable?
Peggy: What do you need that for?
Phil: Helen’s is on the blink, and as we have a spare for
the same model, I said I’d lend it to her for her holiday.
Peggy: Is that what you were looking for this morning?
Phil: Yes, why?
Peggy: Seriously? You spend two hours looking for a
phone cable to lend to a customer, but you can’t find
the time to fix the stuff that’s broken round here?
Phil: Helen isn’t a customer, she’s more of a friend. Anyway,
what exactly needs mending in here?
Peggy: Loads of things...
Phil: Like?
Peggy: Like the clock. It keeps losing time, and I have to
adjust it.
Phil: Nobody looks at that. Throw it away. It’s a waste of
time trying to patch up things like that. Hi, Helen!
Helen: Phew! This suitcase is really hard to manoeuvre.
Phil: Here’s the cable.
Helen: Is that the right one? Mine looks different.
Phil: Well, just try it out.
Helen: OK, let’s see... Where’s my phone? That’s funny,
I’m sure I put it in my handbag.
Peggy: You can never find things when you need them.
Helen: Here’s my ticket and my passport. Here’s my
guidebook, my purse and my make-up bag. The
phone’s definitely not in here.
Phil: Did you put it in your suitcase without realizing it?
Helen: I don’t think so, but I’ll take a look.
Peggy: When’s your flight?
Helen: What’s the time? Oh, it’s earlier than I thought.
The flight’s not for hours.
Peggy: Where are you staying?
Helen: My mum and dad have rented a villa near Marbella.
They’re already there.
In Peggy’s Place this month, there is a lot of language
that has to do with repairs. Helen’s phone charger is
on the blink, meaning it is not working properly. Peggy
says there are loads of things around the pub that
are broken and need to be mended, a synonym for
“repaired”. Phil doesn’t believe you should patch up
broken things — just throw them away. This expression
comes from the word “patch” (Flicken), a piece of
material that is sewn (nähen) over a hole in clothing.
Helen George
Sean Jane
You never find things when you need them.
Phil: Will you be doing any sightseeing?
Helen: No, mostly it’ll be R & R, but we will try to get to
the Alhambra. Here’s my phone! That’s a relief.
Sean: Hello, Helen! Are you planning to kip here in the
pub for the first night of your holiday?
Helen: No, I just had to open my suitcase to find my
phone. That sandwich looks good.
Sean: Here, help yourself. I’ll get another one.
Phil: Enjoy it! You’ve got two weeks of foreign grub ahead
of you: lots of greasy vegetables and stringy meat.
Sean: It’s Spain you’re going to, isn’t it?
Helen: That’s right. I was telling Phil and Peggy we’ve
rented a place in Marbella.
Sean: I once worked in a restaurant there when I was a
student. I loved the tapas.
Peggy: How about a drink?
Helen: I’ll have a glass of white wine.
Sean: What time’s your flight?
Helen: Not till ten.
Sean: But it’s eight now...
Helen: No, the clock up there says ten to seven.
Sean: Here, look at my phone. Eight oh three.
Helen: Oh, no! I’ll never get there on time.
Peggy: Good thing nobody ever looks at that clock, Phil.
Phil: I’ll get the car. We might just make it.
adjust [E(dZVst]
charger cable [(tSA:dZE )keIb&l]
come by [kVm (baI] N. Am.
greasy [(gri:si]
grub [grVb] ifml.
help yourself [)help jO:(self]
just make it [dZVst (meIk It]
kip [kIp] UK ifml.
loads of [(lEUdz Ev] ifml.
lose time [lu:z (taIm]
on time [Qn (taIm]
phew! [fju:] ifml.
purse [p§:s] UK
R & R (rest and recuperation)
[)A:r End (A:] ifml.
relief [ri(li:f]
spare [speE]
stringy [(strINi]
(neu) einstellen
Ladekabel
vorbeikommen, hereinschauen
ölig, fettig
Fraß, Futter
bedien Dich, bedienen Sie sich
es gerade noch schaffen
pennen
eine Menge
(Uhr) nachgehen
rechtzeitig
Mensch! Puh!
Geldbörse
Ruhe und Erholung
Erleichterung
hier: zusätzlich, Reserve
zäh
58
Spotlight 8|14

English at Work | LANGUAGE
Dear Ken: How do I ask for a
clearer explanation?
Dear Ken
I always wonder how I should address people in the
English-speaking world. Do I have to say “Mr” to men,
and “Mrs” or “Miss” to women? I think the form “Miss”
especially was used more in the past. Can you help?
Thank you very much,
Stefan H.
Dear Stefan
Names and titles can cause problems. The conventions
vary according to language group, age group and culture.
Here are four tips:
1. It’s always easier to begin from a formal approach and
move to an informal approach than the other way
round. For example, when writing an e-mail to someone
with whom I’ve never had contact before, I address
that person with a title and his or her family name:
“Dear Mr Smith”, and sign off with my first and last
name: “Ken Taylor”. In the correspondence that follows,
I move to a more informal tone as we get to know
each other. Then I use the person’s first name: “Dear
John”, and sign off with mine: “Ken”.
2. When I meet someone for the first time, I have a couple
of different approaches. First, I try to take the lead
in the introductions. I prefer to be called “Ken” rather
than “Mr Taylor”, so I signal that by introducing myself
as “Ken — Ken Taylor”. This emphasizes my first
name and indicates my preference. Alternatively, if
the other person introduces him- or herself first with
both names, like this: “Franz Walther”, I usually repeat
the two names and then say, “I’m Ken — Ken Taylor.
Please call me Ken. Is it OK if I call you Franz?” This is
also a useful approach when you are not clear which is
the person’s first and last name. If the other person just
uses his family name, “Walther”, I address him as “Mr
Walther”.
3. Men’s titles are a little easier to manage than female
ones. Generally, address a man as “Mr”. With women,
you can use the title “Ms” (pronounced [mIz]) for both
married and unmarried persons. But always check, for
example on a business card, for specific titles such as
“Professor” or “Doctor”.
4. In the English-speaking world, people usually like to
use first names as soon as possible. The exceptions are
very formal situations, or when there is a big difference
in age or status. Then it is up to the senior or older
person to suggest using first names.
All the best
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
What is the politest way to ask someone to explain something
more clearly and in more detail? I sometimes need
to do this in meetings and on the phone.
Could you help me, please?
Best wishes
Georg T.
Dear Georg
There are a couple of things you can do in situations like
this. You can use one of the following phrases to get more
information:
• Could you elaborate on that for me, please?
• Could you be a bit more specific?
• Could you be more concrete?
Or you can simply say:
• Interesting. Tell me more.
Try the following tactic if you are not sure you have understood
something. First, summarize what has been said:
• If I understood you correctly, you’re saying...
• So what you’re saying is... Is that right?
Then ask specific questions about any further information
you need.
These different approaches should help.
Regards
Ken
approach [E(prEUtS]
business card [(bIznEs kA:d]
elaborate on sth. [i(lÄbEreIt Qn]
get to know sb. [)get tE (nEU]
sign off [saIn (Qf]
take the lead [)teIk DE (li:d]
Haltung, Vorgehensweise
Visitenkarte
etw. näher ausführen
jmdn. kennenlernen
(Brief) schließen,
unterzeichnen
die Führung übernehmen
Ken Taylor is a communication skills consultant. Follow his “Hot Tips”
on Twitter @DearKen101. You can buy his book Dear Ken... 101 answers
to your questions about business English from
8|14 Spotlight 59

