EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH

1
—
19

Best books
A u s g What the
0. a
English-
b
5

speaking
4

world
gewinnen Sie is reading
eine Sprachreise
nach London

I
Lo n d o n
Deutschland € 8,50

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

CH sfr 13,90

A LONDON TOUR
Mit Spotlight die wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten zu Fuß entdecken
Der Audio-Trainer –

zum Kennenlernen!

3 Hörproben
gratis!
Jetzt anhören unter
spotlight-online.de/
hoerprobe

Erleben Sie die Vorteile vom Spotlight Audio-Trainer:

Effektiver Englisch lernen mit unserem Hörtraining
Für mehr Hörverständnis und bessere Aussprache
Perfekt für unterwegs, in der Bahn oder beim Sport
spotlight-online.de/hoerprobe
 FROM THE EDITOR
Brexit
Pronunciation

Celebration time! NOUN

Meaning
Brexit means Brexit.

Origin
From Ancient Greek, meaning “bullshit”

Related words:
Absurd, catastrophic, daft, nonsensical,
rubbish

Further Info:
Location: Englischhausen, Germany
Also on site: 200,000 other words/phrases

T
because English is here to stay!
he magazine that you are holding in claim [kleIm]
your hands — or reading on your tablet , hier: Werbeslogan
or phone — is the 450th issue of Spotlight. doable [(du:EbEl]
The publication has come a long way since , machbar • „One-to-One“-Gespräche mit
it first appeared on the news stands in line: somewhere along
„Anglos“ aus der ganzen Welt
September 1981. The original claim, “News and Views on the ~ [laIn] ifml. • Telefonkonferenzen,
, irgendwann
the Anglo-American Scene”, has been expanded to cover Präsentationen u.v.m.
the whole of the English-speaking world. Other elements lined up [)laInd (Vp]
have changed, too. The lists of translated words, once all , hier: anzubieten • 70 Stunden intensives Training
on a single page, are now attached to the relevant articles, mark [mA:k] • Rundum-Sorglos-Paket
, hier: begehen, feiern
and somewhere along the line, we introduced colour
news stand • 4 Partnerhotels in Deutschland
photography.
[(nju:z stÄnd]
In this celebration issue, we take you on a special , Zeitungskiosk
Spotlight walking tour in London (pp. 30–36), visiting
some of the really big sights such as the Tower of Lon-
Flüssigeres Englisch
don, the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. Verbessertes Sprachgefühl
It’s all designed to be done in one day. Yes, it is doable.
Gesteigerte Sprachsicherheit
I tried it. Hopefully, it will be the first of a number of tours
around London. If you like it, or even better if you try it,
let us know. We would love to get your feedback.
To mark this 450th issue, we have a very special
prize lined up. Take part in our online competition,
and you will have the chance of winning a one-week
Titel: Martin Haake; Editorial: Gert Krautbauer; Martin Haake

language course in London with OISE language schools.

Go to page 37 to find out more.
Finally, the Spotlight Team would like to wish you a very
happy 2019!

Kostenlose Sprachtests und Beratung

Montag bis Freitag von 9:00 – 18:00 Uhr
INEZ SHARP, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
i.sharp@spotlight-verlag.de Tel. 089 23 51 58 72

www.englischhausen.de
EDITORIAL x/2019 Spotlight 3 
 C
ontents
Issue 1, 2019 78 My Life in English  M
Travel writer Thomas Bauer

6 World Map  M
New Year’s traditions 16 Sprachseiten
8 In the Spotlight  E  M  A  49 English Explained  M  US 
News and views from Chad Smith on tenses and
around the world the classic film Casablanca

10 The US in Germany  A  US   50 Vocabulary  M  +

Meet the band: Whale City In the sauna

19 I Ask Myself  A  US  52 The Grammar Page  M  +

Amy Argetsinger on Using “could have / needn’t
Saudi Arabia have / shouldn’t have done”

20 A Day in My Life  M  + 53 L
 anguage Cards  E  M  A
Meet a top chef in India Pull out and practise

22 G
 rammar Tales  M  55 Lost in Translation  A
A fairy tale for learners
26 American Life  M  US  +
Ginger Kuenzel on catching mice
29 Press Gallery  A 
Comment from the
English-speaking world
A fun look at interesting
words
56 Everyday English  M  +
Living with less plastic
58 The Basics  E
Easy English

38 Short Story  M  60 Words that Go Together  E  +

“Ms Winslow investigated”: Play and learn:
three chapters for you to enjoy the collocation game

48 A
 rts  M 62 Spoken English  M  + 
Films and an exhibition Talking about health

65 Around Oz  A  63 English at Work  M  +

Peter Flynn on Australian politics Ken Taylor answers

68 Index 2018
your questions
44
A whole year of Spotlight

71 Britain Today  E 
64 Crossword  E  M  A
Find the words Learning
with
and win a prize
Colin Beaven on a trip to
remember

72 Peggy’s Place  M 
Ms Winslow
Visit Spotlight’s very own M
Our very own
London pub
detective stars in
three chapters’ worth
74 The Lighter Side  E
of stories on pages
Jokes and cartoons
38–43. Use these
exercises to test what
76 F
 eedback & Next Month  E  M  A
you have learned.
Your letters to Spotlight
and upcoming topics

4  Spotlight 1/2019 CONTENTS

 Improve your English

30 —
1
19
EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH PLUS
Spotlight plus
Practise the language

Take a tour of
and grammar of
Englisch für
den Alltag Talking about
Reducing your your health
Redewendungen Wortschatz
Groups of
animals
Spotlight with the
exercise booklet plus.

London
plastic footprint

Land und leute

London walks For the pages in the

magazine marked with

€ 5,50 (D) | € 6,30 (A) | sfr 8,70 (CH)

A + this symbol PLUS there
are additional exercises
Our new series of travel stories takes you on in plus.
wonderful walks through this great city and will
inspire you to take part. And in honour of Spotlight
magazine’s 450th issue we are offering you a chance EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH AUDIO
Spotlight Audio
to win a language course in London (see page 37). —
1
Enjoy interviews and
travel stories and try
19

Grammar Tales Short Story English at Work

Fairy stories with Another mystery Advice on writing

the exercises on the

a modern twist for Ms Winslow meeting notes

A LONDON
TOUR monthly 60-minute
CD/download.
MIT SPOTLIGHT
DIE WICHTIGSTEN
SEHENSWÜRDIGKEITEN
ZU FUSS ENTDECKEN

Look for this symbol

AUDIO in the magazine.

EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH

IN THE CLASSROOM
EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH
Spotlight

1 / 2019
in the classroom
1
—
19

Best books
Au s g What the
0. a
English-

SOCIETY Reading tips • LANGUAGE Learning with Ms Winslow • TRAVEL London walks

b
speaking

e
world
gewinnen Sie is reading
eine Sprachreise
nach London

1
—
19
I
London

Deutschland € 8,50

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

CH sfr 13,90
A LONDON TOUR
Mit Spotlight die wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten zu Fuß entdecken

Teachers: this six-page

Contents

TITLE LANGUAGE WORK BASED ON TIME LEVEL “Ring in the old,

Going in circles Vocabulary- Various articles 10 EMA
ring in the new…
building Dear Colleagues
…Ring out the false, ring in the true” (Alfred Ten-
Auld Lang Syne Speaking, reading World Map (pp. 6–7) 15 EMA
nyson). On this note, we usher you into 2019 with
A new role Reading, role In the Spotlight 45

supplement will
EM a nice medley of activities: role playing, Chinese
playing (pp. 8–9), A Day in whispers (p. 2), a jigsaw listening game (p. 3) and
My Life (pp. 20–21), a “sweaty” speaking game (p. 4). In “Talking teach-
The Basics (pp. 58–59) ing”, we are delighted to introduce Miles Parker,
More grammar Practising “could / The Grammar Page 45, hw M who told us that teaching is a great way to stay
needn’t have done”, (p. 52) active, in the money and out of trouble.
Chinese whispers
Cheryl Khan-Stock

provide great ideas for

In the sweat Sauna vocabulary, Vocabulary 60–70 M A
teachers@spotlight-verlag.de
room* writing, speaking (pp. 50–51)
game
Hopes and Jigsaw listening Short Story 60, hw M A
dreams game, speaking, (pp. 38–43)
Herausgeber: Jan Henrik Groß Verlag und Redaktion:
writing Chefredakteurin: Spotlight Verlag GmbH
Two queens Speculating, read- Arts (p. 48) 15 MA Inez Sharp Kistlerhofstr. 172,

classroom activities
Stellvertretende 81379 München
ing, viewing a trailer Chefredakteurin: Deutschland
Claudine Weber-Hof Tel. +49(0)89/95467707;
COPY FILE * Photocopiable material for the exercise “In the sweat Chefin vom Dienst: Fax +49(0)89/95467708
Petra Daniell www.spotlight-online.de
room”
Fachredaktion: Druck: Schmidl & Rotaplan
INTERVIEW Miles Parker Julia Howard, Cheryl Khan- Druck GmbH,
REVIEWS Conversation, Teaching English Grammar Stock, Michele Tilgner 93057 Regensburg
SERVICE www.linguapress.com Gestaltung:
Georg Lechner CCPAP-Nr. 0220 U 92620

based on the magazine.

Gesamt-Anzeigenleitung: © 2019 Spotlight Verlag, auch
SHORT WARM-UP Matthias Weidling für alle genannten Autoren,
A2 B1-B2 C1-C2 ACTIVITY (DIE ZEIT, V.i.s.d.P.) Fotografen und Mitarbeiter.

EASY MEDIUM ADVANCED Going in circles

Free for all teachers who

Language work: • Arrange some chairs in a circle — smaller cir-
Vocabulary-building cles in larger classes.
Preparation: None • Students leaf through their magazines, scan-
Materials: Various articles ning the glossed vocabulary for an interest-
Time: 10 minutes ing word or expression. Ask them to mem-
orize it along with the German translation.
• One student should say their word with the
German equivalent. The student next to the
• Continue round the circle, with each student
adding his word and translation and saying
the previous words. If a student cannot re-
member a word, he can be prompted.
• After the first round, students write down all
the words from memory.
• Play a second round. This time, students say
their word along with a short English defini-

subscribe to Spotlight.
one who started says his / her word and trans- tion.
lation, and then repeats the first student’s
word.

1/2019 Spotlight 1 
Illustrationen: Martin Haake; amesto/Shutterstock.com. Foto: Priscilla du Preez/unsplash.com

14
Everybody’s For more information and exercises, see:

reading
www.spotlight-online.de
www.facebook.com/spotlightmagazine

A ABOUT THE LANGUAGE LEVELS

Here are our tips for books The levels of difficulty in Spotlight magazine
you will want to read on those correspond roughly to The Common European
long winter evenings. Enjoy! Framework of Reference for Languages:

EASY MEDIUM ADVANCED

A2 B1–B2 C1–C2

CONTENTS 1/2019 Spotlight 5 

 WORLD MAP

Happy New
Year! USA
Welche Traditionen gibt es weltweit Since 1907, the spectacular “ball drop”
für den Neujahrsabend? on Times Square has drawn partiers to
New York City for its countdown to
MEDIUM
midnight on 31 December: “Ten, nine,
New Year’s traditions are as varied as the cultures eight…!” roars the crowd, as the giant
in which they are practised. This world map takes glowing ball is lowered at One Times
a look at some of the world’s unusual rituals of re- Square.
newal, many of which are based on beliefs about
luck. Some involve what you wear, others what
you eat or drink. Fireworks are often a highlight,
either in large displays or set off on a city square
or in the neighbours’ garden.
No matter how grand (or modest) the specta-
cle, it’s important to celebrate and raise a glass or
two while waiting for midnight on 31 December.
Time is precious, as Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a lead-
ing Victorian poet, wrote in his play The Foresters:
“…Hope / Smiles from the threshold of the year to
come, / Whispering ‘it will be happier’...”
American TV presenter Oprah Winfrey said
the same thing, but in a different way: “Cheers to a
new year and another chance for us to get it right.”
BRAZIL
Rio de Janeiro is famous
for its New Year’s Eve
parties. Traditions in-
clude going to the beach,
where people dressed
in white make offerings
to the goddess Yemanja.
At midnight, they throw
flowers into the water
and jump over seven
waves as they roll in.
With each jump, a wish
chime [tSaIm] presenter [pri(zentE] is made for the coming
, einläuten , Moderator(in)
year.
glowing [(glEUIN] purifying [(pjUErIfaIIN]
, leuchtend , reinigend
goddess [(gQdes] renewal [ri(nju:El]
, Göttin , Erneuerung

lingerie [(lÄndZEri] star [stA:]

, Dessous , in einer Hauptrolle zeigen

modest [(mQdIst] stroke [strEUk]

, bescheiden , Schlag

offering [(QfErIN] threshold [(TreShEUld]

, (Opfer-)Gabe , Schwelle
precious [(preSEs] whisper [(wIspE]
, kostbar , flüstern

Sources: Varied. Research by Claudine Weber-Hof

6  Spotlight 1/2019 WORLD MAP

 BRITAIN
When Big Ben chimes the arrival of midnight, people tend
to break into “Auld Lang Syne”. The song originated as a
poem in English, written by the Scottish poet Robert Burns.
The title is in Scots and means “times gone by”.

GERMANY
Watching the 18-minute film Dinner for One
on TV, starring British comedians, is a very
popular New Year’s Eve ritual. “The same
procedure as every year, James!” is a much-
quoted line from the film.

TURKEY
Red is the colour of health. To
celebrate the New Year, women
here put on new red lingerie on
New Year’s Eve. Red underwear JAPAN
is also often given as a gift. Buddhist philosophy holds that
SPAIN human beings suffer because
At midnight, the tra- of 108 bad emotions, such as
dition here is to eat 12 attachment and anger. That is
green grapes, quickly. why at the stroke of midnight,
Doing so is thought the enormous temple bells
to bring luck in the ring out across the country 108
coming year. times. The tradition is believed
Fotos: mauritius images/United Archives; penguenstock, iStockphoto/iStock; Nancy Ann Ellis;

MALAYSIA to have a purifying effect.

Chinese New Year is celebrated
by many here, and in 2019, it
falls on Tuesday, 5 February. On
this day, married people give red
ang pow packets (they must be
red for health and wealth) con-
taining crisp new banknotes (in
amounts that end in the lucky
Evgenij Karandaev, jakkapan/Shutterstock.com

number eight) to parents, chil-

dren and single adults.

WORLD MAP 1/2019 Spotlight 7 

 Broch of Gurness, an Iron Age village
in the Orkney Islands
8  Spotlight 1/2019
SCOTLAND
Losing ground
ADVANCED
“Heritage is falling into the sea,” Profes-
sor Jane Downes told The New York Times.
Downes, who runs the Archaeology Insti-
tute at the University of Highlands and
Islands, is talking about the Orkneys, a
70-island archipelago off the north coast of
Scotland. There, climate change is gobbling
up monuments to human civilization.
Among the casualties are ancient cham-
bered tombs, sites where Viking boats have
been unearthed and medieval cemeteries.
A few famous places, such as the fantas-
tic Neolithic settlement of Skara Brae, are
archipelago cemetery [(semEtri]
[)A:kI(pelEgEU] , Friedhof
, Inselgruppe
chambered tomb
casualty [(kÄZuElti] [(tSeImbEd tu:m]
, Opfer , Kammergrab
Fotos: Paul Williams/Alamy Stock Photos; Frederic Legrand, photo25th, JStome/Shutterstock.com; picture alliance/AP; PR
protected by sea walls, but how long such
barriers will suffice is unclear.
“Sea level in Orkney has been rising over
thousands of years, and so coastal flooding
and beach erosion is nothing new,” said
Jim Hansom of the University of Glasgow.
“What is of concern is that the extent and
pace of erosion since the 1970s has in-
creased.”
Archaeologists are struggling to keep up
with environmental changes, and are work-
ing fast to process and record important
sites in the Orkneys before they disappear.
gobble up [)gQb&l (Vp] suffice [sE(faIs]
, verschlingen, schlucken , genügen
heritage [(herItIdZ]
, Erbe, Überlieferung
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
BARBADOS

Rihanna’s
new role There
EASY
are few
things
If you want someone to promote your
country, who better than an international
superstar? This may have been what the

I love
government of Barbados was thinking
when it decided to give singer Rihanna a AUSTRALIA
new role. Rihanna, 30, was born in Barba-
Cooking culture
dos and lived there until she was a teen-
ager, when she moved to the US to start
her career. In her new role, as “ambassador
talking EASY

extraordinary and plenipotentiary”, she

will promote education, tourism about Put ash in water and use it to cook food to
make it less bitter. This is one of the things

more
and investment in her home that Jock Zonfrillo learned from studying
country. She said in a state- the cooking techniques of indigenous
ment that she “couldn’t be Australians.

than
more proud to take on Zonfrillo, who’s from Scotland, has a
such a prestigious title”. restaurant in Adelaide called Orana and
Barbados celebrates Ri- runs the Orana Foundation, which pro-
hanna Day every year
on 22 February, two
days after the sing-
toilets. motes indigenous cooking. Now, he has
won the international Basque Culinary
World Prize of £89,000, which goes to cul-
er’s birthday, and has inary projects of social value.
renamed the street Zonfrillo told the BBC that he hopes
where she once his foundation will help Australians to
lived in St Michael better understand and respect their coun-
“Rihanna Drive”. try’s indigenous culture.

ambassador
extraordinary and
plenipotentiary
[Äm(bÄsEdE
— Tech billionaire Bill Gates
Ik(strO:dEnEri
quoted in the South China
Änd
Morning Post on his charity’s
plenIpE(tenSEri]
ongoing mission to improve
, bevollmächtig- world sanitation. indigenous run [rVn]
te(r)Sonder- [In(dIdZEnEs] , hier: leiten
botschafter(in) , eingeboren

THE NEWCOMER

Efe Obada EASY

Age: 26
a professional American football team a
From: Obada was born in Nigeria but
year later. He now plays for the Carolina
now lives in the US.
Panthers in the National Football League
Background: He was trafficked from the
(NFL).
Netherlands into London with his sister
Famous because: He is the first inter-
when he was 10, and lived with one fos-
national player to have moved straight
ter family after another.
from an American football league in Eu- foster family trafficked [(trÄfIkt]
Career: He began playing for a British- verschleppt, verkauft
rope to the NFL. [(fQstE )fÄmli] ,
American football club in 2014, and for , Pflegefamilie

IN THE SPOTLIGHT Texts by Talitha Linehan and Claudine Weber-Hof 1/2019 Spotlight 9 
 Members of the band:
Juri Jangl, Andreas Görlitz
and Michael Eichele

10  Spotlight x/2019 RUBRIKTITEL

 THE US IN GERMANY

California
dreamin’
KARIN HOLLY unterhält sich mit den
Mitgliedern von Whale City, einer
deutschen Pop-Rock-Band, die auf
Englisch singt und sich vom kalifornischen
Lebensstil inspirieren lässt.
ADVANCED US

N
o one driving through the quaint
Bavarian village of Rott, located
between Landsberg am Lech and
Weilheim, would describe it as a
city. And as far as I can see, there
are no whales swimming in any of the local ponds.
Still, Rott is exactly where you’ll find Whale City.
Only it’s not so much a place as a sound: Whale City
is an alternative pop and rock band that traces its
roots to California’s magnificent coast.
Back in Bavaria, in a sound studio above an ex-
panded barn, Andreas Görlitz, Juri Jangl, and Mi-
chael Eichele get together nearly every day to craft
their music. Their songs can be edgy and melodious
at once. They evoke a sense of longing. The musicians
ask me if I want to hear some of their music. How can
I say no?
It’s a real treat to get a first, exclusive listen to
what they’ve composed. One of the songs they play
is called “The Shore.” It’s what I would classify as a
“driving song,” the type of music you would listen to
in the car with the top down, feeling the wind in your
hair and cruising along a beautiful stretch of road.

barn [bA:rn] pond [pA:nd]

, Scheune, Stall , Teich, Weiher

craft [krÄft] quaint [kweInt]

, gestalten, ausarbeiten , idyllisch, malerisch
edgy [(edZi] ifml. shore [SO:r]
, kantig , Küste, Ufer
evoke [i(voUk] stretch [stretS]
, heraufbeschwören , Gebiet, Bereich
longing [(lO:NIN] trace [treIs]
, Sehnsucht , zurückverfolgen
Fotos: XXX

magnificent [mÄg(nIfIsEnt] treat [tri:t]

, großartig, wundervoll , Vergnügen, Genuss

RUBRIKTITEL 1/2019 Spotlight 11 


In fact, standing inside this Bavarian
barn, thousands of miles away from Cal-
ifornia, I see myself roaring down the
coastal highway, looking out over cliffs to
the Pacific Ocean, and feeling the warmth
of the sun on my skin. It’s this type of
West Coast feeling that Whale City hopes
to inspire in its listeners. The band wants
its music to be a bridge between life here
in Germany, and wherever listeners im-
agine themselves to be when they hear
the songs. That doesn’t necessarily mean
a shift in geography.
“Everyone will hear something diffe-
rent when they listen to our music,” says
Görlitz, the band’s frontman. “They will
go to different places in their minds.”
In Görlitz’s case, the music takes him
right back to California, where he worked
for more than a year. He didn’t start out as
a musician, though. In his previous work-
ing life, he was a soccer player for sever-
al professional German
teams, including FC Bay-
ern Munich. He eventual- “Whale City
ly moved to California and sees its music
played for a team called as a bridge
the San Jose Earthquakes.
Music was always Gör-
between
litz’s first love. Living in Germany and
California inspired him fi- California”
nally to hang up his soccer
cleats and pick up his gui-
tar. He met Michael Eichele, a bass play-
er, shortly after he returned to Bavaria.
Soon, they added drummer Juri Jangl to
their band. The only problem: they didn’t
yet have a name. Görlitz remembers how
they figured out what to call themselves.
“I was telling the guys this story: about
15 miles from Santa Cruz, where I was
living at the time, there was this restau-
rant called the Whale City Bakery,” he
says. “It wasn’t exactly a beautiful place,
right there on Highway One. In hindsight,
though, it was where I discovered that
American feeling. To me, it represents the
US way of life, that special location in my
heart. All that was inspired by the Whale
City Bakery.”
Görlitz’s description seems to have
done the job. The band agreed to call
themselves Whale City, and it’s a name
that seems to resonate with all of them.
“It gives you that feeling as if you’ve
been there before — without ever having
actually set foot in the place,” says Jangl.
“I’ve never been to California, but to me,
12  Spotlight 1/2019
buck [bVk] resonate with sb.
, sich widersetzen [(rezEneIt wIT]
Whale City is a place where you unbut- , mit jmdm. im Einklang
ton your shirt and feel the cool evening cleats [kli:ts] N. Am. sein, mitschwingen
, Stollen-, Fußballschuhe
breeze on the coast. It’s something you roar [rO:r]
know only from movies or pictures. To drop [drA:p] ifml. , sausen, brausen
, hier: auf den Markt
me, it’s total freedom.” werfen shift [SIft]
Today, Whale City is one of the few , Verlagerung
in hindsight
new German bands singing in English. By [)In (haIndsaIt] upcoming [(Vp)kVmIN]
performing in English, the group actually , rückblickend, , hier: demnächst auf
bucks a booming trend. When you look at im Nachhinein den Markt kommend
the music charts over the past few years,
it’s easy to see that bands which sing in
German are hugely popular and enjoy
great success on the German-speaking
market. Artists such as Helene Fischer
and Andrea Berg are doing very well in-
deed singing in German.
Some industry experts credit the
many casting shows such as Deutschland
sucht den Superstar with the increase in
German-speaking performers. However,
for Whale City, it was clear that English
would be the language of choice.
“I’ve experimented with
German, and I’ve also writ-
ten a few German songs,”
says Görlitz. “When I lis-
ten to what’s out there
right now in my own lan-
guage, I get the feeling
that it all sounds the same.
The topics of the songs are
somehow always similar.
To us, the songs sound
more beautiful in English, and we have
the feeling we can get our message across
much better.”
Whale City plans to drop its first album
this spring, and the band is ready to take
its songs to an international audience.
It’s another reason why they’re glad their
songs are in English.
“Music should make you think a little,”
says Eichele. “As a musician, it’s my goal to
communicate that sense of freedom to lis-
teners. I’ve never been to America. How-
ever, there are many places here where
you also get that sense of openness.”
Performing internationally, especial-
ly in the US, is a long-term goal for the
band. While they agree on the language,
the musicians have very different music-
Foto: mauritius images/imagebroker
al styles and tastes. Görlitz likes working
more with pop; Eichele leans more to-
wards rock. Jangl is the alternative force
in the band. The members say these diffe-
rences are what give them a special sound.
It’s taken the band more than a year to
write all the music for the upcoming
THE US IN GERMANY
One place where Whale City records its music: in the quaint Bavarian village of Rott

album. Everything on it is a collaboration, sunny, uplifting feeling that international bandmate [bÄndmeIt] run: ~ sth. past sb. [rVn]
Görlitz says. performers such as Katy Perry have tried , Bandmitglied , jmdn. etw. vorlegen
He talks me through the band’s way to capture with contemporary hits such convey [kEn(veI] snippet [(snIpIt]
of creating a song: “We usually start jam- as “California Gurls.” As far as Whale City , ausdrücken, rüber- , Schnipsel, Auszug
ming together. That’s how we build the is concerned, it’s a sound that listeners can bringen
song’s structure. Then you listen to the relate to and enjoy when they hear the gurl [g§:l] nonstandard
melody, write a few snippets of text, and band’s music. , Mädchen
try to find the right words. Often you Görlitz says he hopes that his band- iconic [aI(kA:nIk]
listen to just the melody itself without mates will soon get a chance to visit the , kultig

words to get a feeling for what it could
be about. You even go so far as to give the
song a name, but 90 percent of the time,
that changes as you move the process
along. It’s a starting point, though.”
Görlitz says that writing in English
is what keeps his language skills sharp.
He still runs the lyrics past his friends in
California for feedback and to make sure
everything he wants to convey in the
song is understood.
California has long been a source of in-
spiration for songwriters and bands. The
iconic Beach Boys sang about the state’s
laid-back attitude and shared that vibe
with the world for decades. It’s the same
specific spot in California that inspired laid-back [)leId (bÄk]
the group’s unusual-seeming name. ifml.
, entspannt, locker
Eichele says it’s an experience he very
much looks forward to: “Andreas always lyrics [(lIrIks]
, Songtext
talks about having had the most amaz-
ing breakfasts there with pancakes and
croissant sandwiches. For us, seeing that
stretch of California is only a matter of
time. We’ll all go there.”
Until then, they will be drawing on
their inspiration from within. In their
hearts, as in their music, there will always
be a connection between California’s
Whale City Bakery and this barn turned
sound studio in the quaint Bavarian vil-
lage of Rott

