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This is the end of the course. Hope you kind of liked it)))
Please be so kind to answer some questions which will help develop this course. Be frank, you answers will in no way influence you final mark))) (I swear)
1. What did you  like about the course?
2. What did you dislike?
3. Which task (tasks) was the most difficult? Why?
4. Which task was the easiest?
5. Any  further comment

Lesson 15


Hello everyone,
today we set on our last project in this course. This time it is devoted to music. All of you like some kind of it and your musical tastes can be pretty different. But have you ever thought of music as something based on universal principles which can be traced in any style, from ancient religious hymns ans classical pieces to blues and rock? Today I offer you this fantastic educational video to watch and do some tasks. Actually, it's a series of videos, but in class we'll watch part 1 - Melody  - which consists of 5 parts. On each part you'll have a task to comment on musical terms and answer some questions.


This is where the video is - how music works You can navigate between the parts using playlist at the bottom of the screen.

Now, the tasks. Post your answers on your blog

Part 1

• In which way melody is like a language?
• What is pentatonic? Why is it important? Comment in as many details as you can.
•  make sure you understand what "notes" and "scale" are in music. What are the names of notes in English? (they are different then in Russian, so look this up, it's important for understanding the video)
•  In the video, the notes in the scale are compared to runs in a ladder  How many notes are there in Western scale? Is the number of notes the same in any culture?
• define and translate the term"pitch"

Part 2

• define and translate the terms "interval", "semitone", "whole tone"
• what's the essence of the experiment the presenter conducts? what does this experiment prove?
• why does the presenter compare music composing to story-telling?
• define and translate the term "mode"
• where do the names of modes come? How does the Aeolian mode sound like?
• define and translate the terms " to sharpen the note"" to flatten the note". What two very different groups of musicians were famous for doing so?

Part 3

• define and translate the term "diatonic"
•  What is the difference between the new minor/major scales and the old modes? Why are they progressive in comparison with their predecessors?

Part 4

• how is a bigger musical piece (like Mendelssohn's Concerto) structured?
• what is special about composers like  Mahler and Vaughan  Williams?

Part 5

• what is special about Sting's We Work The Blach Seam?
• name the ingredients of modern American music (which dominates the world, by the way)

Homework

Unite into groups of 2 or 3. Choose  a further part of the video - Rhythm, Harmony, or Bass. Watch it at home - each consists of 5 parts as well - and prepare a list of questions for others to answer. Next time you'll watch another video and answer the questions prepared by your classmates. Hope this will be an exciting journey!

Forty-Four Short Story Ideas

Here are lots of short story ideas that you can use as writing prompts.

Any of these ideas can be used either humorously or dramatically... or you can try both. Have fun!

