Living in the big apple

Диалог на английском с аудио «Broke in the Big Apple»

Kevin: Yes. I have been broke a number of times. Anything in particular that you would like to hear? I’ve got quite a bunch.

Todd: So tell me when was the first time you were really broke?

Kevin: The first time I was really broke was, I was 19, and I moved to New York City. I followed a girl that I met in Glacier National Park, I was working out there as a singing waiter.

Went out to New York, followed her, and I ended up living in an apartment with three other people and the share of my rent was $500 a month. Now that was 20 years ago, and $500 a month 20 years ago to a 19 year old kid with no education, no experience… that was a lot.

So I worked three jobs. I worked from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. at the George Washington Street Bus Terminal and subway station handing out flyers, American Express Moneygram flyers, then I would take the subway to Midtown, to FAO Schwartz, you know the big toy store…

Todd: Oh yeah, right.

Kevin: …from the movie, “Big”…

Todd: Yeah, it’s really famous.

Kevin: …where he dances on the piano. Yeah, and I was… I would wrap presents there. And then I would work there from 11 to 4, and then I would take the subway back down to The Village where I was living, and I would work from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. as a waiter and bus boy.

Todd: That’s brutal. That’s pretty harsh.

Kevin: Yeah, it’s really brutal. Well, how I ended up being broke was, the restaurant was a New Orleans style restaurant, and I got fired for talking to the customers too much. Truth is, the customers were interested in the fact that I was from New Orleans and it was a New Orleans style restaurant. And for… I lasted two more months. And I only had enough money everyday to buy a slice of cheese pizza and a pack of cigarettes. And…

Todd: That’s it?

Kevin: That’s it.

Todd: One slice of pizza and a pack of cigarettes.

Kevin: Well, and a Hostess Fruit Pie lunch. But one time, during lunchtime at FAO Schwartz, I went down to the vending machine and I got my Hostess Fruit Pie and I took a bite in it and it was hollow. There was no fruit in it and I really had a small panic attack, and I called the toll free number on it, and I complained, “You just don’t understand how much of my daily nutritional intake that pie represented”, and all he did was apologize and I was hoping they would send me a case of pies, but they didn’t.

Todd: No such luck.

Kevin: That’s right. When I went home, I was probably about 30 pounds lighter than before I left. And I was really poor. So that’s the first time I was really broke.

• broke (to be broke)

Example: You have many stories about being broke.

When you are broke, you have no money. You are very poor. Notice the following examples:
I can’t come to the movies with you because I am broke at the moment.
I am a little broke now. Can I borrow ten dollars?

Example: I’ve got quite a bunch.

A bunch means many. We often use bunch for things that are grouped together like a bunch of bananas. Here are some sample sentences.
I have a bunch of old records I want to give away.
My father gave me a bunch of his old shirts.

• ended up (to end up)

Example: I ended up living in an apartment

When you end up somewhere, you eventually stop at some place, often with no planning. This can refer to a place or action. Notice the following sentences:
Last night we ended up just staying home. It was too cold to go out.
After hiking for three days, I ended up lost, hungry and thirsty.

• hand out flyers

Example: I was handing out flyers at the subway station.

A flyer is a piece of paper with information on it, usually as an advertisement. When you hand out flyers, you give them to people, often without them asking for it. You often see people handing out flyers in public places like subway stations and so on. Notice the following:
I hate it when people hand me flyers. They are a waste of paper.
The worst job I ever had was handing out flyers at the bus terminal.

Example: I took the subway back down to the Village.

The Village is a part of New York. The Village is short for Greenwich Village. It is one of many areas in Manhattan, the main island of New York City. Other areas include Chelsea, SoHo, Chinatown, and Little Italy. The famous TV show Friends is set in the Village.

Example: That’s brutal. That’s harsh.

The word brutal means to be very hard and uncomfortable. When something is brutal it is not fun or enjoyable. We often use the word to show sympathy when someone talks about a bad experience. ‘Harsh’ is similar in meaning. Notice the following.

Ann: How was your test?
Joe: Brutal! I am sure I failed.

Tim: My boss told me I have to work Saturday.
Moe: That’s brutal. Now you will miss the party.

Example: I was fired for talking to customers. Truth is, the customers wanted to talk to me.

The phrase ‘truth is’ is used to show a contradiction or surprise. Notice the following sample sentences.
My girlfriend broke up with me. Truth is, I wanted to break up anyway.
My boss asked me to work overtime. Truth is, I needed the extra money.

Example: I had a small panic attack.

A panic attack is when someone has a lot of stress or worry at one time and they lose control of themself. When someone has a panic attack, they cannot think clearly or act normally. When people have a panic attack, friends or family might try to get the person to calm down. Notice the following sentences:
The mother had a panic attack when she could not find her child at the park.
The man had a panic attack when he realized his life savings was lost in the stock market crash.

• toll free number

Example: I called the toll free number.

A toll free number is a free phone call for a company or service. A toll is a price you pay to use something, like a ‘toll bridge’. In the Unites States, most toll free numbers start with number ‘800’. We often refer to toll free numbers as ‘an 800 number’. Notice the following:
I called the toll free number on the back of the box.
Whenever I use the toll free number, I am always put on hold.

• Daily nutritional intake

Example: You just don’t understand how much of my daily nutritional intake that pie represented.

The daily nutritional intake is the amount of food, vitamins, and minerals from different food groups you need every day for a healthy diet. On the back of most food packages there is a chart with the daily nutritional intake percentages that food supplies.

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Ответ на Spotlight on russia Номер 3 из ГДЗ по Английскому языку 7 класс: Ваулина (Учебник Spotlight)

Условие

TEENS
At Spotlight on Russia we get a lot of emails from children all over the country. Here are two of them written in completely different parts of Russia.

