DRACULA

BRAM STOKER (1847-1912)

Mysterious and tormented: that's what we know about Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula. And, indeed, that is how he must have been to imagine such a bloodthirsty creature. 104 years later, the author is perhaps not so well remembered but Dracula is certainly still as famous as ever. It's a case of a character that has "eliminated" its author!

The forgotten writer.

Who could have imagined such a thing?

What feverish, tormented, creepy imagination could the bloodiest novel of all times have come from? Who was the inventor of Count Dracula, the famous vampire that would end up terrifying the whole of England and the rest of the world?

His name was Bram Stoker, a practically unknow writer when his novel appeared in London in 1997. Dracula is his creation, the creature who has even managed to "vampirise" his author by becoming more famous than the man himself.

Dracula, the character is now 115 years old, and is still going strong. The "number one vampire" regularly decides to come out of the dark to appear on TV, in comics or in the cinema (there are 80 films about this "adventures"!). What a grat success this was for the obscure Bram Stoker, who wrote only one masterpiece in his whole life, and it was this one!

*creepy: tenebrós

*indeed: efectivament

 

SUMMARY OF THE PLOT (novel):

Jonathan Harker, a young notary, goes to Transylvania to negotiate a sale with Count Dracula. It doesn't take him long to discover his host's terrible secret: Dracula is a vampire that goes out at night to quench his thirst for human blood.

When he arrives in England, Dracula chooses as his victim Lucy, who is a friend of Mina, Jonatan's fiancée. Lucy bleeds to death.

Will Jonathan Harker, Mina and the condescending professor Van Helsing manage to defeat the vampire? The novel appears as a dossier of letters and parts of the diaries of each of the different characters.

TRAILER:

DEVILS AN HEROES

Vambéry told Bram Stoker the story Vlad, a Romanian prince wholived in the XV century, and was known as "Vlad the Implaer" because of his bloodthirsty reputation. He also learned about Dracula, whose name comes from the Romanian word "Dracul", which means "devil". Stoker, facinated by the sound of this name decided to give it to the main character of his next novel. Dracula was a vampire, a dead man that comes alive at night and leaves his coffin tho quanch his thirst for human blood. 

THE SUPERNATURAL

He wrote stories for children, in which it became clar that he was interesed in the supernatural. He took this interestet even futher by joining a secret society whose objective was to make contract with "great, unknow and superior beings" through magic and astrology. There he met Arminius Vambéry, a man  who firmly beleived in the existence of vampires. Stoker was fascinated by this, and straight away started studying the legends of the Eastern countries which are full of these evil creatures. 

Vocabulary.

 

The Titanic, a tragic story

100 years after the Titanic tragedy, the world's most famous ship still fascinates us. This April, discover the legend in the new 3D version of James Cameron's film Titanic.

What was the Titanic?
The Titanic was the largest passenger ship in the world when it was built in 1012 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It was like a floating town with passengers from all social classes. Third-class passengers paid 3 to 8 pounds for a one-way ticket to America. First-class passengers paid 30 pounds.






Inside the Titanic
The Titanic was a luxury ship. Rich passengers paid £865 for suite decorated in elegant styles. There was also the famous Grand Staircase which is in the film Titanic too.





The Titanic's destination
The Titanic's first voyage was from Southampton, in England, to New York City, USA. The ship left on 10 April 1912... but never arrived at her destination.




The tragedy
On 14 April, four days after leaving Southampton, the Titanic was in the North Atlantic. The sea was calm but visibility was low. At 11.40 pm, a lookout was a large iceberg near the ship. 37 seconds later, the Titanic hit the iceberg and water entered the ship. At first he passengers didn't panic... two hours and 40 minutes later, at 2.20 am, the Titanic sank...


Who died?
Of the 2,224 people on board only 710 survived, there were not enough lifeboats. Most survivors were women, children and the rich: 60% of first-class passengers survived. But only 42% of second-class and less than 25% of third-class passengers survived.

Titanic on film
the wreck of Titanic was found in 1985, about 4 km under the sea. James Cameron made his 1997 film, Titanic, using real images of the wreck. It was the highest-grossing film of all time until Avatar(2009).


Visit the Titanic
visitors can learn about Titanic and Belfast at a new visitor center in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It's a giant building with four wings the shape of Titanic's hull.




The last survivor
The last survivor of the Titanic died in 2009, aged 96. Her name was Millvina Dean and she was two month old when she was recued from the ship.





Trailer 2012 film (3D):

Smith for president

Will Smith has staked his claim to play Barack Obama if a film about the president is ever made. He says that he is perfect for the role because he and Obama are both tall and, mast importantly, have big ears. "That's the key", Smith says. "America loves ears, you know? Mickey Mouse started it; Googy and Dumbo followed behind. And America just loves the ears". Smith also said that he would wait until obama "writes the end of the story" before playing the role.