THE US IN GERMANY 1/2019 Spotlight 13 

 Fotos: XXX

14  Spotlight x/2019 RUBRIKTITEL


In our good books
Wir stellen eine Autobiographie vor, zwei Biographien, einen Roman,
einen politischen Essay, ein fiktives Teenager-Tagebuch und ein Buch über Austern.
Welches Buch steht diesen Winter auf Ihrer Leseliste? Von EVE LUCAS und MARY SIMONS
W
hat good books
would we at Spot-
light recommend
for long winter
evenings? Read
the next few pages to find out. We have
chosen a mix that includes a bestselling
autobiography, a teenage diary, a mani-
festo for a new start in British politics,
a novel about betrayal, a biography of a
war reporter, a book about oysters, and
the life story — so far — of blues guitarist
Eric Clapton. As always, if you have your
own book tips to share with us, we’d love
to hear what they are. Happy reading!
Becoming by Michelle
Obama
“Sometimes ... I found
myself staring at images
of people who had given
themselves over to polit-
ical life — the Clintons,
the Gores, the Bushes,
old photos of the Kennedys — and won-
dering ... was everyone normal? Happy?”
These were questions Michelle Obama
asked herself as her husband set out on
the path that led to his election as the 44th
president of the United States. In Becom-
ing, Michelle Obama’s autobiography, we
find out what it was like for one family.
Obama, born on Chicago’s South Side,
grew up in a happy and loving home,
even if family life was under the shad-
ow of illness — her father suffered from
Fotos: Sarah Sharp/insplash.com; pr
MS. From an early age, though, Obama is
set apart by her drive. In first grade, she
makes a teacher repeat a test so that she,
Obama, can correct a mistake. Later, a col-
lege counsellor tells her: “I’m not sure that
you’re Princeton material.” Obama thinks,
“I’ll show you.” And she does.
SOCIETY
BOOKS
ADVANCED
This determination goes hand in hand aka (also known as) puny [(pju:ni]
with a constant questioning about where [)eI keI (eI] , schwächlich
her life should lead. So after studying at , alias, auch bekannt als
set out [set (aUt]
Princeton and Harvard, Obama works, counsellor [(kaUns&lE] , aufbrechen, sich
, Berater(in) aufmachen
among other jobs, for a non-profit organ-
ization that helps young people become disarmingly [dIs(A:mINli] straightforward
, entwaffnend [)streIt(fO:wEd]
involved in social and political projects
, geradlinig, ehrlich
— something she finds deeply satisfying. drive [draIv]
, Tatendrang wimpy [(wImpi] ifml.
It is a shock then, when in 2009, Obama
, schwächlich
is catapulted into a new role as America’s
First Lady. She is honest about her frustra-
tion over life in the political theatre. She
finds the Republicans’ opposition to her
husband’s agenda especially hard to bear.
She is disarmingly straightforward about
the challenges to family life. One evening
in June 2015, together with her daughter
Malia, she tries to leave the White House
for a moment to look at a light display, but
almost every exit is locked, and security is
unhappy about making an exception.
At the end of the book, Obama writes
that her credo is to help and support oth-
er people, as she has been supported. “I’ve
tried to open my door to others,” she says.
In Becoming, she has opened the door on
to her life. What we see is inspirational.
Random House US, €31.45
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The
Meltdown by Jeff Kinney
US writer Jeff Kinney
created puny, but clev-
er middle-school pupil
Greg Heffley, aka the
Wimpy Kid, more than
20 years ago. Since then,
Heffley has appeared in more than a doz-
en books, each one a teenage adventure.
In The Meltdown, he begins by unhappily
cataloguing the terrible things about win-
ter: thermal underwear, old pizza boxes
1/2019 Spotlight 15 
 aspiring [E(spaIErIN] loathing [(lEUDIN]
, aufstrebend , Abscheu, Ekel
that don’t work as snowshoes, cold germs for company shareholders. His vision is
barely [(beEli] prosperity [prQ(sperEti]
from other pupils and walking to school. for a kind of Common Wealth party by
, kaum , Wohlstand, Erfolg
When, however, the snow puts a stop to which people will feel valued and truly
drag [drÄg] self-deception
all normal activity, the Wimpy Kid and represented. Over five chapters, Collins
, ziehen, zerren [)self di(sepS&n]
his friend Rowley discover that extreme sets out a plan to achieve this and covers , Selbstbetrug
feud [fju:d]
weather can create the conditions for ex- topics ranging from the abolition of the shareholder
, Fehde
treme adventure. In no time at all, he finds honours system to climate change. Start [(SeE)hEUldE]
germ [dZ§:m] Aktionär(in)
himself in a life-or-death snowball fight. Again makes for a thought-provoking , Keim, Krankheits-
,

How will it end? read, whether or not you agree with the erreger suppressed [sE(prest]
This book is a good way to get lazy author’s politics. , unterdrückt
impasse [Äm(pA:s]
teenagers reading in English. The Wimpy , Sackgasse thought-provoking
Kid can keep adults happily entertained Fourth Estate, €11.60 [(TO:t prE)vEUkIN]
juvenile [(dZu:vEnaI&l] , nachdenklich machend
for a couple of hours, too. The stories are , jugendlich
a combination of diary entries and line A Ladder to the Sky by track [trÄk]
line drawing , verfolgen
drawings. The language is as simple as the John Boyne [(laIn )drO:IN]
illustrations. Thanks to the author’s geni- “I want to be a success. , Strichzeichnung
us, the result is a clever and insightful look ...I’ll do whatever it takes
into teenage life in the 21st century. to succeed.” These are
the words of a beauti-
Penguin UK, €13.20 ful young Englishman,
Maurice Swift, a waiter
Start Again: How We Can working in Berlin and an aspiring writer.
Fix Our Broken Politics by Listening to Swift is a successful older
Philip Collins author, Erich Ackermann, who should
It is not clear what the have been warned by these words. Ack-
state of Brexit will be as ermann, who is gay, is in love with Swift
you read this review. It and, after a lifetime of suppressed desire,
is clear that the process suddenly finds it hard to keep his feelings
has been a mess and has under control. Without thinking about
highlighted the failings of Britain’s polit- the consequences, Ackermann tells his
ical establishment in a way that people young friend a terrible secret from his
inside and outside the country can see. past. When Swift turns the story into a
Philip Collins was the chief speech successful novel, it costs Ackermann his
writer for Tony Blair from 2004 to 2007 career, and he dies soon afterwards a bro-
and is the author of The Art of Speeches and ken man. Swift, though, has not finished
Presentations (2012) and When They Go Low, ruining other people’s lives. Anyone who
We Go High: Speeches that Shape the World — has a story he can steal is a target — even
And Why We Need Them (2017). He is also a his own family.
columnist for The Times. Boyne tracks Swift’s path of cruelty and
In his latest book, Start Again, Collins self-deception, while the reader, know-
examines why so many people in Britain, ing that things can only get worse, can-
including himself, feel that they have no not help but continue watching events
political home. Of the two major parties, unfold with a horrified fascination. Will
he writes, “The Labour Party has fallen Swift become a victim of his own trick-
victim to a juvenile anti-capitalism and ery? Boyne will keep you guessing to the
loathing of America... The Conservative end.
Party, meanwhile, has dragged the nation
into its own private feud. ... The party is Doubleday, €16.99

in the process of taking Britain out of the

EU for reasons it can barely remember In Extremis: The Life and
let alone define.” The focus of Start Again Death of the War Corre-
is how it has come to this impasse as well spondent Marie Colvin by
as a manifesto that Collins believes is a Lindsey Hilsum
way out. In March 1987, journal-
Fotos: Clay Banks; pr

One of the author’s main points is ist Marie Colvin and

that today Britain’s workers are not seen photographer Tom Stod-
as those who create national prosperi- dart travelled to Beirut
ty. Instead, their job is to create wealth to report on Palestinian refugee camps

16  Spotlight 1/2019 SOCIETY

Fotos: XXX

RUBRIKTITEL x/2019 Spotlight 17 

 bead [bi:d] mature [mE(tSUE]
, Perle , reif
that were being besieged by Amal, a Shi’a oysters à la Bazeine covers an entire page.
Muslim militia. They paid an Amal com- Fisher follows it with a much shorter ver- besiege [bi(si:dZ] oyster [(OIstE]
, belagern , Auster
mander to stop shooting for one minute sion: “Or fry oysters and serve with ale.”
brim [brIm] peripatetic
so that they could run across no-man’s- Alternatively, serve this book with wrap-
, strotzen [)perIpE(tetIk]
land to the Bourj el-Barajneh camp to get ping paper — as the perfect gift. , rastlos, reiselustig
excerpt [(eks§:pt]
a story for The Sunday Times. During their season [(si:z&n]
, Auszug
24 hours in Bourj el-Barajneh, a Palestin- Daunt Books, €8.69
, würzen
feisty [(faIsti] ifml.
ian woman, who had left the camp to get solitude [(sQlEtju:d]
, lebhaft, temperament-
food, was killed by snipers. It was Colvin’s Slowhand: The Life and voll , Einsamkeit
first experience of the brutality of war. Music of Eric Clapton by induct [In(dVkt] substance abuse
Over the next 25 years, she made a Philip Norman , einführen [(sVbstEns E)bju:z]
name for herself covering wars in Chech- Philip Norman is the , Drogenmissbrauch
nya, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe, author of the bestseller
Sri Lanka, East Timor and finally Syria, Shout!: The Beatles in Their
where she herself was killed in February Generation, as well as
2012 in the city of Homs, probably by gov- books on Buddy Holly,
ernment artillery fire. Colvin was known Elton John, The Rolling Stones and John
for her willingness to report on even the Lennon. Now he has examined the laby-
most dangerous conflicts. She lost the rinthine career of British blues and rock
use of one eye during a grenade attack in guitarist Eric Clapton.
Sri Lanka and, as a result, suffered from From playing with the Yardbirds and
post-traumatic stress disorder. Lindsey Cream in the 1960s through countless
Hilsum’s excellent biography of Colvin other collaborations — with everyone
covers her life, from a feisty teenager from Bob Dylan to Tina Turner — and
growing up on Long Island who would many years as a solo artist, Clapton’s mu-
sail out alone in a storm, to her work as a sical life has been one of superlatives. He
peripatetic reporter determined to show has recorded more than 20 solo studio
the price of war under any circumstances. albums and is the only musician to have
been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall
Farrar Straus & Giroux, €24.12 of Fame three times.
You can listen to excerpts of In Extremis on the BBC
iPlayer (www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b0br5d8f). Clapton’s private life has been marked
by a mixture of excess and tragedy. He has
been treated for drug and alcohol abuse
Consider the Oyster by and has lost a number of close friends to
M. F. K. Fisher substance abuse. Clapton’s is also a life
M. F. K. (Mary Frances that has been closely documented: he
Kennedy) Fisher was wrote an autobiography in 2007. So what
one of America’s finest does Norman discover that is new?
food writers. Her book In interviews with fellow musicians,
on oysters, titled Con- friends and partners, a person emerges
sider the Oyster, was first for whom the best is never quite good
published in 1941, just before America enough, a man who is happier with a gui-
entered the Second World War and lux- tar than with human beings. As Clapton
uries were getting harder to find. Like its once said himself: “I like solitude. I like
subject, the book is small, but it packs a the anomalous life. I like a quiet life.”
tasty punch. It brims with flavours, and
bursts with memories, anecdotes and Orion Publishing Group, €20.90

recipes (including one for how “To Make

a Pearl” with one mature oyster, one bead,
one cage, brushes and one diving girl...).
Fisher’s writing is of her time and her
class. It speaks of privilege, and of travels
to places where oysters are grown and
eaten throughout the US, Asia and Eu-
rope. Above all, Consider the Oyster tells a
story of knowledge and fascination, sea-
soned with the humour that this aficio-
nado brings to her subject. The recipe for

18  Spotlight 1/2019 SOCIETY

 I ASK MYSELF

Is this what
allies do?
Der Journalist Jamal Khashoggi wurde im
saudischen Konsulat in Istanbul ermordet. Viele
fragen nun, ob Saudi Arabien noch als Verbündeter
bezeichnet werden kann.
 
ADVANCED US

T
here’s a colleague I often bump into in the mini-
kitchen shared by some of us at The Washington Post, a
man with a round face and wire-rim glasses. When
he first showed up in my office a year ago, it was like
seeing a celebrity: Wait, who is that?
He was Jason Rezaian. Formerly our Tehran cor-
respondent, he spent a year and a half in an Iranian
prison on false charges of espionage — an episode
that galvanized our newsroom. We didn’t know
how it would end; it was horrifying to imagine this
young man locked away for decades. But after aggres-
sive diplomatic intervention, Jason was released, and
now he is here, enjoying a normal, everyday office job
like the rest of us.
That’s why I was not immediately alarmed by the
news that Jamal Khashoggi — a Saudi dissident who
wrote for the Post’s opinion page — had gone missing
after visiting his home country’s consulate in Istan-
bul. Clearly, I assumed, he was being held prisoner, an
outrageous act. But I was certain that after the usual
Fotos: iStockphoto, powerofforever/iStock.com
reaction was to dismiss the evidence of Khashoggi’s
death and accept the denials of the Saudi govern-
ment. Even after the Saudis said that Khashoggi had
died in the consulate — in an “accidental” killing, they
absurdly claimed — Trump was reluctant to punish
them, arguing that the Saudis are our allies. Well,
if they are our allies, why did they do this? Some of
the president’s conservative defenders have tried
to smear Khashoggi, falsely calling him an Islamic
radical. One commentator dismissed the uproar as
media hysteria because Khashoggi was not famous
before his death — as if fame were the measure of a
man’s worth.
I did not know Khashoggi, who wrote for the Post
on a freelance basis, but I know his editor, a young
woman who has made many TV news appearances
calling for justice. Sometimes I run into her in the
women’s restroom, touching up her makeup be-
tween appearances. It is clear she has been crying a
lot. His loss has cast a shadow on this place.

uproar and diplomatic maneuvering, he would come

home with a powerful story to tell.
brazen [(breIz&n] outrageous [aUt(reIdZEs]
This is typical journalistic thinking. We go to un- , dreist, schamlos , ungeheuerlich, unerhört
safe places — war-torn countries, dangerous neigh-
charge [tSA:rdZ] reluctant [ri(lVktEnt]
borhoods — and assume we will be safe, that our sta- , Vorwurf, Anklage , zurückhaltend, unwillig
tus as Americans will protect us. But the murderous dismiss [dIs(mIs] restroom [(restru:m] N. Am.
dictators of the world are increasingly showing us , abweisen, abtun , Toilette
otherwise. Otto Warmbier was an American college espionage [(espiEnA:Z] smear [smI&r]
student, and he ended up dead after a year in a North , Spionage , beschmutzen, verleumden
Korean prison. Khashoggi wasn’t a US citizen, but he galling [(gO:lIN] uproar [(VprO:r]
AMY ARGETSINGER
was a journalist and a legal resident of this country , ärgerlich, schmerzlich , Aufruhr, Entrüstung
is an editor at
The Washington with extensive connections in Washington. He was galvanize [(gÄlvEnaIz] war-torn [(wO:r tO:rn]
Post, a leading killed minutes after entering the consulate. , aufrütteln , vom Krieg erschüttert
daily newspaper This brazen action is all the more galling for the newsroom [(nu:zru:m] wire-rim [)waI&r (rIm]
in the US.
weak response from President Trump, whose first , Nachrichtenabteilung , Drahtgestell-

I ASK MYSELF 1/2019 Spotlight 19 

 A DAY IN MY LIFE
Queen of
ingredients
Ein exklusives indisches Restaurant zu führen: das
macht diese Frau mit einem Gespür für die richtigen
Zutaten, wie APARNA PEDNEKAR berichtet.
MEDIUM AUDIO PLUS
H
i! I’m Amninder Sandhu. I’m 38 years
old, and I’m the executive chef of Arth res-
taurant in Mumbai and Pune, India. There
is no such thing as an average day at the
restaurant. It all depends on how much
work I have to do. When I’m launching a
new restaurant, collaborating with other
chefs or working on a concept, things get
really heavy and intense. With anything
that is creative, you tend to take a lot
longer than what you would expect.
When I get home, I barely cook, unless
I have friends over and they emotionally
blackmail me into cooking. When I’m not
at the restaurant, I’m either watching a
movie or — if it’s only for a couple of days
— I like to head out to a new spot and try
the food there. Even the books I read are
all cookbooks.
The challenges of being a professional
chef are the same the world over. When I
started out, if you were a female chef, you
weren’t taken seriously. I was bullied in
the kitchens that I trained in. I was told
that I was small, skinny and was not go-
ing to get anywhere in life. We were al-
ways made to feel that being a chef was
all about big muscles and not about love
and care and an eye for detail.
Today, we have four women amongst a
total of 32 kitchen staff. Things are chang-
ing for the better. I gift all my new recruits
a copy of Tandoor by Ranjit Rai. It’s an old
20  Spotlight 1/2019
book, but it’s one of those rare ones that documents the basics of
Indian cuisine very well — like the construction of a tradition-
al tandoor clay oven, how to season food, how to make a good
chutney and so on.
The concept of Arth is to use ancient Indian cooking tech-
niques. I don’t use any gas in the kitchen. Everything is cooked
on charcoal or on wood, or in a sandpit, where we cook meats
under hot sand. The other thing that we really emphasize is the
use of ingredients that are not necessarily looked at as Indian.
I grew up in Assam, a state in north-east India. My parents
still live there. My childhood memories are of growing up in the
countryside. I was first fascinated by cooking while watching my
uncle, who taught us children how to fish, how to cook the fish
fresh in bamboo over an open fire, and the right way to poach
eggs.
Before starting Arth, I travelled extensively through the states
of Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland and sourced a lot of unusual
ingredients from these areas, like gutti aloo (potatoes the size of
chickpeas), kaji lemon, Manipuri black rice and the leaf of the
Szechuan peppercorn.
My favourite dish at Arth is the raan biryani, which is not
doused in spices, but is very aromatic and fragrant. The leg of
goat is cooked over charcoal for six hours. The name Arth in
Hindi translates as “meaning”, and there is a lot of storytelling
in our food. I like my guests to feel that emotion.
I think Indian food is misrepresented across the world. Only
a small segment of Indian cuisine is known internationally. It is
very diverse, with complicated techniques and elaborate recipes
that vary from north to south, east to west. There is a great need
to make it more fun, to have the whole of India represented on
a menu and to put it out there worldwide. My rule of thumb for
Indian cooking is to hold a particular kind of cuisine to the high-
est standard at which it is cooked in the region.
For example, when I cook seafood, the techniques used in the
southern state of Kerala are my point of reference. When I’m
making a kebab, I’ll think about how someone in the northern
states of Punjab or Delhi would do it. When it comes to desserts,
the Bengalis are my reference.
Fotos: DR; yesfoto, Joesboy, JoKMedia, Coprid, jopelka/iStock.com
blackmail [(blÄkmeIEl] elaborate [i(lÄbEreIt] rule of thumb
, erpressen , raffiniert [)ru:l ev (TVm]
, Faustregel
bully [(bUli] executive [Ig(zekjUtIv]
, mobben , leitend, geschäfts- sandpit [(sÄndpIt]
führend , Sandgrube
charcoal [(tSA:kEUl]
, Holzkohle goat [gEUt] skinny [(skIni]
, Ziege , dünn, mager
clay oven [)kleI (Vv&n]
, Lehmofen, Tonofen head out [hed (aUt] source [sO:s]
, losziehen , beschaffen
douse [daUs]
, einweichen, einlegen poach [pEUtS]
, pochieren
A DAY IN MY LIFE
 Assam,
which is in the
north-east of India,
is where Ms Sandhu
grew up

Ah, pepper!
Amninder
Sandhu likes to
use the leaf of
the Szechuan
peppercorn in
some of her
dishes

Cooking
is a tough
job at the
professional
level
Spices
lend magic to
Indian cuisine,
especially at
Arth

On the road: Loves her

truck driver work: Carrie
Michelle Kitchin Goldberg

Manipuri black
rice:
one of several very
special ingredients
that Amninder
Sandhu carefully
sources
Cooked on charcoal:
at Arth, Ms Sandhu directs everything to be
cooked on coal or wood or in hot sand
22  Spotlight 11/2018 GRAMMAR TALES
 GRAMMAR TALES

Goldi Lox and the three Daves

Erinnern Sie sich an das englische Märchen Goldlöckchen und die drei Bären? Hier stellen wir Ihnen
eine moderne Version vor – zum Schmunzeln und zum Englischlernen. Von DAGMAR TAYLOR
MEDIUM AUDIO

W
e all know at least a them. Big Dave, a gentle bear of a man bandmate [(bÄndmeIt] livelihood [(laIvlihUd]
few fairy tales: Han- and the band’s drummer, passed wind of- UK ifml. , Lebensunterhalt
sel and Gretel, Little ten and loudly. Medium-sized Dave was , Bandmitglied
loads [lEUdz] ifml.
Red Riding Hood or untidy and never put the toilet seat down. bloke [blEUk] UK ifml. , Berge, Unmengen
Sleeping Beauty. The And the bassist, Little Dave, had a foot in- , Kerl, Typ
pass wind [pA:s (wInd]
structure of these tales is familiar to us. fection and had the habit of taking off his boo [bu:] ifml.
They begin with the phrase “Once upon a socks after a gig and using them to rub off , buhen , pupsen

time…” and use repetitive language to cre- the flaky skin between his toes. cushion [(kUS&n] power cut [(paUE kVt]
ate drama: “Grandma, what big teeth you “DAVE!” Goldi would snap, disgusted. , Kissen , Stromausfall
have! Grandma, what big ears you have!” “Oh, yeah, sorry,” Little Dave would say. disgusted [dIs(gVstId] rub off [rVb (Qf]
, angewidert abreiben
We have rewritten 24 famous fairy “Nearly finished.” ,

tales for the 21st century. Each one in-
cludes examples of a specific grammati-
cal structure. This structure is explained
in the notes at the end, where you will also
find some related exercises. This month,
we present a new version of Goldilocks and
the Three Bears, reinvented here as “Goldi
Lox and the three Daves”.
Goldi Lox and the three Daves
Once upon a time in a far-off land, Goldi
Lox and her band, The Three Daves, were
on tour together on a luxury bus. One
night, after a gig, Goldi was freaking out.
“Dave! DAVE!” screamed Goldi.
“What?” shouted the three Daves.
“Who’s been eating my chocolate
again?”
“It wasn’t me,” said Big Dave.
“Not me,” said Medium-sized Dave.
“It definitely wasn’t me,” said Little
Dave. “Anyway, there’s still loads in the
cupboard.”
“That’s not the point,” complained Gol-
di. “Half of it’s gone. I’ve told you before,
my room is OFF LIMITS!”
The three Daves sighed.
Things in the bus were disappearing
Illustration: Sami Viljanto
As well as having to put up with the fairy tale [(feEri teI&l] shrug [SrVg]
, Märchen , mit den Schultern
less-than-ideal living conditions, Goldi
zucken
had been feeling a lot of pressure lately. flaky [fleIki]
She was very aware that the livelihood , hier: schuppig sigh [saI]
, seufzen
of her bandmates and crew depended on flounce [flaUns]
, stolzieren Sleeping Beauty
her, the star. Sometimes, she just wanted
[)sli:pIN (bju:ti]
to give it all up and go back to her job as a freak out [fri:k (aUt] , Dornröschen
ifml.
hairdresser. The band might be successful, , ausflippen, ausrasten snap [snÄp]
but she had no private life and was wor- , schnauzen, blaffen
glare at sb. [gleE]
ried that she’d never be able to find the , jmdn. zornig anstarren wall: drive sb. up the ~
right guy and start a family. [wO:l] ifml.
grin [grIn] , jmdn. auf die Palme
One evening before the gig, Goldi was , grinsen
bringen
particularly stressed.
Little Red Riding Hood
“Dave! DAVE!” screamed Goldi. [)lIt&l red (raIdIN hUd]
“What?” shouted the three Daves. , Rotkäppchen
“Who’s been sitting on my sofa? The
cushions are all on the floor and I can’t
find my favourite blanket!”
The three Daves looked down. Little
Dave shrugged, Medium-sized Dave
shook his head and Big Dave said: “Sorry
Goldi, but we all know that we’re not al-
lowed on your sofa.”
Goldi glared at him and flounced out of
the bus. The Daves followed.
Once on stage, Goldi seemed to relax
and, after the first song, looked round at
the Daves and grinned. She was enjoying

and then reappearing elsewhere. It was
driving Goldi up the wall. The Daves
were getting on her nerves, too. She loved
making music with them, and they were
all good blokes, but she hated living with
herself again. And the Daves were, too.
In the middle of the third song, howev-
er, everything went black. The audience
booed. The band soon found out that the
power cut was citywide. They waited for

GRAMMAR TALES 1/2019 Spotlight 23 

 the power to come back on, but after 15
minutes, security asked everyone to leave.
The band walked back to the coach.
“That’s weird,” said Little Dave.
“What?” asked the others.
“I know I closed all the windows and
that one’s open — look,” said Little Dave.
“Don’t tell me some crazy fan is steal-
ing our belongings to sell on eBay,” com-
plained Goldi. “Should we call security?”
“No, it’s all right,” said Big Dave. “I’ll
go in first.” Slowly, Big Dave opened the
door. There was nothing to be heard from
within. Dave flicked on the light and sig-
nalled to the others to follow him.
“Somebody’s been using my towel!”
said Little Dave, picking it up from the
floor. “And it’s all wet.”
“Somebody’s been drinking my cola!”
said Medium-sized Dave, pointing to-
wards the table. “And they’ve finished it.”
“Somebody’s been using my laptop!”
said Big Dave. “Now the battery’s dead!”
The three Daves suddenly noticed that
Goldi wasn’t with them. They found her
kneeling beside her bed, looking at the
face of a young boy who was fast asleep.
Big Dave wiped his eyes.
Goldi stroked the boy’s hair. “It’s OK.
You’re safe here. We’ll look after you.”
The band members left Goldi’s bed-
room and Goldi softly closed the door.
“God, I’ve been such a cow,” said Goldi.
“I’m so lucky and I’ve been so ungrateful.”
“Are you going to call the police?” asked
Little Dave.
“No,” said Goldi. “The police won’t
What did they say?
We form the present perfect contin-
uous with “have” / “has” + “been” +
“-ing” form of the main verb. We use
this tense to talk about an activity that
started in the past and is still going on
now.
3 hours ago now
I’m working now.
I’ve been working for three hours.
know what to do with him either. The
poor boy looked so scared. Maybe he can
stay with us and help out with the equip-
ment or something. And we can carefully
find out from the authorities how we can
best help him.”
So that’s what they did. And after a
while, Goldi was even allowed to adopt
the boy. Goldi never complained again,
and they all lived happily ever after.
Exercise 1
Write down all the examples of the
present perfect continuous in the
story.
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________
___________________________________

⋅
He was clutching a ragged-looking bear.
“This explains everything,” whispered How long has he been living in the

Goldi. “This boy has been sleeping in my
bed, and he’s still here.”
The boy suddenly opened his eyes, and
as soon as he realized that the four band
members were all staring at him, he sat
upright. With a terrified look on his face,
he tried to get out of bed. Goldi put her
hand on the boy’s shoulder and, smiling,
⋅⋅
bus?
He’s been living in the bus for days.
Things have been going missing for
days.
We also use this tense for an activity
that has recently finished or just fin-
ished, but that has a connection with
Exercise 2
Match the sentences.
A. Who’s been drinking my cola?
B. Who’s been sitting on my sofa?
C. Who’s been using my laptop?

