Fiesta de La Vendimia in Ica - Festival

From www.livinginperu.com

Every year, Ica celebrates the Fiesta de La Vendimia, a festival traditionally known for its celebrations, musical concerts, parades, contests and, of course, the election of the festival's queen. The Fiesta honors Ica's most important agricultural jewel, the grapevine, from which grapes are harvested to make some of the world's most exquisite wines and piscos, and takes place every year during the time of harvest. The whole city participates, and it is estimated that over 200 000 tourists will travel to Ica to be a part of this magnificent festival.

When: March 5 to 15
Where: City of Ica, Ica

New Year's resolutions

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Dan: Hello and welcome to this week’s 6 Minute English. I’m Dan Walker Smith and today I’m joined by Kate.
Kate: Hi Dan. Happy New Year!
D: And Happy New Year to you!
K: So what did you do on New Year’s Eve?
D: Well, this New Year I went to a party in East London with lots of friends; lots of dancing. Good times really.
K: That sounds great fun - a great way to bring in the New Year!
D: It was. It was very good indeed. And, of course, as well as celebrations, New
Year is also the traditional time to make resolutions, which are plans to improve yourself. So what were your resolutions this year?
K: I don't actually think I've made any yet, but I suppose now I think about it, I'd like to do more exercise, be healthy and travel more.
D: They sound like good resolutions. The aim of most resolutions is to ‘turn over a new leaf’. That is, to make yourself better by changing your routines and habits. It’s making a fresh or new start in your life.

So the question for this week is:
What is the most common goal for people making New Year’s Resolutions?
Is it:
a) to sort out their finances and money
b) to lose weight
c) to learn a new language?

K: Hmm, that's a tricky one. But thinking about it, we've just had Christmas-time, where people tend to eat an awful lot or overindulge themselves. So I'm going to go for b, to lose weight.
D: OK, we’ll see if you’re right at the end of the programme.

Now generally, there are two main types of resolution:
To give up something is to stop it, such as when someone says they’re giving up smoking or giving up fattening foods.
K: And to take up something is to start a new activity for the first time. For example you can take up the guitar, or take up a new sport. A lot of people say that their New Year’s Resolutions are to give up a bad habit or to take up a new hobby.
D: Now we’re going to hear some of the resolutions a British radio DJ has made for 2010. You're going to hear the expression 'carry on'. Can you explain what this means Kate?
Kate: Sure. Well 'carry on' means to continue to do something as you were before.
So if, for example, last year I went swimming every day, I could say 'I want to carry on going swimming', which means just to continue the same actions as you were doing before.
D: OK, so let's listen. What resolutions does the speaker have for this year?


Extract 1
Right, New Year's Resolutions 2010. It's the end of a decade. I think that what I would
just like to do is carry on working hard; carry on being happy and healthy. So keep on
exercising in the park, keep on eating well and keep on sleeping well. And that’s about it
– nothing else. Nothing too big, nothing too heavy, ‘cause experience tells me that if you try to ask yourself to do too much stuff it will eventually not happen.

K: OK, that was a bit different, as she’s not giving up or taking up anything, but she wants to carry on or continue what she’s already been doing. There are some pretty common or usual resolutions there: doing exercise, eating healthily and sleeping well – quite similar to the ones I made actually.
D: Well, she's not exactly turning over a new leaf in the New Year, but just keeping herself healthy with resolutions she can achieve.
As well as keeping healthy, one of the most common New Year's resolutions in the UK each year is to stop smoking.
K: Yes, and it’s also one of the hardest resolutions to keep, so this year the British government is launching a new campaign for people who want to stop smoking. Have a listen to the next report. Can you hear how many people tried to give up smoking last year and how many actually succeeded?


Extract 2
More than three quarters of a million smokers tried to give up last New Year. But fewer
than 40,000 have managed to keep that resolution.

K: Oh dear, not a great success rate then. Only around five per cent of the smokers managed to keep their resolution.
D: Resolutions are basically promises to yourself, and like promises, you either keep them or break them. That is, you either successful in keeping to your plans, or you're not and you go back to your old habits.
K: Well we’re almost out of time now, so let's go over some of the vocabulary we’ve come across today:
First of all, we had resolution, which is a kind of promise you make to yourself to improve yourself or your actions.

