Silent movie The Artist has triumphed at the Oscars, winning five awards including best picture, best director and best actor for Jean Dujardin.

Director Michel Hazanavicius - winning on his first ever nomination - thanked the dog, Uggie, who appears in the film but added: "I don't think he cares."

Dujardin said of his character: "If George Valentin could speak, he would say 'Wow! Victorie! Genial! Merci!'"

The film also won the Oscars for best original score and best costumes.

Martin Scorsese's Hugo also won five Oscars, mainly in technical categories.

Meryl Streep won best actress for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady - her 17th Oscar nomination and third Oscar win.

She thanked the Academy "for this inexplicably wonderful career".

"When they called my name I had this feeling I could hear half of America going: 'Aww no. Not her again'. But, you know, whatever.

"I look out here and I see my life before my eyes. My old friends, my new friends. This is such a great honour but the thing that counts the most for me is the friendships… Thank you. All of you, departed and here," she added.

Dujardin broke into his native French language in celebration shouting: "Wow, victory!"

"Thank you to the Academy. It's funny because in 1929, it wasn't Billy Crystal but Douglas Fairbanks who hosted the first Oscars ceremony. Tickets cost $5 and it lasted 15 minutes. Times have changed."

1929 was the last year that a silent movie won an Oscar.

Canadian actor Christopher Plummer became the oldest Oscar winner at 82 by taking the best supporting actor prize.

He was widely tipped to win for his portrayal of a father who comes out as a gay man after his wife dies in Beginners.

Plummer thanked his real-life wife who, he said, deserved "the Nobel Peace Prize for coming to my rescue every day".

The Help's Octavia Spencer won the best supporting actress Oscar and gave an emotional acceptance speech, receiving a standing ovation from the audience.

"Thank you Steven Spielberg for changing my life...oh my God, thank you... I'm freaking out," she told the audience, after struggling up to the stage in a floor-length gown.

Best adapted screenplay went to Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash for The Descendants, starring George Clooney.

Veteran screenwriter and director Woody Allen won best original screenplay for Midnight in Paris but was not there to collect the award.

Muppets win

The first two awards of the night went to Hugo for cinematography and art direction.

Robert Richardson was cinematographer on Martin Scorsese's 3D film and Francesca Lo Schiavo was art director.

And later, the film about an orphan who lives in a train station picked up a further three Oscars, all in technical categories.

Best sound editing was won by Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty.

Hugo's Tom Fleishman and John Midgley won the Oscar for sound mixing and the film also picked up the award for best visual effects.

Rango won best animation, a first Academy award and nomination for director Gore Verbinski, who said it was "made by grown-ups acting like a bunch of children".

The film features the voice of Johnny Depp, who plays a chameleon.

Best animated short film was The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore.

The Oscar for costume design went to Mark Bridges for The Artist, who thanked the Academy "for making a lifelong dream come true".

The best make-up prize went to J Roy Helland and British artist Mark Coulier for The Iron Lady.

Iran's A Separation became the first Iranian film to win an Oscar when Sandra Bullock presented director Asghar Farhadi with best foreign language film.

Set in contemporary Iran, it tells the story of a marriage break-down.

Best film editing went to Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall for Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - the pair also won last year for The Social Network. Both films were directed by David Fincher.

The Oscar for best original song was won by Bret Mackenzie for Man or Muppet from the soundtrack to The Muppets.

Best documentary went to Undefeated, a film about an inner city American football team whose fortunes are turned around by a new coach.

The executive producer of the film was rapper Sean 'P Diddy' Combs.

Cohen stunt

Northern Ireland film The Shore won the best live action short film.

Saving Face, about a British-Pakistani doctor who helps women who have been injured in acid attacks, won best documentary short.

Earlier, Morgan Freeman introduced the evening before a comic video was shown of George Clooney waking up host Billy Crystal with a kiss - in a parody of his nominated film The Descendants.

Freeman said: "All of us are mesmerised by the magic of the movies. This magnificent event allows us to celebrate the present and look back at its magnificent past."

Crystal hosted the 84th Oscars ceremony at the Kodak theatre in Los Angeles.

He joked: "This is my ninth time - just call me War Horse."