⋅
gently pushed him back down. the present: D. Who’s been using my towel?
“Do you think he’s a refugee?” whis- Somebody’s been using my towel! E. Who’s been eating my chocolate?

⋅
pered Little Dave. And it’s all wet.
“Mama? Papa?” asked Goldi. This boy has been sleeping in my 1. The battery’s dead!
The boy seemed to understand and bed, and he’s still here. 2. It’s all wet!
drew a finger across his throat. Then, 3. The bottle’s half empty!
with the same finger, he pointed at Goldi, 4. There’s hardly any left!
“Peng! Peng!” he said, and then fell back 5. The cushions are on the floor!
on to the pillow and, hiding his face, he let
out a single sob.

Answers
clutch [klVtS] kneel [ni:&l] sob [sQb] weird [wIEd] ifml. A–3; B–5; C–1; D–2; E–4
, umklammern, , knien , Schluchzer , seltsam
2.
festhalten
pillow [(pIlEU] stroke [strEUk] whisper [(wIspE] This boy has been sleeping in my bed, and he’s still here.
coach [kEUtS] UK , Kissen , streicheln , flüstern Somebody’s been using my laptop!
, (Reise)Bus
ragged [(rÄgId] ungrateful [Vn(greItf&l]
Somebody’s been drinking my cola!
flick sth. on [flIk (Qn] zerlumpt, abgenutzt , undankbar
Somebody’s been using my towel!
, Who’s been sitting on my sofa?
, etw. anknipsen
scared [(skeEd] upright [(VpraIt] Who’s been eating my chocolate again?
verängstigt , aufrecht
1.
,

24  Spotlight 1/2019 GRAMMAR TALES

Sprachreisen mit
Südenglands grüne Küste

Reisen ins Herz

Ihrer Lieblingssprache!
Die neuen Sprachreisen von Spotlight und ZEIT REISEN stehen ganz
im Geist des Lernens mit allen Sinnen. Genießen Sie mit anderen
sprachbegeisterten Reisenden bei einer Vielzahl von Aktivitäten
die Kultur und raue Schönheit Südenglands, tauchen Sie entspannt
ein in den Alltag und Zauber einer Region. Wir geben der Sprache
Raum – ganz ungezwungen beim geführten Besuch prächtiger
Landschaftsgärten und bunter Fischerdörfer, beim Kochkurs eines
Masterchefs oder bei der gemeinsamen Entdeckungstour mit dem
Spotlight-Kolumnisten Colin Beaven durch Exeter. Ohne jeden Stun-
denplan genießen Sie Begegnungen und Gespräche und perfektio-
nieren Ihre Sprachkenntnisse ganz nebenbei. Seien Sie dabei!
Termine: 26.05. –01.06.19 / 04.08. –10.08.19
Preis: ab 1.640 €

Neu!
Spotlig
ht-
Reisen
2019
Entdecken Sie unsere neuen Reisen:
Land, Leute & Kultur – Englisch lernen ganz nebenbei
Individuell für Sie gestaltetes Reiseprogramm
Persönliches Treffen mit Colin Beaven (Spotlight)
Mit bilingualem Reisebegleiter

Jetzt buchen: Tel. 040 / 63 79 96 58

oder unter spotlight-reisen.de
 AMERICAN LIFE

How to catch
a mouse
Unsere Kolumnistin hat ein Mausproblem – und
ihre ganz speziellen Methoden, um es zu lösen.
MEDIUM US PLUS

A
s a single woman, I have found that there are numer-
ous advantages to living alone: I can play my music
as loudly as I want; I can shout at the television when
some politician makes a stupid remark — which
seems to happen with increasing frequency these
days; I don’t have to let anyone know where I’m go-
ing when I leave the house or when I plan to return.
Now, though, I am no longer living alone. I have a
housemate. In fact, I have several housemates. They
don’t pay any rent, but they are as quiet as mice. In
fact, that’s just what they are.
When I first noticed signs of mice in my garage, I
was not too concerned. I thought there wasn’t much
damage to be done in there. But when they moved
into my living space, that was going too far. The first
sign of them was a chewed-up roll of toilet paper in
my bathroom. If they were that close to my bedroom,
I thought, how long would it take before they became
comfortable about visiting me in my bed at night?
This will never do!
I immediately went out to buy mousetraps. There
is a wide variety of these, I discovered. There is the
old-fashioned wooden kind, which I don’t much like.
It’s not that I care what they do to the mice, but I do
past two weeks using gourmet peanut butter. I have
been far less successful, which he says is because of
the cheaper peanut butter I’m using. Wow! Who
knew that mice could be so picky?
That leads me to the next problem. When I check
my traps, I often find that the peanut butter has been
licked clean, but there is no mouse in the trap. So it
seems that I not only have a smartphone and a smart
TV, but also very smart mice.
One friend makes his own trap by putting water in
a bucket and building a ramp up to the bucket’s rim.
He then puts a rod through a soda bottle and smears
peanut butter on the far end of the bottle. The rod
stretches across the bucket. The mouse goes up the
ramp and steps on the bottle, which starts spinning,
depositing the mouse in the water below. Now, that’s
what I call inventing a better mousetrap!
bait [beIt] picky [pIki]
, Köder , wählerisch
chewed-up [(tSu:d Vp] rim [rIm]
, zerkaut, angefressen , Rand
crunchy [(krVntSi] rod [rA:d]
Fotos: Oktay Ortakcioglu, Zoran Kolundzija/iStock.com

, hier: mit Erdnussstückchen , Stab, Stange

care what they might do to my finger if I set the trap far end [(fA:r end] smear [smI&r]
wrongly. There are also the sticky traps: The mouse , hinteres Ende , schmieren
walks onto it and is stuck for life. Much as I hate these housemate [(haUsmeIt] snap trap [(snÄp trÄp]
mice, I don’t want to be inhumane. So I decided to , Mitbewohner(in) , Schlagfalle
GINGER KUENZEL
is a freelance
use the plastic snap traps, which offer an instant kill. inhumane [)Inhju(meIn] spin [spIn]
writer who lived The next question was what to use for bait. I , unmenschlich , drehen
in Munich for 20 learned from my internet research that mice love instant [(InstEnt] sticky [(stIki]
years. She now
peanut butter. I wasn’t sure whether they prefer , sofortig, augenblicklich , Klebe-
calls a small
town in upstate crunchy or smooth, but I went with smooth. My mousetrap [(maUstrÄp]
New York home. cousin, who lives nearby, has caught 34 mice in the ,Mausefalle

26  Spotlight 1/2019 AMERICAN LIFE

Das perfekte Geschenk:

Ein ganzes Jahr Freude

an Sprachen schenken.

Zum
Sprachmagazin
6 Monate
Audio-Trainer
GRATIS!

Sprachmagazin als Geschenk-Abo

12 Monate Laufzeit und
6 Monate Audio-Trainer gratis dazu
In 6 Sprachen erhältlich

Schenken Sie jetzt:

spotlight-verlag.de/weihnachten
Tel. +49 (0)89 / 121 407 10

14 x Sprachmagazin: Print oder Digital: € 110,60 / SFR 144,20

8 x Business Spotlight: Print oder Digital: € 103,20 / SFR 134,00

Nach dem ersten Bezugsjahr endet das Abo automatisch. Das Aktionsangebot gilt bis 31.01.2019.
Das perfekte Geschenk für:
Liebe Freunde
Die Familie
Bekannte aus aller Welt
Machen Sie sich und anderen eine
Freude und bestellen Sie noch Zum
Sprachmagazin
heute das Geschenk-Abo für ein Jahr:
6 Monate
6 Monate lang gibt es den Audio-
Audio-Trainer
Trainer gratis zum Magazin. GRATIS!

Spotlight Business Spotlight Deutsch perfekt

Einfach besser Englisch Einfach besser Business-Englisch Einfach besser Deutsch
Weltsprache und Lebensgefühl Sprachtraining und interkulturelles Kulturen entdecken und
in einem. Know-how für mehr Erfolg. Menschen verstehen.

ADESSO Écoute ECOS

Einfach besser Italienisch Einfach besser Französisch Einfach besser Spanisch
Lebensart und Sprachgenuss Savoir-vivre für Sprachliebhaber Mit einer Sprache 21 Länder
in einem. und Genießer. kennenlernen.

Schenken Sie jetzt:

spotlight-verlag.de/weihnachten
Tel. +49 (0)89 / 121 407 10
 PRESS GALLERY

Vanishing insects:
a silent threat
Das dramatische globale Insektensterben hat gefährliche Auswirkungen auf alle anderen
Spezies, inklusive uns Menschen.

ADVANCED AUDIO

O
ne of the classic mo- On the island of Puerto Rico, a rain- abundance [E(bVndEns] inconsequential
ments in the Simpsons forest ... shows a terrifying drop in the , Fülle, Menge [In)kQnsI(kwenS&l]
, belanglos, unbedeu-
comes when the ve- abundance and variety of insects. ... The anchorman [(ÄNkEmÄn] tend
nal TV anchorman same trend is apparent in German nature , Moderator
intricate web
Kent Brockman sees reserves, where the number of insects ap- ant [Änt] [)IntrIkEt (web]
on his screen an ant pears to have dropped by about 75%; and , Ameise
, kompliziertes Geflecht
crawling across a these are ... places deliberately preserved bleak [bli:k] latitude [(lÄtItju:d]
lens and assumes at ... from human intervention. The collapse , öde, trostlos
, Breitengrad
once that this is ... a giant alien descend- of insect life is obvious to anyone who contend with sth. nourish [(nVrIS]
[kEn(tend wID]
ing from space that will become one of looks in Britain... Car windscreens and , ernähren
, mit etw. fertigwerden
“our new insect overlords”... The joke headlights are no longer thickly speckled overlord [(EUvElO:d]
hinges on the idea that in real life ants after any long journey. crawl [krO:l] , Oberherr
, krabbeln
are inconsequential compared with hu- The causes of this global decline seem pollinate [(pQlEneIt]
descend [di(send]
man beings. The world, we feel, could to vary with latitude. ... In the temperate , bestäuben
, herunterkommen
get on perfectly well without them... regions insect populations are more ad- speckled [(spek&ld]
exploitation
...Insects form the greatest part of ani- aptable to fluctuations in temperature, [)eksplOI(teIS&n]
, gesprenkelt
mal life on Earth, and almost every other but insects must contend with the mass , Nutzung, Verwertung temperate [(tempErEt]
kind of animal depends on them — direct- use of pesticides across the bleak mono- headlight [(hedlaIt]
, gemäßigt

ly or indirectly. They pollinate plants and cultures of industrial agriculture, as well , Autoscheinwerfer venal [(vi:n&l]
nourish animals, especially birds. In turn, as the generalised pollution of the air , korrupt
hinge on sth. [(hIndZ Qn]
everything that relies on these plants or and water. In the rainforest, where the , hier: sich auf etw. windscreen
Foto: enviromantic/iStock.com

animals depends on the insects. And the
whole intricate web of interdependent
exploitation is collapsing, and has been
for decades. We ourselves are part of this
web, in the long run quite as much de-
pendent as exploitative.
pattern of losses across species and over stützen, sich um etw. [(wIndskri:n] UK
drehen , Windschutzscheibe
time shows that there must be some sin-
gle vast factor acting on the whole eco-
system, it appears that the main driver is
simply the climate catastrophe. ...
© Guardian News & Media 2018

PRESS GALLERY 1/2019 Spotlight 29 

 Fotos: XXX

30  Spotlight x/2019 RUBRIKTITEL

 TRAVEL

London
walks:
five classic
sights
Haben Sie schon einmal zu Fuß
die britische Hauptstadt erkundet?
LORRAINE MALLINDER führt Sie
auf einer interessanten und vergnüglichen
Tour zu Londons berühmtesten
Sehenswürdigkeiten.
MEDIUM AUDIO PLUS

I
t’s early morning on London’s Circle Line.
The Underground train is packed with
people on their way to their jobs in the
financial district, known as the “Square
Mile”. Christened Londinium by the
Romans around AD 43, this is where the story of
London begins, so it seems a good starting point
for a tour of the city’s most iconic sights.
Sipping a takeaway tea, my arm brushing
against a copy of the Financial Times held wide open
by the man on the seat next to me, I have one ques-
tion on my mind: Can I do it all in one day? Is it
possible to take in a couple of millennia worth of
drama spread out over six miles or so by supper-
time?
I exit the train at Tower Hill, on the edge of
Londinium, where some of the last fragments
of the ancient city wall, a two-mile barrier built
around the settlement to keep out the Picts, can
still be seen. Given the amount of walking ahead
of me, I’m thankful for the breakfast of eggs and
sausages I had at my Airbnb apartment.

christen [(krIs&n] iconic: the most ~ sights

Illustrationen: Martin Haake

, taufen [aI(kQnIk]
, hier: die bekanntesten
copy [(kQpi] Wahrzeichen
, Exemplar
Fotos: XXX

sip [sIp]
, in kleinen Schlucken trinken

RUBRIKTITEL 1/2019 Spotlight 31 

 adultery [E(dVltEri] maze [meIz]
, Ehebruch , Labyrinth

alleyway [(ÄliweI] miscarriage

, Gasse [mIs(kÄrIdZ]
, Fehlgeburt
behead [bi(hed]
, enthaupten raven [(reIv&n]
, Rabe
bow [baU]
, sich beugen reign [reIn]
, Regierungszeit
claim sth. [kleIm]
, auf etw. Anspruch seize [si:z]
erheben , ergreifen, sich
bemächtigen
cursed [(k§:st]
, verflucht supreme [su(pri:m]
, oberste(r, s)
fate [feIt]
, Schicksal trading hall
[(treIdIN hO:l]
fortress [(fO:trEs] , Börse
, Festung
treason [(tri:z&n]
gemstone [(dZemstEUn] Hochverrat
9 a.m. — The Tower of London The Jewel House, which houses the , Edelstein
,

My first stop is the Tower of London, a 23,578 royal gemstones, is also worth
powerful symbol of this city’s dark, mys- a visit. Of note is the Koh-i-noor, also
terious past. The fortress, with its prison known as the “mountain of light”, pos-
and Jewel House, was built by Norman sibly the world’s most controversial dia-
king William the Conqueror in the 11th mond, seized after the Brits invaded the
century. Legend has it that, should the Kingdom of Punjab in 1849, during the
ravens living on the grounds ever leave, reign of Queen Victoria. That stone is
Britain will fall. Thankfully, the black birds now part of The Queen Mother’s Crown,
are still around, kept on site by daily meals although India, Iran, Afghanistan and Pa-
of raw meat and blood biscuits. kistan have all claimed ownership.
Historically, the Tower has been
guarded by Beefeaters, so named be- 10.30 a.m. — Walk
cause they used to be paid partly in beef. With a head full of history, I enter the
I find one standing just inside the Tow- heart of Londinium, today a maze of
er’s grounds, dressed in his blue and red streets and alleyways filled with churches,
uniform. He is entertaining a small crowd grand old buildings and modern archi-
with tales of the unfortunates who came tecture. I go straight to Bank junction,
to a terrible end on Tower Hill, beheaded the site of the majestic trio of Mansion
for the entertainment of onlookers. House, the home and office of the Mayor
Nobles were not immune, as the exam- of London; the Royal Exchange, formerly
ple of 16th-century statesman Sir Thomas a trading hall, now a luxurious shopping
More shows. On the grounds that it broke centre; and the Bank of England.
Catholic Church rules, More opposed
Henry VIII’s divorce from his first wife,
Catherine of Aragon, who had not borne
the king any surviving sons. The king
promptly declared himself supreme head
of a new Church of England. More’s refus-
al to bow cost him his head. Four centu-
ries later, he was declared a Catholic saint.
Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife
(out of a total of six), met the same fate as
More. After giving birth to a daughter, she
suffered several miscarriages. Upon hear-
ing that one of these would have been a
boy, the king became convinced that the
Fotos: XXX Martin Haake

marriage was cursed, and he had Boleyn

beheaded on charges of adultery and trea-
son. Her daughter, however, would go on
Illustrationen:

to become one of England’s most iconic

monarchs: Elizabeth I.

32  Spotlight 1/2019 TRAVEL

 adversity [Ed(v§:sEti] quirk [kw§:k]
, Widrigkeit, Not , Eigenheit
The Bank of England, the nation’s taking in the stonework and the mosaics
central bank, is known as the “Old Lady between the arches. apparition [)ÄpE(rIS&n] resolve [ri(zQlv]
, Erscheinung , Entschlossenheit
of Threadneedle Street”. The nickname Above me, I hear people talking to each
comes from a 1797 cartoon showing the other through the walls of the Whisper- arch [A:tS] shingle bank
, Gewölbe, Bogen [(SINg&l bÄNk]
prime minister of the day wooing an ing Gallery. This famous quirk is pro- , Kiesufer
belt out [belt (aUt]
old lady who is wearing a dress made of duced by the curve of the dome’s walls,
, schmettern slay [sleI]
banknotes. His true intention is to get which carries the sound all the way round. , töten, erschlagen
billion [(bIljEn]
hold of the chest on which she is sitting, The steps leading to the outside Gold- stroll [strEUl]
, Milliarde(n)
symbolizing the nation’s reserves of gold. en Gallery, near the seven-tonne ball and , Spaziergang
burst [(b§:st]
To think that I am now standing on those cross at the very top of the cathedral, take-no-prisoners
, (zer)platzen
reserves, which are among the world’s would test the fittest. But bursting lungs [teIk nEU (prIzEnEz]
chest [tSest] kompromisslos
largest. are quickly forgotten once you see the , Truhe
,

I nip down Walbrook Street, past the
£1 billion headquarters of news giant
Bloomberg. Seven metres below is the
London Mithraeum, the remains of an
ancient Roman temple to Mithras, a mys-
terious bull-slaying god.
11.30 a.m. — St Paul’s Cathedral
Walking down Cannon Street, the dome
of St Paul’s Cathedral comes into view.
This is the soul of London, depicted in
many a painting, rising from the river fog
like a ghostly apparition. Built to replace
the original medieval cathedral, which
had been destroyed in the Great Fire of
London of 1666, this Baroque beauty was
once considered vulgar.
If there’s anything St Paul’s stands
for, though, it is British resolve in the
face of adversity — especially during the
1940–41 Blitz, when the dome was hit by
a Luftwaffe bomb. Aware of its symbolic
power, wartime leader Winston Churchill
ordered that it be saved “at all costs”.
The cathedral’s interior is a dream. I
find myself beneath the dome, bathed in
sunlight that is streaming in from above,
panoramic vistas over the shining waters trestle table
mic [maIk] ifml.
of the Thames to the south and over the , Mikro
[(tres&l )teIb&l]
, Tapeziertisch
crop of new buildings like the Gherkin,
nickname [(nIkneIm] walkway [(wO:kweI]
the Walkie Talkie and the Cheese Grater , Spitzname , Fußweg
to the east.
nip [nIp] ifml. woo [wu:]
, flitzen , umwerben
12.30 p.m. — Walk
From St Paul’s, it’s a short stroll down
the walkway to the Millennium Bridge.
About midway across, I hear a strong fe-
male voice and wonder if there might be
some big celebration taking place. It’s a
surprise, therefore, to find a lone girl with
a guitar and mic belting out songs outside
the Tate Modern.
Emily Lee is her name. She has a won-
derful voice and a take-no-prisoners way
of performing.
“She’s good,” says a woman next to me.
I continue westwards along the shingle
banks, where locals walk their dogs, pass-
ing the National Theatre and the book
market on trestle tables beneath Water-
loo Bridge.
On Westminster Bridge, I stop to take
in the Palace of Westminster and its icon-
ic clock tower on the north side housing

TRAVEL 1/2019 Spotlight 33 

 coronation grit [grIt]
[)kQrE(neIS&n] , Mut, Charakterstärke
, Krönung
hustler [(hVslE]
defy [di(faI] , Gauner(in)
, herausfordern, trotzen
iconic [aI(kQnIk]
dingy [(dIndZi] , symbolträchtig
, schäbig, düster
oak panelling
distract [dI(strÄkt] [(EUk )pÄn&lIN]
, ablenken , Eichenvertäfelung
glory [(glO:ri] scam [skÄm] ifml.
, Ruhm, Pracht , Betrug, Schwindel

Gothic Revival shuffle [(SVf&l]

[)gQTIk ri(vaIv&l] , mischen, umstellen
, Neogotik
stained-glass
grandeur [(grÄndZE] [)steInd (glA:s]
, Herrlichkeit, Größe , Buntglas-
grime [graIm]
, Schmutz, Dreck

Big Ben. But I’m distracted by a small
crowd that has gathered round a hustler
shuffling cups over a ball. “Place a bet,”
he shouts, holding up several £50 notes.
One woman wins, and arguing breaks out
among the others. I notice the way they
talk, as if reading from a script. I can smell
the scam a mile off. It’s somehow amusing
that all this is happening in the shadow of
the “Mother of Parliaments”.
This is truly London, in all its grit,
grime, glory and grandeur.
2.15 p.m. — Westminster
Instantly recognizable, the iconic Palace
of Westminster is a fantastic piece of
19th-century Gothic Revival architec-
ture overlooking the Thames. It contains
son of William the Conqueror. It has an
other-worldly atmosphere. Light filters
through the stained-glass windows by
the steps leading into St Stephen’s Hall,
where statues of Parliament’s most fa-
mous speakers stand facing each other,
watched by the early kings and queens of
England set in the hall’s four corners.
On one wall, I spy a painting of Sir
Thomas More defying a prominent car-
dinal of the day. Twelve years later, More
lost his head for defying the king.
I’ve seen the House of Commons, the
lower house of elected members, with its
green leather seats and oak panelling, so
many times on the television, but it feels
smaller and somehow dingier in real life.
Even empty, the air is thick with intrigue.
Illustrationen: Martin Haake

the remains of the original 11th-century
palace, destroyed by two fires, in 1512 and
1834, and the two Houses of Parliament.
Westminster Hall, the oldest part of the
complex, was built in 1097 by William II,
Outside again, I cross the road to West-
minster’s Gothic sister, Westminster Ab-
bey. Since the crowning of William the
Conqueror in 1066, the abbey has been
the location of every royal coronation and