LANGUAGE | Spoken English
Softly, softly
ADRIAN DOFF looks at ways to be indirect in
spoken English.
Amy is trying on a dress. She shows Bea.
Amy: I really like it. What do you think?
Bea: Hmm, I’m not sure. Don’t you think it’s a bit too
small? Maybe you should try a bigger size.
Amy: What about the colour?
Bea: Um, it’s OK. But to be honest, I’m not sure that
pink is really your colour.
In this example, Bea doesn’t like the dress, but she doesn’t
say so directly. She “softens” her criticism to be kind to Amy.
Let’s look at some ways this is done in spoken English.
Stating an opinion
Amy and Bea are discussing the news.
Amy: The driver was sent to prison for five years.
Bea: 1. He deserved it.
2. Well, I must say, it seems to me he deserved it.
In her first answer, Bea seems to have a very fixed opinion.
In her second, she sounds more open to other ideas. Certain
phrases are used as an indirect lead-in to an opinion:
• Well, if you ask me...
• Well, it seems to me...
• I must say...
Other phrases also introduce an opinion or a comment:
• Well, to be (quite) honest, I think she deserved it.
• Frankly, I don’t know what she’s complaining about.
• To tell you the truth, I’m not surprised they didn’t win.
• Actually, I never really liked him very much.
Disagreeing carefully
Amy and Bea are still discussing the news story.
Bea: I really think he deserved to go to prison.
Amy: 1. I don’t agree. I think it was unfair.
2. Maybe. I’m not sure. Don’t you think it was a
bit unfair?
Amy’s first answer seems rather aggressive. In the second,
she sounds more open and friendly. The following phrases
help speakers to express disagreement diplomatically:
• Oh, I don’t know...
• Mm, do you think so?
• Yeah, maybe. I’m not sure, though.
• Don’t you think...?
Criticizing diplomatically
Amy has just cooked a meal for Bea.
Amy: Do you like it?
Bea: 1. No. The meat’s tough. You didn’t cook it long
enough.
2. It’s fine. The only thing is, the meat’s a bit
tough. Maybe it needed another ten minutes
or so.
Bea’s first answer could upset Amy. In the second answer,
the same information is given, but more gently. In critical
comments and suggestions in spoken English, it’s important
to be indirect. One way to do this is to say “It’s good, but...”:
• It’s great. The only thing / trouble / problem is that it’s
a bit salty.
The second way is to make a careful suggestion:
• Perhaps you could have cooked it longer.
• Maybe you could put less salt in next time.
To be even more careful, Bea could begin with a set phrase:
• If you don’t mind my saying so, the meat’s a bit tough.
• Look, don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s too salty.
Just a bit
In the previous example, Bea says the meat is “a bit tough”.
This helps to make what she says less direct. We could also
say (just) a little or (just) a touch or rather:
• I like your hair, but maybe it’s just a touch too long.
• I think maybe you had rather too much to drink at lunch.
Fill in each gap with one word from the list
to complete the comments below.
ask | frankly | honest | mind | must | touch
a) If you ___________ me, I think it was a bad idea.
b) To be quite ___________, I think the price is too high.
c) I’m trying to read. Could you turn the music down,
please? Just a ___________.
d) Well, I ___________ say that film was rather boring.
e) If you don’t ___________ my saying so, I think you
should get your hair cut.
f) ___________, I thought Liverpool played really badly.
Answers: a) ask; b) honest; c) touch; d) must;
e) mind (etw. dagegen haben); f) Frankly (offen gesagt)
Foto: iStock
EXERCISE
60
Spotlight 8|14

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.
beak [bi:k] noun p. 66
hard, curved part of a bird’s mouth
Schnabel
The stork makes a clattering noise by opening
and closing its beak very fast.
Don’t confuse beak with “beaker” = Trinkbecher
pillow [(pIlEU] noun p. 50
a soft cushion for your head in bed
Kopfkissen
She fell asleep as soon as her head hit the
pillow.
A cover for a pillow is a pillowcase.
deceive [di(si:v] verb p. 9
trick sb. by giving false information
hier: in die Irre führen
You can’t deceive me. I saw you take the
money.
See the extra notes below for more information
about deceive.
reveal [ri(vi:&l] verb p. 67
show; let sth. be known
ergeben, offenbaren
His personal letters revealed the tragic love
story behind the public man.
synonyms: disclose, expose, uncover
delighted [di(laItId] adjective p. 56
very happy about sth.
erfreut, begeistert
She’s bought a new bicycle and is absolutely
delighted with it.
to accept an offer politely: “Thank you. I’d be delighted (to).”
notorious [nEU(tO:riEs] adjective p. 16
famous for sth. bad
allgemein bekannt
The town is notorious for
its terrible traffic and its
one-way system.
synonym: infamous [(InfEmEs]
Foto: iStock
How to use the word deceive
While you can deceive others into believing or doing
something, the verb deceive is often used about
oneself:
• Unless my ears / eyes deceive me, that’s Prince
Edward over there.
• Don’t be deceived into thinking it’s a good idea.
• Those diet drinks won’t make you any thinner.
Don’t deceive yourself.
Deceitful behaviour or deceit can be seen as sending
someone on a journey — the wrong way. There
are lots of colourful phrases that can be used instead
of deceive: you can lay a false trail, lead someone
astray or up the garden path, mislead people, send
them on a wild goose chase, take them for a ride or
throw them off the scent. We propose you practise
some deception — at least with your choice of words.
Answers: a) revealed; b) beak; c) pillow; d) deceived; e) delighted; f) deceive;
g) notorious
Complete the following sentences
with words from this page in their
correct form.
a) The party plans are still a secret. Nothing has been
_______________ yet.
b) The bird carried some small sticks and leaves in its
_______________.
c) I’ve made your bed. Would you like one
_______________ or two?
d) Don’t let yourself be _______________ into thinking
you can pay for this.
e) We’d be _______________ to join you for lunch on
Tuesday.
f) Don’t _______________ yourself, Jake. She’s not coming
back.
g) Watch out for Uncle Bob. He’s a _______________ flirt.
8|14 Spotlight
OVER TO YOU!
61