On the red carpet, British comedy actor Sacha Baron Cohen turned up dressed in a white military uniform and sporting a beard and sunglasses, promoting his upcoming film The Dictator.

Cohen arrived holding an urn he jokingly claimed contained the ashes of Kim Jong Il, the late leader of North Korea.

Cohen then tipped the container on to American Idol host Ryan Seacrest

Источник: bbc.co.uk

Like many other American cities, San Francisco has got some unusual tourist attractions. For example, 250 Valencia Street, the home of the Levi Strauss company.

The company first started making jeans in San Francisco in 1853. After the 1906 earthquake, they had to move into their present building.

 Levi Strauss was born in Buttenheim, Bavaria. He emigrated to the United States in 1847 when he was 18. When the gold rush began, Levi Strauss went to California.

He planned to start a business in California with a relative. They wanted to open a shop selling material. Unfortunately, a lot of the material was stolen on the way. And Levi Strauss  had to sell some of it because he was so poor. The business was not successful. So Levi Strauss started to dig for gold. The other workers laughed at the holes in Levi Strauss´s trousers. So he took some tent canvas to a tailor´s and asked him to make him a pair of trousers. Soon everybody wanted to have canvas trousers.

Levi Strauss was in business again. He had found his own kind of gold.At first his jeans were word by gold diggers and cowboys and not by just about everybody until 1954 when the young American actor, James Dean, wore jeans in the famous film East of Eden

Just think, if the other gold diggers hadn´t laughed at Levi Strauss, would you be wearing jeans today?

Я не могу заставить себя учить английский. Совсем скоро мне нужно писать тест, а я всё ещё ничего не делаю. После того, как написала репетиционное тестирование, причём я его, как мне кажется, завалила, перестало вообще что-либо получаться. Просто впадаю в ступор, когда вижу английский текст. Постоянно ищу какие-то глупые отговорки, лишь бы не делать его здесь и сейчас. 

Может кто-то с таким сталкивался? 

Оригинальный текст:

Nereia(Яна Лозовская)-младшая сестра украинского журналиста-писателя и директора украинского Центра Разоружения Валентина Бадрака. Родилась в городе Черкассы(Украина) в 1992м году.Музыкой начала заниматься с 6 лет,после поступления на обучение в ДМШ №1 им. Крупской по классу фортепиано. В период учебы в музыкальной школе регулярно становилась обладателем призовых мест в конкурсах диктантов по сольфеджио различного масштаба,как правило первых.Так же выступала как альт в составе сводного хора ДМШ. После окончания седьмого класса переехала жить в Москву,где закончила общеобразовательную школу №1113 с углубленным изучением музыки и хореографии,а так же обучалась в МКИМ(Московский колледж импровизационной музыки) по классу эстрадно-джазовое пение. На данный момент учится на 3м курсе экономического факультета по специальности арт-менеджер в ИМДТ(Институт Моды Дизайна и Технологий) и работает над сольным проектом в стиле hip-hop/pop/electro. Идея возникла еще в 2006м году,после вдохновления от музыкальных работ группы Fort Minor и певицы Fergie,а так же исполнителя Гуфа.Тексты песен пронизаны филосовскими нитями и альтернативным взглядом на мир. Псевдоним Nereia(Нерея) был взят из книги Вадима Арчера "Выбравший бездну", где рассказывалась достаточно необычная история создания мира.

Что получилось:

Nereia (Iana Losovsky) is younger sister of a famous Ukrainian journalist, writer and director of Ukrainian Centre for Disarmament Valentine Badrak. She was born in Cherkassy (Ukraine) in 1992.She started making music at 6 years old after admission to study at the Music School № 1. Krupskaya in piano. In the period of study at a music school on a regular basis became the owner of prizes in competitions in solfege dictation of various sizes, usually first place.Also acted as an alto in the joint choir music school. After completing the seventh grade moved to Moscow, where he graduated from secondary school № 1113 with in-depth study of music and choreography, as well as trained in MKIM (Moscow College of Improvised Music) class of pop-jazz singing. She is currently studying at the Faculty of Economics 3m course majoring in art manager IMDT (Institute of Fashion Design and Technology) and is working on a solo project in the style of hip-hop/pop/electro. The idea dates back at 2006, after inspiration from the musical works of Fort Minor and singer Fergie, as well as the performer of songs permeated Guf.The lyrics had philosophic filaments and alternative view of the world. Nickname Nereia was taken from the book Vadim Archer "The one who chose the Abbyss", which tells an unusual story of creation.