To turn over a new leaf is an expression meaning to make a new start in your life.
To give up something means to stop it.
Whereas, to take up something is to start it for the first time.
Then we heard to carry on, which means to continue with an action that you’re already doing.
And finally to keep or break a resolution, is either to persist with your new changes or to go back to your old routine.
D: Oh and there’s just time to answer the question I asked at the beginning of the show: What is the most common goal for people making New Year’s resolutions? Is it:

a) to sort out their finances and money
b) to lose weight
c) to learn a new language

K: And I said b, to lose weight
D: Actually it's both a and b. Most men want to sort out their finances and most women apparently want to lose weight in the New Year.
K: Ah, a trick question then.
D: A trick question indeed.
K: But I'm sure there must be some women out there who want to sort out their finances.
D: And there must be some men who want to lose weight.
K: Of course! So Dan can you tell me if you have any resolutions for the coming year?
D: I've actually signed up to run a marathon, so I'll be doing that in April. I'm training quite a lot at the moment; it's beginning to kick in.
K: Wow, well that's very impressive. Good luck with this year's resolution.
D: We'll see how it goes in April.
So from all of us here at BBC Learning English, thanks for listening. I hope you're sticking to your resolution and have a very Happy New Year! Goodbye!
K: Goodbye!

Gold vending machine

From http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/how2

Dima: Hello and welcome to this edition of 6 Minute English with me, Dima Kostenko.
Kate: and me, Kate Colin.
D: Kate will be our language guide for today.
Today we'll hear a fascinating report about a new vending machine that's unlike any other. But first - Kate, how would you describe what a vending machine is?
K: Responds...(short dialogue to introduce synonyms, slot machine, dispenser, soft drinks-snacks-newspapers-transport tickets-Mars bars)

D: Well Kate, if you're only using vending machines to buy things like chocolate bars, you are in for a surprise! As Steve Rosenberg, the BBC's correspondent in Berlin has discovered, a German company is planning to install some very different dispensers at stations, airports and shopping centres. Would you like to hear more?

K: Well, hearing all these phrases from you - 'very different' and 'unlike any other'. I must say I'm a bit intrigued.
D: You won't be intrigued for too much longer because in a moment we'll hear from Steve Rosenberg to find out what those machine will be selling. I'll say just one thing: it's something really valuable.
K: OK, let's listen, and as you are listening, try to find out what it is. Also, listen out for these words and phrases. 'On the go goodies', meaning small things that we buy and consume without stopping - like chocolate bars, crisps and other snacks, for example. And - 'precious', which means very expensive and valuable.
D: Here's Steve Rosenberg:

Clip One
I'm standing next to a vending machine at a Berlin railway station. It offers a typical selection of on the go goodies. There are fizzy drinks and crisps, chewing gum... But very soon machines like this one could be selling something far more precious than a packet of peanuts.
As well as chocolate bars you'll be able to buy...gold bars.

D: So Kate, what is it that the new vending machines will be selling?
K: Steve says it isn't going to be 'on the go goodies'. Not chewing gum, not packets of peanuts. It will be the precious metal...gold! Well, sounds interesting, but I am not quite sure I understand… Why would anyone want to by a gold bar from a slot machine?

D: Well apparently, with the global financial crisis more and more people decide that they can no longer rely upon stocks and shares the way they used to.
K: 'Stocks and shares' - that's a useful expression, often heard among business people. It means part of the ownership of a company which people can buy as an investment.

D: Indeed, they can. But in reality many start turning to other types of investment, which they consider safer - like buying precious metals. And with this new slot machine, buying gold simply can't be easier! The price will be adjusted daily, and in the next part Steve Rosenberg quotes some prices at current rates. And here comes your challenge for this week: what currency unit is mentioned?

a) euro
b) dollar
c) pound

Kate, which of these three currencies would you expect to hear in a report about gold, recorded in Germany by a reporter of a British broadcaster?
K: Responds...

D: We'll check your guess later, but first, what's your language point for the second part of the report Kate?
K: It's the expression 'to keep a close eye on', meaning to watch closely. Steve says 'built-in video cameras will be keeping an especially close eye on all the customers', so his word of warning is, watch out how you behave when you use them:

Clip Two
The machine will dispense a gram of gold for about 40 dollars and a 10 gram bar - for just under 350 dollars. But one word of warning: if you put in your money and nothing comes out, don't start banging your fist on this treasure chest - built-in video cameras will be keeping an especially close eye on all the customers.

D: That was our correspondent Steve Rosenberg at a railway station in Berlin.
Now, before we talk about the answer to this week's question, do you mind going through some of today's vocabulary again Kate?
K: Responds...We began by talking about vending machines - that is machines from which small items such as packaged food or drinks can be bought by inserting money. Because cash is inserted through a slot, they are also known colloquially as slot machines. And another synonym is dispensers.

We then mentioned the phrase on the go goodies meaning small things that we buy and consume without stopping - like chocolate bars, crisps and other snacks, for example. And then, the word precious which means very expensive and valuable. We talked briefly about stocks and shares, which means part of the ownership of a company which people can buy as an investment. And finally, the expression to keep a close eye on, meaning to watch very closely.
D: Thanks Kate. Finally, back to our question. Which currency was used in the report to talk about the price of gold?
K: Responds (the choice was euro, dollar and pound and I said… which was correct/wrong…)
D: Responds...I'm afraid that's all we have time for today. Until next week.
Both: Goodbye!