LANGUAGE | Perfectionists Only!
62
Spotlight 8|14
WILL O’RYAN explains developments in the English language and examines some of
the finer points of grammar.
Back to
the roots
One of the words in North American
English that British speakers tend to
dislike most is “gotten”. They often
complain that it sounds “ignorant”
or “hillbillyish” (hinterwäldlerisch). A
reader posted the following comment
to the BBC website a few years ago:
“What kind of word is ‘gotten’? It
makes me shudder (schaudern).” The
answer is simple: it’s the original past
participle of the verb “get”, which
was borrowed from Old Norse geta
(past tense: gatum, past participle:
getenn) around 1200. “Gotten” was
shortened to “got” in British English
only after the original settlement of
the American colonies and only in
the root verb “get”, not in the derived
verbs “forget” (participle: “forgotten”)
and “beget” (zeugen; participle:
“begotten”). The latter has a literary
flavour today in the sense of “cause”
— for example, in “war begets more
war” — or an archaic flavour in the
sense of “to father”. The archaic past
tense “begat” from the first chapter
of St Matthew in the King James
translation of the Bible (from 1611)
traces the genealogy (Ahnenreihe) of
Jesus (“Abraham begat Isaac; and
Isaac begat Jacob...”). And (British)
English still has the form “gotten”
in the participial adjectives “misbegotten”
(schlecht konzipiert) and
“ill-gotten” (unrechtmäßig erworben).
Brits imitating North American
speech often make the mistake
of turning every “got” into “gotten”.
In the sense of possession, however,
American usage is “have got”. So it’s
“I haven’t gotten paid yet” and “I’ve
gotten old”, but “I’ve got a sister”.
“I’ve got a ticket” and “I’ve gotten
a ticket” mean two different things
in American usage, corresponding to
haben/besitzen and bekommen.
“So” as a pro-clause
Grammar
The word “pronoun” comes from Latin pro (“in place of”) and nomen (“noun”).
And just as a pronoun stands for a noun, a pro-clause stands for a clause
(Satz). Here, we will look at a special use of “so” as a pro-clause complement.
Consider, first, the examples of (a):
a) Another crash is certain to happen soon. Most economists think so,
at least.
Did they really decide to give away all the money? — Yes, I believe so.
The word “so” here is a pro-form of an object clause — “(that) another crash
is certain to happen soon”, “(that) they decided to give away all the money”.
(Note: if you were to use a pro-form in German in these examples, it would
be es rather than so.) In addition to “think” and “believe”, several other verbs
involving the notion (Begriff) of belief or assumption (Annahme) appear with
this “so”, among them, “assume”, “expect”, “fear”, “gather”, “guess”, “hope”,
“imagine”, “presume”, “reckon” (meinen, glauben), “suppose” and “suspect”.
Corresponding to positive “so”, there is the negative pro-clause “not”, as
can be seen in (b), where “not” stands for the object clauses “(that) he’s not
going...” and “(that) there won’t be any delays”, respectively:
b) He’s not going to want to join us today. — No, I suppose not.
Do you think there will be any delays? — I certainly hope not.
This construction also occurs with the conditional conjunction “if” and the
adjective “afraid”, as can be seen in (c):
c) Will Sue help us, and if so / if not, will we finish on time?
Is Mary joining us today? — No, I’m afraid not. / Yes, I’m afraid so.
“So” also occurs with the reporting verbs “say” and “tell”:
d) I know Tom agrees with us, because he said so / told me so.
With these verbs, “so” can also substitute for a negative clause. Pro-clause
“not” is generally possible only in responses to questions:
e) I know that Tom doesn’t agree with us, because he said so (not).
Will they decide in our favour? — She says not.
Most of the verbs we’ve mentioned (but not with “if” and the adjective
“afraid”) allow “so” to be fronted, as in (f):
f) Nothing could spoil our picnic — or so I thought until the rain started.
With a few verbs, “so” takes only the front position, as in the examples of (g):
g) “The euro is stable.” So writes economist John Doe. (Economist John Doe
writes so...)
August will be hot — or so I’ve heard, at least. (or I’ve heard so)
Which sentence can be corrected by putting “so” into the blank space
as a pro-clause?
1. We’re going to lose that match — or _____ I’m afraid.
2. We’re going to lose that match — or _____ I fear.
Answer: sentence 2
Foto: iStock