Spotlight on Russia hears from two young Russians from very different parts of the country

Hi. My name is Sergey Demidov and I’m 13 years old. I live in Yakutsk which is the capital of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) in northern Siberia.
I love my city in the winter when the clean, crisp snow covers everything. The temperature often falls below −40 degrees, so we wear fur caps and coats, thick woollen mittens and unty which are fur boots made of deer skin. Today it’s bright and sunny. It’s only −25˚C outside, so I’m going skiing with my family for the first time this year.
I go to a Russian school, but we have lessons in our native Yakut language as well. My father plays the khomus – a traditional Yakut instrument, and my mother does embroidery with beads. She also makes hats and her friends sometimes ask her to make outfits for our national summer holiday. It’s called Yhyakh, and it’s a great chance for me to perform a dance called Ohuokhai and to drink kumys – a national drink that’s made from mare’s milk.

Hello, I’m Irina Smirnova. I’m 14 and I live in Kolomna – one of the biggest and most beautiful towns in the Moscow region. Kolomna is over 800 years old and a lot of tourists come here to see the old Kremlin, the churches and monasteries, as well as the museums and art galleries.
I love my town because there’s so much to do here. In the summer, I like to go rowing and sailing on the Oka River, and we can go ice−skating at any time of the year in our new Ice Palace. Dmitry Dorofeyev, the Olympic silver medallist (2006), and Ekaterina Lobysheva, Olympic bronze medallist (2006 and 2014), are from Kolomna and we have a long history of success in this sport.
There are more than 30 schools in Kolomna and mine is one of the new ones. In the spring and autumn, my class goes to the Park of Peace after lessons to look after the plants and flowers. Tomorrow is Sunday and we’re going to see a play at the Maly Theatre in Moscow. It only takes us an hour and a half to get there by bus and I’m really looking forward to it.

DISCUSS
• How similar/different are the teens’ lifestyles? Why?
• What does your lifestyle depend on?

ACTIVITY
• What is your lifestyle like? What is it like to live in your town/city/area? Write to Spotlight on Russia and let us know!

Источник

The Big Apple: How NYC Got Its Name

TripSavvy / Brakethrough Media

New York, New York, the most populous city in the United States, has been given many nicknames, including The City That Never Sleeps, Empire City, and Gotham—but perhaps the most famous one of all is the Big Apple.

The nickname «The Big Apple» originated in the 1920s in reference to the prizes (or «big apples») rewarded at the many racing courses in and around New York City. However, it wasn’t officially adopted as the city’s nickname until 1971 as the result of a successful ad campaign intended to attract tourists.

Throughout its history, the term «big apple» has always come down to simply mean the best and biggest of places to be, and New York City has long lived up to its nickname. Once you visit this seven-mile-long city, you’ll truly understand why it’s called the Capital of the World and the Big Apple.

The Big Reward: From Racing to Jazz

The first mention of New York City as «The Big Apple» was in the 1909 book «The Wayfarer in New York.» In the introduction, Edward Martin writes about the dynamic between NYC and the Midwest, using the apple as an extended metaphor:

«New York is merely one of the fruits of that great tree whose roots go down in the Mississippi Valley, and whose branches spread from one ocean to the other, but the tree has no great degree of affection for its fruit. It inclines to think that the big apple gets a disproportionate share of the national sap. It is disturbed by the enormous drawing power of a metropolis which constantly attracts to itself wealth and its possessors from all the lesser centers of the land. Every city, every State pays an annual tribute of men and of business to New York, and no State or city likes particularly to do it.»

The term only started gaining traction when sports writer John J. Fitz Gerald began writing about the city’s horse races for the New York Morning Telegraph. In his column, he wrote that these were «the big apples» of competitive racing in the United States.

Fitz Gerald got the term from African American stable hands in New Orleans; jockeys and trainers who aspired to race on New York City tracks referred to the money prizes as the «Big Apple. He once explained the term in an article for the Morning Telegraph:

«The Big Apple. The dream of every lad that ever threw a leg over a thoroughbred and the goal of all horsemen. There’s only one Big Apple. That’s New York.»

Although the audience for Fitz Gerald’s articles was markedly smaller than most, the concept of «big apple» representing the best of the best—or most-sought-after of rewards or accomplishments—began to popularize across the country.

In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the nickname started to become well known outside of the northeast, as New York City’s jazz musicians began referring to New York City as the «Big Apple» in their songs. An old saying in show business was «There are many apples on the tree, but only one Big Apple.» New York City was (and is) the premier place for jazz musicians to perform, which made it more common to refer to New York City as the Big Apple.

A Bad Reputation for the Big Apple

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, New York City was quickly earning a national reputation as a dark and dangerous city. To increase tourism to New York City in 1971, the city launched an ad campaign with Charles Gillett, president of the New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, at the helm. A fan of jazz, he wanted to restore the city to its former glory by adopting the Big Apple as an officially recognized reference to New York City.

The campaign featured red apples in an effort to lure visitors to New York City. The red apples, intended to serve as a bright and cheery image of the city, would stand in contrast to the common belief that New York City was riddled with crime and poverty. T-shirts, pins, and stickers promoting the «Big Apple» quickly became popular, thanks in part to the help of celebrities like New York Knicks legend Dave DeBusschere—and the city welcomed tourists to «take a bite out of the Big Apple.»

Since the conclusion of the campaign—and subsequent «rebranding» of the city—New York City has officially been nicknamed The Big Apple. In recognition of Fitz Gerald, the corner of 54th and Broadway (where Fitz Gerald lived for 30 years) was renamed «Big Apple Corner» in 1997.

Источник