• A babysitter is snooping around her employer's house and finds a disturbing photograph...
• At a Chinese restaurant, your character opens his fortune cookie and reads the following message: "Your life is in danger. Say nothing to anyone. You must leave the city immediately and never return. Repeat: say nothing."...
• Your character's boss invites her and her husband to dinner. Your character wants to make a good impression, but her husband has a tendency to drink too much and say exactly what's on his mind...
• It's your character's first day at a new school. He or she wants to get a fresh start, develop a new identity. But in his or her homeroom, your character encounters a kid he or she knows from summer camp...
• Your character has to tell his parents that he's getting a divorce. He knows his parents will take his wife's side, and he is right...
• At the airport, a stranger offers your character money to carry a mysterious package onto the plane. The stranger assures your character that it's nothing illegal and points out that it has already been through the security check. Your character has serious doubts, but needs the money, and therefore agrees...
• Your character suspects her husband is having an affair and decides to spy on him. What she discovers is not what she was expecting...
• A man elbows your character in a crowd. After he is gone, she discovers her cell phone is too. She calls her own number, and the man answers. She explains that the cell phone has personal information on it and asks the man to send it back to her. He hangs up. Instead of going to the police, your character decides to take matters into her own hands...
• After your character loses his job, he is home during the day. That's how he discovers that his teenage son has a small marijuana plantation behind the garage. Your character confronts his son, who, instead of acting repentant, explains to your character exactly how much money he is making from the marijuana and tries to persuade your character to join in the business...
• At a garage sale, your character buys an antique urn which she thinks will look nice decorating her bookcase. But when she gets home, she realizes there are someone's ashes in it....
• Even more short story ideas
• Your character starts receiving flowers and anonymous gifts. She doesn't know who is sending them. Her husband is suspicious, and the gifts begin to get stranger....
• A missionary visits your character's house and attempts to convert her to his religion. Your character is trying to get rid of him just as storm warning sirens go off. Your character feels she can't send the missionary out into the storm, so she lets him come down into her basement with her. This is going to be a long storm....
• Your character is caught shoplifting. The shop owner says that she won't call the police in exchange for a personal favor....
• Your character is visiting his parents over a holiday. He is returning some books to the library for his mother and is startled to notice that the librarian looks exactly like him, only about thirty years older. He immediately begins to suspect that his mother had an affair at one time and the librarian is his real father...
• Your character picks up a hitch-hiker on her way home from work. The hitch-hiker tries to persuade your character to leave everything and drive her across the country...
• Your character has to sell the house where she grew up. A potential buyer comes to look at it and begins to talk about all of the changes she would make to the place. This upsets your character, who decides she wants to find a buyer who will leave everything the way it has always been....
• A bat gets in the house. Your character's husband becomes hysterical, frightened that it might be rabid. In his panic, he ends up shutting the bat in a room with your character while he calls an exterminator from a safe place in the house. His behavior makes your character see her husband in a new way....
• Your character changes jobs in order to have more time with his family. But his family doesn't seem interested in having him around...
• Your character develops the idea that she can hear the voices of the dead on a certain radio channel. She decides to take advantage of this channel to find answers to some questions that are bothering her about her dead parents....
• Your character's dream is to be a professional dancer. At a party, she mentions this dream to a stranger, who says that he has contacts in the dance world and gets her an audition for a prestigious dance troupe. One problem: your character doesn't know how to dance. Your character decides to accept the audition anyway and look for a solution....
• Your character thinks her boss is looking for an excuse to fire her. She decides to fight back....
• Your character goes out for dinner on a date and becomes attracted to the waiter or waitress....
• Your character notices that a stranger is following her. She pretends not to notice. The stranger follows her home and watches her go inside. Then when he leaves, your character turns the tables and starts to follow him....
• A child moves into a new house and finds out that the other kids in town think it's haunted. She begins to invent ghost stories to tell at school in order to get attention. But the more stories she tells, the more frightened she becomes of the house...
• Your elderly character escapes from the retirement home where his or her children have placed him or her....
• Your character gets cosmetic surgery in an attempt to make her boyfriend love her more. But then she worries he only loves her for her looks....
• Your character is a writer. But his new neighbors are so noisy that he can neither work nor sleep. He decides to take action....
• Your character's mother-in-law comes to visit for a week, and your character suspects she is trying to poison him. He shares his suspicion with his wife, who says he's always hated her mother but this accusation is going too far. Meanwhile, your character has stomach cramps, and his mother-in-law is downstairs making breakfast again....
• It's a freezing cold night. Your character finds a homeless family on his doorstep and invites them into his home to sleep. But in the morning, the family doesn't leave....
• Your character has recently married a man with two teenage children. The children resent her, and she tries to avoid them altogether. Then her new husband (their father) disappears suddenly, leaving only a short good-bye note....

Hello everyone!
your homework for tomorrow:

1. Read the text “The lumber room” and analyze it according to the qualities of a short story (Look at the paper "Good story qualities").
2. Think out some tips about how to write a good story.

Saki

The Lumber Room

The children were to be driven, as a special treat, to the sands at Jagborough. Nicholas was not to be of the party; he was in disgrace. Only that morning he had refused to eat his wholesome bread-and-milk on the seemingly frivolous ground that there was a frog in it. Older and wiser and better people had told him that there could not possibly be a frog in his bread-and-milk and that he was not to talk nonsense; he continued, nevertheless, to talk what seemed the veriest nonsense, and described with much detail the coloration and markings of the alleged frog. The dramatic part of the incident was that there really was a frog in Nicholas's basin of bread-and-milk; he had put it there himself, so he felt entitled to know something about it. The sin of taking a frog from the garden and putting it into a bowl of wholesome bread-and-milk was enlarged on at great length, but the fact that stood out clearest in the whole affair, as it presented itself to the mind of Nicholas, was that the older, wiser, and better people had been proved to be profoundly in error in matters about which they had expressed the utmost assurance.