Crossword | LANGUAGE
California dreamin’
The words in this puzzle are taken from our article about places to
visit in California. You may wish to refer to the text on pages 14 –17.
1 2 3
4 5 6 7
15
8 9 10 11
12 13 14
16 17
18 19 20
24
Across
21 22 23
1. Places that serve meals.
4. “A lot of money went ______ building this.”
5. An enclosure in which fish and sea animals are kept.
10. To move a liquid, such as water, from one container to
another.
11. Belonging to that thing.
12. A task that is difficult to do.
15. Whether.
16. A pleasant set of events that someone has imagined.
17. Used to be.
19. San Francisco is known for its ______ cars.
21. A unit.
22. A street or highway.
24. What’s ______ preference? What would you like to do?
Mike Pilewski
Solution to puzzle 7/14:
DECLINE
W A Y S P R O B L E M
R A F E
P E R F E C T F I N D
A I T
P A T R O L L I N G C
I I I A I F
C O N S E R V A T I O N
K A I U A
P A R T N E R L
A L L L G A
L A N Y L O C A L
S A Y L N
O R E D U C E D D
Down
1. Water that falls from the sky.
2. Also.
3. On days without 1 down, the sun may be ______.
5. The way someone or something looks.
6. Most of the time.
7. The majority.
8. Large walls of rock.
9. Not first, but in the place right after that.
13. At no place.
14. Other things: “What ______ is there to see here?”
18. Path: “You’ll see interesting things along the ______.”
20. Large.
21. A word that indicates an alternative: “this ______ that”.
23. A word of location: “They’re ______ Disneyland.”
Competition!
How to take part
Form a single word from the letters in the coloured
squares. Send it on a postcard to:
Redaktion Spotlight, “August Prize Puzzle”,
Postfach 1565, 82144 Planegg, Deutsch land.
Or go to www.spotlight-online.de/crossword
Ten winners will be chosen from the entries we receive
by 20 August 2014. Each winner will be sent the book
Mein England-Trip by courtesy of Pons. The answer to
our June puzzle was chapter.
Congratulations to:
Sabine Schäfer (Barsbüttel)
Petra Kölling (Radebeul)
Volker Mohrhagen (Lüdersburg)
Doris Schorpp (Friedrichshafen)
Gerd Budilovsky (Ratingen)
Ingeborg Martin (Berlin)
Ingrid Wahlert (Karlsruhe)
Maria Rost (Schöningen)
Urs Roller (Kiel)
Ursula Metzen (Bitburg)
8|14 Spotlight 63

Alle Urheber- und Leistungsschutzrechte vorbehalten. Keine unerlaubte Vervielfältigung, Vermietung, Aufführung, Sendung!
Foto: xxxxxxxxxx
AUDIO | August 2014
Spotlight
AUDIO
Activate your English!
Wherever
you see this
symbol at the start of
an article in the magazine,
you will find the text
and/or the related
interview or language
exercises on
Spotlight Audio.
Each month, SPOTLIGHT AUDIO brings you 60 minutes of texts, dialogues, interviews, news
reports and language exercises related to the current issue of Spotlight magazine.
Improve your listening skills and activate your English with the help of native speakers from
around the world.
Fotos: J. Earwaker; iStock; PR
Spotlight Audio is presented by Rita Forbes and
David Creedon. Among the highlights are:
• Special focus. Spotlight Audio is built around
themes found in the magazine. In the August issue
of Spotlight Audio, the special focus is on California.
We have a California quiz, an excerpt from Talitha
Linehan’s feature on San Diego, and interviews with
some of the people she met while visiting the city.
• Authentic and current content. In the Replay
section, Spotlight Audio looks at news and recent
events from around the world. This section features
listening exercises with the voices of people who’ve
been in the news, including quotes from politicians,
journalists and entrepreneurs.
• A variety of English accents. You’ll hear native
speakers from the US (Travel), Canada (Language),
and a number of regional accents from around Britain
(Debate, A Day in My Life). Interviews and reports
allow you to hear a wide range of voices from different
parts of the English-speaking world.
Choose your listening format
Spotlight Audio is available either as a download
or as a CD.
To find out more about how to subscribe to Spotlight Audio:
• aboshop.spotlight-verlag.de/de/spotlight-hoeren
• www.spotlight-online.de/products/audio-cd
• www.sprachenshop.de/Spotlight-audio
64 Spotlight 8|14
Spotlight
8 2014
AUDIO – EINFACH ENGLISCH
Crime fiction:
interview with
Linwood Barclay
Debate: Does
Britain need
fracking?
CALIFORNIA
SPECIAL
Booklet_8_14.indd 5 09.07.14 12:29
This month’s
audio content
Below is a complete list
of the tracks on August’s
Spotlight Audio.
The page numbers refer to
those in the current issue of
Spotlight magazine.
1. Introduction
2. World View: Cornwall’s minority report
(text: p. 12)
3. A Day in My Life: Crossword setter
Tim Moorey (interview: pp. 8–9)
4. Britain Today: What they didn’t know
(text: p. 13)
5. Travel: California quiz (pp. 14–17)
6. Travel: Dreaming of San Diego (excerpt)
(text: pp. 18–23)
7. Travel: San Diego voices
(interviews: pp. 18–23)
8. Everyday English: A birthday party
(dialogues: pp. 55–56)
9. American Life: It’s time to find out who
you really are (text: p. 67)
10. Replay: International news, with language
explanations
11. Replay: Britain’s protest vote
12. Replay: Another war in Iraq?
13. Language: Crime fiction vocab (pp. 30–33)
14. Language: Crime author Linwood Barclay
(interview: pp. 30–33)
15. Debate: Does Britain need fracking?
(interviews: pp. 36–37)
16. English at Work: Asking for info (p. 59)
17. Peggy’s Place: Holiday time? (text: p. 58)
18. Spoken English: Disagreeing politely
(p. 60)
19. Short Story: Guess the weight of the cake
(text: pp. 44–45)
20. Conclusion
World View (track 2)
A Day in My Life (track 3)
Travel (tracks 5–7)
Language (tracks 13–14)

