Unit 20: The Cult of Celebrity
Tenses
Select a unit
- 1 Nice to meet you!
- 2 What to wear
- 3 Like this, like that
- 4 The daily grind
- 5 Christmas every day
- 6 Great achievers
- 7 The Titanic
- 8 Travel
- 9 The big wedding
- 10 Sunny's job hunt
- 11 The bucket list
- 12 Moving and migration
- 13 Welcome to BBC Broadcasting House
- 14 New Year, New Project
- 15 From Handel to Hendrix
- 16 What's the weather like?
- 17 The Digital Revolution
- 18 A detective story
- 19 A place to live
- 20 The Cult of Celebrity
- 21 Welcome to your new job
- 22 Beyond the planets
- 23 Great expectations!
- 24 Eco-tourism
- 25 Moving house
- 26 It must be love
- 27 Job hunting success... and failure
- 28 Speeding into the future
- 29 Lost arts
- 30 Tales of survival
Session 4
Do you want to be famous? In this session we practise our tenses while we take a look at why some people want to be famous, and discover what they will do to get the fame they want.
Activity 3
News Report
Robin Williams honoured
Welcome to News Report. Today's report is about the US actor and comedian, Robin Williams, who was found dead in 2014 in an apparent suicide at the age of 63. Now his achievements are being honoured.
Listen to the audio
The late American actor and comedian Robin Williams has been honoured by the Screen Actors Guild in a ceremony in Los Angeles.
Williams died in an apparent suicide in August 2014. He was 63 years old.
Williams was born on 21 July 1951 in Chicago, Illinois. In his teens, he joined his school's drama club as a way to overcome shyness.
Later, when he was studying at New York's famous Juilliard School, his tutor suggested a career in stand-up comedy.
His breakthrough came when he appeared on the TV show Happy Days as an alien called Mork.
The character inspired a spin-off TV series, Mork and Mindy, which made Williams a star.
He then appeared in several films, but it was not until 1987's Good Morning Vietnam that Hollywood found a suitable vehicle for him. This role earned him his first Oscar nomination for best actor.
His second nomination came two years later for Dead Poets Society, in which he played an inspirational English teacher at a strict boys' school, who encourages his pupils to think for themselves.
He was finally awarded an Oscar in 1998 for his role in Good Will Hunting.
He later turned to darker roles, like the serial killer in the Alaska-set Insomnia.
"People think of me as likeable, so the appeal was to play against those expectations," he told Empire magazine in 2010.
At his funeral, President Obama described him as "one of a kind".
This story is based on an original BBC News story
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You can download this audio (size: 2.5MB)
Vocabulary
late
used to refer to a person who is dead
apparent
seeming to be real
teens
teenage years; the period in a person’s life from age 13 to age 19
overcome
to defeat an enemy or deal with a problem
shyness
feeling uncomfortable and nervous in the company of other people
stand-up comedy
a style of comedy performance where one person stands on the stage and talks to the audience
breakthrough
an event which starts a successful period in someone’s career
alien
a creature from another planet
spin-off
a TV programme involving characters from a previous TV programme
vehicle
a film, TV programme, etc., which shows the talents of a particular actor
nomination
an official suggestion that someone should get a prize
inspirational
someone or something that encourages you and makes you feel confident or creative
strict
tough; imposing strong rules, or threatening serious punishment if someone doesn’t obey the rules
one of a kind
someone or something which is unique
End of Session 4
That's it for this session. By now you should have a better understanding of tenses - and you should be better at talking and writing about celebrity culture. In the next session, you can enjoy the final epsiode of our drama Frankenstein, and test what you have learnt in the weekly quiz. See you there!
Session Vocabulary
late
used to refer to a person who is deadapparent
seeming to be realteens
teenage years; the period in a person’s life from age 13 to age 19overcome
to defeat an enemy or deal with a problemshyness
feeling uncomfortable and nervous in the company of other peoplestand-up comedy
a style of comedy performance where one person stands on the stage and talks to the audiencebreakthrough
an event which starts a successful period in someone’s careeralien
a creature from another planetspin-off
a TV programme involving characters from a previous TV programmevehicle
a film, TV programme, etc., which shows the talents of a particular actornomination
an official suggestion that someone should get a prizeinspirational
someone or something that encourages you and makes you feel confident or creativestrict
tough; imposing strong rules, or threatening serious punishment if someone doesn’t obey the rulesone of a kind
someone or something which is unique