No Country for Old Typewriters: A Well-Used One Heads to Auction

By PATRICIA COHEN from http://www.nytimes.com/

Cormac McCarthy has written more than a dozen novels, several screenplays, two plays, two short stories, countless drafts, letters and more — and nearly every one of them was tapped out on a portable Olivetti manual typewriter he bought in a Knoxville, Tenn., pawnshop around 1963 for $50.

Lately this dependable machine has been showing irrevocable signs of age. So after his friend and colleague John Miller offered to buy him another, Mr. McCarthy agreed to auction off his Olivetti Lettera 32 and donate the proceeds to the Santa Fe Institute, a nonprofit interdisciplinary scientific research organization with which both men are affiliated.

“He found another one just like this,” a portable Olivetti that looks practically brand new, Mr. McCarthy said from his home in New Mexico. “I think he paid $11, and the shipping was about $19.95.”

Mr. McCarthy, 76, has won a wagon-full of honors including a Pulitzer Prize, a National Book Award and the MacArthur Foundation’s so-called genius grant. Books like “Blood Meridian,” “All the Pretty Horses” and “The Crossing” have propelled him to the top ranks of American fiction writers.

Even nonreaders are familiar with his storytelling since his two most recently published novels, “No Country for Old Men” and the 2007 Pulitzer winner “The Road,” have been made into movies. (“No Country” won best picture and three other Oscars last year.)

Christie’s, which plans to auction the machine on Friday, estimated that it would fetch between $15,000 and $20,000. Mr. McCarthy wrote an authentication letter — typed on the Olivetti, of course — that states:

“It has never been serviced or cleaned other than blowing out the dust with a service station hose. ... I have typed on this typewriter every book I have written including three not published. Including all drafts and correspondence I would put this at about five million words over a period of 50 years.”

Speaking from his home in Santa Fe, Mr. McCarthy said he mistakenly thought that the typewriter was bought in 1958; it was actually a few years later. He had a Royal previously, but before he went off to Europe in the early 1960s, he said, “I tried to find the smallest, lightest typewriter I could find.”

Mr. McCarthy is known for being taciturn, particularly about his writing. He came to realize that not only his working method but even his tools are puzzling to a younger generation.

He remembers one summer when some graduate students were visiting the Santa Fe Institute. “I was in my office clacking away,” he said. “One student peered in and said: ‘Excuse me. What is that?’ ”

“I don’t have some method of working,” he said, adding that he often works on different projects simultaneously. A few years ago, when he was in Ireland, “I worked all day on four different projects,” he said. “I worked two hours on each. I got a lot done, but that’s not usual.”

Glenn Horowitz, a rare-book dealer who is handling the auction for Mr. McCarthy, said: “When I grasped that some of the most complex, almost otherworldly fiction of the postwar era was composed on such a simple, functional, frail-looking machine, it conferred a sort of talismanic quality to Cormac’s typewriter. It’s as if Mount Rushmore was carved with a Swiss Army knife.”

The institute is in a rambling house built in the 1950s that sits on a hill overlooking Santa Fe. “It’s been under not-so-benign neglect,” Mr. McCarthy said.

He is working to help upgrade parts of the house, like the library. It turns out that architecture is one of the many odd jobs that Mr. McCarthy said he had had in his life.

He joined the institute at the invitation of its founder, the physicist Murray Gell-Mann, whom he met at a MacArthur Foundation meeting years ago. “It’s just a great place,” said Mr. McCarthy, whose primary responsibilities at the institute are eating lunch and taking afternoon tea.

He still has a house in Texas. If he had his druthers, he would live there now, except “they wouldn’t move the institute.”

Rafael Benítez's job is safe despite Liverpool's Champions League exit

by Andy Hunter from http://www.guardian.co.uk/

Wednesday 25 November 2009

Rafael Benítez has been assured his position as Liverpool manager will not be undermined by Champions League failure as he admitted the 2005 winners and 2007 runners-up had only themselves to blame for a damaging group-stage exit. The unequivocal support arrived from the Liverpool managing director, Christian Purslow, who insisted the Anfield club could withstand the financial impact of their early elimination.

David Ngog's fourth-minute goal gave Liverpool victory over Debrecen but a first win in six matches was rendered irrelevant by Fiorentina's defeat of Lyon. The result in Tuscany ensured Fiorentina progressed at Liverpool's expense, and prompted Purslow to issue firm backing for Benítez before his future at the club could come under scrutiny again.