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THE LIGHTER SIDE | Wit and Wisdom
Macho does not prove mucho.
Zsa Zsa Gabor (born 1917), Hungarian-born American actress
Doggy business
Two dogs are walking along a street. A third dog drives by
in a lorry full of wood. One of the dogs turns to the other
and says, “That guy started fetching sticks and built up the
business from there.”
© Bulls
The Argyle Sweater
The annoying duck
A duck walks into a bar and asks, “Got any grapes?” Confused,
the barkeeper says, “No.” The duck thanks him and
leaves. The next day, the duck returns and asks, “Got any
grapes?” The barkeeper says, “No, we don’t serve grapes. In
fact, we’ve never served grapes and never will.” The duck
thanks him and leaves. The next day, the duck returns, but
before he can say anything, the barkeeper shouts, “Listen,
duck! This is a bar. We do not serve grapes. If you ask for
grapes again, I will tape your beak shut!” So the duck leaves.
The next day, the duck walks into the bar and asks, “Got any
tape?” Surprised to see the duck again, the barkeeper says,
“No.” “Good.” says the duck. “Got any grapes?”
Homework
Johnny is doing his maths homework. He says to himself,
“Two plus five, that son of a bitch is seven. Three plus six,
that son of a bitch is nine.”
His mother is shocked to hear what he’s saying. “But Mum,
I’m just doing my maths homework,” Johnny explains.
“Is that how your teacher taught you to do it?” his mother
asks. “Yes,” he answers.
The next day, Johnny’s mother calls his teacher. “What are
you teaching my son in class?” she asks angrily.
The teacher replies, “Right now, we’re learning addition.”
The mother asks, “And are you teaching them to say, ‘Two
plus two, that son of a bitch is four’?”
After the teacher stops laughing, she answers, “What I
taught them was, ‘Two plus two, the sum of which is four.’”
Question and answer
Q: What does a lawyer do after he dies?
A: He lies still.
beak [bi:k] Schnabel ( p. 61)
fetch sticks [fetS (stIks]
Stöckchen holen
give: don’t ~ me that [gIv] ifml. erzähl mir doch nichts
lie [laI]
(Wortspiel) liegen; lügen
son of a bitch [)sVn Ev E (bItS] vulg. Mistkerl
Q: What’s the hardest tea to swallow?
A: Reality.
tape sth. [teIp]
undress [Vn(dres]
etw. mit Klebeband zukleben
ausziehen
Peanuts
© Bulls
66
Spotlight 8|14

American Life | GINGER KUENZEL
There’s
a new trend
of having weird
quizzes
It’s time to find out
who you really are
Foto: iStock
Lately, there seem to be a lot of
personality quizzes on Facebook
that make me scratch my head
and ask, “Really?”
For example, just answer a few
simple questions and — voilà! —
you know what type of sandwich you
would be if you were a sandwich, or
whether you would be happier being
married to Prince Harry or Harry
Potter. And how about the quiz to
find out your “true” age? Your driver’s
license might show that you are
50, but if your answers to the quiz
reveal that you spend your free time
rock climbing and going to clubs,
your true age might be 30.
On the other hand, if your answers
show that your favorite activities
are attending afternoon tea
dances, your true age might be 80. I
prefer avoiding this kind of quiz altogether,
since all I need to know about
my age is that I’m old enough to vote
and buy alcohol.
This new trend of having weird
quizzes got me thinking about some
of the other things that have made
me scratch my head and ask, “Really?”
For example, the time I was in a
drivers’ education class. A girl in the
class asked the teacher if it was legal
to drive barefoot in the state of New
York. When the teacher replied that
there was no law regulating it, the
girl asked, “But what about in the
winter months? Because my father
told me I should wear shoes when
driving in the winter.”
Considering the fact that the winter
in New York State involves plenty
of snow, ice, and freezing temperatures,
it was hard to understand why
the girl would need to get anyone to
explain her father’s advice.
Persönlichkeitstests sind sehr beliebt. Doch mit zunehmender
Verbreitung nimmt auch ihre Absurdität zu.
Then there are those experiences
that are so far from my idea of what’s
normal that, once again, I just have
to ask, “Really?”
I accompanied my older son on
his first day of school in Germany
many years ago. As I looked around
his classroom, I was surprised to
see that there was nothing at all on
the walls except for a crucifix behind
the teacher’s desk. Why was I
so surprised? There’s a good reason:
You see, in the US, the separation
of church and state is a concept that
has been part of our constitution for
more than 200 years. It would be
unheard of to hang a crucifix in the
classroom of a public school.
Along these same lines, when I
registered as a resident in Germany
and was asked to state my religion
for tax purposes, I did a double take.
Money was going to be taken out
of my paycheck and given to the
church?
In the US, churches rely on donations,
along with bake sales, church
dinners, and the like. For the state to
Ginger Kuenzel is a freelance writer who lived in Munich for 20 years.
She now calls a small town in upstate New York home.
collect tax for the church is unheard
of. But I think my absolute favorite
scratch-my-head-and-ask-“really?”
story relates to the paperwork I had
to complete to get a driver’s license in
Massachusetts some years ago.
The first part of the form asked
for general information, such as
name, address, and date of birth.
Next came the “change of information”
section: “Check here if your
name has changed. Check here if
your address has changed. Check
here if your sex has changed. Additional
documentation
may be required.”
I slowly realized
that this could be a
type of personality
quiz with questions
such as: What sex are
you really? What is
your true sex? But
then again, I am
certain on this
point and have no
intention of taking
a quiz to be sure.
bake sale [(beIk seI&l] N. Am.
Verkauf von selbstgebackenem Kuchen
barefoot [(berfUt]
barfuß
check [tSek]
hier: ankreuzen
donation [doU(neIS&n]
Spende
double take: do a ~ [(dVb&l )teIk]
zweimal hinsehen müssen
driver’s license [(draIv&rz )laIs&ns] N. Am. Führerschein
lines: along the same ~ [laInz]
hier: ungefähr so
paycheck [(peItSek] N. Am.
Gehaltsscheck
resident [(rezIdEnt]
Einwohner(in)
reveal [ri(vi:&l] ergeben, offenbaren ( p. 61)
rock climbing [(rA:k )klaImIN]
Felsklettern
state sth. [steIt]
etw. angeben
unheard of [Vn(h§:d Vv]
beispiellos, unerhört
weird [wI&rd] ifml.
sonderbar, verrückt
8|14 Spotlight 67

