Erhalten Sie Zugang zu diesem und mehr als 300000 Büchern ab EUR 5,99 monatlich.
- Herausgeber: Books on Demand
- Kategorie: Bildung
- Sprache: Englisch
How old is 'old'? Do you feel old? What happens to us as we get older? Read about some inspiring people and find out about what happens in our brain as we age and why learning new skills is still possible. A reader for English learners CEFR Level B1
Sie lesen das E-Book in den Legimi-Apps auf:
Seitenzahl: 73
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
Das E-Book (TTS) können Sie hören im Abo „Legimi Premium” in Legimi-Apps auf:
Ähnliche
Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.
Henry Ford
CONTENTS
Anti-ageing?
The power of music
The brain
By royal appointment
The older brain
Acts of kindness
Give up your prejudices!
Born to run
Healthy body, Healthy mind
Write from the heart
Fluid and crystallized Intelligence
Partners in crime
Does it ring a bell?
Mature students
Learning a language
Act your age!
Never too old to learn a language!
For teachers
Acknowledgements
About the author
Also by Sarah Curtius
ANTI-AGEING?
Vocabulary
From all walks of life is an idiom to talk about people with various different jobs and levels of education. It's used to talk about people representing all of society.
I learned a lot from my German teacher at school. German, obviously! But life wisdom, too. Mr Rich was in his sixties when he taught us and had a life full of stories to tell. I remember one lesson especially. We were in our mid-teens and were talking about how awful it must be to grow old. He smiled at us and said, “It’s better than the alternative!”
He was right, of course. In the 60s, Roger Daltry and his band The Who sang “I hope I die before I get old!”. Roger is now in his late seventies and I think he is glad he did not die before he got old!
People have always wanted to stop the ageing process. The ancient Romans and Greeks were the first to believe in a philosopher’s stone which could turn other metals to gold and the “fountain of youth”. In the Middle Ages, people called alchemists were still looking for the philosopher’s stone and its special powers. Today, some people think they can find the same kind of magic in cosmetic surgery or Botox to get rid of wrinkles. Most of us hope we can find it in the anti-ageing creams we buy in the drugstore.
Why do we want to look younger? Advertising tells us that young is beautiful. We think that getting old means we cannot do certain things anymore and cannot learn new things. While being young is beautiful and healthy and exciting, being old means we become weak and ill and boring.
In this book I want to challenge the idea that ageing is all bad! We will learn about so many people who are still doing amazing and interesting things in ‘old age’. We will look at people from all walks of life – famous people like singers, actors, a king and a queen, but also ‘normal’ people. Some of the people you will meet have always been active and successful in their area. Some only started something new late in life. What they all have in common is that they lived interesting lives and do not believe that getting old means becoming weak and ill and boring!
We will learn about what happens in our brains as we get older and get some tips to keep our brains healthy. We do not want to be ‘anti-ageing’! We want to be pro-ageing! We all want to live a long and interesting life. If we do, it means we have to get old. Getting older means having a life of experience. Getting old does not have to be boring.
A group of 40 pensioners proved this in 2007. They recorded a version of The Who’s song, Talking about my generation in Abbey Road Studios. After appearing on the BBC, the group were asked to give interviews all over the world and even travelled to America. The lead singer, 90-year-old Alf summed it up by saying, “It's just brought me back to life. I was 90 and stuck in a rut. And now I feel that I have come alive again."
THE POWER OF MUSIC
We are never too old to make or enjoy music. When asked why he still practiced his cello at the age of 90, Pablo Casals answered, "Because I think I'm making progress." At the age of 100, the pianist Irving Fields advised, “Enjoy music to stay young at heart.”
We are going to meet three musicians over 80 who still love music and who can say that it has helped them to stay young at heart: the two famous singers Sir Tom Jones and Tony Bennett, and music teacher Paul Harvey. All of them still make music and find great joy and fulfillment in it.
Tom Jones –
It’s not unusual
Vocabulary
Coal is black and hard and dug out underground in mines. The people who do this dangerous job are called miners.
Tuberculosis is a very serious disease which affects a person’s lungs.
The monarch in the UK can give honours to people who have done something special. There are lots of different awards but some of the most common are a knighthood, a CBE (Commander of the British Empire), an OBE (Order of the British Empire) and an MBE (Member of the British Empire). Someone who is made a knight or a dame (for a woman) are called Sir or Dame. A number of people in this collection have been given one of these special honours.
Tom Jones was born in 1940 in Pontypridd, a small town in a valley of South Wales. His father worked as a miner in the coal mines. Tom did not enjoy school and was very ill with tuberculosis as a child. There was one thing that Tom did love – singing.
He sang with various bands and was spotted by a music manager who took him to London. In 1965, Tom had his first hit: It’s not unusual. He had a number of big hits in the UK and the US, including The green, green grass of home and Delilah. He sang the title song for the James Bond movie Thunderball in 1965.
Tom has always loved to work with other singers and became a close friend of Elvis Presley. He had his own TV show in America where he sang with lots of other stars. He has sung with many great singers, including Janis Joplin, Robbie Williams, Aretha Franklin and Johnny Cash. He appeared in some films and TV programmes.
In 2000, Bill Clinton asked Tom to sing at the New Year’s celebrations in Washington DC. In 2006, Tom was made Sir Tom Jones by Queen Elizabeth II. In 2021, aged 80, Tom Jones released his 41st album called Surrounded by Time. This makes him the oldest artist to have a number 1 album in the UK. At 80, Tom Jones still has a wonderful baritone voice. Critics praised the album and some wrote that it was his most emotional album.
How does Sir Tom still sound so good at the age of 80? He says he is lucky and he is very grateful. He says he does not drink much alcohol anymore and he tries to stay fit. He is not giving up singing or slowing down. He says he will keep singing "as long as there's breath in my body".
Tony Bennett – Still singing at 94!
Vocabulary
If someone is demoted, then they are given a less important position or job.
Anthony Dominick Benedetto was born to Italian-American parents in New York in 1926. The family was poor and Tony’s father died when he was just 10 years old. However, his father had given his son a passion for music, literature and art and these passions have stayed with Tony all his life.
Tony started singing for money at 13 and becoming a professional singer was always his dream. Tony fought in the Second World War and stayed in Germany as part of the occupying American forces. He sang for the American forces while he was with the army in Germany. One day, he went out to eat with a black friend he knew from school. Black and white soldiers were not allowed to eat together in the US Army at that time and Tony was demoted. Tony always supported the Civil Rights Movement and in 1965, he took part in the marches from Selma to Montgomery with Martin Luther King.
He went back to America in 1946 and learned a special singing technique, bel canto. This helped him keep his voice in good condition throughout his life. In 1949, he was discovered by Bob Hope who took him on tour with him and gave him the name Tony Bennett.
Tony was very successful in the 1950s and 60s but when The Beatles new style of pop music arrived in the 60s, Tony’s style of jazz and swing music went out of fashion. Tony went through a very difficult phase and developed a drug addiction which nearly killed him.
