Jack Strong, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for Jack Strong, the story of a Polish spy and the CIA agent who worked with him. According to allcinema.net, it hasn't been shown in Japanese cinemas. In Poland, it was released in 2014, and it's coming to American cinemas soon, so maybe it will come to Japan one day.

Looking at the denkikan.com website, Selma (Glory, in Japanese) is coming on August 1st. That movie won some Academy awards, I believe. On August 8th, Turner, about the British painter, is coming. Those are movies that I would very much like to see. In addition, I believe that Mission: Impossible is coming soon, too, of course to the major cinemas. After that, I don't really know what's coming for a while, though in December, Spectre (the new 007 movie) and the new Star Wars movie are coming.
141 words

Jack Strong, and other matters

Today we saw the trailer for Jack Strong. It's about a spy in Poland, I think, and connected to the dissolution of the Soviet Empire. It stars Patrick Wilson as Jack Strong, a CIA agent working with a colonel in the Polish army. It looks pretty exciting and tense.

Talking of exciting, I saw The Avengers: Age of Ultron. It was entertaining, but a bit stupid sometimes, and nothing really remains in my memory from it. I wonder how long the series can continue. Two of the trailers shown were Spectre, the new James Bond movie, and also the trailer for the new Star Wars movie.

The transfer market in the Premier League is quite active. Manchester United have bought many players, including some midfielders, and Manchester City have bought Raheem Sterling from Liverpool. As they did last year, Liverpool have bought a lot of players who probably won't help them much.

End of semester

Just a few reminders about the end of the semester.

• Make sure you've written 25 book reviews, and make sure they all have the Book Reviews (or Books) tag.
• Tidy up your tags in general: make sure you don't have two similar tags for the same thing, and make sure that there aren't posts without an appropriate tag.
• Check the deadline (and any other important details) for the Midwestern US essay.

Rio (Scholastic Popcorn ELT Readers)

That night the door opens.
"Can I go home now?" I shout.
But someone puts me in a small cage with Jewel.
"Where are we going?" asks Jewel.
Suddenly a man and a white bird look into the cage.
"Look, Nigel," says the man. "Not one, but TWO blue Spix's Macaws!"

Blu and Jewel are trapped. How can they get out of their sticky predicament? Luckily, Blu has the skill of opening cages. But unfortunately he can't fly. Fortunately, Luiz the dog has strong teeth and can bite through chains. But Marcel and Nigel are persistent and keep coming after them.

Paulo Coelho's Best Story

Paulo Coelho's Best Story looks quite interesting. Hopefully, it will come to Denkikan sometime, though it isn't yet listed on allcinema.net. But, looking on allcinema.net, I found two movies called Veronika Decides to Die which are based on his book Veronika Decides to Die.

The first one is a 2005 Japanese movie starring Yoko Maki, and directed by Kei Horie. I remember seeing the poster for that movie but I don't know anything about it. The second one is an American movie directed by Emily Young and starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. That movie was released in 2009 in the US but has never been released in Japan.

Rango (Scholastic Popcorn ELT Readers)

The Mojave Desert is in California, in the south west of the United States.… The Sierra Nevada mountains are on the west of the desert. The rain from the sea does not come to the desert because of the mountains. The desert has only a few centimeters of rain every year.…It is very hot in the Mojave Desert. In July and August, it is sometimes 50 degrees Celsius in the day and 38 degrees at night.

Rango the chameleon becomes sheriff of a town with no water. He begins to suspect the mayor (a tortoise) of being responsible for the lack of water. But the mayor is backed by Rattlesnake Jake, so how can Rango fight him? And his ally Beans is being pressured by the sheriff and Rattlesnake Jake to sell her land. As the people of Dirt become more and more desperate, can Roadkill the armadillo help Rango defeat his enemies?

Paulo Coelho's Best Story, and other matters…

Today we saw the trailer for Paulo Coelho's Best Story, a movie about the life of the famous author, who, according to Wikipedia, has 25 million followers on Facebook.

To tell you the truth, I've never read any of his books, though I have wanted to do so for some time. I know about the book The Alchemist, which I believe is his bestseller.

Today's books are from the Scholastic Popcorn ELT Readers series. They are all based on movies. Some of the ones I have brought today are from Mr Bean, Tintin, Kung Fu Panda, Shrek, Rio, Rango, and Ice Age. Actually, I haven't seen Rio or Rango.