34  Spotlight 1/2019 TRAVEL


many royal funerals and weddings. Many
of British history’s biggest celebrities are
buried here, including Queen Elizabeth
I, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.
I’ve come for a quick look at The
Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Galleries, a
secret space — the triforium — housed
high above the abbey floor. Hidden from
public view for more than 700 years, it
now displays artefacts from the abbey’s
history, including a fascinating collec-
tion of wooden mannequins that were
dressed to look like the dead sovereigns
at their royal funeral processions. Going
up the newly built Weston Tower to the
triforium, there are incredible views of
the Palace of Westminster.
3.45 p.m. — Buckingham Palace
I follow Birdcage Walk along beautiful
St James’s Park to Buckingham Palace,
the biggest attraction of them all. As usu-
al, the crowds are pressed up against the
gates of the queen’s home. You can tell
if she’s at home by the flag flying above
the palace: the Royal Standard if she’s in
residence, and the Union Jack if she’s else-
where. Of course, there’s also the possi-
bility of a chance sighting on that famous
balcony, but don’t get your hopes up.
The Queen’s Gallery, next door to the
palace, shows works from the Royal Col-
lection all year round. I find a triptych by
Liverpool artists the Singh Twins, show-
ing the influence of India on British cul-
ture. Among the cast of characters, I’m
touched to find Duleep Singh, the last
Maharaja of Punjab, a tragic figure from
Britain’s colonial history.
Kidnapped by the British at the age of
11, after his kingdom had been annexed to
British India, Singh was raised as a Brit. At
the age of 15, he was received by Queen
Victoria at Buckingham Palace. It is said
TRAVEL
artefact [(A:tIfÄkt] mount [maUnt]
, Artefakt, ein von ,auf die Beine stellen
that the queen showed him the Koh-i- Menschen erzeugter
noor diamond, the very same one that is onlooker [(Qn)lUkE]
Gegenstand
, Zuschauer(in)
now in the Tower of London. Everyone bated: to wait with ~
paving slab
waited with bated breath as he walked breath [(beItId]
[(peIvIN slÄb] UK
to the window and held it up to the light. , gespannt warten
, Gehwegplatte
There was a collective sigh of relief when beep [bi:p]
resign [ri(zaIn]
he handed it back, for that diamond was , Piepston
, zurücktreten
rightfully his. It belonged to him. burp [b§:p] ifml.
sovereign [(sQvrIn]
Later in life, Duleep tried to return to , Rülpser
, Herrscher(in),
India to mount a rebellion against the entranced [In(trA:nst] Monarch(in)
, verzaubert, gebannt
British Empire. But he failed and died a suffragette [)sVfrE(dZet]
lonely death in Paris. One of his daugh- funeral [(fju:n&rEl] , Frauenrechtlerinnen-
, Beerdigung
ters, Princess Sophia, went on to become upper crust
a leading figure in the suffragette move- in residence [)VpE (krVst] ifml.
[In (rezIdEns] , Oberschicht
ment that would win women the vote.
, hier: anwesend
mannequin [(mÄnIkIn]
5 p.m. — Trafalgar Square , Puppe
I stroll down Pall Mall towards Trafalgar
midst: in the ~ of sth.
Square. Ever since I first saw it on the [mIdst]
Monopoly board as a child, I’ve loved , mitten in etw.
the name of this street. It comes from a
17th-century ball game called paille-maille
that used to be played by the upper crust
in St James’s Park.
Trafalgar Square is the place to come
for colour and characters, gathered
around Nelson’s Column with its statue
of Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died in
the midst of victory against the French
and Spanish navies at the Battle of Trafal-
gar in 1805. I find artists doing drawings
on the paving slabs. There’s a man with a
mic, a sort of one-man orchestra making a
series of beeps, beats and what appear to
be burps, who has onlookers entranced.
I make for the National Portrait Gal-
lery, located just round the corner from
the square. On the second floor, I find
a worried-looking Winston Churchill,
painted in 1916 by Sir William Orpen. In
1915, Churchill had resigned, after send-
ing 46,000 Allied soldiers to their deaths
in a catastrophic campaign to take the
Dardanelles Straits from the Ottoman
1/2019 Spotlight 35 
 barely [(beEli] impact [(ImpÄkt]
kaum , Einfluss
Empire. Under investigation, he seems If you go ,

choke [tSEUk] treat [tri:t]

emptied of life force. “It’s not the portrait
, sich verschlucken , Vergnügen, Genuss
of a man, it’s the portrait of a soul,” he Stay
would later say. It wasn’t until 1917 that www.airbnb.com
his name was cleared.
I stay until closing time, studying the Eat and drink
portraits on show. The National Portrait The Wahaca Southbank
Gallery is a treat, giving an intimate per- Experiment:
spective of the story of Britain. Mexican food in a recycled
shipping container in the
6.30 p.m. — Walk and a drink Southbank Centre
From Piccadilly, it’s a short walk to The www.wahaca.co.uk/locations/
Ritz, one of the city’s grandest hotels. southbank
Close your eyes for a moment and im- The Rivoli Bar:
agine a 19-year-old Princess Elizabeth, the Inventive cocktails in Art Deco
future queen, doing the conga through surroundings at The Ritz
the lobby on 8 May 1945, celebrating the www.theritzlondon.com/dine-with-us/
end of the Second World War. rivoli-bar
I take a seat in the Art Deco surround-
ings of the Rivoli Bar. Deputy manager See and do
Andrea Caputo serves me a gin cocktail. Tower of London
Looking at the menu, I almost choke on www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london
an olive as I find the bar’s most expensive St Paul’s Cathedral
cocktail: a £500 Sazerac made with cognac www.stpauls.co.uk
that is over a century old. “Does anyone Palace of Westminster:
ever order this?” I ask Andrea. Buy tickets from Portcullis House
He smiles: “Maybe a couple of times.” at 1 Parliament Street on the west-
I feel I’ve earned my aperitif. It seems ern side of Westminster Bridge
as if my head had been so full of the sto- www.parliament.uk/visiting
ries I picked up along the way that I bare- Westminster Abbey
ly noticed the walk. Such is the impact of www.westminster-abbey.org/visit-us
this city on the imagination. Queen’s Gallery
Already, I’m looking forward to my www.royalcollection.org.uk
next visit. National Portrait Gallery
www.npg.org.uk

Fotos: XXX Martin Haake

Illustrationen:

36  Spotlight 1/2019 TRAVEL


LEARNING
IN THE HEART OF LONDON
WIR FEIERN 450 AUSGABEN VON SPOTLIGHT –
UND SIE KÖNNEN EINE GANZ BESONDERE SPRACHREISE GEWINNEN!
T
o celebrate the 450th issue of Spotlight,
we are offering a place on a one-week
language course worth €1,760 at
OISE English Language School in the heart of
London.
OISE was founded in 1973 by Till Gins in
Oxford. He still runs OISE, which now has
schools around England as well as in the US,
France and Spain. The school offers a compre-
hensive programme of courses and adheres
to the principle of small class sizes, optional
individual instruction and the opportunity to
orient the course to individual participants.
The concept of OISE is to help learners de-
velop confidence in their language ability and
to express themselves clearly in any situation.
Fotos: OISE; mattjeacock/iStock.com
Participants receive 30 hours of instruction
per week — with classes organized into small
groups of four or six students. Learners’ goals
are at the heart of the tuition, and courses are
designed to meet these needs, using learning
ANZEIGE
Capital feeling: OISE
English classes focus
on each student’s goals
COMPETITION
material that sustains engagement and adhere to sth. [Ed(hIE tE]
focus. Participants in each group share , sich an etw. halten
the same level of English, so the teacher is comprehensive
able to provide the best possible support. [)kQmprI(hensIv]
Placement with a host family gives learn- , umfassend, umfangreich
ers an additional chance to improve their host [hEUst]
, Gast-
English — while also providing them with
the opportunity to explore the wonderful participant [pA:(tIsIpEnt]
, Teilnehmer(in)
city of London.
sustain [sE(steIn]
, aufrechterhalten
tuition [tju(IS&n]
, Unterricht
The winner will receive a one-week language course
worth €1,760 as well as half-board accommodation
(breakfast and evening meal) with a host family.
To take part, go to www.spotlight-online.de/London
until 31 January 2019. You will find the details of the
competition there, as well as the terms and conditions.
(Course participation starting at 16 years of age. Not
included: flights, transfer to host family, lunch, tickets for
public transport.)
Find out more about OISE at www.oise.de
 SHORT STORY

The agent and the poet —

Ms Winslow investigated
CHAPTER 1

Ms Winslow wird von ihrer Nichte Lucy in der kleinen deutschen Stadt
Heroldstein zu Besuch erwartet. An dem Tag, an dem sie ankommen soll, taucht ein geheimnisvoller
Mann vor Lucys Haustür auf. Von JAMES SCHOFIELD
MEDIUM AUDIO

L
ucy Tischler poured milk into her cof-
fee and settled herself in an armchair
with her book, while Trotsky, the dog,
lay down at her feet. She had four hours
before she had to collect the twins,
Roland and Freddie, from kindergarten, and she in-
tended to spend them reading. The book had been a
Christmas present from her aunt, Dorothy Winslow,
and as she was arriving in Heroldstein that evening,
Lucy was keen to finish it.
She was concentrating so hard that she didn’t hear
the doorbell when it first rang, and it was only when
Trotsky started barking that she realized there was
somebody outside. She opened the door and found,
standing on the doorstep, a tall, elderly man with a
moustache. He wore a well-cut suit and had a mili-
tary air to him that was unusual for Heroldstein.
“Mrs Tischler?” he asked, bowing slightly. “My
name is Renno. I used to know your aunt Dorothy
Winslow quite well. I understand she will be visit-
ing soon and, as I was passing this way, I thought I
could drop off something for her. Would you mind?”
He held out a large envelope that seemed to contain
a book. “It comes from an acquaintance of hers who
died recently. I was asked to pass it on to her.”
Lucy was more than surprised. “I’m terribly sorry,
could you give me your name again?” she asked in
confusion.
“Renno, Colonel Lukas Renno. But don’t let me
disturb you, Mrs Tischler. If I may just leave the pack-
age with you...” He handed it over and was about to
turn away when Lucy caught him by the arm.
“No, no, Mr... Colonel Renno, please. Excuse me.
It’s lovely to meet a friend of Aunt Dorothy’s. Come
in and have a cup of tea or coffee.”
He hesitated for a moment. “Are you sure?”
“Please,” begged Lucy. “Aunt Dorothy would never
forgive me if I let you go.”
“Well, that would never do. Thank you.”
He followed her into the kitchen, and as she
made some more coffee, he complimented her on
the house, admired the pictures and was generally
very pleasant. His English was excellent, but Lucy
couldn’t quite place his accent, so when they were fi-
nally both sitting at the kitchen table, she asked him
where he was from.
Illustrationen: Sunshine vector, Olesssia/Shutterstock.com

acquaintance air [eE] bow [baU] moustache [mE(stA:S] settle oneself

[E(kweIntEns] , Auftreten , sich verbeugen , Schnurrbart [(set&l wVn)self]
, Bekanntschaft , sich niederlassen
armchair [(A:mtSeE] keen: be ~ to do sth. pour [pO:]
admire [Ed(maIE] , Sessel [ki:n] UK , gießen, einschenken
, bewundern , unbedingt etw. tun
bark [bA:k] wollen
, bellen

38  Spotlight 1/2019 SHORT STORY


“Estonia,” he said. “I knew Dorothy when she was
working at the British consulate in Tallinn back in
1987.”
Lucy pricked up her ears. Her aunt was always very
vague about the work she had done while she was in
the diplomatic service. This was an opportunity to
learn a little bit more.
“Oh, yes,” she said. “I remember now. She said
something about organizing cultural exchanges
there.”
The Colonel laughed. “Cultural exchanges? In a
way, that’s true, I suppose.”
“Yes, I think that’s what she said. What was your
connection to her?”
“I was chief of police in Tallinn at the time, and
your aunt was somebody I had to keep a very careful
eye on.”
Lucy nearly spilt her coffee at that point. So she
left her cup on the table as the Colonel continued
his story.
“Back then,” he began, “Estonia was still a Soviet
republic. But when Gorbachev let the glasnost genie
out of the bottle in the 1980s, the whole USSR began
to change. By the late 1980s, some people in Moscow
were beginning to think it would be a good idea to
try to put the genie back, with tanks and guns if ne-
cessary. Because of my position in the police, I knew
of these discussions. I wanted to make sure Moscow
found no excuse to send troops across the border,
because there would have been terrible bloodshed.
So I tried to make sure that any Estonian nationalist
troublemakers were safely locked up. My big fear was
that some hothead would get hold of a gun and shoot
a Russian soldier...”
He had met Dorothy at a reception in the consu-
late at the beginning of her stay in Estonia.
“I was suspicious of your aunt because she was
too good for the job that she was doing. Here was
this clever, attractive woman in her forties, and ap-
parently the best the British could do with her was
to send her to Tallinn to arrange poetry readings or
help local theatre groups put on performances of
Shakespeare or Oscar Wilde. But although I had her
followed and we listened to her phone calls, noth-
ing suggested she was a risk. So after about three
months, I reduced the surveillance and just kept an
eye on her myself. She was always a very charming
and persuasive companion, and I have no idea how
many tickets she got me to buy to see local amateur
theatrical groups. It seemed to me that she could be a
useful channel to the British Foreign Office, so I told
her my fears about the situation. Normally, I would
never have done such a thing, but I must confess, Mrs
Tischler, I had a soft spot for your aunt — maybe even
more than that.”
He poured himself another cup of coffee.
“So you can imagine my disappointment when
Dorothy fell in love with a local poet.”
The story continues on the next page.

apparently [E(pÄrEntli] confess [kEn(fes] hothead [(hQthed] soft spot [(sQft spQt] suppose [sE(pEUz]
, anscheinend, scheinbar , gestehen , Hitzkopf , Faible, Schwäche , annehmen, vermuten
bloodshed [(blVdSed] Estonia [e(stEUniE] persuasive [pE(sweIsIv] spill [spIl] surveillance [sE(veIlEns]
, Blutvergießen , Estland , überzeugend , verschütten , Überwachung

companion genie [(dZi:ni] prick: ~ up one’s ears suggest [sE(dZest] tank [tÄNk]
[kEm(pÄnjEn] , Flaschengeist [prIk] , nahelegen , Panzer
, Gesellschaft , die Ohren spitzen

SHORT STORY 1/2019 Spotlight 39 

 SHORT STORY

The agent and the poet —

Ms Winslow investigated
CHAPTER 2

Ms Winslows geheimnisvolle Laufbahn im britischen Außenministerium

kommt langsam ans Tageslicht und – noch spannender – eine mögliche Liebesaffäre.
Von JAMES SCHOFIELD
MEDIUM AUDIO

T
he poet — Viktor Laur — had been a
professor of linguistics at the Univer-
sity of Tartu until he was reported to
the authorities for listening to Radio
Free Europe.
“It was forbidden to listen to Western broadcast-
ers at the time,” the Colonel explained, “so Viktor was
fired. I knew about him, but he was a pacifist, not the
kind of person who would shoot anybody, so I wasn’t
very interested. But then he started teaching Doro-
thy Estonian.”
When she found out that he wrote poems as
well as teaching, she suggested he should do pub-
lic readings. At first, the events were very small and
there wasn’t much interest. But one day something
happened.
“Viktor was reading to an audience in a bar, when
some Russian soldiers came in. They were drunk
and causing a nuisance, so Viktor stopped reading,
stood up and began singing the old Estonian national
anthem. Slowly everybody in the bar stood up and
joined in, even though the song was supposed to be
illegal. The soldiers had no idea what it was about,
but they felt the hostility and quickly left.”
The next day, the whole of Tallinn was
his readings, and the Colonel started to pay closer
attention.
“His poems were very clever,” the Colonel contin-
ued, “because they never did anything obvious like
criticizing the Russians, otherwise he’d have been ar-
rested. He would take famous 19th-century Estonian
nationalist poems that people had learned at school
and change the words slightly to give them a modern
feel and relevance.”
There was not much the Colonel could do to stop
him, but he decided one day to bring Viktor to the
police department.
“People in Moscow were starting to ask ques-
tions, so I had a police car pick him up and bring him
to headquarters. I simply wanted to warn him to be
careful, or else, with his background, he’d be shipped
off to a gulag. I was just letting him sit for a while in a
prison cell, to get a feeling of what it might be like in
Siberia, when your aunt appeared in my office.” The
Colonel paused. “Mrs Tischler,” he asked, “have you
ever seen your aunt when she’s angry?”
Lucy nodded. “Last year, I went to visit her in Cam-
bridge. She had a Nigerian student from the uni-
versity renting a room in her house at
the time. Anyway, he got a real-
Illustrationen: Sandra P, difugi creative/Shutterstock.com

talking about the poet who had made ly rude letter from the Home
the Russian soldiers run away. From Office about his student visa,
then on, it was standing room only at saying it had expired and he

broadcaster Home Office hostility [hQ(stIlEti] nuisance [(nju:s&ns] ship off [SIp (Qf]
[(brO:dkA:stE] [(hEUm )QfIs] UK , Feindseligkeit , Belästigung, Störung , verfrachten
, Sender , Innenministerium
national anthem rude [ru:d] supposed: be ~ to
expire [Ik(spaIE] [)nÄS&nEl (ÄnTEm] , unhöflich, grob [sE(pEUst]
, ablaufen , Nationalhymne , hier: eigentlich ... sein

40  Spotlight 1/2019 SHORT STORY

 was going to be deported. They’d got everything com-
pletely wrong, of course, but when poor Babatunde
tried to explain, they wouldn’t believe him. He was
in the middle of his exams and terrified that he was
about to be thrown out of the country. When Aunt
Dot found out, she telephoned the Home Office,
insisted on speaking to the person in charge of the
student-visa section, told them what they’d done
wrong and tore whoever it was into little pieces. She
became all analytical and icy. It was terrifying.”
The Colonel smiled. “Yes, well I experienced that
face-to-face. In ten minutes, she pointed out three
ways I had violated the Estonian legal code, threat-
ened to use her contacts to the Western media to
denounce me personally for the suppression of free
speech in Estonia and hinted that she had access to
material about me that would lead to my arrest by
the KGB.”
Lucy giggled. “Goodness! What did you do?”
“Let Viktor go, of course, as I had always intended
to do. But the incident taught me two things. Firstly,
that your aunt was more than just a cultural attaché.
Her threat to reveal information about me to the relationship. It is always useful to have such things.
KGB was based on something concrete.” But before I could decide what to do with the infor-
“You mean Aunt Dot was a spy?” Lucy asked in mation, something happened...”
amazement. The Colonel shrugged his shoulders. Every five years, Tallinn hosted a huge song fes-
“Certainly connected to such people. She knew tival. The Colonel was responsible for the security
stuff she shouldn’t have known. But secondly, it was arrangements.
clear that Viktor wasn’t just some poor Estonian dis- “The visitors don’t just listen to the music. They’re
sident she was trying to protect from a wicked po- also involved. They sing these traditional songs to-
liceman. There was too much passion in her eyes and gether. It’s a choir with a hundred thousand voices.”
voice. She was in love with Viktor. They were having That year, the authorities in Moscow were keeping
an affair.” a careful eye on what was happening. They thought
Despite herself, Lucy blushed. Aunt Dot having an that protests from small groups of dissidents would
affair? To hide her embarrassment, she picked up her lead to riots and give them an excuse to march in and
coffee again. It was horribly cold, but she pretended take control, claiming they were protecting the peo-
to sip it. ple from a violent minority.
“As I said before, I was disappointed,” continued “They were right to be worried about a revolution,”
the Colonel, pretending not to notice Lucy’s pink said the Colonel, “but what nobody was expecting
cheeks. “Your aunt is a very attractive woman. But was a singing revolution.”
there was nothing I could do, so I just kept my eye
on her and her poet and collected evidence of their The story continues on the next page.

blush [blVS] dissident [(dIsIdEnt] host [hEUst] reveal [ri(vi:&l] sip [sIp]
, erröten , Regimekritiker(in) , ausrichten , enthüllen , in kleinen Schlucken
trinken
cheek [tSi:k] embarrassment in charge [In (tSA:dZ] riot [(raIEt]
, Wange [Im(bÄrEsmEnt] , zuständig , Aufstand, Unruhe suppression [sE(preS&n]
, Verlegenheit , Unterdrückung
choir [(kwaIE] incident [(InsIdEnt] shrug: ~ one’s shoulders
, Chor giggle [(gIg&l] , Vorfall [SrVg] violate [(vaIEleIt]
, kichern , mit den Schultern , verletzen
denounce [di(naUns] legal code [(li:g&l kEUd] zucken
, denunzieren hint [hInt] , Gesetzbuch wicked [(wIkId]
, andeuten , böse

SHORT STORY 1/2019 Spotlight 41 

 SHORT STORY

The agent and the poet —

Ms Winslow investigated
CHAPTER 3

War Ms Winslow einmal an einer Revolution beteiligt? Welche Rolle

spielte sie dabei? Von JAMES SCHOFIELD
MEDIUM AUDIO

T
he Colonel’s men rounded up a few
of the usual dissident suspects in ad-
vance, so the opening ceremony of the
festival went very smoothly. It wasn’t
until the evening that anything un-
usual happened.
“I noticed lots of small children walking through
the crowd, handing out pieces of paper. I got one of
my men to bring me a copy, and at first I was puzzled.
It was just one of Viktor’s poems about freedom and
independence. But then, suddenly, the lead choir be-
gan to sing on the stage. The tune was an old Esto-
nian song that everybody knew, but the words were
those of the poem, which had been written to fit
the music. And suddenly, as more and more people
joined in and the sound grew and grew, I understood
what Viktor was doing. His poems could reach only
a few people at his poetry readings, but when they
were transformed into songs, they could quickly
reach thousands and thousands of people.”
It was an extraordinary experience, the Colonel
said. The crowd sang the poem three times all the way
through, and louder and louder each time, as they
became more and more familiar with the words. The
applause was deafening.
become free and independent and this was worth
trying for. It was the moment I joined the cause.”
The next morning, the Colonel had a number of
problems on his hands. The local politicians were
panicking, and Moscow was on the phone demand-
ing to know what was going on.
“It was clear to me that the person behind this idea
was Dorothy,” said the Colonel. “Viktor was inspiring,
but not very practical. Simply organizing the photo-
copies of the text was something that only a person
like Dorothy could have done, using copiers in the
consulate. In Tallinn at the time, such machines were
very carefully controlled. But the more I thought
about it, the clearer it became to me that, if this rev-
olution was to have any chance of success, Dorothy
had to go. She had to leave Viktor.”
Lucy’s face was horror-struck. “But why?” she
asked. “Why?”
“Because the KGB would quickly find out that
your aunt and Viktor were lovers. She would be ex-
pelled as a spy, and he would be tried as an agent of
the corrupt Western powers and possibly shot. The
whole movement would be seen as a plan to under-
mine the Soviet Union, not as a desire for change by
the people of Estonia. She had to go, and I knew I
Illustrationen: BEingNothing/iStock.com; Eladora/Shutterstock.com

“I can tell you, Mrs Tischler,” said the Colonel, would have to tell her.”
“when I think of that evening, it still gives me goose- He contacted Dorothy and they arranged to meet.
flesh. And it made a difference to me as well. For He drove her to a nearby beauty spot, Catherine’s
the first time, I realized that maybe Estonia could Quay.

beauty spot choir [(kwaIE] desire [di(zaIE] horror-struck suspect [(sVspekt]

[(bju:ti spQt] , Chor , Wunsch [(hQrE strVk] , Verdächtige(r)
, schönes Fleckchen , von Entsetzen gepackt
Erde deafening [(def&nIN] expel [Ik(spel] try sb. [traI]
, ohrenbetäubend , ausweisen puzzled [(pVz&ld] , jmdn. vor Gericht
cause [kO:z] , verdutzt, ratlos stellen
, Sache demand [di(mA:nd] gooseflesh
, verlangen [(gu:sfleS] round up [raUnd (Vp] tune [tju:n]
, Gänsehaut , fassen , Melodie

42  Spotlight 1/2019 SHORT STORY

 “The quay goes out into the Bay of Tallinn. During
the week, there may be a couple of fishermen, but it’s
quiet. I wanted to be sure nobody could overhear us.”
They sat on the wall, looking out to sea as the Colo-
nel told Dorothy what he knew about her and Viktor,
and why she had to leave Tallinn.
“What did she say?” asked Lucy in a whisper.
“For a long time, nothing. She just stared into
the distance. After a while, I noticed a tear on her
cheek. I offered a handkerchief, she patted her face
dry, thanked me and said something about the wind
making her eyes water. ‘Oh, you English and your
stiff upper lip,’ I thought to myself. ‘Is that all you
can say?’ I asked. I’ve never forgotten her answer:
‘The hopes of two little people don’t count for very
much compared to the hopes of a whole people, do
they, Colonel?’”
He stopped. Lucy had tears streaming down her
cheeks. She wiped her face and blew her nose.
“Go on!” she said finally between sobs.
“That’s it. She left. She wrote and told Viktor why
she had to go, and he accepted it. After we gained in-
dependence in 1991, he married an Estonian woman
and, when he died, his wife brought this book round
to me. She said it contained poems that Viktor had
written for Dorothy, and I should give it to her.”
“But why didn’t you just post it?”
“Old habits, Mrs Tischler. I was attending a securi-
ty conference in Speyer, and I thought I would leave
it with somebody I could trust to look after it.”
cheek [tSi:k] handkerchief overhear [pÄt]
, Wange [(hÄNkEtSIf] , mithören
, Taschentuch
pat: ~ dry [pÄt]
, trocken tupfen
SHORT STORY
The phone rang. It was the kindergarten asking
why Lucy hadn’t collected the twins. She asked the
Colonel to wait a moment, ran down the road and
received a ten-minute lecture on the importance of
punctuality from the teacher. When she got home
again, the Colonel had gone, having left the package
on the kitchen table.
After Dorothy arrived that evening, Lucy waited
until the children were in bed and Klaus was watch-
ing the news on television before giving her aunt
the package. She said someone called Mr Renno had
dropped it off for her that morning.
Dorothy opened it and stood reading for a mo-
ment, before looking up at Lucy, who had found
something very interesting out of the window to
stare at.
“Perhaps tomorrow I will tell you a story,” Dorothy
said, “when the children are in kindergarten and we
have our coffee...”
sob [sQb] whisper [(wIspE]
, Schluchzer , Flüstern
stiff upper lip
[)stIf VpE (lIp]
, hier: Fassung
1/2019 Spotlight 43 
 Fotos: XXX

44  Spotlight x/2019 RUBRIKTITEL

 LANGUAGE

Learning with
Ms Winslow
Hat Ihnen James Schofields Kurzgeschichte gefallen? Dann nutzen Sie die Gelegenheit,
das nebenbei Gelernte gleich noch zu vertiefen – mit Hilfe von
Ms Winslow und Übungen von VANESSA CLARK.
MEDIUM

J
ames Schofield’s stories
about the indomitable
Ms Winslow are always an
entertaining read — but
they can also provide an
opportunity to improve
your English in a more active
way. On the next few pages,
you will find exercises that will help you
to understand the story fully, highlight
Colonel Lukas Renno air [eE] indomitable
Colonel Renno is a tall, elderly man with , hier: Auftreten [In(dQmItEb&l]
a moustache, a well-cut suit and a military , unbezähmbar,
courteous [(k§:tiEs] unbezwingbar
air. He is polite, courteous and thoughtful. , höflich
He is Estonian and is a former chief of po- meets the eye: there is
curious [(kjUEriEs] more (to it) than ~
lice. He remembers Ms Winslow from her , neugierig
[)mi:ts Di (aI]
days in Tallinn. deceased [di(si:st] , da steckt mehr
, verstorben dahinter
Viktor Laur Estonia [e(stEUniE] moustache [mE(stA:S]
Recently deceased, Viktor Laur was a , Estland , Schnurrbart

some of the useful vocabulary and give
you the chance to test yourself and learn.
Meet the characters
Read the profiles of the four main charac-
ters in the story.
pacifist poet and an academic in his home fond: be ~ of sb. [fQnd] persuasive [pE(sweIsIv]
country of Estonia. He had been a profes- , jmdn. sehr mögen , überzeugend
sor, but was fired for anti-government suspicion [sE(spIS&n]
activity. He wrote political poems that , Verdacht
were not massively popular with his au-
diences.