     "You said there couldn't possibly be a frog in my bread-and-milk; there was a frog in my bread-and-milk," he repeated, with the insistence of a skilled tactician who does not intend to shift from favourable ground.

     So his boy-cousin and girl-cousin and his quite uninteresting younger brother were to be taken to Jagborough sands that afternoon and he was to stay at home. His cousins' aunt, who insisted, by an unwarranted stretch of imagination, in styling herself his aunt also, had hastily invented the Jagborough expedition in order to impress on Nicholas the delights that he had justly forfeited by his disgraceful conduct at the breakfast-table. It was her habit, whenever one of the children fell from grace, to improvise something of a festival nature from which the offender would be rigorously debarred; if all the children sinned collectively they were suddenly informed of a circus in a neighbouring town, a circus of unrivalled merit and uncounted elephants, to which, but for their depravity, ther would have been taken that very day. 

      A few decent tears were looked for on the part of Nicholas when the moment for the departure of the expedition arrived. As a matter of fact, however, all the crying was done by his girl-cousin, who scraped her knee rather painfully against the step of the carriage as she was scrambling in. "How she did howl," said Nicholas cheerfully, as the party drove off without any of the elation of high spirits that should have characterized it.

     "She'll soon get over that," said the soi-disant aunt; "it will be a glorious afternoon for racing about over those beautiful sands. How they will enjoy themselves!"

     "Bobby won't enjoy himself much, and he won't race much either," said Nicholas with a grim chuckle; "his boots are hurting him. They're too tight."

     "Why didn't he tell me they were hurting?" asked the aunt with some asperity.

     "He told you twice, but you weren't listening. You often don't listen when we tell you important things."

     "You are not to go into the gooseberry garden," said the aunt, changing the subject.

     "Why not?" demanded Nicholas.

     "Because you are in disgrace," said the aunt loftily.

     Nicholas did not admit the flawlessness of the reasoning; he felt perfectly capable of being in disgrace and in a gooseberry garden at the same moment. His face took on an expression of considerable obstinacy. It was clear to his aunt that he was determined to get into the gooseberry garden, "only," as she remarked to herself, "because I have told him he is not to."

     Now the gooseberry garden had two doors by which it might be entered, and once a small person like Nicholas could slip in there he could effectually disappear from view amid the masking growth of artichokes, raspberry canes, and fruit bushes. The aunt had many other things to do that aftemoon, but she spent an hour or two in trivial gardening operations among flower beds and shrubberies, whence she could watch the two doors that led to the forbidden paradise. She was a woman of few ideas, with immense powers of concentration. 

      Nicholas made one or two sorties into the front garden, wriggling his way with obvious stealth of purpose towards one or other of the doors, but never able for a moment to evade the aunt's watchful eye. As a matter of fact, he had no intention of trying to get into the gooseberry garden, but it was extremely convenient for him that his aunt should believe that he had; it was a belief that would keep her on selfimposed sentry-duty for the greater part of the aftemoon. Having thoroughly confirmed and fortified her suspicions, Nicholas slipped back into the house and rapidly put into execution a plan of action that had long germinated in his brain. By standing on a chair in the library one could reach a shelf on which reposed a fat, important-looking key. The key was as important as it looked; it was the instrument which kept the mysteries of the lumber-room secure from unauthorized intrusion, which opened a way only for aunts and such-like privileged persons. Nicholas had not had much experience of the art of fitting keys into keyholes and turning locks, but for some days past he had practised with the key of the schoolroom door; he did not believe in trusting too much to luck and accident. The key turned stiffly in the lock, but it turned. The door opened, and Nicholas was in an unknown land, compared with which the gooseberry garden was a stale delight, a mere material pleasure.