She's Funny That Way, and Other Matters…

Today we watched the trailer for She's Funny Like That. It has an all-star cast of Imogen Potts, Owen Wilson, Rhys Ifans, and Jennifer Aniston. I couldn't really understand all the ins and outs, but it seems that Owen Wilson is having affairs with several women.

I haven't been keeping up with movie news recently, so I'm not sure what else is coming soon. But I really want to get to see The Avengers: Age of Ultron. I hope to go quite soon, while it's still playing in the subtitled version.

At Wimbledon, Andy Murray did pretty well, but he couldn't overcome Federer. And Federer, in turn, did pretty well in the final but couldn't overcome Djokovic, who won his third title. Serena Williams won for the 6th time.

He Named Me Malala, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for I Am Malala, a movie based on a true story about an Indian girl who won the Nobel Peace prize and campaigned for education for girls. She said that one girl, one teacher, one book can change the world.

The Wimbledon tennis tournament has finished. Djokovic won again, beating Federer in the final in four sets. I think last year's final was the same match-up. In the mixed doubles, Martina Hingis's pair won. It was great to see her still playing so long after she was the world number one in the singles.

The Avengers: Age of Ultron is playing now. Several students I know have already gone to see it. Even those who don't usually like action movies say it is really good. I hope to go and see it after next week's Open Campus and Summer College.

The end of the semester is fast approaching. Lots of things to do! I hope you're all coping with exam prep and so on. Good luck!

Think, Daniela!

Daniela goes to the door of the cabin. Then she sees a bear! She is very surprised. It is behind her friend, Faye. But Faye can't see it.
"Oh, no!" thinks Daniela. "A bear! it's going to hurt Faye!"
"I must do something," thinks Daniela. "What can I do? Think, Daniela!"

I chose this book because I saw a bear on the cover, but luckily I found it's a continuation of the book I read earlier, Boys vs. Girls. Unfortunately, Daniela has made a mistake: it's not a real bear. But she manages to frighten Faye and make her drop her camera. So she's in trouble with her friends.

This is not quite as exciting as Boys vs. Girls but very good nonetheless!

Waring, Rob, and Jamall, Maurice. (2006). Think Daniela! (Foundations Reading Library, Level 5). Boston, MA: Thomson ELT.

The Martian, the Women's World Cup, and other matters…

Today, we watched the trailer for The Martian, a movie starring Matt Damon. It also stars lots of famous actors such as Jessica Chastain. It's scheduled to come to Japan in February 2016, so let's try not to forget it before then. The Japanese title is オデッセイ.
The Avengers has just begun in Japan. I have heard lots of good things about it, so I hope to get the time to go and see it. The new Terminator movie is also coming soon. From what I've heard, it isn't very good, so maybe I won't go.
The Women's World Cup is all over now. It finished 5–2 to the USA. In yesterday's 3rd-place playoff, England beat Germany.

Boys vs. Girls

"Bees like honey," says Mike. "So let's put this honey near the girls' cabin, then the bees will come. The girls are frightened of bees."
"Of course, what a great idea!" says Ryan. They put the honey all over the cabin. "Put some on the door, too," he says.
"And here," says Eric. "The bees will go in the window."
"Quick! Let's go. Let's watch from our cabin," says Ryan.

Boys vs. Girls is a Level 5 book in Rob Waring and Maurice Jamall's Foundations Reading Library. Level 5 is described as Elementary level, with a vocabulary level of 250 headwords and a length of 1,120–1,710 words.

It describes a camping trip that John, Daniela, Faye, Gemma, Mike, and the other children take to Bear Mountain Camp. Mr. Woods is in charge of the trip. At the beginning, he tells them the rules, which are quite strict. But the children soon forget about the rules and start playing tricks on each other. The tricks escalate until the honey trick causes a problem they hadn't anticipated!

Vocabulary

cabin 山小屋

171 words

The Martian and other matters

We watched the trailer for The Martian today. It's a movie starring Matt Damon as an astronaut who is trapped on Mars but believed dead. "Help is only 140 million miles away" is the tagline. The trailer doesn't make it clear, but it appears that the crew of another spaceship engages in some dangerous mission to try to rescue him. Further, it seems that NASA doesn't approve of what they're doing, but they do it anyway. I would like to see it because of the cast, which includes Jessica Chastain.

The women's World Cup final is happening right now. The USA is winning 5–2! That must be a big surprise for everyone and a shock to Japan. In other football news, German striker Podolski has left Arsenal for Galatasaray in Turkey. I hope he has more success there; he hasn't been used much at Arsenal despite his great record with the national team.