FEEDBACK | Readers’ Views
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Super Abhandlung
Spotlight 6/14 — History: “James Joyce and Ulysses”. Diesen
Artikel finde ich als Seniorstudent der Anglistik super.
Ich habe das Buch vor langer Zeit gelesen und versucht zu
verstehen. Nachdem ich Ihre Abhandlung gelesen habe,
insbesondere über den Bloomsday (16.6.), bin ich inspiriert,
dieses Meisterwerk wieder in die Hände zu nehmen
und vielleicht sogar zum 16. Juni 2015 nach Dublin zu
reisen. Ich lese Spotlight schon viele Jahre und beglückwünsche
Sie für diesen Bericht. Nur weiter so!
Gunther Partetzke, Wedemark
In stitches
Spotlight 5/14 — My Life in English: “Otto Waalkes exclusive”.
Spotlight is wonderful. Even if I weren’t involved
in teaching English, I’d definitely still buy it for its content
and attitude. The Otto interview had me in stitches.
Nick Young, Lohne
Perfectly clear
English at Work. This page is one of the best in the language
section. Also, on the CD it is really a pleasure to
hear Ken present his exercises. His speech is so perfectly
clear! The only man I can compare this to is Tony Blair,
who speaks with similar clarity.
Peter Jagl, by e-mail
Ken Taylor presents exercises related to English at Work every
month on Spotlight Audio. See page 64 for more information.
The Editor
Which flag?
Spotlight 6/14 — World View: “A new British flag?”. I
found your article on what will happen to the Union Jack
if Scotland votes for independence interesting, but unfortunately
also misleading. The “Flag of Great Britain” was
indeed proclaimed by King James I / VI in 1606, and was
used for ships sailing on the high seas. This flag consisted
of the red cross of St George for England and the saltire of
St Andrew for Scotland. St Patrick’s flag, for Ireland, was
added in 1801, with the creation of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland.
Nancy Hulek, Burgdorf
Thank you for pointing this out.
The Editor
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68
Spotlight 8|14

September 2014 | NEXT MONTH
Features
Experience the
drama of the
Wales Coast Path
The Wales Coast Path provides
1,400 kilometres of
dramatic coastal walking.
We visit the Llyn ˆ Peninsula
to experience the natural
beauty and rich history
of this Welsh-speaking
region — with the sea as a
constant companion.
Changing the
marijuana laws
in the US
On the first day of 2014,
Colorado became the
first US state to legalize
the sale of cannabis for
recreational use. Since
then, many other states
have been changing their
laws, too. Is this doing
the country good?
Use your head:
are you the best learner
you could be?
What do we know about how people
learn? We explore ideas, theories and
methods to help you learn more efficiently
and effectively — and offer
you ways to put them into practice.
Language
Vocabulary English at Work Travel Talk
Whether you work in an operating
theatre, are in hospital as a patient or
are visiting someone there, we help
you describe the experience.
Ken Taylor shares some motivating
words for everyone who leads a
team, and he shows how you can
succeed with “quick wins”.
It’s a dream for many — a road trip
in the US. We present dialogues and
tips that will help you prepare for a
journey on the open road.
Fotos: Alamy; Fuse; iStock
Spotlight 9/14 is on sale from
27 August
8|14 Spotlight
69

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS | My Life in English
Sebastian
Schnoy
Der Hamburger Kabarettist und Schriftsteller
spricht über seine Erfahrungen mit der
englischen Sprache und Kultur.
As a cabaret artist and historian, what makes English
important to you?
I have many international colleagues, and you often
hear English backstage. It’s also my dream to perform in
Britain or the US one day. And as a historian, I like the
easy and approachable way the English and the Americans
have of looking at things.
What can you remember about your first English lesson?
The teacher took hold of my mouth and tried to form a
“th”. I learned English, and especially French, in spite of
school, not because of it.
Who is your favourite English-language author, actor or
musician and why?
I love the American comedian Louis C. K. Take a look
at his videos on YouTube. Why? One of his best comedy
routines is called “Why?”
Which song could you sing a few lines of in English?
Maybe “Wonderwall” by the British band Oasis. But a
few syllables, not a few lines.
What is your favourite food from the English-speaking
world?
I actually get Typhoo Tea and Guinness from special
shops in Germany. I like the round tea bags without
a string. The Guinness has to be from a can, because I
don’t like the bottles.
Which person from the English-speaking world (living or
dead) would you most like to meet?
The writer John Updike. He’s my example when I write
novels. By the way, my latest novel, Ghostdater, came out
in May.
What is your favourite city in the English-speaking
world?
Galway, Ireland. When I played in a band, we busked
there and met homeless people who treated us like
friends.
What tip would you give a friend going to this city?
Backpacking and hitch-hiking are the most intense ways
to get to know people and places. If we’d had a hotel, I
wouldn’t have learned much about the people in Galway.
But this tip is only for young people. I myself don’t
pick up hitch-hikers who are over 60.
Have you worked in an English-speaking environment?
In my early twenties, I spoke English with my Hungarian
girlfriend. That relationship was so demanding that
it absolutely qualified as work in an English-speaking
environment. Once, I also performed on the Queen Elizabeth,
on a cruise around the British Isles. The British
really are friendlier than the Germans. They even say
“hello” when you get into the swimming pool.
Describe an interesting experience in English?
At a bus station in New York, I saw a porter who had
only one arm. That’s characteristic of America: if he’s as
fast as everybody else, he gets the job. And he was fast.
Do you practise English, and if so, how?
By watching The Walking Dead in English — I can
understand the zombies really well. No, I think you
learn a language best with lots of words and little grammar.
The best thing is to stick yellow Post-it notes on
everything, until you know what Schublade, Rückspiegel
and Schraubenzieher are in English. English comes more
naturally after two beers, and you should never be afraid
to speak. Just keep on doing it.
approachable [E(prEUtSEb&l]
backpack [(bÄkpÄk]
backstage [)bÄk(steIdZ]
busk [bVsk]
demanding [di(mA:ndIN]
hitch-hike [(hItS haIk]
hold: take ~ of sth. [hEUld]
novel [(nQv&l]
pick up [pIk (Vp]
porter [(pO:tE]
zugänglich, aufgeschlossen
als Rucksacktourist(in) reisen
hinter der Bühne
Straßenmusik machen
anspruchsvoll, anstrengend
trampen, per Anhalter fahren
greifen, fassen
Roman
mitnehmen
Gepäckträger(in)
Foto: PR
70
Spotlight 8|14

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Green Light
8
2014
ENGLISCH LEICHT GEMACHT
Culture
Read about
the Book of
Kells
Grammar
Practise using
reflexive
pronouns
Vocabulary
Learn words
for different
drinks