     Often and often Nicholas had pictured to himself what the lumber-room might be like, that region that was so carefully sealed from youthful eyes and concerning which no questions were ever answered. It came up to his expectations. In the first place it was large and dimly lit, one high window opening onto the forbidden garden being its only source of illumination. In the second place it was a storehouse of unimagined treasures. Tne aunt-by-assertion was one of those people who think that things spoil by use and consign them to dust and damp by way of preserving them. Such parts of the house as Nicholas knew best were rather bare and cheerless, but here there were wonderful things for the eye to feast on. First and foremost there was a piece of framed tapestry that was evidently meant to be a fire-screen. To Nicholas it was a living, breathing story; he sat down on a roll of Indian hangings, glowing in wonderful colours beneath a layer of dust, and took in all the details of the tapestry picture. A man, dressed in the hunting costume of some remote period, had just transfixed a stag with an arrow; it could not have been a difficult shot because the stag was only one or two paces away from him; in the thickly growing vegetation that the picture suggested it would not have been difficult to creep up to a feeding stag, and the two spotted dogs that were springing forward to join in the chase had evidently been trained to keep to heel till the arrow was discharged. That part of the picture was simple, if interesting, but did the huntsman see, what Nicholas saw, that four galloping wolves were coming in his direction through the wood? There might be more than four of them hidden behind the trees, and in any case would the man and his dogs be able to cope with the four wolves if they made an attack? The man had only two arrows left in his quiver, and he might miss with one or both of them; all one knew about his skill in shooting was that he could hit a large stag at a ridiculously short range. Nicholas sat for many golden minutes revolving the possibilities of the scene; he was inclined to think that there were more than four wolves and that the man and his dogs were in a tight corner. 

      But there were other objects of delight and interest claiming his instant attention; there were quaint twisted candlesticks in the shape of snakes, and a teapot fashioned like a china duck, out of whose open beak the tea was supposed to come. How dull and shapeless the nursery teapot seemed in comparison! And there was a carved sandalwood box packed tight with aromatic cotton-wool, and between the layers of cotton-wool were little brass figures, hump-necked bulls, and peacocks and goblins, delightful to see and to handle. Less promising in appearance was a large square book with plain black covers; Nicholas peeped into it, and, behold, it was full of coloured pictures of birds. And such birds! In the garden, and in the lanes when he went for a walk, Nicholas came accross a few birds, of which the largest were an occasional magpie or wood-pigeons here were herons and bustards, kites, toucans, tiger-bitterns, brush turkeys, ibises, golden pheasants, a whole portrait gallery of undreamed-of creatures. And as he was admiring the colouring of the mandarin duck and assigning a life-history to it, the voice of his aunt in shrill vociferation of his name came from the gooseberry garden without. She had grown suspicious at his long disappearance, and had leapt to the conclusion that he had climbed over the wall behind the sheltering screen of the lilac bushes: she was now engaged in energetic and rather hopeless search for him among the artichokes and raspberry canes.

     "Nicholas, Nicholas!" she screamed, "you are to come out of this at once. It's no use trying to hide there; I can see you all the time."

     It was probably the first time for twenty years that any one had smiled in that lumber-room.

     Presently the angry repetitions of Nicholas's name gave way to a shriek, and a cry for somebody to come quickly. Nicholas shut the book, restored it carefully to its place in a corner, and shook some dust from a neighbouring pile of newspapers over it. Then he crept from the room, locked the door, and replaced the key exactly where he had found it. His aunt was still calling his name when he sauntered into the front garden. 

      "Who's calling?" he asked.

     "Me," came the answer from the other side of the wall; "didn't you hear me? I've been looking for you in the gooseberry garden, and I've slipped into the rain-water tank. Luckily there's no water in it, but the sides are slippery and I can't get out. Fetch the little ladder from under the cherry tree--"

     "I was told I wasn't to go into the gooseberry garden," said Nicholas promptly.

     "I told you not to, and now I tell you that you may," came the voice from the rain-water tank, rather impatiently.

     "Your voice doesn't sound like aunt's," objected Nicholas; "you may be the Evil One tempting me to be disobedient. Aunt often tells me that the Evil One tempts me and that I always yield This time I'm not going to yield."

     "Don't talk nonsense," said the prisoner in the tank; "go and fetch the ladder."

     "Will there be strawberry jam for tea?" asked Nicholas innocently.

     "Certainly there will be," said the aunt, privately resolving that Nicholas should have none of it.

     "Now I know that you are the Evil One and not aunt," shouted Nicholas gleefully; "when we asked aunt for strawberry jam yesterday she said there wasn't any. I know there are four jars of it in the store cupboard, because I looked, and of course you know it's there, but she doesn't, because she said there wasn't any. Oh, Devil, you have sold yourself!"