Akcigik ub Starbucks

Seattle, Washington Starbucks has been giving its customers a caffeine buzz for some 40 years. But the coffee chain is experimenting with a different kind of buzz: alcohol. A Seattle Starbucks store is now serving regional wine and beer to attract more evening customers. It has even changed its name to "15th Avenue Coffee and Tea-inspired by Starbucks". If the concept works, it could be tested in other cities.

7 billion

That's the number of Earth's inhabitants. The continent with the most people is Asia (4 billion). Oceania has the smallest population (36 million), so if you like lots of space, you should go and live in Australia!!!

* 7 billion = 7,000,000,000)

NBA ALL-STAR GAME

The NBA All-Star Game is an annual basketball match between the best players in the weekend of the match, All-Star Weekend, there is a "slam dunk" competition and concert by famous pop star.

The last NBA All-Star Game

ONE DIRECTION

One Direction are a British-Irish boy-band who have become stars in the UK. The public discovered One Direction on the British talent show, The X Factor. They didn't win but their songs have been top of the charts. Watch the music videos of songs from their album Up All Night on youtube.com/OneDirectionVEVO



Here one song.

Potter fan

Meet Steve Petrick, a big Harry Potter fan. Steve, a 22-year-old arts student, has collected hundreds of wizard souvenirs in his home in Pennsylvania, USA. Steve discovered his passion for Harry at age 11. After he failed and English exam, his parents said he couldn't play outside... so he read the Harry Potter books instead! *fail. suspendre instead. al seu lloc

Mark Zuckerberg

The geek who changed the world. Mark Zuckerberg creted Facebook in 2004, aged 19.
Today he is the second youngest billionaire in the world.

Thanks to the success of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg has a personal fortune of around 14 billion dolars. But the 27-year-old businessman has a very modest lifestyle. He wears jeans, T-shirts and trainers, works constantly and is studing Chinese.

Zuckerberg was a computer prodigy from a young age: his friends did ilustrations wich he transformed into computer games. He also showed a special talent for Latin, Ancient Greek and fencing.

He left New Yourk in 2002 to go to Harvard, an elite American university, to study psychology and computer science. He was shy and people thought he was a geek. He started to develop social network sites for fun.

Zuckerberg hacked into Harvard's computer system on 20 October 2003. He copied private photos of university students to create a site called Facemash. On the site, students could see photos and vote for the people they found most attractive. The site had 450 visitors in four hours, but Harvard shut it down.. and Mark Zuckerberg was almost exelled!!

He was not discouraged. Zuckerberg understood the demand for a website to share personal information with friends. So in 2004, he launched Facebook from his university bedroom. Within 24 hours, 1,200 Harvard students had signed up. After one month, more than half of the students population at Harvard had a Facebook profile.

Facebook soon arrived at other universties. Zuckerberg left Harvard without graduating- he wanted to spend time developing his site. In just seven, years facebook changed the world.

Whit 800 million users, Facebook is now the biggest website on the planet. Zuckerberg wants to keep Facebook users on the site for longer by sharing music, films and personal infomation in the Timeline.

Zukerberg has had problems with his site. Tree Harvard students accused him of copying their ideas to create Facebook, and won a lawsuit against him in 2008. Zukerberg, a private person, has also been criticized for Facebook's principales: making private information public...

The young billionaire doesn't care about this, though. He also says that he didn't just want to make money. "The thing I really care about is the mission making the world open", he says.

Facebook for your phone has helped Zuckerberg complete his mission... and made even more money for his company. But like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Zuckerberg promises to give half of his money to charity. With everything he does, Mark zuckerberg continues to change the world...

Gigant shoes

A pair of giant trainers were found at a petrol station in Derbyshire, England, and given to the police. Denise Bostock, who works at Derby police station, says it's not easy to find someone with size 21 (European size 55) trainers. "We've got some very tall police officers, but not with that size feet!"
she says.

Prince William

PRINCE WILLIAM.
The prince William mother is the princess Diana, she was adored by the public, but she was died in 1997.
Will went to the best schools in Britain and then started to do humanitarian and charity* work. He lived and work for a year in Chile, Belize and Africa.
In Belize, he was in the British Army and did not get any special treatment.
In Chile he taught* English schools.

Went the prince William met the Kate Middelton, they studied in St Andrew's University in Scotland. William was unhappy in the university, but Kate convinced him to stay an other year. Later the Kate and William friendship* became romantic, and in November 2010 William ask her to get married.

BIG FOOT

Would you want a giant Converse shoe? This one was made by designers in Holland. It is 5.5 meters long, 2.1 meters wide and 2.9 high. That's a record! If you want to wear it, you'll need a big feet... the shoe is a European size 878!

*WIDE= ample

Winter is fun!!

Every year, he Rideau Canal in Ottawa, Canada, Becomes the world's largest skating rink. Families go there to ice skate and to play hockey. You can watch professional ice scuptors... and you can also make an ice sculpture yourself!