Слушаю внимательно все ваши замечания

The more friends you have, the more you earn, says a study. But modern life can allow little time to maintain meaningful relationships, so what's the optimum number of friends?

A study of 10,000 US students over a period of 35 years suggests the wealthiest people are those that had the most friends at school. Each extra schoolfriend added 2% to the salary. The researchers said this was because the workplace is a social setting and those with the best social skills prosper in management and teamwork.

The average number of friends is about 150, says leading anthropologist Robin Dunbar. "It's the number of people that you know as persons and you know how they fit into your social world and they know how you fit into theirs." They usually consist of an inner circle of five "core" people and an additional layer of 10, he says.

Friendships help us to develop as people, says Mark Vernon, author of The Philosophy of Friendship, but the very term "friend" covers a whole range of relationships. You have a very close friendship with your partner but with others it may just be a common interest or history or simply children the same age. "Aristotle said friends must have eaten salt together and what he meant is there's a sense that people have lived a significant part of their life together."

There's a limit to how many close friends like this you can have and it's probably between six and 12, somebody says.

A newspaper columnist once told of her shock when, having struck up a rapport with a man over dinner, she was told at the end of the meal he had no vacancies for friends. He was operating a "one-in, one-out" policy. Six months later she received a card stating he was now available for friendship. That's an extreme example but many people view their friendships scientifically and regulate them accordingly.

Julie, a 34-year-old PR consultant in London, says she has three categories of friends. Firstly there are nine close friends - the Premier League - whom she could ring any time of day or night and they would drop everything and come if necessary. "I try to see them every few weeks and speak at least once a fortnight." Julie's next social group has about 20 people, mostly men, whom she would see every couple of months, then there are more than 100 people beyond that on the outer fringes - friends from work, friends from her last job and friends from traveling.

There is a perception that as society has become more mobile, and traditional family bonds have loosened, friendships have become more fleeting. But on the other hand, modern technology has meant we can stay in touch with more people than ever.

"First email, then mobile, and now social networking sites like Facebook have made it much easier for people to grow their circle of friends beyond their immediate inner circle," says digital media expert Dan Clays of BLM Quantum.

Ask yourself about the quality of your friendships, not about the quantity.

По материалам сайта bbc.co.uk

Как вам эта статья?:) Если понравилось, то примерно такие статьи в сообществе будут появляться каждую неделю.

Я хочу постараться возродить сообщество. И я буду рада, если вы мне в этом поможете.

Для начала я хочу каждые выходные публиковать небольшие статьи, рассказы и т.п. для обогащения словарного запаса. Чтение не будет лишним, как мне кажется. Потом начну выкладывать грамматику, лексику и т.д.

И еще я хочу узнать, есть ли здесь читатели, планирующие сдвать ЕГЭ по английскому языку. Если таковые будут, то будут выкладываться различные задания в формате ЕГЭ из сборников для подготовки. В конце каждого задания я буду писать ответы и указывать издание, откуда задание было взято, и, я надеюсь, таким образом не нарушу ничьих авторских прав.

Вот, собственно, и все на сегодня. Напишите, пожалуйста, что вы об этом думаете, и сообщите, сдаете ли вы ЕГЭ.

И еще кое-что. По первым комментариям можно сделать вывод, что сообщество все-таки нужно и что участники у нас есть. Тогда может, кто-нибудь из вас возьмет на себя подготовку аудио и видеоматериалов? Интервью, видео, песни, что-то такое. Если находите что-то в этом плане, публикуйте, пожалуйста. Остальные будут признательны.

The thing that's intriguing is that coffee shops are a cut­throat business. With a Starbucks, Europa or bodega on every corner, a consumer could find her fix just about anywhere. And economists have long assumed (based on Gary Becker's theories) that market competition eradicates discrimination

1. for heaven's sake

2. to keep at arm's length

3. to one's heart's content

4. out of harm's way

5. a stone's throw

6. a needle's eye

7. to be at one's wit's end

8. at death's door

I'm not normally one to talk about coworkers, but Jensen jus let me take this picture of him shirtless.