     There was an unusual sense of luxury in being able to talk to an aunt as though one was talking to the Evil One, but Nicholas knew, with childish discernment that such luxuries were not to be over-indulged in. He walked noisily away, and it was a kitchenmaid, in search of parsley, who eventually rescued the aunt from the rain-water tank. Tea that evening was partaken of in a fearsome silence. Tne tide had been at its highest when the children had arrived at Jagborough Cove, so there had been no sands to play on--a circumstance that the aunt had overlooked in the haste of organising her punative expedition. The tightness of Bobby's boots had had a disasterous effect on his temper the whole of the afternoon, and altogether the children could not have been said to have enjoyed themselves. The aunt maintained the frozen muteness of one who has suffered undignified and unmerited detention in a rain-water tank for thirty-five minutes. As for Nicholas, he, too, was silent, in the absorption of one who has much to think about; it was just possible, he considered, that the huntsman would escape with his hounds while the wolves feasted on the stricken stag.

Good story qualities.
Short introductions and short ending.
Not more than two main characters.
It helps to keep the reader's attention focused. Each new character will bring a new dimension to the story, and for an effective short story too many diverse dimensions (or directions) will dilute the theme. Have only enough characters to effectively illustrate the theme.
An effective short story covers a very short time span. 
It may be one single event that proves pivotal in the life of the character, and that event will illustrate the theme. The brief time period (It is a short story, not an epic poem).
An intrigue first and last sentences.
Short plot (without many complications).
Good grammar (don’t start lots of sentences with the same word; avoid using “said” in the indirect speech).
A developed theme. 
It connects all of the parts and actions.

Hello everyone
How do you feel about arts?
 Today we'll do a webquest where you will:
1. Visit an American museum and choose an object that attracts you most. You will create a profile for this object on your blog and write a comment (up to 250 words) about what attracted you to this particular object (you will follow the plan on the webquest).
2. You will become an online artist with the help of amazing software! (you can witness my humble masterpiece above - looks great for the poor artist I am:)) You will create a work of art and save it to your blog. Afterwards, you'll explain to the others the message behind your piece of art.
Now go to the Arts Exploration link and follow the instructions there.Good luck!
Homework: complete your masterpiece and message, afterwards, visit your classmates blogs and comment on their work (both the object they've chosen in a museum and the object they've created themselves

PS: see the register refreshed. May I remind you, that this is the 12th week of the term and by the 17th you need to complete all the tasks to be tested

Lesson 10 - Remedial

Hello everyone

Today we'll have a kind of round-up class.

I've seen some of your most fascinating glogs and mind maps and will take some time to assess and register them.

In the meantime you will be busy doing the following:

• if you created a glog (and some of you did it perfectly well) think of 3-5 comprehension questions on it. Then, visit other people's glogs, answer their questions and post a comment on their blog
• if you didn't create a glog or\and a mind map - get your hands dirty on that)))
• finally, when you are done with everything - the mindmap, the glog, the questions, the comments - go to James Cameron task below. If you don't manage to complete or even start this task, do it as homework.

The James Cameron Task

James Cameron's big-budget (and even bigger-grossing) films create unreal worlds all their own. You will hear his personal talk, where he reveals his childhood fascination with the fantastic -- from reading science fiction to deep-sea diving -- and how it ultimately drove the success of his blockbuster hits "Aliens," "The Terminator," "Titanic" and "Avatar."

Listen to James Cameron's talk. You can switch on subtitles if you wish. As you listen, focus on the following questions:

• What kind of child was little James Cameron? Do you think he was a popular boy at school? Do you think you would like to have such a friend then you were at school?
• How did the time Cameron grew in (the 60s) shape his personality? How does your time influence you as a person?
• Two activities were very important for young Cameron - drawing and diving. Can you explain why? What are the important activities in your life?
• Have you seen the Abyss? Terminator 2? Which computer graphics did Cameron introduce there? What is your impression of such special effects? Watch the Abyss trailer below
• 
  
• Listen to what James Cameron says about making Avatar and Titanic. What impression do you get - what does he like more: to imagine or to explore? What do you like better of the two?
• What lessons has Cameron learned? Do you agree with his conclusions?

Don't forget to publish your answers on your blog!!!