GREEN LIGHT | News
This month...
Was beschäftigt die englischsprachige Welt im August?
VANESSA CLARK spürt die heißen Storys für Sie auf.
An Irish celebration
Society Where is the
largest Irish festival in the
world? Dublin? New York?
No, it’s in Milwaukee, the
largest city in the US state
of Wisconsin.
The four-day Milwaukee
Irish Fest takes place
from 14 to 17 August this
year. Of course, there will
be Irish music and dancing, pub life, sports,
food, beer and whiskey. There’s also a dog
show and competitions for visitors with two
legs as well, with prizes for the best photo,
the best soda bread, the best poem and even
for the most beautiful red hair and freckles.
Small guests can visit Leprechaun Village,
where they can find leprechaun gold
and learn more about the little green men
with magical powers.
125 years ago1889
London The world-famous Savoy Hotel
opened its doors on 6 August 1889. It was the
first luxury hotel in Britain, with electric lights,
electric lifts, private bathrooms with hot and
cold water, and many other innovations.
based on: be ~ sth.
[beIst]
freckle [(frek&l]
leprechaun
[(leprEkO:n]
poem [(pEUIm]
pride [praId]
auf etw. basieren,
beruhen
Sommersprosse
Naturgeist der irischen
Mythologie
Gedicht
Stolz
She’s Belle
Cinema Gugu Mbatha-
Raw grew up near Oxford
with her English
mother and South African
father. Her full name,
Gugulethu, means “our
pride” in Xhosa, and her
parents must certainly be
proud of her. In 2001,
at the age of 18, Gugu won a scholarship
to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in
London. Now she stars in Belle (German
title: Dido Elizabeth Belle), which comes
to German cinemas this month. The film
is based on a true story. Read more about
Belle on page 42 of this month’s Spotlight.
proud: be ~ of sb.
[praUd]
scholarship [(skQlESIp]
soda bread
[(sEUdE bred]
star in [(stA: In]
take place
[teIk (pleIs]
auf jmdn. stolz sein
Stipendium
mit Natron und Buttermilch
gebackenes Brot
eine Hauptrolle spielen
stattfinden
Fotos: Zoonar (Titel); PR; Illustrationen: B. Förth
2
Spotlight 8|14

8 pictures | GREEN LIGHT
Drinks
STEPHANIE SHELLABEAR presents words for hot and cold drinks.
8
1
2
7
3
6
4
5
Write the words
next to the pictures.
1. a cup of tea [ti:]
2. a cup of coffee
[(kQfi]
3. a cup of hot
chocolate [(tSQklEt]
4. a glass of water
[(wO:tE]
5. a glass of wine
[waIn]
6. a glass of juice
[dZu:s]
7. a pint of beer [bIE]
8. a cocktail
[(kQkteI&l]
Write the missing words in these sentences.
a) Can I offer you ___________ coffee?
b) Would you like ___________ water?
c) Now the children are in bed, we can have ___________ wine.
d) Every Friday evening, my husband goes to the pub for
___________ beer.
e) Before we go to bed, we always have ___________ hot
chocolate.
f) I’d like ___________ cocktail — a pina colada, please.
Remember to say “a cup of”, “a glass of” or “a bottle of”
when you are talking about drinks. In pubs in the UK, we
don’t ask for a glass of beer. We ask for a pint of beer or half a
pint. A pint is a little bit more than half a litre.
Answers: a) a cup of; b) a glass of; c) a glass of; d) a pint of; e) a cup of; f) a
Tips
8|14 Spotlight 3

GREEN LIGHT | Grammar elements
Reflexive pronouns
STEPHANIE SHELLABEAR presents basic grammar.
Here, she explains when and how to use reflexive pronouns.
When the subject and the object of a sentence are the same person or thing, reflexive
pronouns are used:
myself
ourselves
yourself
yourselves
himself / herself / itself
themselves
Here are some examples of sentences with reflexive pronouns in them:
• Ouch! I’ve cut myself on a piece of paper.
• This light switches itself on (sich automatisch einschalten) when someone walks past.
• Children who go to kindergarten are able to feed themselves (selbstständig essen).
1. Write the correct reflexive pronouns in these sentences.
a) That bird washes ________ in the birdbath every day.
b) The girl looked at ________ in the mirror and smiled.
c) You must stop criticizing ________ all the time.
d) My father talks to ________ when he’s gardening.
e) Oh, no! I’ve just cut ________.
f) We made a pizza for ________ and ate it in front of the TV.
Reflexive pronouns can be used with the subject or the object to
mean “only that person or thing and nobody else”:
• I have no time. You have to do it yourself.
• If you won’t help me, then I’ll go to the manager myself.
• The owners (Besitzer(in), Eigentümer(in)) themselves are
really nice, but their dog is terrible!
-self vs each
other
Learn this one
important
difference:
• I’m not interested
in pop stars.
They’re all in love
with themselves.
• Oh, look at those
two people over
there. They are
really in love with
each other
(gegenseitig).
Tips
2. Write the correct reflexive pronouns in these sentences. Answers
a) No, I won’t clean your room. You must do it ________.
b) I couldn’t believe it. There she was, Queen Elizabeth ________.
c) My mum’s 92, but she still does all the housework ________.
d) The film ________ wasn’t very good, but the main actor was excellent.
e) My boyfriend washes his car ________ to save money.
f) Did Calum and Sam plan their wedding ________?
1. a) itself; b) herself;
c) yourself;
d) himself; e) myself;
f) ourselves;
2. a) yourself;
b) herself; c) herself
(housework: Hausarbeit);
d) itself (main:
Haupt-); e) himself;
f) themselves (wedding:
Hochzeit)
Fotos: iStock
4
Spotlight 8|14