"This will have no bearing on Rafa whatsoever," Purslow said. "He signed a new five-year deal four months ago and in those terms he is four months into a five-year journey. You don't deviate from long‑term plans for people and the way to take the club to the next level because of two late goals against Lyon, and that's what it boils down to."

Purslow is currently searching for new investors willing to meet Tom Hicks's and George Gillett's asking price of £100m for a 25% stake in Liverpool. While that process may be complicated by demotion to the Europa League, Liverpool are expected to suffer a budgetary shortfall of only £2.4m for this season as a consequence of their group exit.

"We budget for a level of performance that maybe fans would not like to be at, it's prudent," the managing director added. "If we have three home games in the Europa League we are equivalent to what we budget for in the Champions League.

"We are very disappointed but we could have played one home leg, one away leg and been out. I like to think we'll be taking 40 or 50,000 fans to Hamburg in May and if we get halfway to doing that we will make more money than we would from one round in the Champions League. It is a missed opportunity financially but it has no effect on budgeted performance, and that's the key thing. Budget prudently and then you don't get negative surprises if football doesn't go the right way."

Purslow's guarantee was the only tangible consolation in Hungary for Benítez, who now travels to Merseyside rivals Everton on Sunday with qualification for next season's Champions League an absolute priority. The Liverpool manager, whose players gathered around a screen to watch the closing minutes from Florence, pinned the blame on his team's exit on Lyon's stoppage-time winner at Anfield, their 90th minute equaliser at Stade Gerland plus a poor first-half display in Italy.

The Liverpool manager said: "You have to be disappointed. We knew we had to win and we did. We can't change what happened in the other match, but at least we did our job. If you look at the games, two late goals made a massive difference. We were not any worse in them than others but we paid for the two late goals against Lyon. It's part of football but it's difficult to control.

"We made mistakes in those games in the last minute, so it's our fault in the end. I'm really disappointed because we had chances in all games and could have won them all."

Benítez also claimed Liverpool's previous success in the Champions League had clouded analysis of this season's struggles in the group. "We have been so good in the last years that people think it is easy to go through in this competition. They think it has to be every year. We could have done it but have to be positive now. Now we have a massive game on Sunday and we have to be ready for it.

"It really hurts, especially in the way we went out. We're in a very bad position and can't win the Champions League now so we will just have to do our best in the next game. A lot of teams don't even reach the Champions League. Because we have qualified for five years in a row people think it's easy, but it's not."

Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain, admitted the task of winning the inaugural Europa League in Hamburg next May represented a dispiriting consolation. "The main prize has gone and to be playing in the Europa League is disappointing but we have to accept that, move on and try to win that competition," he said. "The only consolation in this is if we go on and win the secondary one."

Xstrata says Peru projects moving ahead on target

from http://www.reuters.com/

LIMA, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Xstrata Copper (XTA.L) said on Monday its projects in Peru, among the largest in the country's crisis-tinged mining sector, are on track.
Peru's President Alan Garcia met with top Xstrata executives to discuss the company's developments, which include Las Bambas and Antapaccay.

The meeting included Mick Davis, chief executive officer of Xstrata; Charlie Sartain CEO of Xstrata Copper; and Jose Marun, head of Xstrata operations in Peru.

Xstrata sees production starting at Antapaccay by the end of 2012 or the beginning of 2013, while it expects Las Bambas to be operational by the close of 2014.

Both are copper projects and, together, are forecast to cost some $5.1 billion to develop.

"We're finishing studies in line with prior projections -- without delay. We're moving forward," said Marun.

The investments would be among the biggest since before the start of the global economic crisis and show that large miners are moving to build new mines before the next big upswing in prices.

Peru, a major metals exporter, is the world's third-largest copper producer.

Also on Monday, Marun said weeks of area protests had not affected production at Xstrata's Tintaya copper mine.

Protesters, worried about the security of water supplies, had been blocking roads near the mine for weeks. By Monday, most highways were clear.

"There have been some entry problems at the mine obviously, but operations are calm," said Marun.

Union starts strike at Repsol's Peru oil refinery

from http://www.reuters.com/

LIMA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Workers at Repsol's (REP.MC) La Pampilla oil refinery in Peru said on Tuesday they had started a two-day strike to pressure the company for better benefits and to end forced overtime.
La Pampilla, located near the Pacific coast, has a precessing capacity of some 107,000 barrels per day, and is Peru's largest refinery.

The country is a net oil importer and the government is encouraging foreign investment in the sector to boost output.

"It's a 48-hour (strike)," union leader Jose Guerrero told Reuters outside Repsol's corporate office in Lima, Peru's capital.

Roughly 100 workers, wearing blue and orange Repsol vests, were outside the office mid-Monday, carrying protest signs and chanting strike slogans.

Company officials were not immediately available to comment.

On Monday, Repsol said it had taken precautions so that production would not be "significantly affected" by a strike.