Dorothy Winslow 1. A woman of contrasts

When she was a young woman, Dorothy
Winslow worked for the British diplomat-
ic service abroad, including in Estonia in
the 1980s. She has always been very vague
about the work that she did for the gov-
ernment, which has led to suspicions that
she was a secret agent. She is a charming
woman and can be very persuasive and
passionate. She is also intelligent, analyt-
ical, practical and organized. When the
situation requires action, she takes con-
trol. When she senses injustice, she fights
against it with an icy passion. She’s a good
person to have on your side in a crisis.
Lucy Tischler
Lucy is Ms Winslow’s niece and is very
fond of her elderly aunt. Lucy lives a
Illustration: amesto/Shutterstock.com
Add the missing vowels (a, e, i, o, u) to
create adjectives that describe the dif-
ferent aspects of Dorothy Winslow’s
character. (Tip: All the words appear in
her profile to the left.)
A.
nlytcl _______________________________
B.
chrmng _____________________________
C.
cy __________________________________
D.
ntllgnt ______________________________
E.
rgnzd _______________________________
F.
prssv _______________________________

peaceful life in Heroldstein, Germany, G.

with her husband and their twin sons, lit- prctcl _______________________________
tle Roland and Freddie. The last member H. Answers
of the household is Trotsky the dog. Lucy pssnt _______________________________
H. passionate
F. persuasive
D. intelligent
E. organized
A. analytical
of contrasts

has long been curious about her aunt’s in- I.

B. charming

G. practical
A woman

I. vague

teresting past and suspects there may be vg __________________________________

C. icy

more to her than meets the eye.

1.

LANGUAGE 1/2019 Spotlight 45 

 2. True or false?
Reread chapter 1 and decide whether
each statement is true (T) or false (F).
T F
A. Lucy’s Aunt Dorothy had already
arrived.
B. An unexpected visitor arrived at
the door: Colonel Renno.
C. Colonel Renno wanted to ask
Lucy something about her aunt.
D. Colonel Renno had known Doro-
thy Winslow in the 1980s.
E. The Colonel had been the chief of
police in Moscow.
F. He had been suspicious of Doro-
thy Winslow’s role in the UK
diplomatic service.
G. He found evidence that Dorothy
Winslow was a spy.
H. Dorothy Winslow fell in love
with Colonel Renno.

Answers
True or false?
A. false

C. false

E. false

G. false
H. false
B. true

D. true

F. true

4. Match the sentence halves banned [bÄnd] reveal [ri(vi:&l]

2.

Reread chapter 3 and match the sen- , verboten , enthüllen, zeigen

tence halves to retell the events in the choir [(kwaIE] tune [tju:n]
3. Complete the sentences story. , Chor , Melodie
Reread chapter 2 and choose the right national anthem
“-ing” words to complete the statements. A. At the song festival, children went [)nÄS&nEl (ÄnTEm]
, Nationalhymne
through the crowd,…
criticizing | listening | reading | singing | B. The choir began to sing the words of
teaching | terrifying | warning | working Viktor’s poem,…
C. The crowd sang with the choir,…
A. Viktor Laur lost his job as a result of D. It had been Dorothy’s idea to make
________ to a banned radio station. the poem into a song,…
B. Viktor started ________ Dorothy E. Colonel Renno realized that Estonia
Winslow Estonian. could be free,…
C. When she found out that Viktor F. The colonel persuaded Dorothy to
wrote poems, Dorothy organized a leave Estonia,…
public ________ .
D. When Russian soldiers interrupted 1. but he also knew that Dorothy was in
the event, Viktor started ________ the danger.
old Estonian national anthem. 2. but to the tune of a traditional Estoni-
E. Viktor found a clever way of ________ an song.
the Soviet government in his poems. 3. to keep her safe and to help the revo-
Illustrationen: Panda vector, April Turner/Shutterstock.com

F. Renno brought Viktor to the police lution.

headquarters to give him a ________ .
G. Dorothy’s ________ anger made the
Colonel set Viktor free.
H. Dorothy’s threats revealed that she
was probably ________ as a spy.
Answers
Complete the
4. handing out copies of one of Viktor’s
poems.
5. louder and louder, and they applaud-
ed wildly.
6. so that it could reach more people.
Answers

E. criticizing

G. terrifying
B. teaching
A. listening

F. warning

H. working
C. reading

Match the
D. singing
sentences

sentence
halves

D–6
A–4

C–5
B–2

F–3
E–1
4.
3.

46  Spotlight 1/2019 LANGUAGE


5. A political story
The story includes many words connect-
ed with political protest and revolution.
Read these sets of three words and
phrases from the story and, each time,
find the one word that doesn’t fit. Cross
the odd one out in each trio.
A. tanks | guns | discussions
B. twins | troops | soldiers
C. hostility | poetry | bloodshed
D. diplomatic service | kindergarten |
consulate
E. troublemaker | dissident | amazement
F. reception | protest | riot
G. free | independent | amateur
H. arrest | lock up | let go
I. carry out surveillance | put on a per-
formance | keep an eye on someone
actual [(ÄktSuEl] subscriber [sEb(skraIbE]
, tatsächlich , Abonnent(in)
Would you like to practise
odd [Qd]
further? , hier: unpassend
Now that you know this story really
well, why not try reading it out loud?
What sort of voice do you think the
different characters would have? If you
have our Spotlight Audio CD or down-
load, you can compare your ideas to the
actual recording.
In the last line, Ms Winslow offers to tell
Lucy the story over coffee the following
morning. Imagine that conversation.
How do you think she would tell the
story from her point of view?

Answers
D. kindergarten
A political story

performance
E. amazement
A. discussions

If you’ve enjoyed learning

F. reception
G. amateur

I. put on a
C poetry

with Ms Winslow, and would like

H. let go
B. twins

to read more of her adventures,

5.

have a look at the previous stories

in the series:
6. A love story
“The agent and the poet” is a love story,
“The rhino horn”
too — a love story told by the man who
(Spotlight 1/17)
didn’t win the girl. Read what Colonel
Renno said and choose the right word to
“The unhappy bride”
complete each quotation.
(Spotlight 3/17, 4/17, 5/17)
A. “I had a hard heart / soft spot for your
“The Venetian violin”
aunt.”
(Spotlight 6/17, 7/17, 8/17)
B. “You can imagine my disagreement /
disappointment when Dorothy fell /
“The barrow king”
felt in love with a local poet!”
(Spotlight 1/18)
C. “There was too much fashion /
passion in her eyes and voice.”
“Election madness”
D. “She was on / in love with Viktor.”
(Spotlight 6/18, 7/18, 8/18)
E. “They were having a fair / an affair.”
F. “I collected evidence of their relation-
These stories are available to
ship / relations.”
subscribers in our download
Answers archive at www.spotlight-verlag.
de/digitalarchiv
B. disappointment,

You can also listen to “The rhino

F. relationship

horn”, “The unhappy bride” and

A love story
A. soft spot

E. an affair
C. passion

“The Venetian violin” on

fell

D. in

“Ms Winslow investigates”

6.

(on CD or as an audio download),

available at
www.sprachenshop.de

LANGUAGE 1/2019 Spotlight 47 

 Leading the men: Saoirse Ronan
as Mary Queen of Scots

ARTS FILM PREVIEW | BIOGRAPHY

One of the young “it” actors current-

Adversaries, addicts ly impressing directors with their

range and maturity is Timothée

and architects Chalamet. Nominated for an Oscar

Zwei Filme über schwierige Zeiten im Leben und eine
Ausstellung zu architektonischer Brillanz.
Von EVE LUCAS
MEDIUM
FILM PREVIEW | DRAMA
Mary Queen of Scots has had plenty of attention in the centu-
ries since her death in 1587. History loves a hero — or heroine
— and Mary’s death by order of her cousin Queen Elizabeth I has
often given Mary the advantage. Now, a new film, Mary Queen of
Scots, has arrived to support that judgement.
After the death of her first husband, Francis II of France, Mary
returns to her homeland aged 18 to take up the crown she has in-
herited from her father, James V of Scotland. She also lays claim
to the English throne through her great grandfather, Henry VII
of England. Both claims challenge those made by Elizabeth.
Played by Saoirse Ronan, Mary is shown as a fighter queen, able
to ride and shoot with the best of her male courtiers, and capable
of proving herself their equal in debate and politics. She’s sure
that she should win, and that she can. When she is captured by
Elizabeth (Margot Robbie) and put in prison, she refuses to play
the strategy games at which Elizabeth excels. Her confidence is
pure, but it is also her ruin. Director Josie Rourke comes from
the theatre and her staging of the two queens in dialogue is spell-
binding — even though they never met in real life. It is high dra-
ma that is absolutely believable. Friedrich Schiller, one of Mary’s
early supporters, surely would have approved. Starts 17 January.
approve [E(pru:v] inherit [In(herIt] Saoirse [(seESE]
, zustimmen , erben , [wg. Aussprache]
capture [(kÄptSE] judgement [(dZVdZmEnt] spellbinding
, gefangen nehmen , Urteil [(spelbaIndIN]
, faszinierend
courtier [(kO:tiE] lay claim [leI (kleIm]
, Höfling , Anspruch erheben
last year for his role in Call Me by Your
Name, Chalamet can now be seen
together with veteran actor Steve
Carell in Beautiful Boy. He plays Nic Sheff, a smart, intelligent
young man who has become addicted to drugs because they
make him feel better than he ever has. His father, David (Carell),
tries to help him come clean. But father and son discover that the
involvement of a parent only adds the burden of love to a pro-
cess in which distance is as essential as closeness. Belgian direc-
tor Felix van Groeningen brings a fine and subtle touch to a com-
plex issue and Chalamet is simply incredible. Starts 24 January.
addicted: be ~ to sth. burden [(b§:d&n] subtle [(sVt&l]
[E(dIktId] , Last , subtil
, von etw. abhängig sein,
nach etw. süchtig sein maturity [mE(tSUErEti]
, Reife
EXHIBITION | ARCHITECTURE
The German architect Hans Scharoun is
remembered for the Berlin Philharmonic,
a concert hall built in the 1960s. Although Fotos: PR; Universal Pictures; Stiftung Brandenburger Tor, Foto: Frank Sperling
Scharoun (1893–1972) never met the
Canadian-American architect Frank
Gehry (born 1929), his influence on
Gehry’s design for the Walt Disney Con-
cert Hall in Los Angeles is obvious, both
inside and out. The exhibition Frank Gehry — Hans Scharoun:
Strong Resonances, showing until 20 January at Berlin’s Stiftung
Brandenburger Tor, underlines the similarities of ideology and
design. Both Scharoun and Gehry built democratic structures in
which the audience practically encloses the orchestra — creating
an enjoyable intimacy for music lovers. Here’s a chance to see
how it was achieved. More details at stiftungbrandenburgertor.de
enclose [In(klEUz]
, umschließen

48  Spotlight 1/2019 ARTS

 THE LANGUAGE PAGES

Welcome to the language pages

Over the next dozen or more pages, we give you the opportunity to practise
grammar and vocabulary in an up-to-date context. We start off here with a
column that takes a lighthearted look at English in popular culture.

ENGLISH EXPLAINED

We’ll always have

New York
What do our columnist and Humphrey Bogart have in
common? They both use the future form “will” to fondly
remember a lost love.
MEDIUM US

When I was a senior in college, I had a girlfriend It’s one of the most famous cinematic quotes ever dorm [dO:rm] ifml.
named Jennie. Jennie was great. She was a short, — and also a very good example of when to use the , Schlafsaal

Italian-American girl with a big smile and a fantastic will-future. To understand why Rick tells Ilsa, “We’ll” expatriate [eks(peItriEt]
sense of humor. — as in “we will” — “always have Paris,” maybe we , ständig im Ausland
Lebende(r)
One period in our two-year relationship that I’ll should reacquaint ourselves with the various in-
never forget is the winter of 2006. That’s because stances that call for the use of “will.” fondly [(fA:ndli]
, liebevoll
during this time, both Jennie and I were interning We use “will” when speculating about the future
gig [gIg] ifml.
in one of the coolest places on earth: New York City. (“I think my football team will have a really good sea-
, Job
We had met at college in upstate New York and had son next year”); when threatening someone (“If you
intern [(Int§:n] N. Am.
both gotten gigs in Manhattan that winter — I at a don’t clean up, you will be in serious trouble”); when
, als Praktikant(in)
newspaper writing articles and she at a high school making a quick decision (“The house is on fire! I’ll get arbeiten
teaching students. the cat!”); when making an offer (“I’ll give you a big
reacquaint: ~ oneself
Though Jennie and I usually went out on week- discount if you buy it today”); when being very polite with sth. [)ri:E(kweInt]
ends, on one particular Saturday night, it was snow- (“Madam, will you have some more tea?”); and when , sich wieder mit etw.
ing so heavily that we decided to remain inside the making promises. vertraut machen
YMCA dorm on East 47th Street, where Jennie had In the movie, when Rick tells Ilsa, “We’ll always senior [(si:nj&r] US
a room, and watch Casablanca. have Paris,” he’s making her a promise: I promise you, , Oberstufenschüler(in)
The movie, which is about an American expatri- my dear, that the experience we had in Paris is one surge [s§:dZ]
ate named Rick who owns a bar in Morocco during that will live on in our hearts forever. , Welle
Fotos: privat; Olga Popova, Galinapremiere/Shutterstock.com

World War II, certainly lived up to its reputation. I Although, like Rick and Ilsa, Jennie and I didn’t tryst [trIst]
, Stelldichein, Schäfer-
remember feeling a surge of excitement every time last, I’m glad I can at least say that she and I will al-
stündchen
I recognized one of the lines for which the movie is ways have New York.
upstate [)Vp(steIt] US
famous, lines like, “Here’s looking at you, kid” and
, entlegener, nördlicher
“Play it again, Sam.” But the line I want to focus on Teil eines Bundesstaates
for a moment is “We’ll always have Paris.”
Rick, played by Humphrey Bogart, says it to his for-
mer love, Ilsa, played by Ingrid Bergman, toward the
end of the movie, when the two of them realize that a
CHAD SMITH
serious relationship between them will never be pos-
Originally from New York City, Chad Smith is a
sible. However, they will always have the memories freelance journalist and English teacher who now
of the tryst they once had in the City of Light. lives in Hamburg.

ENGLISH EXPLAINED 1/2019 Spotlight 49 

 1 4

3
2 1. steam [sti:m]
2. hourglass
[(aUEglA:s]
3. thermometer
[TE(mQmItE]
4. lockers [(lQkEz]
5 5. plunge pool
14
[(plVndZ pu:l]
6. stove [stEUv]
6
7. bathrobe [(bA:TrEUb]
8. hose [hEUz]
9. towel [(taUEl]
13 10. bucket and dipper
7
[)bVkIt End (dIpE]
11. hot stones
[hQt (stEUnz]
12. birch twigs
8 [(b§:tS twIgz]
12 13. bench [bentS]
14. sweat [swet]

11

9
10
Unter www.spotlight-online.de/
teachers/picture-it finden Sie
Übersetzungen und das gesamte
Vocabulary-Archiv.

VOCABULARY “The sauna is the poor man’s pharmacy,” a Finnish proverb says. Regular use of a sauna will
boost your immune system, rid your body of toxins, improve your circulation and cleanse

In the
your skin. Further health benefits include relaxation and relieving stress.

⋅⋅ ⋅
Tips for first-time sauna users

sauna Remove all clothes and footwear. Stay in the sauna for no more than 15

⋅
Remove any jewellery, contact lenses or minutes.

⋅
glasses. Recover for 20 minutes between sauna

⋅
In winter, when it’s cold Always shower before entering the sessions.

⋅
and wet outside, a visit to sauna. After each session, cool off in the fresh

⋅
the sauna can do wonders Sit or lie on a towel while using the air.

⋅⋅
sauna. Wash off perspiration with cold water
for your well-being. Join

⋅
Do not use the sauna on a full stomach. before using the plunge pool.
ANNA HOCHSIEDER Do not use the sauna if you are ill. If in Enter the plunge pool gradually. Do not
in the sweat room.
Illustration: Martin Haake

⋅ ⋅
doubt, consult a doctor. use it if you have high blood pressure.
MEDIUM PLUS
If you feel faint or unwell, leave the Rest and drink plenty of water before

⋅ ⋅
sauna room immediately. beginning the next sauna cycle.
Keep conversation to a minimum. Enjoy yourself!

50  Spotlight 1/2019 VOCABULARY

PRACTICE
Now try the following exercises to practise talking about the sauna.

Exercise 1 E Exercise 3 A

Choose one word or phrase from the lists to answer each Match the phrases on the left to those on the right that
question below. have the same meaning.

A. What should you take with you when you enter the A. To “boost your immune 1. to “reduce mental pres-
sauna room? system” means... sure or worry”.
a bathrobe | contact lenses | a towel
B. To “rid your body of 2. to “help your blood flow
B. What should you not do before entering the sauna toxins” means... through your body”.
room?
drink | eat | shower C. To “improve your circu- 3. to “strengthen the abil-
lation” means... ity of your body to fight
C. What should you do while in the sauna room? against infections”.
chat to other visitors | sit or lie on a towel | clean your glasses D. To “cleanse your skin”
means... 4. to “remove poisonous
D. What should you do immediately after leaving the substances from your
sauna room? E. To “relieve stress” body”.
cool off gradually | jump into the plunge pool | put on your means...
clothes 5. to “wash your body
thoroughly”.

Exercise 2 M In the nude

In Scandinavia, German-speaking countries, the Netherlands
Complete the definitions with words from page 50. and some other European countries, saunas — whether single-
or mixed-sex — are used in the nude; in other words, unclothed
A. is drops of liquid that appear on or naked. In the US, however, nudity is banned in all public
your skin when you are hot. places, including saunas. In the UK, Canada and Australia, re-
moving all your clothes is permitted only in single-sex saunas.
B. consists of the small drops that
water produces when it is heated. Here are some more words that mean “naked”:
If you are in a state of undress (formal) or in your birthday suit
C. A is an instrument used for measur- (humorous), you are not wearing any clothes. If someone is de-
ing temperature. scribed as stark naked, this emphasizes that he or she is wearing
no clothes at all. You can also say that a person does not have a
D. A is a shop where medicines are stitch on or is not wearing a stitch. If a part of your body is not
prepared and sold. covered by clothes, you can say that it is bare.

E. A is a piece of equipment used for

heating rooms.

banned [bÄnd] in the nude nudity [(nju:dEti]

, verboten [)In DE (nju:d] , Nacktheit
, nackt
bare [beE] stark naked
, bloß, nackt naked [(neIkId] [stA:k (neIkId]
Answers
, nackt , splitterfasernackt
birthday suit
thermometer
C. sit or lie on a

[(b§:TdeI su:t] hum. not have a stitch on unclothed [Vn(klEUDd]

A–3; B–4; C–2;
pharmacy
gradually

Adamskostüm [nQt )hÄv E (stItS Qn] unbekleidet

D. cool off

, ,
A. a towel

Steam
Sweat

ifml.
D–5; E–1
towel

stove

undress [Vn(dres]
B. eat

, nichts am Leib haben

, Entkleidung
A.

D.
C.
B.

E.
2.

3.
1.

VOCABULARY 1/2019 Spotlight 51 

 THE GRAMMAR PAGE

Could/needn’t
have done Remember!
ADRIAN DOFF presents and explains this key The verbs should(n’t) have, could have and needn’t have all

⋅
point of grammar with notes on a short dialogue. refer to past actions:
You shouldn’t have got up late. (= You got up late, but it

⋅
MEDIUM PLUS wasn’t a good idea.)
We could have taken a taxi. (= We didn’t do this, but it

⋅
would have been possible to do so.)
You needn’t have brought food to the party. (= You did it,
but it wasn’t necessary.)
In these expressions, modal verbs should(n’t), could and
needn’t are followed by the infinitive form have + past parti-
ciple. This is sometimes called the “past infinitive” or “perfect
Dialogue infinitive”.
Mira has just cycled home from an office party. Her boy-
friend, Paul, isn’t very pleased. Beyond the basics
Could have + past participle can have two slightly different
Mira: Hi! I’m back! Great party! meanings:
Paul: How much did you drink? 1. It can be used to imagine things that didn’t happen, but that

⋅
Mira: Just a few glasses of wine. Why? were possible. Here, you can use “might” instead of “could”:
Paul: And you cycled home? You shouldn’t have done1 It stayed dry for the barbecue. We were lucky. It could have

⋅
that. You could have had2 an accident. rained. (= In fact, it didn’t rain.)
Mira: Don’t worry. I cycled carefully. We were lucky. It might have rained.
Paul: You could have been stopped3 by the police. You 2. It can also be used to suggest an alternative to what someone

⋅
could have lost4 your driving licence. actually did. Here, only “could” can be used, not “might”:
Mira: What, for cycling? I don’t know why they walked. They could have taken the
Paul: Yes, it’s illegal. bus. (= In fact, they didn’t take the bus.)
Mira: Ah, well. I was lucky, then.
Paul: Anyway, you needn’t have cycled5 home. You
could have called6 me. I would have picked you Exercise
up in the car.
Mira: Oh, yeah. I didn’t think of that. Choose the best options in bold.
Paul: Or you could have drunk6 water at the party
instead of wine. A. There was no school today, so she could / needn’t
Mira: Well, yes, but that wouldn’t have been much fun. have got up so early.

B. I was worried about you. You could / would have

Explanations
1. Should(n’t) have + past
participle is used to com-
ment on a past action. Paul
is saying it was wrong to
have cycled back home.
2. Could have + past parti-
ciple is used to imagine
a possibility in the past.
Mira didn’t have an acci-
dent, but it was possible.
3. Here, could have is fol-
lowed by a passive past
participle: “been stopped”.
4. Another example of could
have + past participle is
used to talk about a possi-
bility in the past.
5. Needn’t have + past
participle is used to say
that a past action wasn’t
necessary.
6. Two more examples of
could have + past par-
ticiple are used here to
suggest alternatives to
Miriam’s actions: she
rung to say you were OK.
C. I’m sorry I lost my temper. I could / shouldn’t have
shouted at you.
D. Thank you for the present, but you needn’t / might
have given me anything.
E. It was silly to leave the window open. Someone
should / could have broken into the flat.
Answers
suggest [sE(dZest] temper: lose one’s ~
, vorschlagen [(tempE]
shouldn’t

Paul could also have said: didn’t call Paul, and she wütend werden,
needn’t

needn’t

,
could

could

“The police could have didn’t drink water at the die Geduld verlieren
stopped you.” party.
A.

D.
C.
B.

E.

52  Spotlight 1/2019 THE GRAMMAR PAGE

 LANGUAGE CARDS EASY MEDIUM ADVANCED

New
Newwords
words — 07Spotlight
1/2019
Spotlight — 2016 Global English 1/2019 Spotlight

deplatform What would a speaker of British English say?

“The university has deplatformed North American speaker:

a prominent evolutionary
biologist from its conference “I was tuckered out when I got
because of his provocative home last night.”
comments on religion.”

(In)Formal English 1/2019 Spotlight Translation 1/2019 Spotlight

Make the statement below sound less formal: Translate:

They were shocked at such an act of moral turpitude. 1. Wir erklärten ihr zuerst die Regeln.

2. Hast du ihm das wirklich gesagt?

Pronunciation 1/2019 Spotlight Idiom magic 1/2019 Spotlight

Read the following words aloud:

execute exhaust
Zeichnung: Ching Yee Smithback

exit exist
exorcist exotic
gut reaction

False friends 1/2019 Spotlight Grammar 1/2019 Spotlight

furious/furios Formulate the questions to which the highlighted noun

phrase and proper noun in the sentences below would
Translate the following sentences: provide the answers.
Austrennung an der Perforierung

1. When he found out what I had done, he was furious.

1. They discussed energy policy at the conference.
2. Unsere Mannschaft beendete das Spiel mit einem furiosen
Angriff. 2. Susan drank the rest of the beer.

7/2017 Spotlight 53 

 LANGUAGE CARDS

Global English
New words 1/2019
Spotlight — 07Spotlight
— 2016 New words 1/2019 Spotlight

British speaker: When someone is deplatformed, that person is disinvited

“I was knackered when I got home last night.” from an event or a speaking engagement or is boycotted
on social media — typically because he or she has said
Both of these informal expressions mean “extremely tired” or done something against the current norm of political
or “exhausted” (erschöpft). correctness.

Translation 1/2019 Spotlight (In)Formal English 1/2019 Spotlight

1. We explained the rules to her first. They were shocked at such an act of moral depravity.

2. Did you really say that to him?
One normally has the choice between “verb + indirect
object + direct object” (“I gave him the ball”) and “verb +
direct object + “to” + indirect object” (“I gave the ball to
him”). “Explain” and “say” do not allow the first option.
You cannot say: “We explained her the rules”.
Other possibilities are “baseness” and “wickedness”. None
of these options sounds particularly colloquial (umgangs-
sprachlich), just as German Verdorbenheit, Verworfenheit or
Verderbtheit do not. But “turpitude” is a noticeably more
formal word.