On the beach
The Greens | GREEN LIGHT
Donna and Andrew are spending the afternoon on the
beach close to where they live. By DAGMAR TAYLOR
Donna: It’s lovely here. I’m so happy we live
in Porlock.
Andrew: Me, too. I can’t believe we’ve
been here for more than two years.
Donna: No! It hasn’t been that long, has it?
Andrew: Yes, it has. We moved here in May
2012.
Donna: Oh, my goodness! You’re right.
Andrew: You know, you should put on
some more suntan lotion. You’re going
a bit red.
Donna: Oh, am I? Could you do my back?
Andrew: Sure. We don’t want you looking
like a lobster at the wedding.
Donna: No. ( laughs) I’m so excited! Can
you believe our daughter’s getting married
next week?
Andrew: No, I can’t. I just hope she’s going
to be happy.
lobster [(lQbstE]
suntan lotion
[(sVntÄn )lEUS&n]
wedding [(wedIN]
Hummer
Sonnencreme
Hochzeit
• To tell someone that you are of the
same opinion as he or she, you can say
Me, too (ifml.).
• The present perfect is used to say how
long people have been in a place if they
are still there at the time of speaking.
For is used with periods of time, as in
we’ve been here for more than two
years.
• Use a question tag (Frageanhängsel) to
check information. A positive tag like
has it? is used with a negative sentence.
• Oh, my goodness! “Goodness” or
“Goodness me” are used to express
(ausdrücken) surprise.
• When Donna asks Andrew to do her
back, she means that she’d like him to
put suntan lotion on her back.
• Sure can be used to say “yes” to
someone or to agree to something.
Donna
Tips
Replace the words in bold with those
used in the scene.
a) I’m so glad we live in Porlock. ______
b) I can’t believe we’ve been here since
May 2012. ________________________
c) You’re turning a bit red. ___________
d) Could you put lotion on my back?
___________
Andrew
Listen to the dialogue at
www.spotlight-online.de/products/green-light
Answers: a) happy; b) for more than two years; c) going; d) do

GREEN LIGHT | Get writing
Wanted!
VANESSA CLARK helps you to write letters, e-mails and more in English.
This month: how to send a “wanted” message.
Wanted: bike
To...
CC...
Subject:
All departments
Wanted: bike
Dear Colleagues
Wanted: bike for 13-year-old boy
Does anyone have a bike that I could borrow? A German boy is staying with us for two weeks in August
(18–30), and it would be great to take him out on bike trips. Ideally, he’d like a mountain bike, but any sort
of bike will do.
Please let me know if you can help.
Thanks in advance,
Jason
• The word anyone is useful in an
open e-mail to a group of people:
Does anyone have...?, “Can anyone
help?” or “Is anyone interested?”
• If you take something for a short time,
you borrow it: “Can I borrow your bike?”
The other person “lends” it to you: “Can
you lend me your bike?”
• To say for how long you want it, use for
with the period of time (Zeitraum) ; for
example, for two weeks, or “until” with
the end date: “until the end of August”.
• If you have a special wish, you can use
ideally: “Ideally, I’d like a...”
Tips
Use it!
Highlight the key words and phrases that you
would use if you needed to write an e-mail like
this yourself.
Fotos: iStock
in advance [In Ed(vA:ns]
im Voraus
6
Spotlight 8|14

Culture corner | GREEN LIGHT
I like... the Book of Kells
Jeden Monat stellt ein Redakteur etwas Besonderes aus
der englischsprachigen Welt vor. Diesen Monat präsentiert
OWEN CONNORS seinen Lieblingskunstgegenstand.
What it is
The Book of Kells is an illuminated manuscript
of the four Gospels written in Latin. It is
Ireland’s finest national treasure. Monks
probably began working
on the book on the
Scottish island of Iona
around the year 800.
It was moved to the
Irish monastery of Kells
sometime in the course
of the following 200
years. The illustrations
in the manuscript are
especially impressive.
The brightly coloured
pictures mix Christian
themes with Celtic
designs. You can see the
original book in the Old
Library in Trinity College Dublin or online in
the university’s digital archive.
Fun facts
• In 1006, the book was stolen from
the town of Kells. It was found a few
months later in a field. Its cover, which
was decorated with gold and jewels,
has never been found.
• The book’s pages are made of velum,
which is prepared calfskin. The skins of
around 185 calves were used to make
the book.
• An animated fantasy film called
The Secret of Kells tells the story of
the making of the book. The film was
nominated for an Oscar in 2010.
Why I like it
I went to university at Trinity College. Crowds
of tourists paid to see the Book of Kells, but we
students could get in for free. Every day, the
librarians turned a new page
of the book. It was exciting
to see what wonders were
on the next page. As well as
depicting religious themes,
the illustrations are full of fun.
Along with pictures of Christ,
Mary and the Evangelists,
there are cats chasing mice,
an otter eating a fish, a
flying cow and many other
interesting images. Perhaps
the most surprising thing is
that the book still exists after
13 centuries of troubled Irish
history.
calfskin [(kA:fskIn]
chase [tSeIs]
Christian [(krIstSEn]
cover [(kVvE]
depict [di(pIkt]
for free [fE (fri:] ifml.
Gospel [(gQsp&l]
illuminated
[I(lu:mIneItId]
impressive [Im(presIv]
librarian [laI(breEriEn]
mice (sing.: mouse) [maIs]
monastery [(mQnEstEri]
monk [mVNk]
sometime [(sVmtaIm]
theme [Ti:m]
treasure [(treZE]
wonder [(wVndE]
Kalbsleder
jagen
christlich
Buchdeckel, Einband
darstellen
gratis, umsonst
Evangelium
hier: koloriert
eindrucksvoll
Bibliothekar(in)
Mäuse
Kloster
Mönch
irgendwann
Thema
Schatz, Kostbarkeit
Wunder
8|14 Spotlight
7

GREEN LIGHT | Notes and numbers
Pint
A pint [paInt] is a unit of measurement for
liquids (Flüssigkeit). In the UK, a pint (abbreviation:
pt) is equal (gleich sein) to 0.568
litres. In the US, a pint is equal to 0.473 litres
(US: liters). In the UK, when someone
asks if you would like to “go for a pint”, he
or she is asking whether you would like to
go to the pub for a drink:
• A pint of lager, please.
• The recipe (Rezept) says you need half a
pint of cream.
Your notes
Use this space for your own notes.
Write these measurements as you
would say them.
a) 2 ½ pints ____________________________
two and a half pints
b) 1 pint ________________________________
_____________________________________
c) ¼ pint _______________________________
_____________________________________
d) 8 pints ______________________________
e) 5 ¾ pints ____________________________
______________________________________
pint-sized
An informal way to describe a very small
person, child or animal is pint-sized:
• “The pint-sized actor hates his wife
wearing high heels (Stöckelschuhe).”
Answers: b) a / one pint; c) a quarter of a pint; d) eight
pints (= 1 gallon); e) five and three-quarter pints
Fotos: Stockbyte; 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
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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.