Idiom magic 1/2019 Spotlight Pronunciation 1/2019 Spotlight

The “gut” is the area below the ribs containing the stom- [(eksIkju:t] [Ig(zO:st]
ach and the bowels (Darm). The word is also used in a non- [(eksIt] [Ig(zIst]
literal sense to refer to instincts and feelings, as German [(eksO:sIst] [Ig(zQtIk]
Bauch is. A “gut reaction” is a gefühlsmäßige Reaktion or a
Reaktion aus dem Bauch heraus. You can also have a “gut feel- The pronunciation of “ex-” at the beginning of a word is
ing” (Bauchgefühl). generally [(eks] when the first syllable is stressed. In words
where the following syllable is stressed, the pronunciation
“I can’t remember why I did that. I think it was just a gut is commonly [Ig(z].
reaction.”

Grammar 1/2019 Spotlight False friends 1/2019 Spotlight

1. What did they discuss at the conference? 1. Als er herausbekam, was ich getan hatte, war er wütend/
2. Who drank the rest of the beer? stinksauer.

When the question word is the object of the question, 2. Our team ended the game with a rousing/stirring
a form of “do” is needed (example 1). attack.

When the question word is the subject of the question, When “furious” does not refer to personal emotions
you do not need a form of “do” (example 2). (“a furious storm”, for example), it is typically translated
as heftig or wild.
LOST IN TRANSLATION

Every month, WILL O’RYAN turns his attention

to a particularly interesting word or expression
that could be a challenge to translate.
ADVANCED

McGuffin (also: MacGuffin)

noun mE(gVfIn

Example Modern Diplomacy, 12 January 2017

The author of this article thinks that
“…the Trump presidency is going to be the Trump’s presidency will ultimately be
biggest MacGuffin in the history of televised meaningless. The author finishes with
the remark: “Because in the end, Presi-
action.” dent MacGuffin is not seen or heard. He
simply moves everyone else along their
devoted paths and agendas.”

Usage
Used in some films and novels, a McGuffin is a plot device that
serves simply to trigger the story. Usually it is an object of some
sort, although it can also be a person or a document. Audiences
or readers normally have no great interest in the McGuffin itself.
Two modern examples are the diamond necklace in the movie
Titanic and the briefcase that the major characters are after in
Pulp Fiction. The audience does not even discover what is in the
briefcase. One of the oldest and most classic McGuffins is the
Holy Grail of Arthurian legend. The only alternative to using
the English word in German (which is what people in the film
business do) is to describe it as: mehr oder weniger beliebige Objekte
oder Personen, die lediglich dazu dienen, die Handlung voranzutreiben.
Background
The term McGuffin, which was originally just a Scottish sur-
name, was coined by English screenwriter Angus MacPhail and
popularized by director and producer Alfred Hitchcock in the
1930s. He explained it in a 1939 lecture at Columbia Universi-
ty in New York on the basis of an anecdote about two men on
a train talking about a package one of them has. This, he says,
is a McGuffin, an apparatus for capturing lions in the Scottish
Highlands. When the other man notes there are no lions there,
the first says, “Well then, that’s no McGuffin.” Hitchcock’s con-
clusion: “So you see, a McGuffin is actually nothing at all.”
Exercise A

In which of the following contexts would “McGuffin”

make sense?

A. “Effi Briest is a classic from literature

and film.”

briefcase [(bri:fkeIs] necklace [(neklEs] trigger sth. [(trIgE] B. “Audiences were frustrated by the in
, Aktenkoffer , Halskette , etw. auslösen Spielberg’s last Indiana Jones film.”
coin: ~ a term [kOIn] plot device ultimately [(VltImEtli]
, einen Begriff prägen [(plQt di(vaIs] , letztlich
, erzählerischer Kniff
Grail [greI&l]
, Gral Answer: B

LOST IN TRANSLATION 1/2019 Spotlight 55 

 EVERYDAY ENGLISH
Living with less
plastic
DAGMAR TAYLOR presents four dialogues
about reducing our plastic footprint. Read them
and try the exercises.
MEDIUM AUDIO PLUS
1. So much rubbish!
Friends Ali and Brea are spending the day together in town. They meet up in
a cafe.
Ali: Hey, hon! You look gorgeous!
Brea: Aw, thanks. It’s so good to see
you, Ali. It’s been too long.
Ali: I know, it’s been far too long.
How was your holiday? Bali,
right?
Brea: Yeah. It was awesome — the
perfect mix of relaxation, in-
teresting trips and water sports.
Ali: Great! And the beaches?
Brea: Beautiful! Clear, turquoise wa-
ter and golden sand. But there
2. It’s urgent
Ali and Brea are standing in the queue to order their coffee.
Brea: I watched David Attenbo-
rough’s Blue Planet 2 again last
night. Did you know that eight
million tonnes of plastic end up
in our oceans every year?
Ali: Eight million tonnes?
Brea: Yeah. We need to clean up what
is already in the oceans and stop
any more getting in. And this is
urgent. Microplastics, which are
the result of the disintegration
of plastic debris, are a massive
capital [(kÄpIt&l] gorgeous [(gO:dZEs]
, Groß- , umwerfend
disturbing [dI(st§:bIN] gradually [(grÄdZuEli]
, beunruhigend , allmählich
56  Spotlight 1/2019
⋅
Tips
Hon (ifml.) is short for “honey” and is a
way of addressing somebody you love
⋅
or like very much.
Awesome (ifml.) is commonly used to
talk about something that the speaker
⋅
was so much rubbish, espe- thinks is very good.
cially on one of the beaches on Rubbish (UK) is known as “garbage”
⋅
the western coast. It was really or “trash” in North America.
awful. The word western — without an
Ali: What do you mean? What kind initial capital letter and before a noun
of rubbish? — is used to refer to a large area in the
⋅
Brea: It was mainly plastic, and it west of a particular country or region.
covered at least two thirds of If you are determined to do
the beach. Actually, it was very something, you have made a firm
disturbing. As a result, I’ve come decision to do it and will not let
home determined to use less anyone prevent you.
plastic.
⋅
Tips
Blue Planet 2 is a British nature
documentary series on marine life,
narrated and presented by naturalist
⋅
Sir David Attenborough.
problem. Fish and birds mistake When something ends up some-
plastic waste for real food. We where, it is to be found in a place
have to stop using so much where it was not intended or
⋅
plastic. expected to be.
Ali: You’re right, of course, but it’s Rubbish or pieces of material that are
become an integral part of left somewhere and are not wanted
⋅
our daily lives. It’s not going to are also known as debris [(debri:].
be easy to change our habits. Something that is integral is an
⋅
Where do you start? essential, fundamental part of things.
Brea: The trick is to start slowly and When people say the trick is...,
gradually to eliminate plastic they mean this is a way of doing
from our lives. something that works well — a good
method.
Foto: apomares/iStock.com
mistake [mI(steIk] naturalist [(nÄtS&rElIst]
, verwechseln , Naturkundler(in)
narrate [nE(reIt] turquoise [(t§:kwOIz]
, erzählen , türkis
EVERYDAY ENGLISH
 ⋅
Tips
3. Making a change Something that can be used more

⋅
Ali and Brea are drinking their coffee and talking about what they can do to than once is reusable.
reduce their consumption of plastic. A cotton bud (UK) is a small stick
with cotton wool at each end, used for
cleaning inside the ears or removing

⋅
Ali: I already have reusable shop- like to buy a shampoo bar. make-up.
ping bags, and I ask for reusable I read somewhere that they’re A shampoo bar is a solid alternative

⋅
cups when I buy myself a coffee. the equivalent of three bottles to liquid shampoo.
But it’s not enough, is it? of shampoo and without all the Packaging is the material in which
Brea: You could get yourself a bam- packaging. goods are contained or wrapped

boo toothbrush, and you could
start using paper cotton buds
instead of plastic ones.
Ali: I hadn’t thought of that. Maybe
I can get those today. And I’d
⋅
Brea: I’ve stopped buying bottled wa-
ter. I got myself a nice drinking
bottle, and I fill it with tap water.
Ali: I’ve been meaning to do that.
OK, I’ll add that to the list.
when you buy them in shops.
People say I’ve been meaning to do
that when they have intended to do
something for some time, but haven’t
got round to it yet.

⋅
Tips
4. It’s everywhere When you don’t appreciate some-
Ali and Brea are shopping and talking. thing, because you have come to

⋅
expect it, you take it for granted.
A deposit return system is set up
Brea: We take too much for granted Brea: I know. Take berries: I love in such a way that a refund is given

⋅
in the UK. When I was visiting them, but they’re always packed when reusable packaging is returned.
friends in Germany last month, in plastic. I’ve decided not to Someone who is resolute has or

I was really impressed by their
deposit return system for bot-
tles. You can even buy yogurt in
glass jars.
Ali: That’s cool! Half the items in my
⋅
buy them unless I can select
them myself.
Ali: You’re right. The only way to
make a change is to be resolute.
Brea: There’s a plastic-free store
shows great determination.
A plastic-free store, or “zero-waste
store”, sells groceries without
packaging. You bring your own
containers in which to take the

shopping basket yesterday were
in plastic packaging. It’s hard to
avoid. It’s everywhere.
⋅
opening close to where I live
soon. I can’t wait to shop there.
It’ll make things much easier.
groceries home.
People say I can’t wait when they are
very excited about something or keen
to do it.

Exercise 1 Exercise 2

Fill in the missing words. Add the missing words.

A. I’ve come home d to use less plastic. A. What kind rubbish?

B. Plastic has become an i part of our B. Eight million tonnes of plastic end in our
daily lives. oceans every year.

C. I’ve been m to do that. C. You could start using paper cotton buds instead
plastic ones.
D. We take too much for g in the UK.
D. I was really impressed their deposit return
system.

appreciate [E(pri:SieIt] glass jar [(glA:s dZA:] keen [ki:n] UK unless [En(les]
, würdigen, schätzen , Glasgefäß , begeistert , außer
Answers
berry [(beri] groceries [(grEUsEriz] refund [(ri:fVnd] wrap [rÄp]
, Beere , Lebensmittel , Rückzahlung , einwickeln
determined

meaning
granted
integral

determination item [(aItEm] solid [(sQlId]

[di)t§:mI(neIS&n] Artikel , fest
up

by

,
of

of

Entschlossenheit
A.

A.

,
D.

D.
C.

C.
B.

B.
2.
1.

EVERYDAY ENGLISH 1/2019 Spotlight 57 

 THE BASICS

Easy English
Here, you’ll find an interview, with facts and exercises
related to it, at the A2 level of English — basic language
points you may have forgotten or missed before.
By VANESSA CLARK
EASY
Show and tell
Now, find out more about ship’s doctors in the past and the
equipment they used.
In the 19th century, many ships travelled from Great Britain to
Australia and New Zealand, taking passengers to the New World
to start a new life.

Ship’s doctors had to deal with many serious diseases, which

passed quickly from one person to the next. Doctors could of-
ten only give out “medicines” such as beer, milk and potatoes.

Ship’s doctors also had other jobs on board. They had to look af-
ter the food stores, read from the Bible on Sundays and help to
teach the children. They also had to bring their own medical bag,
with their own equipment, including an amputation saw.

The work was hard and they weren’t paid well, so the job was
often done by bad doctors who couldn’t find work at home,
or who wanted a free ticket to the New World.

doctor
aw, ship’s
Dr James L

Cabinet of curiosities
Interview
Here, we present interesting lives from around the
English-speaking world. This time, we’re talking to
Dr James Law, doctor on board a cruise ship.

What does a ship’s doctor do?

This cruise ship has a medical team of two doctors and
four nurses. We take care of the 1,800 passengers and
the 800 crew members on board.

What sort of problems do you deal with?

Everything! A lot of passengers on a cruise ship are
older, so we see a lot of the typical problems of old age.
The crew sometimes have accidents at work.

What facilities do you have on board?

The medical centre is like a small hospital, with beds,
an emergency room, X-ray facilities, an operating thea-
tre, a small laboratory for tests and a pharmacy.

Do you wear a uniform?

Absolutely! We have to look smart for the passengers.
We socialize with them at dinner — it’s part of the job.
laboratory [lE(bQrEtEri] pharmacy [(fA:mEsi] store [stO:]
Do you get the chance to leave the ship? , Labor , Apotheke , Vorrat
There has to be one doctor on board all the time, so we operating theatre saw [sO:] X-ray facilities
take turns going on land. In the past three months, I’ve [(QpEreItIN )TIEtE] UK , Säge [(eks reI fE)sIlEtiz]
visited more than ten different countries. It’s a fantas- , OP-Saal , Röntgengeräte
socialize [(sEUSElaIz]
tic way to see the world. , sich mit jmdm. treffen

58  Spotlight 1/2019 THE BASICS

 Word fun

Exercise 1 E

Six passengers are at the ship’s medical centre. Which

room or service does each person need?

A. Archie needs to collect his pills. 1. consulting

room
B. Brenda wants to talk to the doctor
about a small problem. 2. emergency
room
C. Colin has probably broken his
finger. 3. laboratory

D. Doris needs an operation. 4. operating

theatre
E. Edward’s having a heart attack.
5. pharmacy
F. Fiona’s having some blood tests.
6. X-ray

Grammar
Now, have another look at some of the information about ship’s
doctors in the past:

⋅⋅ They had to look after the food stores.

They had to bring their own medical bag.

“Had to” is the past form of “have to”. The German translation is
musste. The negative is “didn’t have to” (musste nicht).

Exercise 2 E
Fotos: donatas1205/Shutterstock.com; ConstantinosZ, Petek Arici, Ivan 966/iStock.com; Illustrationen: Martin Haake

Choose “had to” or “didn’t have to” in each of these sen-

tences about ship’s doctors in the 19th century. Reading

A. The doctor had to / didn’t have to deal with serious Exercise 3 E

diseases.
How carefully have you read this double page? Test
B. The doctor had to / didn’t have to be ready to do am- yourself here by deciding whether the sentences below
putations. are true (T) or false (F).

C. The doctor had to / didn’t have to be a good doctor. T F

A. The medical centre on a cruise ship has good
D. The doctor had to / didn’t have to pay for a ticket. facilities.

B. Dr Law doesn’t have to wear a uniform on

board.
collect [kE(lekt]
Answers , abholen
C. Doctors on a cruise ship take turns going on
consulting room
didn’t have to
didn’t have to

[kEn(sVltIN ru:m] land.

A–5; B–1; C–6;
D–4; E–2; F–3

, Sprechzimmer
had to
had to

false

false

D. In the 19th century, most ship’s doctors were

true

true

facilities [fE(sIlEtiz]
, Ausstattung paid well.
A.

A.
D.

D.
C.

C.
B.

B.
2.

3.
1.

THE BASICS 1/2019 Spotlight 59 

 WORDS THAT GO TOGETHER

The collocation game

Words that are often used together are called “collocations”.
Learning such word combinations will help you read and
speak more fluently. Here, we look at collocations to name
groups of animals. By CLARE MAAS
EASY PLUS

flock

1. Collective collocations
In this issue, we’re naming
groups of animals. Read our
tips on page 61 and decide 1. herd of cows
which collective nouns are
used with which animals.
Then match the collocations
you have formed to the pic-
tures. We have done the first
one for you. When you’ve fin-
ished, try the exercise on the
opposite page.

2. 3.
a of birds 4.
a herd of cows
a of dolphins
a of donkeys
a of fish
a of horses
a of kittens
pack a of piglets
a of puppies
a of sheep
5. 6.
a of wolves

collective noun [kE)lektIv (naUn]

, Sammelbegriff
donkey [(dQNki]
, Esel
kitten [(kIt&n]
, Katzenjunges
herd
match [mÄtS]
, zuordnen
7. 8. puppy [(pVpi]
, Welpe

60  Spotlight 1/2019 WORDS THAT GO TOGETHER

 Exercise 2 E Tips

⋅⋅
Use collocations presented on this page to complete the flock
sentences below. “Flock” is used to name a group of animals of the same type.
So, we talk about a flock of geese, a flock of seagulls or,

⋅
A. Those two cats seem to like each other a lot — you more generally, a flock of birds.
may end up with a soon. The word “flock” implies that the animals behave as a group,
often following each other. This is why we can also talk
B. Some farmers use dogs to help keep their about a flock of sheep.
together.

⋅
herd
C. In autumn, you might see migrating The word “herd” usually refers to a group of larger animals

⋅
south. that live and feed together.
So, we talk about a herd of cows, a herd of donkeys or a

⋅
D. Deep-sea divers are happy when they find a herd of horses.
. If we want to emphasize the fact that they live and eat
together, we can also talk about a herd of sheep.
E. Deer have to protect their young from being eaten by

⋅
a . litter
The word “litter” refers to a group of baby animals that are

⋅
born at the same time to the same mother.
Especially baby cats, dogs and pigs are named in this way, so
we talk about a litter of kittens, a litter of puppies or a litter

⋅
of piglets.
The “runt” is the smallest animal in the litter.

⋅
pack
The word “pack” is used to name groups of animals that

⋅⋅
hunt together or are kept for hunting.
Fotos: istockphoto, 101cats, Global_Pics, kamisoka, Spondylolithesis, Igor Zhuravlov/iStock.com; Pakom, Jarujittipun, Michael Roeder/Shutterstock.com

So, we talk about a pack of wolves or a pack of dogs.

We can also speak about a pack of rats. Interestingly,
litter the term “rat pack” refers to a group of journalists or
photographers hunting down scandalous stories about
celebrities. And a “pack rat” is a person who hoards things.

⋅
school
The word “school” or “shoal” is used for large groups of

⋅
animals that live in the sea and swim together.
So, we talk about a school / shoal of fish or a school of
dolphins, as well as a school of whales or a school of
sharks.

deer [dIE] runt [rVnt] shark [SA:k]

, Reh(e) , Kümmerling, schwäch- , Hai
liches Jungtier
goose [gu:s], whale [weI&l]
9. 10. geese [gi:s] school [sku:l] , Wal
, Gans, Gänse , hier: Schwarm

imply [Im(plaI] seagull [(si:gVl]

, bedeuten , Seemöwe

Answers
4. a school / shoal of fish
1. Collective collocations

school
B. flock / herd of sheep

D. school / shoal of fish

7. a school of dolphins
2. a herd of donkeys

6. a litter of puppies

C. a flock / flocks of
8. a litter of kittens
5. a pack of wolves

10. a flock / herd of

9. a herd of horses

A. litter of kittens
11. a flock of birds

E. pack of wolves
1. a herd of cows

3. a litter of pigs

sheep

birds

11.
2.

WORDS THAT GO TOGETHER 1/2019 Spotlight 61 

 SPOKEN ENGLISH

Ouch! ⋅⋅
To talk about general health problems, you can use I feel...:
I feel hot / cold.

⋅⋅
I feel shivery. (= I’m shaking with cold.)
How do we talk about health problems in conversational I feel achy. (= I’ve got aches in various places.)
English? Look at the examples below, read the I feel exhausted / worn out. (= I’m very tired.)
explanations and try the exercise. By ADRIAN DOFF

⋅⋅
Or you can use expressions with I’ve got a/an...:
MEDIUM PLUS I’ve got a cold.

⋅
I’ve got flu. (= influenza)
I’ve got a temperature. (= a high temperature, above 37.5 °C)

Idiomatic expressions

⋅
If you feel under the weather, you feel ill and tired:
What’s the matter?
What does it mean? — I’m not sure. I’m just feeling a bit under the weather.

⋅
You could also say you’re not your usual (or normal) self:
Here are some common expressions connected with I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I’m just not my usual
health problems. What do you think the examples mean? self today.

⋅⋅ ⋅
If you feel washed out, you have no energy:
I’m a bit under the weather. I’m feeling completely washed out. I think I’ll go lie down.

⋅⋅ ⋅
You look a bit washed out. If you’re down in the dumps, you feel depressed:
My feet are killing me. What’s up? You seem to be down in the dumps.

⋅
I feel a bit achy. If your feet are killing you, they ache or hurt when you walk:
I can’t walk any further. My feet are killing me.

If you have aches or pains or a minor health problem, you often

want to tell people about them. Let’s look at different ways of
doing this in conversational English.
Aches and pains
Two common words to talk about health problems are ache
Exercise
Complete the sentences below with words from the list.
dumps | hurts | self | sore | stomach | temperature

⋅⋅
(a noun or a verb) and pain (usually used as a noun):
I’ve got an ache in my foot. A. My hand when I move it.

⋅
My arm aches.
I’ve got a pain in my leg. B. I don’t want to eat anything. I’ve got a
ache.
An ache is a dull, steady pain. It may continue for a long time:
if your back aches, for example, it could last for days, months C. I feel hot. Maybe I’ve got a .
or even years. Some common kinds of ache are used as double
nouns; some are written as a single word. If you eat too much, D. I feel down in the today.
you might have a stomach ache; if you carry heavy furniture,
you may get a backache; if you have toothache, you should see a E. If you’ve got a throat, it may help
dentist; and an aspirin may help if you have a headache. If you’re to drink hot lemon juice and honey.
hopelessly in love, you may also suffer from heartache.
F. I’m worried about him. He hasn’t been his normal
Another common way to talk about aches and pains is to use the for weeks.
verb hurt: instead of saying “I’ve got a pain in my leg”, you can

⋅⋅
say “My leg hurts”. Here are some other examples:
Ouch! Stop twisting my arm. It hurts.
(patient to doctor): My finger hurts when I try to bend it.
ache [eIk] inflamed [In(fleImd] Answers
You can also use the adjective sore. If a part of your body is sore, , Schmerz , entzündet

⋅
it’s often red and inflamed:
temperature

bend [bend] last [lA:st]

I think I’m getting a cold. I woke up this morning with a , beugen dauern
stomach

,
dumps

⋅
hurts

sore throat.
sore

dull [dVl] steady [(stedi]

self

My feet were sore after walking all day. , dumpf Dauer-

A.

,
D.
C.
B.

E.
F.

62  Spotlight 1/2019 SPOKEN ENGLISH

 ENGLISH AT WORK

Dear Ken KEN TAYLOR

is a communication
Communication expert KEN TAYLOR answers your consultant and
author of 50 Ways
questions about business English. This month, he looks to Improve Your
at a German word that keeps causing problems, and has Business English
(Summertown).
advice on writing minutes. Contact:
ktaylor868@aol.com
MEDIUM AUDIO PLUS

Send your questions

Dear Ken
Some time ago, I asked you about
translating the word Freundin.
Since then, my pupils and I have
followed your advice to say sim-
ply “my friend Jane” and to use
the word “girlfriend” to describe
a teenage love affair.
However, in Peggy’s Place (Spot-
light 9/18), Helen says she went
on holiday with a “girlfriend”. Has
the language changed again with
regard to what we should consid-
er to be “the right way”?
about business English
by e-mail with “Dear
Ken” in the subject line
to: language@
spotlight-verlag.de
Dear Ken Each month, I answer
I am a member of a newly set up international project two questions Spotlight
readers have sent in.
team. All of the team speak English as a second, third If one of them is your
or even fourth language. Because I am one of the bet- question, you’ll receive
a copy of my book: Dear
ter speakers of English, I have been asked to write up Ken... 101 answers to
the notes of our team videoconferences. I have never your questions about
written such meeting notes before. What should they business English. So
don’t forget to add your
look like? postal address.
Help!
Gerhard T.
Dear Gerhard
I understand your concerns. Writing the notes, or “min-
utes”, of a videoconference is quite demanding. When

⋅⋅
Best regards doing so, be sure to include the following:
Ira G. When the meeting was held.
Who was the meeting facilitator, who was present

⋅
Dear Ira and who was absent.
absent [(ÄbsEnt]
As you know, there are no hard All the proposals made and discussed during the , abwesend

⋅
and fast rules about the use of meeting.
brief [bri:f]
vocabulary. It changes over time, A short summary of the discussion of each item. , kurz
from generation to generation, (Don’t write everything that was said, just the main
comparatively

⋅⋅
and within different cultures and points.) [kEm(pÄrEtIvli]
social groups. A few lines summarizing any written or oral report. , vergleichsweise

⋅
In Peggy’s Place, one possible Reference to reports from previous meetings. concern [kEn(s§:n]
reason for Helen using the word The decisions taken and exactly who will do what , Sorge

⋅
“girlfriend” to refer to a friend and when. demanding [di(mA:ndIN]
who is a woman is that she and Items should be numbered to match the agenda , anspruchsvoll

her friend are comparatively
young. An older person might
simply say “friend”.
But different people use vocab-
ulary in different ways. It’s not
wrong to describe a female friend
as a “girlfriend”. I just prefer to
differentiate between a teenage
girlfriend and an adult relation-
ship.
Foto: Gert Krautbauer
sent out before the conference. differentiate
In an international team like yours, it is important to [)dIfE(renSieIt]
, unterscheiden
keep the language simple and straightforward. There-
fore, keep your notes as brief as possible without losing facilitator [fE(sIlEteItE]
, Moderator(in)
essential detail. It is very important that they are clear,
so that the follow-up is easy. hard and fast
[)hA:d End (fA:st]
You can find many examples of minutes and meeting , verbindlich, pauschal
notes online, simply by typing in “writing minutes”.
item [(aItEm]
These will give you a good idea of how to present and , Punkt
write your notes.

minutes [(mInIts]
Regards All the best , Protokoll
Ken Ken
straightforward
[)streIt(fO:wEd]
, einfach, unkompliziert

ENGLISH AT WORK 1/2019 Spotlight 63 

 CROSSWORD
Solution to puzzle 13/18:

Dealing with
dilapidated
M E M O R Y

unwelcome guests
I E R E A L I T Y
L C Y C L E
E O E S H I L L
R N T U
The words in this puzzle are taken from this issue’s American Life. M O N I T O R P X
You may find it helpful to refer to the text on page 26. E I V R U
P E R S P E C T I V E R
EASY MEDIUM ADVANCED S T S S P Y
C V S E R I E S
B A S I S D T
P E O R D E R
E W A N D E R

Across
2. A light, strong material that is pro-
1. 3. 4. duced by a chemical process.
5. 2. 6. A sweet fizzy drink.
7. A building or part of a building
8. where vehicles are kept.
9. Not sensible.
6. 7.
12. The rate at which something hap-
9. 10. pens.
14. “How much do you pay for this
9. place?”
15. To make, design or think of a new
11. 12. 13.
thing.
12. 16. Without any other people.
17. “He looked at them over the of
his glass.”
14. 15. 18. “Let me just the text for errors,
and then we can send it out.”

Down
16.
1. To go to see a person for a period of
17. 18. time.
3. “Headaches may be a of stress.”
4. Food that is firm and makes a noise
when you bite it.
5. Food used to catch an animal.
8. A long, straight piece of wood or
metal.
Competition 9. To spread a soft substance over a
surface.
Mitmachen und gewinnen! How to take part
10. “He didn’t seem in the least for
Form a single word from the letters in the coloured squares. her safety.”
Send it on a postcard to: 11. Immediate.
Redaktion Spotlight 12. “The old woman wagged her at
“Issue 1/19 Prize Puzzle” the naughty boys.”
Kistlerhofstraße 172
81379 Deutschland 13. Making very little noise.

Or go to www.spotlight-online.de/crossword, where you can

also find the list of winners of our crossword competition in
issue 12/18.

Ten winners will be chosen from the entries we receive by

30 January 2018. Each winner will be sent a copy of London
Stories by courtesy of Reclam.

64  Spotlight 1/2019 CROSSWORD

 AROUND OZ

And the world

laughs at us
Australien erlebt schon seit einigen Jahren eine
außergewöhnliche politische Instabilität. Dabei ist
fraglich, ob nach der Wahl im Parlament endlich
Ruhe eingekehrt.
ADVANCED AUDIO

W
hat most Australians are not looking forward to
in the new year is another federal election. In this
country, politicians are more than ever on the nose.
Over the past 10 years, seven prime ministers have
been knifed by their own colleagues, which further
supports the view that politicians are in it only for
themselves, not for the people who elect them.
Ex-PM Malcolm Turnbull, who quit parliament soon
after being thrown out of the top job last August, de-
scribed it as “a form of madness”.
Turnbull, a moderate conservative and highly
successful banker and barrister, was cut down by his
enemies on the far right of his oddly-named Liberal
Party. He successfully campaigned to get same-sex
laws through parliament and was seen as being too
soft on environmental issues. The hard-right also
wanted revenge because Turnbull had similarly de-
posed his predecessor, Tony Abbott (once quoted as
saying “climate change is crap”).
Oh, the Labor Party is no better, although it has
Fotos: yurchello108, Valentyna Chukhlyebova/Shutterstock.com
November, many people are strongly tipping that
it will be in May. Morrison was not the instigator of
Turnbull’s knifing and was elected leader by the party
as a sort of compromise candidate.
He was the former treasurer, a party campaign di-
rector in Sydney, after making his name as the first
managing director of the Tourism Australia agency
with some smart marketing strategies. He likes a beer
and football, but is also deeply religious, attending an
unconventional Pentecostal church in his Sydney
seaside electorate. However, his government has
been about four per cent behind in major opinion
polls for years. The party infighting has also meant
that it has lost a lot of financial support.
Shorten and the Labor Party, on the other hand,
have trade-union support and have been ready for a
poll for months. My forecast is that Labor will win,
but only narrowly, and that this will lead to three
more years of unstable government, while the Libe-
ral opposition continues its bloody internal war.

stuck with opposition leader Bill Shorten for more

than five years. He came within two seats of winning barrister [(bÄrIstE] UK, Aus. oddly [(Qdli]
, Rechtsanwalt, Rechtsanwältin , seltsam
government at the last election. But he was the or-
(bei höheren Gerichten)
chestrator of the coups that saw ex-PM Kevin Rudd opinion poll
crap [krÄp] ifml. [E(pInjEn )pEUl]
replaced by Julia Gillard, before Rudd was returned Meinungsumfrage
, Mist, Quatsch ,
to “save the furniture” only months in advance of
depose sb. [di(pEUz] PM (prime minister) [)pi: (em]
the 2013 election. In opinion polls over the past five , jmdn. entthronen, absetzen UK, Aus. ifml.
years, Shorten has never been ahead as “preferred , Premierminister(in)
electorate [i(lektErEt]
PM” and, not surprisingly, voters in independent fo- , Wahlkreis predecessor [(pri:dIsesE]
cus groups describe him as “shifty”. , Vorgänger(in)
instigator [(InstIgeItE]
Actually, they think all mainstream politicians are , Anstifter(in) revenge [ri(vendZ]
shifty, which is why loopy independents and extrem- , Rache
knife sb. [naIf] ifml.
PETER FLYNN is a ist minor parties have held a lot of power in Canberra , jmdm. in den Rücken fallen shifty [(SIfti] ifml.
public-relations over the past 10 years. We used to shake our heads in , verschlagen, durchtrieben
loopy [(lu:pi] ifml.
consultant and disbelief at chaotic Italian governments, but now we , durchgeknallt, verrückt treasurer [(treZErE]
social commenta-
wonder if the world is laughing at us. , Schatzmeister(in)
tor who lives in nose: be on the ~ [nEUz]
Perth, Western New PM Scott Morrison has to call an election in Aus., NZ ifml.
Australia. 2019, and while technically that could be as late as , verdorben, korrupt sein

AROUND OZ 1/2019 Spotlight 65 

 Unsere Topseller

Top 10 Bestseller Bücher 2018 Top 10 Bestseller Produkte 2018

SKILL UP-Bundle Spotlight Hörkrimi –

1. Artikel-Nr. 1759045.
€ 12,95 (D) / € 13,30 (A)
1. Ms Winslow investigates
CD. Artikel-Nr. 1714646.
€ 13,50 (D) / € 13,50 (A)

Perfektes Englisch A weekend in London

2. Artikel-Nr. 1663705.
€ 7,95 (D) / € 8,18 (A)
2. Spiel. Niveau B1-C2. Artikel-Nr. 1661929.
€ 29,99 (D) / € 29,99 (A)

Alltagstauglich –
Strangled
3. Englisch zum Mitreden
Niveau A1-A2. Artikel-Nr. 1663489. 3. CD. Niveau A2. Artikel-Nr. 1704129.
€ 12,00 (D) / € 12,34 (A) € 9,99 (D) / € 9,99 (A)

Pocket Spicker: Business English QUICK BUZZ – das Vokabelduell

4. Artikel-Nr. 1734702.
€ 5,99 (D) / € 6,16 (A)
4. Spiel. Niveau A1-B1. Artikel-Nr. 1661879.
€ 19,99 (D) / € 19,99 (A)

Flüssiges Englisch Sprachkalender Englisch 2019

5. Artikel-Nr. 1744866.
€ 9,99 (D) / € 10,28 (A)
5. Artikel-Nr. 1813647.
€12,95 (D) / €12,95 (A)

PONS Englisch blicken statt büffeln Have a good trip!

6. Artikel-Nr. 1704126.
€ 9,99 (D) / € 10,28 (A)
6. Das Sprach- und Reisespiel
Niveau A2-B2. Artikel-Nr. 1692985.
€ 24,00 (D) / € 24,00 (A)

Englisch – Übungen für zwischendurch CASIO EX-word EW-G200

7. Niveau A1-B1. Artikel-Nr. 1744885.
€ 12,50 (D) / € 12,86 (A)
7. Artikel-Nr. 1661688.
€ 99,90 (D) / € 99,90 (A)

I got it! Are you joking?

8. Niveau A2-B2. Artikel-Nr. 1815085.
€ 9,99 (D) / € 10,28 (A)
8. Spiel. Niveau B1-C2. Artikel-Nr. 1693005.
€ 14,99 (D) / € 14,99 (A)

Hueber Sprachkurs Plus Englisch A Deadly Puzzle

9. Niveau B1. Artikel-Nr. 1791685. 9. CD. Niveau B1. Artikel-Nr. 1802325.
€ 7,99 (D) / € 7,99 (A)
€ 25,00 (D) / € 25,71 (A)

Langenscheidt Fit in 30 Tagen Langenscheidt Sprachkalender 2019

10. Niveau A2-B2. Artikel-Nr. 1782605.
€ 17,99 (D) / € 18,50 (A)
10. Artikel-Nr. 1802326.
€ 9,99 (D) / € 9,99 (A)
des Jahres 2018!

JETZT NEU!

-20% Jahrgänge 2018

Nutzen Sie die Gelegenheit,
alle 13 Ausgaben des Jahres 2018
zu bestellen – um Wissenswertes zu
erfahren und Versäumtes nachzuholen.
Der Magazin-, der Übungsheft-Plus-
wie auch der Audio-CD-Jahrgang sind
um 20 % vergünstigt.

Magazin-Jahrgang Magazin: E-Paper-Jahrgang

Art.-Nr. 1813306. Art.-Nr. 1813344.
€ 77,60 (D) € 79,78 (A) € 77,60 (D) / € 79,78 (A)

Übungsheft-Plus-Jahrgang Übungsheft-Plus: E-Paper-Jahrgang

Art.-Nr. 1813338. Art.-Nr. 1813390.
€ 47,60 (D) / € 48,93 (A) € 47,60 (D) / € 48,93 (A)

Audio-CD-Jahrgang Audio: Download-Jahrgang

Art.-Nr. 1813331. Art.-Nr. 1813345.
€ 130,80 (D) / € 130,80 (A) € 130,80 (D) / € 130,80 (A)

Entdecken Sie unseren Sprachenshop:

Der Onlineshop für Sprachprodukte
Bücher, Hörbücher, Computerkurse, DVDs & mehr
Für abwechslungsreiches Lernen und Lehren

Tel. +49 (0)89 / 95 46 99 55
Jetzt unter sprachenshop.de/spotlight
 INDEX | 2018

EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH

1
— 2 3 4 5 6
18 — — — — —
18 18 18 18 18

Language On the phone

T
The language
Vokabeln Our story, BESTSELLER of telephoning
GRATIS
BESSER
So erweitern your ending

ÜBUNGSHEFT
Sie Ihren
englischen VINTAGE Crime
Read our new

ENGLISCH
LONDON
Wortschatz Ms Winslow
short story
24 Seiten

LERNEN!

31
Discover retro experiences

Deutschland € 7,90
x ted

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,00

in the British capital
1

CH sfr 13,00
une pec

NEW L K
TIPS
Simple ideas
WHO’S WHO? to help you

100
improve
your English
Interview

DA SKTE
with an
expert
1 5
The
Learning
m
English will
char

A
ide
UAY

YORK
change your

FE
Seas
TORQ
life!

British PERCHEN-INBURGH
Perfect

PEOPLE IN
harmony
Meet
Deutschland € 7,90

the world-
A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,00

WO NDE ED
ily fu
Deutschland € 7,90

Deutschland € 7,90

Deutschland € 7,90

Deutschland € 7,90
in Germany
A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,00

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,00

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,00

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,00

famous

BRITAIN
CH sfr 13,00

King’s Fam
CH sfr 13,00

CH sfr 13,00

CH sfr 13,00

CH sfr 13,00
Singers

IA E
YOU SHOULD 1
British communities in Hamburg,
Munich, Frankfurt and Berlin
ylls
ish id

!
N
Engl

R
AVAR

E
KNOW

T
T
TA K E A TO U R O F S EC R E T N YC like writer

Ä
B

L
Zadie Smith,

B
M
our no. 97

U
E
T
IT
B
The best of Spotlight
Die wichtigsten Artikel des letzten Jahres hier im Überblick zum Nachschlagen und Nachlesen.

COLUMNS Britain Today My Life in English Artisans

American Life New towns for a new year Eckart Witzigmann 1/18 Quiltmaker 1/18
Our neighbors to the north 1/18 Tyron Ricketts 2/18 Harris-tweed weaver 2/18
1/18 The price of a new shop 2/18 Lorenz Knauer 3/18 Toymaker 3/18
How to drive yourself crazy Winnie-the-Manager 3/18 Samuel Koch 4/18 Saddler 5/18
2/18 The name’s M 4/18 Inga-Gesine Horchler 5/18 Weaver 7/18
Asking too much? 3/18 A BBC drama 5/18 Joseph Hannesschläger 6/18 Blacksmith 8/18
All’s fair at the fair 4/18 A hell of a problem 6/18 Philipp Christopher 7/18 Mosaic maker 9/18
The end of time 5/18 One man’s rubbish... 7/18 Nicole Battefeld 8/18 Baker 12/18
How to throw the bum out When in doubt, write it out Cristina Do Rego 9/18 Sign painter 13/18
6/18 8/18 Volker Klüpfel and Michael
An American in Prague 7/18 Second-guessing 9/18 Kobr 10/18 Food
History then — and now 8/18 Going swimmingly 10/18 Thomas Oppenheimer 11/18 Cuban cuisine in Florida 1/18
Hands off my culture! 9/18 The return of mother’s ruin Julia Seyffardt 12/18 Barbecue in the American
When is tech too intelligent? 11/18 Larissa Riess 13/18 South 7/18
10/18 Fishy business 12/18 Food Special: A slice of the pie
No fighting at the table 11/18 Love English? Oh, yes we do! ARTICLES 12/18
Getting into the spirit 12/18 13/18 A Day in My Life
To our great nation 13/18 Female trucker (US) 1/18 Grammar Tales
I Ask Myself Irish whiskey distiller (UK) Rumpelpumpkin 11/18
Around Oz When the solution is “me, too” 2/18 The Gingerbeard Man 12/18
Hallelujah, it’s back to school! 1/18 Musician (Australia) 3/18 The Prince and the Pea 13/18
1/18 The Manson effect 2/18 Animal charity worker (Gam-
Painkillers that are killing us When fake news is the objec- bia) 4/18 History
2/18 tive 3/18 Park ranger (US) 5/18 Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Riding the political merry-go- In the Grey’s zone 4/18 Animal rescuer (US) 6/18 1/18
round 3/18 Here’s to Hope 5/18 Spotlight intern (Puerto Rico) The Beatles’ film Yellow Subma-
Aussie adventure 4/18 Let’s change the conversation 7/18 rine 7/18
Can robots do it all? 5/18 6/18 Social entrepreneur (Liberia) Downing Street Declaration
This is when I really won’t care Who follows Fox? 7/18 8/18 13/18
6/18 Why do we love the royals so? Study-tour teacher (Australia)
Sweet little lies 7/18 8/18 9/18 Language
Friends with the landlord 8/18 A cruel, cruel summer 9/18 Podcaster (US) 10/18 A happening classroom 1/18
Closer to the Middle King- Friends, both real and ima- Nurse (Australia) 11/18 Extend your vocabulary 2/18
dom 9/18 gined 10/18 Food-truck manager (US) Growing up bilingual 3/18
It’s not in the bag yet 10/18 High hopes of Harvard 11/18 12/18 The song of the cuckoo 4/18
Selling sausages for a good Hoping to eat with the presi- Entrepreneur (Ireland) 13/18 Simply better English 5/18
cause 11/18 dent 12/18 The language of phone calls
Time to tuck in 12/18 The boys we knew 13/18 6/18
My top 10 for summer 13/18

68  Spotlight 1/2019 INDEX

 EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH

7 8 9 10 11 12
— — — — — —
18 18 18 18 18 18

English at
Travel Trump country work
A bike tour in Voices from Dublin
20 pages of Organizing
New Zealand language learning the American Your guide a business

Find your level of English ...

South to the dinner
Adjectives you The Black Dog
Food
Irish capital SPEZIAL
On the US
barbecue trail
need to know THIS Short story
Romance
A new short- Vocabulary
Sending text MONTH! story series In the
messages in 20 GRAMMAR
in the English
countryside
DIE SPRACHE kitchen
business
and
True crime
DER ENGLISCHEN
How to make
suggestions
LANGUAGE
How one KÜCHE
exercises
man brought
down a bank
Talking crime
The language ADVANCED

MEDIUM
of mystery
and murder

- CR

EASY
Hot! in
er IME
Summcit
the y TIME
NEW - CR
7.30 Liege mit
Handtuch
besetzen
10.30 Yoga
BRITISH IME
TIME
YORK EASY AS PIE
12.30 Mit Rätseln,

Deutschland € 8,50
Deutschland € 7,90

Deutschland € 8,50

Deutschland € 8,50

Deutschland € 8,50

Deutschland € 8,50

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,00

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

GARDENS

CH sfr 13,90
CH sfr 13,00

Quizfragen
CH sfr 13,90

CH sfr 13,90

CH sfr 13,90

CH sfr 13,90
und Übungen
- CR
IME
in Spotlight

TIME • ... and be •a winner

mein Englisch English is delicious! Join us in the kitchen
aufbessern
THE LOVELIEST PLACES TO VISIT for a language-learning feast.
What level is your English? (p. 14) Learn grammar with fun stories (p. 28)
• Improve your skills with our 16-page language section ( from p. 47)

Summer language quiz 7/18 Short Story Culture Summer in NYC 8/18
Awesome adjectives 8/18 Ms Winslow is back: The King’s Singers 5/18 Wonderful English gardens
Spell well! 10/18 The barrow king The ABC of British gardens 9/18
Find your level of English Chapters 1–3 1/18 9/18 City break: Dublin 10/18
11/18 One nation under coffee 2/18 ...and then I went to the Oh, Canada! 11/18
The language of cooking 12/18 Starting over 3/18 Ohrenarzt 11/18 Food travel 12/18
Become a better writer 13/18 Stitched up! 4/18 Safari on horseback 13/18
The prince of the plantation The UK, the US and Australia
Living Language 5/18 in Germany World Map
Boozing it up 1/18 Ms Winslow investigates: The Rosa Parks house, Berlin Travel destinations 1/18
These Gauls are crazy! 2/18 Election madness 1/18 Internet access 2/18
Flipping heck! 3/18 Chapter 1 6/18 The British in Germany — Container traffic 3/18
How gross! 4/18 Chapter 2 7/18 Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, A royal wedding: Harry to
How do you say “21”? 5/18 Chapter 3 8/18 Berlin 2/18 marry 5/18
Just black and white 7/18 Diversify or die 9/18 A collector of classic Jaguar Life expectancy 7/18
There and back, and back again The black dog — dognapping cars 3/18 Conservation areas 8/18
8/18 10/18 Australian Rules 4/18 Murder rates 10/18
Don’t toy with us! 9/18 Gumboots and dirndls 11/18 Gin made in the Black Forest Fun facts about English 11/18
Living Language quiz 10/18 An eye for an eye 12/18 6/18 Food around the world 12/18
The conservation of the spe- Turner on the Rhine 7/18 It’s a plastic world 13/18
Press Gallery cies 13/18 American beer in Berlin 8/18
Children’s mental health 1/18 A Brexit garden in Germany Interview
Twitter’s blue ticks 2/18 Society 9/18 James Schofield: author of the
Verdict on a system in crisis Vintage London 3/18 English from preschool to Ms Winslow crime stories
3/18 100 of Britain’s best and postgrad 10/18 1/18
On fake video 4/18 brightest 4/18 Remembering the fallen Charles Gordon-Lennox:
The Charity Commission 5/18 Pakistan — behind the head- 11/18 vintage-car racing festival
On regulating Facebook 6/18 lines 5/18 Cold War castle 13/18 3/18
Shoe-box Britain 7/18 A sporting chance for Glas- Dan Davies: economist and
Brexit and the royal wedding gow 8/18 Travel author of Living for Money
8/18 A road trip through Trump Quirky New York City 1/18 10/18
Banning mobile phones in country 9/18 A fairy-tale family holiday in Professor LeRoy Panek on
schools 9/18 Rogue trader: Nick Leeson Wales 2/18 crime writing 10/18
Trump’s trade wars 10/18 10/18 Viva Las Vegas! 3/18 Dirk van Gunsteren: literary
On Iran and sanctions: the EU Puerto Rico: Our former in- The only way is... Essex 4/18 translator 11/18
stands firm 11/18 tern reports on life back home All eyes on Washington, DC Ciaran Nolan: chef at Kilian’s
On alcohol: drinking less is (US) 12/18 5/18 Irish Pub 12/18
good for you 12/18 Winter in Britain 13/18 The perfect weekend: Torquay,
Big data and insurance: know- Edinburgh, Bavaria 6/18
ing too much 13/18 New Zealand by bike 7/18

INDEX 1/2019 Spotlight 69 

 INDEX | 2018

EINFACH BESSER ENGLISCH

13 / 2018

13
—
18

Have you missed out on issues of Spotlight

Short story
Better Back to
the future
grammar
SPECIAL Britain in winter • LANGUAGE Tips for writing • TRAVEL South Africa

now! Safari in
Africa
20 PAGES A family
holiday
of tips and exercises
for you to try

in 2018? Take advantage of our special offer

on page 67 and get all 13 issues at a specially
BRITAIN reduced price.
Deutschland € 8,50

A·E ·I ·L · SK: € 9,60

IN WINTER
CH sfr 13,90

Cool things to do: castles to visit, events to enjoy,

books to read and films to watch

LANGUAGE SECTION English Explained Spoken English

English at Work Houston, we have a problem Same here! 1/18
A guided tour in English and 11/18 It was all go today 2/18
replying to “How are you?” The devil wears Prada 12/18 Over the moon 3/18
1/18 Think different(ly)! 13/18 Do you want a hand? 4/18
Responding to greetings and Look out! 5/18
negotiating 2/18 The Grammar Page Half the battle 6/18
Contractions and internation- Using “one”, “ones” and Soaked to the skin 7/18
al English 3/18 “some” 1/18 Why don’t you try...? 8/18
“Have” and “have got”, and Using phrasal verbs 2/18 It cost a fortune 9/18
kick-off meetings 4/18 Expressing future probability Look on the bright side 10/18
Brexit vocabulary and struc- 3/18 Don’t blame me! 11/18
tured e-mails 5/18 Using tag questions 4/18 It’s not my cup of tea 12/18
Small talk on the phone and Adverbs and phrases of fre- Really? 13/18
improving your e-mails 6/18 quency 5/18
Commas and taking time out Formulating questions 6/18 Vocabulary
from a negotiation 7/18 Using “already”, “still” and Police work 1/18
Using modern communica- “yet” 7/18 On the table 2/18
tion devices 8/18 Ellipsis (= leaving things out) Growing herbs 3/18
Storytelling and writing a 8/18 At the vet’s 4/18
reference 9/18 Singular and plural nouns At the optician’s 5/18
“Shall” and “will”, and building 9/18 A day at the races 6/18
good relationships 10/18 Prepositions of time and dura- Evenings outside 7/18
Giving a lecture and using tion 10/18 At the flea market 8/18
semicolons 11/18 Aim and purpose 11/18 Family relationships 9/18
Seating arrangements and Wh-questions 12/18 The scene of a crime 10/18
hosting foreign guests 12/18 Verbs and adjectives with Bonfire Night 11/18
Telephone conferences and prepositions 13/18 In the kitchen 12/18
writing Christmas cards to Going to a panto 13/18
business contacts 13/18 Lost in Translation
Maverick 1/18 Words that Go Together
Everyday English Wherewithal 2/18 “Start” and “finish” 1/18
Tidying up 1/18 Scare quotes 3/18 “Town” and “city” 2/18
Relationships 2/18 The real McCoy 4/18 “Paper +” 3/18
At the hairdresser’s 3/18 Wont 5/18 “Easter” and “spring” 4/18
Getting things done 4/18 Substitute 6/18 “Road” and “street” 5/18
Stand-up paddling 5/18 Piecemeal 7/18 “Chair” and “stool” 6/18
Shopping 6/18 Boondoggle 8/18 Collocations for the seaside
Getting ready for holiday 7/18 Nitpick 9/18 7/18
At the park 8/18 Blood and guts 10/18 “Boat” and “ship” 8/18
First day at college 9/18 Blighty 11/18 “Floor” and “ground” 9/18
Witnessing a crime 10/18 Beef 12/18 Halloween 10/18
A weekend away 11/18 A chip on one’s shoulder 13/18 “Cut” and “slice” 11/18
Getting the caterers in 12/18 Food names 12/18
Baking for Christmas 13/18 “Ride” and “drive” 13/18

70  Spotlight 1/2019 INDEX

 BRITAIN TODAY

Taken for a ride

In Großbritannien können Züge und Technologie
eine gefährliche Kombination sein.
EASY AUDIO

L
ast summer, I took a train to Exeter to spend some
time with a charming group of visitors. They were on
a tour of Devon and Cornwall that had been organ-
ized by Spotlight and Zeit Reisen. We had arranged to
meet by the quay, where, in the old days, ships were
loaded with wool. It came from local farms, and it
brought Exeter much of its wealth.
My journey didn’t start very well. As I waited for
my train, an Asian lady came hurrying along the
platform saying, “War! War!” in a rather loud voice.
Alarming news, but she was waving a ticket, which
soon explained the mystery: she and her husband
were looking for the train to Wool, a village in Dorset.
They hadn’t chosen the easiest destination to pro-
nounce. Historically, the name Wool seems to have
more to do with wells than with wool. But never
mind that. To quote Shakespeare, “all’s wool that ends
Fotos: Viktor Kunz, Betty Stares, Evannovostro/Shutterstock.com; privat
a girl on the train had grasped the situation and ges-
ticulated more gracefully, and also effectively.
I’m sure that automation’s the key to solving such
problems. Soon we’ll no doubt be able to change elec-
tronic announcements to the language of our choice
with a flick of a mobile phone. Great for customer
service, but will the staff still have jobs? Another
reason for them to feel stressed and depressed.
Later, when I’d caught my own train, and with
lovely Wiltshire countryside rolling past the window,
the electronic display kept listing all the stations on
the route. It was supposed to be reassuring, but each
time it repeated the list, it announced that the next
station would be Clapham Junction, which is in Lon-
don. It’s a station with almost 20 platforms.
My train was travelling in the opposite direction,
on a single-track line in the middle of nowhere, in

wool”. I mean, “all’s well that ends well” — or not? countryside where sheep outnumber people.
Once they were on their train, I realized from the Technology helps — except when it’s trying to pull
automated announcement that only half of it was go- the wool over your eyes.
ing to Wool. The other half didn’t go beyond Bourne-
mouth, and they were in the wrong half.
flick [flIk] rail passenger [(reI&l )pÄsIndZE]
“That’s their problem,” said the station official , Schnipser , Bahnkunde, -kundin
when I told him. Not a friendly response, but the
gracefully [(greIsf&li] reassuring [)ri:E(SO:rIN]
train was waiting for him to say it could leave. He was , anmutig , beruhigend
clearly under pressure.
grasp [grA:sp] single-track [)sINg&l (trÄk]
I bit my lip, but not all rail passengers do. Recently, , begreifen , eingleisig
many have been very angry about trains that were mystified [(mIstIfaId] staff [stA:f]
late or cancelled as a result of strikes and mistakes in , verwirrt , Personal, Mitarbeiter (Pl.)
the timetable. They get upset with station staff, who official [E(fIS&l] supposed: be ~ to be [sE(pEUst]
can’t do much about it, and just get stressed. , Bedienstete(r) , sein sollen
COLIN BEAVEN
I did knock on the window and gesticulate, how- outnumber [)aUt(nVmbE] well [wel]
is a freelance ever, trying to make it clear across a language and , in der Mehrheit sein , Quelle, Brunnen
writer. He lives culture barrier — and through a thick pane of glass pane [peIn] wool: pull the ~ over sb.’s eyes
and works in
— that the visitors needed to move. I don’t imagine , Fensterscheibe [wUl]
Southampton on
that trains in the Far East are often split mid-journey, , jmdn. hinters Licht führen
the south coast quay [ki:]
of England. so the people just sat there looking mystified. Luckily, , Kai, Ufermauer

BRITAIN TODAY 1/2019 Spotlight 71 

 PEGGY’S PLACE

Remember when...?
Peggy und ihre Gäste schwelgen in Erinnerungen –
und das stellt sich als eine sehr nützliche Übung heraus.
Von INEZ SHARP
MEDIUM AUDIO

Sean Phil & Peggy Helen George Jane

Peggy: I’ve looked everywhere. Helen: Where exactly were the records
Helen: What is it that you’ve lost? “There’s just a lot hidden?
Phil: Hi, Helen! She’s trying to find Peggy: Here, beside the bar. We knocked
Simone’s diary.
going on in the run-up an old wall away, and there they were.
Peggy: I was so sure I’d put it in my to New Year” Phil: The covers were a bit dusty, but the
handbag. records were in mint condition.
Helen: You’ve lost your granddaughter’s happened at this place. Then I think no Helen: Just imagine, if you hadn’t done
diary? What were you doing with it in the one would believe me. that renovation, the pub would have been
first place? George: I’m in the mood for some good sold, someone else would probably have
Peggy: I didn’t take it to read, if that’s what stories. What are your favourite incidents discovered them and...
you’re implying. — if I may ask? George: ...we wouldn’t all be sitting here
Phil: You’ll have to excuse my wife’s Peggy: Hmm, let me think. now.
tetchy tone. Phil: What about the time when Jane had Peggy: True, that’s why I had this little
Peggy: I am not being tetchy. There’s just a semi-nude picture painted of herself as a cupboard made. See? It’s just where the
a lot going on in the run-up to New Year. nymph and wanted us to hang it between old wall began.
And now this! some shrubs in the beer garden? Helen: What do you keep in there?
Phil: It’s just a teenager’s diary. George: I remember that. It was a fine Phil: Peggy calls it the glory hole. She puts
Helen: Sorry, but “just a teenager’s diary”? painting. anything really important in there that
Have you any idea how important a diary Peggy: I liked it when those crazy Ger- she doesn’t want to forget.
is to a teenage girl? mans came here to make a film. Peggy: I’ve just remembered where I put
Peggy: At last someone who understands. Phil: The only reason you remember it is the diary!
Now, where can I have left it? because you had a crush on the director.
Helen: I still have to ask: why did you Helen: What about the time when you
have it in the first place? found those valuable records behind a
crush: have a ~ on sb. mint [mInt]
Peggy: Jane was invited to a party, so wall somewhere? [krVS] ifml. , hier: einwandfrei
Simone stayed with us last night. Phil: Oh, yeah, that was really exciting. , in jmdn. verknallt sein
rowdy [(raUdi]
Helen: And Simone left the diary behind... Peggy: It would actually make a great sto- family jewels , ungehobelt
Peggy: Exactly! ry for a film. [)fÄmli (dZu:Elz] ifml.
run-up: in the ~ to sth.
George: Hi, everyone! I’ll have the usual, George: What happened to the records? , männliche Genitalien
[(rVn Vp]
Phil. Someone told me they saw the police Peggy: You can’t have forgotten. They glory hole , in der Zeit vor etw.
here yesterday. What was going on? were really worth a lot of money. We sold [(glO:ri hEUl] ifml.
semi-nude [)semi (nju:d]
, Rumpelkammer
Phil: Oh, just a very rowdy customer who them, and that’s how we were able to keep , halbnackt
didn’t want to go home and kept trying to the pub going. It was an incredible piece imply [Im(plaI]
shrub [SrVb]
, andeuten
show Peggy his family jewels. of luck. , Strauch
Peggy: Sometimes I think I should write Phil: Yeah, business was really bad at the incident [(InsIdEnt]
tetchy [(tetSi]
, Vorfall
a book about all the things that have time. , gereizt

72  Spotlight 1/2019 PEGGY’S PLACE

 Adesso und Spotlight präsentieren: „Die Sprache des Weines“

6 Spitzenweine aus der

Weinregion Sizilien
NUR

79,95 €*
6 EDLE WEINE + 
BEGLEITBUCH +
VOKABELN

Was wäre das Land Ihrer Lieblingssprache ohne die genussvollen und berühmten Weine,
die es hervorbringt? Adesso und Spotlight möchten Ihnen 6 davon präsentieren.

RARITÄTEN VON DER VULKANINSEL

Unsere exklusive Weinedition widmet sich der größten und geschichtsträchtigsten
Weinbauregion Italiens. Die Winzer am Ätna wissen um die Einzigartigkeit ihrer
Kulturlandschaft und begegnen ihr mit Demut, Respekt und Liebe. Freuen Sie sich, gleich
mehrere Weine dieser Region in diesem Paket kennenzulernen.

DAS EXKLUSIVE GENUSSPAKET

Ein umfangreiches Begleitbuch mit exklusiven Portraits über die Winzer dieser 6 Weine
lädt ein, die Insel Sizilien selbst zu erkunden. Jedes Weinpaket enthält zudem einen Gruß
aus der Adesso-Redaktion, die Übersichtskarte „Sprache des Weines“ mit den wichtigsten
Italienisch-Vokabeln und Redewendungen zum Thema Wein.

GENIESSEN SIE IHRE VORTEILE:

• 6 ausdrucksvolle Weine von hervorragenden Winzern der Region,
exklusiv zusammengestellt in dieser Edition
• Begleitbuch „Sizilien“ (64 S.) mit individuellen Porträts aller 6 Weingüter
• Übersichtskarte „Die Sprache des Weines“ – die wichtigsten Vokabeln auf einen Blick

Einfach und bequem bestellen: www.adesso-online.de/sizilien

oder unter 089 / 95 46 99 55. Bestellnummer: 180 42 65

* zzgl. Versandkosten. 1 Hersteller/Importeur: Cusumano/ Fischer+Trezza Import GmbH; 13 Vol. %; Allergenhinweis: enthält Sulfite • 2 Hersteller/Importeur: Tasca d’Almerita/ Consigliovini Weinhandelsagentur GmbH;
12,5 Vol. %; Allergenhinweis: enthält Sulfite • 3 Hersteller/Importeur: Cottanera/ Fischer+Trezza Import GmbH; 12,5 Vol. %; Allergenhinweis: enthält Sulfite • 4 Hersteller/Importeur: Pietradolce/ Fischer+Trezza
Import GmbH; 13,5 Vol. %; Allergenhinweis: enthält Sulfite • 5 Hersteller/Importeur: Alta Mora/ Fischer+Trezza Import GmbH; 14 Vol. %; Allergenhinweis: enthält Sulfite • 6 Hersteller/Importeur: Masseria del Feudo/
Fischer+Trezza Import GmbH; 13,5 Vol. %; Allergenhinweis: enthält Sulfite. Anbieter: Spotlight Verlag GmbH, Kistlerhofstr. 172, 81379 München
 THE LIGHTER SIDE
The Argyle Sweater

“Give me a Unhappy
one-handed economist! birthday
My girlfriend
All my economists say, isn’t talking to
‘On the one hand... me. She said I
ruined her 30th
on the other...’.” birthday. I’m
Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), 33rd President not sure how.
of the United States I didn’t even
know it was her
birthday.

Hurry up!
One evening, a woman hears sounds com-
by Scott Hilburn
ing from her garden. She looks out of the
window and sees three men breaking into
her garage. She calls the police, but they tell

Cartoons: © 2017 Scott Hilburn/Distributed by Universal Uclick/Bulls Press; © 2016 PEANUTS Worldwide LLC, Dist. by Universal Uclick/Bulls Press; Illustration: wektorygrafika/istock.com
her it could take a while, because they don’t
A good investment
have anyone in her area. The woman puts
Armageddon Two mice are sitting in a
the phone down, counts to 30 and then calls
I was helping my son hole listening to a cat say
again. “I just rang about some burglars,” she
with his homework, “Miaow, miaow!” as it walks
says. “Well, you don’t have to worry now. I’ve
and he asked me up and down outside. Suddenly,
shot them all.” Within five minutes, there
what Armageddon they hear a loud “Bow-wow-wow!”
are six police cars outside her house, and
was. He got really up- and then silence. Thinking the cat
the burglars are caught. One of the officers
set when I told him has been chased away, the mice
approaches the woman. “I thought you said
I didn’t know. go outside and are immediately
you’d shot them.” The woman replies, “And
I thought to myself, caught and eaten by the cat. After
I thought you said there was no one in my
“Come on, it’s not its meal, the cat thinks to itself:
area.”
the end of the world, “I always knew it would be useful
is it?” to have a second language.”

Parents’ car
A young man borrows his parents’ car to go
Compiled by Owen Connors
out for the night. The next morning,
he meets his parents at the breakfast table.
approach [E(prEUtS] burglar [(b§:glE] unwrap [)Vn(rÄp]
“I’ve got some good news and some bad
, auf jmdn. zugehen, , Einbrecher(in) , auspacken; hier:
news about your car,” he says. “OK, so give jmdn. ansprechen ausziehen
chase [tSeIs]
us the good news first,” his mother says
billion [(bIljEn] , jagen
nervously. The son replies, “Well, the airbag , Milliarde(n)
definitely works...”

Peanuts by Charles M. Schulz

74  Spotlight 1/2019 THE LIGHTER SIDE

 MARKTPLATZ – MARKETPLACE
SPRACHKURSE UND SPRACHFERIEN
Lernen Sie Englisch
in Cornwall DIALOG
www.learnenglishincornwall.co.uk Sprachreisen & Sprachkurse weltweit
Julie Tamblin MA - 0044 (0) 1208 871 184
DIALOG-SPRACHREISEN
SPRACHREISEN | HIGH SCHOOL | T. 0761 286470ìwww.dialog.de
AUSLANDSPRAKTIKA www.gls-sprachenzentrum.de IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH
IN ENGLAND
One-to-one English courses
Living in your teacher’s home.

Französisch in Montpellier
FERIENHÄUSER
www.ila-france.com
www.easyfrenchmontpellier.com LUST auf TOSKANA?
Ferienhäuser mit Privatpool in
Alleinlage jetzt buchen!
https://www.toskanaferiendomizil.de
Info: 0177 - 7464025, Frau Corsten

VIDEOS

Mejora tu español
gratis con videos
SPRACHPRODUKTE subtitulados.
www.ganasdehablar.com

Besser mit Sprachen

Der Online-Shop
...weil jeder Mensch
wertvoll ist

zum Sprachenlernen

shop.spotlight-verlag.de

ktiven
Perspenken!
SPIELEN SCHAFFT ZUKUNFT sc h e

Chancen dort, wo sie am

meisten gebraucht werden!

www.righttoplay.de HALT
GEBEN.
Kontakt für Anzeigenkunden Jeder Mensch hat das Recht
auf chirurgische Versorgung.

Nächste +49-89/85681-131/-135 Mit einer Berücksichtigung von

Mercy Ships in Ihrem Testa-
Anzeigentermine: Spotlight Verlag GmbH – Ihr Ansprechpartner für Beratung und Verkauf ment helfen wir den Ärmsten
der Armen in Afrika.
anzeige@spotlight-verlag.de, www.spotlight-verlag.de/mediadaten
Ausgabe Anzeigenschluss
03/2019 23.01.2019 MERCY SHIPS DEUTSCHLAND E. V.
04/2019 20.02.2019 RUDOLF-DIESEL-STR. 5
86899 LANDSBERG AM LECH
05/2019 13.03.2019
TEL. 08191/98550-13

www.mercyships.de
 FEEDBACK
Dear Spotlight team
You once wrote about a dictionary you
would very much recommend as a learn-
ing tool for people who want to know
more than just the meaning of a word.
I knew that it would be exactly what I
needed to expand my knowledge of En-
glish, and I would like to buy it — but I do
not know any more which dictionary it is.
Maybe you know the one I mean. It
seems always to be on the desk of your
editor-in-chief or another member of
your team.
This mail should also be an opportuni-
ty to express my great pleasure in having
subscribed to Spotlight (the magazine,
the audio product and the plus booklet).
I appreciate this material very much for
the great variety of topics covered, and I
have been using it for years (first Adesso,
then Ecos, now Spotlight). Have a good day!
Kind regards,
Marianne Bonjour, by e-mail
WORDPLAY
nativism
A policy of favouring native
inhabitants as opposed to immigrants.
EASY
76  Spotlight 1/2019
Dear Ms Bonjour
I believe you must be referring to the
book tips that we published in the August
2017 issue of Spotlight. In fact, I remember
writing the review of the dictionary that
I think you have in mind. It was the Collins
Cobuild Advanced Learner’s Dictionary.
This volume has indeed been a firm
favourite of mine ever since my student
days, and I can highly recommend it to
you. If you would like to buy it, a brand-
new edition came out in June. The new
ISBN is 978-3468490699.
We’re very happy to hear that you en-
joy Spotlight magazine as well as all of its
associated products. We put a lot of love
and hard work into what we do, and it’s
wonderful to hear from our readers that
our efforts are appreciated.
All the best,
Petra Daniell, language editor
Example:
“Senator Bob Menendez, a member of
the Senate Foreign Relations Commit-
tee, blasted the decision as one ‘driven by
nativist impulses’.”
— from the Miami Herald
appeal to [E(pi:&l tu] displacement
, hier: gefallen [dIs(pleIsmEnt]
, Vertreibung
blast [blA:st]
, scharf kritisieren sentiment [(sentImEnt]
, Geisteshaltung,
blow [blEU] Meinung
, Schlag
cruel [(kru:El]
, grausam, herzlos
Dear Ms Sharp
“A road trip through Trump country” by
Colm Flynn in the September 2018 issue
was simply excellent and possibly one
of the best articles I’ve ever read in your
magazine. Thanks for that. Kind regards,
Hansi Schneeberger, by e-mail
Dear Mr Schneeberger,
Thanks very much for the kind feedback.
I agree! Best regards,
Inez Sharp, editor-in-chief
The use of “nativist” in the example on the
left came after the Trump government
announced the end of the special immi-
gration status of 200,000 people from El
Salvador in early 2018. This was seen by
many as especially cruel, because in 2001,
the small Central American country had
been struck by earthquakes that caused
the displacement of more than a million
people.
As reported in the Miami Herald news-
paper, such a decision would perhaps ap-
peal to some nativist supporters of Pres-
ident Donald Trump, people for whom
any blow to immigrants is a win for all
other Americans — a fine sentiment
from those who live in what can only be
described as “a nation of immigrants”.
by Claudine Weber-Hof
FEEDBACK
 NEXT ISSUE

Los Angeles without a car

The City of Angels is an automobile-
obsessed megalopolis, no doubt about it.
But things are changing. Talitha Linehan
takes us on a tour of this West Coast city
to demonstrate how it is possible — and
indeed enjoyable — to get around LA
without a car.

Grammar made simple

Mastering English grammar is a challenge
for anyone. In this feature, we give you
the chance to test yourself on the most
important grammatical structures and
to refresh your knowledge of essential
rules. Easy-to-follow tips will help you to
feel more confident when applying them.

Spotlight 2/19 is on sale from

23 January

IMPRESSUM
Herausgeber/Geschäftsführer Autoren Gesamt-Anzeigenleitung Stuttgart
Jan Henrik Groß Amy Argetsinger (US), Colin Matthias Weidling Tel. +49 (0)711/96666-560 LESERSERVICE Konditionen
Beaven (UK), Dr. Karl Brehmer, (DIE ZEIT, V.i.S.d.P) sales-muenchen@iqm.de Abonnement pro Ausgabe
Chefredakteurin Vanessa Clark (UK), Adrian Doff, Tel. +49 (0)40/32 80-142 Fragen zu Abonnement und (14 Ausgaben p.a.)
Inez Sharp Julian Earwaker (UK), Anna matthias.weidling@zeit.de Hamburg Einzelbestellungen
Hochsieder, Peter Flynn (Australia), Tel. +49 (0)40/30183-102 Deutschland € 7,90 inkl. MwSt.
Art Director Ginger Kuenzel (US), Eve Lucas, Leitung Kooperationen sales-hamburg@iqm.de Unser Serviceportal erreichen Sie und Versandkosten
Michael Scheufler Clare Maas, Chad Smith, Dagmar Key Account Managerin 24 Stunden täglich unter: Österreich € 7,90 inkl. MwSt.
Taylor, Ken Taylor (UK) Sprachenmarkt Berlin https://kundenportal. zzgl. € 0,85 Versandkosten
Verlag und Redaktion Iriet Yusuf Tel. +49 (0)40/30183-102 spotlight-verlag.de Schweiz sfr 10,30 zzgl. sfr 1,50
Spotlight Verlag GmbH Leiter Redaktionsmanagement Tel. +49 (0)89/8 56 81-135 sales-hamburg@iqm.de Versandkosten
Kistlerhofstraße 172 Thorsten Mansch i.yusuf@spotlight-verlag.de Abonnenten und Buchhändler Übriges Ausland € 7,90 zzgl.
81379 München Lifestyle Tel. +49 (0)89/12 140 710 Versandkosten
www.spotlight-online.de Produktionsleiterin Sales Manager Sprachenmarkt Tel. +49 (0)89/545907-29 Fax +49 (0)89/12 140 711
Ingrid Sturm Eva-Maria Markus sales-lifestyle@iqm.de abo@spotlight-verlag.de Studenten bekommen gegen
ISSN 0944-1972 Tel. +49 (0)89/8 56 81-131 Nachweis eine Ermäßigung.
Litho e.markus@spotlight-verlag.de Finanzen Lehrer, Trainer und Firmen
Stellvertretende Chefredakteurin Mohn Media Mohndruck GmbH, Tel. +49 (0)211/887-2325 Tel. +49 (0)89/95 46 77 07 Die Lieferung kann nach Ende
Claudine Weber-Hof 33311 Gütersloh Repräsentanz sales-lifestyle@iqm.de Fax +49 (0)89/95 46 77 08 des ersten Bezugsjahres jederzeit
Empfehlungsanzeigen lehrer@spotlight-verlag.de beendet werden –
Chefin vom Dienst Druck International Sales mit Geld-zurück-Garantie
Petra Daniell Vogel Druck & Medienservice Anzeigenleitung Tel. +49 (0)211/887-2347 Einzelverkauf und Shop für bezahlte, aber noch nicht
GmbH, 97204 Höchberg iq media marketing GmbH sales-international@iqm.de Tel. +49 (0)89/95 46 99 55 gelieferte Ausgaben.
Redaktion Anke Wiegel sprachenshop@spotlight-
Owen Connors (Audio), Elisabeth Vertriebsleiterin Tel. +49 (0)40/3280-345 Anzeigenpreisliste verlag.de CPPAP-NR. 0220 U 92620
Erpf (frei), Anja Giese (frei), Peter Monika Wohlgemuth anke.wiegel@iqm.de Es gilt die jeweils gültige Preisliste.
Green (frei), Sabine Hübner-Pesce, Infos hierzu unter: www.spotlight- Unsere Servicezeiten Einzelverkaufspreis
Susanne Krause (Online), Michele Marketingleiterin Düsseldorf verlag.de/mediadaten Montag bis Freitag: Deutschland: € 8,50
Tilgner (frei) Jessica Sonnenberg Tel. +49 (0)211/887-2055 8 bis 20 Uhr,
sales-duesseldorf@iqm.de Samstag: 9 bis 14 Uhr Im Spotlight Verlag erscheinen
Bildredaktion Vertrieb Handel Spotlight, Business Spotlight,
Sarah Gough DPV Deutscher Pressevertrieb Frankfurt Postanschrift Écoute, Ecos, Adesso
Foto: Unsplash/Jack Finnigan

Judith Rothenbusch GmbH, www.dpv.de Tel. +49 (0)69/2424-4510 Spotlight Verlag GmbH und Deutsch perfekt
sales-frankfurt@iqm.de Kundenservice
Gestaltung © 2019 Spotlight Verlag, auch für 20080 Hamburg/Deutschland Fragen zu Themen im Heft
Anna Sofie Werner alle genannten Autoren, Fotografen München Schreiben Sie unserer Redaktion
Nerina Wilter (frei) und Mitarbeiter Tel. +49 (0)89/545907-29 für alle Fragen, Vorschläge und
sales-muenchen@iqm.de Kritik eine Mail:
Der Spotlight Verlag ist ein Tochter- spotlight@spotlight-verlag.de
unternehmen der Zeitverlag Gerd
Bucerius GmbH.

NEXT MONTH 1/2019 Spotlight 77 

 MY LIFE IN ENGLISH

Thomas Bauer
Der Reiseschriftsteller und Abenteurer erzählt uns von seinem Lieblingsessen
aus Großbritannien. Sein neustes Buch heißt „Rednecks radeln nicht“.
MEDIUM

What makes English important to you? What is your favourite city in the
How could a traveller and adventurer not English-speaking world?
think English is important? That question is rather risky to ask a
travel-book author. There are so many:
When was your first English lesson, and Vancouver, San Francisco or New
what can you remember about it? Orleans. But my favourite city is Mel-
My first English lesson was in Cornwall bourne. It offers a high quality of life, es-
when I was six years old. While on vaca- pecially for a European. We always need
tion with my parents, I went to the local an old town district and a river. I like the
bakery and asked for “little bread”, derived combination of old and new buildings
from the German word Brötchen. The bak- and the free summer events in Mel-
er replied: “That’s a bun.” So, I went to the bourne’s parks as well as the Melbourne
bakery every morning and ordered bread Jazz Festival. Also, there is no comparable
and “a bun”. coastal highway to the Great Ocean Road.

Who is your favourite English-language Have you ever worked in an English-

musician? speaking environment?
I like the way Johnny Cash brought origi- I worked for a German newspaper, Die
nality and seriousness to the music of his Woche in Australien, and was based in Syd-
time. He combined blues, country and ney for two months. During that time, I
folk, and created his own style. slept at the local youth hostel and lived on
bread and tinned food to save money. As a
Which song could you sing a few lines of journalist, I was able to get some deep in-
in English? sights into Australia’s society and culture.
I can sing along to “Dream On” by Aero-
smith. I’m still working on the screaming What was your best or funniest experi-
part at the end of the song, though. ence in English?
While I was travelling through America’s
What is your favourite food from the heartland in an unusual vehicle called a
English-speaking world? “velomobile”, I was stopped in a village
Definitely shortbread. in Arkansas by a wild-looking man. He
had a gun in his hand and said: “Hear my
Which person (living or dead) from gun, be dead! Real?” At least, that’s what
the English-speaking world would you I thought he said, because he was speak-
most like to meet? ing with a Southern accent. Although I
I’d love to meet Tom Hanks one day. I’m was shocked, I wasn’t sure why he added
impressed by the complexity of the char- “real” at the end of his threat. It turned out
acters he plays, and I’m convinced that that he had said: “Here’s my gun for that.
somebody who collects typewriters has Deal?” He wanted my bike in exchange
to be tremendously interesting. for his weapon. I refused.

derived [di(raIvd] shortbread [(SO:tbred]

If you could be any place right now in What is your favourite English word?
Fotos: pr; jirkaejc/iStock.com

, abgeleitet , Kekse aus Butterteig

the English-speaking world, where The sound and the meaning of “gorgeous”.
gorgeous [(gO:dZEs] tinned [tInd] UK
would it be? , umwerfend, wunder- , Dosen-
I’d want to plunge into a megacity like schön What would be your motto in English?
tremendously
Mumbai or Bangalore and get carried plunge [plVndZ] [trE(mendEsli] ifml. Sometimes you win, sometimes you
away by the stream of people and events. , eintauchen , ungemein, fürchterlich learn.

78  Spotlight 1/2019 MY LIFE IN ENGLISH

Die digitale Ergänzung –

zu Ihrem Sprachmagazin.

1 € pro
Ausgabe

Upgrade für Abonnenten zum Vorteilspreis

Das Magazin als App, online und als Download
Das ideale Sprachtraining für unterwegs
Mit Vorlesefunktion für ausgewählte Artikel
spotlight-online.de/upgrade
 Vor einigen Jahren war

ein Bitcoin noch saugünstig,

or as traders would say:

cheap as chips.

Jetzt Sprachmagazin kennenlernen.

Business-Englisch besser sprechen
und verstehen
Alles über Kultur, Beruf & Sprache
Als gedruckte oder digitale Ausgabe
Jetzt Sprachmagazin gratis testen.
business-spotlight.de/gratis